<i>I would like every American RTVW member to send me one Canadian penny.</i>

I thought Canadians will going sans pennies now.

I can send a few trillion Zimbabwe dollars.

Seriously.

You were beaten to that joke by about an hour and a half. And the other person sent a picture of the bill.

FOONER! The rat. Always stealing my jokes.

Anyway, are you on a cash basis for everything? You don't have a credit card? Are you not in step with the great American practice of being permanently in debt?

$500 or so at 19% interest will cost you an extra $90 or so if you take a year to pay it back, so pay it back in half the time. Or if you can string two emergency-less months together, pay it back in two payments. Even at a high rate that doesn't add much to the bill.

Dig out some of that cleavage cash!

The plus side is that you will have the Kindle all the while, and each monthly payment that has been paid can't be pulled back no matter what emergency arises, or how earnest the plea for bail is. It's a forced savings plan of a kind.

I have a yen for one also (not a pun).

I don't want to pay for this on credit. Not going to happen. I stay off credit as much as possible and this, as a purely 'fun' purchase with no real purpose other than said fun, does not constitute a creditworthy emergency. Period, exclamation point, close paragraph, -30-. Also, given the way my luck has been running this year, to use credit for this item would mean the box would arrive in two empty pieces and I can't return an item which doesn't exist. Hooray me.

Your later suggestion typically does not endear me to the sales clerk.

Nobody don't like cleavage cash!

(BTW, I can't and won't criticize your attitude toward credit purchasing. One point though, if your item isn't received or if it is damaged during shipment, you would have recourse thru the credit agency. One phone call and they do the rest).

fooner fooner fooner fooner fooner fooner fooner fooner fooner foorner fooner fooner fooner fooner fooner fooner fooner fooner fooner foorner fooner fooner fooner fooner fooner fooner fooner fooner fooner foorner

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"RE: RTVW Crowdfunding (Or: Give Me Money)."
Posted by foonermints on 10-22-13 at 09:52 PM

Is that the 7" or the 8.9"?

Sign up for Secret Santa and you might get lucky!
Me? I got a fruitcake!

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"Weihnachtsstollen"
Posted by dabo on 10-22-13 at 10:32 PM

http://stollenbread.com/stollenbread/stollenhistory.html

Our favorite legend pertaining to Stollen Bread is that the hump on our loaves, represents the humps of the camels that carried gifts to the Christ Child on the first Christmas. The candied fruits and raisins represent the precious jewels and gifts in the camel’s packs.

Face it, you always knew deep down inside that fruit cake was a German conspiracy.

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"RE: Weihnachtsstollen"
Posted by foonermints on 10-23-13 at 02:45 AM

I am Östreicher, but those crazy-bone Deutschländers have a great sentiment, even if their bread is inedible.

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"Kazzukuttgettaresstet"
Posted by IceCat on 10-23-13 at 09:38 AM

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"RE: RTVW Crowdfunding (Or: Give Me Money)."
Posted by Estee on 10-23-13 at 01:49 PM

8.9" with 64G memory and the in-house data plan. Throw that on with everything mentioned above plus sales tax and this is about a $1000 purchase, which is one of the many reasons having been wiped out a couple of times stings a bit. This was meant to be not just my reader and media center, but my portable for the next five years.

And yes, I do realize that 30% of that number means I could get the most basic model on no-frills right now. But I've been reading specs. With that little storage on board, the operating system takes up about three-eights of capacity. I need that warranty, Prime membership is just about mandatory for the better freebies, the case is protective, keyboard... *sigh* You get the idea. To really make this work, I have to aim high. I just keep getting shot back down in midflight.

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"I Know What You Mean"
Posted by foonermints on 10-24-13 at 10:31 PM

» I just keep getting shot back down in midflight. «

Jellybean.

Trip to "Café Culture" Argentina or Spain: pre-empted by 5k tax bill.

Trip to Sierra Nevada: pre-empted by 3K deck repair. That's materials only. Some sucker did the rest. Too late in the season to bail out now!

Trip to Santa Barbara/Carmel: pre-empted by purchase of 200 gallons of heating oil for strange misfit family living in Seattle. Barbarian child bears NO resemblance.

Trip to Liquor Store: ...

Unable to afford Dom Perignon or Cristal, foonermints has now sunk into the abyss of "4 Loco".

*klunk*

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"RE: RTVW Crowdfunding (Or: Give Me Money)."
Posted by kidflash212 on 10-26-13 at 08:16 AM

I've been waiting to get rid of these for a long time, somehow I've collected them over the years:

You'll just need to find a canadian coinstar.

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"At the one-third mark."
Posted by Estee on 11-08-13 at 01:00 PM

Whee.

For my next small push, I need to wait on something I have no control over: the dreaded MCR Christmas catalog. A few people have been inquiring on their Facebook page as to whether we're going to have the Twelve Be Awake At Midnight Or Lose Outs Of Christmas again and Coke has basically replied with 'we don't want to spoil the surprise', which is 'Yes' with fear attached.

So what I'm hoping for is what I got last year and couldn't use: gift cards for places and services I have no ready desire for or access to. Last year, that was Bass Pro Shops and Southwest Airlines. I traded both in at a gift card exchange site. If both turn up again... well, that's a percent or two. Possibly seven if I'm careful.

However, there's no guarantee of what the catalog will contain. And several of the gift cards MCR debuted at full price this year (Barnes & Noble, Gamestop, Petco) have been $20 ones. Every gift card exchange site I've seen has a minimum $25 balance requirement -- and I suspect MCR knows it.

Merrily we plod along.

I lied about 'merrily'.

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"RE: At the one-third mark."
Posted by kingfish on 11-08-13 at 02:20 PM

Dear Mary Lee,

I understand your position and preferences credit wise. And I also understand you preference for the HDX, and although I don't fully understand the technical aspects I admire your dedication in learning them. So consider this as not an attempt at persuasion, but as an idle one sided discussion.

Understand, I got an 8" Kindle fire HD (without the X) for approx. $300. Plus additional (I forget how much) for a protective cover, a must buy accessory IMO. I use it primarily as a reader but it is useful occasionally as a lap top - Email, wireless Internet, music player, movie viewer, an RTVW bitching at Hobbs device, book browser/buyer, crash rescheduling when airline schedules need crash intervention, office tools, camera, Skype, and more that I don't know what is. Plus it reads books to me over the auto sound system on long auto trips. Very handy that.

I get about 5 days out of a charge.

I got it on credit (which I've paid off), and while paying it off I got to know and love it, we have a relationship. Platonic, you understand, but still very valued.

Except now I want an HDX. Don't know the advantages, but do know I want one.

Yours, King"MauryLee"Fish.

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"RE: At the one-third mark."
Posted by Estee on 11-08-13 at 03:56 PM

Dear Compulsive You Are/Are Not The Father Declarer.

Still awaiting your Canadian penny.

Also, sometimes, I just don't feel like compromising for less than what I wanted. This is currently one of those times and will remain so until the next occasion to empty out the Kindle savings, which should be any day now.

Additionally, having just traded some MCR points out of my bank to someone who needed a Christmas buildup (along with a few Mountain Dew caps to try and win an XBox One with -- they're currently the hottest trade on SlickDeals), I will soon be 0.5% closer to the goal. Therefore, I will also be that much more miserable when it's all wiped out again.

see? Progress.

Sincerely,
Send Me The @#$% Socialist Penny Already.

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"RE: At the one-third mark."
Posted by kidflash212 on 11-08-13 at 04:05 PM

So you don't want the toonies and loonies?

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"RE: At the one-third mark."
Posted by Estee on 11-08-13 at 04:16 PM

*looks around site*

You could argue that the loonies quota has been met.

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"RE: At the one-third mark."
Posted by kidflash212 on 11-08-13 at 04:19 PM

Darn, I'll never get rid of these things.

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"RE: At the one-third mark."
Posted by kingfish on 11-08-13 at 04:42 PM

Dear Mary:

You obviously have confused Alabama with Alberta. Our Mountain Dew is the more traditional kind, and comes with a cork instead of a pop-top. We do have the odd social on occasion, tho.

However I may be able to find another MC number if I can get the mules hitched up and visit down to the feed store. There are folks there that got a lot of money and drink Coke all the time.

See what I can do.

Your's,

The Father Declarer (maybe - round here no one's ever heard of that feller before).

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"RE: At the one-third mark."
Posted by kingfish on 07-25-20 at 06:03 PM

-

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"RE: RTVW Crowdfunding (Or: Give Me Money)."
Posted by Silvergirl1 on 11-09-13 at 12:57 PM

Estee, have you tried Amazon's Mechanical Turk program? You can make money by doing tasks.

https://www.mturk.com/mturk/

Snow globe sig and starfish globe by Agman 2011

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"RE: RTVW Crowdfunding (Or: Give Me Money)."
Posted by Estee on 11-09-13 at 01:46 PM

I suppose technically, $1.45 per week does qualify as 'money'...

*sigh*

Thanks for the idea, but I'll be keeping the day/night job.

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"Following up."
Posted by Estee on 11-11-13 at 05:28 PM

In addition to reading about the site and its operations, I did spend some time browsing through the MTurk listings, just to see what sort of things were being asked for. Some of them required mysterious qualifications with no word on how they were to be achieved. Other, more open ones, paid three cents per task with each completed workpiece requiring about forty minutes.

After a while, I found what seemed like an interesting entry: play an online game and video-record yourself doing so, allowing the designer to see what field testing looked like. $5.00 AZ credit for the act. Not horrible. It could take a couple of hours to do, sure, but it was being paid for playing a game, and hopefully a decent one. I could potentially relax a little over the weekend and pick up Kindle funds in the process.

So the next step was to check out the game's system requirements.

Followed by the video streaming ones.

Camera quality minimum.

Bandwidth.

Processor speed.

Tablets already owned.

Until I realized that the only way to generate this particular $5.00 towards the Kindle -- was through spending $3,600 on a new desktop computer plus iPad, updated personal studio with enhanced editing capabilities, and a two-year contract with the highest-speed Internet provider available.

(Yes, that number includes the gift card rebate on the Internet plan.)

For some reason, this seemed to be slightly cost-inefficient.

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"congratulations"
Posted by newsomewayne on 11-12-13 at 04:06 PM

For some reason, this seemed to be slightly cost-inefficient.

You have now self-declared yourself unqualified to ever hold any project-management position in our federal government.

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"RE: congratulations"
Posted by Estee on 11-12-13 at 04:35 PM

And thank you for clearing up the mystery of why I never got a single call after taking the civil service exam.

I lost a bet, okay?

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"RE: RTVW Crowdfunding (Or: Give Me Money)."
Posted by Estee on 11-11-13 at 04:53 PM

So today's lesson is 'When the total Amazon trade-in value of a DVD group is less than the money required for packaging and transport to the nearest UPS depot, the next trip should probably be to the garbage can.' Or optionally, I could just leave them out on the sidewalk for anyone to pick up and use for a free Movie Night. Library donation might be an option. I lack the primary requirement for a yard sale: the yard...

*sigh* This was just a bit of general shelf cleaning in progress performed over the weekend. On the plus side, I found a buried penny and added it to the fund. For the negative, See Above. I never expect to get much out of these trades and any single title ranked over five dollars means I'm probably better off selling it outright, but -- less than box & fuel?

Owsie.

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"RE: RTVW Crowdfunding (Or: Give Me Money)."
Posted by foonermints on 11-11-13 at 06:17 PM

I tried!

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"RE: RTVW Crowdfunding (Or: Give Me Money)."
Posted by Estee on 11-11-13 at 06:38 PM

Still haven't seen that socialist penny, so let's just say that at best, you're trying.

Very, very trying.

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"RE: RTVW Crowdfunding (Or: Give Me Money)."
Posted by foonermints on 11-11-13 at 06:50 PM

*smoochie*

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"RE: RTVW Crowdfunding (Or: Give Me Money)."
Posted by kidflash212 on 11-12-13 at 01:01 PM

I tried very hard to get you the foreign coinage but driving around New Jersey yelling "ESTEE!!" didn't work out too well.

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"RE: RTVW Crowdfunding (Or: Give Me Money)."
Posted by kingfish on 11-12-13 at 01:13 PM

Just throw it across the Hudson. She'll find it.

Then, if you can do that, well, the Yankee's are going to need a new reliever next year.

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"RE: RTVW Crowdfunding (Or: Give Me Money)."
Posted by kidflash212 on 11-12-13 at 01:25 PM

I could just leave it under a seat on the ferry.

And I will never do anything to help the Yankees.

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"RE: RTVW Crowdfunding (Or: Give Me Money)."
Posted by kingfish on 11-12-13 at 01:31 PM

LAST EDITED ON 11-12-13 AT 01:41 PM (EST)

Dam Yankees!

(I was just testing you).

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"RE: RTVW Crowdfunding (Or: Give Me Money)."
Posted by kidflash212 on 11-12-13 at 02:09 PM

I could always hope Fooner gives me a Canadian SS giftee, then I could ship all those coins to them.

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"RE: RTVW Crowdfunding (Or: Give Me Money)."
Posted by kingfish on 11-12-13 at 04:10 PM

Beware the Wrath of Estee if you do.

You may not be able to find her, but she can find you.

Be vewy afwaid.

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"RE: RTVW Crowdfunding (Or: Give Me Money)."
Posted by kidflash212 on 12-25-13 at 03:28 PM

Perhaps the spirits of Christmas will keep me safe.

Crossthreading since 2004.

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"Halfway."
Posted by Estee on 11-30-13 at 08:27 PM

So no, I didn't make it by Black Friday and I'm sure not pulling it off by Cyber Monday, not that I know of any sales going on then and that's mostly because I refused to look. However, MCR gift card seasons starts tomorrow plus I may have a frivolous cash portion incoming in a few days. Typically, even that's taking an extra hit as eBay raised their commission fees again: apparently the old triple-hit just wasn't good enough. But if the sale is actually paid for and I get one or two swappable gift cards, I stand some small chance of being at 80% by the end of December.

Which is definitely my cue to get wiped out again. I wonder what'll do it this time...

(For the record: 50% is just about enough to pay for the Kindle itself: there's a bit of sales tax to go. So after that's taken care of, the next things to cover are the data plan (because without that, it's a very expensive paperweight) and the warranty (a very expensive and fragile paperweight). And I can't put those options on the Kindle after it's shipped.)

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"RE: Halfway."
Posted by SecretSanta on 11-30-13 at 11:21 PM

---

"RE: Halfway."
Posted by Estee on 12-01-13 at 11:13 AM

I'm afraid to look.

I mean, I know what this is likely to be. I'm afraid to see the details.

*sigh* On the one hand, yes, I am thankful: every bit helps, whatever this bit turns out to be. On the other, I stayed out of the exchange this year for a reason. 2013 has, in many ways, been one of those 'let it end' things, and that's even with leaving Jiffie out.

...

One of the ways I've been slowly (and theoretically) assembling this Kindle is through MCR points. Not just gift card exchanges (and I fully expect their site to crash shortly after noon EST as the Target hordes descend): trading. Since I only have one account, I often find myself building an excess bank of unused codes, mostly to get through the winter with. When the reserve builds beyond that, I offer trades on SlickDeals for Amazon credit. Depending on whether any brand is doubling and the total desperation of the market, this usually goes about 200-300 points = $5.00 AZ.

I have not looked at the detail on this. I'm skittish, and I think it's justifiably so. But I do know this:

If I find out who this was, that person is probably going to wind up with a molasses flood of MCR codes.

...that came across as a threat, didn't it?

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"RE: Halfway."
Posted by kingfish on 12-02-13 at 11:11 AM

It may be too late for me, but just for curiosity;

1. The data plan and the warranty are 50% of the price you'll pay? 50% of about $1000? I know that you also intend to get the protective case (very good idea, BTW) too, but that's only $30 or so.

2. What is the data plan?

I already bought my Kindle Fire (8.6" HD, without the X. Don't know what the X adds. "Extra"? Extra data storage?), So I'm out of luck if it's something I should have included with the purchase. But still, I'm curious.

I used it for my travels during the Thanksgiving holidays, and was very pleased with having wireless internet access (airline scheduling management and maps), email (unfiltered as yet, but still, nice to have), and of course, the library and reader in such a small package. If I had bothered to learn how to use the Skype feature, I could have gossiped with the other fishes in the sea.

I had to get a nine year old to show me how to use some of the features (Duh, Uncle Kingfish, all you have to do is just push the camera symbol to take a picture – she loves me in spite of my obtuseness), and have yet to find out how to start an new office document - I know, seems like that ought to be easy. I have "Office” which includes docs and spreadsheets, but I just could not find a "new Doc" button. Neither could my 9 YO mentor. I can import a doc, so I guess I'll admit I'm imbecilic and import blank "new" Docs that I can write into until I hit upon whatever it takes. Now I'll need to find that "save" button.

Maybe I need that Data plan too.

---

"Wiped out."
Posted by Estee on 12-02-13 at 02:00 PM

Back at zero percent. This time, it's effectively permanent. I will not be purchasing a Kindle this year, next year, or very likely ever.

It turns out that Amazon has discontinued the in-house data plan which came with the old model. The $100 cost increase for the 4G version only covers a Kindle which has the ability to connect with a 4G network. All data plans must be purchased separately.

A data plan large enough to stream a movie or two per month can easily be several hundred dollars per month.

www.att.com/shop/wireless/data-plans.html#fbid=hZxTPw2Cjcc

As witness.

I have no wi-fi at home. I can't afford to install it right now (assuming building policies will even let me do so) and I can't ride someone else's connection.

I am not within range of any free hotspots.

I can't go running around every time I want to send an Email.

In short, I would be spending a thousand dollars for a very pretty paperweight which occasionally required electricity.

So I'm out.

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"Dear Secret Santa,"
Posted by Estee on 12-02-13 at 06:45 PM

LAST EDITED ON 12-02-13 AT 08:59 PM (EST)

Because something pretty much always goes wrong when I try to make a frivolous purchase for myself, I never applied the gift code to an account balance. Please take it back and use it for yourself.

I apologize for not having said this earlier. The frustration got in the way.

ETA: The code has been taken back. I'm thankful for that.

---

"And the last irony."
Posted by Estee on 12-02-13 at 09:14 PM

My eBay sale came through very quickly. The money was transferred to my Amazon credit balance before I found out about all this.

I currently have $700 in purchase power on the site.

I just don't want anything.

I feel like I may not want anything for a couple of months.

This just took too much.

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"RE: And the last irony."
Posted by Snidget on 12-02-13 at 11:15 PM

Do you have wired broadband or are you still on dial up?

Because you know I'm probably not the only one with a wireless router hanging around the house I don't use anymore as I switched services and the one I have came with a router.

Or would you rather just give up on it all together?

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"RE: And the last irony."
Posted by Estee on 12-03-13 at 06:58 AM

I just tried to dial in and connected at a blazing 14.4 baud. No wireless router will work. I cannot have wireless installed in this building. No reasonable data plan is available. The words 'lost cause' are inadequate.

At this point in the depression process, I am looking at two choices.

The first plan is to drop twenty-eight gift cards in either a charity box or the trash, wherever they'll do less. Oh, and I have to permanently close my Amazon account.

The second is to finish building the funds, buy the Kindle anyway, and leave it in the box forever as a testament to how little careful planning, effort, and saving ever did anyone.

I don't give up halfway.

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"RE: And the last irony."
Posted by Snidget on 12-03-13 at 09:25 AM

I'd offer you a hug...

but that would put me in range of any sharp pointy things you are carrying.

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"RE: And the last irony."
Posted by kingfish on 12-03-13 at 10:12 AM

"...leave it in the box forever as a testament to how little careful planning, effort, and saving ever did anyone."

Well, they are useful as a unconnected device, and if you visit a location that offers free wireless (library, cafe, etc.) you can get a fast connection. But I know that that doesn't offer what you need, the necessity of an at home connection.

You certainly didn't lack for effort in the planning, effort, and saving departments. FWIW.

I will also offer a fin (fish have no shoulders) to cry on. It ain't fair.

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"Don't give up! "
Posted by moonbaby on 12-04-13 at 02:25 PM

Verizon DSL cheepie plan is $20 a month thru your existing phone line (for one year. Mine went up to $25 after that. Still a bargain).

Linky:

http://www.verizon.com/home/highspeedinternet/dsl-equipment/#plans

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"RE: Don't give up! "
Posted by kingfish on 12-04-13 at 03:53 PM

That sounds like a pretty good deal.

Dang. Not available here.

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"RE: Don't give up! "
Posted by foonermints on 12-08-13 at 12:37 PM

My DSL is Time-Warner Cable. Went up from $20 a month to $35.98 for 3.0 mbps. Includes the rent on their modem. money-gouging bastards Not happy!
LA Freenet is $35 month for the same thing, except they use the phone line (landline).
AT&T has a 1 year introductory offer for $15.95, but I don't know the speed. Sluggo?

The moron that put in the cable wanted to run the ground across our garage rooftop, jumping to the house over our deck and patio.
Nice ugly green wire you got there in the sky! I told him to run it to a water pipe on the side of the garage. Dummy.

I really want fiber optic, but it looks like I'll never get it because The Line of Evil South of the Boulevard may not be crossed. Turf wars!
Sorry that didn't work out Estee

Kingfish, you made my eyes blurry.

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