JAMES MULLETT

It’s a jungle out there

After letting our lawn go for well over a month, we finally broke down and had a local lawn maintenance engineer (lawn mower man) hack down our mini jungle. What he found under the jungle canopy was this big ugly snake. Several pets and smaller children have come up missing in our neighborhood over the past couple months. It looks like we finally caught the culprit. Considering where the snake was found, my dogs were probably his next meal. After doing some rather extensive research on this particular snake’s origin, it turns out it is rare and deadly breed; usually found in the tundra region of the Sahara Jungles. I just wonder how it ended up in our front yard.

The bamboo is starting to go in!

Today a couple guys started putting the new bamboo flooring down in our spare bedrooms. We decided to only put it in the three spare rooms and not the master suite. It’s taking a lot longer than they had anticipated it would. At this point I think Cynthia and I are quite pleased with how it looks. At the time of this post, two of the three rooms are complete and are now awaiting trim.

My new laptop is here!!!

I actually received it by FedEx a couple days ago. They stopped by in the morning when I was taking a shower and they didn’t leave it, so I had to pick it up at the local FedEx distribution center. I would have introduced it a lot sooner, but I was trying to get it set up with all the necessities (i.e. Apache, MySQL, PHP, Smarty, etc…).

Here is the low down:

HP Pavilion zd8000 customizable Notebook PC

• Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Home Edition with SP2
• Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 650 w/HT Technology, 3.4GHz
• 17.0″ WSXGA+ BrightView Wide Viewing (1680×1050)
• 2.0GB DDR2 SDRAM, 533MHz (2x1024MB)
• 60 GB 5400 RPM Hard Drive
• DVD+/-RW/R CD-RW Combo w/Double Layer
• 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) X600
• 54g(TM) Integ. Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN & Bluetooth
• HP xb2000 notebook expansion base
• HP 160GB hard drive kit for xb2000 expansion base

It’s almost here!!!

I ordered a new laptop. The one I’ve been using for the past four years is standing on its last microchip. I was looking at the FedEx tracking this morning. I must admit, I’m somewhat jealous. So far the laptop has been to China, Kazakhstan, and France before arriving in the United States.

FedEx Tracking:

Tracking number   708440***** Ship date   Jun 17, 2005 Estimated delivery date   Jun 23, 2005 by 10:30 am		Reference number CE58**** Delivery location SAN ANTONIO TX Service type IP Direct Distribution

Date/Time

Status

Location

Comments

Jun 19, 2005

3:41 am

Arrived at Sort Facility

MEMPHIS TN

2:00 am

Left FedEx Ramp

PARIS FR

1:59 am

Left FedEx Ramp

ROISSY FR

Jun 18, 2005

11:50 pm

Package status

PARIS FR

In transit

12:06 pm

Left FedEx Ramp

ALMATY KZ

12:05 pm

Arrived at FedEx Ramp

ALMATY KZ

12:08 am

Left FedEx Ramp

SHANGHAI CN

Jun 17, 2005

11:05 pm

Arrived at FedEx Ramp

SHANGHAI CN

3:34 pm

Left FedEx Origin Location

SHANGHAI CN

3:12 pm

Pickup status

SHANGHAI CN

Future pickup/delivery requested

Guest Bedroom Colors

Our choice of colors for the guest bedroom is a real bold statement. I just hope most people don’t think that statement is “Look, a Florida orange threw up all over me!” Actually, it’s not that bad. The photos don’t really do it justice, I guess because of the lighting. I think we will be real pleased with this room once it has been totally completed. I will post an update once is done.

The new bamboo

My wife and I decided to go with bamboo flooring in all of our bedrooms. Since she is currently in Vegas the task was left to me. Naturally, I first looked to the Direct Buy partner flooring distributors and contractors. Here in San Antonio, their main flooring distributor is Pro Source. They have a great selection, and our discounted rate is even better. Those of you that know me know that I am a very frugal and competitive shopper. Because of this, I looked at other sources for our flooring. When all was said and done, I ended up choosing Lumber Liquidators. Not only did Lumber liquidators beat the “better than wholesale” cost by well over $1.50 per square foot over their closest competitor, but they also had it in stock and did not charge me a freight charge. With Pro Source I was going to pay $0.29 per square feet for freight and everything is special ordered. Hopefully I can get this installed before Cynthia gets home.