BrowserMetrics

Not since the Great Bat Hunt of 2000 on the evening of Dad's wake has the species Chiroptera dared to take on the Gonzales clan. On that night thirteen years ago, we defeated the bat that invaded our home. Tonight, they came again and left defeated.

I was sitting at home playing Simpsons Taped Out when Mom called. "There's a bat in the house." "Can't you throw a blanket over it?" "It's flying!" "Do you need to have me come over?" "YES!" So I went.

The last Bat Hunt was a full house of hunters. Tonight, I was on my own. Going through my mind was the fierce movement of the critter. It flies in zig-zags swerving and diving as it echo location finds clear paths throughout its paths. I wasn't looking forward to this on my own.

When I get to the house, it was dark lock down like the geo-engineering colony on LV426. Even when I entered the house, it was dark and the alarm was on. "Hello!" Mom was upstairs locked in to keep the bat away. I go room by room turning on the lights. Nothing downstairs. Wait, there it is in the dining room light fixture.

Spotted! I'm gonna need something to catch it with. I'm going to need a blanket. Throw it on the chandelier, but will it hold?

Let me first poke it to see it move. Open up the doors so that we can shoo it away. I'm needing a longer pole. I don't want to get close. I find a pole and a fish tank net in the garage. MacGyver has nothing on me. Here we go.

I try to capture it while it resides in the chandelier, but to no avail. I actually dislodge the bat which begins to fly around the room. Going through the house. Mom throws the blanket over her to keep from seeing the bat. I'm whooping and screaming like Kukichiyo seeing lady farmers. I'm trying to drive the bat to an open door. "Stand up, Mom! Stand up! Act like a wall so that the bat's echo location will drive it to the open door!"

I catch it once. Then it's out again. I chase it room to room finally succeeding in driving it out the front door.

Adrenaline surged through me throughout the hunt. Now I'm coming down. We are laughing again. And we go find out where it could have entered the house from.

The Great Bat Hunt of 2013 is done. Now I need to sleep. Calm down first - then sleep.

Labels: home, no new tale to tell, runaway, your kung fu is good

Several things brewing around BrowserMetrics that I feel don't warrant a full blog post, or rather, this is a blog post about nothing and written to advance the date forward. Maybe these are tweets. Read if you must.

I just made a slurpy in the freezer at work. Left a limeade/tea concoction in for 2.5 hours and now I need a straw to drink it.

That Harry Potter film? I must pen my review. Movie and/or book?

I am weighing more than ever.

My fridge is acting up. The freezer had a full on melt going on yesterday. Being alone, not cooking, and eating away from home means not much food in the fridge. I only had to throw away thawed frozen pizzas. Got some advice on clearing the dust from its intake vents. Let's hope this works.

This is the second time in a couple of months that this problem occurred. Let's hope it's not its death rattle.

Labels: home, meta

Did I bring the wrath of Mother Nature upon us when I doubted the capabilities of the snow I saw falling last night?

Labels: home, oops, picture, weather, wintry mix

Went out in the snow to check out what and how it's coming down. It's a mess. More like sleet than snow. I don't think we'll be getting that two feet, because it's too wet and it'll compact itself down. I think it would be more like a foot.

Unless it keeps coming down until tomorrow evening like they say it will.

Labels: home, picture, weather, wintry mix

Fixed my leaky faucet
Originally uploaded by browsermetrics.

Labels: home

Doing some laundry.

Put it in washing machine at 8:30.

Go up to put it in the drier at 9:30 while watching MLB post season.

The wash wasn't done. It wasn't even started. The lid was up on the washing machine. Did I do that? Or.....!

I then let the wash continue. I wonder if it had enough soap or did it all wash away in the first rinse through? At least the clothes are wet.

Labels: fright, home

My mom is starting to bug me about my figure collection. It's just like Ladro, but cuter, cooler and fun. I need someplace to store and display them. These shelves look like a great idea. Does anyone know what the description says?

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/jajan-r/219401/380752/

(ht dannychoo.com)

Labels: home, lotd

I'm currently waiting for a load of laundry to dry. I just folded my whites. I've been living in my house for five years and I can count one hand the number of socks I've lost.

The myth is of the sock monster stealing one sock from a pair. I doubt it. If you're careful enough you shouldn't lose a sock.

Of course I've come across a missing sock, but it was soon found. It may have been overlooked at the bottom of the hamper or mixed in with the white, but they've been found. I've seen them fall between the drier and the washer, but they were still located in time to match the missing pair.

I don't think it's because of the sock vortex. I just think we get too lazy to care.

Labels: home, time sink

Forgive me for the crappy shot that this picture is, but I had to show some of the fun stuff I recently purchased or was sent to me. I took this shot with an iSight that my cousin sent to me as part of a payment he owes me. It is of my new 20" cinema display. I have it hooked up to my TiBook and using it as a second monitor. Having dual displays rocks.

Labels: computing, home, Macs, picture

Who still uses Windows95 nowadays? I do. Ain't that a bitch of an OS? Its on an 8 year old Dell with a 233MHz Pentium chip. This thing is a dinosaur.

Why am I talking about old hardware? Just recently I have decided that it was time to give up on dial-up so I have ordered DSL. DSL? The local cable co has a freaking monopoly on the cable system in my county, and until they have competition then I won't be giving them money. But anyway, I am trying to add ethernet to this box. What a pain in the ass. Installing the hardware was easy, but the drivers was hard. I tried for an hour to get the "Add Hardware" utility to recognize the card. I rebooted a dozen times, but still no luck. Finally, it works. Unfortunately, I had to change the IRQ for my modem to avoid an IRQ conflict. What the hell?

Once I have my DSL modem installed, I'll see how the set up works.

Labels: computing, home

How to fold a t-shirt. I need to start practicing this. Now can they tell me how to get one with no wrinkles?

Labels: home

I have a bird problem.

My condo has a rather large deck off the family room. It's nice to take in the summer evening air out on it after work, especially when it is not hot or muggy. Except, there is a pair of birds (swallows or finches I think) that have perched out back and made my deck their own territory. They like to use one of the sprinkler heads as a perch. Every time I go out back these two fly off and return with reinforcements. These birds dive bomb me while I am out on my deck. It freaks me out.

Does anyone know how to discourage them from using my deck as their love nest? Can a wind chime help? I really want to crush them. String up their dead bodies as a warning to the other birds.

Labels: home

Since moving into my own place last year, I have been searching for furniture. I have yet to find something I really like. My style seems to be retro/mid-century modern, which is making a come back.

Designs Within Reach - not really cheap like they imply, but a sense of style that is slightly affordable.

Room And Board - if I could I would buy all my furniture from here.

Labels: home, shill