Author: Mark

Mark works as a [REDACTED] for [REDACTED], currently residing in Iowa. CoffeeBear.net is a place for him to blather on about whatever strikes his fancy. He currently spends his "free" time working on a photography project, playing with his cat and attempting to keep his wife happy (not necessarily in that order).

I know, I know. It’s only Tuesday; how bad could it be? Well….

Sunday night while eating dinner, I bit down on something. It felt hard and crunchy. A moment later I felt something poking the side of my tongue, kind of like I had something stuck in between my teeth and my gums. I couldn’t get the offending poky bit free with my tongue. I got up went into the bathroom, looked in the mirror and realized the crunchy bit was likely part of a tooth.

Monday, I tried making an appointment to see a dentist. No, not my dentist. I hadn’t been to a dentist in years as my teeth never bothered me. I do brush and floss regularly, so I left the dental checkups at the bottom of my priority list. Part of the reason it was so far down my list is… frankly, I hate going to the dentist. The most pleasant possible outcome of going to the dentist is being told you don’t have cavities and then you walk out with that weird uber smooth feeling to your teeth. Bah.

Tuesday, I hadn’t heard back from the dentist’s office. Yesterday I’d submitted a request for an appointment via their website. But since I hadn’t heard anything and I was tired of my busted tooth poking my tongue, I called them. I was able to get myself an afternoon appointment and headed over at the appropriate time. Oh and about an hour before I started over to their office; snow in large quantities started to fall. [INSERT CURSING HERE] I got over to their office in plenty of time and started filling out the paperwork. All the staff at the office were unfailing polite and helpful but it didn’t make me feel much better about being there. After a short wait, I was taken into the back and had my teeth examined by a dental hygienist.

I have to say things have changed in the years since I’ve been to a dentist. Now the x-ray machine is digital and they have a computer monitor attached to the patient’s chair to display the x-ray. Also they’ve got a digital camera about the size of a ballpoint pen used to take photos of your teeth. Side note: eeeew, cavities and broken teeth look terrible blown up in full color on computer monitors. They also have a new diagnostic tool which measures the density of the tooth to determine if there’s a cavity (and to tell if the cavity is bad enough to need fixing).

The end result of all this new technology is I got to see how bad my teeth are. How bad are they? Well, I’ll be getting 3 fillings and a crown. Wheee!

*sob, sob*

Like others in this thread, I didn’t care for the camera shake. It wasn’t bad enough to make me leave the theater but it definitely made me queasy. As for the storyline to the movie…. meh. While most of the characters had a good line or two; I didn’t them. Any of them. In fact, I would go so far as to say my main complaint with the movie is one of them might have survived. I would have preferred a clean sweep of character deaths.

In response to the Cloverfield thread on the Whateveresque forums.

New Towel Bar

Back around Thanksgiving, I hit up a sale at Home Depot and bought myself a 4 piece Ryobi One+ combo kit1. After Christmas I went back to Home Depot and picked up the Ryobi Tool Bag. The tool bag came loaded with a nice assortment of drill bits and a racheting screwdriver with a vast collection of interchangable bits (phillips, flat-head, sqare and torx). The bag was just the right size to hold my drill, flashlight and radio. Since then the tools have sat around mostly gathering dust.

Today while out doing some shopping, we found a nice set of bathroom hangers (e.g. for towels & toiletpaper) on clearance for less than $20. The set has a brushed nickel finish which we really like and installing it helped me avoid cleaning out our guest room2. The set installed very easily and I really got to try out my tools.

Things I liked:

  • The magnetic strip on the base of the drill is fantastic for holding different drill bits, screws, whatever I need.
  • The ratcheting screwdriver makes it quick and easy to install/remove screws.
  • That tool bag really holds everything I need for most home improvement projects. The way it’s designed feels like somebody at Ryobi was sitting around their house wishing they had a bag to hold all the bits they’d ever be likely to need for a screwdriver and a drill.

Things I didn’t like:

  • The keyless chuck on the drill poorly grips the bits.
  • After 10+ years of apartment living, I’m out of practing with using a drill. Especially using a drill as an electric screwdriver and so I kind of stripped a couple screwheads. Ooops.
  • The metal splinter I got in my thumb after stripping a couple of screwheads.
  • The drill is heavier than I really like.3

1 Mine was a slightly different kit as it came with a radio rather than the Corner Cat Finish Sander.
2 I’m sooo going to be in trouble when my wife reads this.
3 My version of the kit uses the NiCd batteries which contributes the vast majority of the weight of the tool. At some point I’ll buy the 18v Lithium Upgrade Kit which should solve this complaint.