By the way, congratulations.

There is a warning in the Fiance 1.0 to Wife 1.0 migration documentation about the possibility of "spawning child processes" but who reads the manual?

I strongly recommend the maintenance contract for all versions of Baby. Earlier versions of Baby may conflict with the latest version from time to time, but uninstalling any of them is usually not an option.

Can't wait for Service Pack 2.

Things were so much more simple back before we even had Girlfriend 0.9 (beta) for DOS.

Congratulations Martin!! You are a braver man than I.

Um, can I send you a bunch of baby stuff we'd better not ever need again?

-Blast

Unfortunatly the freecycle mail goes through yahoo servers where they can scrape names and address from them. I get mail at my house for my mother in law, father in law and a deceased uncle of my wife's because they mixed up their names with our addresses. Every since yahoo started the whole popup ad business way back when they have turned into a crap company and I have learned to avoid anything that goes through any of their servers. They are a close second to AOL level when it comes to internet abuse.

As a person who is intimately familiar with Yahoo systems and practices, as working with Yahoo as a vendor is part of my job, I can assure you that IF such a thing were possible, it is not something that Yahoo does. For your supposition to be true, Yahoo would need to be running a real-time free-text parsing scheme AND people would need to have their name and address in the email OR they would have to have their name and address stored in their Yahoo general profile AND Freecycle.org, which is an autonomous 501(c)(3) organization run by a jackass fool who alienated people like me who now don't even assocate with the organzation, but continue to operate what WAS a freecycle group but IS NOT affiliated or endorced by Freecycle.org

But I digress.

Your assertion that Yahoo is in some way associated with your direct mail problems is unfounded.

The cross-contamination of consumer marketing and public record data data is both well-known and impossible to fix. For example, search for your own name on www.zabasearch.com - which is a company that has nothing at all in common with Yahoo. You'll find yourself facing a wall of partially correct data.

Pop-up ads were used first in 1995, long before Yahoo was famous or important. Wired.com was a heavy user of them, as was the New York Times.

Again, with a little research, you'll see that just because YOUR experience has been that Freecycle organizations YOU are aware of happen to use the Yahoo Groups system, it does not mean that Freecycle=Yahoo. It's like saying "I hate that TV show and Toshiba is to blame, because they make the TV I'm using to watch it" Toshiba just delivers the show, it does not create it or care what you watch. All Yahoo cares about is that you see and click on their ads on the sites. That's it.

Hey, SwampDonkey, glad to see I'm not the only one with this problem.

I think the solution is easier than you realize. That's because Rubbermaid tubs can be stored outdoors, under a basic lean-to, for years without noticeable degradation. They'll stand up to sub-freezing temperatures if handled gently, they'll keep out rodents/insects and direct moisture, and if they're kept out of sunlight they won't be any worse for wear.

I think you could build a stout but temporary lean-to on the side or back of one of your outbuildings for next to nothing. I assume you have access to wood already. For the roof/sides, you could use asphalt roll roofing, or consider heavy-duty UV-treated tarps. FWIW, I can personally recommend medium or heavy-weight plastic tarps from Integrated Plastics, a Canadian company; they make multi-layer "haystack" tarps that will last for 5+ years in direct sun, and mid-weight forest-green tarps that are good for a couple of years at least. Country hardware stores stock these, big box outlets don't.

As long as the tubs' contents can stand freezing temperatures, and some minor humidity changes, I really don't think you'll have a problem.

To control rodents (deer mice are the usual culprits, and the main worry where I am; they make a mess, and may carry hantavirus), a couple of thoughts:
a) a sheet metal barrier at least 18" high, tucked into the ground if possible, with no gaps
b) a scrap plywood barrier, same height, with a generous 2" stripe of axle grease all around; mice won't cross the stuff
c) bait pails (sealed against kid/pet access) inside the "perimeter"; I find the "one feeding kills" variant of warfarin to be highly effective.

Away, that's my two-cents' worth, and a bloody long post to boot. Hope this stimulates the creative juices, and helps restore domestic peace and harmony.

Cheers,
Doug

BTW, I'd drive a thousand miles for your garage/yard sale. I can hardly imagine the amount of cool stuff you'd be getting rid of. Make sure you post pictures (if not directions).

Hi Doug,

Thanks for the nice reply. There is potential for a type of lean-to to be added off my rear shed (where my son's basketball net was) but I think I would store my snowmobile in it and use that now empty garage space for more shelving for the Rubbermaid Totes.

As hard as it is to believe I actually got to put my truck in the garage tonight as I pre-loaded it for my trip tomorrow. DW had a few pointed questions about how long I planned to use "her garage" but did not evict me!

We usually have a big garage sale just before we move to a new town (4 towns in 11 years), but I think we are going to settle down where we are now, so there has not been any incentive to reduce our accumulated stuff.

I renovated our last 3 houses, completing then just before I put them up for sale. This practice frustrates my DW as I have been having too much fun lately to do final decorating on our current home as we do not plan on moving.

Garage sales are a real struggle for me, my DW puts an item out for sale and I sneek it back into storage. It is getting to the point that I have to check the garbage before I take it to the curb to see if DW has decided on her own that some of my stuff is trash (kit containers are a good example)!

No point in coming to my garage sale, if I am getting rid of something it is either worn-out or does not do the job it was suppost to.

Later,

Mike

I don't think anyone has mentioned this....

You could build the lean to and store the teenager in that, while keeping your gear room. He gets outside and his own place (sorta), you don't have to move your stuff. *grins*

Yeah, I don't see it working either.

You got me laughing with that one Ironraven! He will be off to university in 3 more years, I miss him just thinking about it.

I have one more hunting trip planned for this year, then Christmas at my parents in Southern Ontario; but when we return I have been told by the DW that I will renovate the basement, no more stalling!

It will be nice when finished to have a closed off place of my own (like my secert clubhouse of 40 years ago) but this room I will have to share with the central vacuum, water heater, furnace, water softener and cat litter box (phew).

Building the room will not take that long, it the clean-up prior that I am dreading.

Mike

I;m not saying freecycle is yahoo, I'm saying they use yahoo's mail servers for their mailing lists therefore they need to be avoided until they move to a decent mail host. My MIL went to freecycle and wanted to sign up for the local mailing list which was a yahoo group. She signed up for a yahoo account and filled in her information and that information was shared with yahoo's marketing partners.
Now I could go on an on with several more incidents that are yahoo related but not freecycle related, like when I bought something from a yahoo store and unchecked the box allowing them to save my credit card information in the yahoo wallet then a few weeks later got several charger for porn sites and a $200 pair of shoes from a company called eastbay, but those are not related to the freecycle mailing list. Yahoo refused to assist even the policeman who too the theft report and refused to delete my yahoo account. But in short we all need to avoid anything that might use any of yahoo's services in any way until they discontinue some of their invasive and unsafe business practices.

When I moved in here I doubled the closet space by using two tiers of wire shelving from Home Depot -- lots more room. Then I added a tier of shelving all around the garage at the ~7' mark -- totally out of the way and it stores a lot of stuff where I can see it without having to look too hard. I like my stuff stored in sight so I don't forget I already have one when I see something neat and think that I ought to get it -- out of sight, out of mind, BTDT.