May 28, 2010 by kim.

This is a task that one might do haphazardly once in a while, possibly, if the thought should perhaps cross one’s mind. Maybe. Really – how often do you think to clean your computer keyboard? Probably not that often, unless you’ve spilled something on it. Or, you just might not have time, which is how my poor keyboard became neglected. Still, I do like to have it clean, so I set upon the task. Not just with a can of air for dusting between the keys, though. No. Nothing that simple. Instead, I decided to take the whole thing apart.

Why … ?

Well, my keyboard was a little disgusting (cat hair and such) and I had the time, so I thought I’d go ahead and get it really spiffy.

First, I removed all of the keys:

It wasn’t that difficult, and look at how dirty it had gotten! Not to worry – I laid everything out in the correct order so that I would be able to put it back together again:

Then I got down to business. I started cleaning the keys one by one with a Q-Tip and some rubbing alcohol. That was going fine for the first hour (!), but I had only gotten halfway through, so I decided to take a little shortcut. I dampened a paper towel instead (still with rubbing alcohol) and cleaned each of the keys that way (it went much faster). That took another 30 minutes or so, and then I cleaned the board itself:

Hey there – that’s pretty clean!

Finally, I reassembled the keyboard, and admired the fantastic job I did:

Beautiful!

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May 25, 2010 by kim.

Let me just preface the following conversation with today’s weather forecast:

TODAY: Sunny. Warm. High 81F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.

Chris called (as he usually does) to see how I was doing, and heard the traffic noise from outside:

C: Hey – are the windows open?

K: Yes.

C: Aren’t you hot?

K: No. I’m actually kind of cold.

C: What does the temperature say?

K: Outside?

C: No. What does the inside temperature gauge say?

K: Temperature’s relative, isn’t it?

C: What does it say??

K: 80.

C: I knew it!

K: There’s a breeze, though.

C: Is it a cool breeze?

K: Um … no … it’s a warm breeze …

C: What kind of clothing do you have on in that 80 degree apartment?

K: Flannel jammy pants and a shirt with ¾ length sleeves.

C: Are you sure you’re not overheating? Could you put on a t-shirt instead or something cooler?

K: What? No! It’s almost like a t-shirt, except the sleeves are a little longer.

C: Okay. What about kitty? How is kitty holding up? Has she melted?

K: No. Well, I don’t know. She’s laying here in front of me. She was in the chair, but now she’s here. She might be uncomfortable. I don’t know. She probably wants me to put the air on. I’ll put the air on.

C: Well, don’t do it if you’re comfortable. If you get too hot, you’ll know it, right?

K: Yeah … well, no, not really. I’ll just put the air on.

This is one of the many reasons that I keep Chris around. Not only does he know how to fix my computer and make fajitas, but he also knows when I’m overheating.

Seriously, though. Due to the ol’ MS, I do have a tendency to overdress and not realize that I’m too hot until I become completely lethargic and walk around with a blank stare on my face. He is always looking out for me, come rain or come shine. Oh, how I love that man of mine! How in the world did I get so lucky?

Thank you, Chris!

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May 20, 2010 by kim.

Yesterday was my first day back to work (I’m on a 3-day temporary assignment), and while enjoying the beauty of Central Park, I see this hit the bench next to me:

Any closer and that would have landed on my head! I looked up to see if I could spot the bird who would dare do this. The sun was in my eyes, so I could only take this blind shot:

Look at that. A bird butt just waiting to drop another bomb. Sneaky little culprit made a swift exit once it realized I had my eye on him:

Nobody escapes the lens of LoDuca!

Posted in Animals, Observation | No Comments »

May 15, 2010 by kim.

Even Matilda:

See?

Posted in Fun, Entertainment, Animals, Happy | No Comments »

May 12, 2010 by kim.

I haven’t picked up Cracker Jacks in a long time, but a three-pack called out my name when I was in the A&P last week. Forget that I was hearing voices, and let’s focus on the Cracker Jacks. I remember when I enjoyed eating this snack as a kid and always looked forward to the prizes inside.

Boy, was I disappointed.

Not only was I disappointed, but my folks were as well. Seems they had picked up a three-pack around the same time I did (they must have heard the same voice), and also tried a bag of the same product. We came to the same conclusion. The popcorn was tough, the peanuts were miniscule, and the prizes sucked.

Sucked, I say! Sucked! When I was a kid, Cracker Jack had TOYS. Things you could play with. I remember one toy that was a little puzzle or pinball game with tiny metal balls that you tried to get into certain areas to complete the puzzle or get points. THAT was a toy! They also had tops, instant tattoos, whistles, plastic toys, etc. Now? Now what “prize” do you get? This is what you get:

Wait for it …

A PENCIL TOPPER? What kind of a prize is that? It’s a piece of PAPER! We didn’t even have a regular pencil to put it on:

Are kids even using pencil and paper anymore? I think the prizes need to move into the 21st century here. How about an iPod? They have really small ones that would fit into the box, easy.

On a side note (ha ha, this is from the SIDE of the box), it doesn’t taste like I remember at all:

Nope. Not at all.

Liars.

Posted in Food, Annoyance | No Comments »

May 8, 2010 by kim.

I love strawberries! They are so sweet and tasty and … pretty. Most of the time. Well, some of the time. Pictures. In pictures, they are very pretty. In reality, they are more often than not bruised, mushy, and sometimes moldy. Yuck. I think it has to do with the berries being crammed into plastic containers and bouncing around on a truck. Here are some strawberries I bought the other day:

They look good at first glance, but every one of these had some sort of imperfection that I had to remove.

This one looks perfect except for the indentation on the front:

After removing the offending piece, it looked like this:

Not bad …

This one required a little more work with the knife:

Hmmm. After cutting off the green top, there isn’t much left, is there?

Basically, you’ll need at least two mangled strawberries to make one whole, edible strawberry.

Anything to sell more produce …

Posted in Food | No Comments »

May 5, 2010 by kim.

You know how we had water damage and our carpeting was all torn up? Well, the maintenance people finally replaced the carpet and painted the wall last week. First, though, we had to move everything from that room into the living room so they could tear out the icky carpet. Yay.

This is the living room with half the stuff in it. Surprisingly, I forgot to take a picture when it was packed full. How I could have forgotten, I will never know.

Here is the room with the carpeting all torn out. I tried to prevent Matilda from going in there by blocking the entrances with stuffed grocery bags, but she was able to jump over them without a problem. Who knew?

Finally, new carpeting!

It was so pretty and smooth, I didn’t want to ruin it by filling it up with stuff. Still, having everything from the office jammed into the living room sort of made that room totally unusable, so we spent the rest of the day putting everything back.

There. Now doesn’t that look nice?

Posted in Observation | 1 Comment »

May 1, 2010 by kim.

That’s what we are. Were. That’s what we WERE when we bought this remote controlled helicopter from a kiosk in the Paramus (Jersey) mall:

Of course, someone was demonstrating it so of course it looked like it flew perfectly, and OF COURSE we bought it.

Silly us.

Chris had been wanting one for over a year, but this past Christmas when I was going to buy him one from the Sharper Image, I saw that it had been recalled due to the following hazard:

Hazard: The rechargeable lithium ion battery inside the helicopters can overheat, catch fire, and ignite nearby combustibles, posing fire and burn hazards to consumers.

Well, that was for some other helicopters, not this one. This one is just fine. Fine meaning, it flies normally 20% of the time when the pieces aren’t falling off and it isn’t trying to bury itself into the carpet.

Let me show you what I mean.

Here is a video of the rare moment when Chris was able to control it:

Wasn’t that a smooth landing?

Here is the video of this quality piece of machinery going totally haywire:

That beeping you heard at the end was the carbon monoxide detector being set off by the frequency of the remote control. How a piece of plastic that runs on six batteries (not included) is able to do that, I don’t know. Must be some high-tech kind of gadget.

On one of the many kamikaze fights it took, this is where it landed:

Fitting. We shelled out a whopping thirty bucks for five minutes of fun and it ends up right in the crapper. Was it worth it?

Well, I got a post out of it, didn’t I?

Posted in Fun | No Comments »