What did you do today?

[Zanne]

BlueSkyHigh, is there a way for you to bypass the switch to power the faucet?
I haven't seen the National Lampoon movies in decades.

Yesterday I went to grab groceries from the store. Asked friend if he needed anything-- he STILL hasn't received his back paycheck. They owe him over $4k. They claim they mailed the check but it hasn't arrived. Assuming they actually mailed it. I asked why they can't direct deposit like the rest of his pay but he said its a different system. Still no reason not to direct deposit. The company is about to go belly up and I'm worried he won't get his $. He thinks the boss won't screw him, but he often gets taken for a ride by trusting people he shouldn't. Meanwhile, he rescued 3 adorable little kittens. They were driving him nuts with the constant mewing. I unintentionally woke them up and felt bad that they wouldn't stop mewing. I need to go back over to help with bottle feeding and cuddling. There's a light colored one who almost looks Siamese. It purred when I held it. I took a video and one of them jumped up at my phone. They just ate but were still hungry.

Couldn't sleep last night because my dog was so terrified of the thunderstorms I had to hold her and rock her all night. Napped during the day and got up to cook. I made Shepherd's pie. I couldn't finish my portion because my stomach isn't feeling great today.

My arm is feeling a bit better so I was able to clean up a little in the kitchen and in my bathroom. I took the trash out. I used wood slats and craft sticks to shim under the cement board to make it perfectly level before putting some screws back in it to tack it in place. I got another cement board loosely set up and used tape to make sure it won't fall over. I need to adjust it and get it closer to the corner so it has 1/8" gap. I also need to shim 1/4" under it. I'll update with a picture in my thread. For now, kittens! (Note: that is not my normal voice-- I was talking in a higher pitch).
View attachment kittens4-26-2023.mp4

 

[BlueSkyHigh]

Cute but noisy kittens! My daughter is looking for an all black domestic shorthair kitten. Shouldn't be that hard to find one should it?

Regarding the sink faucet power issue, I decided to drop a line down from the GFCI-equipped duplex outlet mounted in the back splash above the counter top and installed a dedicated non-switched duplex inside the very small space under the sink. What a PITA!

 

[Zanne]

Looks great!

Yeah, the poor kittens were either abandoned or taken from their mother by some crackhead and dumped in front of a liquor store. My friend rescued them but they are still so young they need milk. They miss their mother and were trying to nurse off the stuffed animal in there. They like to fall asleep while nursing and there's no mama to groom them or nurse them and they are calling for her. They were bottle fed and wanted someone to feed them more. At least they can use the litterbox without having to be stimulated. Very young kittens are unable to go without being licked by their mothers or having that sensation with a warm damp rag.

After I got my energy back I went into the bathroom again and got the right side cement board lifted 1/4" with spacers, leveled, marked the edge of the surround wall (I dry fit it to get the mark) and I put 2 screws in to hold it in place. Then I grabbed another board and put it on the other side. Easier getting it into the tub but harder to get it set in place and leveled. Level fell on my head a few times so I switched from the larger one to smaller one and had to use wood instead of the plastic spacers (I kept calling them shims but they are spacers). Got the 1/8" gap from the sides to the back and 1/4" from bottom to top of tub. Next I'll have to get all of the boards plumb. The taper on the edges is making it a bit of a pain.

No way in hell I'm going to get the last board up by myself. Friend is supposed to come out tomorrow morning so I will have to have everything ready. He's going to help me get them plumb and he's going to cut them. I can't draw straight with a ruler so I don't trust myself not to mess up the cutting. I'll post pics in my thread about the reno.

I'm also planning to make my own curtains for the window. I want to make some for Mom's bathroom as well. Already have the fabric. She was wary of the idea of me trying to hand-sew curtains. I explained that I'm going to get a friend to help. The gf of the friend who is helping me with the bathroom is very good at sewing. I'm going to share sewing patterns with her and see if she can help me get the Pfaf serger working. I went over different styles of curtains and narrowed down what she liked. I mentioned that the fabric will go well with the new countertop and she said something about when we get it. I told her we have the formica in a box in the workshop. Then she commented about how it would be nice to get a white sink instead of the ugly green one (after I talked about how we were going to have to cut a hole in the formica for the sink). I told her the sink is in a box in the front room. She apparently forgot that we got a new sink. She will have a Toto sink and Toto toilet.

I gave Mom's dog a bath. He cooperated and behaved very well, but was crabby afterward. Mom was still in bed so I dried him off and took him to her room and set him on the bed & got him under the covers. He refused to leave when she got up. I went to check on him & he growled at me when I lifted the covers. He just came into my room and got on my bed. I reached over to pet him & he snapped at me. I think he thought it was the cat. He's got allergies and has been itching and has scabs and dandruff pretty badly so I used medicated shampoo on him. When I get my shower set up I can give him baths in the tub. The shampoo had to stay in for 15min & we both got bored. I had to keep massaging his back and rubbing shampoo in to make sure he didn't try to jump out of the sink. Still didn't get all the dandruff off though. Shampoo was for itching & sores, not dandruff though.

People talk about cats being standoffish and dogs being the friendly cuddly ones. My cats are more cuddly than the dogs.

 

[Zanne]

I broke up cat fights, fed kitties, fed doggies, cooked for Mom, put low expansion spray foam in the recessed part for the shelf from the back (on the center wall surround piece). I was surprised at how thick the plastic was in that area and how well it was reinforced. The recess was rather shallow, but I wanted to reduce noise and add more reinforcement. I then vacuumed more but wasn't able to get into cracks. So I took a piece of round-ish foam board scrap from my lap desk project, found a straw in the trash, found a drill bit about the same size of the straw, pushed it through the middle of the foam board chunk & moved it around and passed it all the way through to make it easier for the straw to go through. Had straw poking through enough to use some hot glue to secure it (I used hot glue on both sides of the foam board. Stuck it to the end of the shopvac hose & the suction held it on. I need to improve the design so it won't need to hold it to keep it from tipping away, but it got dust & debris out of nooks and crannies. Problem is my stupid shop-vac's filter isn't working so it is blowing dust into the air. It's from Walmart and they don't have any filters in stock.

I'm waiting for dust to settle to go trim some plastic, tape up more plastic to the edge to keep aquadefense from dripping all over, and then apply some to the edges. I got myself a little stepstool that I hope will help me reach the higher spots.

 

[Zanne]

Yesterday or the day before I got the mesh tape up on the cement board. Did a dry fit of the panels again. Really struggled with that center panel. It kept falling over. Picked up some outer corner L trim for two of the walls in my bathroom. Thought my ceiling was just under 9' like in the guest bathroom. Nope. Just a little shy of 8' with those ceiling tiles up apparently. That changes my plans a bit. The corner pieces I got are 12" (fortunately my truck has a middle rear window that I could feed them through and I taped them together and closed the window enough to hold them in). Put a small little dent but I can fill that out if need be before I go to paint.
I cut the L-bead trim to size and dry fit it. Have a few issues I need to sort out but hopefully I can get moving on this and get to a point where I can get this shower working.
Swept up the floor a bit in the bathroom. Lots of cement board dust. My stomach is currently feeling icky so I'm resting.

Last night I had trouble sleeping because Mom woke up very confused-- low blood sugar. She was really out of it and kept trying to drink from an empty bottle. Kept dropping stuff, then tried to drink from a bottle she used as a spittoon so I stopped her and took it away. After drinking some root beer she was able to walk to the living room where I got her some food. I literally had to feed her-- as in, put food on her fork and put it in her mouth. Also had to hold her cup up to her mouth so she could sip from the straw. I left the room to go to the bathroom and came back to find her having spilled her drink (which has a cap) on herself. Her hands were shaky and couldn't hold stuff properly. Got her some chocolate and after that she was able to feed herself when I cooked some chicken strips. She said she still felt jittery. I've checked on her a few times. She's sleeping now but breathing normally with her CPAP on. I had wanted to take her to the hospital when I saw how confused she was-- was worried something neurological was happening, but she refused.

Gonna check on her again in a bit.

 

[Zanne]

One of the 3 kittens died. I'm worried the others won't make it.

Mom had another hypoglycemic episode and fell down. My brother found her on the floor near her bed screaming that she was going to die. She was not lucid at all. He got her to her feet but she was too wobbly & couldn't understand instructions so she fell again. This time she fell into the bathroom (although my brother slowed her fall) and she spilled the dog's water bowl. She was out of sugared beverages so I found some candy. Got my brother to put it in her mouth. She kept insisting she'd already had something to drink and didn't need anything but she also didn't know why her pants were wet. She refused to let us call an ambulance and I know the response time is really bad out here anyway. She got lucid enough to sit up and scoot herself to the bed. My brother helped her up into the bed. I kept checking on her. She's been better the past couple of days. I called the doctor and setup an appointment for her but she had a tantrum and canceled it. So, now I have to try to convince her to set up an appointment.

I got mail, sent off my brother's taxes, & hung out with my friend. Held the remaining two kittens. Poor little things are desperate for attention. They aren't being fed frequently enough and there's a boil advisory. I wonder if the contaminated water in the formula killed the one kitten. Hard to tell though. Water has been on boil advisory in town for weeks now. Not sure what the problem is or why it hasn't been fixed-- other than the water company is incredibly cheap & lazy. They are going to jack up water prices on people for sure. The local restaurants can't serve beverages that don't come from bottles. Walmart deli is shut down.

I got some more supplies but forgot to get a couple of things and am prepping to do the thinset modified mortar. I just realized I've been saying thinset when I mean mortar. Ugh.

Any suggestions/tips?

 

[BlueSkyHigh]

One of the 3 kittens died. I'm worried the others won't make it.

My daughter was nearly grief-stricken when I told her what happened to one of you kitten you were trying to rescue

I hope your mom recovered from her episode and wasn't hurt too badly in the fall(s).

 

[havasu]

am prepping to do the thinset modified mortar. I just realized I've been saying thinset when I mean mortar. Ugh.

thinset/mortar/modified thinset/modified mortar....it is pretty much the same substance.

 

[BlueSkyHigh]

thinset/mortar/modified thinset/modified mortar....it is pretty much the same substance.

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."

Havasu is the Shakespeare of the plumbing world!

 

[havasu]

“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.”​

Well, there is a tad bit of difference when using the modified version, since there is elasticity that others do not have. I myself will only use Mapei modified thinset on floors and walls. It is less apt to crack.

 

[Zanne]

Blueskyhigh, I really wish I could rescue all of the kittens. If my stomach is feeling better when my friend is off work I want to go over and see the kittens and bring them some food I got for them. Poor little things are probably scared without their mother around. Friend's gf is feeling stretched thin because she has the kittens demanding attention, friend's kids wanting attention, friend's mother constantly calling her and wanting her to do stuff, & other people wanting things. She's one of the few people in the area who can still sew so friend's mom has been dumping stuff on her wanting her to patch/hem/fix things for her. I think the mom is excited that for once her son is dating someone who isn't a totally useless waste of space. Mom is sore but has been doing better. I think she was mad at me earlier because she asked if I was hungry but I was nauseous and said that I wasn't. I asked her what she wanted me to cook for her but she said it was something that we would both have to eat (nevermind I could put my portion away for later) and said she didn't want me to make anything. Stomach is back to feeling rough again.

I got the Mapei modified mortar. It was the only modified stuff I could find in stock and had the best ratings. I will have to set it in a bucket, cut it open and then stir the powder around to make sure the fibers or dried additive is mixed in thoroughly. It's got 10 to 20min work time but I will be putting a lid on the bucket in between scoops. I'm going to make sure I have painter's tape on the framing square so I can hold it against the walls while applying the mortar to make sure it is square.

I still remember most of a speech I had to memorize from Julius Caesar. Had to recite it in high school English class right after I got braces- which made it harder to speak. I remember reciting it to my old phone's voice transcription software and it thought I said something about pizza instead of "piece of earth'. Been about 30 years but I still remember this much:
O pardon me thou bleeding piece of earth
That I am meek and gentle with these butchers
Thou art the ruins of the noblest man that ever lived in the tide of times
Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood
O'er thy wounds now do I prophecy
Which, with dumb mouths do ope their ruby lips to beg the voice and utterance of my tongue
A curse shall light upon the limbs of men
Domestic fury and fierce civil strife shall cumber all the parts of Italy
Blood and destruction shall be so in use and dreadful objects so familiar
Mothers will but smile when they behold their infants quartered at the hands of war
All pity choked with custom of fell deeds

I also recited The Tyger by William Blake. That has been my favorite since I first learned to read when I was 2 or 3. Parents got us an early start on reading.

Its currently raining so that makes me sleepy.

 

[Zanne]

The stand for my new miter saw arrived but I'm still waiting for the miter saw. It has been sitting in Georgia since May 6. The note on the UPS tracking site said something about it not being checked in. I'm thinking it was either stolen or lost. I wanted to use it this week but don't know if it will even arrive. I wonder if I can go to the store and say I want one of the ones from in stock bc this one is taking too long and to cancel that order as they seem to have lost it.

I have a package that was supposed to arrive from Fedex yesterday but they blamed weather for not delivering. It's sprinkling a little today but still no delivery. I fully expect them to blame weather again & refuse to deliver so I will have to call and have someone light a fire under their behinds to deliver bc that's what it took last time. They seem to hate delivering out here.

Picked up RX and some more salads for lunch & dinner. Not the most nutritious stuff but its filling when I'm hungry and I've lost about 20lbs since I cut back on the carbs and sugars and have been snacking on salads instead.

Got laundry in the dryer. Waiting for mom to wake up so she can find some of her dirty socks, underwear, & shirts for me to watch. I found mostly pants while picking stuff up off her floor and from the precariously perched pile of clothes next to her closet. I couldn't pull on that pile more without an avalanche resulting so I left it alone. Need plenty of clean clothes for her so she can't use it as an excuse to not go to the doctor.

 

[Zanne]

UPS is saying that the miter saw package was not scanned in so they may have lost it (more likely someone stole it). Fedex delivered my package to the wrong address & initially told HD they would not retrieve it to deliver to me. Claimed they don't do that. I know for a fact they do bc I've had them do it before and it states they do it on their FAQ. I quoted the FAQ to HD employee and Fedex said they will "investigate". If I knew for certain who had it, I would consider going to get it. I don't want to go snooping around neighbor's porches. So, HD employee called both UPS and Fedex for me and was very friendly about it.

Had to reschedule my dr appointment bc they couldn't work me in for bloodwork in time for it to be ready for the appointment. Had to set up an appointment for bloodwork next week to give the hospital time to send it over. So, actual appointment is moved to the 25th now.

Been slowly working on organizing my bathroom a little more-- trying to find all my tools. My trowels seem to have gone missing. Once I find them I will be able to proceed with the mortar. I found my mixing attachment at least. I moved some of the plumbing fittings to the hall closet along with the PEX pipes so they can be installed in the closet. Need to find the pex cutter and cinch rings. Put the PVC cutter in by mistake. Once I have it all organized, everything covered in plastic, all my tools ready, etc I will apply mortar. Just ate so I'm letting my tummy rest.

I fed Rupert some canned food so he's very happy with me and sitting on me with his head under my chin. He's more cooperative than the dogs. LOL. I call him and he comes to me. I even taught him to high five.

 

[BlueSkyHigh]

I won the war against the invading carpenter bees. Those commie *******s thought my deck was their home and, boy oh boy, did they have another think coming!

 

[Zanne]

That's good to hear, BlueSkyHigh. Are they the bees with the white spots on their heads? I've seen some bees like that without stingers. They were all over my blackberry flowers (now there are little berries but some of them are very bitter).

Took Mom to try to return her new phone. They would not refund the full price. Said bc we traded in another phone and only paid tax, the $800 phone was only worth $80 for trade in. Decided to keep the phone instead.

Went to Golden Corral and then samsclub. Hurt my back lifting cases of water. I was dropping things and tripping today so I'm not going to try the mudding until I feel my coordination is better. But for now I'm resting my back.

 

[BlueSkyHigh]

These carpenter bees are all black for the most part and have the uncanny ability to drill perfect 3/8” holes deep into the wood where they nest. I think they are adequate pollinators but don’t make the sort of honey that we generally eat. They aren’t aggressive and I wish I didn’t feel the need to destroy their nest but it is what it is. After I sprayed the foaming insecticide into one of their holes, I noticed one of the males attempting to remove the queen from the colony but it was too late for her and her subjects.

We don’t have a Golden Corral nearby but have heard they are popular with politicians in Georgia!

Happy Mother’ Day to all of you that are mothers and have mothers!

 

[cgilley]

Carpenter bees - ug. Put a nice cedar and cypress deck on the back. It was like a dining table to them, but I then put out traps. No more bees.

 

[BlueSkyHigh]

Thanks for the tip and I’ll have to look into traps.

 

[Mitchell-DIY-Guy]

I won the war against the invading carpenter bees. Those commie *******s thought my deck was their home and, boy oh boy, did they have another think coming!

How did you get rid of them? I need to do that.

 

[BlueSkyHigh]

I got some carpenter bee-specific foaming insecticide at H.D., filled the holes with the spray several times with a day or so in between sprayings and then plugged the holes by gluing dowel plugs in the holes.