http://www.timcarter.com/ en-us 2004-04-26T18:38:14-05:00 http://www.timcarter.com/000124.shtml Everyone has to start somewhere. I am pleased to announce my oldest daughter's brand new blog! It is simply Meghan Carter. Meghan is ending her sophmore year in college and sure knows how to make her mom and I proud. Yesterday she drove back to school after spending the weekend home to celebrate her mom's birthday. Meghan wanted to attend an important panel discussion. If you read her first post, I think it just might raise your spirits and increase your level of hope with respect to the ever-declining moral morass we seem to find ourselves in.... Tim Carter 2004-04-26T18:38:14-05:00 http://www.timcarter.com/000122.shtml Oh did I ever have a good time earlier this week. I was skiing on the eastern face of the Sierra Nevadas at Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort. We arrived Sunday, April 18, 2004 to a blustery snowstorm that dumped 15 inches of new powder by the time we woke up the following morning. I skied well until the afternoon when going down a blue/black run - Avalanche - I severely tore the muscles in my right calf. I'll be better soon and go back and tear up that run instead of it tearing me up.... Tim Carter 2004-04-25T16:19:04-05:00 http://www.timcarter.com/000120.shtml I'm in Reno, NV today with a great bunch of friends. Our Internet conference is being held at the Siena Hotel / Casino. We ate lunch at the wonderful sit-down restaurant on the same level as the casino. The menu had a wide selection of great sandwiches that were very affordable. I had just about made up my mind what I wanted, when I saw the quick description of their Reuben. Wow! What a sandwich. It was huge, juicy, tasty and was made with the coolest marbled bread. The dark / light rye doughs were swirled and it made a... Tim Carter 2004-04-21T18:28:14-05:00 http://www.timcarter.com/000108.shtml I have to work around three women each day. Some people think it would be a treat....... But fortunately since they are older, the volume of estrogen is declining each day. This is a fun post because moments ago they were all ganging up on me.... Tim Carter 2004-04-09T09:53:13-05:00 http://www.timcarter.com/000106.shtml My daughter Meghan and I are in Boston. We were just on our way back from dinner at the Union Oyster House heading to our hotel. The trip was courtesy of the MBTA on the infamous Green Line. As we were climbing the last set of steps at the Hynes/ICA stop, a man shouted out to all of us on our way home for the night. He simply said, "Anyone got a spare hundred? I'm homeless and I'm mad!"... Tim Carter 2004-04-06T22:10:38-05:00 http://www.timcarter.com/000092.shtml If you are going to sell something to the law firm of Chernesky, Heyman & Kress P.L. L. in Dayton, Ohio and/or you are going to work for them in the capacity as an expert witness, it would behoove you to contact me before you do anything with this law firm. Email me at: tim@askthebuilder.com NOTE TO SELF: Find address of Ohio Supreme Court.... Tim Carter 2004-03-20T13:08:02-05:00 http://www.timcarter.com/000084.shtml Well, my *first* adventure to Big Sky Resort is over. I am back in Boise, ID getting ready to fly back to Cincinnati. My trip was planned around a feature story about everything I experienced at Big Sky. You will learn about where and when this story will appear soon. The skiing at Big Sky was fantastic. Dax Schieffer, the Public Relations Manager for Big Sky, was as accommodating as any PR person I have worked with. He is indeed a true professional. Why do I say my *first* trip to Big Sky? I have done quite a bit of... Tim Carter 2004-03-10T18:51:13-05:00 http://www.timcarter.com/000082.shtml Have you seen that commercial playing on TV over the past 5 months of the guy who works for Hotels.com? His job is to go to different resorts and specifically look at and rate the swimming pool. Each time he checks in to a hotel the clerk(s) stare longer and longer at his face as each day it gets redder and redder. Well, that is me this morning. I have the absolutel worst case of facial sunburn I have ever had. In fact I am going to head off to the Big Sky Resort First Aid station to see if... Tim Carter 2004-03-09T10:10:00-05:00 http://www.timcarter.com/000081.shtml I received a short but important email last night. Paul Schieber wrote: "I'm a student at Bob Jones University. My major is carpentry and am doing a research paper on how construction quality has declined (both materials and the work itself) compared to the 1950's. I saw your column titled 'The Pursuit of Perfection', and was wondering if you could give me reading materials on the subject or point me in the right direction." I thought about his request for a moment and couldn't come up with any quick references to trade publications that have tackled the subject head on.... Tim Carter 2004-03-05T10:33:58-05:00 http://www.timcarter.com/000072.shtml This is the first issue of the weekly Ask the Builder newsletter that is now going to be part of my RSS feed. I just thought of doing it moments ago. This newsletter went out via email yesterday. Here is the newsletter: Several times a week I get emails from very polite people who ask me if it is okay to create a link from their website to mine. Frequently these people are employed in the real estate industry. These professionals tell me the reason they want to add the link to their website is they want to help their... Tim Carter 2004-02-28T08:34:30-05:00 http://www.timcarter.com/000071.shtml Plywood is on its way out. Oriented strand board, commonly referred to as OSB, is replacing plywood for any number of reasons. I am not happy about this transition. This is a battle I can't win. The huge lumber mills control what happens to a large degree. The growing population consumes more resourses. Wood is a wonderful renewable crop resource, but plywood devours entire logs while OSB and different fiberboards eat chips and sawdust. But in my humble opinion, plywood works better for many things. I love it for storage shelves and subfloors. It has a smoother surface than OSB.... Tim Carter 2004-02-26T14:47:29-05:00 http://www.timcarter.com/000066.shtml Two weeks from today I will be driving across Idaho on my way to Big Sky Resort. As many of you know I am a powder junkie - not the bad type of powder, but the cool powder that falls upon the slopes of the Rocky Mountains. I will be skiing Big Sky on Monday March 8th and Tuesday March 9th. The mountain at Big Sky is one of the best out West for several reasons. It is by no means the oldest ski destination west of the Mississippi, as it opened for business in 1973. The resort was the... Tim Carter 2004-02-22T13:38:54-05:00 http://www.timcarter.com/000061.shtml Five weeks ago I was sitting at a conference table in an attorney's office with my wife Kathy. No, it's not what you might be thinking! We were signing new wills, trust documents and powers of attorney papers. It had been many years since we had revised our wills and with the kids being older, things needed to be changed. At the conclusion of the signing process, the wonderful woman attorney who prepared the wills asked me a question. She had an upcoming party and needed a dining room table. As soon as she described her dilemma, an idea popped... Tim Carter 2004-02-17T09:45:45-05:00 http://www.timcarter.com/000057.shtml Today I gave a speech at Ursuline Academy(UA). My wife Kathy graduated from UA years ago. My oldest daughter also graduated from this great institution two years ago and two years from now my youngest daughter will hopefully attend UA. The teacher who moderates the school newspaper asked me to speak to the group of young women who produce the UA school newspaper. I was flattered. During the first few minutes of my speech, I asked the group to ponder for a few moments and think of things they would like me to talk about. "I can talk here for... Tim Carter 2004-02-11T20:49:16-05:00 http://www.timcarter.com/000047.shtml Last Friday I spent the day skiing with my dentist who is a grade school buddy of mine. We went to Perfect North Slopes in southeastern Indiana. It is the best we can muster around here in the Ohio Valley. The hill only has 400 feet of vertical fall. To put this in perspective, most ski resorts out West have between 1,800 to 3,500 feet of vertical fall. A friend of mine - Michael Worth - is an expert skier and he laughs about Perfect North. He could probably, no actually, ski down every run at Perfect North backwards. I... Tim Carter 2004-02-02T09:44:25-05:00