Looking for the Sweet Spot

I've been watching them build this new house over the course of a couple of months. It is located in a poorer neighborhood, but a new house is a new house. What I can't figure out are the windows that they installed. When you drive by the house the windows reflect the light like they're funhouse mirrors. If I get the light just right in the reflection I look like I've lost 50 pounds and my car 500. I can't wait for the open house so I can look from the inside out. And I try not to judge but when they were staging the house they were carrying in a couch that probably cost more that most of the cars in the neighborhood.

The Quality Goes In as the Price Goes Up

The Frigidaire dishwasher is old, 7+ years; if it were a computer it would qualify to be in a museum. So, when the dishes on the top rack stopped getting clean I knew it might be time but I’m of the nature to at least give it the old college try. The problem turned out to be pretty easy to diagnose; the seal on the back of the top spray arm had dissolved/corroded and the water wasn’t going through the spray arm but leaking down the inside back wall of the dishwasher. Simple, get a new seal, snap it in and I’m good to go. Well, not so fast. Frigidaire doesn’t sell the seal separately. You have to buy the entire spray arm. Hold on now. They don’t sell just the spray arm any more. You have to buy the entire top rack with the spray arm attached and the seal attached to the arm. In the end a $.15 piece of plastic, my best guess, ends up costing $69. The only reason I bought the entire rack assembly is that with the dishwasher being so old that I believed the Frigidaire parts lady that the parts were not being made anymore. A couple of months after the repair I was in Lowe’s shopping for something else when I happened to walk by the dishwashers and there was a new Frigidaire. I stopped, opened it up, pulled out the top rack reached around behind the spray arm and pulled off the seal. The exact same thing that I bought for $69. I tossed it back into the dishwasher, slammed it shut and went on my way.

But wait, don’t order yet, there’s still more.

The second scariest set of words your wife can say to you are “Why is the carpet wet?” The first being “I’m pregnant…again.”

Both could involve leaky pipes and both could end up costing you a lot of money. I’m dealing with the wet carpet. Leaking pipes? No, it’s the dishwasher, again. It’s leaking from the pump/motor. Something underneath. So, me being me, I take it apart. (Thanks YouTube) Down, down, down I go into the bowels of the motor until I find it the source of my leak. A small spring loaded washer between motor and pump. With the motor in hand off to the parts store I go where I’m fondly, if only, remembered for my seal on the spray arm performance. The nice guy at Parts Plus looks up the motor and yes indeed. You can’t buy the washer separately. Another $.15 piece of plastic, with a small spring inside for… $139. They throw in a new motor and pump with every washer. 

Which side do you use?

Do we really need quilted toilet paper? As I sit contemplating life I wonder maybe there is a reason for this. Someone somewhere must have thought two different sides was a good idea. I'm sure it cost the companies millions to re-tool their assembly lines to produce this new product. So what could be the purpose? Where would one go for answers? I don't think I'm going to call the 1-800 customer service number and asking them, maybe later. I guess it's up to me... and here's what I've figured out. The smooth side is when you just need that delicate touch. And the quilted side? That's the toilet paper equivalent to sandpaper. When you really need to scrub. Ruffles have ridges. When two hands just aren't enough.... Where's my paint scraper.

A Time to Start...

The name Semi-Seedless Watermelons came from my confusion when confronted by a large box of watermelons in a Sam's Club Store with a sign that identified them as semi-seedless. That sign stopped me in my tracks. Semi-seedless, what the hell? How does that work? An employee noticed my confusion and came to offer assistance. When I asked what semi-seedless meant, he looked at me like I was stupid and he told me the watermelons have less seeds than regular watermelons. I tried to explain that they would still be "seeded" but no. It gave me such a headache that I had to go home and semi-drunk.

So, this blog is collection of the stupid items and ideas that are foisted on us everyday. Turns out that the idea of semi-seedless comes up a lot in my life. If you have an example add it to the list.