I’ve finally gotten around to adding a link to my Amazon Wishlist here on the blog. See it at the right under “My Stuff.” This is a pretty cool feature, and if you haven’t got one I’d recommend looking into it.

Even if you have no intention of shopping at Amazon, it’s nice to have a list of books (and other stuff) located somewhere on the web. You never know when you’ll be dislocated from your normal resources and need remote access to your brain. I’m sold on having stuff available across the web, especially if someone else is paying for it. 🙂 I give Amazon money on a pretty regular basis, though, so I don’t feel bad.

Pat doesn’t have comments enabled on his blog, so I will respond here. He’s working on getting his basement remodeled.

Having just gone through serious water damage in my basement, I’ll relate a bit of my experience. Unless the sump pump is new, spend $100 and replace it. It’s good insurance. Check that the outflow plumbing is OK with a good backflow check valve, and follow instructions to the letter. I installed my replacement pump with a union (before the check valve) so it could be unscrewed and removed from the pit for maintainence now and then. I’d also recommend a battery backup auxillary pump if you have anything valuable in the basement and you think the electricity will ever go out during a storm. I didn’t install one because my pump failed without a power failure.

When it somes to flooring, avoid carpet unless you’ve really waterproofed the basement, your sump system is in good shape, and you plan on checking it periodically to see that it still works.

Good alternatives are solid vinyl flooring and laminates. There are laminates out that look like hardwood, are reasonably water resistant, and not too expensive.

It’s also worth looking at using mold/moisture resistant drywall or greenboard for the first 4 feet of wall (from the ground up). Your basement could never flood, but if it does it’s nice to be prepared. You can also get discounts on your insurance if you have some of these features.

Just my 2 cents. Good luck Pat.

 Due to serious, difficult personal matters (which I probably won’t discuss in detail here) I don’t have access to my home, computers and a lot of other stuff. That may change a bit in the next few days. I’ve managed to redirect my E-mail out of the black hole it was going into. I haven’t lost anything, but if you’ve sent anything to my home mail in the past few weeks, send it again if you need a reply.

I’m doing OK, but Christmas is going to suck. At least I have family to stay with over Christmas, and lots of friends helping me to get through day to day.

 It’s when a crisis happens that you learn who your real friends are. Thank God for other men who are at my back.

Contrary to popular belief, I still live. Life is always busy, but it seems like it’s been one crisis after another lately.

This is only the second week this year I have not worked overtime. I’ve made extra money, but free time is short. In addition, I’ve been trying lately to give more at work, and let my home life and other interests interfere less.

I’m helping to lead a new men’s group at church around sexual purity/integrity/accountability, which is something I’m passionate about. The church is the one place where men need to be able to speak freely about healthy sexuality, and it doesn’t happen enough. Although I don’t do much in the way of prep for the group, it still eats a free night per week.

We’ve just finished painting the outside of the house and I finished cutting down a tree that has been causing us problems. I thought the fall would be a time to rest and repair, but we had a sump pump failure which partially flooded the basement. This has been pretty hard on my wife and the cats, which makes life hard for me. We’ve had the carpet ripped out (carpet in a basement is stupid), dried everything out, and I’ve replaced the sump pump. There’s still more ripping out to do, and lots of rebuilding, so the fun is just beginning.

In addition, I’m still working on building up my server (mail, CVS and apache work so far), have switched my number 2 desktop to Gentoo, and need to upgrade the main system to Fedora Core 6. Jokosher just froze for the November 20 release of version 0.2, which means I’ve got lots of work to do on the documentation front.

I’ve got a couple crochet projects working, and have decided I’ll probably make things for at least some of the people on my Christmas list. I’m finding that sitting and crocheting at night does wonders to reduce stress, so I hope to continue with that.

Everything takes time, and I only get 24 hours a day to spend.

People might say “real men don’t crochet,” but here is at least one guy who disagrees. My philosophy is “real men do whatever the hell they want and don’t care what people think.” How manly is it to spend your time worrying about what other people think?

Anyway, my wife and I were passing through the craft section at the store the other day and I started playing with the crochet hooks. I had one when I was a teenager and learned how to make a single chain. I made a few bracelets and a really thin belt, then lost interest because I didn’t know what else to do.

There’s something compelling about taking a ball of yarn and a single tool and actually making something out of it. I love to create, and such a cheap, instantly gratifying way of doing it is really appealing.

So I bought a size K (6.5 mm) hook and a skein of yarn for a couple of bucks and got started. My wife taught me a few basics, and I made a nice, lumpy rectangle about the size of my palm. After some more research I’ve got the single stitch and double stitch down OK, and seem to be able to finish a row and start another without completely screwing up. I started a scarf, and it’s now nearly a foot long.

Links:

Beginner’s page at about.com

More complete tutorial by Lion Brand Yarn (available as PDF)

Craft Yarn Council of America site with info on crotchet versus knitting

Men Who Knit & The Dogs Who Love Them at Amazon

Knitting with Balls at Amazon