My Home Depot Trips(s)

02.13.2013

Welcome to the world of the LG Electronics 1.6 cu.ft. Over-The-Range Microwave Oven in Stainless Steel, the newest addition to the Russellmania family of appliances after the Whirlpool Over-The-Range Microwave Oven in Stainless Steel stopped heating Monday. The Whirlpool still lights up, the turntable turns, and everything beeps, but no heat.

The LG isn't quite the new addition as it's sitting in the garage waiting for Handyman Mike & Co. to come install it. I have no idea what's involved in installing a microwave. Mike installed the last one so he can install this one.

Getting the LG Microwave was quite an adventure in itself. After scrounging the net Monday night and learning that every microwave gets lots of bad reviews, I decided that Tuesday I would look at HH Gregg, Home Depot, and Lowes and see what they had in stock. From there I would investigate online and see which ones were least likely to explode immediately after being plugged in. At HH Gregg I saw a Samsung that was on sale for $249 ($60 off regular price). Checking online I found (1) the local store had none in stock, but if I ordered it now it would arrive in 5 days, and (2) according to reviews this one just might blow up when plugged in.

At Home Depot, I found the above LG (I know, spoiler alert). The reviews for this weren't as bad, with only roughly 25% of the people saying it would blow up. When I went to Lowes I saw less of a selection, and nothing I hadn't seen other places. By the end of Tuesday I decided on the LG. Wednesday I went to Home Depot to get said microwave, as the online inventory listed 3 in the store.

Me, standing by the microwaves looking at a dark haired, orange clad woman in front of a computer.
Orange clad, dark haired woman: Oh hi. Can I help you?
Me: Yes, I'd like to buy a microwave.
Orange clad, dark haired woman: Do you know which one?
Me: Yes I do.
Orange clad, dark haired woman: Ok, let me see what I can do. [Grabs clipboard and starts to head toward what looks like the refrigerators]
Me: It's right over here.
Orange clad, dark haired woman: Ok, which one?
Me: This one. [points to 3rd microwave over from where I've been standing the whole time, almost within reach]
Orange clad, dark haired woman: Ok, let's see... [Writes stuff on clipboard] I'm going to check if it's in stock. I'll be right back.
Minutes pass
An orange clad, red haired woman shows up at the computer previously mentioned. Hi, can I help you?
Me: Actually I think I'm already being helped.
Orange clad, red haired woman: By the dark haired lady?
Me: Yes.
Orange clad, red haired woman: She actually asked me to come help you.
We now repeat the Point at Microwave, Write on Clipboard process. We go to a different computer than the one 4 feet away and she checks the inventory. It says
here we have 4 in stock. Let me get one of the guys to check back where we keep these in stock.
One of the guys walks by and is enlisted to check. I'm handed off to him and we go to the back wall of Home Depot.
Guy, checking handheld inventory gun: This is saying we've got 4, but there's only 2 LG microwaves back here.
What follows is 10 minutes of people checking other places only to find that the 4 listed in inventory are missing for one reason or another. I leave dejectedly.

Later I find myself at the Decatur Home Depot. In the microwave section are an orange clad Old Biker Dude and Shoulda Been a Librarian, both helping a woman that sounds like she is price comparing to redo her entire kitchen. I stand uncomfortably close to their computer until one of them notices and asks if I need help. Shoulda Been a Librarian asks Old Biker Dude to help me. Orange Clad Old Biker Dude: So what can I help you with?
Me:I'd like to see if you have a microwave in stock.
Orange Clad Old Biker Dude: OK. [grabs clipboard, walks pass me and heads what amazingly looks to be toward the refrigerators] Which one?
Me:This one [pointing to the microwave I'm standing EXACTLY in front of, which he had to walk past on his aborted trip to the refrigerators]. The LG.
Orange Clad Old Biker Dude: Let's see. We can order it for you.
Me:So you don't have any in stock?
Orange Clad Old Biker Dude, pointing at description & price above microwave: No, it says here this is for home delivery only.
Me: Really? I know it's a long shot, but the website listed 1 in your inventory. Maybe it's the display model?
Orange Clad Old Biker Dude: Could be. I can check though.

We walk to another computer and he pulls up the website, which does indeed list 1 in stock. He checks the store inventory and it lists 3. After telling him I do want it if they have any (isn't this how I started?) he goes off to check. 10 minutes later he returns to tell me they do have it, in fact they have 2, so the other one listed in the inventory must be the display model. Is that the one I want? YES, YES IT IS THAT'S WHY I CAME HERE AND TOLD YOU MULTIPLE TIMES I WANTED IT YOU OLD FART. I then get handed off to someone else who takes my personal information to print out a barcode that can be rung up at the register. She'll get someone to pull the microwave for me (they still don't think I want this microwave). I go and spend $270 for a piece of paper, where 10 minutes later the girl that printed my barcode wheels up the microwave that I can finally take with me.

I have a new respect for Home Depot. Given what I saw today I have absolutely no idea how they stay in business.

Permalink random

Diet: Week 1

02.11.2013

A week ago (roughly) I started my diet in earnest. From my visit to the bariatric surgeon I learned that was a hefty 439 LBS. It's a 6 month route to surgery, and the doctor wants me to lose 25-30 LBS before the surgery - this would mentally start a mental argument of well if I could lose weight I wouldn't need weight loss surgery. He gave me a rough diet plan to follow (basically Atkins which I successfully managed 6 years ago). Instead of complaining about a diet or putting it off, I decided to start. I also got a little help from my regular doctor in the form of a new prescription for Phentermine.

I've taken Phentermine once before and it did no good, mainly because although my appetite may have been suppressed I still ate like I normally did. Taking it in conjunction with the high protein/low carb Atkins approach it may work better. One of my goals has been to eat when I'm hungry, not because it's a certain time or I'm sitting in front of the TV. It's surprising how much difference that can make. I've found I generally don't get hungry until after noon. That may also be the Phentermine kicking in.

When I weighed myself at home the day I weighed 439 at the doctors office, I weighed 437 bare ass naked in the morning. From that, besides guessing I wear 2 pounds of clothes, I decided my starting weight diet-wise would be 437. This morning when I hopped on the scales they read 427. My weight can fluctuate up and down through the day (and even the week), but I checked every morning for the past week and my weight was consistently dropping. Progress!

I've also started taking a multivitamin and a separate B12. Between those, the Phentermine, and dropping 10 LBS I'm starting to get a little bit of energy back. I remember telling Gina last Thursday that I was feeling better than I had in months. Today was the first time in at least 2 months that I managed to walk from the parking lot to my desk at work and wasn't huffing, puffing, and sweating (and it was in the 50's, as opposed to the time I was sweating and it was 28°). So diet GOOD!

Permalink diet

Dark Angel Comes In Peace

02.06.2013

One of my favorite movies from the Working in the Video Store era was I Come in Peace, a Dolph Lundgren Sci Fi Action epic! Fine, maybe not epic, but for the time (released in 1990) it was pretty good. While surfing the Amazon I came across the above movie, but it was no longer "I Come in Peace", it was now "Dark Angel".

Tuesday is my normal Stack of DVDs from Amazon day, and I Come in Peace/Dark Angel was part of the booty. Looking at the box art (shown on the left side of the above graphic) I quickly decided I didn't like it. After years of seeing the VHS box art it was just wrong. Not to mention I was never going to accept "Dark Angel" as the title. I decided to replace the cover insert with what I was used to.

From here I went to the internet and tried to use my powers for good. I went online and found a picture of the original "I Come in Peace" box. Next I found the standard size for the cover inserts (10.75" x 7.25" if you're curious). I then wave my Paint Shop Pro wand and did some resizing to make sure something appropriate appears on the front, back , and spine of the box. Next was printing and inserting, and wham bam thank you internet the crappy Dark Angel box is now the 1990 I Come in Peace box that I can recognize sitting on a shelf.

Next will come watching the movie and see how it's fared over the past 14+ years since I last watched it. I'm approaching this like the Flash Gordon movie - good memories and not expecting a lot. Here's the trailer, which is nothing like I remember (except maybe for the CDs of death):

Permalink movies/tv/dvd

439 is a 4-letter word

02.04.2013

Last week I went to a consult with a bariatric surgeon. This is one of those things I've been thinking about for years (gastric bypass/gastric sleeve/lap band). I know a couple of people that have either gone through the process or are going through the process and it's worked out well for them. There's 6 months between starting everything to appease the insurance gods and the actual surgery, so I decided to start the process - I've still got 6 months to make a decision.

The first thing they did at my consultation was weigh me. The last time I saw my weight outside of my scales at home was when I was in the hospital for my pilonidal cyst surgery (428lbs according to their scale). The bariatric surgeon has fancy scales that tell you not just your weight, but measures your actual body fat via bioelectrical impedance. That's where the little receipt above comes in.

Last Thursday I got weighed and the scales printed a receipt. I've since been on the web on learned how to read the receipt. This is what I learned:

• I weigh 439.2 pounds. With clothes on. Good god that's a lot of weight to lug around.
• I'm carrying 258.61 pounds of fat (Fat Mass). Yes, that's more than 50% of my weight. No wonder I have a hard time getting around.
• 180.61 lbs is my fat-free weight (FFM). This is the weight of bones, muscle, tissue.
• 132.21 lbs is my water I'm carrying (TBW). Muscle contains water, so 130+ pounds doesn't sound too bad.

At the end is listed my desirable fat mass of 26.2-40.4 pounds, which if you add it to my base fat free weight (180.61) would put me in the 206-221 pound range, which is where I was at some point in high school. I weight 238 at graduation, and that's the lowest weight I remember.

That step is out of the way - the shock and horror of how freaking big I am. The next step is squaring away the requirements to get insurance to pay along with visiting my regular doctor to start documenting a medically supervised diet.

439.2. Damn.

Permalink diet pilonidal cyst

New Monitors

01.29.2013

For years I've had extra monitors. 1 monitor is never enough. 2 is more than 1, but still not enough. When being productive, I've generally got a graphics program open, some type of text editor, an internet browser, and iTunes all going. On top of that, my penchant for organization means whatever files I'm working on aren't going to be in the same folder, so I'll have a couple of windows open to the appropriate folders.

A few years ago I discovered the joys of USB monitors. At the time ThinkGeek sold little 800x600 USB monitors for $99, which you could generally find on sale for $79. I picked up 3 over time and each little monitor had a purpose. One would generally have iTunes, another the folder I was using a lot for whichever project, and the 3rd would be my path to opening more windows.

A couple of weeks ago my little monitors started acting funny. When the screensaver was on, a USB monitor would randomly lock up. When booting the computer, the order in which the OS thought the monitors were displayed would switch around (so the one on the far right would act as if it was on the far left - just switch around monitor configurations to confuse yourself sometime). Ever since upgrading to Windows 7/64-bit the monitors had acted a little peculiar, and updating the drivers for them would just break everything.

Being me, I did a little investigation and found some USB monitors to replace the old ones. ThinkGeek no longer carried the small monitors. Amazon still carried them (and still at $99), but I didn't think replacing the monitors with thesame thing would help anything. Enter 16" USB Monitor from a brand I had never heard of. Also $99. The good reviews outweighed the bad reviews, so I decided to give it a shot. I ordered 2 to replace the 3 old USB monitors. They arrived yesterday and I got everything hooked up today. So far I'm liking the new layout, and the new monitors are easier on my old eyes.

The only thing I'm worried about from the bad reviews are the ones where the monitors didn't last long (failed within a couple of months). Luckily, this is Amazon and I shouldn't have to worry too much if things fail quickly. There was no warranty or company contact info in the box the monitors came in, so dealing with AOC (maker of said monitors) would probably not be a good experience.

Today, though, good experience.

Permalink programming/interweb random