March Links

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Somewhere near Detroit

Links
Not much new going on here, but I do have some links saved up.

You probably shouldn't go to this college.

Move over, Segway. This is cooler.

This winter has got me thinking about getting a pair of these for my car.

This is a good idea, I'm going to get a few and throw them in the trunk.

Feeling a little dissatisfied with your current yacht? It’s probably because it doesn’t have a garage door.

So many projects, so little time.

Ever see the TV show about the company that builds giant shredders? There is actually such a show, called Mega Shredders.

Here’s a giant shredder in action.

Slush, Slush Everywhere

Billy Joel tickles the ivories at The Palace of Auburn Hills Saturday night.

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The entire street, neighborhood, city, and county are under three inches of slush today. It will get interesting when it all freezes in a few days. The roads are going to be icy, bumpy, and impassable, and I'm already regretting the decision to sell my hovercraft on eBay.

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Headline: Billy Joel Still Able to Play Piano, Sing at Same Time

The four of us went to Brighton and grabbed Laurie, then zipped over to the Palace to see Billy Joel last weekend. J and I have seen him before. I'm not sure how many times - five or six or eleven or something. He can still pack the Palace and put on a good show. J got these great pictures.


Instead of a giant screen behind the stage, there were long strips of screens that showed various scenes from the stage, and/or pictures of cityscapes or bright colors to go along with the songs.


M and K weren't the youngest people at the show, but there were not many people their age. Here they are standing near the entrance to our section, with Piston Chauncy Billups on the billboard overhead.

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Sleddin'

A few weeks ago, M and K (and three of their friends) piled into the van and we headed to Vets Park for some sledding. I'm not crazy enough to go down the hill with all of its ramps and bumps. I bruise like a grape, as Daffy Duck would say.


M, right, and a couple of neighbor friends show off their sledding gear.

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Birthday Extravaganza
We trekked in what was very pleasant weather to Jackson to visit mom and dad and celebrate all of our family's January and February birthdays. Mary, Jeff, and Daniel were there, and we were able to Skype with John, who was in Australia or New Zealand or the South Pole or somewhere like that.

Happy Birthday, Everyone!


Daniel, K, and M laugh it up with John on Skype.

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This is fantastic! I was hoping we'd get more snow!

I think we're going to need a bigger plow. The ones in our neighborhood have trouble getting closer than six feet to the curb.


M (left) and his friend, M, demonstrate their horn skills. Their identical shirts were not planned.

M and I went to Livonia last weekend to middle school Solo & Ensemble. He performed two songs for his piano solo, and he and his friend (also named M) played a sax/trumpet duet. Both performances earned a One rating, and now he has two more blue medals to add to the one he got last year.


K plays violin in a recent sixth-grade orchestra concert. They have come a long way in the last few months, and sounded very good.

Indoor Tennis Fun

J, K, and I went to see a UM men's tennis match at the indoor tennis facility that hosts K's tennis practices. They were playing North Carolina State. Since years of hating Ohio State has caused most Michigan fans to despise the color red, this seemed an appropriate contest for us to attend. We have seen some of the other non-revenue generating sports, such as swimming, and this match was not only free to watch, but we all got complimentary t-shirts and K won a hat in a raffle. No wonder they don't generate any revenue. For heaven's sake, they only had one can of balls for each court, and the players had to chase the balls around during the match.

They played the doubles matches first, and a UM player crushed an overhead slam that bounced so high it flew into the stands where we were sitting. I reached out and caught it, as I have the reflexes of a cat. I showed the ball to K and J and we laughed a little about it. I commented that for all the time I've sat in the stands during K's practices I've never had a ball go into the stands.

We looked back down at the court to watch the continuation of the game, and realized that while we were joking about the ball, the two NC State players had been standing on the court, staring up at us with an annoyed look, waiting for me to throw it back to them. Oops! Sorry for the delay of game, guys!


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Happy Chinese New Year!

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I don't really celebrate Chinese New Year, but so many people do, it just seems right to wish everyone a happy one. I also wish you a conventional new year, and when the various Indian New Years roll around, why not have a happy one of those too? In general, I hope you're happy and it lasts a year.

Now that the polar vertices have gone back to Santa Claus where they belong, we’re trying to get back to normal where we can go outside for more than a minute without the inside of our noses freezing.



A few years ago, we had a leak in the space above our garage where the bathroom is – the person who updated our shower forgot to put everything back together correctly. We had another leak a few weeks ago. This time it was the toilet leaking. It happened right after the first big freeze, and I was worried it was a burst pipe, but it wasn’t. I need to fix the drywall, but for now the insulation-stuffed-into-a-hole-in-the-ceiling-held-in-place-by-a-piece-of-wood approach is sufficient.



M got his braces off right about the time we were wrapping up our payments to the orthodontist. An amazing coincidence.

In the picture above, you can see M without his braces. I spent a few minutes trying to convince him to pose like the monkey in the picture behind him (he didn’t know the picture was there) but knows me too well, and wouldn’t do it. I finally showed him the picture, and he felt very smug that he hadn’t fallen for my ruse.

K has been selected as one of the ten Mathcounts contestants from his school, and is the only 6th-grader. The competition is in February and he gets to skip a day of school to go. Good luck, K!


K and his friends are playing football in the front yard during one of the cold weather waves. He’s the one dressed like Peyton Manning.

Several of us at the company are teaching a Python programming class to 7-9th grade offspring of our co-workers. Our first class was earlier this week, and it went really well, with 12 students in attendance. There are six more classes to go. I taught the first class, and there will be three other instructors over the course of the class. We’re hoping this whole “computer programming” thing will catch on with the younger crowd.


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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.