more tile is better

Today we asked our favorite real estate agent about choosing tile for our house. She said that it's better to have the same tile throughout the whole place because people like consistency, but you can go lighter in small bedrooms if you picked something on the darker side of neutral.

And this here's not poetry. It's the stuff that makes it past the spam filter: pospametry, or something.
A zombie is gunnery columbia but indelicate what campus,
vigilant not doubleheader.
When blaine flatware, curse dumbbell is not hostage
contention but a confidante drawl authentic arises mccallum
lesotho in ferdinand, exercise and axe. Would you
compendium ballard?
No, hear hoofmark asperity is scout a withhold and
drag consortium.

I read my spam now, but for entertainment. Does this make spammers happy?

not supposed to be an animal blog...

Wanna see a baby aardvark?

spider switcheroo

Today I learned that the average temperature in the Arctic has risen something like 5 degrees in the last 50 years, and towns are sinking now that the permafrost isn't so perma, and now I'm stuck with global-warming, we're-all-going-to-cook thoughts.

So to distract you, here's a tarantula that visited my kitchen.

ceramic/porcelain floor tile

We're going to replace all the carpet in our house with ceramic tile because the carpet and foam pad make us light-headed if we get too close. Today I learned that houses with gray or blue tile take longer to sell. Good thing I squelched my preference for slightly bluish slate, recognizing that it'd look silly in Tucson. I moved on to a mottled, tannish-reddish Southwestern looking thing that reminds me of a calico cat, not that I've known any calico cats.

I can detect the chemicals in thin-set, the goop you stick the tile to the floor with, for days after it has cured. For the enviromentally injured, the thin-set of choice is Laticrete 317 (for commercial use, or the equivalent 200's for residential, which I can't find). I still get heart palpitations from it, but it's a whole lot better than the stuff with more additives, and it'll be under tile and sealed grout.

The thing is that you can't use it with porcelain tile because it needs more additives to stick correctly. Porcelain tile is better, but ceramic is cheaper and it'll work with the Laticrete 317. Life is hard; my floor will be less expensive.

new futons and formaldehyde

You know that smell new furniture has? It smells kind of woody, even if it's not made of wood. That's formaldehyde. I'm allergic to formaldehyde thanks to the mold.

At 3 am I learned that a new futon outgassing in a closed bedroom for five hours will, indeed, make you sick, even if you are sleeping elsewhere in the house and with a big air cleaner nearby.

wanna see a dead tortoise?

Unless you know some people I don't, this is as close to seeing Sonoran Desert tortoise bones as you'll ever get.

blogging

Today I learned how to set up a blog. It's easy, even if you're a brain-fogged idiot.