Apartment 2.0

My (our) ideal apartment will have:
1. Separate mailbox
2. Off-street, covered parking
3. Address properly marked
4. Utilities included or separate meter
5. Insulation
6. Real windows that DON'T LEAK!
7. Intact roof - no leaking
8. No vermin burrowing around in the walls
9. Gutters and/or canopy over the door
10. Real door - i.e. can't open it with a swift, well-placed kick
11. Laundry
12. Range hood
13. Bedroom closet
14. Linen closet
15. Hallway closet
16. Stable floors - i.e. whole apartment doesn't sway when stepping on certain spots
17. Balcony, space to garden in or BOTH!! =:)
18. Place to air dry clothing (should I so desire)
19. No a$$hole neighbors

As I think of more, I'll update the list above. Want to seize our ideal apartment when it presents itself, so I want to know what we're looking for!

The Typhoid Mary Touch...with Magazines

Let me tally up the magazines I once subscribed to that went belly up (and some never returned my money!) - updated 2.22.09

Craft Magazine -> not officially belly up, but going to digital only. Bummer. I like having an actual magazine. =:(
Organize -> nice, but mostly a vehicle to sell more product. (Aren't all magazines about the ads?)
Domino -> who knew that one of the few I decided NOT to renew would go belly up shortly afterward? (One could argue that my not renewing contributed to the downfall, but I will not take the blame. Domino had become nothing but another, "Let's let at the lifestyles of pretty, Hollywood people!!" Uh, no thanks.)
Yahoo! Internet Life -> (believe I never saw my money again)
Motto -> remaining issues converted to Ode, haven't read a single issue since I started receiving. They're now imploring me to renew.
Blueprint -> remaining issues converted to Martha Stewart Living. I enjoyed MSL, but ended up not subscribing. Felt too inferior. Have saved some recipes and ideas from the mag though.
O at Home -> come on, Oprah, are you going to roll over my $ to extend my sub to Oprah mag? (Also just re-upped my subscription literally the day AFTER the internets were abuzz that the magazine was to cease publication. I have great timing!!)
Got an offer...to roll my remaining issues over to Oprah mag (as if I don't subscribe already). Obviously, the subscription department hasn't figured out who was subscribing to both or they simply sent the same card to everyone. Must ensure that the credit will be rolled over so I don't end up with two copies of Oprah for the next however many months.
Adorn -> according to the rumours on the internets this was to be converted to a Knit.1 subscription, but didn't hear anything. Going to check in on this one. I certainly got ripped off, since I had just started the subscription, only to hear that the magazine was DOA.
PC Magazine-> they've gone digital and I let my subscription lapse. The only case where the end of the printed publication coincided with my payment (or lack thereof). I'm not a fan of digital magazines. I've tried many of them; none compare to the dead tree version. And I want to save the planet as much as the next guy...
Quick & Easy Stitch & Craft (a British Cross Stitch mag) -> converted to You Can Craft! Sad. I let that subscription limp to an end. You Can Craft! is for cardmaking with no cross stitch to speak of. I'm not interested in cardmaking, unless it's to mount a small cross stitch project. *sigh*

I'm sure there are others...this list is by no means complete.

Dharma and lots of glue

I'm making this, which requires the patience of a saint, 10 hands and slatherings of glue. Pic to follow. (It's taking several days, since it needs to set between glueings.) When it's done, I will officially dedicate it to my search for a shiny new job.

Rediscovering old hardware...oh the joy!

The fan on my newer Fujitsu, a T4215, purchased March 2007 has a problem - it runs nonstop and sounds like the computer is about to take flight. Of course, it's out of warranty and I don't want to keep running it, potentially causing the harddrive to melt down, so I've backed up my files and am getting ready to open it up to clean it out (in case there's an easily solved issue). If the diy route doesn't pan out, I'll have to take it in to an authorized Fujitsu repair center. Now is not the time to spend money on keeping my faster laptop going...so..I've pulled out...

...my older Fujitsu, my first Fujitsu, a P2040. Its harddrive is tiny (just under 20G) and its processor is equally underpowered - a Transmeta Crusoe TM5800, running at 793 MHz with a grand total of 240 MB of RAM. Quite a step down... Only issue with this cute little machine are the two lines of green and blue pixels on the left of the screen, but other than that, it chugs along like a champ. Believe it was purchased in March 2002.