Taylor’s Blog

So I got my windows and doors back from being sent off to strip.. I have gotten quotes for finishing my
floors.. I am still awaiting to place my order for cabinets, but that should happen Monday.. Slowly, but surely all is coming into place..

A few days ago I had my windows reglazed by an awesome guy who used to work for a window restoration company in Greensboro.. He came over, cleaned up all my
windows, removed all the old glazing, and reglazed them.. They need to sit around a week since the glazing is still soft before I can stain them, paint them, whatever..

Windows how they looked when I got them back from stripping..

After all the old glazing had been cleaned out and the panes washed.

Windows with all new glazing..

I got my french doors back from being stripped.. I called some carpenters about having them hung in the rough openings and the prices were outrageous.. I decided I would give it a shot.. I had to buy some tools, but it came out almost perfect.. There were 2 hang-ups but they should be easily overcome.. To hang the doors I had to build jambs and all that jazz.. I built them on saw horses, and then put them into place, leveled everything and nailed them in place.. I won’t bore you with the details I am sure the pictures will tell the story.. I am really proud of myself.. It is the most ambitious project on a house that I have ever done in my opinion..

Doors as they arrived back from stripping

The doors almost done being pre-hung, and ready to put into position.

I also finally got some painters to paint the house.. That’s another
story for another day, but at least the house will be painted before the winter.. We hew..

So Sheila is in Indiana now, I have no job, and about 1/2 as much stuff in the
house.. I am getting tired of the unfinished house.. The lack of dishwasher, the walls that need repair, the unfinished floors, the draftiness of the
windows, etc.. So I have finally gotten back off my ass and started back working on the house.. The main project is to finish the Kitchen and Dining
Room.. I am going to do the house in thirds.. First the Kitchen/Dining Room, then the hallways, bedrooms and bathroom, then the massive front room.. I
have sorta ruled out an addition at this point.. Mainly cause its a huge financial thing where as restoring and updating all this other stuff can be done
in steps..

So I have finally admitted to myself that I will never ever finish my walls.. I started dry walling the doorway I moved about 8 months
ago. [[iframe]]d it out about 6 months before that..

So first it looked like this for the first 6 months:

Then for the last 8 months its looked like
this:

I found a drywall and plaster guy who is going to
cleanup the mess that I started and will not finish.. One thing as I get deeper into this process is there are some things I will do that are worth my
time and effort, and others that I will not.. Wall repair is now up there with refinishing floors that I will leave to professionals.. Electrical and
plumbing for the most part I still am glad to do, the exception being running a new water feed to the house cause I don’t have a trencher.. So I am going
to get the walls in the house all skim-coated and smooth again, and all the ceilings drywalled and nice and smooth.. No more cracks.. No more vomit
colored off-white old lady color walls.. The best part is it costs far less than I thought.. For some reason I think plaster and I think “oh that has to
be expensive”..

Along with the walls though I needed to get doors for the now moved doorways.. I went downtown to this awesome place called
Rhyne’s Corner Cupboard that has all sorta of antiques and lots and lots of architectural salvage stuff.. Both Sheila and I had totally forgotten about
it as a place to find hardware for the house, until the week she moved and went there to get a new bedframe.. When I got back from Indiana I went there
and I found some really awesome french doors that are from the same era as the house.. They are being sent off to have all the paint stripped and I’ll
get them back in 2-3 weeks.. I asked them about sending other things from my house to be stripped; the guy who does their stripping is glad to do other
stuff so I took them my back door, and sashes from 6 of my windows, and a whole bunch of trim..

The only bad thing is now my backdoor is a piece
of plywood and my windows are just little crappy storm windows..

This means the only paint that I need to strip
myself is just the inside of the window frames, which I can easily do. The window sashes I am going to have re-glazed and stained when i get them back..
I am going to caulk up all the huge gaps in the weight pockets of the windows and that should eliminate most of the draftiness from the windows.. I never
realized how big the gaps are but in all the windows i have fully taken apart there is a 1/4″ gap around all of them pretty much.. This will also mean
that getting the house painted should be far less since the windows will not be involved.. Basically I am going to end up restoring all my original
windows like the pros do for about $100 a window.. That’s so much cheaper than replacing them with horrible vinyl ones, reduces waste, and also is
historically accurate..

So i still am in the planing stages of everything.. I still need to get a few more cabinets for the kitchen.. I found the
manufacturer of my current ones online and am waiting on a quote to get a few more base cabinets made up that match so i can reuse the cabinets instead of
replacing all of them.. I still need to figure out the flooring situation for the kitchen (is the hidden hardwood ok to refinish or do i need to replace
it?).. I need to go appliance shopping for a fridge, oven, and dishwasher.. I have had very little luck finding the trim for my house.. I might end up
ordering it from a place in Charlotte I know does old house mouldings with a pretty short lead time.. I have some electrical and plumbing work to do
before hand as well.. I also need figure out what sorta countertops I want as well..

Needless to say there is a lot to figure out before I rip
apart the kitchen.. I’ll be blogging more about this as I get deeper into the project.. I am putting the 2 classes I have taken on project management to
organize this remodel, so hopefully I can keep it on schedule and organized.. Yes I really do have pert charts and graphs, and I know what my critical
path items are for staying on schedule.. Maybe this MBA was worth something..

Pad Thai Recipe

I am pretty good at making Thai curry dishes; I always have loved Pad Thai, but
never knew how to make it.. I have tried about few times and finally have it down.. I thought I would share it with all of you.. It’s really quite simple
and doesn’t require any crazy ingredients you need to get from an asian market.. Everything you need you can get at Harris Teeter or a normal gringo
grocery store..

The only thing you may not have in your kitchen (aside from ingredients) that you need is a wok.. I bought a really inexpensive one
at Target for maybe 15 bucks.. It’s some sorta carbon metal something or other.. It works just fine.. You do have to follow the seasoning directions
though so be sure to do that.. Also you really do need to clean it and season it almost as soon as your done cooking.. I had mine start to rust up on me
when I waited about an hour.. Follow the directions that come with your wok.. Don’t expect to take it home and immeditly start using it. I have seen
non-stick (teflon) woks.. I have no idea what the hell those are.. You want a regular wok that you have to season not some non-stick modified pot that
white people use..

OK so onto the ingredients.. I typically prepare all of the ingredients first then put it all together at the end.. Cooking it
really only takes 10 minutes..

• 8ozThai Rice Stir Fry Noodles – They should come in 8 oz baggies at the grocery
  store
• 2 Tbsp or so of Peanut Oil – You use this in the pan for lubrication. You could likely use any other oil if you wanted but
  I wouldn’t
• 6 Garlic Cloves chopped – Some recipies call for a few cloves minced. I usually use about 6 or so. It’s a lot but
  it’s worth it
• 4 Fresh Hot Peppers Seeded and chopped – I have been using 2 serranos and 2 red hot chillis. You can use what
  you’d like and experiment.
• 10-20 Ounces of Meat / Tofu sliced into small pieces – I usually use chicken anywhere from 3/4 of a
  lb to 1 1/4 works. I haven’t tried beef, and I wouldn’t use pork as its too easy to turn pork into rubber if not cooked just right.. I am sure you can
  use Tofu here if you are not a meat eater but time wise I don’t know what alterations are necessary..
• 3-5 Green Onions
  chopped
• Fish Sauce – You will use just a tiny amount. I little bit goes a LONG way, but I think it is an important
  ingredient
• One Lime Juiced
• 2 tbsp or so of Brown Sugar – You will play with this to get it to your taste
  but about 2 tsbp is what I use
• 2 eggs – I normally pre scramble them in a high ball or similar glass. It makes it easier and
  ensures you don’t fuck up and put egg shell in your food
• Cilantro – Lots of it – I tend to chop up enough that its the size of my
  fist or even more. Go heavy on it
• Some peanuts chopped up – I dunno a few table spoons per person. You add it at the end after
  its all cooked so only chop up what you will use for that meal not the whole serving size if you are going to save some for later

So on
to preparing this awesome meal.. The cooking part usually takes about 10-12 minutes.

1. Take the asian noodles and soak them in hot
   water for at least 10 minutes. I usually do this first while i am cutting all the other ingredients
2. Heat your wok to medium high with a tbsp or
   two of peanut oil in the bottom. Put in all your garlic, peppers, and meat and stir fry it until your meat is cooked most of the way.. This usually takes
   5 minutes or so. Just move the stuff around in the wok every 30 seconds or so.
3. Add the noodles (drain off the water first) and green onion and
   cover the wok for about 2 minutes. I usually just use a cover from a large pot i have. Don’t stir or anything just cover it and leave it alone. I
   typically break up the noodles some with the spoon in my wok first and stir it around a bit. The noodles will get steamed in this step so don’t worry
   about it if they are stuck together a lot they will be easy to separate when this step is done
4. Remove the cover, and pour in the lime juice,
   sugar, and about 2/3 of cilantro. Take your fish oil and shake a bit on there. The container I have lets drops out and I usually shake about 5-10 drops.
   The fish oil will smell sorta gross. it’s OK.. It will start to smell very good in a second. Stir this around for a minute or two until evenly
   mixed.
5. Push the noodles and everything to the side exposing a portion of the bottom of the wok. Pour in your egg here and scramble it. This
   usually takes a minute or two. It’s just like making eggs for breakfast. Don’t worry too much about a piece of meat or something falling into the eggs
   but try and keep the 2 parts separate until the eggs are cooked. Once the eggs are cooked stir the whole concoction together.



6. Put the rest of the cilantro on top along with
   your chopped peanuts and serve.

I took some pretty cool photos on the Seaplane(s) I took between Seattle and Victoria, BC.. I don’t
feel like telling you guys aboot my trip yet eh.. I thought the photos were wicked cool enough to waste you time though eh..

View from close to the top of some peak we hiked up
that kicked my butt

Plane I took from Victoria to Seattle when arriving in
Canada

Downtown and Puget Sound

I took some more that
are on Picasa too.. Just click on the photos for more..

So I am going to Curitiba, Brazil with the Business School in October.. I had to go to a meeting about
the trip the day after the first summer session ended.. The importance of this date is that I am not enrolled in the second summer session and I therefore
I didn’t pay the student health fee for the second summer session.. My school mandated health insurance also lapsed on July 1st, at least I think that’s
when it ran out, it was really poorly administered but that’s not really the point..

For some inane reason the school wants to have our blood
type on file when we travel abroad.. I am 99.9% sure if you are in an accident and you need blood in any country that has access to a blood supply they
will give you O blood (universal) or type your blood if they can wait the few minutes for a test.. Either way it seems stupid for the school to care..

So I called my parents.. They couldn’t find my type anywhere.. I called Rex cause I went there a few years ago.. They didn’t seem to have it on
file.. It seemed the only options I had left were to get a blood test.. My childhood doctor said that if I wanted to find out I could always give blood..
Sure enough I called the Red Cross and they said 3-4 days after I give I could call up sign a HIPAA release form and get my type and a whole bunch of
other test results.. I figured that was my best free option.. The school wanted $80 to type my blood.. $50 cause I was not enrolled in the second summer
session, and the $32 for the lab work.. If I was enrolled It would have been 1/2 price lab work and no appointment fee ($16)..

Sheila and I
headed to the Red Cross.. First was the crazy screening process.. I don’t know how many questions I had to answer about being with hookers, needle drugs,
being with a man, etc but eventually they decided my blood was OK to give.. Seems the red cross hates Africa, gay men, and lots of other groups.. The
Greensboro Red Cross had run out of testing viles so we had to wait about an hour to get drained while more were driven in from High Point.. Finally the
moment came.. I was a tad nervous, but I think I was fine.. So the nurse started with Sheila first.. Sheila’s blood was draining into the sac just fine..
The nurse kept talking about how she couldn’t wait to get home cause her favorite show was on tonight.. Tila Tequila.. She washed the area with iodine and
did all the routine stuff.. When it came time to actually stick me I looked away as I usually do.. There was a pinch and then there was this pain that I
didn’t remember needles giving.. I looked over and there was a blue bubble around the injection site about 2 inches around.. My nurse called over the head
nurse and she said “Oooo.. Your gonna have quite a nice bruise there” took the needle out and told me how to ice the area.. They told me I was done, and
that I couldn’t come back for 56 days (8 weeks)..

Turns out they poked into my vein and then through the back side.. So much like drinking
through a straw with 2 holes it didn’t work.. In the end I ended up paying $80 dollars to find out my blood type at UNCG.. The lab tech at the UNCG place
told me that he has had to type many students blood for going overseas and he said it “must be some orwellian insurance requirement from 1902″ amongst
other things.. We laughed.. I paid my $80 and went on my way..

So now my left arm looks like this.. If you see me around for the next 2 weeks
I really didn’t give needle drugs a whirl.. I swear..

In the end I still had to pay $80.. Thanks
UNCG for letting me know as soon as possible about your stupid requirement..

Turns out I am A positive.. The second most common in the USA..

Well it appears that the House has passed a 15 Billion USD blll for funding Amtrak again.. Most people
will likely think it’s a waste of more money.. I am so tired of the general consensus on Amtrak being a waste of money.. They are under-funded and have to
lease the right of way from freight lines.. Because of this Amtrak has been doomed to fail with every bill. This one is proposing privatization for parts
of the DC to NY stretch, which sounds like a Disaster since the NE corridor is the only part of Amtrak worth a shit..

I am a big proponent of the
train, I take it a few times a year to see my parents in Charlotte; I must add that the train service in NC is heavily funded by NC itself not the federal
government.. In light of rising cost of oil when will America realize that the cost of moving ANYTHING be it freight or people on the rails is FAR cheaper
than any other mode.. I can’t find the exact statistics I am looking for now, but the energy per passenger mile shows the train being the closely tied
with the motorcycle at around 2100BTU/mile. Next is the bus, car and plane all closely tied for the other places at around 3500-4000 BTU/Mile. You can
see the stats yourself here or look for your own, I feel like the freight costs are even lower and more greatly separated. Beauru of Transportation Statistics.

Public transport rarely is a profitable business, yet most opponents of Amtrak say that it is not profitable
and is therefore a waste.. When did the DOT say that the “roads were making money?”, we have massive road taxes and road budgets because the roads are not
self sufficient. With the talk of toll roads in NC does that not weaken the argument that the train has to be self sufficient?

I think in
America there is a desire for rail service that is usable. Amtrak is seen as a lame duck to most Americans.. Why?

• It’s always late
  - If Amtrak were to own their own tracks, or were given higher priority on the rails this issue could be resolved
• It doesn’t go where I
  want – Amtrak has been forced to close many routes because they were not able to maintain the tracks to passenger safety standards. See there are
  different standards for Class I railroads, one for passengers and a lower standard for freight. If Amtrak has to lease rails from other companies that
  are only interested in moving freight you can see where the issue lies.. That is why there are major cities across America with no Amtrak service
  anymore.. Louisville and Phoenix come to mind off the top of my head.
• The schedule sucks – I always have said this. No one will take
  a train from the Carolinas to New Orleans if you have to leave at midnight. The scheduling issue is really one of money. The only trains in NC are in
  the morning or the evening, nothing mid-day. I am sure it is a less profitable time, but it still should be available. The only place outside the North
  East Corridor that I have seen good schedules is Oregon/Washington State. Might I add that these routes are heavily funded by the two
  states.

That being said there are some initiatives in NC to make service better. They are looking at High Speed Rail from DC to
Atlanta (which was the original plan for Acela, but we wanted to spend our money on wars instead), service to Asheville through Charlotte Greensboro, and
also studies into service to Wilmington from Raleigh or possibly via Fayetteville. I can dream that this country will decide to sink some money into rail
transport.

With the amount of money our country spends on presidential campaigns, killing people in foreign countries for oil, and who knows what
else can’t we please let this 15 billion dollar bill go all the way? It may not be perfect but 15 billion could go a long way.. Please? Pretty Please?

So it’s been forever since I wrote anything about progress on the house.. That is because I haven’t
done anything on the house for the last 2 months or so.. Between the holidays and school the drywall has been sitting around waiting to be mudded.. I
finally got off my butt today and mudded the drywall I put in in the kitchen, dining room, living room and the hallway ceiling.. I guess it’s not really
that exciting.. What is exciting is the animated gif I made with photoshop of the mudding on one of the walls..

This is of only the first coat and there will need to be at least 2 more, but
i suspect more than that.. So for the next week I will be sanding, and mudding more.. Yippie!

So I am sort of an apple nerd.. Sure it’s one of the many things that white people like.. Blah Blah..
My professor for marketing said i was an “Applehead”.. Whatever.. There were technical reasons why I purchased my first mac.. It really wasn’t their sleek
design that won me over.. I also felt like there would be good customer service and that helped justify to me the added cost of buying an Apple over say a
Dell, IBM, etc.. I never had any reason to contact customer service on any of my apple products until today.. I bought a MacBook about a year and a half
ago cause I needed a new laptop that would run stupid windows shit for school.. About 2-3 weeks ago I noticed this really odd crack in the case.. If you
search the internet for “macbook crack” you will find there are tons of users with the same complaint.. So I drove to Durham today for my 11:00
appointment with the guy at the “genius bar”.. It’s a bit arrogant of a name, but whatever..

The guy takes one look and says “yeah we’ll fix that
for free.. I know it’s out of warranty but it’s not supposed to do that..” They didn’t even try to scold me for not buying the rip off apple care
package.. So they took my laptop that is over 6 months out warranty in, will have it fixed in a week or less and fedex it to my house for free.. How
about that for customer service? Sure it was a design flaw, but but apple is repairing this issue for free like a good company does.. I feel like the
extra 150-200 bucks I spent for my laptop over others of similar specs was worth it.. Most other laptops I’ve had before have been built far worse than my
Apples.. I know that sounds like an advertisement and maybe it is.. It’s just nice to write about something positive for a change not just vent about
irritating things..

So yesterday I was in Hobbes waiting for my Chicken Fingers to finish cooking. (If you don’t know what
Hobbes is it’s this place that only sells Chicken Fingers on Tate Street.. Pretty good I must admit.. I think they took a lesson from Krispy Kreme and mix
in a little bit of crack with the chicken).. The owner of Hobbes had MSNBC on the TV; MSNBC is one of many channels I have programmed out of my TV so I
never see it.. I saw a commercial for a personal Tazer on TV? What the hell.. I guess I haven’t watched enough fear-mongering TV in a while that it stood
out to me as a bit fucked up. What’s next? I mean the guys who sell all the crazy hunting knives on the home shopping networks are at least funny and
they could be used for hunting, but this commercial was took the “protect your family with the only non-lethal means of stopping someone”.. I dunno seemed
fucked up to me..

So today I got a call from another head hunter.. This time for a job at Sony Ericsson in RTP (Davis Drive).. I don’t think I can
take it cause they want it filled now and I cant do full time again until May. But once again the head hunters always call me at the worst fucking time..
Right when i have papers, exams, other shit I need to do.. It’s like they know when I am thinking “God I hate this school shit I just want to go back to
work and leave this bullshit behind”.. I am not trying to take the 12 monkeys “they monitor you with something in your teeth” angle or anything but man I
swear.. just one more distraction i don’t need this week at least..

So that’s what’s up with me.. I should be doing shit for school and alas I
decided to blog..

Oh and if you want to waste more time check out Stuff White People Like
- It just proved I am white..

So it’s happened twice now since I have been in the MBA program here at UNCG.. I’m talking about
cheating at school.. So the first time we were taking a closed book closed notes test and there was a girl behind me making a bunch of noise so I turned
around to see what she was doing and she had a piece of paper in her lap she was frantically looking over.. I was pissed but said nothing.. No one likes a
rat.. I don’t even remember what class it was in, but I was sorta shocked and pissed..

So today I have an open note but closed book exam in my
International something or other class.. I already don’t like this class; it’s really boring and it’s during the day and the daytime program kids are
really young and naive.. They have never had a professional job most likely, are fresh from undergrad and are very idealistic.. I think they all expect
that an MBA will get them a 100k/year+ cushy job at a hedge fund complete with access to the corporate jet as well as a company limo and driver.. OK so
maybe they aren’t that naive but it’s obvious they aren’t jaded by even looking for a “career” yet..

So back this exam.. I didn’t do a bang up job
preparing I mostly printed out my notes and all the powerpoint (blech) and that’s about it.. I should have printed out more information about the country
I was assigned, but I have clearly gotten off track here.. So I sit on the back row from these kids who already have alienated me because I am not part of
their facebook clique and am 8 or so years older than them.. Before the test one of the girls asks the professor “Can we share notes?” and he replies “No
they are your notes not everyone else’s notes”.. So I am taking the test and sorta pissed at the material that is on there.. So in front of me I see
everyone on the third row exchanging papers back and forth and sharing notes.. One of the kids even wrote notes on someone else’s notes…

WHAT
THE FUCK!

What the hell are you supposed to do? Let it slide? Be the moral person and rat them out.. There is no cheater reporting protection
program.. I could be also a bit pissed that I missed some questions cause my notes weren’t on the right stuff, but if I had cheated I would clearly been
able to get the answer..

Maybe that’s what business school is about.. I think the GMAT is setup to show business acumen based on the fact it
costs almost 2x the GRE.. Maybe if you make it though an MBA program and cheat to do it it prepares you for all the rat bastard snakes in corporate
America?

I am ready for a fucking beer or ten..