bmabray's Journal: Audrey, Weblogs, & Toilets

A quick update on some projects. I started Audrey for the first time last night. It works. I also ordered a USB ethernet adapter for it. This is not the "official" Audrey ethernet adapter -- it requires modification of the EEPROM to get it to work. We'll see how well that goes... :-)

I've been able to spend a little time working on the new weblog. I'm designing the layout as a static HTML page first, so I can get it to look the way I want it before I script it. I'm not entirely happy with the layout, yet -- what can I say, I'm a programmer, not a designer.

Ok, I promised toilets, so here it is... Last night, Angela & I were doing some odd jobs around the house. One of them was replacing a toilet seat. Simple job, right? Wrong... Apparently, many years ago, there was a major problem with people stealing toilet seats. So, they installed them with metal bolts that have plastic molded to the head -- molded in such a way that the two are almost inseparable. That is the only explanation I can come up with for why someone would use something like that. First of all, to the surprise of no one (except, I suppose, the designer), the metal bolts rust, making the nut impossible to remove. And, although the metal bolt does not want to be separated from its plastic case, it doesn't mind turning inside there when you try to remove the rusted nut. After much cutting, melting, pulling and prying, I ended up pulling the first bolt up through the hole in the toilet. After that, I went to work on the second one, with some instructions Angela found on the internet. I was able to get the plastic off, but I couldn't get the bolt out, so I decided to try to pry it up through the hole like the other one. And, of course, that's the point where I broke the toilet -- cracked the ceramic right there on the side. *sigh* Oh well... that means we have a new project this weekend... :-)