Tarkblog

The bathroom’s done! We went over budget and past the due date. But it’s finished and it looks 1000 times better than it did.

Here’s what we did:

• Removed wallpaper, tile, sink, mirror, and light.
• Removed floor.
• Hired someone to remove the subfloor, replace the damaged slats, and put in a new subfloor.
• Added an electrical outlet.
• Skim coated the walls and painted.
• Put in a new floor, a new pedestal sink,a new mirror, and new lighting.
• Installed new trim.

Before:

After:

End result is a new bathroom that’s bang-a-riffic.

As many of you know, I’m a big fan of Disneyworld.

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Ever since the end of college, I’ve become a bit of a beer snob.

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We have had a bag of M&ms in the freezer now for a while. Slowly we’ve been working our way through them. The other night I had some and the following conversation with my wife ensued:

As I was finishing off the 20 or so I had in my hand:

me: What the eff? My hand is all sorts of colors.
her: yeah, frozen m&m’s do that
me: I thought they were supposed to melt in your mouth and not in your hand

And we then decided that frozen M&Ms indeed do melt in your hand. At least, the coloring on the outside melts in your hand.

Did anyone else already know this? Can I sue Mars Co and get some money for false advertising? Or at least, score some free candy?

I think that dentists are model multi-taskers. They run 4 to 6 chairs at a time as well as having to spend a few minutes with each person who is just in getting their teeth cleaned. Think about how much jumping around your dentist does. A lot. And he’s getting things done. And making good money, ta boot.

But that dentist wouldn’t get very far if he didn’t have a handful of assistants getting everything ready for him. He walks in and shakes your hand, but all of the tools he needs are already laid out and ready to go. He just has to think and act. No worries about setup or teardown. That’s how he’s so efficient.

Some days, I feel like that dentist. Granted, I’m in engineering and I don’t have a handful of assistants at my disposal, but I certainly have a good source of tools ready to go. I have things in their places and I’m ready to react as needed. And, a lot of times, I can delegate the other smaller tasks to people who are here for that very reason: to make sure that my time is spent on things that are valuable (such as writing this very blog).

Some days, it’s hard being the dentist and not the assistant. Both are equally important jobs, but the dentist has a lot more on the line. It’s all a risk and reward kind of thing.

Now, if only to find out how to increase the reward without increasing the risk.