Movie Review - "Witness for the Prosecution"

Last weekend we decided to watch a movie on Netflix, and Theresa picked out Witness for the Prosecution, an entertaining courtroom drama that's full of surprises.  Based on a play by Agatha Christie, the film features Tyrone Power and Marlene Dietrich, along with a thoroughly entertaining Charles Laughton.

Laughton plays Sir Wilfred Robarts, a barrister who is recovering from a heart attack, under strict orders from his doctor (and nurse!) to avoid strenuous activity.  Robarts is an appealing character, driving his nurse to distraction, sneaking cigars, and, most importantly, taking a seemingly hopeless case - a man accused of a murder that everyone thinks he did. 

Tyrone Power is quite good as the accused, Leonard Vole.  You like him, and really want to give him the benefit of the doubt, but there's just something that makes you wonder if he's on the up-and-up.

Marlene Dietrich is superb as Vole's wife, Christine.  I haven't seen her in a lot of movies, so I didn't know what to expect, but she was excellent.  Is she the doting wife?  Scheming temptress?  Innocent dupe?   We see all of this, and more, as the plot is revealed.

Being an Agatha Christie story, there's plenty of twists and turns as the story is told.  You're certain you know what's going on, then realize you have it all wrong, then certain again.  I must confess, I had it figured out about half way through, but I wasn't sure until the end - and I was still blown away as the final twist was revealed.  I won't give away the ending - you'll have to rent it to see for yourself.

If you're not used to watching old movies, it takes a bit of adjustment on  your part.  This was released in 1957, so the film quality is not what you'd expect today.  It's shot in glorious black and white, and don't expect high definition.  The sound is tinny, and there are no special effects (not that any are called for).  The sets are simple - mainly just the law office and courtroom, but the characters are complex.  After watching for a few minutes, none of these minor annoyances even registered.  It's a great movie, with three-dimensional characters involved in a convoluted plot that reaches a stunning and unexpected climax.  Along the way there's suspense, of course, but also plenty of humor.  Pop some popcorn and fire up Netflix for an entertaining evening.

Paul Ryan's Phony Marathon Claim

In 1988, I had been running for about 8 months, and I let myself get talked into running  this little race called the Bohemian Alps Endurance Run, in Brainard, Nebraska.  The run included both a 5k and a 25K run, as well as a 2 mile walk.  Since I wasn't in shape and hadn't ever run more than about 10K, I decided it was a good idea to run the 25K (15.5 miles).

The day of the run was unseasonably warm for October - it was 91 degrees when we started at about 3:00.  The race ran from Brainard on the gravel roads, looping around over some nasty hills.  I quickly got to the back of the pack, then got to the very last spot.  The last half of the race was spent with people driving up and asking me, "Are you all right?".  One guy said, "Oh my god - you look awful!"  I persevered, and finished long after everyone else was done, escorted in by a couple of my friends.  I made it, and got the finisher's medal.  I also gained the wisdom to run the 5k the following year!

The next year, I ran the 5K, got done in about a half hour, drank a beer, ate some barbecue, and waited for my friends who were running the longer race to finish.  Among those in our group was "Tom", a friend of a friend, who hadn't been running much, but thought he could do the long race.  I was quite surprised to see Tom cross the finish line before any of my friends - some of whom were serious runners.  Tom finished so fast that he got a medal for finishing first or second in his age group.  After the award ceremony, I walked up to congratulate him.  He said, "Thanks, but I didn't run the whole race.  I got tired, so I cut across country, walked some, and jogged through the finish."  It turns out, he ran about half the distance required of the other runners!

Even without training, Tom was a faster runner than me.  I didn't have a problem with him taking the shortcut - 15 miles is a long way, and there's no shame in bailing out on that.  The problem I had was, he crossed the finish line, accepted the finisher's medal, and even accepted the age group award - an award that others worked really hard to try to win.  Tom is a cheater, and I wouldn't want to associate myself with him.

 In the years following my Bohemian Alps run, I ran a couple of marathons.   I don't have a marathoner's body, but I worked hard and was able to finish both of them - at the back of the pack.  My best time was just under 5 hours - I believe it was 4:58, but I could be off by a minute or so.  I was, however, definitely under 5 hours.  I'm absolutely positive that I was nowhere near 4 hours - there's no question in my mind on that point.

A story recently surfaced about Republican VP candidate Paul Ryan's claim to have run a sub 3 hour marathon.  The folks at Runner's World Magazine decided to look it up - turns out his actual time was 4:01 - quite a difference!  A four hour marathon is nothing to be ashamed of, but it's not elite.  The folks that break 180 minutes are special - they train very hard, and have some natural ability.  The difference between a sub-three hour marathon and a four hour marathon is like the difference between playing on your slow pitch softball team and playing major league baseball. It's a whole different ball game.

After he was caught in the lie, Ryan said he "forgot" his time, so he was just trying to make up a "normal marathon time".  This doesn't ring true to me - if you've put yourself through the agony of finishing a marathon, you KNOW how long it took.  Most of us are ready and willing to give you a mile-by-mile recap of our experience. 

My last marathon (trust me, it IS the last one I'll run) was in 1991 (Ryan ran the same race a year before me).  I don't remember everything from that year, but I distinctly remember that day - starting by the Metro dome, running from Minneapolis to Saint Paul.  I remember the "broken wall" display at the 20 mile mark.  I remember running with a woman who's foot was bloody from a blister.  I remember dying at about 20 miles, meeting my friend who came back to run the last couple of miles in with me.  I remember running the last 1.2 miles in under 10 minutes, to hit my goal of sub-five hours.  There's no alternate universe in which I ran 3:45.  I remember!

I'm not ashamed of my marathon time.  I'm not fast, but so what?  I was tough enough to keep running for 5 hours!  I'm not embarrassed by that.  If you ran a lot faster, good for you!  I have great admiration for people who can run faster than me, but I'm not going to lie so you think I'm something I'm not.  I don't cheat on my golf score either....

In the grand scheme of things, it really doesn't matter how long Paul Ryan took to run 26.2 miles.  His lie is harmless - he's certainly not hurting anyone by it.  The issue I have with it is this:  what does it say about the guy if he lies about something like this?  Is this really something worth lying about?  If you can't tell the truth about your marathon time, what else would you be willing to lie about?  Would you, for example, lie to get yourself elected vice president of the United States?  I don't like Ryan's stand on the issues, but I like him even less as a person.  I've had enough of lying politicians - we don't need to put one a heartbeat away from the presidency.

Getting Ready for your Whole House Inspection

Most buyers will have a whole house inspection on your home, and many sellers today are having their homes inspected before putting them on the market.  While all inspection companies are a little different, there are certain things that will almost certainly show up on the report:

Minor electrical items, including reversed polarity outlets, exposed splices (wires hooked together without being enclosed in a junction box), ungrounded outlets, missing GFCI outlets, etc.

Plumbing leaks.

Inoperable doors and windows.

Lot/ground drainage issues (places where the ground slopes toward the foundation).

Major systems (furnace, A/C, Water heater, roof, etc.).

Signs of water intrusion or mold.

Structural and foundation issues - bowing basement walls, extreme settling, etc.

Most homeowners aren't equipped to handle major repairs - if your roof or furnace is shot, or if your foundation needs major work, you're probably going to have to hire a professional to fix it.  If you know you have any serious issues, you'd be well served to spend some time getting quotes and having it fixed.

Many items that show up on the list, however, can be easily corrected by the homeowner.  If you fix it before it shows up on the inspection, you can not only save money, you help your home make a better impression on the buyer - you don't want them to see an inspection report with page after page of items in need of repair!

Let's take a look at the things I see show up most frequently on home inspection reports:

Electrical Items

• Walk through your home, and look for wires.  Any electrical wire that is on the surface of a finished wall or ceiling should be protected by conduit.  If a wire is in the cavity of a wall (between the 2X4's) it is OK.  To fix this, turn off the power, disconnect the wires at one end, and put slide the wire into a conduit.  Use large enough conduit so that it's easy to get the wires through - flexible metal conduit works well and is easy to use, or you can use plastic.
• Check for exposed wire splices.  If you can see wire nuts, it should be in a junction box.  Turn off the power, take the wire apart, and put the splice in a box.  Make sure to attach the box securely to the wall or ceiling, and put a cover on it.
• Add GFCI protection.  All outlets next to a sink or other water source should be protected.  This includes all outside outlets.  If you need several, you can buy a pack of 4 GFCI outlets for under $30 at Home Depot.  You can also put a GFCI outlet in to replace an ungrounded outlet.
• Check for double-tapped connections in your main panel.  Take the cover off, and make sure there is just one wire going to each breaker.  If there are two, you can fix it easily - just take a short piece of wire (use the same size that is going to the breaker), and, using a wire nut, attach one end of it to the two wires that were in the breaker.  Connect the free end to the breaker, and you're done. 

If you don't think you should tackle electrical work, don't.  If you're fairly handy, but have a few questions, check out this post - it may give you a few pointers.

Plumbing Items

• Run water through every faucet, and let it run for a while.  Check for leaks, feeling under the trap and on the supply lines.  If any of them are wet, you have a leak!  If you fix it, you won't have to pay someone to do it later.  You should also check around the toilets.  Most minor plumbing issues are easy to fix - if you run into something major, call a pro.

Sticking Doors and Windows

• Check all your windows to make sure everything works.  If one sticks, you have to free it up.  Most sticking double-hung windows have been painted shut.  If that's your problem, cut the paint with a utility knife.  Take a putty knife, and carefully slide it in the sash where the window is supposed to slide, working it up and down the window.  Work on both sides, and try to get it moving.  Once it comes free, work it back and forth until it operates smoothly, and make sure to keep it free by moving it every day for a while.
• Some casement windows (crank out style) won't open easily.  These may not be painted shut, but could stick due to settling or swelling in the frames.  DON'T CRANK HARD to try to open them - you'll just break the crank mechanism.  Instead, remove the inside screen, and gently tap around them as your moving the crank - they'll probably open right up.  If they still don't open and close easily after freeing them, you may need to remove some material to fix the problem.  If the frame is badly out of square, you'll probably need professional help.
• A door that sticks is probably due to some minor settling.  You can usually fix them by removing a small amount of material with a plane.

Often, a homeowner can save hundreds of dollars by fixing minor issues themselves.  More importantly, the buyer can see that you've taken great care of your home, so you may get a better price.  A little work up front can save you time and money in the long run.

Installing a Water Softener

For many years, we didn't have a water softener, and saw no need to add one.  After we bought our first lake home - a condo where all the water supplied to the unit was soft - we noticed how much cleaner clothes, dishes, etc. were with soft water.

Because we weren't sure if we'd like it at our home, we leased a unit for a few years, paying just under $30 per month for its use.  After a few years, we decided it was foolish to rent, when the purchase of a new unit would pay for itself in less than two years.  Since we already had the unit installed, putting the new one in was an easy do-it-yourself project.

When we decided to make our move, we included the softener with our old home.  Since the new house had never had soft water, the installation would be just a little bit more complicated (but still a task easily accomplished by a reasonably competent homeowner).

Before you tackle a softener installation, there's a few things you need to verify:

• How much capacity do you need?   In our old home, we had a large whirlpool tub, 50 gallon water heater, and a home that would very likely be used to raise a family at some point in the future.  Even though Theresa and I were "empty nesters", it made sense to size the softener for a family.  We bought a unit that would be adequate for up to 5 people (keep in mind, a smaller unit may still work, it would just cycle more frequently).  The new home is smaller, and, being a town home, is most likely to be occupied by folks like ourselves, so we got the next size smaller unit.  The more closely you match the capacity of your softener to your needs, the more efficient it will be.
• How hard is your water?  This goes directly back to capacity, since extremely hard water will take more conditioning.  I was able to look up Lincoln's water quality on the county's web site, but you may have to get a test kit if you don't have the data, or if you are on a private well.  In our case, Lincoln's water is "moderately hard" - probably similar to most other communities in our area.
• Do you have a good spot to install the softener?  If your basement is completely finished, it may be difficult to make your connections.  You'll also need room to locate the unit, with electrical power and access to a drain available.  It is easiest if you can put the softener right by the water supply, but not absolutely necessary.
• Is your plumbing in good enough condition to make a do-it-yourself installation feasible?  If your incoming water supply pipe is old galvanized pipe, it may be difficult or impossible for you to get it apart - or, if you do, to re-assemble it.  If you have ancient pipes, a real plumber is much better equipped to handle the issues when things start to fall apart. 

So, assuming you're still reading this, let's talk about how you actually get it done.  For the sake of this discussion, let's assume you've got rigid copper supply pipes - probably 3/4" - and plenty of room to work.  If your water lines are plastic or pex, the process is a little easier, since  you won't have to solder any pipes. 

If you, like most of us, have copper plumbing, you'll need a few tools and supplies:

• A small propane torch.
• Emery cloth, or brushes to clean inside of fittings and outside of pipe.
• Solder (Lead Free!).
• Tubing Cutter.
• Flux & application brush.
• Copper pipe and fittings as required.
• Flexible tubes for installation (not absolutely necessary, but makes your job easier).
• 2 - 12" crescent wrenches (or 1 wrench and a small pipe wrench)
• Utility knife, screwdriver, pliers, pipe clamps, and other tools and supplies based on your application.

Most softeners targeted towards homeowner installation have a built-in bypass valve (a valve so you can bypass the softener, taking it out of the plumbing system).  If your softener doesn't have this, you'll need to install one, so you can still have water service if something goes wrong with the softener.

Now, we're ready to install the softener.

Turn off the water supply to the house, and drain the pipes by opening a faucet at the highest and lowest levels of the home. 

Locate the incoming water supply pipe, and determine where to cut the pipe for the softener.  There's a right place and a wrong place to cut the pipe.  Since you don't want soft water for outside faucets, sprinklers, etc., you should locate the input for the softener AFTER the branch for outside water.  In most cases, the outside water is pulled off right after the meter, so it's no problem.  If yours is different, you may have a little bigger job.  I wanted soft water to every indoor area - if you want hard water for drinking, you may have to run a supply to your drinking faucet.  

Once you figure out where to cut your line, use the tubing cutter and cut out a section.  You'll run from the supply side to the inlet of your softener, the connect back up to the plumbing from the softener outlet.

Many of the new softeners use plastic fitting on the unit to make your connections.  These are fine, but some care is needed when hooking up your pipes.  If you use the flexible connectors, you should be able to hook it up without putting any stress on your softener.  If not, you can still do it, you just need to make sure everything lines up.  In any case, you must NOT apply heat to solder pipes without isolating the copper from the plastic fittings - the melting point for plastic is much lower than for solder!  Even if you're soldering a fitting on the other end of a copper pipe, you need to keep the end hooked up to the plastic cool while soldering by wrapping a wet rag around it.  In most cases, you're better off getting your soldering done before hooking up any of the plastic fittings.

The rest of the job is easy, you just have to apply heat to the fittings and solder them.  To get a good solder joint, you need clean connections, heat, and solder.

• You need to mechanically clean the pipes and fittings - even brand new ones.  The easiest way to do this is to use a special set of brushes made for the task, and sized for the size of pipe you're using.  If you don't have that, you can use emery cloth, or a wire brush to take a little off the surface.  When you're done with that, apply some paste flux to both fitting and pipe - that will complete the cleaning and give you a good surface for soldering.
• When you apply heat, you want to heat the pipe and fitting up - not just melt the solder.  you can tell if this is working by watching what the solder does - if the fitting is hot, the solder will be pulled into the fitting, filling the area between the pipe and the fitting.  If it isn't hot, the solder will ball up and just fall off.  I apply heat to one side of the pipe, and touch the solder to the other side.
• You don't need a lot of solder for a good joint.  If you have extra, it will just drip down the pipe and look ugly (the first joints you do will have too much solder).  Your joints don't have to look good, but you'll like them better if they do.

I've never had a soldered joint leak or come apart (although I do have some ugly ones, with way too much solder).  The most common cause of solder joint failure is a cold joint - heating up the solder instead of the pipe.  Practice on a couple of scrap pieces first, and you'll see how easy it is.

After soldering your connections, it's time to hook up the softener, connect the drain tubes, and turn the water back on.  Check for leaks, program your softener, add salt, and you're ready to go!

Lots of Catfish!

I've been on vacation for a couple of weeks, so I've missed a couple of posts.  We were at the lake in Missouri - swimming, boating, golfing, and fishing.

Fish tend to be inactive when the weather - and water - gets as hot as it does in Central Missouri in August.  Fortunately, this time of year is great for catching catfish!

Most of the Cats we caught were Blue Catfish

None of them were nearly as big as this one!

There are tons of catfish in Lake of the Ozarks.  Although we've caught channel cats and flathead cats, we've caught more - and bigger - Blue Catfish.  Blue cats can exceed 100 pounds, although huge ones like that are relatively rare.  Fish in the 30 to 50 pound range are not uncommon, but most of the fish we catch are of modest size - from 2 to 5 pounds or so, with an occasional one that may be close to 10 pounds.  A couple of years ago, we caught one that must have been around 30 pounds - a real monster in my book.

Unlike some other fish, catfish don't mind the heat.  They'll be a little deeper when it's really hot - we caught most of our fish between 15 and 25 feet below the surface.  Catfish will eat a variety of bait - night crawlers, minnows, and cut bait.  One of the best bait is cut shad - blues can't seem to resist it.

We fish with a rod and reel, of course, and we probably caught about half the fish that way.  We also fish for catfish with jug lines, or what we call "noodling".  We cut 12" pieces of "fun noodles" (foam swim aids), and tie a 25' line on the end.  We bait the hook, then throw about 30 of these set ups in the water and wait for them to pop.  When a fish hits them, the end pops up in the air - a large blue will take them completely under water!  Once they start to move, we catch them with the boat and haul them in.  It's a different way to fish, but it's fun and you usually catch a few fish.

I still prefer to catch fish the old-fashioned way, with a rod and reel, but I enjoy using the noodles, too.  Using the noodles allows us to increase our catch, and fill up the freezer so we can enjoy fish all year long.

How much success did we have?  I'm not the world's greatest fisherman, but over the three days that Liz and Carter were visiting, I cleaned about 40 catfish.  Since most of them were blues, we were close to catching our limit of five blues apiece per day (just three of us were fishing).

I always fillet our fish, so we can avoid all the bones.  Theresa soaks them in egg, rolls them in potato buds (I know, sounds crazy, but it's good), and fries them.  Few things in life are better then fried fish straight from the lake!

Movie Review - Charade

OK, I admit it, when it comes to movies, I can get stuck in the past.  I like a lot of the old movies, even some that aren't really that great, when you look at it objectively.  I like most of the Cary Grant movies, but a couple are really quite good.  Charade is one of the best - right up there with North by Northwest.

Theresa and I watched Charade on Netflix recently.  I remember seeing it years ago, when I was a kid, but I really didn't remember it at all.  I was not disappointed!  It has some interesting characters - a lot of humor, and just a little bit of suspense.  As a romantic mystery, it holds its own with many more modern movies.

I've never been much of an Audrey Hepburn fan, but she's perfect in this role - she has that fragile, aristocratic look that makes it work.  Her Regina Lambert is vulnerable and terrified, but just a little tougher than you might believe at first.

I really liked the heavies in this film, in particular George Kennedy.  He plays Scobie, missing a hand, brooding and menacing - at one point, Hepburn makes a point of mentioning his "ugly, scary face".  He's not the nastiest of the bad guys, or the toughest (that distinction almost certainly goes to James Coburn), but you've got to love a character that's so ugly he has to be evil.  His mother must be so proud!  The third bad guy - Ned Glass as Gideon - isn't big or tough, but somehow you just know he's nasty. 

Another bonus in this movie is the chance to see Walter Matthau, playing it straight as a CIA bureaucrat. 

With the three bad guys after poor Regina, she really needs a true-blue hero to watch out for her.  What she gets is Cary Grant as Peter Joshua (or whatever other name he cooks up - he has several aliases).  Joshua, or whoever he is, is charming, and he always seems to show up at just the right time and place.  The only question is, is he really there to help Regina, or is he just another crook ready to torture/kill/rob her?  You don't really THINK he's a bad guy, but you're never quite sure. 

If you're like me, you'll probably figure this out before the end of the movie, but you won't be sure about it until the very end - in this film, very little is what it seems to be. 

This is a film that could easily be made today.  Oh, there'd be some changes made - we'd have more of a physical romance between Regina and Peter, and there'd be some special effects and probably a bit more violence.  The dialog would be different.  None of that really changes anything, though.  The basic plot and characters would work as well today as they did in 1963.  It's a great movie, highly recommended.

Moving Time!

They say that every Realtor should move occasionally, to better empathize with our clients.  Since we've lived in our home for nearly 21 years, we were overdue for a move.  We're fixing that now - we've got a home under contract, and will soon put our home on the market.

Theresa has been wanting to downsize - move into a town home, with fewer responsibilities and chores.  Our home doesn't require a lot of maintenance, but it has a large, complicated yard, and there's always something that needs to be done.

I've resisted moving, mainly because I didn't think it was worth it to go to all the work and expense of selling, buying, and hauling things back and forth.  Finally, I decided it was time.

We started out looking at VERY small town homes - roughly 900 square feet, with no basement.  We made an offer on one - the seller was totally unwilling to meet us anywhere near half way on price - then settled for a less expensive alternative.  Although neither of us was crazy about the street appeal, it was OK inside, and, with a little work, had a floor plan that would work for us.  Since it was so much smaller than we were used to, we decided we'd need to enclose a sun room, and made the offer contingent on being able to do that. We were financing with a renovation loan, so we'd borrow money to do some repairs, along with the purchase.

Our first hurdle was to get permission from the homeowners association to add the room. This was a little harder than you might think - no one seemed to have a problem with it, but they didn't really think they could speak for the association.  Finally, we were able to get a consensus from the board members that they would be OK with it.

The next problem was finding out if we could get a building permit - a task made much more difficult by the small lot - there was no way we could build and meet the standard set-back requirements of our city.  After a bunch of calls, we were still not sure if we could do it or not.

The other issue that soon became apparent was that all the improvements we wanted to make would soon increase the cost of our "cheap" town home to something very nearly as expensive to live in as our home.  Even though we wanted to simplify life, this didn't seem like a smart move.  By over-improving the small property, we'd set ourselves up to be upside down in the new place for years to come.

Finally, due to all the above concerns, we decided we couldn't go through with this purchase.  We cancelled the contract, and started looking again.

The first thing we did was go back to the original town home we had liked.  It already had a sun room, and was in a great neighborhood, so it was a real possibility.  Unfortunately, the monthly association dues were very high, so this property would be expensive.  Although we were prepared to spend the money, we decided to spend a day looking at some other options.

First, we looked in some different neighborhoods.  We've lived in South Lincoln for over 20 years, but there are some nice areas on the North side of town.  We looked at a few places, but weren't bowled over by any of them - a couple were OK, but didn't really blow away our original choice.  We also went up in price a bit, even looking at some that would have no cost advantage over living in our home.  We still didn't find the perfect home.  A bit discouraged, we headed home and decided to make one more computer search - this time including town homes without an association to handle snow removal and lawn care.  One home stood out in this batch.  Even though we were both tired of looking, we decided to make one more trip.

The home we found was in a great neighborhood.  It was larger than most of the others we'd looked at - a little over 1200 square feet on the main floor.  It had a full basement - unfinished, but with some possibilities for finish in the future - and a double garage.  Not everything was exactly like we wanted, but it was close enough that we felt we could live with it until we got around to fixing it up to our tastes.  I always tell people that "perfect doesn't exist", but this was just what we were looking for.  There was no association, but the lawn is small enough that upkeep won't be a burden (and I may yet decide to have it done by a service).  As a bonus, we also found out we could install a fence in the back yard - an unexpected bonus, since most town homes don't allow it.

We quickly decided to write an offer, and, after a counter or two, reached agreement with the sellers. 

We've got inspections set up, and we're scheduled to close in a bit over a month.  We'll be getting our home on the market in the next few days, and I'm sure we'll be swamped until after we're settled.  In the next few weeks, I'll post about the process of getting our old house listed, what we did to get it ready, and what we're doing to the new home.  For now, we're excited about this new chapter in our lives, and looking forward to the day when we can start to enjoy our new-found freedom.