Creuzer – Page 99 – Random things Creuzer

Cancelled my phone numbers

I have been a Packet8 VOIP customer for nearly 5 years now.

Today I canceled my account.

Why? About a year ago, I started getting spam on the email address I used to register with them. It was a single-use email address. I only gave it to them.

I was a happy customer up until then. It took me a year to find an alternative, in the Sprint AIRave Femtocell. I am going to miss getting my voice messages in my email, as I check my email, but don’t check the voice mail on my phone.

So, if you have either of the two phone numbers for me, they have been disconnected.

15615034231
19543765394

Email me to get my cell phone number. Email address is at the bottom of the page.

DIY Homemade Craft Brush

I am working on making a latex mold for doing some resin castings, so I don’t want to use a good paint brush because I don’t need anything too nice, I don’t want to ruin the few that I have, and I am not 100% sure where they are, so it would take me a while to dig them up.

I decided to make my own. I poked around in my closet, found some Jute Twine, some Cotton String, and new I had some toothpicks in a kitchen cupboard. I have every thing I need! I took a few photos, and a quick video.

Here you can see the finished project. One disposable craft brush.

Here is the materials I used. Each one would probably cost about 2 cents each and take about 2-3 minutes to make.

Here I am trying to show the string being looped over itself, ready to be pulled through, but the flash kinda ruined the photo.

Home Made Chicken and Dumpling Soup

I made some home-made chicken and dumpling soup tonight.
I started with some chicken stock left over from a canned chicken I had tried that I had froze.
I added the veggies.
I added the dumplings. Fairly simple – flour, some poultry seasoning, some parsly, some backing powder, and some water. I forgot the salt, but that was ok as the broth was VERY salty. I tried making the dumpling dough very wet, like a pancake dough, as they seem to cook better when wet like that. I nearly forgot the chicken! I added that at the very end, it was already cooked, so just needed to heat up.
While cutting the veggies, I cut up extra to put into the food dehydrator. I put in a bag of frozen corn I had got on sale on top so I didn’t have an empty rack.

My desk at work.

When I started work, I asked about getting a drafting table to use as a desk. They ordered one up for me!

It’s not a real drafting table, but it’s actually better for what I am using it for.
The only drawback is that it wasn’t tall enough that I could comfortabley use it standing up, as I had intended.

Well Dad and I fiddle futzed around for a month or more on ideas on how to easily jack this desk up. I bought some metric bolts that fit the desk, intending on making some legs for it, but didn’t get a chance to make them. Wouldn’t you know, FreeCycle to the rescue! Somebody posted 8 inch bed legs, never been used. I picked them up, and SWEET, they are perfect. Well, almost, they are SAE threaded, but the right size. We happened to have the right size metric die at the office, so I re-threaded the bolts.

I stuck them onto the bottom of the desk.

Oh, it’s a wonderful thing! The white is a bit tacky, but I think I got a fix for that. I think I will cut out Mt. Dew cans and slide over the the legs, it will look like I am using cans to hold the desk up. Totally tacky, but still pretty cool! The height isn’t right for 3 cans, but 3 cans, 1 or two of them crushed a bit will work, and really help with the effect.

Security Alarm

I had come across some very cheap (both in price and in quality) door and window alarms. Four for $4 at Menards. I saw them and thought, “oh, a housing and a reed switch.”

Silly me…

These things are quite cheaply made. No proper reed switch at all. Just a very cheap impersonation of one. Granted, it works – after you tear the thing apart and adjust the contacts. The first one out of the package didn’t work at all. I twiddled with it, and got it to work reliably.

I like the leave the windows open here. They can only be open a little bit so the cats can’t claw up the screen or force their way out. I figured if I put up two of the magnet half of the sensors, one for the door/window closed, and one for the partially open position, if somebody decided to let themselves into this unlocked door/window, I will hear about it.
I also have cut bars that I drop into the window/door track. I think I will cut those a bit short, so if sombody gives the door/window a try, I will hear about it. They will still be long enough that you can’t fit an arm in far enough to lift them out of the way.