Great Garage Cleanup 2010 — Final Day!

At last! It's done! I got the tools/work area all straightened up and somewhat organized this morning.



I also sorted through some of my boxes of stuff and ended up throwing a bunch more stuff out. I don't think I'm going to let another eight years go by before I do this kind of purging again.

I still have some stuff to get rid of. It just needs a lot of cleaning up. What I can just hose off, I'll do that in the morning and let it dry, then see about taking it to the local community thrift shop. There's some of Mom's stuff, that she said I could get rid of, so I'll have to get those and see what could be donated and what needs to be tossed.

But it's done! And now I have all kinds of room in the garage again. Which is good, because I've got a project or two I'd like to do before my vacation is over. But that's for another post.

A little side project

I've had this hanging basket thing for several years. Something I picked out after my grandmother on my mom's side (step-grandmother, really) died, but I've never really done much with it. I always thought it would make a neat planter.

So today, I cleaned up the copper basket and drilled a few holes in the bottom for drainage.





I stopped by Home Depot today and got this little geranium (98¢) and this little vinca vine ($2.98. I'm betting the Weather Channel label is about $2. Who knew the Weather Channel was selling plants?)



Then I put some broken pot pieces in the bottom to help with drainage, a little soil (from the four or five almost empty bags I found while cleaning the garage today), and the plants. Hung it up and placed it on the front porch.





And one other side project I got done this week: a pegboard in the laundry room next to the back door. Since this is the door I use most of the time, I thought it'd be nice to have a place to hang hats, my keys, Buster's leash and especially my bag I take to work, instead of just dropping it on the floor next to the computer table.

Great Garage Cleanup 2010 — Day 3

The planting/gardening table, all cleaned up and organized.


The cabinet next to it holds (some) of the pots:



And in the drawers are the drip irrigation stuff:


And miscellaneous stakes and other stuff:


And I put up a couple extra shelves at my recycling center:


I think one more day of this, organizing the tools/work area, and I'll be done. But this:


is much better than this:

Great Garage Cleanup 2010 — after Day 2

More improvement today

Think I'll get some brackets and put up another shelf or two for my recycling center.

Yard tools all hanging.

Great Garage Cleanup 2010 — after Day 1

Getting better.

Great Garage Cleanup 2010 — before

What a mess:

Where am I?

I've been playing around with location-based social media sites lately, and I even though I don't go to a lot of different places, I'm having fun with them. Mostly, I'm playing with them to get some ideas of how we might be able to use them at the paper. But I'll keep that to myself for now, heh heh.

Anyway, the addiction started with Foursquare, and then I found Gowalla, then Whrrl. I looked at Brightkite, but haven't tried it, and I'm sure there's more I haven't even heard of.

These sites are designed to used GPS data to determine your location; however, since I have an iPod Touch that can use only WiFi to determine my location, I'm not having as much as I could. Sometimes, WiFi just isn't available where I am, like the grocery store, for example. And even if it is available, it's not always accurate. The other day, I was trying out something on Whrrl and used the WiFi of a local diner/brewpub. Their ISP must be some company in Kansas City, because that's where my iPod thought I was all of a sudden. And it stayed that way for three days — even using a signal from local ISPs — until I logged on to the hotspot at the mall, of all places. So at least I know where to go when that happens.

I've had the most success with Foursquare locating me. Gowalla seems to be more specific about how close you are to a location before letting you check in. Since the wifi isn't always accurate, I have lots of problems checking in on Gowalla. Whrrl is somewhere inbetween.

I like Gowalla's and Whrrl's interfaces best, though. They're just more fun. And here's something you can do with Whrrl that's kind of neat:

More check-ins at Hays Public Library

Powered by Whrrl

Even though I like those two best, I am still kinda proud to be the mayor of nine venues on Foursquare. =)

Friend me on:
Whrrl
Gowalla
Foursquare