We got a new dishwasher and a new clothes washer today. The disherwasher is still sitting in the middle of the kitchen as installation was not included with delivery. Apparently that is normal as dishwashers always require electrical work and possibly plumbing as well. I had no idea. Ours will not require any special plumbing, although I might need to get some parts — definitely some electrical stuff. The old one was directly wired in and did not use a plug. I had thought that odd, but the delivery guy (who also delivered our new fridge a couple of weeks ago), said that was normal.

The old clothes washer was a pain to get all of its hoses detached. The two water values were also completely frozen open and it was difficult to cut the water off. However, I got everything disconnected. Although, the delivery guy thought we did have installation on the washer, so he went ahead and hooked everything up.

I am testing it out now. It’s got a lot more buttons than our old one.

So some nefarious souls broke into BK’s townhouse yesterday evening while she was at work. They simply booted the door open. The dead bolt was not in, but that probably wouldn’t have mattered. And, since that part of the door frame is vaguely in one piece, the door can still be closed.

It looks like they just tossed everything in the place looking for cash and small valuables; some things were taken, but stuff like the computer was still there. They did make a mess by dumping everything everywhere.

It also seemed like they may have been looking for ID stuff to engage in identity theft, but perhaps that is my overly paranoid brain working.

Life in the big city. Things definitely could have been worse.

I met with my team at the Microsoft offices in Lincoln Square as usual today. Amanda drove me; the car was well behaved and did not lose any body parts as we feared. She and the Kai stuck around the area and went to Costco in Kirkland and had lunch at Chipotle and picked me up a few hours later.

I tried to catch up on work during LK’s nap; Amanda rested on the couch and tried to produce scholarly product.

I made a pasta with kale and field roast for dinner. And had box wine.

Everyone else in the house is asleep. Amanda, Armando, and Haley are asleep on the couch beside me. I should read some technical stuff, but I think instead I’ll play some computer games.

Amanda took LK to gymnastics and kiddie gym at the Rainier Community Center this morning while I stayed home to get some work done (since I was entertaining the Kai during the past three snow days). The weather has warmed up considerably and all the ice melted before evening. I did shovel the driveway in the morning in case it did freeze up in the evening (but it didn’t).

I was able to fix the rear bumper on our car at last. I had picked up the parts yesterday and the weather cooperated. Unfortunately, a big plastic weather guard on the underside of the car that I thought was undamaged actually was broken on one of its connection points, so it could conceivably pop off on one side and cause a lot of noise and/or rip off while driving. I ended up just epoxying it to the frame, but I don’t think it will hold for long. I guess I had better order the part and replace it asap. The car could drive without it, but it does block a lot of weather from hitting a probably important component (I think it is the fuel pump), so I really should replace it.

AC-MC family came over for pizza dinner. Now I am trying to get more stuff done. Amanda and the kitties are sleeping on the couch beside me.

After using Movable Type for a decade (since before this particular weblog was started), I have finally drank the Kool-Aid and moved to WordPress. I actually still prefer Movable Type, but I switched for one reason: WordPress has a much better mobile client. Or perhaps it is better to say, WordPress actually has a mobile client. Now I could write one myself or whip up a website style that looks good on things like smartphones, but we all know that is not going to happen.

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to write more in the weblog so that when I am old and grey (or greyer as the case may be), I can remember what I did in my life. Having a mobile client won’t directly help with that, but it can’t hurt. And I can post pictures and the like much easier.

As of this particular moment, old picture links in the weblog are busted. That will get fixed eventually. Also more recent posts (in the past year or so), are displayed in their original Markdown format (I love Markdown) instead of the intended final display format. That will also presumably get fixed. Actually, post format in general is probably screwed up, but I doubt I will fix everything.

Of course, I am still in process of revamping my picture gallery (something I may have mentioned in the weblog before) by moving everything to a digital content management system, but, ya, that is still in process.