Korey Atterberry’s Idle Chatter

Dear Homebuilder-

When installing an exterior door, don’t worry about using shims between the door frame and the rough opening for proper support. Three drywall screws on the hinge side only should be more than enough to attach the door into the opening. If not, the load-bearing ability of the exterior trim will suffice. When installing the header over the door, rather than sandwiching boards of the proper thickness to make a uniform piece the same depth as the opening, just fill the remaining void with a tube of clear caulk. That will make a great nailing surface for the exterior trim.

Additionally, rather than using expensive flashing and water-resistant building paper to form a proper drainage plane behind the siding, a whole tube of caulk between the brickmould and the vinyl J-channel should be good enough. After all, don’t all proper vinyl siding installations make use of lots of caulk?

Finally, when finishing the installation, why bother with insulation between the door and the opening - that’s what trim is for, right? When painting the trim, one coat of interior white paint should do the job. There’s no need to spend time with extra coats of primer. If, when removing the masking tape, some tape remains on the door, just leave it. I’m sure after ten years it will dissolve and fall off on its own anyway.

I hope these tips can be of value to you and help you cut costs to maintain your profits.

Sincerely,
Disgruntled Homeowner

P.S. Perhaps the most frustrating thing is how much more effort I put into doing things the right way building my kids’ backyard playhouse compared to the work of these “professionals.”

Tonight we went to Walmart for some necessities, and while we were there we got Evan a little treat. It’s an Aquadoodle Mini Mat with Thomas on it. It’s just a little pen that holds water along with a couple of coloring book pages. When you get the pages wet, the black and white pages turn colors.

Well, when we got home I tried to get it set up so Evan could play with it. All I had to do was fill the pen with water, which shouldn’t have been too hard. Evan was standing by waiting, patiently for the moment. According to the printed instructions on the pen, I just had to “twist cap to remove.” After several minutes of grunting I eventually resorted to a couple of pairs of pliers. Even then, I had to stop just short of shattering the plastic. Eventually, I discovered that they used right-hand threads… Turning it the other way quickly solved the problem.

I’ve slacked a little bit this year on filing my tax return, but I basically finished up tonight. I’m using the TurboTax online service, which guides you through the process of entering the numbers from your forms and finding deductions, etc.

As you enter your data, a little ticker displays your estimated tax refund/bill. As I went through, the number was WAY different than last year, and I had a pretty good idea that this year would be similar to last year. Nearly in tears, I found my final “refund” amount was going to be almost $8000 less than last year…

I discovered the problem was in entering my W2. In boxes 12a-12d, each have a “letter code” and an amount. Even though I’ve filed taxes for years, including the last 4 using this same system, there was a mistake this time. Box 12a defaulted to letter code of A, and box 12b defaulted to B. Sure, that looks fine, right? In fact, box 12b should have been code “D”, not “B”, so all the money I contributed to my 401k was being reported as “uncollected medicare tax on tips”, not “elective deferrals to 401k”. As a result, that amount was going straight to my tax bill, instead of reducing my taxable income.

Ok, disaster averted. I guess I’ll tell Evan he doesn’t have to go to that job interview tomorrow!

I’ve always been under the impression that Christmas, regardless of your religious affiliation, was a time of giving and goodwill toward your fellow man. Whereas Christmas might bring out the best in people, Christmas shopping certainly must bring out the worst.

In an attempt to get past some of the incidents of this Christmas shopping season and get back into the holiday spirit, here is a list of people who will be getting coal in their stocking this year.

Diagonal parking lot crosser:
One thing that has always bothered me is people who tear across a parking lot diagonally, without regard for those who travel properly within the lanes. Normally it’s not a big deal, but a couple of weeks ago, I made the mistake of pulling into a space at the end of a row (leaving a couple of empty spots like I always do). Apparently Ms. Diagnonal Crosser wasn’t happy that I’d blocked her way and proceeded to berate me from the safety of her car with the windows up. She appeared to be asking her male passenger to escalate the situation, but he declined.

Intersection blocker:
Sometimes we’re not paying attention and find that due to traffic we don’t have room to exit the intersection we’ve just entered. An unfortunate but honest mistake. Less forgivable are the folks who, seeing that the car in front of them has been trapped in the intersection, enter as the light turns yellow. After watching this happen for three lights in a row near the mall two weekends ago, I gave a short honk to the folks stopped in front of me preventing my turn. I was wrong though - they indicated to me (in various ways) that they were in fact victims, not perpetrators of this offense. My mistake.

Checkout line sore loser:
After waiting for several minutes behind a shopper dumbfounded by the self-scan machines at Walmart, Dusty noticed the next lane over was about to be vacated. I carried Evan to the line while Dusty wheeled our mostly empty cart behind me. This did please another customer (unseen by us) who rounded the corner as Dusty was pulling into position. She immediately entered verbal attack mode and proceeded begrudgingly to the line we had vacated. In fact, the lane she entered opened up before ours, but that didn’t stop her harassment as we left the store. Perhaps the most disappointing facet was the lesson she was teaching her kids.

Parking space squatter:
In a great mood from our encounter with the sore loser above, we headed out to the parking lot. Dusty loaded Evan into the car while I put our packaged in the back. Behind our car was an SUV driven by an able-bodied man, followed by several cars, blocking our exit. The cars behind him were honking as he waited for a family to reach their van, load up, and leave an empty spot for him. I stood at the back of the car with arms crossed and waited for a couple of minutes until he claimed his prize.

Slick road honker:
Last week the roads were a bit slick, and the snow plow crews really dropped the ball. We were out shopping and spent quite a bit of time standing still in traffic near the mall. When the drivers actually left the intersections passable, some cars had problems getting enough traction to get moving into the intersection, since the snow and slush tended to pile up there. The correct thing for drivers behind to do might have been to get out and help push the car to get it moving, or at least leave a little room for the troubled drivers to back up for a running start. One notable offender was a young couple in an old VW camper van. Not only were they honking at a front-wheel drive Chevy in front of them, but they also pulled right up less than a foot behind every time the car made progress. Eventually I, waiting to turn into that traffic (for 10 minutes), honked at the van and motioned for them to stop and leave the car a little room. They got the idea…

Cart flip watcher:
Yesterday I took Evan out and we picked up a few gifts. The parking lots were mostly clear but had snow, slush and hard packed ice in spots. When we were done, I put Evan in the truck and jogged with the cart the 40ft to the cart corral (which no one apparently uses when temperatures are under 40, but that’s another story…) I hit an unexpected patch of semi-soft snow into which the wheels of the shopping cart stuck. The cart came to an abrupt stop, but I didn’t. Some quick reactions and more than a little luck helped me vault over the cart and land on my feet. A girl 50ft away saw my trick and began laughing. Her family was kind enough to wait for me to stand up and say “Tada!” before joining in. Not a big deal, but making sure I was OK first might have been nice.

Ok, that’s all. Thankfully, there have been a number of nice people I’ve encountered, and I will say that Evan’s doing his part to spread Christmas cheer. Very few people can resist smiling when he runs up to them and says “hi!!!” We also made it through a couple of hours tonight without incident, which surprised me. All the same, I think I’ll be doing more Christmas shopping on Amazon.com next year…

It’s crunch time at work. Today was the 9th time out of the last 12 working days that I’ve been in the office from 8am until after 10pm. No one’s telling me I have to work those hours, but I’m behind in my work. For my efforts, I’m getting a lot of bugs fixed and I think we’ll have a decent product, but I’ve begun to notice the indirect effects of this schedule.

The biggest effect is my weight. Long hours sometimes require caffeine, the sweet nectar of the gods. That would be alright if I could get to the gym, but I can’t. On top of that, in order to see Evan at least briefly, Dusty comes downtown to meet me for dinner on the planned late nights. So extra calories + no exercise = record-setting weight.

Secondly, the wallet takes a hit. Paying for those meals out takes it toll, and the gym membership is going unused. To top it off, if I can’t attend the gym a certain number of times in a month, work will not reimburse me for my membership dues (they pay for about half of it).

So, the reward for going the extra mile is going broke, getting fat, not seeing your kid, and not having any time to relax or for hobbies. Thankfully Dusty’s been picking up my slack around the house and has been supportive. I’m not sure that I have a point to make, but hopefully I’ll remember this next time I’m asked to provide estimates for how much work a project will take. Double them!

I don’t like to stay late at work on a regular basis. If I stay late, that’s less time I get to see Evan before bed time, and if I stay too late I don’t get to see him at all. As a result, when I need to work extra hours, I save them up and work 15-16 hour days. If I’m going to miss Evan’s bedtime, I might as well miss it by a long shot. That’s what I’m doing this week (thanks to all the extra non-project work I’ve had the “opportunity” to do).

The problem is the system on our doors at work. You have to wave your badge in front of a reader in order to get in or out of the building. I’ve left around 10pm the past few nights, but I don’t have badge access that late. Apparently, at some point in the evening, I go from being a trusted and valued employee to a suspected thief, vandal, etc. As a result, I have to hit the call button and ask the security staff to let me out. Tonight, the remote system wasn’t working. There’s no better way to cap off a 15 hour day than to stand by the door, mere yards from your car, waiting for the 2nd shift security guard to cross the entire building to come let you out…

For several months now, there’s been a very irritating poster near the door at work. It was created by the Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce to promote pedestrian safety. Every day it takes all my restraint not to provide a scathing commentary on it with a magic marker. It reads:

There are many ways to be a hero… Yield to pedestrians.

So, if you want to be a hero, you can run into a burning building, donate a kidney, or pass up an opportunity to mow down a jaywalker. Hmm… I guess that makes me a hero 4 out of 5 days last week.

I knew it would only be a matter of time before a product or company would upset me, forcing me to write about the experience here. I plan to write about things I recommend as well, so fair is fair.

Three months ago I tried to sign up online for web hosting with Rosehosting.com. A few days later, I hadn’t gotten any information from them, so I called their customer service line for some help. They told me that they had no record of me in their system, so no big deal - I’ll find someone else. A couple of days ago I happened to notice a small charge on my credit card statement, and realized I’d been getting charged for this service. I call, leave a message (apparently they prefer email), miss their return call the next day, and get someone on the phone today. I explain, and tell them I want a refund. Easy enough, I figure…

They ask why I didn’t cancel my service earlier. I told them that I never received a confirmation email, have never logged on to their system, and on my last support call was told they had no record of me. I suggested they check their records to validate my claims. The guy says they don’t log their support calls, and that they did send me an email…

I justed wanted to be done with them, so I settled for a refund of hosting fees from this quarter. Godaddy.com has been good to me, both in their actual service (I feel I’m getting my money’s worth) and their customer service. I haven’t gotten that angry with a customer service rep since my dealings with Lingo VoIP (go for Packet8 instead) or the last time I ordered a Dell PC (which I love, by the way) from a particularly hard-selling phone rep.