radio geek

The radio I'd bought for the car 6 months ago was Sirius-ready, so this weekend I bit and bought the actual satellite tuner. I was so eager to listen, I installed it as I sat in the parking lot. Then I used my laptop (via someone's conveniently wide-open LinkSys wifi) to subscribe online.
It is amusing to have so many channels of genre-specific music. For kicks, I tuned into the "Hair Nation" channel to listen to some 80's metal. It was somewhat revolting: "Let it Rock" by Bon Jovi, followed by Stryper's "To Hell With The Devil." Did I really listen to that stuff...and enjoy it? Yes, I did. Live & learn.

The next day I moved the antenna from its temporary location on the dash to a permanent home under the glass moonroof.
It tooke me awhile to find a nice way to run the antenna cable from the tuner under under the seat, under the carpet, around the dash, behind the A-pillar upholstery, behind the headliner and into the moonroof cavity. Thankfully no drilling was required.

"Disclosure:" I bought some stock in SIRI earlier in January.
http://www.sirius.com/ | http://www.siriusbackstage.com/songseek.php | http://www.dogstarradio.com/search_playlist.php

vacuum geek

Happened to be shopping for a bottom-freezer fridge at Fry's, and after we decided on one and started to buy it, they offered a free vacuum cleaner. This seemed odd since I had already decided to buy the fridge, and didn't need any more inducements. But I figured we needed a new vacuum anyway, so I played along. Turned out to be a nice Eureka WhirlWind LiteSpeed 5840AV--a cyclonic design. I tried it out that evening, and ended up vacuuming the whole house. The docs say it is refurbished, but it appeared to be brand new. A bit of internet research indicates the model is a few years old, so I guess they wanted to get rid of it, but hey, I'll take it, especially in comparison to our 10-year-old Bissell. Gracias a Dios.
(A nod to my friend H for bringing cyclone vacuums to my awareness back in September.)