Category Archives for Uncategorized

This is My Hometown, People…

I guess there’s still not much to keep the kids off the streets…
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Posted: 09/06/2009 10:42:34 PM EDT – DAWSON RASPUZZI
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BENNINGTON — With approximately 470 feet of extension cord running across four lanes of traffic and through a large parking lot to an electric drill, four individuals were arrested early Sunday morning for allegedly trying to steal the green and red chili pepper logo from the top of Chili’s Restaurant on Northside Drive in Bennington.

After the restaurant alarm was activated around 4:30 a.m., police arrived to find Asher Woodworth, 23, of North Bennington on top of the Chili’s roof after allegedly removing the bolts that secured the chili to the roof with a hacksaw and power drill.

Three women police said were keeping a lookout were also arrested, after police found two hiding in bushes and another running from the scene.

“There was definitely some thought put into this,” said Bennington police Sgt. Camillo Grande. “They had wrapped a bandana around the place where two of (the extension) cords hooked together so passing motorists wouldn’t see the lights.”

Along with Woodworth, Susan Michet, 22, of North Bennington, Claire Davis, 22, of Lee, Mass., and Sophia Giordano, 22, of Williamstown, Mass., were all arrested for attempted grand larceny and released to appear in court on September 29.

When police talked to the four, they revealed they started the project of removing the logo at about 2:30 and had to go back for more extension cords because they didn’t have enough, Grande said.

Grande said the four admitted that a friend of Woodworth’s wanted the logo.

Police said Chili’s representatives estimated the cost of the logo to be $8,000.

“They really did some damage,” Grande said. “The bracket that held the pepper in place will need to be replaced.”

Police said the drill was plugged into an outlet near Home Depot and was stretched through the parking lot and across North Bennington Road up to the roof of Chili’s on Hannaford Square.

Bennington Rural Fire Department assisted officers in collection of evidence from the roof of the restaurant.

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It’s Official…I’m Insane

That won’t come as a surprise to many of you.  I had a really busy day today…kids to school, meeting at the office, then a couple of hours to clean up the day’s email before I went to the chiropractor.  I was in REALLY bad shape…he pretty much gave me a complete overhaul.

Then I headed to the Natick Mall to buy Norah’s birthday present at the American Girl store.  The parking there is always terrible, but today I COULDN’T BELIEVE IT!  In addition to the 8 empty h/c spots, there were 11 “valet parking” spots blocked with cones…not a single spot was taken.  There were also 8 empty spots for curbside dining, and 10 parking spots for low-emissions vehicles!  In one row they were completely empty, and in the other they were filled with non-green vehicles, unless Ford makes a hybrid F150 pickup. 

After driving around for 15 minutes I finally found a spot about 3 miles away and dragged my hunch-back to the door of the American Girl store, where I was met by 2 men who were preventing anyone from entering unless you were registered for “the event.”  I know in the grand scheme of things this isn’t a big deal, but I almost cried.  I shuffled back to the car and pulled up the American Girl website on my Blackberry to see if I could crash the party.  It showed the “special hours” for today as closing at 7 p.m. for “the event.”  It was only 6:25!!!  I could have been in and out of there in 10 minutes!  I may have to file a formal complaint.  If the posted hours state that they’re closing at 7, shouldn’t that mean that at 6:25 they’re still open?

I drove from there to the soccer field to wait for Aliya to finish with her clinic so Ben could go home and eat (he’s still fasting for Ramadan).  As soon as I arrived, 4 fighter jets started circling above us.  They made 6 or 7 big circles and a few times they were pretty low…you could see the orange glow around the engines.  At one time I would have thought that was really cool, but seeing them circling like that brought me right back to the days following 9/11/01, when they were constantly circling overhead.

Aliya and I stopped and picked up dinner for ourselves at Big Fresh, and walked into the house at 8.  The other kids were still up so I took them up to bed.  That’s when I realized that I forgot to stop and get the ingredients I needed for Norah’s birthday cupcakes for school.  As I was rocking Norah I remembered that I always make special t-shirts for the kids on their birthdays (“Yahoo!  I’m TWO!), and I had no idea where the puffy fabric paint was.  I was all ready to run out to AC Moore, when Aliya pointed out that Ben had left the house headed for who-knows-where so unless I wanted to take 3 kids to AC Moore at 8:30, I had to come up with Plan B.

When Ben came back at 8:45, I went to Stop & Shop to get the cupcake stuff except that I couldn’t find  the self-rising flour that the recipe called for.  So I bought cake flour and then came home and tried to find a recipe that I had all of the ingredients for.  I didn’t want to use a mix because one of the kids in the class has a food allergy.  What’s crazy is that never once while I was at Stop & Shop did I think of swinging by the bakery department and putting myself out of my misery. 

I got the cupcakes in the oven, and started thinking about how I would improvise the celebratory t-shirt.  Here’s where the insanity starts.  I actually thought, “HEY!!  I have that BeDazzler that I got at the What’s-In-Jenny’s-Nightstand Yankee Swap!”  And yes, I have BeDazzled a purple t-shirt with a big number 3 and let me tell you…it’s not as easy as it looks on TV. 

And now I have to go to bed so I can wake up early and put the butterfly bodies (half gummy worms) and wings (mini pretzels) on top of the cupcakes, deliver them to school, get Adlani to the bus, take Aliya to have her braces put on, take her to school, and go do a fire door inspection on a church that is now home to a Chinese restaurant.  I also need to squeeze in a stop at the American Girl store.  I’m tired already.
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Fall Soccer

It’s that time of year again…when standard equipment for soccer games includes not only a ball and water bottle, but umbrellas, raincoats, bug spray…the list goes on and on.  It rained all night on Friday, and continued Saturday morning.  Adlani’s game was cancelled but the U8 (under-8) girls are obviously made of tougher stuff because their game was held despite the downpour.  I stayed home (and dry) with Adlani, but Ben and Norah went to cheer Aliya on, and the report was that she kicked butt. 

Today was the annual soccer fair, and we had to be at the field for the first game at 10 a.m. and the second game at 2:30 p.m.  Luckily it turned out to be a beautiful day, because I spent 7 HOURS at the soccer field.  There just wasn’t enough time between the games, team photos, and free hot dogs to justify trying to get out of the parking lot and back in an hour later.  I am really feeling my age tonight – actually, I’m feeling my grandmother’s age.  When I got to the field I realized that my soccer chair was in the trunk of Ben’s car, so I spent the whole day without a chair.  Poor old me.
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The day started off a little rocky when I realized at 8:45 that both soccer uniforms needed to be washed and dried within an hour.  For a while it looked like Adlani might show up for the team photo in his Batman underwear, but the uniforms eventually dried and we even made it on time. 

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I’m pretty sure I’m the worst soccer mom ever because I’m always screaming at Adlani to run, kick, DO SOMETHING!!! 
It’s becoming more and more obvious that he may not be the next Ronaldo, but I hate to give up this young.  I’m just afraid that eventually his team-mates are going to hold him down and give him a good pummeling since he just runs around out there in his own little world.  At the soccer fair they were playing music so he was doing the robot all around the field.  Thank God it was still during the pre-game warmup.
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In these photos he’s actually A) running, B) going in the right direction, and C) keeping up with the pack:
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But it’s much more common to find him A) with his shirt over his head, B) using his shirt like Laura Ingalls used her apron, or C) distorting a body part:
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Aliya was a scoring machine but by the time her game finally rolled around I was sitting at the opposite end of the field from all the action and too tired to move so I have no good action-shots of her.  There’s always next week.  And the week after.  And the week after.
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And then there was Norah, who did anything she could think of to try to entertain herself for the day, and she was actually really good.  There were lots of distractions…kids she knew, babies, dogs, food, etc., so she didn’t give me much trouble.  I never thought I’d hear myself say that.
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Where was Ben during all of today’s fun?  He was in the crawl space under our family room, helping Orzalis re-route the dryer vent.  Did anyone know that you’re supposed to vacuum the lint out of your dryer vent every once in a while?  OOPS!
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I Don’t Hate Hardware

As you all probably know by now, I have another blog that I started last February for work.  My idea for that blog was to teach my customers (hardware suppliers) and clients (architects) about hardware in a fun and painless way.  I know it’s not the most exciting topic – door hardware – but for people in the hardware industry who DO find it interesting, there isn’t currently another blog like it.

As I had hoped, the local customers we have introduced the site to have had really good things to say about it, and there are quite a few loyal readers who visit the site daily or weekly.  They also use it to find answers to their hardware-related code questions, so I’m actually spending less time answering emails and phone calls about code questions.

In addition to the readers who access the site directly, there are people who find it by searching “door closer adjustment”, “where are panic devices required”, “i hate hardware”, or some other related topic via a search engine.  To date, people from almost 60 countries have visited the site.  A reader from Israel recently suggested that I do an industry profile on a colleague of his…”a big fan of the website”…in Saudi Arabia.  I find this fascinating, really.

What amazed me most was how many “normal people” (ie. not “hardware people”) read the hardware blog.  Why would you want to read about hardware?  Don’t you have anything you’d rather be doing??  The blog now has a Facebook Fan Page, and through the miracle of social networking, my aunt found the blog and became a fan.  I don’t know my aunt well…we’ve probably seen each other less than 10 times in the last 30 years, so she is not biased because we’re related.  She left a comment on the hardware blog that was so touching to me, because it very eloquently states that I’m meeting my goal.  It made me a little misty…

Lori, I have had no interest in, nor knowledge of, hardware. Despite this, I come daily to savor your blog. I love your command of language, and your ability to express yourself in a personal, personable, and humorous way.
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This means that I’m inhaling hardware information and awareness without being distracted by grammatical errors, illiteracy, and any of the other stumbling blocks I experience in “living online,” as I have done since my retirement.
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Ingersoll Rand is obviously very well served by your technological expertise, and your ability to communicate that expertise to your primary audience and to those of us who never even thought about it!
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With admiration,
Linda

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Finally! No More Tile!

When we first looked at our house I really liked the kitchen, probably because it was brand new.  However, the longer I’ve had to live with the tile countertops, the more I’ve hated them.  The grout joints between the tiles are impossible to clean and I don’t even want to know what’s lurking in there.  Plus they look like hell.

A few weeks ago I was browsing around in Home Depot enjoying the solitary shopping time, and I noticed that they were having a promotion.  If you purchased a countertop that was more than 25 square feet, you got a free under-mount sink (usually about $300) and a free edge upgrade (usually $15-$25 / linear foot).  Then, like a sign from above, I got a coupon for 10% off and no interest for a year.

Today was the last day for the 10% off, so I made an appointment and took my little drawing in to my new friend George.  He told me that I couldn’t use my coupon because it wasn’t good on installed products.  I thought that was strange because while I was waiting for him I noticed a similar card stuck right to the Silestone display.

We went through the whole estimate process, and while he was printing it out, I went to check out the card on the display.  It said 10% off on laminate and installed countertops.  Our new countertop isn’t laminate, but it is installed, so I asked him if it would apply.  Low and behold, it DID apply, so I got another 10% off.  WOOHOO!!!

The best part is that the old countertop doesn’t have to be removed for the template to be made, so we don’t have to live without countertops for weeks like we would have if this was done a few years ago.  Within about a month we should have a nice shiny new countertop, sink, and faucet.  The color, Absolute Green, is similar to the tile we have now, but it will be such an improvement.  We are also adding a bar-counter in the pass-thru window so the kids can sit at the counter in the family room and eat, rather than at the pub table we have there now.

The low point of the Home Depot experience was when I asked the guy standing around in Plumbing to help me with some faucet questions.  His answer…”It’s YOUR kitchen.  What do you want me to tell you?”  What a dickhead!  When I asked my questions he was SO RUDE.  Finally I just dismissed him and sorted through the zillion options myself.  I HATE RUDE PEOPLE!!  

The photo is not our kitchen, but it shows the color.  I can’t wait!
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