After a short, but satisfyingly crazed weekend, the best I can come up with is a bulleted list. :)
- Adam and took a whirlwind trip up to Media this weekend to share a meal with his family, play with a few babies, and celebrate 106 years worth of birthdays. There was actually a big, wax 106 candle on the cake! We also dined in style on gyros (from an authentic Greek connection) and Italian chop salad - soo good.
- Saturday night, when we were supposed to be driving up the highway, really saw us dealing with one of the must frustrating maintenance issues of our new townhouse - lightbulbs. They burn out constantly, and we've made more than a few "lightbulb runs" at Home Depot in the recent months. Since we were going to be welcoming a houseguest soon (see below), we felt compelled to make sure she had working lights during her stay. Our sense of hospitality is just astounding, isn't it? One side benefit of all of this bulb-changing was the opportunity to thoroughly clean the lantern on our front porch - its now sparkly and clean! And it works, too!
- Our lightbulb frenzy was inspired by the impending visit of Becca, one of Adam's friends from the School in Rose Valley. This is our first real house guest (besides my mom, who only halfway counts :>) since moving in!
- Work is busy and stressful at the moment. We're through with development on a release, but now the tricky and tedious work of testing everything begins. Despite my love of all things techie, I am not the most detail-oriented person. In my own projects I tend to adopt a fix-it-on-the-fly sort of attitude, but at work that doesn't cut it. The sustained concentration needed to stay accurate while picking through screen specs with a fine-toothed comb usually makes my head hurt. And there are still two and a half weeks to go. As my grandad would say, "Uff da!"
Katy - Next time, you might try getting light bulbs from an electric supply store where you can get bulbs that handle spikes in voltage (they are often referred to as 130 volt bulbs versus 120 volt bulbs). I guess I forgot to teach Adam that.
You could also try those flourescent lights that fit into incandescent fixtures. They require less voltage, they last ~5 years, they seem brighter, they don't waste as much energy (in the form of heat). The only real downside is that they cost around $5 - $10 a piece, though you can often find them in sets of two, or even five for reasonable prices. And there's the bonus that you don't have to buy them that often, so in a way, they pay for themselves over their lifetime (both in not having to buy more and in the energy savings). As incandescents die in my house, I replace them with flourescents and I've been real happy so far.