It's that time of year again around the office.  I just completed my United Way pledge for 2013 ( Read more... )

Earth Hour is coming!  March 26, 2011 at 8:30 pm local time - switch off the power for an hour to promote sustainability for our planet!  Our Aussie friends started this movement in 2007 and it's been growing ever since.  Let's break another record this year.

/PSA

We made a quick run through the local Sam's Club on Sunday - even though it's no longer a regular go-to place for us, there are a few uses remaining - and found that in the lightbulb section which used to be just lots of varieties of CFL bulbs, they now have several varieties of LED bulbs.  This is so COOL! We ended up with a 3-pack of standard- ( Read more... )

B needed a new power cord for his laptop, so yesterday, I went to the Gateway site, and got redirected to a list of online vendors who sell Gateway accessories.

Buy.com had the best deal going (~$57 vs. factory price of $69.99 plus shipping for a total of $80).  Lowest retail price, plus the option of free shipping if you were willing to wait "5-7 ( Read more... )

Your U.S. Representative Needs to Hear from You Today

Dear Friends,

Yesterday, Representative Doris O. Matsui (D-CA) formally introduced the "Bone Marrow Failure Disease Research and Treatment Act" (HR 6884.)  This legislation would bring together the resources of several federal agencies to advance our understanding of and treatments for aplastic ( Read more... )

1.  I watched an electrician pull 2 new wires through a conduit.  He disconnected one orange wire that was in the conduit already and attached a new orange wire plus a blue and a black (for a total of three), and then his helper pulled the orange wire from the other end of the conduit until all three were pulled through. Voila!!  I always knew ( Read more... )

Although I gave up my career in water damage restoration and mold remediation before I even started my LJ, I'm thinking this week's weather is a sign that I should talk about it now. So here is a quick and dirty FAQ for all my friends list dealing with water intrusions ( Read more... )

Here are a few things you need to know when working with electricity.  I'm assuming you already know to turn off a circuit before sticking your fingers anywhere near the wires.

1)  A circuit will always calculate out to zero. (Okay, you probably will never use that one, because I haven't since I quit taking physics courses, and I never took any ( Read more... )