The DEB Log

The Air Hockey Table Electrification Initiative

2012-01-15T11:46:00.000-05:00

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For Christmas, J gave the family a small air hockey game. It runs on batteries. M and I decided that batteries were not an acceptable power source and set out to update it.

Here is a picture of the underside of the game. The round part is the fan that blows the air up through holes in the playing surface. The rectangular part is the battery compartment.

Our goal was to add a power jack for a 9V power supply, and a switch to turn it on and off. (Thanks to Grandpa B for the spare switch!)

Our first task was to add some wires to the fan. These wires will be attached to the switch and power jack.

Next, we drilled holes for the power jack and the switch. We soldered the wires to the connections after testing the fan to make sure we had the right polarity. The fan needs to run in the right direction to blow air out the top of the game, as the puck floats on this air. If the fan ran backwards, the game wouldn't work at all.

Then, we used a heat gun to shrink the plastic tubing around the soldered connections. Here is the bottom in its finished state.

This is what the game looks like now, with the power jack and switch.

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Happy New Year!

2012-01-12T22:30:00.001-05:00

Two sides and two ends of a box for a magic wand.

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Happy New Year
It's now 2012, and some people believe the world will end this year. Evidence is thin, but someone on TV said it, and there are some websites that support it. What more do you need? If someone on TV says it, it must be true. TV also tells me that Taco Bell is open very late at night in case I need a taco. Isn't TV great?

Resolutions
I don't normally make New Year resolutions, but I've decided on a few this time around.
* I resolve to strike while the iron is hot. Striking while it's cold just makes dents and hurts my hands.
* I resolve to remove the songs from my iPod that I haven't listened to in more than a year.
* I resolve to clean the basement workshop area a few weeks ago and keep it clean through today. (Done!)
* I resolve to continue avoiding using the word "so" as the first word in a sentence when that sentence is not a direct continuation of a previous thought.
* I resolve to answer the door when UPS, the neighbor kids, or opportunity knock.
* I resolve to nag my kids more. They're going to want someone to blame for their problems when they get older, and I am determined to be there for them when the time comes.
* I resolve to choose the winning PowerBall numbers for the March 23, 2012 drawing.
* I resolve to actually buy a PowerBall ticket, which, despite the overwhelming odds of losing, one is required to purchase if one expects to win.
* I resolve to finish the semi-secret electronics project I started in 2011. Let's just say it is off the ground floor.

A Few Links
Open letter to watch manufacturers: The greatest watch ever has been designed and built. It's over. Your industry has peaked and will soon be in decline. Sell your tiny tweezers on eBay, hang up your magnifying eyepieces, and take early retirement. Behold this masterpiece of timekeeping.

Look at these rayguns. Just look at them.

Robots! I might have posted this before, but it's been a while, so go back and take another look.

Plans for a Stirling engine. A fun little weekend project.

Low Tech Magazine, ironically hosted on a web page. But you have to do what you have to do.

Smithy is an Ann Arbor company that makes machine shop tools. If I could POSSIBLY think of something to make with this combination lathe/mill, I would take out a loan and buy one. This place is not far from my house, so I could avoid the $329 shipping charge. With savings like that, how can I afford NOT to buy one? And it's so pretty, you could just pull up a chair and stare at it for hours.

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Have a Belated Merry Christmas and an Early Happy New Year!

2011-12-29T18:39:00.002-05:00

For Christmas, K got a Fushigi, and M got a Chia Obama. Remember Chia Pets? This is the same, but with a Barack Obama head. (Yes, it's a real thing.)

A Frasier fir - no word on Niles or Lilith.

Christmas
Christmas Day is past, although we haven't had all of our family gatherings yet. We've had a fun vacation so far. We saw the new Muppet movie yesterday, met Laurie's new cats (Granger and Tonks), and are regularly visiting the front window looking for signs of snow. We've had a little, but not enough for sledding, skiing, snowboarding, or anything-ing. The closest we've come to snow is the ice we got a few nights ago, but ice is no fun.

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Science Olympiad 2012
This year I agreed to help play a bigger role for Lawton's Science Olympiad team, and the other Head Coaches and I are working our way through the signups (over 90 students) and trying to sort out who will be starting out on what team. It's challenging but fun.

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Air Hockey: Battery Hog
In the tree picture above, you can see a table-top air hockey game. It was a present from J to the rest of us, although she's pretty good at it herself. We were not thrilled to find it takes six AA batteries, so M and I are plotting to add an AC adapter and plug to the internals, and mount a switch where it's accessible from the outside. (The current switch is underneath the top, and you have to turn it over to reach it.) We have the adapter and 2.1mm connector to hook up to the motor, we just need a switch. I'm sure I have one somewhere downstairs we can use...

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Happy New Year!

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Pre-Christmas Status Report

2011-12-15T18:17:00.000-05:00

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Brief Update
Not a whole lot of news here, but sometimes no news is good news.

M is playing saxophone at school when he's not waiting out sore gums from having his braces adjusted. He's still doing a great job in his classes. We can see all his grades online at a website called PowerSchool. We can see as much detail as the teacher wants to add - every homework assignment, quiz, class project, etc. has a score.

K isn't going to be playing an instrument at school until next year, but he's making progress on piano and his own schoolwork. M modified a blinking LED "warning" light that he used at last year's Science Fair for a project K is working on. K wanted something that would draw attention to his project over the other projects in the room. One of his project teammates is bringing in something else to draw attention: mints.

The Christmas tree is up, and we're on course to have our shopping done before it's necessary to panic. J does most of it for the family, but I've gone out on a few present-buying runs for J and the kids.

Oh, and I finished "The Hunger Games" which I have to admit was quite difficult to put down. I know that's cliche, but it was, in fact, hard to put down. I could have done without the part where the the dinosaurs visited District 12 in the spaceship, but other than that, it was a great book. I'm going to start on the second in the series, "Catching Fire", sometime soon.

Metalworking Links
A man built a small-scale compressed air-driven v-12 engine. Check it out.

Plans for this small, two-stroke engine can be downloaded by registering with the website.

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December So Far

2011-12-03T23:03:00.001-05:00

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Lots of little things going on in December.

Mark's Mouth
The biggest news is probably M's oral surgery yesterday. I don't want to tell his story (because it's his) but it went well and his recovery is coming along just fine.

Family Stuff
We bought and decorated our Christmas tree today. K disagreed with our choice of a corkbark fir like last year's and he was right for a change. We got a frasier fir (no relation to Frasier Crane) and after decking it out with lights and ornaments, it is gracing our dining room in its usual spot.

Science Olympiad
Last week was the official kickoff meeting of Science Olympiad at the elementary school. I'm playing a bigger role this year than I have in past years, and am part of the parent committee to organize all the students, coaches, and practices for the school. Last year there were almost 100 students who participated, so it's not a simple job to manage it. I'm working with three other parents this year, two of whom did all the work themselves last year.

Snow and Trees
We got our first real snow of the year early this week. As the snow came down and the wind blew hard, our phone rang. It was my next-door neighbor letting me know that one of my spruce trees was leaning over his driveway at a 45-degree angle. We pulled it back up with some rope and staked it. I couldn't feel my fingers when it was over. I'm grateful my neighbor is such a good guy - he didn't want the tree to block his driveway, but he didn't have to spend his evening getting wet and slopping through my yard, holding a rope while I tied it to a stake. Thanks, Jim!

The tree is still staked up. I'm not expecting it to stay up for long after it's unstaked. Remember this tree? I have a feeling my staked tree has the same root-poor condition. We'll see.

Go State!
I spent the first quarter of the Big 10 Championship game (MSU vs Wisconsin) on the treadmill. I'm spending the fourth quarter on the computer typing, watching the teams beat the heck out of each other. A great game so far...

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Current Family Book Selections

2011-11-23T08:48:00.001-05:00

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I just finished Tinkers by Paul Harding. A story about a dying man and his memories of growing up, it won a Pulitzer Prize. The book got off to a slow start, and started to intermingle the present day and flashbacks, and I wasn't following it too closely. The man was a clock repairman by trade, and there were some interesting comments about his profession, but the skipping around, which I believe was supposed to be a reflection of his mind's erratic focus, was hard to follow. Occasionally, some of the characters hallucinate, which is always a difficult literary maneuver. In one hallucination, a character sees an Indian next to a pond, and a fish jumps into his mouth. It is hard to make the transition from the occasional straight-line storytelling to a hallucination/daydream/flashback to the eventual return to reality.

I wasn't sure how much farther I was going to go with it when the story shifted to a long reminiscence about his childhood, and for about one hundred pages I had a hard time putting it down, as they say. The father of the aforementioned dying man, a traveling salesman of brushes and soap, had difficulty being a great father, and had epilepsy before they knew what that was. The man and his wife managed to keep the seizures a secret from their children, until one day at dinner the father had a seizure in front of the family. The portion of the book that narrated the father's story was very well-done, and I really felt what was happening in the book - the reaction of the family members, the fear and panic of those who had not yet witnessed a seizure, and the believable calm of the wife.

After the story of the father winds down, the book returned to the present day, and almost immediately, the flow of the book (and my understanding of which time period was being covered) became choppy again.

I give it four out of five stars, with a solid five stars for the middle 100 pages.

I've read several non-fiction books lately, mostly having to do with computer languages like JavaScript and Python. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with that information, but JavaScript has been on the minds of quite a few people at my work lately as a language that some of us may be getting more familiar with in the weeks and months to come.

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K is reading Middleworld, about a boy whose archeologist parents go to Central America. He is invited to join them there, but finds they've disappeared.

M is reading The Twenty-One Balloons, a Newberry Medal-winning book he read last year and wanted to read again. I think I might like to read this one.

J is finishing up the latest Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, a series we've all read and enjoyed. The writing is a mix of comics and words, and is the diary (although he doesn't like to call it that) of a boy who is struggling with his identity in a world of wierd friends, bullying brothers, and icky (but somehow fascinating) girls. And, of course, his experiences with The Cheese Touch. I'm not sure what other books she's read lately, but she always has one in progress.

Everyone here except me has read The Hunger Games, and after hearing what it's about, I'm not sure I can stomach it. We'll see.

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We finally bought a new camera to replace our aging Canon A510. We bought a Panasonic Lumix, partly because it was recommended by my dad, and partly because we were having a hard time finding a different, smaller camera with similar features. We're happy with our choice, and we've already taken quite a few pictures.

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Thanksgiving is near! We're going to see almost all of our family, most of whom are conveniently located in the state of Michigan. We're looking forward to the fun and food, and the opportunity to see some relatives we usually only see this time of year.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Plane Rehab, Plus A Few Links

2011-11-12T20:43:00.001-05:00

A Millers Falls plane, cleaned up and ready to smooth.

Planes (the woodworking kind, not the other kind)
Dad found a few planes at a thrift store and handed them off to me to see if I could do something with them (thanks, Dad!) I started with the most promising one, a Millers Falls model 14B, which is very similar to the more common Stanley #5 smoothing plane.

I took it apart, cleaned up the rust, polished the metal parts, stripped the red stain off the handles, and restained and them. After a few coats of clear finish, the handles (also known as the tote and the knob) were back on, and it was almost ready to go. A little honing on what was already a pretty sharp blade, and I was in business.

There are two more planes in the set, and I am not sure if one of them can be saved - it has a lot of rust on the sole. But I'll give it a try and see what I can do.

"Family" Fun Night
M and I went to his school's Family Fun Night last night from 6:00 - 8:00. It is so named because family members of students are invited. Whether the middle-schooler has any desire to actually spend time with his or her family at the Family Fun Night is an entirely different matter. When we got there, we bought a slice of pizza for dinner, and I asked M what the plan was. His answer: "I'll meet you at the front door at 7:55." OK, then. I wandered around, talked to some other parents, introduced myself to some volunteer moms and dads that I didn't know, talked to one of M's teachers, and played basketball with a few sixth-graders I know from Lawton. I'm not sure if I avoided embarrassing M by being there, you'll have to ask him.

Soccer season for K has ended. He had a good year, and scored a goal in a game a few weeks ago. His team played very well again this year, winning all but one game, and most of the wins were of the lopsided ilk.

Links
The only reason I wouldn't buy an Electric DeLorean is, well, actually, I guess if I had the money, I'd buy one. They're cool!

David Malki, creator of Wondermark, provides a brief but important flowchart for internet users.

Jim Gaffigan asks his friends who are so eager to spend their days off work camping and hiking: "If it's so great outside, why are all the bugs trying to get into my house?"

Providing tools and materials to people who need them, and teaching them how to use them, is better than standing around wondering why they're not being productive.

I read this book, Banker to the Poor, by Muhammad Yunus, several years ago. It's about microloans in developing countries, and its concepts can apply in countries like the US as well. The idea that loaning even ten or twenty dollars to someone in a developing country can help pull them out of poverty doesn't make much sense to us, but it's real, and it works.

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Halloween

2011-11-01T18:08:00.000-04:00

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M did the two end pumpkins, K did the castle, and I did the bubbling cauldron. The cauldron glowed with the light inside it, but it never quite looked like I hoped it would.

K is a hobo, and M nerds it up big time with his headgear and brainiac hairdo.

Falling for October

2011-10-24T18:51:00.001-04:00

Fall? Yes.

Fall is definitely here. The colors on the leaves are changing, there's a chill in the air, and there are only a few weeks left in soccer season. It's getting darker a lot earlier, and we find ourselves inside under blankets, keeping warm while we slow down our day. The Halloween decorations are up, and the pumpkins are on the porch, waiting for us to carve out their guts and cut holes in their skins. Gross.

J sometimes buys little bags of candy corn and pumpkin-shaped treats and puts them in a bowl on the counter. They're not as tasty as I remember from my childhood. It could be that I just enjoyed them more as a child, but it is probably because they now make them out of recycled newspapers and milk jugs. The way we recycle everything has really changed the food industry, hasn't it? I just read that my favorite pop, Diet Mountain Dew, is made entirely of water, caffeine, and grass clippings from golf courses.

What's going on at work for me? Nothing new, still working on the new product with a combination of Silverlight, C#, and SQL Server. Stop me if you've heard this one.

J and I went to the middle school teacher conferences last week. The teachers sit at tables in the cafeteria, and parents have a few minutes to talk to the teachers about the class and their student(s). M is doing very well in his classes so far, and has fit in well. He's playing soccer, and his practices are over for the season, with one game to go.

A Few Links
Scratch-built models:
Cannon model

Corsair airplane

A cat made from typewriter parts

The Missing Link
I found a link to the website that gave me the idea to put a new handle on my pocket knife, and I was wrong - the author used wood, not bone. I must have been thinking of another site...

Knife Project

2011-10-22T14:39:00.000-04:00

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Several years ago, I was given the opportunity to go through some of J's grandfather's tools and take the ones I would use. I regret that I didn't take more time to think through what I would like to have, and that I did not take more than a small box's worth of tools. I'll put that day on my time travel wish list. I was fortunate to grab some very nice things, many of which I have used on one project or another, and they are a reminder of him and the wonderful work he did in his woodshop when he was alive.

One of the items I took was an old pocket knife. It has three blades, a long clip-point, a short clip-point, and a short sheepsfoot blade, which is often used for whittling. (See Wikipedia for the definitions of the blade shapes.)

One side of the knife was bone, and the other was black plastic. The bone side was crumbling, and had been cracked since I acquired it.

This knife could use some work, although I have used it for several years, and the blades have always done their jobs.

I saw a website where someone shared his experience with removing the sides of his pocket knife and replacing them with bone. I can't find the article or I would put a link to it here. It gave me the idea to replace my knife's sides, although I didn't want to bother with bone.

I thought it would be pretty easy to make some wood replacements for the sides. I removed the material, then took out a bit of cherry and sawed, filed, sanded, and otherwise shaped the sides to fit. It was not as easy as I thought, partly because holding down such small pieces of wood was a challenge. I don't have any bench sanding tools that were appropriate for this project, so it was largely a matter of time and patience.

Some pieces in various stages of being shaped. I made several sides before I got two I liked.

While the old sides were off, I cleaned the blades and sharpened them, using 600-1000 grit sandpaper, and then honed them on a strop. They were already pretty sharp from a prior sharpening session a few years ago, but this was a good opportunity to do it again. I have used the knife quite a bit, despite its failing appearance.

When the sides were finished, they looked a little odd - most knives have rivets to hold the side materials in place, and I didn't have any rivets or tools to insert them. The plain wood didn't look quite right.

I decided to add fake "rivets" to the sides to give them a more traditional look. I bought some brass rod at the hardware store and cut it into small pieces, then filed and sanded the pieces until they were slightly rounded at the ends and short enough to fit into the wood sides. I drilled holes in the sides using a pin vise and a small bit, then I superglued the brass into the holes. I let the glue set for a day, then superglued the sides onto the bare metal of the knife. The super glue I used was the gel kind, not the liquid kind. The gel kind will fill gaps and is more forgiving when the two mating parts are not perfect fits.

Here is the result. A successful project, and it wasn't too hard. I did make a mistake on the side you're not seeing which caused a tiny hole to appear as I was doing my final sanding and shaping. I can live with that, though, because I wasn't creating a museum piece and the knife is working very well, hole or no hole.

Ready to go

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Stay tuned for more tool restorations at The DEB Log. I have another tool on the bench, this one from my dad, and I hope to have it cleaned up and ready to go soon.

Also, Halloween is coming, and I've been putting some thought into my pumpkin design this year. The UM fans around the neighborhood are tired of seeing my MSU pumpkins, so I'll give them a break and move onto something different.

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Greenfield Village in Pictures

2011-10-10T19:30:00.000-04:00

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Click on any of the pictures to see a larger version.

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All you old-timer computer guys who brag about using punch cards should see the loom that used punch cards long before that...

For more info, see this page on the Jacquard loom.

K showed the Greenfield Village employee how to operate the 1917 Brown & Sharpe Turret Lathe to make a small candlestick holder.

This blurry video shows it in action. If you'd like to own one, I saw a few for sale when I was Googling around...

After K taught the guy how to run it, I gave it a spin, so to speak. In this picture, the employee appears to have some doubts about my abilities.

I wish I had a better picture of this machinist's chest, but I couldn't get close enough. Someday I'm going to make a scaled down version of this.

For all you woodworkers who obsess over things "lining up" and "looking nice", this piece of shop storage is functional, and the drawers move in and out as expected. That's all you need.

This lathe, seen here in the Village's roundhouse, is used to create parts for repair of steam locomotives. After hours, it is leased to a local matchstick factory.

Sure, they've got a lot of wrenches, but can they change my bike tire?

One of your larger reciprocating saws, as seen in the sawmill. This sawmill isn't operational, which is too bad, because I would really liked to have seen this in action.

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Wolverine's Lair Wand Company: Back in Business

2011-09-25T17:13:00.000-04:00

A new wand, ready for Hogwarts

For several weeks, I worked on this wand, and wooden storage box, for a good friend of K's. She is in his grade, and lives across the street. She has the same love for Harry Potter and spell-casting as K, so the Wolverine's Lair leadership decided to resume production for a custom wand.

The wand was carved with a single knife out of basswood. It was shaped with a pullknife, a file, a card scraper, and the knife.

The box has finger joints and is made of poplar. It is lined with soft, red fabric and has a pillow that allows the magic to rest comfortably when it has a chance.

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Update with Lots of Links

2011-09-24T06:44:00.000-04:00

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New and Used Electronics
M now has his own laptop for school work and YouTube browsing. He also has my old TracFone cell phone so he can call us from school if his soccer practice is over, but the bus hasn’t shown up. Both of these have him thinking he’s a little older than 11.

Gaffigan Jokes
A few fun quotes from Jim Gaffigan:

Have you ever been watching TV for a couple hours and you suddenly lose the remote? “I haven’t even gotten up! And I don’t remember throwing it…”

“Whenever you’re at a brunch buffet and you see that big metal tray filled with the four thousand pieces of bacon, don’t you almost expect a rainbow to be coming out of it?”

Fun Links
This is a neat project – turning an old candlestick phone into a modern, touch-tone phone.

Item #1201 of the things I’d like to build someday: Block Clock

Item #1202: A slightly different kind of clock.

I love this kind of thing, but if I made one, it would never look as cool as when someone else does it.

Not only is this beautiful beyond description, but it probably sounds good, too.

Get rid of the gullwing doors, and I’d buy one of these. I mean, if I didn’t already have a car. And I had a lot of money. And this were actually for sale.

Really nice watches, although look at how wide they are – almost 2” wide. But it is nice-looking, so you’d want to show it off.

As a non-cabinetmaker, I think these are pretty funny, and likely spot on. If I was a cabinet maker, they would probably leave me unable to decide between laughing and crying.

Video 1

Video 2

A YouTube lock-picking series. I haven't had a chance to watch it yet.

Coming Soon
A project I've been working on for a while is done - pictures and description coming soon!

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Run-a-thon Results

2011-09-16T21:48:00.000-04:00

Wow! Look at those minutes!

The students of Lawton collectively logged over 15,000 minutes of walking tonight at the 10th annual Run-a-thon. The Run-a-thon benefits the Lawton PTO and the John Crosby Foundation.

The above image is from the computer program I wrote to help keep track of the minutes. There were some mix-ups between the people keeping track of the minutes for each student and me, but for the most part the time was reported correctly. According to the data file the program was using, there were 208 participants.

I'm so impressed with the effort the kids will make to benefit these great causes.

Wooden Box, School, and Links

2011-09-03T14:59:00.001-04:00

Making a box. No power tools here, just saws, planes, pencils and squares.

School
School starts for 3/4 of our family on Tuesday: M to a new school for sixth grade, K to his comfortable old school for fourth, and J to her middle school as the Media Clerk. Work starts for me on Tuesday the way it always does, with Diet Mt. Dew and deleting most of the email I've received since the last time I was at work.

Soccer practice started Thursday. Someday I won't be reporting on soccer practices any more, but I'm expecting a few more years.

We took a quick weekend trip to Pittsburgh to see J's grandmother, who doesn't come close to acting her age. At her house, 97 looks like 80 for most people. She'll bury us all.

Projects
I'm obviously working on a wood project - this one is a secret until further notice, but it is similar to some projects I've done in the past. It involves a wooden box (poplar), carving (basswood), and magic incantations. Oops, I've said too much.

My Arduino project is on hold for now because I'm working on the wood project, and I was also sidetracked by the software I wrote for the Run-a-thon. But soon I'll be back with it. In the meantime, I made good on my threat to buy the book Making Things Move, and I also purchased this ultrasonic sensor, which I plan to use to help determine the position of a certain moving object that will be controlled by the Arduino and some user input. Stay tuned.

A Few Fun Links
Jeff De Boer's creations are pretty cool.

You've officially run out of excuses for not constructing your own Saturn V rocket or Hubble telescope.

I haven't had a lot of time to look at this PDF more closely, but it's full of interesting ideas for hiding things.

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August Update

2011-08-18T21:55:00.000-04:00

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Things have been busy both at home and at work, and I’ve been silent on this web site for a while. Here’s an update.

Maker Faire

The boys inside the Tornado Intercept Vehicle

On July 30, we went to the Maker Faire at Henry Ford Museum. This year’s Faire was somewhat expanded from last year’s, and there were more tables and demonstrations inside the museum. We met Sean Casey, best known from his work on the show Storm Chasers. He built a tank-like vehicle that he drives directly into the line of a tornado, then captures it on film. He and his rig were featured in the IMAX movie “Tornado Alley”, which we saw at Adler Planetarium last month. The kids got to sit inside the “tank” while I impressed Mr. Casey himself by commenting that I saw his movie and that I like the part of the vehicle that drives spikes into the ground to anchor it in high winds. He said that was his favorite part too, but I bet he says that to all his fans.

There were a number of attractions from last year, like the life-sized Mouse Trap game, and the circular bikes that can be pedaled by 6-8 people.

J was quite enamored with the 3-D printing machines that are obiquitous at the Faire, and I agree. They’re pretty cool.

A 3-D printing machine takes the plastic in the spool you see at the top, melts it, and dispenses it out of a small nozzle that moves back and forth. Each layer of carefully-placed plastic builds on the previous, until the object is fully formed.

Dental and Baseball News

Collegiately-colored braces - they say "Go Blue" with every smile.

On August 15, M’s weight rose very slightly with the addition of braces. Part of his new hardware is colored alternately maize and blue. J and I told him that when we had braces, they came in one color: metal.

On August 16, we went to Comerica Park to watch the Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins. It was a beautiful night, and the boys and I took turns filling out the score sheet for the game. It wasn’t the score sheet format I learned when I was younger, so it was a new experience for each of us.

J and I went to Media Day at UM stadium, and she took a picture of the new, gigantic scoreboards/video screens they've been installing over the past few months. Believe it or not, it looks bigger in person than it does in this picture.

Side Projects, and a Link to Finish
I have been working steadily on a software project for the school’s Run-a-thon, a fund-raiser for the school’s PTO and the John R. Crosby Memorial Foundation. It’s a program into which a timekeeper can enter start and finish times for runners. There are some goals for the total number of minutes the kids will walk and run, and the program will keep track of the grand total and display it on a screen.

Here's a link to a great penguin someone made from typewriter parts. Very creative!

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LEGO Competition, August 4, 2011

2011-08-06T08:52:00.001-04:00

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M and his medal-winning creation

None of you will be the least bit surprised to hear that M entered this year's Ann Arbor District Library LEGO contest.

The same number of you will not be surprised to hear that he won the "Best Vehicle" medal in his age group, 6th-8th grade.

His entry was a plane, surrounded by its builders, under the LEGO sign.

The LEGO factory crew shows off the fruits of their labor.

What you may find surprising is that J had an entry in the LEGO contest this year. She, with Kevin's help, also produced a medal-winning project, third place overall in the adult category. The project included the best LEGO UFO I've ever seen.

The sign reads "Billy learns how crop circles are made". Billy and his bike can be seen at the rear of the display.

Wow! Congratulations to J, M, and K, the three-quarters of our family who are now one medal richer!

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Frankfort, MI

2011-07-28T22:43:00.000-04:00

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We got back from Frankfort several hours ago. We had a great time, some pretty good weather, and a few memories here and there.

Check out some of the pictures below, and click on any of them to see a larger version.

We mini-golfed here. Fortunately, the course was not as off kilter as the sign. I have no idea where the self-storage part of the business was. Maybe it tipped over like the sign, and had to be removed?

K gives a preview of this year's Halloween costume: disembodied head in foam.

The boys, and their friends Hannah and Rachel, constructed this royal estate on time and under budget. On the minus side, it was made of sand, and was found to have been destroyed later in the day. Oh, the humanity!

I swear I have no idea how this picture got in here...

The kids found a poor bee struggling to walk in the sand (it couldn't fly). I felt sorry for it and gave it a Pringle.

The boys pose at sunset on the beach.

It was pretty windy the second day we were there, but we went to the beach anyway, because what's the point of staying 100 yards from Lake Michigan if you don't go to the beach? These folks ventured down to the beach, too, but decided to sit with their backs to the wind. Good idea, if only they had not planted their chairs twenty feet from the porta-johns. We're still completely puzzled about it.

The boys act cool at The Cool Spot, a popular ice cream and fudge shop on Main Street.

The lighthouse, in a postcard picture taken by J. There's nothing more peaceful than a sailboat coming home between the ends of the two piers.

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Get Thee to Detroit

2011-07-16T14:28:00.002-04:00

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White Sox vs. Tigers
We went to the White Sox vs. Tigers game on Friday night, partly compliments of my company, which hosts a yearly outing to Comerica Park. It was a nice night for baseball, and there were fireworks after the game ended. Unfortunately for Tigers fans, those were the only fireworks that night, except for Miguel Cabrera’s two-run homer, which accounted for all of the Tigers’ scoring in their 8-2 loss. Justin Verlander, a pitcher who is on the short list of AL Cy Young award candidates, had trouble living up to expectations as last night’s starter, although few pitchers would be able to live up to those expectations. The Tigers are now in a close second place to Cleveland in their division.

In short, a battle was lost, but the war is still on. Go Tigers!

I have said before that I really like the city of Detroit – they have more to offer than many think, and have had their reputation sullied by many other problems. Comerica Park is an incredible place, as is Ford Field, the Fox Theater, the nearby Henry Ford complex, and many other buildings and attractions. We’re lucky to be so close. Go Detroit!

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News from the World of Mouth Metal
The word "orthodontist" has been spoken quite often lately at our house, and the next few years will provide M with first-hand knowledge of modern science's best practices in tooth management and movement. That same time span will provide J and me ample opportunity to use the phrases "out-of-pocket expenses", "not covered", "lifetime maximum benefits", and "notice that I've post-dated that check to January 1, 2017".

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Hotter weather is coming - stay inside, or, if you can't stay inside, at least try to put some ice cubes in your cold drink.

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News Update - July Edition

2011-07-13T17:45:00.000-04:00

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We've been busy the last few weeks. Here's the rundown:

On July 3, we went to Jackson to see Grandma and Grandpa B. We went to Cascades to see the fireworks, which was a nice show, the best we've seen for a while.

We returned to Top of the Park a few times before it ended. We saw more great bands during our visits: Los Gatos, Zap Toro, Nervous But Excited, Chris Bathgate, Mr. Seley and the Troublemakers (kids' music, which was fun for adults, too), Igor & Red Elvises, and local favorite George Bedard and the Kingpins.

Igor & Red Elvises perform, giant red bass guitar and all.

On the final night of Top of the Park, I volunteered to help collect donations at one of the entrances. I wasn't sure how it would go, if people would be glad to see me or do anything they could to avoid me. But it worked out well, and most people either gave money or politely declined. Because it was the last night of a three-week event, many had already given at least once, and some had given a dozen times, so we got lots of "we already gave last time!" responses. A few people even thanked me for volunteering to help - you're welcome!

A few years ago, we saw a group called "Strange Fruit", acrobats who do all their work at the top of tall, flexible poles. They climb the poles, attach themselves to the pole with a harness, then sway, spin, and dance to music. They act out various skits, like you might see at a ballet.

Strange Fruit

Before their first show of the night, the boys and I were walking together to go the restroom, and as we turned a corner, we saw the women of Strange Fruit waiting for their entrance time. They were hidden a little by some trees, so most people at the park didn't see them. We ended up staying later than night than we expected, and were there for the second show. I thought it would be fun to get the kids' pictures with the ladies in their fancy costumes, and tried to round them up. They didn't want to get their pictures taken, so I did what every dad would do in that situation: I gave the camera to M and told him to take MY picture with them. Here it is.

I'm on the far right.

As you can see, they were very glad to meet me. M made us all laugh when he took the picture. Instead of "Say 'cheese'!" he used "Say 'big bendy poles'!" They liked that. Since he had so easily charmed them, I asked him again if he wanted his picture with them, and he still said no. His loss.

Last weekend, J and I went to a play at the Purple Rose Theater in Chelsea called "Consider the Oyster". It was unusual - a man turned into a woman during the course of the play. I don't know how it compares to other "man turns into woman" plays out there, but we enjoyed it. We went to Common Grill afterwards for a snack and to be seen amongst the Chelsea elite.

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Relevant, Modern Phone Instruction! Also, Live Music and Snail News

2011-06-29T17:25:00.001-04:00

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Garina squeegies the tank

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Rotary Phone Instruction
When I was in high school, I had a friend over for lunch. She had to call her parents for some reason, and I pointed her to the phone, which was a rotary dial phone. She didn’t know how to use it. I thought it was hilarious that this smart high-schooler didn’t know how to dial a phone.

Here’s a vintage video that shows how, in case you are too young to know how, or had a butler make all your calls when you were growing up.

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Snail News
You know about Gary the snail, our new addition to the fish tank who was an impulse purchase when we were replacing our two deceased goldfish. Unfortunately, a few weeks ago, Gary bought the snail farm and slipped the surly bonds of tank.

We were so entertained by Gary’s antics - crawling, munching on algae chips, and so on - that we got another one. At the pet store, I asked the guy if we could get one of those hero snails you hear about on TV news, the ones that call 911 when there is an emergency. He didn’t have any of those, but he did have some blue ones, so we picked one out and took it home.

J made the call that this one was female (no, I don’t know how to tell either), and I have dubbed this one Garina, in Gary’s honor. Garette, Lady Gary, and just plain Gary were also possibilities.

Garina is even more active than Gary was in his prime, often sticking her antennae and feelers and other doodads out of her shell for a quick crawl across the front of the tank. She is fun to watch as she slurps the glass with her mouth, or just hangs out at the top of the water breathing through her natural snail scuba gear.

Garina’s female status was confirmed when we noticed a small baby snail in the tank. It has moved to different places in the tank since it was first sighted, and it looks like it’s growing a little. I call this one Gary Jr. but it might be a Garina, we don’t know. We were worried that more Gary Jr.’s might appear, but so far, we have just one.

As far as the two new fish I reported on earlier, we don't bother watching them anymore. I'm pretty sure they're still in the tank, though. The snail is just so much fun to watch, we look right past the fish.

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Summertime and the Livin' is Easy
The summer fun continues: K went with his friend Max to a Tigers game last week as a present for Max’s birthday. That night, J, M, and I went to Top of the Park to have some pizza and watch live music. The music that night was courtesy of a group from Grand Rapids called Delilah and the Lost Boys and Detroit-based jazz band The Millionaires, who were terrific. Live music is great – I will watch anyone play any kind of live music, even things I would not listen to on the radio. Country, jazz, classical, funk, rock – I like them all when they’re live. Just because the only thing I have on my iPod now are Gregorian Chants doesn’t mean I can’t expand my horizons a little when I have a chance.

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We still have lots on our to-do list for the summer, including lots of grilling, s’more-ing, and traveling. Stay tuned!

More Museums Than At Which You Can Shake a Stick

2011-06-21T22:17:00.003-04:00

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Jellies!

We headed west and south last Friday for a two-night stay near Chicago's Midway Airport. The jellyfish ("Jellies") exhibit at Shedd Aquarium was our main draw, but we took in some other sights as well.

We tried something different and stayed at an airport hotel. There were no Nickelodeon channels on the TV, just sports, business news, and weather. The TSA security checkpoint at the the pool was a little much - I think they took the description "airport hotel" too literally. Ease up, TSA! The kids renewed their love for foosball in the recreation area, and we played the bar TV trivia game while eating dinner at the hotel restaurant on Saturday. The kids won $40 from me, and I'm still not sure how.

We were stunned to run into this family outside the aquarium, whose members looked identical to ours.

After our aquarium visit, we headed down the street to Adler Planetarium, where the kids have never been. J and I were last there about 20 years ago, and I might as well have never been inside before because I didn't recognize anything. We saw a plantarium show about the current night sky, and looked at all the space program exhibits.

This fountain outside the aquarium is in honor of the famous American Paul Bunyan, who, before he traveled the country with Babe the Blue Ox, performed magic shows with a giant trout.

We went back to the hotel for dinner, then returned to the city to visit Navy Pier. We have been talking about seeing a Navy Pier fireworks show for a long time, and this was finally going to be it. When we got there, all the parking lots and ramps were full, and there were people everywhere. We went back to the hotel and started planning how we were going to see those fireworks someday. (Side note to Rahm Emanuel: Why aren't there any Navy Pier signs on North Lake Shore Drive? We missed the exit, which we have done before, and "going around the block" is not possible in downtown Chicago. Get your people on that, would you?)

On Sunday, we arrived bright and early at the Museum of Science and Industry. We saw the Body Worlds exhibit, which is not for the squeamish. You can see some examples on their website, but basically, they removed the skin from cadavers and plasticized the innards. Visitors can walk around them and look at them. You can see all the organs, bones, muscles, etc. J and I saw this display, or a very similar one, at the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland several years back.

We then went to the Omnimax show about Tornadoes, and the scientists and other crazy people who chase them for research. If you're not familiar with it, Omnimax is a movie format that's displayed on a giant screen which tries to see how many people it can get car sick.

After the museum, we made it successfully to Navy Pier (taking the correct exit this time) and spent the rest of Sunday afternoon. We took a short boat ride, and I stayed safely on the earth while J and the boys slowly rotated themselves in the Ferris Wheel of Death.

We all know how I feel about the big ferris wheel.

Since we hadn't had enough of museums yet, we went to Henry Ford Museum Monday night to see the Emancipation Proclamation. Pages two and five of the actual document are on display starting at 6 pm Monday and ending 6 am Wednesday. The museum is open continuously during that time, and admission is free. We arrived at about 8:30 pm Monday, hoping that we'd only have to wait a few hours. Instead, we waited five; we finally saw Honest Abe's signature (along with Seward's), and dragged ourselves to the car for the ride home. Yes, the line was insanely long, and we discovered as the night went on that the line was moving slower and slower. We're not sure why it was going faster at first. But - we have a story to tell about it, and we all got home safe and sound. Some of us had to go to work this morning, but since my boss is in New Jersey, I can snore as loud as I want at my desk, and who's going to know?

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I hope everyone's doing well, and if you saw the Saturday Navy Pier fireworks show, send pictures, OK?

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Science Olympiad! Soccer! Grillin'! Exhaustion!

2011-06-13T19:25:00.001-04:00

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We had an incredibly busy weekend June 11-12. I'm not sure how we're all still standing, but we are.

Science Olympiad

Before Science Olympiad

After Science Olympiad

Saturday was the annual Science Olympiad competition at Pioneer High school. M competed in Circuit Wizardry, an electronics circuits-based event, and Write It Build It, where two students write about an object made of multiple odd parts, and another two students have to build that object based on those instructions. He trained hard for both events, and he and his teammates won a second-place medal for Circuit Wizardry.

K competed in four events: Rock Hunter, which involved learning about the structure, hardness, and uses for rocks and minerals; What Went By, which required students to identify endangered and extinct animals based on their habitat, location, diet, and other characteristics; Estimania, which is all about math, estimating distances and measurements, and estimating the results of difficult math problems (such as 992 x 4005); and Mystery Architecture, where the participants are given odd materials from which they need to build the tallest possible tower able to support a tennis ball.

K was a last-minute addition to the Mystery Architecture team - one of the participants was unable to compete in it due to a time conflict with another event.

K won two medals, both fourth place: Estimania and What Went By.

We're so proud of the work they did, the time they spent, the patience they had at the competition itself (they were there all day) and their (and their school's) sportsmanship.

Lawton school won the overall trophy for the 2nd/3rd grade events, which took place in the morning, and for the 4th/5th grade events, which took place in the afternoon.

I spent most of the day in the academic check-in area, helping to ensure everyone was on time to their events, answering questions, looking for missing fourth-graders in the Map Reading room, sweating more than should be healthy while neglecting to drink enough water, and enjoying helping about 1500 Ann Arbor-area students from 24 different schools. It was a great day for all, and I am proud of the students from all the schools who worked hard, studied, and showed up ready to compete. It is comforting to know that these kids will be running the country someday. I hope they hurry.

Coach Monty (left), M, and Coach Jim

Soccer Headlines
On Sunday, M had his final soccer game of the year. It is also his final soccer game with the team he has been playing with for the last three years. His coaches for the last two years, Monty and Jim, have done a wonderful job teaching the players about working hard, being mentally tough, using your head as well as your body, as well as the rules and strategies for playing soccer. M is very lucky to have had these coaches as leaders and role models. We've met some coaches from other schools for whom we probably wouldn't want M playing.

K's last soccer game was last weekend (they had a game on Saturday, but K couldn't attend). His team won all but one game this season, and has shown a tremendous improvement. K has played well at defense and offense, and he is also fortunate to be coached by a parent who is, first and foremost, concerned with sportsmanship, athleticism, and fair play. K has learned a lot from his coach, and has grown as a player over the last year.

After M's final soccer game, K went to his piano teacher's awards party (M spent the time winding down from his soccer game and farewell party) and then we all went to our favorite picnic of the year, Food Gatherers' Grillin'. We had a peaceful dinner, walked around a little bit, did some shopping at the silent auction, and had some Zingerman's gelato and brownies for dessert.

It was a relaxing end to a hectic weekend.

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Ice Cream Social

2011-06-07T19:30:00.002-04:00

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M takes a shower the hard way as some of his fifth-grade classmates look on. What? No shampoo?

K had already hit the target with a ball and drenched M fair and square, but he figured, why not smack the target too?

The Lawton Ice Cream Social was Friday, June 3, and it was a great night for it. D stopped by early to help set up the inflatables (a moon walk for little kids, a sort-of "rock wall" for older kids, and an obstacle course.) J was there from start to finish in her capacity as co-treasurer.

M, being a fifth grader, had his opportunity to get water dumped on him by spiteful underclassmen (including his brother) and fellow outgoing "seniors". Each year, there is a carnival game where contestants throw balls at a target, hoping to dowse the hapless fifth grader occupying the adjacent Throne of Honor.

There used to be a real dunk tank, but we haven't had one of them in a while. It's too much trouble to set up and fill with water. Most students miss the target with their four throws, but when that happens, they usually walk up and push it anyway. It's not fair, but life isn't fair, is it? It's good practice for middle school, high school, and working in the software industry.

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Jim Gaffigan says:

At home my wife’s always like “Did you rinse out that soda can?”

“I haven’t showered today. Maybe I should clean myself before I start washing the garbage.”

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If the Ice Cream Social had been held today they would have had to change the name to Ice Cream Melting. The next few days will be hot, so everyone stay inside and relax a little. Or find an ice cream social nearby to cool off. Just get there early before the vanilla turns into a warm puddle.

Have a cool week, and don't forget to wash the garbage!

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Detroit Zoo

2011-05-30T14:49:00.000-04:00

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The boys in the underground tunnel. Polar bears and seals swim over you if you're there at the right time.

Yesterday, in spite of the omninous weather forecast, we headed to Royal Oak and visited the animals at the Detroit Zoo. We had good weather the whole time, even though it looked like it might rain any minute.

I stared at this giraffe for about five minutes, waiting for it to move, but it never did.

These prairie dogs have the right idea.

We all agree: even though there are larger and more dangerous animals in the zoo, the anteaters are the ones most likely to appear in our nightmares.

This gorilla sat directly across from a huge crowd of visitors, all pointing their cameras directly at him. But he wasn't posing for any postcards...

We all had a fun time, including the boys. The penguins were their usual funny and wierd selves, and even though some of our favorite animals were napping (hey, we understand!) it was a successful visit.

As we were sitting down, enjoying a cold treat, there was a large group of people close by, watching a very large bird of prey. We couldn't tell if the bird was a hawk or a falcon, but it was big. The crowd was oohing and aahing at it, and a big "wow!" rose up from them when the bird flew away. I didn't see what happened, next, but J did: the bird was carrying a dead rabbit in its talons, and as it flew low to the ground away from the crowd, the rabbit hit a stroller parked near some benches. The bird let go, and the rabbit fell onto the seat. There was no one in the stroller at the time, but the father who owned it lifted the rabbit by the tail and handed it to a zoo employee, who promptly put it on a cart to throw away. The zoo employee then returned to the stroller (and the surprised mom and dad) with some sanitizing liquid for the stroller.

I'm sure some culture out there considers it good luck to have a dead rabbit drop from the sky into a child's stroller. I hope the parents were from that culture, because everywhere else, that's just gross.

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1000 Words

2011-05-21T10:16:00.001-04:00

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Some recent sightings:

The following two flyers were pinned to the same wall about six inches apart. There's something for everyone! (click on the pictures to enlarge them)

Protect yourself with a gun!

Protect yourself with Aikido, the peaceful alternative. Unless, of course, you encounter someone who can use a gun. In which case, you might get shot.

A beautiful new fountain in one of the nearby ponds.

If you search this picture carefully for clues, you can see how they got the fountain into the pond.

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Hope you're having a good spring - we're finally getting some sun, and for some reason I'm inside typing on the computer. Time to go outside...

Be careful on the roads - remember to watch for moosen!

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Update from Sunny Michigan (formerly Super-Rainy Michigan)

2011-05-11T20:06:00.000-04:00

A hummingbird takes a break from humming to slurp sugar water.

All the News That's Fit to Blog
Spring is in full swing with soccer and Science Olympiad practice. If we're not driving to something, or waiting for something to start or end, or driving home from something, we're planning carpools to and from something else. Who cares if the kids are overscheduled and overstimulated? I'm the one who needs a rest. If they would lower the driving age to 11 it would be a big help.

Work is about the same as it has been. I'm learning more Silverlight and making progress on my project.

Links
Some links to interesting things:

Neat lamps made from plumbing fixtures - definitely neater-looking than some that I've seen in the past.

Inventables has lots of oddball materials you can use for your next project, if you could only think of something to do with them. The translucent concrete is pretty cool.

Read all about Impostor Syndrome here.

The Savage Chickens Guide to Vague Quantities. Now you know!

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I'm in the middle of a terrific book I got from the library - Making Things Move by Dustyn Roberts. It's a summary of physics, force, motors, pullies, and describes in simple terms how to (say) figure out the torque of an electric motor. It's already on my Christmas list.

I now know how a semiconductor works because I read Electronic Components by Delton Horn. (It has to do with covalent bonds!) This book is a reference about all the common types of electronic components, as you may have guessed. Another Christmas list book for me...

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Mr. R and Mr. S: A Cautionary Tale

2011-04-25T19:09:00.005-04:00

Once upon a time, there were two neighbors in a comfortable suburb in the Midwestern US. As spring approached, both decided that a new bike was in order. Their old bicycles, which they'd had since they were teenagers, were finally wearing to the point they could not be repaired.

Mr. R, a man who is always looking for a bargain, started and ended his bike shopping experience at J-Mart, a regional supermarket chain. Price was of utmost concern to Mr. R, who prided himself on how much money he had saved on furniture, electronics, and replacement windows in his home. Having shopped for bikes for his children, he knew there was no cheaper place than J-Mart to buy one. When he got there, he saw a bike hanging from the wall that looked fine, smiled at the price, and had the cashier ring one up. The store employee loaded a box into Mr. R's car, and Mr. R was off to assemble his shiny new bike.

Mr. S, his neighbor, was concerned with quality, especially when it came to something like a bicycle, or replacement windows. He checked out the local bike shops, which are known for carrying higher-end, and more expensive, bikes. While a good-quality bike certainly stretched his budget, he listened to the advice from the experienced salespeople (most of whom are avid bikers themselves), shopped around, and got a good price on a top-rated bike from Barry's Hometown Bicycles.

Both bought a 21-speed bike with handle brakes and red paint. Mr. R's cost was $65. Mr. S's was $350.

On the first Saturday following their purchases, Mr. R and Mr. S decided to take a ride together. As they were getting started, Mr. R discovered the seat on his bike was so high, he had trouble getting onto it. He didn't realize there were different sizes of bikes, and that some were taller than others. He had only seen the bike on display at J-Mart, but hadn't tried it out.

Mr. S had taken the advice of the salesperson at the bike shop and had ridden several bikes around the block to find the one that fit him best. He was comfortable and ready for his ride.

Mr. R lowered the seat as much as he could, they were off. "This is OK, I can get used to this," he said to himself.

It was a beautiful, sunny day. The birds were singing, the bees were buzzing, and all the moms were out on their patios and decks, lightly napping while the children played quietly nearby. No one was pushing, fighting, yelling, or refusing to share their goldfish crackers. Birds flew to remote locations to chirp so as not to deprive the deserving residents of their peace.

Mr. S and Mr. R, full of energy and anticipation, merged onto the street and down the hill towards the city limits. At the first stop sign, Mr. S brought his bike to a smooth stop by lightly applying his brakes. Mr. R sailed straight through the intersection, each hand uselessly squeezing its respective brake handle. Mr. R had assembled the bike himself, but had not realized his brakes were not adjusted for him at the factory. The 100-page assembly and maintenance booklet, with instructions in three languages, was too complicated for him to understand, and he took it on faith that the manufacturer set up everything correctly before it was put in the box.

Mr. S offered to go back to the house and help Mr. R adjust his brakes, which delayed their trip by 20 minutes. Mr. R found that Mr. S's booklet, while much smaller, did a better job of explaining brakes and how to adjust them.

With the brakes adjusted, the two started off again on their journey. At the first stop sign, Mr. S applied his brakes and came to a smooth stop. Mr. R also came to a stop, but when it came to starting up again, Mr. R's brakes appeared to be stuck to his wheel. On further inspection, they weren't actually stuck to the wheel; rather, the wheel was out of alignment, and the rim was misshapen at the location where the brake pad was resting. Mr. S had no such problem - Barry's Hometown Bicycles always adjusts and tunes a bike before selling it, and the rims were round and true on his bike, as they should be.

Mr. R decided to continue, figuring that he could just pedal a little harder to overcome the problems with the rim. On each revolution, the rim brushed the brake pad, slowing him down a little, and he worked harder and harder to keep his speed up. Mr. S slowed himself down to allow Mr. R keep pace. Mr. S was starting to wish he had gone out alone.

With some difficulty on Mr. R's part, and little difficulty on Mr. S's, they eventually found themselves about ten miles from home. Mr. R was exhausted - he had pedaled hard to keep his speed up. His legs were burning. He was also starting to realize another drawback of the great bargain he had gotten for his bike: its weight. His bike weighed a lot more than Mr. S's, and moving that extra weight over ten miles had caused him to work that much harder than Mr. S. Mr. S had taken the advice of the salesperson at the bike shop and bought a bike with an aluminum frame, which is lighter than steel. He had researched bikes before buying one, and the salesperson's recommendation of an aluminum frame made sense. Mr. S could feel the lightness of his new bike compared to his previous bike, and he was glad he spent the extra $30 for the upgrade.

As Mr. S was feeling proud of his purchase, and the good decision he had made, Mr. R was experiencing another problem: the gear shifters on his bike were no longer working properly. He could now only shift into the highest gears - shifting to lower gears resulted in a clicking and grinding noise because the chain was not being guided to the correct sprocket. Being in high gear was great going down a hill, but not going up. At first, this was not too much of a problem, but after ten miles, his problems were adding quickly. Brakes, weight, shifters, a bike that is a little too tall to be comfortable...

He didn't tell Mr. S about the shifting problems - he was already embarrassed enough.

Mr. R had his phone with him, and was considering calling his wife to come pick him up. But he knew she had earned the nap she was taking on the patio, and this was his problem. He would have to get home by himself, and he was going to have to pedal.

While Mr. R was letting the reality of the situation sink in, Mr. S was, predictably, regretting his choice of bicycle companion. He had another 15-20 miles in him, but he wouldn't be able to ride that far today. He had stuck by his friend, slowing down for him regularly, while politely assuring him it wasn't a problem. He would make it back home with Mr. R, but would find a way to take the next bike ride on his own. Mr. R was a late riser on weekends, and Mr. S could easily be out of the house before Mr. R was out of his pajamas. Mr. S penciled next week's ride into his mental calendar: 7:00 am.

Mr. S. pulled the water bottle from the holder on his bike and took a long drink. Mr. R, who had a water bottle in a small backpack, took a drink of his as well. They started to plan their return trip, with Mr. R suggesting a flatter route than the one that had brought them to this point.

As they set off, Mr. R reflected on his purchase and how much money he had saved. Originally, he had patted himself on the back for his wise purchase, and had privately criticized his neighbor for buying such an expensive bike: "Mine is the same as his, and he paid five times more than I did! I'm so smart!" Now, he wasn't so sure. Mr. S had a bike he would be able to ride for years to come, and he had a bike he was already considering selling in the newspaper for $20.
The return trip was no picnic; Mr. R, who was not used to such physical labor, strained and pushed to get his bike home. Mr. S, feeling an oddly refreshing ache from his first real bike ride in a long time, parted company with Mr. R and went in for a shower and change of clothes.

As Mr. R watched Mr. S go inside, he had an idea: "I can take my bike to the shop and have them fix all these problems for me! They can't make the bike shorter, but they can adjust the gears and the brakes and the rims. I'll be able to keep up with Mr. S next weekend!"

Twenty minutes later, Mr. R arrived at Barry's Hometown Bicycles, grunted a huge grunt as he struggled to lift his very heavy bike out of the back of his minivan, and wheeled it into the shop.

"Can I help you?"

"Yes, I bought this bike at J-Mart, and it need some adjusting. The brakes are not working very well, the rim is wobbly, and I'm unable to shift into the lower gears."

"Let me take a look. Be right back."

The technician put the bike on a stand to inspect it as its owner browsed the merchandise. "$350, $450, $900? Wow! These bikes are so expensive! Who would ever pay $900 for a bike like that?" He looked at the maintenance tools, helmets, shoes, shorts, car carriers, and all the other items a serious bike rider might need.

"Excuse me, sir?"

"Yes."

"Well, I can fix the wheel that's out of round, but I'm afraid the only way to fix the brakes is to replace them. They're made of a light metal that won't stand up to hard use, and the springs in them are not strong enough to rebound when you release the handle. The pads will wear out quickly - we can sell you some better pads that will last for much longer."

"Oh."

"And the shifters you have are not standard parts we carry because they are only used on discount bicycles, so there's not much we can do for you there. We can replace the handlebar shifters and try to adjust the shifting mechanisms, but I can't guarantee anything. Our owner usually doesn't like us to even try, because the customer is never happy with the results, but I'll give it a shot if you want."

"How much will all this cost?"

"$275."

---

Mr. R was out of options, and he couldn't justify paying that kind of money to fix a bike that was so inexpensive to begin with. He finished filling out the Classified Ad form on his local newspaper's website: "21-speed mens bike. Low miles. Red. $20".

What had started as a light rain grew increasingly harder and louder as night fell. Mr. R's tired legs and mind were a reminder of his day, and a saying he had once heard sprang up out of nowhere: "A fool is a person who knows the cost of everything, but the value of nothing."

"Honey?" called Mrs. R from the upstairs bedroom.

"Yes?"

"Honey, come upstairs! The new windows are leaking!"

---

At the Stadium. Again.

2011-04-16T18:23:00.001-04:00

We went to the U of M Spring Football Game. The team splits up and plays each other. The winning team gets a steak dinner, the losing team gets hot dogs (really).

The Wolverine football program has had its problems over the past few years, but they ushered in the Brady Hoke era with a solid win.

U of M tries to prevent U of M from scoring a touchdown.

U of M fans

For a guy who went to MSU, I sure spend a lot of time at U of M athletic events.

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A few links I've been saving:

Think you're smart? Help the FBI decode these notes.

The boys and I have agreed that we will attend the next monster truck rally that comes to the area. Because we've never been to one. That's the only reason I can think of, but isn't that good enough?

Neat objects featuring gears and their amazing gear-ness.

M is starting to play saxophone, and I tried to get him one of these at the local music store, but they were all out, and won't have any back in stock for at least a week.

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I've read some books lately, but haven't passed any titles along. Here are a few:

"The Adventures of Johnny Vermillion" - by Loren Estleman. One of my favorite writers, I've mentioned Estleman in the past. This is a western about a theater troupe that robs banks.

"Little America" - by Henry Bromell. A realistic fiction novel about a middle-eastern country during the cold war. Britain and the US are propping it up, trying to prevent Communism from taking over. Spies are all over, and paranoia wins more often than not.

"The Story of a Nobody" - by Anton Chekhov. A man takes a position as a personal assistant to the son of a hated political rival in order to spy on him. It doesn't go as planned.

I've also been reading some robotics and electronics books, as I am trying to revive my memory of electrical engineering and computer architecture from college. I'm surprised how much I can remember from CPS 424, Dr. Reid's computer architecture class. What's really surprising is how I struggled through it, but to this day can remember so many details. Maybe it's hard to learn something you didn't have to struggle with.

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College Football Hall of Fame (subtitle: Notre Dame's Bulk Brick Purchase)

2011-04-09T22:18:00.002-04:00

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This is the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Indiana.

This is Michigan football coaching legend Fielding Yost. He was instrumental in the early years of the program, and coached the famous "point-a-minute" teams. Michigan memorialized him by naming a skating rink after him.

This is Michigan State football coaching legend Biggie Munn. Biggie may not have been real his first name, no one knows for sure. Michigan State memorialized him by naming a skating rink after him.

K executes a training exercise to see how high he can jump.

M runs in place to see how many steps he can take in ten seconds. I tried this but I ran so unusually fast that the pads could not record all of my steps. According to the machine, both K and M beat my score.

This protective gear was worn on the head, in case there is any question.

M and K in front of Notre Dame's so-called "Touchdown Jesus" artwork. It is named that because it is across the street from the football stadium. On TV it looks like it's right next to the stadium, but it's several hundred yards away.

Despite what you might think (or what Notre Dame fans might believe), wearing U of M clothing so close to Touchdown Jesus did not cause thunder, lightning, pestilence, floods, ants in the pants, or university-strength cooties. Later on the trip, however, I found that I was not enjoying my Wendy's fries very much, and I wonder if that could have been a delayed curse or plague of some sort. More investigation is needed.

Every building we drove or walked past on the ND campus, and I mean every single one, were made of the the same color and pattern of bricks. Every building. Even the stadium was made of them. This picture is of the stadium wall, but you would not know that if I hadn't told you. I cannot stress enough how every single building we saw had the same color and pattern of bricks.

Here's a closeup of the building with the artwork - it has the same bricks. See - I told you!

A fun day for us, and a quick trip in and out of Indiana. I know I spent a lot of time covering Notre Dame, but I was able to think of a lot more jokes about them than the college players and coaches (yes, I'll spare you my O.J. Simpson jokes.)

The College Football Hall of Fame was a neat place. If you're thinking of going there, you can do it in an afternoon, so don't feel like you have to be there when the doors open to get your money's worth. And don't stay in South Bend too long or you'll start humming the Notre Dame fight song...

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I Completely Forgot

2011-04-05T18:01:00.000-04:00

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I don't know how I forgot to mention this, but last week the four of us went to Tappan Middle School (J's employer) and saw a middle-school rendition of the musical "Grease". But it wasn't a typical middle-school performance - there were dozens of cast members beyond the T-Birds, Pink Ladies, cheerleaders, nerds, and adults. The costumes were terrific, the orchestra was first-rate, and the kids performed well beyond what you'd expect for their ages. For some numbers, students filled the aisles of the auditorium and danced, sang, and provided a lot of color and excitement.

Here is a writeup of the show, with some pictures.

It was very impressive.

The group that produced it, The Tappan Players, are not supported by the public schools other than using the facilities. They are a private group, and the students who performed paid to be a part of the show.

No expense was spared to put on this show, and it was apparent. Makes you wonder what they could possibly do next year to top it...

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Flag Football Wrap-Up, and What Really Happened to the Garage Door Opener

2011-04-02T19:40:00.000-04:00

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Today marked the end of M's flag football season. The semi-final playoff game was at 2:30, followed by the championship game at 3:15. M's team won the first game, 9-6, and he had three tackles (a personal best), and three receptions: one was for a first down, and one was for an extra point.

They didn't fare as well in the championship game, losing 26-6 after being down 20-0 early in the game. The other team had an outstanding runner who was able to beat everyone, and he scored three touchdowns in the first half by himself. M had another solid game, with three tackles (to tie his personal best), one reception, and he broke up a pass play on defense.

He's worked very hard at flag football, and plays a lot of football with his friends in the neighborhood, and I can tell all that practice is paying off.

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I told you recently that we had our master bath shower remodeled, and that we also had an unfortunate failure of the garage door opener. It turns out, those two things were related. The people who installed the shower door didn't attach the shower head arm back to the supply line correctly, and water was leaking down behind the wall whenever we took a shower. We didn't notice it right away, so it wasn't apparent that the water was responsible for ruining the door opener. On Monday of last week, I left for work, opened the door to the garage (with the new opener) and saw water dripping down from about ten different spots in the ceiling. That would explain the sudden failure of the door opener pretty well, and the mysterious puddle of water J had seen the day before.

I called the contractors, who know me by name very well at this point, and they sent someone out who was able to successfully turn a threaded pipe so that it attached correctly to a threaded opening, and now we don't have a leak any more. They are going to reimburse us for the door opener, but even with their prompt attention to the problems they had with our project, we won't be calling them again. That is, unless we find some other problem, which I hope we don't.

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After seeing a project at the Science Fair that used an Arduino, I am seriously considering buying a starter kit. I was at the school when a fifth-grade girl brought in a project that used it to demonstrate how a remote garage door opener works (yes, I've had a lot of contact with garage door opener-related things lately.) She told me her dad had worked on the project with her, and after I got all the information I could out of her, I kept a lookout for her dad during the Fair's operating hours. He was there, and I asked him every question I could think of. It looks to be a great way to start getting programmed behavior into an electronics project, which is one of those things I've had on my list of things to learn.

There are many different versions of the Arduino, small ones and large ones, and add-ons called "shields" that help perform tasks such as writing to a memory card, communicating over ethernet, or powering electric motors.

When I would find the time to do this is an entirely different question that needs to be answered first. I've also considered taking an introductory electronics/circuit analysis class at Washtenaw Community College or Jackson Community College, but getting a weeknight free is not that easy, especially in the spring with Science Olympiad and soccer.

By the way, get ready to hear a lot about Science Olympiad and soccer. I'm organizing the yearly Science Olympiad demonstration night at the school, and I'm again going to be assistant to the assistant coach for M's team.

And I still have a job I have to fit in somewhere.

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Happy Birthday, Dad!

2011-03-28T09:29:00.001-04:00

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Hope you're having a great one!

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Science, Football, Showers, and Garage Doors

2011-03-26T21:43:00.004-04:00

The Science Fair was Thursday. I spent seven hours at school on Wednesday, and was there most of the day between 8:15 am and 9:00 pm on Thursday. We had about 110 projects made by about 150 students, which was a great turnout, although less than last time. I know a few reasons why there were fewer entries this year, so I think there is a reasonable explanation for the drop-off.

For K's project, he measured the voltages produced by various fruits and vegetables. He also created a cell battery out of coins and paper towels. He used a multimeter to read the voltages from each item and recorded it. At the Science Fair, he created a three-lemon battery that powered a watch-sized digital clock.

Lemon battery

For his project, M soldered a burglar alarm from a kit. There are two parts: a transmitter, which uses an infrared LED, and a receiver, which checks for the transmitter's IR signal. When the IR signal is broken, the receiver switches on a circuit connected to whatever you want (audio alarm, flashing light, etc.). M hooked up a "danger light" to the receiver, which would flash when the alarm is tripped.

M soldering the receiver circuit board.

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M has had two flag football games since the last update. He's caught some passes, made a few tackles, and generally performed well for his team. After two wins to start the season, the team has lost two. Next week is the playoff game, and if they win, they'll play in the championship game.

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Our big home improvement this year is refinishing the master bath shower, which has needed attention for some time. We hired a company to cover the old tile walls with acrylic, and we got a new sliding door and glass wall. It didn't go very smoothly; there were a lot of starts and stops, but we're hoping the shower is finally finished. And it looks great.

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Yesterday, we paid a local company to install a new garage door opener for us. I wish I could say that home improvement was planned, but it wasn't. Garage doors are in the category of Machines That Stop Working With No Warning.

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A few months ago, I bought a cheap subscription to Esquire magazine for a fund-raiser at J's school. Each month they have a feature "Funny Joke from a Beautiful Woman", in which a beautiful woman tells a joke, accompanied by her picture and short biography. (Oddly enough, she's always very attractive and not dressed for cold weather.) This month's joke cracked up M and K so much, I thought I better pass it on.

From Esquire:

A guy is walking past an insane asylum when he hears the residents inside chanting "Thirteen! Thirteen! Thirteen!" Curious, he finds a hole in the wall and looks in. Immediately he's poked in the eye, then everyone inside starts chanting "Fourteen! Fourteen! Fourteen!"

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Gas Prices, Slow Technology, and Dr. Stockman Does Good

2011-03-13T10:32:00.000-04:00

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I was making my weekly stop at the party store for cheap liquor and lottery tickets when I noticed the prices at the gas station next door. Wow - $3.50 a gallon? Isn’t it amazing that even though the supply and demand for gas hasn’t changed at all in the last six months, the price has gone way up? I’m not smart enough to understand how gas prices are set, but I am smart enough to predict some pretty impressive earnings from the oil companies at the end of this quarter.

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Important Advances in Technology

I'm not sure why Amazon is bragging about how long it takes to start reading a book. I can start reading a book in about five seconds, and if I don't bother sitting down first, I can do it even faster.

Miscellaneous News and Links
My favorite college professor, Dr. Stockman, is helping young people get into computer science. He was always a great guy and very giving to the community, and he's not slowing down.

Some neat bugs made out of old ammo and watch parts.

A student project to open a combination lock with a machine.

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Sports Update: Flag Football and UM/MSU Basketball

2011-03-05T19:22:00.000-05:00

The scoreboard reads U of M 70, MSU 63 at the end of the basketball game.

J's parents and sister pulled into town for a rolicking sports-filled Saturday. We first went to M's flag football season opener, which his team won handily, 30-something to 6. M caught a pass and scored an extra point during the game, and played quarterback, center, and defense. His extra point came on the second play of the game. On the first play, one of M's teammates blocked a pass the other team was attempting, and took a few steps into the end zone for a touchdown. It was fun game, which I think was closer than the final score showed.

After that, we all went over to Chrisler Arena to watch John Belein outcoach Tom Izzo for state bragging rights. Michigan led the entire game, and for a few minutes it looked like MSU might catch up, but it didn't happen. This hasn't been a great year for MSU basketball, but you never know what will happen when UM and MSU play, so I was hoping for a better outcome. It was a great game, though, with plenty of terrific plays, shooting, ball-stealing, and an abundance of fouling. We were reminded repeatedly of the referee's sign for tripping.

During one of the many time outs, J and I tried to determine the primary difference between the cheerleaders and the dance team. J pointed out that the dance team wore slippers instead of the tennis shoes on the cheerleaders. I pointed out that a few of the dancers looked a little chunkier than the cheerleaders. Also, some cheerleaders are male. But other than that, they appeared to do about the same things. (Just kidding, there aren't any chunky dancers.)

The crowd was very pleasant. The MSU fans behind us were pretty vocal (but reasonably so) and I let them do the loud talking for me (For example, "Come on, you have to make that basket!" and "Foul! Hey, ref! Foul!" and "Is Tom Izzo really allowed to stand that far onto the court during play?")

After the game, the out-of-towners stopped by for a yummy mexican meal before heading home in the snow.

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Two New Fish Plus a Bonus Marine Creature

2011-02-21T16:10:00.001-05:00

Seen above: Two fish and a snail. The snail was the only one who was thoughtful enough to sit still so I could take a picture.

J and the boys made productive use of their day off school today and bought some new wildlife for our kitchen. They bought two fish, guppies, who have yet to be named. They also bought a snail. If you're a SpongeBob fan, you know what I named the snail. (If you're not a SpongeBob fan, the name is "Gary", because that's the name of SpongeBob's pet snail. On the show, Gary meows.)

Once the tank was up and running, and Gary and his two fish friends were playing get-to-know-me, J boxed up the cats and hauled them off to their yearly checkup. Forget President's Day - it's Animal Day at our house.

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Let's keep things in perspective.

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There was a big snow last night for us here; it was probably as much or more than the blizzard we had a few weeks back. Funny how sometimes these winter storms sneak up on you and the next thing you know there's 8" of snow in 12 hours. I did some shoveling last night even though there was a lot to do. I haven't been exercising as much as I should lately, and I tried to make up for it.

We're all doing well here, and I'm keeping my perspective on things, much as the comic above teaches me. We should all be so wise as the Chickens.

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What's-Their-Names: RIP

2011-02-09T18:28:00.000-05:00

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The small tank in our kitchen is home to a plastic castle, some fake seaweed, and two goldfish that we got from K's first grade teacher.

Unfortunately, after a long life together, the fish went floaty two days apart. I'd like to say I'm sad about it, but their companionship left much to be desired. Actually, I'm surprised they lived as long as they did, if you call swimming tight circles day after day in a one-gallon tank "living".

Each member of the family gave them different names (Calvin and Hobbes, Spongebob and Patrick, Inky and Blinky, Mr. and Mrs. Bubbles, etc.) but I knew them best as The Fish We Got From Mr. Schwartz.

I'd post a picture of them but who hasn't seen about a million goldfish?

RIP, little goldfish. You didn't get eaten by a cat, so you beat the odds.

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I wish I could draw. If I could, I'd spend all my time drawing pictures like these. Wow.

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I know, I know, I was hard on the fish. Maybe I'm just hurting inside from the loss and am using humor as a defense mechanism.

Nah.

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"I Would Love To Be A Snowflake" - By K. B.

2011-02-05T08:35:00.000-05:00

Illustration by K.B.

I Would Love To Be A Snowflake
By K.B.

I would love to be a snowflake;
to drift across the sky,
feeling the brisk winter wind.

I would love to be a snowflake;
to listen to a converstaion that isn't mine,
learning secrets without the children knowing.

I would love to be a snowflake;
to be pushed by the harsh winds,
being blown to different places for which I can explore.

Flying everywhere on the globe,
bringing cheer to many people,
and bringing the signal of nature to our world.

Snowpocalypse! Stormageddon!

2011-02-02T11:18:00.000-05:00

A picture of the very large snow hill in the middle of the court. M is third from left, and K is the middle person. The rest of the kids live nearby, but I won't say who's who because I can't recognize them when they're all bundled up like that.

The snow wasn't as bad as predicted - we got maybe 6-7 inches, and the drifts were pretty high in some places. The snowblower made it through four driveways and hundreds of feet of sidewalk with hardly a complaint. When this one croaks, I'm definitely getting a bigger one, though.

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Science Fair is Coming! Start your volcanoes!

2011-01-29T08:21:00.000-05:00

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Science Fair News
The Lawton Science Fair is going to be March 24 in the evening at the school. Mark your calendars.

Not sure what K is going to do this year, but M is going to do something with electronics. More details to follow, but you might have to wait until March 24 to find out...

Two years ago was the last Science Fair, and while I was organizing it, a parent called to say her son was going to cancel his entry because the experiment he was trying didn't work like they thought it would. Even when you're following a book, it can be difficult to get the same result because there are so many factors involved in experiments.

I encouraged her and her son to document their experiment and explain what worked and what didn't. Instead of concluding "It worked!" they could conclude "It didn't work!" and try to guess what went wrong. Scientists often fail to produce the correct results, and they have to try different things. Sometimes they fail because they're wrong, and they learn from it and try again a different way.

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Projects With Which I'm Still Not Done
I know you're wondering what happened to the ray gun I was working on last year. I have most all the parts for it now, but I'm not happy with one aspect of it, and I've changed my mind about a lot of it. I've been scrounging for parts at the Ann Arbor Reuse Center, and I've found a few things, but not what I'm looking for exactly. Patience is a virtue when building a ray gun, although one you have it built, it's OK to just blast the heck out of everything. At least, that is my understanding.

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Deep Stuff
You already know I like the Wondermark comic strip. Occasionally, the author, David Malki, will post other things, such as the progress he's making on his next book, what conventions he is attending, and so on. Yesterday, he got a little philosophical, but I really like his definition of an expert:

There are two types of “experts” in the world:

1. The ones that are happy to take your money to reassure you that they will HANDLE IT.

2. The ones that are just as nervous as you are.

Read the whole post, called "You Are Doing Fine", here.

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Happy Birthday, M!

2011-01-25T21:42:00.000-05:00

Happy birthday to new "tween" M! Being 11 isn't all it's cracked up to be, because you can't drive, can't drink, and still have to go to fifth grade in the morning. But still, you can enjoy it a little bit.

His main present this year was Madden 11 (a Wii football game), but he also got some books, a Pioneer shirt, and some other goodies. Not to mention cake.

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Heckuva New Year So Far

2011-01-11T19:58:00.000-05:00

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The first 12 hours of the New Year - super!
The New Year started out well enough - M had a friend stay overnight on New Year's Eve, and K stayed over at a friend's house. M and his friend toasted 2011 with sparkling juice at midnight and I'm almost positive they got some sleep. K made it home under his own power, so he must have gotten some sleep or other. Maybe.

I'll just quickly mention the really, really, really, really bad showings in MSU's and U of M's bowl games. If I recall correctly, they lost by a combined total of 782-11. Ouch! I put up the MSU and UM flags on the porch for nothing, apparently.

South for the winter (figurative south, not the geographical kind)
Returning to work the first full week of the new year, I was told the project I've been working on was canceled. I've been on this project for almost three years, and it's really a great product. Unfortunately, the company wants to focus its efforts on other things in an attempt to help raise the stock price. Isn't working for a publicly-held company fun? (Answer: Not always.) I understand how the system works, though, and two weeks into 2011, I still have a job.

Blazing your own trail isn't always a good idea
The day after I learned my project was canceled, I was driving M home from school, and the car slid on some new snow while I was trying to turn a corner. I couldn't steer or brake - the antilock brakes made lots of rat-a-tat-tat noises, but were not slowing the car down. I went straight into the curb of the street I was trying to turn onto, and blew out the front passenger-side tire. Because I was only a few blocks from home, I just drove the car on the flat (very slowly) and took the tire in to be replaced. Because the tires have 21,000 miles on them I couldn't just replace one front tire without replacing the other, so the car now has two shiny new tires. Until the new snow today, you could see where the car went off the road and onto the grass at that intersection. I'm lucky the rim wasn't bent up or the suspension damaged. The more I think about it, the more I don't understand how only the tire was lost.

The ironic thing about the whole episode? M needed to be picked up from school because he was serving as a crossing guard for the school's Safety Patrol. He failed to warn me of the dangers of driving on the snow, so I think he needs more training.

Electronics wrap-up: Dealing with a virus, and bidding adieu
On Sunday, just to start with, I pulled a muscle in my back. Folding laundry. Yes. Folding laundry. Dangerous.

Later that day, the laptop that all of use on a regular basis started to pop up messages about having a virus. At first glance, the computer appeared to be trying to clean up the virus, but I carefully looked at the screen and the messages it was giving, and realized that the virus was pretending to be my anti-virus software. So I ignored what it was telling me to do, and tried to run my own anti-virus software. It didn't work, and neither did anything else. The only thing that DID work were some messages telling me to solve my problem by purchasing an online anti-virus program, which was certainly responsible for putting the virus there in the first place.

I started up the laptop with the "recovery" DVDs I made when we first bought it, and wiped out everything on the computer. After a few hours of working, the laptop was restored to exactly how it was when we first bought it.

I'm sure the virus came from one of the online game sites the kids like to go to. They trade website names at school, then try them out at home. They are no longer allowed to go to PlayHub.com, where I am pretty sure the virus originated.

(If you didn't make recovery CDs or DVDs of your computer system, you should - they can be really helpful.)

Nothing of note happened on Monday, you'll be happy to know, but today, Tuesday, we are saying our goodbyes to our HP all-in-one printer/copier/scanner, as it has jammed its paper for the last time. I honestly don't know how it ever lasted five years. For being almost free, it's certainly paid for itself over the years, although I think we've spent roughly $9000 on ink cartridges. Are they supposed to run out every fifty pages?

For 2011, therefore, I resolve to stay in bed for the rest of the year. Or until my $250-per-month Powerball lottery habit finally hits it big.

Christmas: Over Too Soon, As Usual

2010-12-31T08:04:00.000-05:00

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Christmas Report
I’m happy to report we had a great Christmas weekend! We went to Jackson on Friday to see everyone, eat some good food, go to church, and have our annual Dollar Gift exchange. On Sunday, we were in East Lansing to see J’s family, eat some good food, watch the Lions upset the Dolphins, and catch up on all the latest news.

The boys both got iPods for Christmas (but you knew they would). They pooled their money to buy a Wii videogame system, and have been playing it for the last few days. M and K will usually win games against me - they have time to practice because they are kids with no responsibilities during their break, and I work for a living. I did manage to stay up late last night, however, and beat M's high score in Archery. It won't last long, but it's something.

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Some links I've been saving up
My company bought me a phone so I could be notified of server problems during off hours. They gave me a choice between the BlackBerry or this one.

Some neat pictures of the Paris subway.

A huge boat being disassmbled in Bangladesh.

A fun project for a rainy day and an old Diet Mountain Dew can. Let me know if you're low on Diet Mountain Dew cans, I have plenty.

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Have a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

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A Day Out in Ann Arbor

2010-12-23T08:54:00.004-05:00

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Yesterday we had a fun afternoon out in Ann Arbor. First, to Anneke's to get the kids their Christmas haircut. Then we went to BD's Mongolian BBQ, which is a fun restaurant. You go through a salad bar-type line and fill a bowl with meat, veggies, sauces, spices, and other things. Then you take the bowl to a big circular grill and someone grills it up for you using long metal sticks. The bowl I put together had chicken, tofu, hot jalapenos, assorted veggies, Szechuan sauce, dill, and crushed red pepper. It was just a tad hotter than I intended, but it was good. We were all happy with what we chose. If you don't want to try to guess what your combination will taste like, or need some suggestions, they have recipe cards available that you can follow. When J and I first went there a long time ago, we used the cards to give us an idea of what to do, but now we just walk over and dig in.

After we digested that for a few minutes, we walked down the street to the art store that has the retro Ann Arbor transportation posters (we have two in our back hallway.) They are are realistic, but fictional, posters advertising Ann Arbor transportation systems, such as a subway, monorail, airline, and so on. They are very believable.

Next, a few quick stops: The Cupcake Station and ACME Mercantile.

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Christmas is only a few days away. We have all our shopping done. More accurately, J has all our shopping done, as she's usually in charge of getting everything for the kids. This year, the #1 item on each of their lists was an iPod. I told them that iPods weren't free, and that I was in my late 30's before I got my first iPod. That last argument wasn't very convincing, though.

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Lots of fun plans with family coming up this weekend. We're looking forward to seeing everyone!

In case I'm not back here before then, Merry Christmas!

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U of M Basketbal Wrapup

2010-12-19T08:28:00.004-05:00

K and M at the game

We went to the Oakland University vs. University of Michigan basketball game yesterday. It was the first time I've been to a game in about 15 years, and the first time the boys have been there. Oakland recently upset No. 7-ranked Tennessee, and gave MSU all they could handle, so we were expecting a fight. UM won 69-51, though, and UM was in control for most of the game, so it wasn't what we were expecting.

You get a prize if you can find the ball in this picture. Click on the picture to make it bigger.

After the game, we went to the dollar store to buy our dollar gift exchange presents for the family Christmas gathering coming up. I'm not going to give away what I bought, but I would have paid up to two dollars for it, it's that good.

The Big Chill: An Aptly Named Event

2010-12-12T08:33:00.006-05:00

The boys, with red cheeks and hot chocolate.

The four of us went to The Big Chill, which was an outdoor hockey game between U of M and MSU. A hockey rink was installed on the field of UM Stadium for the occasion. Over the last few weeks, a number of other hockey games, from kids' leagues to high school to college, have been played there, but this was the biggest game scheduled.

We helped set a Guiness record for the largest crowd ever to watch a hockey game: 113,411 people. I don't think our names will be in the book, but if they are, I hope they spell our names right. There was a similar game at MSU's stadium a few years back, which was the largest crowd to watch a hockey game to date, but it wasn't an official Guiness record because no one invited the Guiness people to witness it.

At the end of the national anthem, there was a flyover by a stealth bomber. It was awe-inspiring - it looked like a space ship and made almost no noise. I heard later that it also took all of our pictures and samples of our DNA as it passed over.

A picture of the Wolverines beating the daylights out of the Spartans.

We were able to see the puck and the game surprisingly well from our seats. We were concerned we wouldn't be able to see much, but when we got there and saw how it was set up, we weren't worried any more.

UM won, 5-0. MSU fans like me had a happy moment in the middle of the game when the puck went past the UM goalie for a goal, only to have it called off by the referees. I don't watch much hockey, but it's not unusual for goals to be called back for some infraction or another. Each time UM scored a goal, fireworks went off, and at the end of the game there was a fireworks show. Fireworks were sent up from the field and the tops of the luxury boxes. It was a good show and a lot of fun overall. (If you click on the stadium picture above to enlarge it, you can see the pads with the fireworks laid out across the 5-yard line.)

The weather wasn't too bad, fortunately. The forecast had rain in it for a while, but yesterday morning it showed the rain and snow holding off until well after the game ended. Some us were making use of the little hand-warmer packs on our hands and toes. The boys also slurped on hot chocolate at the second intermission to fend off the cold.

I hope you're all staying warm these days, but still have some time to get outside and have some fun.

The Week In Pictures

2010-12-05T09:35:00.004-05:00

This year's tree!

The Christmas tree is up! We got a corkbark fir this year, which is the first time we've gotten one.

A Corliss steam engine

We went to Henry Ford Museum on Saturday. I love the giant steam generators and seeing the machinery that powered the beginning of the industrial age. We watched a demonstration of the Corliss steam engine, which was (in this case) used to drive a 24-foot diameter wheel. The wheel was used to transfer power to machines via a giant belt. This particular engine powered 12 different businesses at a time, from textiles to woodworking. For demonstration purposes in the museum, the steam power was replaced by compressed air. This giant engine, with its 23-ton piston rod, can be powered by 2-3 psi of compressed air. That's it.

Because the engine could only be started with the piston rod in a certain position, factories that owned one of these engines often employed children whose job it was to rotate the wheel until the piston rod was in the right position. They did this by climbing onto the wheel's huge spokes; their weight would cause the wheel to slowly run the piston through its cycle until it was at its top position, ready to be started again.

A better picture, and more history, can be found here.

Happy Thanksgiving Three Days Ago

2010-11-28T18:16:00.002-05:00

We're finally winding up our long Thanksgiving weekend, and it certainly reminded us of all we have to be thankful for. We were able to see most of our extended family in Michigan, and celebrated twice, once on Thursday, and again on Friday. We were able to get in a little shopping, some extra sleep, cat skritching, a few hours doing school volunteer work, and some TV football (J and I on the football season: "Next year will be better!" and "Go State! Big Ten co-champs!", respectively.)

Happy Thanksgiving weekend to everyone!

Herbie Joins the Family!

2010-11-22T19:03:00.005-05:00

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Herbie the light-following mousebot was born November 22, 2010. M and I are the proud parents. He was delivered naturally, following the instructions that came with his kit: soldering, bending, snipping, installing motors, making whiskers, and attaching sensors. Herbie rolls around on the floor, and if he bumps into something, his whiskers or tail make a connection with the "brain" chip, and he backs up, turns around, and goes forward again to avoid the obstacle. A paper clip was seriously harmed in the making of this mouse (parts of it are used for an axle for the front wheel, and a contact loop for the tail).

Herbie and his parents are resting comfortably. Herbie's battery was removed so he could nap. It is not known whether Herbie eats cheese or makes friends with cartoon cats.

Here are some baby pictures:

Isn't he cute?

And wook at his widdle tummy!

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One link of interest: Look at these great ideas for traffic lights. When the sand gets to the bottom, you should either be hitting the brakes or flooring it, depending on your personal style.

Goin' Shoppin' and Talkin' Turkey

2010-11-17T21:39:00.007-05:00

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Over the weekend, the boys and I went to Cabela’s to get winter boots for M and me. (K had to sit and watch us try them on.) I gave up looking for something mid-priced in Ann Arbor – it was either $30 or $130. If there's one thing Cabela's has a lot of, it's boots. And fishing poles. And camouflage gear. And very expensive long underwear.

They were closed when we arrived at about 9:45 on Sunday morning, which was my fault because I didn’t check their hours before we left. We started towards the store, noticed it was closed, and decided to return to the car to stay warm. On our way back to the car, we passed someone who realized we were walking away from the store because it was closed, and he asked when it opened. I told him ten o’clock. He said “What kind of place doesn’t open until ten?” Indeed! I want my stores open when I arrive, dang it! It is interesting that in this day and age I just assumed a large store would be open pretty much any time I felt like going there. A humbling lesson was learned that day.

They used to have a moose head and a deer head mounted on the wall in the upstairs area. They were mechanical heads, and they talked to each other and moved up and down and told jokes. When M was really little and Cabela’s had first opened, I took him there a couple times to get out of the house and see what jokes the moose and the deer were telling. In 2008, we went back for the first time in several years, and the heads were gone. Now that the kids are older, though, they are attracted to the hunting video games, where you use a plastic gun attached to the game to shoot deer or elk or mooses (meese?) on the screen. You can also play bonus rounds where you shoot ducks or pheasants flying out of the video marsh. I have to admit, the games are a lot of fun, so we wrapped up our visit with a few rounds of pretend meat-killing.

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Isn't it amazing that I can go online to see the progress of a package that's being shipped to me? Next thing they'll do is put a little GPS unit on every one and I'll be able to follow the truck on Google Maps. "Hey, that's my neighbor's house! Don't give him my stuff!"

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I'm still not sure how this thing works, but it looks interesting.

I’d love to have one of these brick paving machines. If I had a lot of money to buy one of these. I could play some great practical jokes. It would be hilarious to, say, cover someone's driveway with brick pavers and they'd come home and wonder what happened to their driveway. "Who covered my driveway with bricks? And where's my dog who always waits for me right here? Oh no! You paved over my dog!"

OK, that's it. I've made up my mind. I'm going out and getting one. Be right back. In the meantime, bring your dogs inside.

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I love these buildings that are shaped like the products they sell/manufacture.

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Mom, I hope you're feeling better! You looked great the other day, other than the velcro straps I would never have known anything was wrong. Are you sure you're not faking it to get sympathy, or trying to guilt Dad into making you a sandwich?

And Mom? We need you healthy pronto. Thanksgiving is coming up, and I didn't really want to give away the big secret, but I guess I have to. We're starting a new family tradition: a limbo contest in the front yard for all the Thanksgiving guests. You're going to want to be back to 100% for that, because we're awarding prizes that you won't want to miss. You're teamed up with Dad, so I'm going to need to see a little Jackson spirit. Wearing matching shirts and hats isn't required, but it will get you style points with the judges.

Get well soon!

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Road Trip!

2010-11-07T16:38:00.009-05:00

The boys outside the Aquarium, with the Chicago skyline

We went to Chicago this weekend. The primary reason was to see the Jim Henson exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry, but we also wanted to get in some time at Shedd Aquarium.

The Jim Henson exhibit was neat – it covered the history of the Muppets, advertisements from the 60’s, Sesame Street, the Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, several movies, and some of his non-Muppet work were all covered. He was a very creative person.

The Aquarium was a lot of fun, too. The kids had never been there before. J and I have been there a few times, most recently in 2008 when we went to Chicago to celebrate our 15th anniversary. We saw the beluga whale/sea lion/dolphin show in their large amphitheater, and we enjoyed looking at all the tanks full of tropical fish, reefs, frogs, seahorses, and other water life. I petted a starfish, which was kind of slippery and hairy at the same time.

It is a fact that the only animals that were supposed to be in this display, but were not, were the Grand Cayman Blue Iguanas.

Rockhopper and Magellenic Penguins live peacefully, quietly, until one day, the one on the far left goes crazy and choas ensues.

We were not able to cover the whole place while we were there, and we’re planning to return in the spring to see the rest. Because we were already planning to return, we decided to buy a year membership, which not only saves us money over the long haul, but allowed us to go directly to the membership entrance, bypassing the slow-moving general admission line of what looked like at least 200 people. I felt a little guilty bounding up the steps past the huge line, but membership has its privileges, as they say.

We made the decision to go to Chicago on Wednesday after checking the weather forecast. Chicago was to be 48 and sunny on Saturday, and the weather was similar to home on Friday. Looked good to us, so we made hotel reservations and started packing. We didn’t check the weather for cities between here and there, so we were surprised when we hit an all-out snowstorm in western Michigan, about 40 miles from the Indiana border. We were going as slowly as 30 miles per hour for a while, and visibility was terrible. It was one of those times when you hope the car you’re behind doesn’t go off the road, because you might just follow their taillights off the road yourself.

The snow stopped in Indiana, but on Saturday we woke to two inches on the ground, and on the car. Fortunately, the roads were dry and there was no more snow for the rest of the trip. The weather in Chicago was beautiful and we had very pleasant walks to and from the car, which was parked under Soldier Field.

It's hard to drive when your car is like this. Hotel service surprisingly did not include vehicle snow removal, which resulted in no tip for the housekeeping staff. What do they need tips for anyway? They can eat as many of those warm cinnamon rolls as they want.

We all had a great time and the trip went well despite the surprise snowstorm.

Welcome to November

2010-11-01T16:37:00.007-04:00

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Halloween

This year for Halloween, K went as Luigi, a video game character who is the brother of the well-known Mario character. His friend, Max, dressed as Mario.

M went as a hobo. J and M spent a lot of time making the suit and other clothes look "lived in".

In Other News
A week ago, J and I picked up our new van, a Dodge Grand Caravan. Red. It's very nice, has seats that fold into the floor, and lots of other great features. We traded in our 9 year-old Ford Windstar. If it was sad to be parted from us, it didn't say anything. We'll miss it, but we're happy to move up to something new.

On Friday, J and I had a date night (Laurie babysat) and went to the Purple Rose Theater to see the show "Best of Friends". The play was written by Jeff Daniels, the actor, who lives in Chelsea when he's not filming movies. He is also the person behind the theater, and a number of his plays have been performed there. We've also seen plays written by Mitch Albom, of "Tuesdays with Morrie" fame.

After the play, we walked over to Common Grill and had a few appetizers followed by dessert.

Links
This ship is not sinking.

From the great “Fake Science” site:
Solar power
Cow formations

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T19:02:00.002-04:00

click the picture to see a large version

The Refinance List

2010-10-20T21:09:00.004-04:00

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J and I asked a local bank about refinancing, and part of their application process requires us to gather a number of documents and other items for them to review.The last time we refinanced, in 2003, the list of things we were supposed to provide was much different from the list we received from the bank:

1. Most recent pay stubs, for one month. Must show YTD income.
2. 2008 and 2009 W2s.
3. 2008 and 2009 tax returns.
4. Alphabetical list of all Facebook friends, including email addresses and Mafia Wars scores.
5. Most recent two months bank statements, all pages.
6. Most recent quarterly statement for investment and retirement accounts, all pages.
7. Construction paper hand turkey with feathers and crayon smile
8. Summer and winter property tax information.
9. A 500-word essay describing where you were on 9/11, and how it affected your feelings about your mortgage company.
10. Home owner’s insurance information.
11. The colors and depths of the carpet in your home, if any.
12. Most recent monthly mortgage statement(s).
13. A song about your favorite brand of hot sauce following the 12-bar blues pattern.
14. Signed application and authorization.
15. Three peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, three apples, and strawberry/banana yogurt cups for our mortgage review team to eat while we process your application. Please include plastic spoons for the yogurt.

Banks sure have changed since the recession began.

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J and M saw this live at the UM football game a few weeks ago. I get dizzy just watching the video.

Very, very neat contraptions.

Following my habit of posting links to neat lamps, here's another one.

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Nothing new or different here for us - same as last time. I've started several books in the past month, and have only finished one or two. Nothing noteworthy, though, so I don't have any recommendations. I haven't been swept off my feet lately, literary-wise.

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Halloween approacheth. What theme should I use for my pumpkin this year? What's that you say? The Michigan State Spartans theme, like the picture of the pumpkin I have here on my blog? A theme surrounding the Spartans? Alright then, but only because you insist. It'll have to compete with the UM pumpkins the kids claim they're going to create. We'll see.

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I've always thought it would be fun to pick locks - how exciting to be able to let your neighbors in when they forget their keys, or break into the elementary school to change MEAP scores. If someone wants to spring for this set of lock-picking devices, I'd surely write a thank-you note.

Some links

2010-10-09T09:02:00.004-04:00

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First, An Update
Today is the MSU/UM game in Ann Arbor. It should be a good game. J and M will be there in person to cheer on the Wolverines, and I'll be watching it at home in a comfortable chair.

Soccer season is going well - M is playing goalie for the first time this year, and has only allowed three goals in his three appearances. He plays for 25-minute shifts (which is half the game). He has done very well.

K scored a goal a few weeks ago, which was fun to watch. He and the other third-graders are starting to "get it" as far as being in the right place and how to pass the ball. It's fun to watch K improve his skills.

Motor Vehicles
It’s not too early to make an entry on the ol’ Christmas list: A Batmobile!
Kind of the same idea, but not on my list: A Radio Flyer wagon.

Libraries and books
Library for lighthouses
A book-themed restaurant.

A neat idea for a hook that uses the weight of the hooked item to hold it in place. The same site has some other fun things on it that are unusual or interesting.

Pictures

2010-10-05T16:28:00.009-04:00

This lawn looks like a ten-year old mowed it, then played football on it.

This is the book I'm currently reading. Note the position of the bookmark in the book - if it doesn't get a little more interesting soon, I'm going to use the bookmark somewhere else.

The pumpkin from our garden. Our biggest disappointment, other than its size, is that it is not orange. We got a good number of other veggies - tomatoes, peppers, and basil leaves - so it wasn't a total loss.

This looks familiar. Playing it is like riding, and occasionally falling off, a bike.

Statistics for this blog

2010-09-22T16:38:00.005-04:00

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From May 2010 through this afternoon, this graphic shows where people have been when viewing this blog, and what browser they were using. Blogger.com has a link that says "Next Blog >>" that's at the top of most of their blogs, and that's probably how most of these people found me. I have gotten a little spam in the comments sections, which I hope will not continue, but for the most part visitors have been kind.

Click on it to show a bigger version.

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Links and More

2010-09-18T08:37:00.003-04:00

Family Status
Not much going on here this weekend. The boys don't have soccer games this weekend, so we're going to wrap up some loose ends and also attend a reunion party for former Pall employees.

We went to the year's first PTO meeting on Wednesday. J is a co-treasurer and runs the Yahoo! mailing group for the school. I'm going to run the Science Fair this year as I did two years ago (it is held every two years.) We're trying to do our parts to help keep the trains running on time, so to speak.

Some Links I've Been Saving Up
Neat lamps made from found materials. The artist's website is here; check out the furniture, and his other lamps. He's very talented.

Hand-made cameras.

Fun clocks.

Fun car drawings.

Someday I'm going to make something like this battery USB drive. But probably not a battery - scooping out all the junk doesn't look like any fun.

Mid-month Progress Report

2010-09-12T20:39:00.003-04:00

Lots of little things going on, but nothing big is going on.

Kid Update
M is playing soccer, and had two games this weekend. He played goalie for one half, and did very well, stopping a number of shots and giving up only one goal (which he couldn't see because of the crowd in front of the net.) This is a new thing for him, but he played aggressively and wasn't afraid to challenge the other players. In school, M is going through the standard music program, and was part of a group that tried out flutes last week. They have the chance to try out different instruments and will later focus on a single one as part of a larger group. They try out band and orchestra instruments.

K is also playing soccer, and had his first game this weekend. He has not expressed interest in playing goalie, which I understand completely. He had a sleepover at a friend's house this weekend, and was in bed a little early to make up for the lost sleep.

Book Update
I've read a few more books in the last several weeks. One was "The Undertaker's Wife", by Loren Estleman. I've read quite a few of his books - he's a Michigan author who has written mysteries, novels, and westerns. He's quite prolific. I recommend his Amos Walker mystery books - they're very well-written and exciting. One of his books mentions the Bucksnort Saloon in Mesick, MI, which we drive by each year on our way to and from Frankfort. I just started reading another of his books, called "Alone".

I recently finished "Moo" by Jane Smiley, which I saw a recommendation for. It's not a new book, but it is on a lot of peoples' favorites list. I'm afraid I didn't enjoy it as much as others did - there were too many people, and I didn't understand what they were doing, and some bit players, who quickly came into (and left) the scene, seemingly unrelated to anything else going on. I thought the part about the hog in the "Old Meats" building was the funniest part of the book. I would have enjoyed the book more if they had focused on the hog (named Earl Butz) and his caretaker, Bob. But Jane Smiley is pretty successful, and she doesn't need my approval.

I also read "Last Days of Summer" by Steve Kluger, about a boy in New York who befriends a major-league baseball player through a long series of letters and meetings. The baseball player eventually becomes a father figure to the boy. The plot was a little difficult to believe, but it was a nice story.

Flipped
J, M, and I saw the movie "Flipped" on Saturday evening. It's the movie version of the book of the same name, which is a touching story about a boy and a girl who are neighbors, and have a love/hate relationship with each other. The end is very sweet and even though I knew what would happen (because I read the book) I still got a little misty-eyed. The book is a fun read.

The movie was directed by Rob Reiner, and it was filmed in Ann Arbor, Saline, and Manchester. A number of movies have been filmed in this area due to the economic incentives Michigan offers to movie makers. We watched another movie recently, called "Youth in Revolt", which featured a scene filmed in downtown Ann Arbor. The scene was notable because it offered a clear view of Burton Tower on UM's campus, and featured a huge car explosion. (The location, in case you're interested, was on Liberty Street, east of Ashley and west of the railroad tracks.) It also included some scenes shot in Frankfort, the locations of which were not as easily recognizable. However, J knew that one of the buildings used was the bakery on the main street, and we were able to identify some parts of the bakery, and figure out what was changed for the movie.

After "Flipped" was over, and the lights went on, quite a few of the people in the theater stayed and talked about it. It was obvious to us that many of the people there knew extras from the movie, or were able to identify the houses or streets that were in the film. It was a fun atmosphere.

Weekend News, and Soccer: It Begins

2010-08-30T16:36:00.006-04:00

A row of golf carts in downtown Put-In-Bay

Put-in-Bay, Ohio
We went to Put-in-Bay, OH over the weekend. I-Had-Never Been-There-Before. In fact, I had never heard of it before Wednesday of last week when J asked about taking a day trip there. The town is on South Bass Island, in the middle of Lake Erie. It’s not too far from Sandusky. The island has a couple of caves that one can tour, a huge monument to Oliver Hazard Perry (who, from what I can tell, single-handedly defeated the entire British Navy using only a salad fork, his left shoe, and a lead pipe), lots of bars and restaurants, and many other attractions. We rented a golf cart to drive around the island, which the kids enjoyed. I was surprised how much I liked the tour of the winery (it was part of the admission to one of the cave tours), given that I rarely drink wine. The kids liked the caves, too, and enjoyed “panning” for minerals at one of the family fun centers. Ask them about it sometime.

One of the “caves” was not a cave in the traditional sense – it was actually a geode. We were standing inside what they claim is the world’s largest geode, a piece of which is at the Smithsonian. (Spain also claims to have the largest geode.) The cave/geode was found when the winery people were drilling for water. If you are claustrophobic, or have a debilitating fear of giant underground crystal formations, I recommend not going on this tour. The other cave, which was across the street, was larger, and Perry and his boys found clear drinking water in it – there was a very nice-looking lake at the bottom of the cave. This water is said to have been a welcome relief for the troops after drinking the water from Lake Erie, which apparently made them sick. Coming in on the ferry, we could easily see how this was possible. This cave had one fairly small room in it whose entrance had a low ceiling dubbed “Headache Rock” by the tour guide, for reasons that would be clear to you if you saw it or hit your head on it.

The day we were there, the Budweiser Clydesdales were on the island, bringing to all peoples a message of peace and quaint beer commercialism. We made sure to be downtown when they arrived, but I was disappointed in the horses. They were pretty and all, but I thought they did tricks and dance routines, or sang songs, or talked like Mr. Ed or something. All they did was walk slowly. This might have passed as entertainment in the old days, but not now. I think they should cash those horses in for a blimp or a boat that jumps off ramps or some monkeys in clown suits. Now that would be fun to watch. Believe it or not, there is a guy who travels with the horses whose job is, in part, to wipe slobber off the horses’ lips. Really. Horse slobber. That probably wasn’t his only job – I’m guessing he also has to pick dirt and roadkill out of the horses’ hooves. Or help sober them up from a long night of drinking Bud out of their trough. This person’s job is a small step up from riding the little golf cart at the rear of the procession, carrying the shovels and pails, but only a small one.

The Budweiser Clydesdales and wagon. Note that the wagon was not put before the horses. (Not shown: Slobber-wiping assistant.)

We did the whole trip in one day, and overall it was a successful outing. It is our understanding that the waterfront turns into a giant party at night, and we could see signs of that reputation being true as we were leaving the main downtown area at about 6:30 pm. Bring Your-Party-Hat if you’re going to Stay-After-Dark in Put-in-Bay.

Soccer and UM Happenings
Soccer practices start again this week, and UM football takes over next weekend with the season opener against UConn (pronounced "Connecticut"). Students move in this week, so it will be back to long lines at the campus ice cream places until spring. And Meijer will be completely full of students buying beanbag chairs, full-length mirrors, and plastic milk crate shelves for a solid week.

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Tigers Win, and People We've Met

2010-08-21T09:49:00.006-04:00

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These kids kept standing up and blocking my view of the game.

Tigers Game Recap

We went to the Tigers/Indians game last night in Detroit. None of us had been to Comerica Park before, and it was very nice. The weather was perfect, the food was good, our seats were good, and the Tigers stomped the Indians 6-0. The Tigers, who have not been playing well lately, apparently saved up all their hits for this game, in which they had 16. A tip of the baseball cap to Thomson Reuters, which has an annual outing to the park for employees, and we got two of our tickets free, as well as “fun money” vouchers for food and merchandise. There were fireworks after the game ended, and it was a lot of fun.

The view from our seats

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The “Noah Genda”

During our vacation in Frankfort, we met a retired couple at the Betsie Bay Inn restaurant. They were docked at Betsie Lake, which is in Frankfort, connected to Lake Michigan by a small channel. They told us they were nearing the end of a long boat journey through the US; they have been down rivers, up the Atlantic, and through the Great Lakes. Their boat is called “Noah Genda” (read it out loud for it to make sense.) I Googled their boat name and found a log of their travels on this website. It’s a very interesting trip, and they were very nice people. Their entry about Frankfort is here.

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Home Improvements: The Unplanned Kind

2010-08-21T09:48:00.001-04:00

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Lots of fun at our house this week. We discovered that our downstairs toilet has been leaking water into the basement. We’re not sure how long it’s been leaking, but we noticed water dripping out of the furnace ducts earlier this summer and thought it was condensation from the very humid weather. On further inspection, we found it was the toilet, whose drain is directly over the duct.

The plumber told us that the flange, the connector between the toilet and the drain, did not rise up far enough to get a good seal – this is because the person who put in our vinyl floor raised the floor by about ¼”, but did not raise the flange, or suggest we do so. Because of this, the toilet had a minimal connection to the flange. The eventual breakdown of the wax ring on this minimal seal caused water to leak, which soaked the plywood floor and caused it to buckle, which made the leak even worse.

The plumber had more bad news: when the house was built, the builders put a floor joist directly under the spot where the toilet drain was supposed to be. To get around this, the plumber carved out a notch in the joist (not allowed by code) and installed a funnel-like adapter to the flange to allow the water to move a few inches to the side, then go down into the rest of the drain. Even a non-plumber like me can see this is not a very good setup. The plumber and carpenter are getting around this by installing a toilet that has a 10” rough-in instead of the standard 12”, which will give them a straight drain without any funnels and without having to cut into floor supports. I’m sorry the people who built the house and plumbed it did not have the patience or skill to see what they were doing was against code and reason.

The floor was replaced by the carpenter, and we had enough vinyl flooring left from the original installation that he could cover the new floor. The plumber installed a new drain and toilet, so now we’re all set again with a bathroom that works and a floor that isn’t rotting.

Next step: Cleaning out the ducts that had toilet water dripping on them. I think a blowtorch is in order, but it’s possible that a member of the duct-cleaning trade will have other options available.

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Ann Arbor Journal article about the LEGO competition

2010-08-12T16:25:00.002-04:00

M's picture was in today's AA Journal newspaper, and it's also in the picture slideshow on their website with the story.

The reporter talked to him quite a bit at the competition, and I think that was his first media interview.

LEGO Competition Results and What Don's Reading

2010-08-08T19:01:00.006-04:00

M and his awesome LEGO creation

LEGOs!
M won a medal at this year's LEGO competition, sponsored by the Ann Arbor Public Library. His scene featured a large boat, a dock, some divers and even some LED lights illuminating the interior of the boat. He won for "Best Architectural or Engineering" project. Congratulations!

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A couple of book reports from the "Breezy Summer Reading" library list...

Book 1
First up is "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder. This is a biography of a doctor and humanitarian aid worker named Paul Farmer, whose primary work was on TB in Haiti. He also helped put programs in place in Peru and Russia.

One of the most impressive things about him and his group, Partners in Health, was how they brought the cost of TB medicines down. They lobbied the World Health Organization to put certain TB drugs on their preferred list of drugs, which was encouragement to pharmaceutical companies to produce generics for those drugs. The cost of treatment for a patient dropped dramatically - in one case, from $1,500 to only $150, and in another case, from $95 to 95 cents.

Book 2: The Second Book
The next book, and yes, I've been tearing through them lately, is Blind Descent, the story of two teams of people looking for the deepest caves on earth. If you think the people who climb Mt. Everest are crazy, you don't know these deep cavers. They are truly insane. If you like the idea of crawling through spaces no bigger than yourself for hundreds of feet, sleeping suspended from ropes with deafening waterfalls next to you, or scuba diving into black waters when you have no idea where the waters even go, or whether you'll get trapped, then this kind of exploring is definitely for you. And also you need to have your head checked. My hat is off to these people who have the guts to quite literally enter caves, pools of water, or other cracks knowing they might not return, and that no one would be able to save them.

I think would have enjoyed this book a little more if the author had accompanied them on their trips, which I don't think he did. He just learned about it by talking to many people and reading other books. Even if he had just gone to their base camps or done a little sump diving (read the book) I would have felt closer to the action.

At any rate, I'm not walking into any cave that doesn't have a gift shop by the parking lot, near where the buses drop off the tourists.

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We harvested some veggies from the garden today - some tomatoes and a pepper. Yummy! We're learning a lot, and not exactly getting the results we were hoping for, but we're not doing too badly for our first time.

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Electronics Project Update

2010-08-05T18:23:00.006-04:00

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The boys and I worked on this small electronics project over the past few days. We bought it at the Maker Faire. The Cornfield Electronics site has a link to a neat “how to solder” PDF that we used. I was surprised how easily the kids picked up soldering – they did almost perfect joints every time.

M solders a component to the board.

K takes a break from concentrating on soldering to mug for the camera.

The finished product. It works by changing the LED (in the tall white tube) different colors as you move your hand over it.

I suppose some parents would be horrified to see an 8-year old handling a soldering iron, but we didn't have any mishaps. To ensure that everything went smoothly, I hired the cats to watch and make sure everything was up to OSHA standards for safety and cleanliness.

Our next project will be a larger project, a light-chasing “mouse” we bought at the Faire.

They got the “Dangerous” electronics set for Christmas, and we will soon open that and do some of the projects in it.

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From Ann Arbor to Frankfort to Detroit

2010-08-01T13:04:00.004-04:00

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Frankfort's public beach rotates away from the sun's light as onlookers watch, helpless to stop it.

The sun has set on our latest summer excursion to Frankfort. We had a great time, with great weather, great food, and we met some interesting people. We logged many hours on the beach and went on a very relaxing canoe trip north of Frankfort. The canoe trip ended at an inlet to Lake Michigan, and we walked up to the lake while stone hunting - there were gazillions of flat, smooth stones for the kids to use for skipping practice.

On Saturday, we met Grandma and Grandpa B at the Maker Faire at Henry Ford Museum. The rain held off long enough for us to visit the "Learn to Solder" tent, ride a 6-person circular bicycle from Cirque Amongus, and watch the life-sized Mousetrap Rube Goldberg setup, which is based on the Mousetrap board game. There were plenty of other oddball and fun exhibits as well.

Before we left, we purchased some inexpensive starter circuit board sets that the boys and I will assemble in the coming days and weeks. They both left asking when their next opportunity to solder would be, and I'd hate for them to lose that enthusiasm about it.

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Cows

2010-07-23T08:51:00.002-04:00

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Cows as you've never seen them.

In non-cow news, I just finished reading a biography of Paul Dirac. He was a famous physicist from back in the heyday of quantum physics. He was colleagues with some of the guys you remember from your high school physics classes - Heisenberg, Schrodinger, and Pauli, as well as many others you probably haven't heard of. He didn't really work with Einstein, although it was Einsteins theory of relativity that first got him interested in physics. It's amazing how smart these guys were - Dirac and Heisenberg became famous (in science circles) in their early 20's, writing significant papers and theories when most people would still be struggling through Calculus II. He won a shared a Nobel prize for his work. It was not what you'd consider a typical summer reading book, but it was very interesting. I'm not sure what my next book will be, but it probably won't be a 440-page biography of a relatively obscure scientist.

Things are quiet here. M and I spent some time last week working on a secret project that he will unveil at the Ann Arbor District Library's LEGO contest. It involves LEDs. M had a great idea for this year's entry, and maybe it will be neat enough for the judges to give him an award for it. We picked out the items we needed for the project at Radio Shack, a store at which no one could possibly have answered any questions for me about LEDs. They do, however, sell a mean cell phone plan.

Jackson Hot Air Jubilee

2010-07-18T08:38:00.003-04:00

The boys and I went to the Jackson Airport last night to see the WWII Corsairs do a show, and to watch the balloon glow at dusk. We saw Grandma and Grandpa B and had a fun time.

The Corsairs flew in formation and let out smoke trailers during some of their runs. Someone on the ground set off explosives which were meant to simulate the planes dropping bombs.

You might have recognized the Super Sugar Crisp bear balloon on the right side of the picture. Super Sugar Crisp cereal is now called "Golden Crisp" because it's not wise to have the word "sugar" in a cereal's name. For some reason "Frankenberry" is fine, even though its contents have nothing to do with berries or fruit. Or Frankenstein.

July 16 Update

2010-07-16T21:02:00.005-04:00

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Family News

The boys have been at Camp Birkett this week. A bus picks them up in Ann Arbor and drives them to the camp, which is in Dexter. They stayed overnight there last night - they slept in their sleeping bags in the Art Lodge. They had fun, but by the end of the week, they were both pretty exhausted.

Last weekend, we went to the Ann Arbor Observer party at the Top of the Park, and tried food from several Ann Arbor restaurants and markets. It was all great, and the kids even tried some new things. The Bugs Beddow Band was there and they were terrific – we have heard of them before, but had never seen them in person.

The Ann Arbor Art Fairs start on Wednesday of next week. We’ll pick a day to go, depending on the weather. On Monday before the fairs start, there is a “Townie” party in the same mall as the Top of the Park activities, with food, music, and a kid’s art fair. Some kids display their art, and some sell it as well. We have enjoyed seeing the art from the kids, and they expect about 70 entrants this year.

Links
This is an odd website, but the more you look at it, the more neat it gets.

If you're roughly my age, you remember the song "Cars" by Gary Numan. Here he is, playing his song in an odd way.

I really, honestly want one of these. Any flavor. I'm not convinced they exist, but I want one.

Lots of neat maps are at this site. I found this via Edward Tufte’s “Ask E.T.” website.

Fun Simpsons animation guidelines/ideas.

Lots of Links

2010-07-07T18:37:00.002-04:00

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Nothing big going on for us, other than the heat. I'm back at work and the kids are back, well, they're on summer vacation, like J is. I think I'm getting the short end of the stick.

Please don't buy me Handerpants for Christmas.

You've heard of the famous "riders" that touring bands and artists provide to venues? Demands for special kinds of bottled water and bowls of M&Ms (but no brown ones.) Here is Steve Martin's rider.

These look OK, but they will get messy if you want syrup.

A neat "tree of life". Note “You are here” in the upper left-hand corner - that's people.

A fun tutorial about making your own gears.

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Happy Independence Day!

2010-07-03T16:30:00.006-04:00

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K and M showing their red, white, and blue at the DSO concert at Greenfield Village

We've been pretty busy lately. Here's an update:

Wednesday, June 23: The four of us went to the Ann Arbor Civic Band concert at Burns Park. There was a threat of big rain that night, and for a while, it looked like we might get lucky. But about 20 minutes into the concert, the two bassoon players got up and started heading to the parking lot because the rain was starting (bassoons are made out of sugar, I guess.) The show was over, and later that night we had a family reunion in the basement to celebrate a tornado warning. Maybe celebrate isn't the right word...

Last Weekend: We went to play some tennis (also at Burns Park.) The boys recently got new rackets and wanted to try them out for real. They and their friends have been playing "neighborhood rules" tennis in a few of the driveways. It was the first time in many years I've played. It was a lot of fun.

Wednesday, June 30: We went to Top of the Park for the first time this year. There were a few country music bands there that night. We tend to pick our Top of the Park nights based more on weather than the type of music. We had a relaxing time and saw a few friends and neighbors.

Thursday, July 1: There was a fund-raiser for the 3-day breast cancer walk in downtown Saline, including appearances by Detroit Tigers Brandon Inge and Austin Jackson. There was also live music. We had hamburgers from the grill and cotton candy, then watched our old acquaintance Brian Vander Ark do a set on the music stage. It's been a while since we've seen him, and we enjoyed the show from across the street, under a shady tree. Brian's wikipedia entry is here.

Friday, July 2: We had a great time at the Greenfield Village Annual Salute To America. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra played a number of great patriotic tunes, complete with booming cannons during The 1812 Overture. After the main show was over, the DSO continued playing July 4th staples to accompany a fireworks show. We had perfect weather, not too hot, not too cold, no bugs, and a great, enthusiastic crowd of about 8500 people. The strawberry shortcake cups were both colorful and tasty.

Saturday, July 3: Grandmas and Grandpas from both sides visited us in Ann Arbor, and we cooked hamburgers and ate watermelon. It was fun to see everyone. We organized the chairs to be in the shade in the backyard and took advantage of the cool breeze while we all got some fresh air.

Happy July 4th to everyone!
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Father's Day Party in Williamston

2010-06-20T08:36:00.007-04:00

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A fun time was had by all at the Father's Day party in Williamston. The boys chased chickens around, waded through the corn field, and played in the barn between servings of tacos and angel food cake and "Dance Dance Revolution" competitions.
Click on the pictures to see larger versions.

M, Jeff, K, and Daniel show how to get around the Lawton estate in style

M, Daniel, and K demonstrate "mad skillz" as they dismantle a rototiller engine with Jeff's help.

M and K are outstanding in the field.

A Hippo Ate My Deck Storage Box

2010-06-15T20:15:00.010-04:00

The tulip tree in our front yard. I thought it was named that because of the tulip-shaped leaves, but it has little flowers, too.

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A lot of good, fun, ugly, and yummy things happened in the last week. Here’s a rundown, with some pictures.

I got a new battery for the old grass trimmer, and it’s running great. The old battery, despite my initial successes, didn’t last. I bought a replacement online and wired it up to the trimmer’s switches, and it was off and running. Maybe I can use it instead of the lawnmower to save gas?

Saturday night, J and I shipped the kids off to Aunt Laurie’s house, and went with our friends, Jeff and Ann, to see Kathy Griffin at the Fox in Detroit. She’s an actress and comedian. She is not exactly known for family-friendly comedy, and what we saw was considerably more, er, adult than the TV versions of her stand-up. Before the show, we went to a restaurant nearby called Small Plates, which was wonderful and delicious. There was a Tigers game that night, which started after we arrived for dinner, and ended after the show was over, so driving in and out was a breeze. It was fun to walk near the stadium at night on our way out of the Fox, with the lights and the cheering crowd.

On Sunday, the boys had a party at their piano teacher’s house, then we went to Grillin’, which is Food Gatherers’ annual fundraiser picnic at the fairgrounds. We had great weather, and we saw several other families we knew. They have live music, a silent auction, and lots of food, including food donated by a lot of local restaurants. There are also activities for the kids, inside and outside. I ran into someone I knew who was dressed as a carrot (which is the Food Gatherers’ mascot of sorts) and I asked her how she came to be a carrot. She said there was a big sign-up sheet for volunteers, and “Carrot” was a choice. I don’t know why everyone wouldn’t want to be a carrot – I know I would. Her job was to be a goodwill ambassador and say “Hello” to people coming in and “Thank You” to people leaving, as well as smile a lot. I think I could handle that.

Images of Destruction

What animal do you suppose is biting chunks of plastic off our deck box? At first I thought it might be a deer, but we have narrowed our choices to chipmunk, red squirrel, or hippopotamus. (We have had chipmunk and red squirrel problems in the past, and I’m really hoping the hippo thing doesn’t turn out to be the answer.)

We may not know who is eating our deck box, but we do know a deer has been munching on the hostas in our back garden. We noticed one a few days ago at our neighbor’s garden, looking at us with a big mouthful of hasta leaves and stems sticking out of its mouth.

Lots of links
A very interesting article about science education and careers – is there truly a “shortage” of graduates in science and engineering in the US? I don’t know this magazine or any political agenda it may have, but it’s an interesting article.

A couple of things I’d like to build in the parallel universe where I have infinite time available to me - a Gear Ring and a bicycle sidecar.

A few space travel-related links
The first is spacecraft made from plywood. These are great, and are in full scale.

The second is a picture of an F-15 at a recent shuttle launch. Incredible picture – you should have seen the ladder the photographer was using.

Second Grade Career Talk, Sportsmanship, and Links

2010-06-07T21:38:00.008-04:00

Please note there is another new post below this one, with some Science Olympiad information. I'm posting twice today because I've been saving up, and I don't want anyone to miss the Science Olympiad post.

Career Talk
I recently had the opportunity to talk about programming as a career
with K's second grade class. I wanted to find a way to get the kids thinking about computers they use in every day life, and understand that computers are everywhere.

I brought in a box of toys and other items from around the house.
These included an iPod touch, electronic keyboard, a magazine,
Nintendo DS, a stuffed toy that talks when you squeeze it, a pen, a BlackBerry phone, a calculator, and a toy car.

When I held up each item, I asked the students if it had a
computer in it. If they said yes, I asked them what the computer
did. A few items, like the electronic keyboard, confused them - most
thought it did not have a computer in it. They understood that the
BlackBerry and iPod had a computer, and they were not sure about the
stuffed toy that talked. The toy car didn’t have a computer in it,
but we talked about a real car, which has numerous computers in it – I
asked them what kind of computers were in a car, and they knew some of
them -radio, GPS system, etc. I also said there were other computers
as well that kept the car running, such as fuel injection control. I
think it was important that I brought in things that did not have a
computer in them to create a contrast.

Input, Instructions, and Output
At that point I told them a little about input and output from a
program. A program, simply put, has three parts: input, instructions, and output.
A program acts on the input by following some instructions, then
outputs something to the user as a result.

We talked about a calculator – input is when you press the number and plus/minus/multiply/divide buttons, and when the equal sign is pressed, instructions execute. The output (result) is shown on the screen. With this in mind, I brought out the items from the box again, and we talked about the input to each of
them, what instructions they might execute inside, and what the output
is.

We listed our inputs:
* Mouse click
* Keyboard typing
* Touch screen
* Voice
* A signal from a cell phone tower that tells the phone it’s receiving
a call
* A motion that causes an accelerometer to act on the current display
(such as turning an iPod touch on its side)
* A camera that tracks the eye motion of a physically handicapped
user, and moves the mouse pointer in response.
* A computer that acts when a timer goes off, such as an alarm clock.
In this case, the input to one program is controlled by another
program.
* Etc.

Then we listed the outputs we could think of:
* Screen changes
* Sounds
* Program changes (a menu selection changes what the program is doing,
or closed the program, etc.)
* Sometimes no output means we did something right (we didn’t get an
error message)
* A mouse pointer may change to an hourglass to tell us something is
happening.
* A signal out of a phone, telling the cell phone network that it is
making a call.
* Etc.

I had a lot of fun, and I think this time the kids had fun too. I
could tell that some of the kids never thought of these toys and
devices containing computers, they just think of a Mac or a PC as a
computer. Now they see these things differently, and I hope they will
start to think of inputs and outputs when they use one.

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Sportsmanship
There are so many inspiring stories about athletes who, individually or as a team, show outstanding sportsmanship by allowing the win/loss statistics to come in second to basic human decency. For example, we occasionally hear about a high school team who allows a mentally handicapped student assistant to take a handoff and run the ball during a real game. One event I heard about had the players from both teams form two parallel lines running from the line of scrimmage to the end zone, and they applauded the student as he ran between them for a touchdown.

This story, about a top-notch high school softball team, is pretty amazing. What they did is the kind of thing I hope that my kids will do someday for someone else when they have an opportunity, either in sports, or in some other part of their lives.

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A Few Fun Links

Semicolon usage

The same newspaper prop is used over and over in films and TV.

Please buy this Les Paul guitar before someone else does. Gorgeous.

Science Olympiad results

2010-06-06T18:44:00.005-04:00

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Science Olympiad
June 5 was the Science Olympiad competition at Ann Arbor's Skyline High School. Kids from about 19 Washtenaw County schools competed in events covering map reading, water rockets, architecture, math, chemistry, anatomy, and more. The second and third graders competed in the morning, and the fourth and fifth grades competed in the afternoon.

K won a fourth-place medal in Map Reading with Tomoki, his teammate, friend, and across-the-street neighbor. Map Reading requires the students to understand and read a map, such as asking what the distance between two locations on a map, or whether a location is north, south, east, or west of another location. K also competed in Mystery Architecture, an event where they are given a bunch of random building materials such as popsicle sticks, newspaper, pipe cleaners, and paper plates, with which they were to build the tallest structure that would support the weight of a tennis ball. Map Reading and Mystery Architecture were among the most popular of the events, so winning a medal in one of these says a lot.

M competed in Estimania and "A is for Anatomy". The former requires the students to estimate weights, measurements, and mathematical calculations to get the closest possible answer. For example: "A TV at Best Buy costs $247, and it is on sale for 22% off this week. How much is the sale price?" The students would typically round to 20% off $250, then make a small adjustment down to account for the estimating error. This is a three-person event, but fourth grade this year was only able to send two competitors, which put M his teammate at a disadvantage.

"A is for Anatomy" is an event where the students learn about the body - the heart, lungs, digestive system, and so on. M can tell you the parts of the heart, and the order in which blood flows through them as a result of his training.

All of these events were coached by very dedicated parents at Lawton, and because this is such a giant event, there are many volunteers that work behind the scenes to put it all together.

I spent most of the day in the area where the bulk of the competitions were held, and it was my job to make sure all the kids got to their rooms on time and to clear up any problems getting to and from those rooms. There were lots of volunteers in the area that helped with these tasks, and I kept the trains running on time, as they say. I sort of stumbled into this position because my neighbor is on the board of directors of the competition, and she asked me to help. It's nice to be trusted to do something as difficult as this. I'm sure my check is coming in the mail any day... (no, it's not.)

The website for the Washtenaw Elementary Science Olympiad is here.

The boys worked very hard and practiced at school and at home for their events, and they both did very well. Their school won the overall grade awards for 2-5 grades, which happens to be all the grades. The school always does well, as we have more students than any of the other schools, and we have a long history with the Olympiad. We also have great parents, volunteers, and coaches, and we have kept strong over the years.

I'm so proud of their hard work and patience. They've learned so much, and they're so fortunate to have such a great school and great friends to team up with.
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Gardening Update

2010-05-29T14:54:00.006-04:00

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Our Garden

K, left, and M, at the Project Grow garden. Not pictured: Me, J, J's green thumb

Ann Arbor has a gardening program called Project Grow. They provide space for people to plant their own gardens. There are several sites in Ann Arbor. Their website is here.

Our friends, the Kennedys, reserved a garden through Project Grow, and offered to let us have a small part of their plot this year. They also are letting us borrow some tomato cages. Last night was the first time we were there as a family, and we planted tomatoes, peppers, basil, and carrot seeds. We also covered the rest of our area with straw to help keep the weeds down. The boys helped plant the seeds and remove some of the weeds, and we all watered the plants and put cages up. Project Grow provides hoses at the gardens, and we watered our plants while we talked to the people who were tending the garden next door. We're hoping to add a pumpkin to our space, the idea for which we stole from the Kennedys, who are also growing a pumpkin.

We had beautiful weather, which made our first family trip to the garden a really nice evening.

Science Olympiad
Next week is the Science Olympiad competition. We are all ready for it, the kids have studied and practiced, and J and I are prepared to spend basically the whole day there since K's competitions will be in the morning, and M's will be in the afternoon. I am also working out a volunteer position with a neighbor of mine who is in charge of part of the Olympiad. Since we're going to be there all day, I might as well do something useful.

Not much else to report this week - we're doing some gardening at home as well this weekend, replacing some dead and/or dying hollies in the front garden with some new junipers and hastas which we think will thrive in that space a little better. A few new red twig dogwoods in the back to fill in some empty spaces, and we'll be all set. Now if we could just get the deer and bunnies to leave our plants alone - I tried to train the squirrels that visit J's bird feeder to scare off the bunnies, but they are not good listeners.

Holy Cow

2010-05-25T20:24:00.002-04:00

Not much to say about this, just look at the pictures.

Piano Recital Today!

2010-05-23T08:39:00.006-04:00

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Recital and Make-Up Soccer Games
Don't miss the piano recital today - if you're coming, you know when and where.

I've talked a lot about soccer lately. We had a game rained out yesterday, and we've had other games rained out. Today we have two make-up games to account for the previous rain-outs, and one of them is on a field that is so muddy and wet, it is also being cancelled. I expect the other field to be pretty wet, since it was one that was closed yesterday due to mud and water. Looks like I'll have more shoe cleaning to do.

Lawn-Care Update
We have two electric lawn care devices that have not been working properly this year - one is a battery-powered trimmer (weed whacker) and the other is a sidewalk edger. We were pretty sure the battery in the trimmer was dying, so I went to the local Toro shop to order a new one. It would have been $66, so I decided to wait.

I came home and took the trimmer apart - the motor, line spool, handle, battery, switch, and everything. I cleaned it all up and charged the battery on my workbench in the basement. After putting it back together, it seems to be working much better, although still not as well as it did when it was new. J typically does the trimming, and she likes this trimmer a lot, so it was worth the effort. If it still runs out of juice, I'll see if I can find the battery cheaper somewhere else.

The sidewalk edger has worked well for us for about 9 years, and is suddenly not putting out much power. I also disassembled it and cleaned it, then put it back together. Like the trimmer, it seems to be better, as it doesn't give a high-pitched whine like before.

Sidewalk edger

These projects gave me a chance to get outside and take some things apart, which can be relaxing, and it also allowed me to be seen in the driveway with tools laid out around me, looking like I knew what I was doing.

There Will Be Blood
On May 5, I was scheduled to give blood at the kids' school, but I didn't go because I had a nagging sore throat that was about a week old, and I didn't think they'd want me to give. Last week at work we had a blood drive, and I donated a pint to bring my lifetime total to 9 gallons.

Links
I like this Savage Chickens cartoon. It's funny because it's true.

This is a neat idea - globes that have local maps, instead of world maps.

Ray guns! I'm collecting pieces for my first ray gun right now. I hope to have someting assembled by the time I'm 50.

Mud, Hair Gel, Corn on the Cob, and more

2010-05-16T20:07:00.007-04:00

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The Week In Review
We had a pretty big week. Besides the normal piano lessons, Science Olympiad practices, and soccer practices, we had the annual Science Olympiad Night at the elementary school. All the kids got a chance to demonstrate what they have learned in their practices, and it was a lot of fun. The kids (and parents that helped with it) did a great job.

We had a few soccer games yesterday, each with its own story. We played on the field that had all the standing water last week, and it was very muddy and still had a large puddle at midfield. The ball hardly rolled when it was kicked, it just went a few feet and blorped to a stop. (Blorp is a word, look it up.)

Here are my boots, and K's shoes, after that game. I was tempted to just burn them but that would be wasteful, so I cleaned them instead.

M's game was on a field that was dry, fortunately. His team played well, but wasn't able to hold off a more talented team. Before the game, M wanted to put gel in his hair and make a miniature mohawk. I got some pictures of M actually playing soccer, and this one of him concerning himself with his appearance.

In other more mundane news, we had hamburgers on the grill and corn on the cob for dinner tonight. I don't know where the corn on the cob came from but it was pretty good. On Friday, the boys were eating pizza at a neighbor's, and J and I decided to get some sandwiches from Zingerman's. Great, as usual.

Some Links
There are probably some people who believe the "science" on this page and want to teach it in schools. It reminds me of the lie you tell little kids when they ask where wind comes from - it comes from the tree branches, waving back and forth.

This is a neat concept for a folding table. The website notes that this is not a real table (yet) but maybe someone can make it happen.
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Post-Mothers Day Update

2010-05-10T20:41:00.004-04:00

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Who's In Charge Here, Anyway?
The guy who runs this blog hasn’t been posting very much lately. What a deadbeat.

Mothers Day (or is it "Mother's Day"? Or "Mothers' Day"?)
On Mother’s Day, we had a fun get-together at our house. Mom and Dad came, and Mary, Jeff, Laura, and Daniel came down from Williamston. It was great to see everyone.

Soccer - Rain's Favorite Game
Over the last two Saturdays, we’ve watched two soccer games, and had two more rained out. We went to K’s in the morning on Saturday, and there were big puddles of water on the field. M’s game went on as scheduled, though, and his team won their first game of the season. The previous Saturday, M’s game was rained out in the morning, and K’s game went on as scheduled. His team lost a close game, it could have gone either way.

Science Olympiad Update
Science Olympiad night at Lawton Elementary is Wednesday evening. It should be a great time. The students have an opportunity to show everyone what they’ve learned in their practices. The final teams that will compete on June 5 will be finalized by next week, and the kids can train in earnest for the next three weeks. We’re very fortunate to have these events and opportunities at our school and in our district. Science Olympiad is self-sufficient, so it doesn’t require tax dollars to pay for it. With so many cutbacks, this would probably be an easy target.

How to Deal with Bill Collectors
If you ever want to escape from bill collectors, I have an easy way for you to do it. Don’t renew your cell phone, and get a new number. It completely confuses them. Of course, you all know I’m referring to my recently-new phone, whose number used to belong to a guy named Robert. I don’t like to judge people I’ve never met, but I can confidently say he has trouble paying his bills. When I get calls for him, about one per week, the person on the other end of the phone seems confused that people aren’t born with a single phone number that follows them all their lives. They ask me if I know Robert – yes, yes, I do know him, he’s er, he’s right in the front yard, oh no! he’s gone now. Just hopped in his car that he hasn’t paid for and drove to the jewelry store to buy a watch he can’t afford. I’ll have him call you RIGHT BACK on his gold-plated telephone from his Jacuzzi.

No, I would never do that because then they’d keep calling me. The thing that bothers me the most about this is that I’m the one who ends up having to call back the collection agencies to notify them that Robert no longer has this phone number. I’m sure Robert has a black mark on his credit report, but I doubt he has to worry about anyone actually finding him. I found a guy on facebook with the same name who lives in this area. I’m betting that’s him, but I don’t want to contact him. Yet. I should just tell the people at the collection agencies if they want to find him, they should use the internet like the rest of the civilized world does.

Early Christmas List
You know the movie "This is Spinal Tap"? It's one of my favorites. Which makes me want to buy this.

I'm not sure what I would use this knife for, but I'm sure I could find something.

I don't want one of these to keep at my house, but I'd like to use one for a while.

Big News! (Actually, regular-sized news)

2010-05-03T20:29:00.003-04:00

We’ve been up to the usual these days – soccer, Science Olympiad practices, playing Frisbee and catch with a baseball, going to Pilates class, working, doing crossword puzzles, reading Rick Riordan and Carl Hiasson books, eating Meijer brand Lite Chocolate Moose Tracks ice cream, fixing broken PVC soccer goals, volunteering at the school, and playing the Brain Quest game at home. To name a few.

I’m helping organize Lawton’s Science Olympiad night, which is May 12 from 5:30-7:00. This event gives Science Olympians the opportunity to show each other, parents, friends, and siblings what they’ve learned in their Science Olympiad practices. Kids who visit enough booths will get a frozen treat, and while there will be many adults lending a hand, the stars of the evening are the kids. The Science Olympiad competition will be June 5 at Ann Arbor’s new high school, Skyline High, just like last year.

The kids continue to work hard at soccer. I am almost positive they’re getting better at it. M’s morning game was rained out on Saturday, but K played in the afternoon.

I’m going to give blood at the kids’ school on Wednesday afternoon. If I give blood, M and K will (for some reason) get a certificate. The point of the blood drive is to show the kids how important it is to give of yourself. But they’re not – they’re making their parents do this. I think all this is doing is making kids rely more on their parents to do the dirty work. And if they’re going to get a certificate, I think they should at least have to watch the needle go in without losing consciousness. This donation will make nine gallons lifetime for me – 72 donations. This is by no means a record in the history of blood-letting, but if I ever need nine gallons of blood for some reason, I expect the Red Cross to hand it over pronto, no questions asked.

President Obama was in Ann Arbor over the weekend, speaking at the UM commencement. He spoke about not getting all your facts from one place, seeking out different points of view. When J graduated in 1991, George H. W. Bush was the speaker, with then-Governor John Engler introducing him. Personally, I think they both just wanted to be on the field at the legendary UM stadium, and this was their chance.
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Flag Football - Video Highlight

2010-04-24T08:28:00.003-04:00

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M catches a pass last week at his flag football game. He's number 11.

Soccer, Flag Football, Grandparents, and Really Big Ferris Wheels

2010-04-20T18:33:00.011-04:00

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M and K were lucky enough to see all the grandparents last weekend. Grandma and Grandpa S visited Saturday and watched both of the boys’ soccer games in the wind and cold. Sunday, Grandma and Grandpa B came to watch M’s flag football game and stayed for a yummy dinner of Chicken Ceasar Salad, bread, pears, and lemon pound cake. With whipped topping from a can.

M and K had good starts to their soccer seasons. K’s team won, 5-3, which matches the number of wins they had all of last year. They look like they’re a little more mature this spring than last year, and we saw some good passes and good runs to the goal by a number of players. K had his usual determined look as he went after the ball.

M's soccer team lost their game, 1-0, but it was a moral victory against a team that plays together all year. The other team had a lot of raw talent and it was clear they had a number of set plays they practiced, but M’s team ran them hard. Some of us parents got the impression the other team was a bit surprised that they didn’t walk all over us.

M’s flag football team also lost, 12-6, with the opposing team’s final touchdown being scored on an interception late in the game. M's team played very well, and he had several great plays as usual. He caught a pass and ran downfield a ways when he was on offense, and on defense, he tipped one pass up in the air and it landed in the arms of a teammate for an interception. He also had a couple tackles. Their last game of the season is Saturday, when they’ll play in the Consolation playoff game.

Links
When dad was here, he said I didn’t post nearly enough fun links to other websites. Because I hate to disappoint him, here a few I’ve been saving up.

You will never get me on the London Eye. I’ll fly on a plane 6 miles in the air, but I will not get on this. I’m still kicking myself for going on the ferris wheel at Navy Pier in Chicago that one time.

More “observation wheels”: The Singapore Flyer and The Star of Nanchang

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The favorite books of 50 famous authors.

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Robots! More Robots!

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Um - what?

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Should you eat it if it falls on the floor? Check this guide for the answer.

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Some interesting old calculators and slide rules.

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Festifools and Prickly Pear: Better Together

2010-04-12T17:17:00.007-04:00

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The family unit did some uniquely Ann Arbor things yesterday. It's no fun living in a city with all kinds of neat things to do if you don't do them.

We went to Festifools in downtown Ann Arbor yesterday. It's a parade of large puppets and other characters made by whoever wants to make one. Here is the group's website.

Here is an example of the puppets.

Maybe you recognize Bender (the robot) from "Futurama" in this picture?

One more picture - the man on the left is the Mayor of Ann Arbor, and the man on the right is also the Mayor of Ann Arbor. Or maybe it's the opposite, I'm not sure.

After the parade, we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Prickly Pear Southwest Cafe. I had the Vegetarian Sweet Potato Enchiladas. According to the menu, they have chihuahua cheese in them. In retrospect, I should have asked, just to make sure it wasn't cheese from a dog. Dog cheese = not good.

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USS Arizona

2010-04-11T11:38:00.007-04:00

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Back in February, I mentioned I was almost done building a model of the USS Arizona. I finished it shortly after that, and I haven't put up any pictures of it until now.

The colors that were outlined in the model instructions are roughly what I used to paint it. But the model is an old one that they haven't updated in a long time - experts now believe the colors were much different from what most people think. Most, if not all, the pictures of the Arizona that anyone kept track of were black and white, which makes determining the true colors more difficult.

Here is an article about a model that is at Pearl Harbor today, and the colors it uses.

Some details on the USS Arizona itself are here.

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A Few Links

2010-04-10T11:58:00.003-04:00

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I love these radio telescopes from Russia. Someone took some great pictures.

Robots! (and a few ray guns)

A graphic showing the best jobs. I wasn't able to resize the image in my browser, so you might have to scroll back and forth to see it all. Is anyone surprised to see Security Trader with the highest salary?

Trip Report: Washington, D.C.

2010-04-08T16:28:00.008-04:00

The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. We didn't go in, though - this picture was taken on Easter Sunday.

We just returned from our trip to Washington, D.C. We had great weather, saw a lot of great monuments and memorials, and went to some outstanding museums. The first day we were there, we trudged the mall, then down by the water for the FDR and Thomas Jefferson memorials. That was a long day, and we were all ready for dinner and swimming at the hotel, but the person who called in a bomb threat to the Pentagon City subway station caused us to encounter a 2-hour delay in getting home. In short, the Metro authorities shut down the station, and we were stuck waiting for a shuttle bus to take us to the station after Pentagon City. We were lucky that we even got a shuttle – there were hundreds still waiting when we scrambled onto ours. I’ve never been so happy to stand up in the back of a cramped bus.

I saw some new monuments that I hadn’t seen before, or hadn't seen up close: World War II, Korean War, FDR, and Thomas Jefferson. There were thousands of people out on the mall the first day we were there, scattered all over the grass, and almost completely covering the stairs and interior of the Lincoln Memorial. J pointed out that it is much more impressive and stately when it is not completely filled with people, and I agree. Over the following few days, we saw the mall from various viewpoints, and some of the monuments from a distance, but they were not nearly as busy as they had been that first day.

A few things struck me about Washington, D.C. that I hadn’t noticed before. One was the presence of the Washington Monument. Everywhere we went, it drew attention. When we were at the Lincoln Memorial, people took a picture of Abe, then they’d turn around and take a picture of the Washington Monument in the reflecting pool. When we were at the FDR Memorial, people were taking pictures of the Washington Monument through the cherry trees (yes, with their blossoms – the Cherry Blossom Festival is currently in progress.) The same story when we were at Thomas Jefferson and Arlington Cemetary, or walking to the Capitol building. Some of the other monuments may be more impressive, or evoke stronger feelings, but the Washington Monument was a magnet that drew attention no matter where we were.

The Korean War Memorial - very subtle and quiet

Another thing that struck me during our visit was the incredible politeness of everyone we ran across (with the exception of some of the people who were stuck waiting for the shuttle bus when the subway stop was closed.) The people in the hotel were polite to a fault, including kids that I happened to run into in an elevator or who were holding a door for me. The park rangers we talked to at the White House were very nice while they explained that there was little chance we’d be able to get a good look at the White House due to the Egg Roll and the space it required. (We did get a tiny glimpse, but not much.) We also saw President Obama himself in a motorcade, returning from throwing out the first pitch at the Washington Nationals’ season opener. It was a very pleasant trip as far as the people we encountered.

We drove there, and by the time we had reached Maryland, we were pretty tired of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. So we avoided it as much as possible on the way home, and were rewarded with a more serene ride. We went through Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia on this trip, to add three states (and one District of Columbia) to the boys’ total. I had never been in West Virginia, and it didn’t look much different from Maryland. I think they should call it West Maryland.

Before we left for the trip, we bought the boys an inexpensive digital camera to share. In the past, we’ve bought them disposable film cameras (you take the pictures, then drop off the whole camera, and the film is extracted and the pictures developed.) They combined their efforts to take more than 400 pictures. Fortunately, they had a large memory card to hold it all. And the batteries lasted through all 400 pictures. I’ve seen some real improvements in battery life ever since the Energizer Bunny took over as CEO.

A satellite at the Air and Space Museum.

Washington, D.C. Visitor Tips

1. Walk, or stop to rest, on the right of the walkway.

2. If you are moving, move with purpose.

3. Motorists are supposed to stop for pedestrians, but pedestrians should not count on it.

4. If you’re prone to motion sickness, being seated in a subway car is a lot better than standing up.

5. If you can’t figure out the fare card machines on the Metro, stand in front of the machines looking puzzled (head-scratching is optional), and pretty soon someone will come and push all the buttons for you. We are smart people, and we would have eventually figured it out, but the lady who worked there was a lot faster.

6. The Embassy Suites in Alexandria doesn’t have free high-speed internet. You’ve been warned. Also, there isn’t much in the way of restaurants in the area surrounding the hotel. However, the pizza at nearby Quattro Fromaggi is very good, so be sure to go there.

Unrelated News
There was a recent news item I wanted to pass along - in December, there was a shooting a few blocks from our house. Prosecutors say the homeowner who did the shooting was acting in self-defense. Here is the AnnArbor.com article with the latest.

First It's Warm, Now It's Cold

2010-03-28T11:42:00.004-04:00

First things first - I know you want to know what happened in flag football yesterday. On offense, M had a reception for a first down (first down is when the team crosses the midfield line.) On defense he had one tackle, and deflected a pass, which eventually ended up in the hands of one of his teammates for an interception.

K isn't playing flag football, but he'll soon be starting soccer. He'll have the same coach as last year, and most of the same kids will be on the team. We're expecting this to be the year they really gel and start clobbering the other teams.

One of K's pastimes of late has been watching YouTube videos of people unwrapping packages of Pokemon cards. Pokemon cards come in packs like baseball cards, so you usually don't know what you're going to get. K likes watching other people unwrap a pack, then hold up each card to the camera and read the card and its primary features out loud. I try to keep up with my kids' interests, but I have to admit that this is not particularly exciting for me.

We had grill pizzas again last night, and tried two of them with Naan bread, a traditional Indian bread, as the crust. It was good, but not as flavorful as we were expecting, and it was much more fragile than the Boboli crusts we used for the boys' pizzas.

A few links follow:

Antique typewriters. Functional works of art.

Some computer images are being auctioned here. Use the previous and next links on the left side of the page to see more items being auctioned - lots of neat things.

If you’re like me, you always take your service monkey with you on flights. Here’s what to expect when your monkey goes through security.

I like Edward Tufte, as some of you know. Here is an article he wrote about someone else's graphics, which are a lot of fun to look at.

News from Ann Arbor

2010-03-20T16:28:00.005-04:00

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"Mmmmm - Grill Pizza"
Yesterday, we made pizza on the grill. We had never done it before, but we figured it wouldn't be too hard. We all made our own personal-sized pizza using Boboli pizza crusts, and they turned out really well. Let me know if you want the recipe.

Flag Football
M had another successful flag football game this morning. On defense, he had two tackles, knocked down a pass intended for the player behind him, and ran a runner from the other team out of bounds. On offense, he had a reception in the end zone to score an extra point for the team. (Extra points in flag football, by rule, are always pass plays. There is no kicking. Teams can decide to go for one or two extra points after a touchdown; the line of scrimmage for the two-point try is about twice the distance from the end zone as that of the one-point try.) M's team won, 14-6. They now have two wins and one loss.

Links
This is a video of a new jet that can take off and land vertically, like a helicopter, only much, much, cooler.

A video of Mark Twain taken by Thomas Edison. - there's no sound, and I will have to take the person's word for it that it's Mark Twain. Sure looks like him.

One of the oddest headlines I've ever seen: "Woman suffers broken teeth in assault during puppy sale at Days Inn, Pittsfield police say" Puppy sale?

I have a coworker who has a tiny lounge chair that he sits his cell phone in when it's recharging. It looks like it's relaxing. There are a lot of neat little stands and "chairs" for phones, but this is my favorite so far.

The Evolution of Cleanliness: Fish Crawls Out of Ocean, Sanitizes Rudimentary Legs

2010-03-19T17:37:00.015-04:00

There have been a lot of changes in the way our company has provided materials for us to keep our hands clean. You can click on any of the pictures to see full-sized versions.

We used to have the old paper hand towel dispensers, the kind where all the towels are stuffed into a dispenser, and when you touched one, it would soak through to the one above it. So we got the newer kinds where you only touch the towel you are taking.

We still have some soap dispensers that require you to push a button to get soap out, but lately we've seen more automatic, motion-sensing dispensers. These are better because you don't have to worry about touching the previous person's hand germs.

Some people want to use hand sanitizer instead of soap, so that appeared one day. The sanitizer can dry your hands out if you use too much, and hand lotion appeared as well.

The next step in cleanliness was, naturally, a container in which to place your biohazard waste. Wait - what?

The sign says "Please discard sharps medical waste appropriately to reduce the chance of an accidental needle stick and possible transmission of infectious disease."

After seeing this, I've decided the safest place for me to use the bathroom is the T/A Truck Stop on Baker Road.

Weekend Update, March 14

2010-03-14T13:23:00.003-04:00

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Not much to report this week, things have been very slow and steady. The boys had school off Monday, March 8, but J's school was open for business, so she went to work and I stayed home.

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We went to flag football yesterday, and last week's win was offset by a loss this week. M had a reception and two tackles to continue his solid season, but it wasn't enough to beat a team with a couple of very fast runners.

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I thought this Onion article was pretty funny. I enjoy jokes and comics about reading.

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One thing that's changing in schools from when I was growing up is their focus, or lack thereof, on handwriting. The kids learn cursive in second and third grade, but after that, they're really not required to use it if they don't want. It's been happening a lot in the US. The advent of computers is starting to make handwriting less important, but I think that standardized testing also has a hand in it. Since MEAP tests don't have a handwriting component, it's not studied at length and stressed by teachers. (Science is also downplayed until 5th or 6th grade, don't get me started on that.) They are learning lots of math, which is good, and they're doing research papers, lots of reading, and many other good things in school, so I'm willing to take the good with the bad. And I'm looking forward to the kids getting more science instruction - I think science, and the procedures and clear-thinking that science requires, is more important than the MEAP writers feel it is.

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Flag Football

2010-03-06T14:01:00.005-05:00

M's first flag football game of the season was today. His team won with his help - he had an interception and a tackle. His coaches are the same as last year, along with several of his teammates. They won their game 14-0.

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Sometimes I'm reading a website with a lot of links on it that I want to visit, but I don't want to click a link, read the page, then hit the Back button and do it again for the next link.

To solve this problem, I right-click on each link I want to visit and choose "Open in New Tab". The browser will open the link in a different tab, leaving you on the page you're reading, and when you're ready to read the sites, you can click on the tabs one by one, read them, and close them when you're done. This technique will work well for the following links:

1) This is why engineers don't write recipe books.
2) This is a neat set of speakers installed inside a surplus army ammo box. We've seen those boxes at the surplus stores in the area, and I bet M would like to replace his store-bought iPod speakers with something like this.
3) We used to have a set of drawers similar to the ones shown on this site in our garage when I was growing up.

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Hope everyone's enjoying the warm weather! I have Monday off work, and I was considering taking the kids to Jackson to go sledding, but I doubt there will be any snow left on the hill.

"Dance, Dance, Dance" by M

2010-03-04T22:04:00.003-05:00

This is M's second song. Click on it to make it bigger.

"Thunder and Lightning", by M

2010-03-04T22:02:00.005-05:00

M wrote this song, including writing all the notes himself. This is his first song. Click on it to make it bigger.

Weekend update

2010-02-27T16:06:00.006-05:00

Busy weekend for us, and it's still only Saturday.

I had a software release last night - we have had several recently, but we test them very well before we release them, and we're confident this latest update will eliminate virtually all of the problems we've had in the past. The good news about the problems is that the users of the software will not have noticed them, but they required us to do some work behind the scenes, which was sometimes tiring.

This morning we met dad (aka Grandpa B) at the Ann Arbor Hands On Museum at the Ham radio station. The AAHOM has some equipment available to send Morse code and the more mundane speech to other Hams around the country. While we were there, the operator made contact with someone from Tennessee, who gave him the weather report and told him what equipment he was using. The boys learned how to use Morse code to spell their names, and were happy to see Grandpa for a few minutes.

After lunch, M and I went to Veterans Park in Ann Arbor to do some sledding. We've never been there to sled before, and it was a great hill. We ran into a few people we knew, including M's flag football coach and his son, who is on the team. There was a very large bump (jump?) in the middle of the hill, but M and I didn't notice it until we accidentally went off it. That was a surprise for both of us. I'm old, so I didn't want to go over it again, but M is young, and made some late efforts to hit it full on.

We've been having problems with one of the outlets in the house, so I bought a replacement for it last week and installed it today. When I was finishing up, J told me the computer was freezing up when it started, just like it did a few months ago. I knew what to do this time - take off the cover, remove all the easily-removable parts, and put them all back in. That fixed it again. I hope that doesn't happen again.

The boys and I have been playing poker lately. We're not betting real money, just the plastic coins they have in the basement. Both like all kinds of games, and they picked up the rules pretty quickly. They're having fun with it, and are learning the Texas Hold 'Em variation, which is a lot more fun than the basic Five Card Draw.

Anyone else watching as much Winter Olympics as we are? We were talking about how dangerous so many of the winter games are - all the flips, and going 90 miles per hour in a bobsled, and jumping off a ski ramp and spinning through the air. Even the relatively safe events like ice dancing can be very dangerous if the man drops the woman or someone gets sliced with a sharp skate blade. I'll stick to the summer-type games, like running or beach volleyball.

A few fun links:

A submarine built from PVC pipe and pumps. Awesome.

Bionic Feet
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I'm Younger Than I Look

2010-02-20T19:56:00.007-05:00

A few weeks ago I turned 42, as some of you know. I was at the doctor's the other day for a checkup, and I told him that one of my fingers was starting to bug me - if I put pressure on it, like opening a bottle, it hurts so much I have to stop and grip the bottle differently. He looked at it, and the corresponding finger on the other hand, and said "Well, this is one of those things that happen as you get older. You're what, in your late forties?"

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Recognize the kid in this picture? It's from two summers ago. Unbridled enthusiasm! (Is "unthusiasm" a word?)

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I like these clock designs. More art than function, and what's wrong with that?

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Ann Arbor schools have the next week off for Winter Break. Employees at my company do not.

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Have a great weekend!

Exercise News, and The Return of AmeriCredit

2010-02-16T19:03:00.009-05:00

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For exercise I've been trying to get outside more, and three times in the last few weeks I've gone out running. I have previously been worried about hitting some ice or hard snow and hurting myself, but so far it's worked out well. I've had to step in a few snowpiles or two in places that weren't completely shoveled, but it's not a big deal. It's great to get some fresh air and look at something while I'm exercising besides the west wall of my basement, which is what I see when I'm on the treadmill.

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We took our taxes to our CPA last week, and picked up the results today. We are getting a refund, as usual, but not enough for me to retire on. So I'll keep going to work. When I have enough money to retire, I'll let you know.

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M and K continue with their usual school routines - they have homework that I could never have done at that age. K is doing plenty of hard stuff in second grade, and M's fourth grade class is doing some pretty advanced math. I haven't been able to visit their classrooms as much lately as I could earlier in the school year, and I hope after tax season I will have more time to stop in.

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Speaking of tax season, and the software I've been working on, things are going pretty well. Our software is running on servers in Atlanta, and users from all over the US are sending information to us to process. It's a little disconcerting, because we don't know exactly what will happen day to day, but so far the system has held up well. We have had some problems, things that we never predicted would happen, and we've had time to make changes and update the servers. When we update them, we have to do it at night so we don't interrupt our customers' work. Our last software release was 10 pm on a Friday night, and the next one may have to be later, like 12 midnight on a Saturday or Sunday night, now that we're getting more users at all hours of the day. We had some users logged in around midnight (Eastern time) last night; there are users on the west coast, and possibly Hawaii or Alaska. During tax season, we can expect CPAs to be logged in at virtually any time of the day or night, so we are all on call in case of problems.

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Speaking of being on call, you'll be happy to know that AmeriCredit called me again right after I posted my last note that I was starting to think they forgot about me. I asked the person who called if he would remove my phone number from his records, and he said "I'll do my best." In other words, no.

I went to the AmeriCredit website and filled out an online customer service form, asking them to take my phone number off the records of Robert (the former owner of my new cell phone number). I received this reply today:

Dear Mr. Breuy[sic],

Thank you for contacting Americredit.

Your telephone number and/or address have been successfully updated as invalid in our database.

If there is anything else that we can do to assist you at this time, please let us know.

We appreciate your business.

Sincerely,

[Person's name]
AmeriCredit Online Customer Service

The telephone number has been updated as invalid in their database. Notice that she did not say I would not be contacted again, and she did not say the phone number would be removed from their database.

Anyone want to bet I get more calls? If I do, I think it will be time for me to either pretend to be Robert, or to be completely annoying and not answer any of their questions.

Possible transcript:

AmeriCredit Phone Harassment Representative: "Hello, I'm calling for Robert ________"
Me: Who is this?
APHR: This is AmeriCredit. Is this Robert?
Me: Who is this?
APHR: This is AmeriCredit. Robert?
Me: Have you been watching the Winter Olympics? Wasn't that snowboard final terrific? I'm so proud of the Americans.
APHR: Robert, I need to talk to you about your car loan, for your Toyota Prius with the faulty accelerator. It seems your last payment...
Me: Oh, right, well, I lent that car to my roommate who is somewhere in Oregon with it right now. Or Connecticut. I'm not sure. Didn't the Chinese really show the west how to figure skate? Best pair I've seen in years.
APHR: Well, yes, Robert, but your last check bounced and we need you to send us some money.
Me: Who is this again? Is this my accountant with my tax refund?

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It's snowing out a little right now, and it's very serene. I hope everyone gets a chance to get out for a walk around the block soon and enjoy it.

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Let It Snow and Let Me Shovel

2010-02-10T19:23:00.003-05:00

Finally - the day I've been waiting for all winter: I got out the snowblower this morning. I used the shovel on all the sidewalks, and almost all of the driveway, because I need the exercise and the fresh air. I used the snowblower on my driveway's apron, and the aprons of the houses on either side of us. I also ended up doing part of the street near the mailbox so the mail truck can get close enough to the box to deliver the usual advertisements and bills. I don't know how my neighbors feel when I fire up the snowblower at 6:00 am, but some of us work for a living...

I decided to do something unusual this week. I like routines and doing the same thing every day, but this week I decided to mix it up, and took a Pilates class on Monday instead of Wednesday. I know - pretty crazy. I better take it easy the rest of the week.

Phone update: Continuing my updates of the people who call my new cell phone looking for someone else, I got a text message last week from Courtney, asking me to add her as a contact on my phone. (No.) And I got a call this morning asking, in a very loud voice, if this was Patricia's office. (No.) Someone called for Robert (the former owner of my phone number), and I tried to listen to the name he gave, but he was mumbling badly (drunk?) and I didn't catch the name. Surprisingly, it's been a while since an Americredit Phone Harassment Representative has called.

The End of Birthday Season

2010-02-07T10:08:00.003-05:00

All of the winter birthdays in our Ann Arbor family branch are complete - we had two last week and one the week before. M had a birthday party with some of his friends, and we hired Gordo the Magician to do a show for them. It was a lot of fun. All of the kids had seen most of his tricks before, but they were still amazed at most of them. Some kids tried to guess what was happening ("there's a hidden pocket!") but then Gordo would show them there was no hidden pocket and the kids would ooh and ahh.

All of us and Laurie went to The Real Seafood Company for dinner on Friday. Because it was J and Laurie's birthday, we got a pretty deep discount on our meals. The food was excellent - J and I went there years ago, and were not very impressed. We hadn't been back again until Friday, and we really enjoyed it.

M had his first flag football practice yesterday. He is playing for the same coach as last year. The coach is an assistant football coach at Jackson High, and he's great with the kids. They competed in the championship game last year, and are looking forward to doing it again.

In my quest for more fresh air, I went out jogging around the neighborhood yesterday. It was about 20 degrees and a little breezy; that's definitely the coldest weather I've ever run in. I was cold for most of it (especially my neck!) but it felt good, and I didn't slip on any ice. There are a lot of sidewalks that haven't been shoveled around here, so it wasn't the easiest run I've taken, but it worked out well. I wanted to go out again this morning, but a light rain/snow from yesterday coated the sidewalks, so I decided to stay in. That won't stop the hardcore runners who never miss a day, but it's enough to stop me.

The battleship USS Arizona model I've been working on is almost complete. I put the decals on yesterday and will try to finish it up this weekend. M is still working on his PT boat, and hasn't had as many chances to work on it that I thought he would. But he's busy with lots of things, so he has a good reason. His next model is going to be an airplane, which he's excited about, but he knows he can't start that one until the PT boat is done.

We're getting some sun here today, and I hope you are too.