The Cold Report


Here's proof that we had some cold weather. The little red square in the left side of the picture, across the street, is a "For Sale" sign in our neighbor's yard.
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I'm changing the name of this blog to The Cold Report in honor of our recent cold weather. The forecast says it's coming back soon, so we can't say goodbye to it quite yet.

Below are some links to keep you warm. I'm working on a version of the Coca-Cola truck at home to keep my mind off the arctic blasts. I'm also in the process of making a toolbox out of pine. The pine is kind of frustrating to work with - it's so soft, it tears and gets crumbly sometimes. But I want to get my prototype working correctly before using real wood on it. I also need practice with sawing dovetail and finger joints. I always need practice on those.

Links
Dave Hax makes a scale model Coca-Cola truck out of Coca-Cola cans.

How to make a vase out of a light bulb.

Making a nickel, which is already a work of art in its own right, into a more interesting work of art.

Here are the instructions for building a space-age nixie clock that will tell you the time if you go back to the future. It's modern and retro and antique at the same time. The wiring diagram is pretty involved, so give yourself at least an hour to build it.

The Floyd Leg is a great idea. It's not a commercial product yet, but it should be.

The Wipebook is another product that isn't commercial yet, but for those of us who still use a pen to record our thoughts, I can see this coming in handy.




Happy New Year!

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The snow is falling in Michigan. Meanwhile, in Pasadena, the Spartans are getting ready to take on Stanford in the Rose Bowl.

In Ann Arbor, there will be a hockey game in Michigan Stadium between the Detroit Red Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs. It's going to be really cold, so I hope the fans brought their long johns. A few years ago, we went to see Michigan and Michigan State play a hockey game in the stadium, but fortunately, we had better weather.

Happy New Year! Go State!

Merry Christmas Two Days Ago!



Merry Christmas! Christmas Day, and the day after, were two wonderful days for us. We saw all our Michigan relatives and had tons of yummy food and good fellowship with moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas, sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews, and even far-away cousins via Skype. A good time was had by all, and too many cookies and pieces of pie were had by me. My diet starts tomorrow, as they say. Or maybe later this afternoon.

A Very Plunger Christmas
Last year, at our dollar gift exchange, K wrapped up a small sink plunger, and Mary was the fortunate recipient. At K's birthday last summer, she returned it to him in the state you see it below: Daniel had added some feathers to make a plunger arrow worthy of a plumber Cupid.


To give it back, it had to be given a more Christmas-y look and feel. I thought a lighted "tree" would be nice. Here's a picture of the wiring in progress, in which it looks like a homemade explosive device from a bad movie.


The final product - there is a switch at the base that turns on the lights, and it has a little hat on top to keep it warm.


Lyrics That Ruin Christmas Songs You Once Liked
The Plunger Tree inspired me to write some new lyrics for some classic Christmas songs. I hope you like them.

Oh, Plunger Tree
Sung to the tune of "Oh, Christmas Tree"
Oh, Plunger Tree
Oh, Plunger Tree
How brightly lit thy handle!
Oh, Plunger Tree
Oh, Plunger Tree
It really is a scandal!
A clogg-ed sink, or W.C.,
A pain for you, a pain for me

Oh, Plunger Tree
Oh, Plunger Tree
It’s better than a candle

Plunger Tree
Sung to the tune of “Jingle Bells”
Plunger Tree!
Plunger Tree!
Plunger all the way!
Hairballs, toenails, facial soap
Plunge away the day (hey!)

Plunger Tree!
Plunger Tree!
Plunger all the way!
Oh what fun it is to plunge
Till the drain is clear of gray.

Saxophone News
To get the bad taste out of your mouth after reading those lyrics, I'll leave you with (a picture of) the musical stylings of M, who performed with the eighth-grade band a few weeks ago. They play some very impressive music these days, preparing for the top-notch high school band.


Tennis Plus Turkey Day Plus Links

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The weekend is nigh and, while there is not a lot of news, having a nigh weekend is celebration material enough, I think.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at our house last week. Everyone was there that we could reasonably have expected, even John, who only had a 48-hour hiatus from his job on tour with Pearl Jam. Some Christmas card pictures were taken that day – I won’t publish any of them and spoil the surprise, so this year you’re going to actually have to open what we send you to see what we look like, instead of placing it directly on the Recycle pile.


K demonstrating his very consistent serve in Monroe, MI

K played in his first USTA Junior tennis match last weekend in Monroe. He played two games of singles, and one game of doubles against a talented Monroe YMCA team. He was very evenly matched with his opponents, which is the goal of the organizers. We're impressed with his skills.


M and J went to the UM/OSU game last weekend. It was cold, which caused M to dress like this. UM lost by 1 point in a nailbiter.

Some links I’ve been saving up
Did you know this room existed? Next time I’m in Florida I’m going to see if I can get a tour of this.

I love the trains at Henry Ford Museum, these pictures are almost as good.

Automaton!

There is a ton of time left to buy me this for Christmas.

Robots! (although I like the cars the best)

You’ve probably never heard this musical instrument before. It’s a combination harpsichord, organ, and cello, invented by Leonardo somebody or other. More info.



Being Thankful for the Present and the Past

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Thanksgiving

As hard as we try, J and I will probably always have trouble convincing the kids how lucky they really are. Cleaning up your room, having to eat THAT for dinner, being forced to go to school in their warm clothing, carrying fancy musical instruments - life can be so unfair!

I'm thankful for everything I have, and as much as I'd like to believe it's all because I work so hard or that I applied myself in school, it has a lot to do with family (both mine and J's) and now the kids are benefitting from that. Where you start has a lot to do with where you end.

'Tis the season to be thankful. I am thankful for how lucky I am.

Back to the Future
Here are some pictures from the distant past that have never made it to The DEB Log. They were taken long before I started this web endeavor (webdeavor?). Enjoy.


K was upset about something. So we took his picture to cheer him up. (2004)


K in a happier moment showing off the snowman he and his dad made. (March 2005)

I hurt my back doing this. I'm not sure why, it might have been that I was wearing the wrong shoes. More research needed. (June 2005)


One of my all-time favorite pictures of the boys and me - this was at Lake Michigan in August, 2005.


M is stepping out - handsome devil! (2003)


Another of my favorites of the boys - overlooking Lake Michigan from the cottage we stayed in. (2005)

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Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Sculptures, Tennis, and Pumpkins

Tennis
K (in the white shirt) hits backhand during a two-on-one game at practice.

K has been taking tennis lessons at the U of M indoor tennis center. It's a beautiful facility that looks like it was built about a week ago. His class has roughly10 students, with boys and girls together. These are more serious lessons than ones that he's taken in the past, and he's improving by leaps and bounds. He will probably get to play in a few matches before the lesson season is over - even though his level of group isn't normally scheduled to play matches, they often need students from his level to fill in at the higher levels if someone can't make a game. We're going to see a game tomorrow to take it all in and help prepare if he gets called up to take another player's place.

My Favorite Sculptor
Dad's sculpture at Ella Sharp Museum

Last weekend, our whole family was excited to get a personalized tour of sculptures surrounding the Ella Sharp Museum by experienced sculptor Fred Bruey. Pictured is his latest work "Green Galaxy". The display at Ella Sharp is part of a sculpture series called the Midwest Sculpture Initiative.

We're so proud of dad (and grandpa) for being selected, and we're impressed with his artistry. We can't wait to see his next sculpture on display!


"Green Galaxy" by Alfred Bruey

Pumpkins
J's "Wicked" pumpkin and K's "hothead" pumpkin.



The kids are getting better and better at carving pumpkins from patterns (as am I), and you can see the results here. As is typical, J's wins the prize for most complicated (and probably coolest-looking) with her "Wicked" jack-o-lantern.


M's skull pumpkin is a contrast to the goofy one I carved

Egrets - We've Seen a Few


A white egret relaxes at the pond. We recently saw as many as 9 of these at time in this location.

Middle School Update
M and K are playing soccer for their respective middle school teams. M is a goalkeeper and defensive specialist.  K has played both defense and forward for his team.

M is enjoying his sax and piano lessons, plus soccer and his friends at school. But his very favorite recent event was when his dad went to his math classroom and gave a talk about binary numbers and software development as a career. The math lesson went well - I showed how the decimal number system uses powers of 10 to express numbers, and binary does the same thing, but with powers of two. I think some of the 8th graders actually understood what I was saying, and I was as pleased as any teacher when I got questions from the class. I also showed them what REALLY happens when you browse the web (that is, what data is sent back and forth from your computer to the internet) and showed them some of the Python code that M and K's class wrote last summer.

M is the goalkeeper in this picture. His shirt is a different color than his teammates' so the referee and other players know who the goalkeeper is. 

M faces out of the goal and directly into the sun.  Occupational hazard.


K is about to start a new session of tennis where he'll practice and take lessons in U of M's indoor tennis facility. It should be fun, he's looking forward to it. In addition to attending his second year of Math Olympiad, he's also giving MATHCOUNTS a try. They meet after school to talk about all kinds of math topics.

Family News
We finally made it to Frita Batidos, an Ann Arbor restaurant whose specialties are fritas (sandwiches) and batidos (shakes). We had eaten some of their food at their booth at Top of the Park in recent years, but finally sat at a picnic table in their Washington Street location. Verdict: Going Back Soon.

 I have been using a lot of my spare time to work on my class. It's about functional programming, which is a different way of approaching writing programs than I (and most other developers) are used to. It has been much more demanding on my schedule than I expected. A friend of mine from work talked me into taking it, and we're both a little dazed by the complexity and amount of work. We're no dummies, but the class is certainly stretching our knowledge to the limits.

A Few Links
Tiny things.  Very tiny.

If you were thinking of buying this musical device for me, I'll just take the cash. When I'm a millionaire, I'll buy it then.

However, if you were thinking of buying this Batmobile for me, please don't hesitate. He who hesitates is lost and doesn't have a Batmobile.

A very interesting photo diary of airships.

We Still Have Cats


Mesko and her laser eyes hang out on a lazy afternoon.
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