220, 221, Whatever It Takes

File this under "not fit to own my own home":

I've got the girls today (no pre-school, but the teachers have to go in for an in-service), so I took some time out of my busy working-from-home day for a little field trip to Lowe's to buy some pipe insulation. I was finally going to insulate the 80' run of hot water pipe in the basement and hopefully we wouldn't have to wait 3 minutes for the hot water to arrive at the faucet when we take a shower.

So I went down and measured out how much I needed, and I also measured the diameter of the pipe. I know enough about construction to know that copper water pipe is usually 1/2", so I was surprised when the pipe measured at just under 3/4" in diameter.

When I got to Lowe's I was confronted with insulation for 1/2" pipe and for 3/4" pipe. Based on the measurement I took, which one do you think I bought? And, more importantly, which one do you think I should have bought?

If your answers were "three-quarter inch" and "half-inch," well, you know me pretty well. So now I have 80' of the wrong insulation sitting in my basement. A minor problem, since I can easily return it, but still. It's the principle of the thing and the fact that, just like when it comes to directions, I can always be counted on to make the exact wrong choice when presented with two home improvement options.

Technology has saved me from lots of directions-related embarrassment, since Google Maps and the GPS in my car mean I don't actually have to decide which way to go. What technology is going to come along and save me from looking like a total dweeb when it comes to my house?* Whatever it is, I can hardly wait.

(* -- A Google search tells me that the outside diameter of 1/2" copper pipe is 5/8". That's the sort of information I need the internet to tell me before I waste a trip to Lowe's, not after.)