The passenger-side mirror of our van has been cracked for a while – not just the mirror part but also the plastic housing. The housing had some sharp edges, so I wrapped it in some black duct tape after it tore a hole in one of my better T-shirts.
After over a year of driving around with the mirror in that state (what? it was still mostly functional…) I decided to replace it. Why now? Because we had a couple of vacations that required some driving, and it would be a good time for that.
I had inquired about getting it replaced, but the dealership quoted over $100 (I forget exactly, $150 maybe?). I figured that, since I could still use the broken mirror and it wasn’t legally required anyway, why blow $150 on it? I could buy a mirror and try to install it myself. The total that way would be $50.
How long does it take to replace a side mirror? I took me about an hour. But I was staging photographs and noting things. If you skip those parts, it would have been 40 minutes. And if you skip the unnecessary steps, then it should take you 30 minutes.
The Replacements
Here are the 8 steps, with helpful photos, I took to replace the mirror on my 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan:
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Allow me to introduce to you the 2010 SFS Baby Name List. Some of you may recall that I like to take the Social Security baby name list and reorganize it so that a name is counted only once even if it is spelled different ways. It is that time again, this time it’s the names from 2010.
The government, being on its own timetable, released the numbers for 2010 a couple months ago. They’re getting better though. It used to take them months to compile the list. Now it takes them weeks. And if I had known when the list was being released, I would have had this post done back then.
Some Stats
- The top 3 names for the boys are the same as 2009.
- Sophia and Isabella swapped spots for the girl names from 2009.
- William went down in popularity, but I suspect the royal wedding will cause a spike in that name for next year’s results.
- Same thing with Catherine/Katherine. More people spell it with a ‘K’, but the Duchess of Cambridge spells hers with a ‘C’.
- Girl names still have more spelling variations than boy names (323/1000 vs. 236/1000 alternates)
- The boys still have the name with the highest number of alternate spellings (Jayden/Aiden with 10 vs. Hailey/Carly with 8)
- Popular boy names end in ‘n’ (the first 7 variants); popular girl names end in ‘y’ (the first 2 variants).
- ‘Skylar’ is still a girl’s name and ‘Skyler’ is still a boy’s name. (’a’ vs. ‘e’, in case you didn’t catch it).
Click on the link above and peruse to your heart’s content!
But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the lad and your maid; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her, for through Isaac your descendants shall be named.
Geneses 21:12
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Some of you may recall the adjusted (by combining alternate spellings) baby name lists that I put together not too long ago.
I have added another section to that site – Top Names of the Decade, for each decade from 1900 until now.
Go there and click on a decade (e.g. The 1930s) for the top 25 most popular names, as well as which names gained or lost the most ground over the decade.
Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.
Luke 10:20
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I recently finished a project and tried a new (to me) product: combination stain and polyurethane in a single can.
It worked as advertised, but I’m not a fan. This happened to be PolyShades by Minwax, but I’m guessing that I wouldn’t like any stain-and-poly-together-in-one product by anybody.
The problem is that the simplicity takes away your ability to manage the shade of the stain.
In other words, you can’t keep sanding and applying poly to get a smoother, deeper finish, because each application results in more (i.e. darker) stain.
Here is what it looked like with zero, one, and two coats:
It turned out okay, but there were some spots that were rougher than I wanted, but I didn’t want to add more stain. And there were some spots where the stain had pooled and made the finish obviously darker than the surrounding areas, but I didn’t want to wipe off the poly.
I suppose it’s a fine product if you don’t care much about the finish. I didn’t think I would care as much as I did, but not having the ability to adjust little things frustrated me.
Go with separate stain and clear coat.
or a bag for your journey, or even two coats, or sandals, or a staff; for the worker is worthy of his support.
Matthew 10:10
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We have an extension cord that is meant for Christmas lights. It’s a foot-pedal switch, intended to save you the hassle of crawling behind or underneath a Christmas tree to plug or unplug the lights. It looks pretty close to this:
This year, we put Christmas lights around the railings of Beta’s bunk bed. It was a pain turning them on and off, however, because the best plug was behind Alpha’s dresser. I figured we could go buy another switchable extension cord and make life easier. But once we found out it was $7.49, we decided otherwise.
Then I went to a hardware-type store on the way home from work one day. I found this
and this
for a total of this
which is a savings of 33% off the pre-made switch. For $4.96, you too can make your own light switch extension cord. There was another switch that was almost a dollar cheaper, but it was the rotary kind that comes with lamps and is not as easy for little fingers to work. And for less than a dollar (that’s $3 less than the switch I used), you can just use a normal light switch. But then you really should have an enclosure (non-conducting and fire-resistant) and I didn’t want to get into that.
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Some of you may be wondering what I did with that extra hour last week when we moved our clocks back.
Wonder no longer.
Remember how I went through all the baby names from 2009 and combined the various spellings together to get the real counts?
No? Well, your loss…
Anyway, last week I went through the names for the last 109 years (1900-2008) and re-counted each year’s names. Now you can see that alternate spelling are not new. Sure, there are a bunch of ways to spell names now, but that’s no different from how names were 60 years ago. The names have changed, but the variety is still there.
Go check out 1950. But in case you don’t, here is a snippet:
2009: 10 ways to spell Jayden and Aiden.
1950: 7 ways to spell Gerald and Darrell.
2009: 9 ways to spell Carly and 8 ways to spell Hailey.
1950: 9 ways to spell Catherine and 7 ways to spell Karen.
Go visit Some Fun Site for baby names since 1900.
But David did not count those twenty years of age and under, because the LORD had said He would multiply Israel as the stars of heaven.
1 Chronicles 27:23
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For a while now I have been interested in how the Social Security Administration’s list of popular baby names would look if they consolidated the names that sound the same.
- Some people like a name but there are already alternates, so they must choose a side (Catherine vs. Katherine).
- Some people try to give their children unique names by altering the spelling of a name (She’s the only Haylee in her class! Yes, but there’s a Haleigh and a Hailey).
- And some people just don’t know how to spell the name (not going there).
Let me be the first to introduce, for the very first time, the 2009 SFS Baby Name List. (It’s the SFS Baby Name List instead of the SSA Baby Name List because it’s over on Some Fun Site).
I know it’s currently 2010. But the government, being on its own timetable, released the numbers for 2009 just a few months ago. So that list is for the births in 2009.
Well, mostly 2009. The government, being how it is, decided that the SSA would tally things from February to February, rather than use January like everyone else does.
Some Stats
- Girl names have more spelling variations than boy names (320/1000 vs. 211/1000 alternates)
- The boys have the name with the highest number of alternate spellings (Jayden with 10 vs. Carly with 9)
- Popular boy names end in ‘n’ (the first 8 variants); popular girl names end in ‘y’ (the first 2 variants).
- ‘Skylar’ is more likely a girl’s name; ‘Skyler’ is more likely a boy’s name. (‘a’ vs. ‘e’, in case you didn’t catch it)
Enjoy!
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Number every firstborn male of the sons of Israel from a month old and upward, and make a list of their names.
Numbers 3:40
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This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
