Movie Review: Babel

Movie Review: Smokin' Aces

Liked it a lot more than I expected! But that often happens to me with movies - I see something that looks good but not great, so I go in with low expectations and have less chance of being disappointed. Lots of guns and violence, makes for a loud couple of hours! Good flick...

Pianos and Houses

The ownership date for the new house is approaching - 5 more days! Anyone know how to test if a piano "works"? (obviously hitting the keys, but if a key doesn't make a sound, how tell if its a major or minor problem, and what about those peddle things...?)

My buddy says that when he gets finicky doing rough carpentry, framing or whatever, his friend Terry often reminds him "We aren't building a piano!" Meaning Piano's are finely-tuned machines that need to be "finickied." My buddy's advice: if a key doesn't make a sound and you don't immediately see the corpse of the mouse that is causing the problem, leave it and call a trained professinal.

Planning to take the piano to my buddy's place in Ottawa and unload Thursday night and stay at his place (basking in the glow of piano appreciation...) - maybe walk to a nearby pub after the unload for a beverage. I don't want to drive the truck to Montreal at all on Friday, but I really don't want to do it with a piano on the back! So unloading is critical... Other than shuffling a piano about, and me working a day in Montreal, I'm not sure what else we can do for a couple of hours. Maybe all the guys can take turns riding my buddy's home-made recumbent bike and then have his wife can drive us all to the ER in the pickup? (....just sayin'....). We could stand around with mugs of beer on the piano singing. Actually, my buddy's wife's repatoir tends towards classical, but I'm sure we could make up some words. Looking forward to drinking some beers and making up words to "The Flight of the Bumblebee".... should be good for a laugh!

I've been really busy lately - starting to not like work again. BUT, the work at the new house is fun - took down a wall Friday and started putting up a new header for the gap yesterday. All of the upstairs carpet is gone and took a full car-load of old paint to the hazardous waste drop-off yesterday, and ordered all new windows. Hoping to finish the room header today and get the wiring done for that "wall". Soon it will be time to pull up the main floor carpets, tile, linoleum, and old hardwood (would be nice if could be reused - see how it goes). Mom and Dad are meeting the real estate agent for their house today - and hopefully listing. They've already met once and are not happy with the estimated value, but there you go...

As for the pianos, my biggest concern is the truck. It popped a brake line in the driveway a week or 2 ago, and yesterday the coolant pump popped and pumped all the coolant out onto Dad's driveway. All this and I haven't even put the friggin' piano in the back of it yet! If I can make it to Ottawa and unload the piano at least, then I can deal with any other issues more easily.