I have been out of circulation for a couple of weeks as I have moved my home and office to Alexandria, VA. I’m still living out of boxes and wondering where to find some of my stuff, but at least I’m here and it’s here, wherever it is.
I’m trying to establish the optimal office setup for the new space. It’s a larger space but forces a different arrangement. I may need to hire a feng shui consultant.
To reward ourselves for surviving the move, my partner and I are spending next week with family on the North Carolina coast. I plan to do a lot of reading and relaxing. And I expect to be berated by my family for my choice of reading material. They don’t consider what I read to be conducive to relaxation. I simply like to read non-fiction and technical books. So as I select books to take along, I have considered subjects ranging from sociology to usable design to taxonomy development.
Yes, you read that correctly. I might read about taxonomy development while on vacation.
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My life as a new condo owner is currently filled with moving details and arrangements: cable installation, lock replacement, and minor upgrades and fixes resulting from our home inspection. One detail that caught me off guard and required some research was the selection, purchase, and installation of a new garbage disposal.
Let’s face it: garbage disposals are not one of those things that an average person thinks about. Unless your unit is on the wane—or as in our case, dead—you’re unlikely to wake up one morning and say “I think I’ll shop for a new garbage disposal today.” You probably won’t find yourself habitually gravitating toward the disposal display in Sears, either.
But for the past few days, I have been preoccupied with garbage disposals. My browser has been choked with an array of tabs, each displaying search results and home improvement sites. I have been reading specs, making comparisons, and learning the jargon. I learned to pay attention to specific attributes: continuous feed, sound insulation, grind chamber capacity… induction motor vs. permanent magnet motor…
One model even comes with a “self-service wrenchette … for easy clearing of jams.” My word processor doesn’t recognize wrenchette. I suppose that’s a sort of faux French word for “little wrench.”
Another model makes your life easier because
two grind stages let you quickly grind difficult food waste you wouldn’t put in a standard disposer, like celery and potato peels.
I hate when food waste is “difficult.”
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