Elevator Go Boom

Our team’s always joked about we should never be all in the same elevator or an airplane, since if there’s an unfortunate event, there goes the CardSpace test team.

However, just the other day when we were going out to lunch, the elevator started to malfunction. There were 6 out of 8 of us on it. It started falling and got stuck mid-floor. We hit the alarm button and even started to call for help, when it fell another floor. Pretty scary experience. However, we started pulling the doors apart and manage to get out on the 1st floor with about 2ft to climb.

Cherry Lips

So I recently heard an old song on a TV show and really dig it: Cherry Lips by Garbage


YouTube Link

However, it wasn’t after listening to 20+ times that I realized the song was about a boy!!! According to Wikipedia:

Shirley wrote the lyrics in the song as a tribute to writer “JT LeRoy”, pseudonym of Laura Albert, with whom she has an email friendship, after reading “his” two novels Sarah and The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things. The song is loosely based on the two novels, apparently referencing the character ‘Cherry’, a cross-dressing child-prostitute from the novel Sarah.

Lost Mail?

So I got back to Seattle last Tuesday (thanks to Derek from driving me home from the airport). I can’t believe work begins tomorrow.

As always, when I leave for Christmas, I always put a hold on my postal mail to have it deliver on the day I return (in this case, it was 12/30). I get home and got the notice my mail service will resume, but no mail… I’ve been gone for 2.5 weeks and was expecting a lot of mail, a few packages, and even several checks. First thing that popped into my head was, maybe the postman hid it, so I searched the outside of my house and didn’t find anything.

Since there’s been construction going on in our complex and that I just received a noticed on my door that the construction work on my unit was completed on 12/30, I began to feared the worse. SOMEONE HAD STOLEN MY MAIL… I left a post-it on my mailbox for my postman the next day and decided to ask the construction company if anyone saw my mail the following day. Unfortunately, the construction company said, they didn’t see anything, but I should call my post office to see what they had to say. I thought… why didn’t I think of that.

I called my post office and they told me that I actually had a tub of mail en route today (12/31) and that was when I had my first sigh of relief. They told me my route had a substitute and that could be the reason for the delay. I did get my tub of mail that afternoon and it was like Christmas all over again!

I got my Premera check for my new glasses ($180) and a rebate check.

Here’s a few of the things I received:

hair bandsspoongrilling bookcans of tomatoesmagic the gathering cards

From left to right:

  • Goody Ouchless Elastic Hair bands – a free sample. Was actually thinking of picking up some at Rite Aid. Guess I don’t need to anymore.
  • Chef Spoon – free gift from Contadina
  • Omaha Steaks: The Great American Grilling Book – Something I signed up for at FreeBizMag
  • Muir Glen 2008 Reserve Tomatoes – a free gift when you join the Connoisseurs’ Club
  • Magic: The Gathering Decks – another freebie I signed up for

Not shown here include my new Woot shirt: Willing to endure scientific research, Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid DVD 1 (to complete the series), and some HDMI cables that were on sale (3 6′ for $10 shipped).

Here are a couple more things that I got for free, but had received right before I left:

Johnnie Walker glassMaker's Mark gift wrap

  • Johnnie Walker glass – a free gift for being part of their Striding Man Society
  • Maker’s Mark gift wrap – As part of their ambassador program, I’ve been receiving freebies since college. There’s even supposedly a barrel with my name on it.

Weird Car Stuttering Noise

For those who’ve ridden in my Honda Civic, you may have noticed that when I’m driving on bumping roads, my car would make a weird stuttering noise, as if something was loose. For the longest time, I couldn’t figure it out what was going on. Some have suggested maybe my shocks were damaged. Since it didn’t really affect my driving, I never did take it in to have it looked at. And since the noise came from the rear, as the driver, I never did have much of a chance to analyze where it came from while I was driving.

A few weeks ago when Liam came up to visit, Andrew was sitting in the back and obviously annoyed by the noise. Seattle streets tend to be hilly and bumpy. So he took some tissue paper and stuffed it between my rear windshield and my rear center stop light (not exactly sure what that’s called):

rear windshield + tissue paper

And magically and instantaneously, the stuttering noise was gone. The noise has plagued my car for years and Andrew resolved it immediately. Many others have sat in my rear seats and never did figure out where the noise was coming from, only to mention they thought it was abnormal. I guess what was happening was the fact that that there was space between my rear center stop light and my rear windshield and during bumpy roads, it would smack against each other.

I’m probably going to look for something more durable and less covering than tissue paper (probably cardboard), but it’s weird not hearing that stuttering noise now that I’m accustomed to it.