Do you want to shut down your computer? NO! DIY hack a Macbook Air

I have been having a computer issue - again. I have an old Mac Book Air that I don't use as my primary computer, but I do use for going to class and other light duty things because its a lot lighter to lug around than the 15" Pro I usually use.

Something happened at some point to it though and I keep getting this annoying "Do you want to shut down your computer" pop up message every four seconds. Its annoying as all get out.

I played around with this for a long time before I hit on a hack that works.

Bathroom Update

Back in 2001 when we moved into this house, we had 2 small kids.  I fell in love with this orange and the ducky boarder.  It was one of the first rooms we painted.  I STILL loved the orange, but it was getting pretty shabby with all the teenage showering that goes on in there these days. 

Time for an update!

I had a rich peacock blue in  my head.  Its mature and more teenagerly.  I did one wall and realized it looked like a cave.

What should I do?  Google of course.

I toyed with the idea of white and settled on Farrow and Ball Sliper Satin.  It ties our discordant floor tiles, counter and wall tiles together.  

On a quick shopping trip to NY, I found this super cute floor mat on sale for $9 at Target.

Pho

Every day this week, little dude came home from school with onr request:  can we go for Pho.   I had the same answer every night "Nope, sorry Bub, not tonight."

I had a happy guy when I said yes tonight.  Its cold and windy.  Yup  pho kind of day indeed.  Yummy.

Windows 10 Technical Preview

We have a really old HP mini netbook that has been running windows 7 starter.  Its been corrupted and we have had a lot of issues with it.  I was going to change the OS to Linux but thought I'd give Windows 10 technical preview a try.  It has a gig of ram and meets the basic operating requirements of Windows 10.

I downloaded it once and whoa, it took almost 2 days.  I'm a geek.  I am comfortable taking apart computers and loading operating systems.  I wrote FORTRAN code back in the day.  I knew something was wrong.  Yoinks.  I posted my woes to FB and was told by a "friend" my comments were laughable.  Yoinks Guess you know who your friends are when you load a new OS.  I don't have time for people laughing at me in my life thanks.  I hit the unfriend button and moved on to plan b.

THIS is what it looked like after the first download.

I realize this old netbook isn't a stellar piece of hardware but my 11 year old has a lot of fun with it and it fits a basic need.  My expectations were get it running so he can play around with bit strips.

The first go degraded to the above mess, I had no choice but to make a bootable USB and give it another go.  It had a few glitches from installing Windows 10 onto Windows 10 but it worked.

The second time was the charm.  It seems to load internet pages faster than it did before so DS is happy.  Again, our expectations of this machine are basic.

Unfinishedlandia

Most days, I sit and drool over the amazing blogs of the super keen, innovative women of this world thinking how I would love to have such a following and feeling utterly inadequate  The problem with this plan is, you have to actually finish your fabulous project in order to have others fawn over them.  Sure I have the vision but I am a big fat F on the execution.

STILL looks like this.

Oh sure, I can paint, saw and prime with the best of them. I started this blog in the faint hope that I could inspire others.  I knew I had that vision to make regular things cool.   Heck I could  make a knock your socks off wine bottle warmer out of a pant leg, or saw a hole in my roof and make a PET bottle skylight.  I even have a fantasy of building my own windmill tree some day.

The reality of completion always smacks me up side the head.  I am a one woman show and my husband would rather watch TV than build a house.  He works hard and is happy with the way things in our house are.  I should be more like him but I can't be.  The paint dings and wear of everyday life makes me crave change. Putting my feet up and ignoring it is not something I can do.  The bloggers of the ineterweb tease and show me that it is possible to achiever amazingly beautiful things with nothing more than some time, a tooth brush and a Popsicle stick with a wad of gum thrown in for good measure and colour inspiration.  And, shame on me, its all achievable while your kid sleeps.

My oldest son screamed for nine months straight and there was no doing anything while he slept because he didn't sleep.  EVER.  You see, my downfall is that I am real.  I am not a super hero of the internet.  I have a job and three kids and my time is spread thin. I love dreaming up projects but I don't love necessarily love finishing them.  I get bored easily and will jump ship or change my mind about where I want to go with a project when its almost done.  I guess you could say I have commitment issues.

I started making beautiful patterned mittens for my daughter three years ago.  I have one mitt.  I have the beginnings of a second mitt which is not particularly useful unless your in a one armed snowball fight or need to stab someone in the eye.  The mittens are just one of the many, not quite finished projects lying in wait in Unfinishedlandia.

Some day, I will get around to finishing all those little details. The island will have baseboard applied.  The crown molding will be properly caulked.  The walls will all be painted in the perfect hue.  The things on the shelves will be just so, perfectly visually pleasing.  It will be a sad day because it will be the day our house is no longer our home.  It won't be perfect until the day we sell it.

In the mean time, I have all those years to figure out what colour grout I really want in the kitchen.

Happy 2015.  May all your projects get finished this year!

how to get rid of bright paint colors

Have you ever painted a room, only to have the last color show through because your cutting in wasn't PERFECT.  The walls look great but you see little peeks of the last color in spots that drive you nuts?  

Let me share a little secret.  PRIMER.  Yup primer. It is so easy, I didn't figure this little trick out for YEARS.  I love this blue. 

Shhh little secret here.  I LOVE this blue.  LOVE it.  I'm going to paint our bedroom this color and just want to get it out of the family room.  It is from 12 years ago when Martha Stewart was with Sherwin Williams.  Its Blue Ticking.  

If you cut around the edges of your last color with some white primer, your last color will be GONE when you cut your new color in.    EASY.  Well its easy when you have normal 8 or 9 foot ceilings.  

Painting extra tall walls for a north facing room

Our "family" room is nothing more than a junk pit.  There I said it.  You now know my deep dark secret.  We used it as a bedroom for my youngest son until the older one went off to college.

I painted it blue when I was 7 months pregnant with my youngest.  Fun times.

While I love the blue, its really beat up and needs painting.  There is a lot of trim in this room and FIVE windows.

We added French doors to close it off and make it an actual room.

I went looking around the blogosphere.

I am toying with a creme or grey and painting the door charcoal grey.

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