B2Ben's Blog

The Many Reconstructive Surgeries of Bobbleheads

2012-01-08T23:15:00.000-06:00

Over the last couple months, our 2-year-old son Nathan has found his favorite new toys (and latest obsession) in the unlikely location of our Twins memorabilia shelf. He took a liking to our MN Twins Bobbleheads, although most of them aren't playing for the Twins anymore. We have Delmon Young, Joe Mauer, Torii Hunter, Joe Nathan, Brad Radke, Justin Morneau, and a small Ron Gardenhire figure that walks when you wind him up. We started lifting up Nathan to the height of the shelf and teaching him the names of each one, which he quickly picked up and could recite them in full to anyone who asked. Eventually we let him get them down and play with them. We like our bobbleheads, but we're no so attached to them that would deny our son the fun of playing with them.

Watching him play with the bobbleheads has been a constant source of entertainment and smiles. He brings them everywhere in the house. He'll stand them in a line in the laundry room, the bathroom, living room, kitchen, dad's workbench, and anywhere else he happens to be. He examines them with his doctor kit. He knows which ones are smiling, and he knows what each one is holding/doing (without looking). He sets them up on the dining room table so they can watch him eat his meals, and he lays them down for naps before he goes down for his own. It's ridiculously cute. To top it off, they seem to act as his conscience, and remember the rules of the house when he cannot. Lately his favorite is Delmon Young. Nathan tells us things like "Delmon Young says not to throw my fork on the floor" and "Delmon Young says don't bother the baby." Of course, you listen to him Nathan.

Knowing our son, we knew he would be careful with them (and he is), but accidents were bound to happen eventually. Joe Nathan's and Brad Radke's heads have come loose, which were easily fixed by re-gluing the spring to the head/body with some good epoxy. That was easy.

Then Delmon Young hit the tile floor. Twice.

The first injury was a decapitation at the base of the neck. While some glue might have held it, it was a spot that would be put under stress regularly and could easily break again. More drastic measures were required. This called for some bobblehead spinal fusion surgery.

Luckily the plastic was hard but wasn't too difficult to drill. I drilled a hole down into the torso and used epoxy to set in the shaft of a screw to act as reinforcement. Then I drilled a larger hole in the neck to give me some room for proper alignment, and filled the cavity with epoxy. Overall I'd say it came together fairly well and should hold strong.

About this time I was feeling pretty proud of my skills as bobblehead repair man and Dad. Delmon's body would sit on the workbench for awhile to let the epoxy properly cure. During this time Nathan was very concerned about Delmon and sad that he was missing from the lineup. We had to go down and check up on him regularly. He felt much better when we let him take care of Delmon's head while the body was under repair. Here's Nathan enjoying a morning snack with Delmon's head:

Sadly, tragedy struck the bobble-Delmon again before he could be put back together completely. Delmon's head fell off a table in the basement, hit the tile floor, and broke open.

This was when I learned the head itself was hollow, and rather thin in some spots. Nathan was devastated, and looked to me with "Daddy fix it" coming out of his mouth as it had so many times before. Challenge accepted.

Knowing how thin the head was, I wasn't comfortable leaving it empty. I wanted to reinforce it so it would hold up better going forward. I proceeded to superglue the big piece back on, and placed it in a small vise to hold it together while I filled the cavity with spray foam. I left the small pieces out so the foam could expand until it dried. This is how Delmon looked for at least a day:

This photo was taken on my workbench the night I started the cranial reconstruction. The next day Nathan wanted to go check on Delmon as soon as we got him out of his crib. He spent the rest of the day up on the mantle in the living room so Nathan could keep an eye on him. All day he would point up to Delmon's foam-extruding head and say things like "I just want to give Delmon a hug" or "when Delmon be all fixed, then I can play with him." Sure thing kiddo, I'll do whatever I can for you (and Delmon).

Tonight I cut away the excess foam, and trimmed back some of the plastic to get everything to fit. The fit wasn't as perfect as when it originally broke. Adding foam, glue, and epoxy kind of messed up the fit, but I think I got everything to come together fairly well. After my work tonight, here's how he looks now, happily bobbling away with his newly reinforced neck and head, ready to play some baseball. I made sure to get photographic evidence of him fully assembled and unbroken, as it may not last forever.

Tomorrow morning Delmon will rejoin his teammates (currently lined up on the Piano in our living room) for more adventures with our son around the house. I like projects & handyman challenges, and I love to make my kids happy. Thanks Nathan. Take care of the guys, I'd hate to see you have to lose one if he got damaged beyond repair.

New Job & Life Downtown

2011-12-14T22:10:00.001-06:00

Today marks my first month at my new job. I recently made a career change, moving from a high-level software support role into a software development role. I am now working in an applications development team at a large law firm in downtown Minneapolis. Thus far the job is going very well. I'm enjoying the work, and getting to know my new team. I gained some great experience and worked with some great people at my last job, but I'm looking forward to new challenges and opportunities going forward in my new role.

Probably the biggest change I've experienced is the change in the environment, going from a small office in an industrial district to a high-rise in the middle of downtown Minneapolis.

Parking downtown can get expensive quickly, so I've been taking the bus to and from work. This has worked out very well, as the bus stop is less than 2 blocks from our house, so I don't have to drive anywhere, and drops me off a block from my building. Since we're fairly close to the freeway, it usually only takes 15 minutes each way. My employer lets me get a Metropass paid for with pre-tax dollars out of my paycheck, which is an added bonus. Overall this works out to be much cheaper than driving in, and best of all I don't have to worry about driving and traffic. This will be especially nice now, going into the winter months. I typically put on my headphones for the trip and relax with my podcasts & audiobooks on the iPod. Sometimes I almost wish I had a longer bus ride so I could really get into reading or watching something for more than 15 minutes. All things considered, I don't think my transit situation could have worked out much better.

The Minneapolis skyway system has been fun to explore as well. The more I explore the skyways on my lunch breaks, the more I can appreciate the 7-mile system of corridors connecting downtown. I'm still impressed with how busy the skyways get, seeing thousands of people milling about each day. I can find just about any restaurant or store I need, and I don't need to go outside. This means I don't have to put on warm clothes, wait for traffic lights, deal with the elements, or anything like that. I also find that I'm just walking more as a result, whether I'm running errands to Target or just going for a walk. It's nice to know that if I want to get away for my lunch break that I have more options than just going to eat in my car. When I leave the skyway system to go back to work, I zip up my elevator and head back to the office. I love the view of downtown from the high-rise.

So, the first month has gone well, and I'm looking forward to the months (and years?) to come!

Dad's Latest Cakes - Cross & Curious George

2011-12-07T20:03:00.000-06:00

I thought I should take a moment to show off the latest cake creations of 2011 from Dad's cake shop. Partially because I'm proud of how they turned out, but also to show how simple they really were, and maybe help somebody else do the same.

Cross Cake

The first project was a basic cross-shaped cake for our youngest son's baptism. This was made from a basic 9x13 cake. The shape of the 9x13 pan lends itself well to this design. As shown in the pictures below, you can cut out the corners of the cake and they stack up to make a second layer of the cross. Essentially you make the cuts as if the cake were divided up into a 3 by 4 grid.

One thing I learned with this cake was the trouble of putting white frosting on a chocolate cake. Even though I froze the cake, I still had a large number of crumbs come off in the frosting process. I ended up having to chill and re-frost another layer to get a nice white exterior. This was also due to the fact that I used a cream cheese frosting, which is pretty thick. While tasty, the extra frosting was almost too thick for my taste. Overall the cake still got good reviews.

Curious George

Our older son loves Curious George, so when his 2nd birthday came around it was easy to pick a theme... Curious George! The cake design was inspired by ones I had seen through some Google image searches. The cake is made up of 2 round cakes stacked, and the ears were made by baking some cake batter in a muffin pan. The muffin was cut in half to produce each ear.

Frosting was done with some basic jar-frosting, using chocolate for the darker brown, and a mix of chocolate and white frosting for the lighter brown. The eyes were frosted with white frosting as well. I happened to have some black coloring, which I added to the chocolate frosting for piping the dark lines. Overall I was pleasantly surprised with how easily this one came together, and how good it turned out. Best of all, our son liked his Curious George cake, and our guests ate it up!

and so ends the Summer of Tile

2011-11-05T21:23:00.005-05:00

I'm happy to report that as of a few weeks ago the tile work is finally finished in our basement. After last summer's water damage we had to pull out the carpet and some of the sheetrock, and we left it open for the winter and spring to make sure we had the water issues taken care of. Lucky for us the new gutters and the landscape fixes worked. We did have a little water get pushed up through the floor after a heavy rainstorm, most likely as a result of all the clay around here and hydrostatic pressure. Since we can't completely rule out the possibility of water in the future, we figured tiling the entire basement was the best idea, labor intensive though it may be.

After 3 months of nights & weekends, 510 sq feet, and over 2000 pounds of tile, it's finally done.

To keep the basement from feeling too hard & cold, we found some simple carpet rugs to use in the family room. This helps keep the space comfortable, and makes it easy to take care of in the event we get water in there again. I'd say it turned out really well.

Here are a few progress photos taken along the way:

And here is the finished product. Nathan really loves all the new play space!

Welcome Andrew James

2011-08-20T21:36:00.004-05:00

Just wanted to take a moment to welcome my new son, Andrew James into the world - or at least the world of my blog. Andrew was born just over a week ago on Friday August 12th, 2011, at 6:59 pm. He weighed in at 7lbs 5oz and was 21 inches long. Overall he's very healthy and doing well in every aspect.

The past week has been a busy one, bouncing back and forth between the hospital for my wife & newborn son, and back home to spend time with Nathan and sleep in my own bed. We came home from the hospital on Sunday and introduced Nathan to his new little brother. Thanks in part to our work preparing Nathan for a new baby, he took to Andrew very well. Nathan loves to say hi to Andrew, urges his mother to "feed the baby" more often than necessary, and has been known to get upset if he can't see Andrew well enough from time to time.

Thus far Andrew has been a great baby. He rarely cries, only if he gets really hungry or needs a change, and he's been sleeping well at night between feedings. We thought we lucked out with Nathan being a good baby, and I think we lucked out even more with Andrew. I'm sure some of the ease is due to the fact that we've done this all before, and we're pretty easy-going parents. Either way, in the short week he's been with us, I think we've all adjusted to being a family of four fairly well.

I took two weeks vacation from work, and the first week has flown by already. One more week to go and we'll step back into real life. Although judging by our first week together, I think we'll be alright.

Now I'm looking forward to raising my two boys to be happy healthy and well-adjusted young men. Not sure yet how exactly I might accomplish that but I'll do my best, and if nothing else try to set a good example.

Fabrication brings TinyChuck5 to life

2011-04-29T19:54:00.010-05:00

After some time spent re-acquainting myself with circuit board manufacturing and laser cutting, my "TinyChuck5" project is complete, looking more like a finished product than a breadboarded mess of wires. Here it is, happily blinking away:

At the time of my last post, I had finished my circuit board design and had some boards on order. The circuit boards were manufactured overseas through the Seeedstudio Fusion PCB service, great for small prototyping runs of small boards. Thankfully my design just barely fit within the 5cm x 5cm maximum size. To get 10 boards for only $20 is a steal, much cheaper than just one board through most other services. They also have a 10cm x 10cm option for $40. Despite the low price, the boards turned out quite well, the only drawback being the long lead time. They also added some identification/serial numbers to the silkscreen on each board to keep track of the order, but that's hardly anything to be concerned over. I also ended up with some additional boards, 12 in all, with 8 of them tested (they promise at least 50% testing, 100% costs extra). All in all a perfect service for the hobbyist engineer.

With boards in hand, I headed for the workbench to assemble my first prototype. After much soldering and clipping of leads, it was time for the ultimate test... would it work? Was my circuit board designed correctly? With the programmed chip pressed into its socket I hooked up power through a couple alligator clips and viola! It worked! Blinking lights! Not terribly exciting I know, but it was personal validation for the work and attention to detail I had put into my little trinket.

Next step was to give this little piece of electronics a proper enclosure. I wanted to have it set up on my desk and look nice & clean. While the exposed electronics look was interesting in its own right, I wanted to take it up a notch.

Years ago, I was fortunate enough to have access to a laser cutter/engraver in my high school's metal shop, and I was appointed to be the resident expert and operator of the machine. I learned a lot that year and had fun cutting and engraving all sorts of parts and materials. Having access to that kind of creativity-driven hardware was a lot of fun. So when it came time to make an enclosure for this project, I wanted to laser cut something. Thanks to their partnership with SparkFun Electronics, I found out about a company called Ponoko, an internet-based "digital manufacturing" service that creates parts from digital files. 2-dimensional designs can be cut from a variety of materials, and 3D designs can be turned into physical parts using 3D printing technologies. They make it easy and affordable. In college I also got to use the rapid prototyping machine to "print" 3D objects, but that's a different story. Needless to say I love the whole digital fabrication concept, and the creative freedom it enables.

For laser cut parts, I simply had to upload my design as an SVG file, and choose the material I wanted. I opted to do my design work in AutoCAD where I feel most comfortable, having made mechanical drawings in the software for four years at college. I saved my design to an AutoCAD R13 DXF format, imported it into Inkscape, placed it within Ponoko's design template, and sent the design off to Ponoko to be cut from 3mm thick white acrylic plastic. Some time later the parts arrived at my door, and it was back to the workbench.

One thing I noticed after assembling my first unit was that my LEDs didn't all line up perfectly in their 4 x 5 grid. The holes in the PCB were bigger than the LED leads, so each LED had some wiggle room. This resulted in a few LEDs that looked "off" from the rest of their respective rows. I had some space available on my Ponoko design, so I had them cut me a template for placing my LEDs. I cut holes for each LED just big enough to fit the lens, and included mounting holes that lined up with the circuit board. This let me place all 20 LEDs in a near-perfect grid and hold them solid while I soldered each one. The results look much better than my first attempt, with perfectly aligned rows & columns of lights.

With soldering complete, I began assembling the new enclosure:

Here's a view of the back of the unit. The back piece included cutouts for my power cord (a USB cable), and for a small T-shaped button I made for pressing the reset button inside on the circuit board.

And here again is the finished product. These days it sits on my desk at work, quietly blinking away, occasionally drawing me into a hypnotic zen-state, and serving as inspiration for my next more ambitious project.

Diving into Microcontrollers - My Tiny Charlieplexed Display

2011-02-06T21:00:00.004-06:00

Welcome! Thank you HackADay for publishing my project, and thanks for coming and reading :-)

For those of you who are used to reading about my usual exploits in cooking, fixing things, and family, be forewarned this post gets a bit long, technical, and geeky! :-)

I've been interested in electronics since I was a kid, and have always enjoyed experimenting, building, and learning something new along the way. With the growing popularity of microcontrollers in the hobbyist community, it's become easier to get started in what used to seem too complicated to approach in my spare time.

Since microcontrollers are essentially tiny computers in a chip, you can do much more than you would be able to do with a handful of passive electrical components, and making changes to your device usually only requires making changes to the software that runs on the chip. While I can write software on the computer to work with data, there's something more satisfying about being able to write software to control objects in the physical world like sensors, motors, lights, etc.

I've actually been picking away at this project for several months, in the limited time I have available to me as a parent of a 1-year-old. I'm intrigued by how much can be accomplished by some of the tiny chips available. I decided to start learning with something small, the ATTiny85, with a mere 8 pins to work with. I was also intrigued by what I had read about Charlieplexing LEDs. Basically controlling many LEDs with only a few pins. For simplicity, I wanted to avoid any extra hardware/chips for my first project. To see how much I could do with only a few pins, I decided to take the 5 output pins available to me and make a charlieplexed LED display. Technically I could have used 6 pins, but that would mean losing my ability to reprogram the chip easily. By wiring up my LEDs just right, I could control up to 20 LEDs with only 5 pins.

So I have a tiny chip driving 20 LED lights, but I have no source of input since I used up all my pins. I might as well try doing something interesting... random blinking isn't very intellectually stimulating. I decided I would make a small 4 by 5 grid which could run Conways Game of Life, a simple simulation of cellular life invented by a mathematician in 1970, and a simple programming exercise for me to learn to program my microcontroller in C. By turning on a set of random LEDs, you can let the "colony" evolve based on a set of rules, and see how long it lasts. Sometimes the colonies die off quickly, sometimes the right configuration will get into a loop and survive forever. It's a bit abstract, but interesting to watch.

Setting up the wiring was a bit tricky. I wanted 20 LEDs in a 4x5 grid, all aligned the same direction on the board, and had to run 5 wires to the 40 different connection points. I ended up running bus-lines for each wire on the top and bottom of the board. One side of the board would run to the positive side of each LED, and the other side to the negative leads. After some sketching I ended up with my basic concept for wiring the array and it ended up conceptually simpler than I had expected.

Next step was prototyping. I did some simple experiments with 2 or 3 pins and a breadboard to prove out the charlieplexing concept. Only one LED can be lit at a time. To do this, you have to set one side of the LED high on an output, set the other side to ground on an output, and set all other pins on the array to an input mode. Setting the others to inputs prevents current from flowing and thus keeps all the other LEDs dark. This was perhaps one of the more complicated prototypes I've built, since it involved so many jumper wires on the topside of the board, and such complex wiring in a tight space. I could handle it for 20 LEDs, but probably wouldn't have the patience for much more.

Programming was a new challenge in itself. I've written software in a variety of languages and knew enough to start playing around with some low-level C language with the help of other people's sample code. Getting the programming on the chip required some extra hardware. Awhile back I picked up the USBTinyISP AVR Programmer from Adafruit. The kit was easy to build and in the end I had a top-notch programmer for getting software into my chips. I downloaded the WinAVR development environment and got familiar with it, and after much reviewing of datasheets and other people's software posted online, I started to get simple programs running on my ATTiny85. One big drawback was in-system programming. The AVR chips allow you to program the chip while it's plugged into the rest of your circuit. However, due to the wiring of my board, where basically every output pin is connected to every other with little in between... this interfered with the programming data. I could only get programming to work if I pulled the chip and put it in my dedicated programmer. Not a major issue, but a bit of a nuisance. This also meant I wouldn't be able to include a programming header on my final board design.

I actually started developing my Game of Life software while on vacation in northern Minnesota. I had the WinAVR software working on my laptop, had my prototype hardware built and working, and with this vacation I had plenty of pockets of free time where I wasn't responsible for doing anything in particular. I developed some routines for lighting specific LEDs, storing the current grid, calculating the next generation, and did a little "software PWM" to make it look like the LEDs were fading in and out. I'm sure there are dozens of ways my code could be improved/optimized, but as a first project I'm pretty proud of what came out of it.

As I am always learning, and willing to learn from others, I've posted my code & schematic as an open-source project on GitHub:
https://github.com/benbrandt22/TinyLife5
I just installed Git and just signed up for GitHub, so hopefully I did it right! But my files are there, so that's a good sign.

Detecting when to reset the simulation was an interesting programming exercise as well. The simple ways didn't take much effort. If the next generation has all lights out (dead), then reset. If the next generation matches the current one (steady state) then reset. Detecting a loop was a bit more complex. I didn't want my device to get into a loop and stay there until the power was reset. I didn't have the memory to store an endless record of previous grids to compare to. So, at a certain interval, I saved the grid, and subsequent generations would be compared to that past one. Once the software detected that it's next grid matched one we had seen before, it would know a loop had occurred, and would reset. But how often should I record the grid? How many generations back should I look? I wanted to know how long of a loop I could expect. Since I was only dealing with 20 LEDs, my grid could only display 1,048,575 (2^20) possible combinations of lights, relatively small for a computer to deal with. I wrote some software in VB.NET to run through every possible combination and see how each would play out in the Game of Life simulation. What I found was that about 8.13% of the possible combinations would loop in one way or another, and the longest loop I could expect was 18 generations. Based on this, I knew that if I looked at every 20th generation, I should be guaranteed to catch every possible loop eventually. If my grid were larger I'm sure it would get much harder to analyze every possible configuration, but this worked well for my small setup.

Here's how it looks running on the breadboard:

Now I could have stopped here, but there was more to learn, and after all, I like to make things. I wanted to turn this into a little trinket I could have running on my desk that looked nice & clean. It was time to tighten up the design and put it on a circuit board. Moving my project off the breadboard into a finished product is the perfect way to wrap it up. I haven't done any circuit board designing in about 7 or 8 years since I created my VU-Meter Kit back in 2003. I designed that in ExpressPCB, a proprietary software package, so this was the perfect excuse to teach myself Eagle CAD, with some help from the excellent tutorials at Sparkfun. Once I got rolling, Eagle turned out to be a nice piece of software, and was easy enough to use. Bringing my schematic to a board design was a smooth intuitive process. I arranged my LEDs into a tighter grid, and added some extra circuitry to regulate a 9v power supply to an even 5 volts, and added a reset button. The whole thing fit into a board just 1.95 inches square. Since my board was a charlieplexed LED display running off 5 pins of an ATTiny, I named the board design "TinyChuck5". In the future I can modify my software to do other things besides the Game of Life simulation.

Before committing my design to a board, I ran through some checks to make sure it would work, besides double-checking my traces in Eagle. I printed out my design on paper and taped to a piece of styrofoam, and proceeded to insert the components. This allowed me to make sure everything would physically fit, and that everything lined up properly. I then generated my gerber files for having the board manufactured. As a last check, I viewed the gerber files with ViewPlot, and discovered that my voltage regulator included a drill-hole that I wasn't aware of, which put a hole right through one of my traces. I didn't see this in Eagle, so was thankful I could catch it by reviewing the gerber files. I moved my trace to avoid this hole and the design was finished!

At the time of this writing I have a few boards on order. Once they arrive I can solder some together and make it look nice. I'd like to put my LEDs behind some semi-transparent white plastic. In the end I may have a useless blinking gadget, but at least I can say I created it from scratch, and I have the ability to make it do whatever I want. With the knowledge I've gained in this experience, I can move on to another more elaborate, more interesting project.

Inside Dad's Toy Workshop - Toy Repair and Creation

2011-01-17T22:12:00.008-06:00

While my basement workbench has served many purposes from wine making to laptop repair, I periodically find myself at work in the basement on one of our son's toys.

Tonight I set out to repair a music-playing toy shaped like a star. Each point of the star is supposed to play sound or music, but one hasn't worked since we got it. Even though he's only one, he knows that button should work. So, as The Dad, I need to fix it! Not sure if it came from a garage sale or the thrift store. The offending item was a squeezable cloth item, so it could be tricky getting at the switch inside the plush part.

Fortunately this one wasn't too difficult to diagnose. After removing a few screws, I was able to test the working switches with my multimeter. This gave me a basis for comparison to the broken switch. While prodding around the problem showed itself... a broken wire. Oddly enough this seems to be a trend. I fixed a musical toy book some months ago which also had a broken wire. This one I was able to strip and solder back together. In a pinch the strands of CAT5 ethernet cable works well as a small gage wire. Thankfully my wife knows me well, and has brought home other non-working toys from garage sales, knowing that I'll enjoy working on them, and hopefully getting them to work. Lucky for me the last one was only dead due to some battery acid corrosion on one of the battery contacts. A little sanding & scraping and we have a nice electronic drum and Nathan loves it.

Speaking of things Nathan loves... he loves turning light switches on and off, and loudly exclaiming "ON!" when the lights come on. I headed to the hardware store a couple weeks ago with the goal of giving him a way to play with light switches where we don't always have to lift him up. What I ended up finding was a WireMold light switch and enclosure made for mounting to brick walls. It's a small enclosure that holds the light switch and has just enough room inside for a little more. I had considered a normal electrical junction box, but the switch plate sticks out far and this presents a number of sharp edges. Not so kid-friendly. I drilled out a hole in the switch plate for a light. The light was purchased from Radio Shack as a 12 volt automotive indicator light, but I only bought it for the nice plastic lens which snaps easily into a 1/2" hole. I tore out the bulb and wired in a blue LED, a resistor for limiting current, and hooked it up to 2 AAA batteries in a battery enclosure I had in my bin of electronics supplies. Normally I wouldn't call so much attention to something as simple as wiring up an LED to a switch, but the application as a kids toy made it more fun.

With the enclosure snapped together, the electronics soldered up, and the switchplate screwed on tight, it was done! Nathan loves his personal light switch. I have some ideas for a better design if I could custom-manufacture the toy, but for now it works well and he enjoys it, so that's what matters.

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-28T20:50:00.003-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm thankful that I'm still here to celebrate it with my wife & son and everyone else in my life. It's been a good long weekend and we managed to fit in quite a bit. We enjoyed our Thanksgiving meal with Beth's family this year. The food was excellent. Nathan wasn't so sure about some of the food but had a good time, especially playing with his cousins. I ventured out Friday morning for some Black Friday deals like I do most years. It's crazy but I get a kick out of the experience. Friday afternoon I put up our Christmas lights after finally finding the right hardware to hang them up. Most normal hooks won't work with our new leaf-guarded gutters. Saturday morning we made Lefse with Beth's parents like we do each year. However, we decided to do it at our house this time which worked out well for Nathan and his nap schedule. The Lefse turned out great and will be enjoyed through the holidays and the rest of year whenever we decide to pull some out of the freezer. Saturday night we got together with my parents and my sister and her family for some Thanksgiving leftovers and good family time. We wrapped up the weekend with my niece's 5th birthday party on Sunday night. Overall a busy but good weekend. Happy Thanksgiving!

Wine Label Honorable Mention

2010-11-22T11:47:00.002-06:00

I'm happy to report my Apple Wine label got an honorable mention in Winemaker Magazine's label design contest. The latest issue of the magazine arrived at the house with the results of this years label contest. The competition was good, and the winners had some fun label designs. They awarded some big prize packages to first, second, and third place. Mine was one of 16 other honorable mention labels. According to the magazine I won a Carboy Cleaner, so I may be receiving a package in the near future. Thank you Winemaker Magazine!

Wheel Cake!

2010-11-19T12:54:00.010-06:00

Growing up in a family of artists has instilled a creative drive in me that cannot be ignored. I enjoy opportunities to be creative and make things, and baking is no exception. Growing up it was always fun to have my mom's creative cakes at our birthday parties, and now that I'm a parent I want to do the same for our children. Besides, it gives me a chance to be creative and have more fun than I would have going to buy a cake at the store.

For our son's first birthday party we had to feed 12 adults and 9 kids, so we would need a big cake, or maybe two, and one small cake for the birthday boy would be fun. At one year old, there's not necessarily much that a baby is "in to," but I can say for sure he likes spinning things. Mostly the wheels on his toys. So why not cake(s) shaped like wheels? Seems simple enough. Not quite as complex as his Baptism Cake, but that's OK by me. I'll save more complex designs for the future.

I made two boxes of cake mix, but divided up the batter evenly by weight so I could make three round cakes. Our only round pan had angled sides, so I used a springform pan instead, which worked very well. Bake-Even strips made a big difference too, keeping the cakes fairly level, and not too rounded on top. The cakes are much easier to work with, cut & sculpt, and frost when they've been frozen. So I made my three cakes ahead of time, wrapped them in plastic wrap, and froze them overnight.

Why three cakes? Two would be the base of each wheel. The third would have the center removed, which would become the birthday boy's personal cake. The remaining "donut" shape would be cut in half, and placed on the first two cakes as the raised shape of the tire. The picture at the right shows this in better detail.

Decorating was fairly straightforward. I used white frosting from the store and used black coloring to make different shades of gray. The base cake got a coating of light gray which would separate the layers and give color to the "hubcap" area. The outside of the cake got a dark gray frosting, and at my wife's suggestion I added some blue to the hubcap for a splash of color. A Monochromatic gray cake wouldn't be as fun, right?

With the help of a ziploc bag and cake decorating tip I put lettering on the cakes and we were done! I would have enjoyed adding more details, but my time and energy were limited, as being a parent can sometimes do to you. Still, it was fun and I think it turned out well.

Everyone thought the cake was wheelie good.

Happy Birthday Nathan

2010-11-12T12:14:00.001-06:00

My wonderful, happy little son Nathan turned 1 yesterday! The time has flown by. We had all the immediate family over last Sunday for his party (grandparents, aunts/uncles, and all his cousins). It was a packed house with 12 adults and 9 children under the age of 5. Poor Nathan started the day in the Emergency Room at 5am, battling sickness and teething issues for the last couple weeks. At the time the doctors thought he might have pneumonia, but it seems more like a teething issue, but he was prescribed am antibiotic just to be sure. Thankfully he was back to his happy self in time for the birthday party.

Nathan enjoyed playing with all his cousins and relatives, and experiencing all the activity in the house that night for his party. Since Nathan loves anything that spins, especially toy wheels, I made two wheel cakes for everyone, and one little cake just for him. He got his hands good and dirty with his own little birthday cake, but we had to feed him a few bites since he doesn't usually feed himself. Once he got good and messy with his cake (as you should at your first birthday), it was straight to the bath tub! Nathan got some fun gifts from everyone and it was great party.

Yesterday we had our own little celebration. Nathan got some new foam blocks and a couple other small items from us, and a slice of cake with dinner. He definitely enjoyed his cake, as he giggled with each bite we fed him.

Happy Birthday Nathan!

Parking, Football, and Sightseeing in New York

2010-10-20T20:40:00.014-05:00

Last week I had the opportunity to take a business trip out east to the New Meadowlands football stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey; home of the New York Jets and New York Giants. This is the stadium's first year of operation, and has recently installed a parking management system from my company. Having worked on supporting this site's parking system, I was sent out with one of our developers and one of our testers to install some updates to the system and to see how well everything operated as nearly 80,000 fans showed up for a football game looking for a place to park.

We arrived on Sunday October 9th and got to work on the handheld computers in the attendant booths throughout the complex, and made some updates to the server as well. We were able to take care of most of the work Sunday, and complete the updates on Monday morning.

With the major work done, we had some preparation for the game and ensuing parking traffic. Double checking things, getting security credentials for the stadium, etc. After a busy morning we broke for lunch, and spent a little time touring the stadium in the daylight, checking out the view of the field from the front row at the 50-yard line.

Happy to say our parking system worked very well overall, which made our evening fairly easy. As thousands of tailgaters flowed in and fired up their grills, we drove around to the various parking entrances and checked on everyone as the evening progressed. I carried a two-way radio to keep in touch with the parking staff if something came up. At one point shortly before game time we ended up stranded out in a downpour, and got pretty soaked until we could make our way to shelter underneath a pedestrian footbridge for awhile. Aside from being wet I was having a great time!

With things running well, our remaining job for the evening was to monitor the system and send out reports every hour or two on how many transactions had gone through. Since this could be done with a laptop and internet access, we brought one with us and headed into the stadium hoping to see some of the game. As luck would have it, the game we went out there for was a MN Vikings game.

Once in the stadium, the rain really came down hard. They wouldn't let anyone into the seats until the rain and lightning let up, and the start of the game was delayed. Our security badges allowed us into the back areas of the stadium, so we could get out of the crowds of fans trying to stay dry. While roaming the halls we saw the entrances to the team locker rooms, and happened to come upon a tunnel down to the field. After chatting with security for awhile, he told us we were welcome to come down and watch the game once the rain delay was over. Until then we had expected we'd have to find some open seats in the upper decks. Sure enough, we came back later and walked right down by the field. It's surprising what wearing a badge and carrying a two-way radio can accomplish. We walked up the ramp to the handicapped seating area, pulled up some folding chairs, and took a seat front row in the end zone. If I were a real football fan I may have appreciated this more, but it was still an amazing experience to be watching a football game in the front row with 80,000 fans cheering around you.

The game was blast. We got rained on a few more times, but could at least duck into the tunnel if it got bad enough. We kept checking on the parking system and things continued to run well as the game started. It was a long day and long night, but overall a great success and a great time. We headed out just before the end of the game to beat the crowd, and turned in at the hotel around midnight, picking up some dinner in the hotel lobby.

Tuesday morning we slept in after a long day, and met with some coworkers to go over the details of the day before. With business & breakfast out of the way, we had a few hours until we had to get to the airport, so we took the rental car and made the most of our time... Manhattan or bust!

I've never been to New York before, so to spend two days just over the border and NOT go into the city would be a shame. We entered Manhattan through the Lincoln tunnel, and took a driving tour to see whatever we could see, including Times Square and the Empire State building.

We headed for Ground Zero and had about 20 minutes we could get out and walk before we'd need to head back. Of course, we had to stop for a hot dog from a New York street vendor, and it was good.

Ground Zero itself was under a lot of construction and was difficult to see from where we were, but there was a small opening in the wall by the subway entrance where I could get some good photos of the area. Pretty amazing how much of the space is still empty a full 9 years later.

After our brief tour of the city, we headed back to Newark airport and back to Minneapolis. All in all it was a great trip.

Camping 2010 at Lake Louise State Park

2010-09-01T23:32:00.011-05:00

This year's annual camping trip with friends brought us down near the Iowa border to Lake Louise State Park. This was also Nathan's first camping trip. Camping with a 9-month old was certainly a change, but overall I think we adapted fairly well. Thankfully one of our friends brought the our bins of camping supplies this year, otherwise there would be no way we could have driven down in one vehicle.

I worked a full day on Friday (maybe I'll take the afternoon off next year), and after our usual evening routine at home, we headed out just before Nathan's bedtime so he could sleep on the way down. We arrived around 9pm and despite our hopes, Nathan didn't sleep through our unloading of the car and instead got to play with our friends while we unpacked and set up the tent with the help of our car's headlights. We stayed up for awhile around the fire and Beth put him down to bed. He had trouble sleeping each night but we think it was mostly due to teething issues lately.

I love our new tent. It's huge. We knew we would need space for us and a pack & play this year so we upgraded to a new big tent. It took a little troubleshooting to get it set up just right, but it worked out great. There were even poles for each door so we could have doors that swing open. A little hard to get used to, but very nice.

Saturday was a beautiful day for camping. Our friend Amanda brought a portable highchair that hooks on the edge of a table, and we used it to feed Nathan at the picnic table and it worked great for every meal. While he enjoyed his pureed food, the rest of us had fruit, bacon & eggs (a new addition to this year's menu) and my fried donut. I fry up biscuit-dough donuts on the camp stove each year and coat them in sugar. They're always a big hit.

My sister let us borrow her baby backpack and we used it to go on a short hike with Nathan later Saturday morning. He loved riding on my back and checking out the scenery. We stopped at the beach for snacks, and headed back for his lunch. After he ate rest of us had our Tacos in a Bag using a bag of Doritos, taco meat, and taco fixings all mixed up in the bag.

In the afternoon we played with Nathan on a blanket with his toys, and I went for a hike with a couple friends while Beth and Nathan went down for naps. The highlight of our hike was an unexpected river crossing. The trail was marked as a horse and hiking trail, and all our our previous river crossings were over bridges... except for one. We ended up stopping and enjoying the cool water for awhile, and then kept hiking until our feet dried so we could put on socks and shoes again. After the hike we took some much-needed showers and got ready for dinner.

Like previous years we made our "Hobo Dinners" (aka Foil Dinners) consisting of meat, cheese, and veggies roasted in a packet of foil on hot coals in the firepit. Nathan slept well for the first part of the night while we enjoyed s'mores and good conversation around the fire. He had a rough time sleeping later that night, though.

This year a bunch of our group had tickets for Wicked on Sunday and had to leave right away in the morning, so Sunday was a quick scramble to pack up first thing in the morning. We managed to take down the tent and stuff all our gear back in the car and made it back home before lunch, with a brief stop at a rest area on the way home.

As always, we had a great time camping with our friends, and I think our first attempt at camping with a baby was a success!

Wet Basement Adventures

2010-08-20T12:18:00.007-05:00

Let me tell you a story about our basement... First, we love our basement. It's nice, spacious, unique, and a fun place to hang out. However, we've had the occasional problem with water. Usually this showed up below our chimney, which happens to be the wall between our family room and the furnace room. During a really big storm, we might see some water show up in the furnace room, and maybe a little wetness in the carpet on the other side of the wall. Not much usually, and it would dry up and we never thought much of it until one day we came downstairs to find these:

Yes, those are mushrooms. Big, brown mushrooms growing in our carpet. I even found mold growing up the wooden leg of an ottoman out in the middle of the room. We knew there was some water damage there but never realized the extent of the problem. Our mission was clear, the mushrooms must die ASAP, but not until they could be properly examined by water damage professionals. We were preparing to go on vacation for a week and didn't relish the thought of these things growing down here for another week until we got back. We ended up calling a couple cleanup companies to see if we could get it cleaned up right away. There were some delays as we figured out that nothing was covered under insurance. One company looked over the whole basement with an infrared camera and could see water in the walls as high as 6 feet around the affected area, but otherwise the rest of the basement was dry. Metro Restoration, the company we ended up going with, helped us feel better about leaving for a week and sprayed everything with a disinfectant when they came out to inspect the basement. This killed the mushrooms right away, and by the time we came back from vacation they were shriveled up and black. Thank goodness for that, and thank goodness for subscribing to Angie's List, which made finding good contractors a great experience.

Shortly after we came home we had the water damaged material ripped out of the wall, and had all the carpet in the room removed as well. What we found was a likely culprit... the "ash pit door" which is where you would clean out ashes dropped down from a wood-burning fireplace. Our fireplace has since been converted to gas, so this door was concealed behind sheetrock. All the water was centered around this door. While we've essentially lost the family room for awhile, at least the nasty stuff has been properly cleaned up and we can move on with finding solutions. As an aside, we could tell that previous owners had fun down here. We found hopscotch courses and children's names painted on the floor, and chalk drawings on the block wall.

At this point we didn't know if water was coming down the chimney, and finding it's way down due to a roofing or flashing problem. We had people look at it, and we even went outside during a rainstorm to look at the chimney area. The most telling thing we saw was water dripping off the underside of the gutters (but not overflowing as far as I could tell) in front of our chimney, and hitting the ground right next to the chimney foundation. We also noticed that some of the landscaping near the house doesn't slope away from the house very well. Our gutters have always been in need of repair... rust, holes, cracks, etc. We've managed to keep them going with caulking in the worst spots, but there's only so much you can do. My dad came up with a good way to test out our theory... run the hose on the ground in front of the chimney. If we see the same results, we know it's not likely a chimney/roofing problem. I turned on the hose and ran it slowly for about an hour, and we saw the same thing we've seen before. I set up my camera for some time-lapse photography to capture the leak:

At this point we've decided to go ahead and fix up the gutters and the water damaged soffits & fascia like we've talked about doing since we moved in. We're also going to fix up the landscaping so water is directed away from the house better. I haven't decided if I want to dig in front of the chimney to look at the foundation, but if we direct water away from it, a foundation crack wouldn't be so much of an issue anyway. The chimney itself has some deteriorating brick above the roofline, but that repair/expense may have to wait, and at least we know it's not the source of our water problem.

Nisswa Family Vacation 2010

2010-08-08T19:12:00.000-05:00

We just came home Saturday morning from our annual Nisswa vacation with Beth's family. We've managed to get unpacked and settled back in at home again after a nice relaxing week with the family. Thank you to Beth's parents for making the trip possible.

This was our fourth year at the Good Ol' Days resort in Nisswa on Lower Cullen Lake. The resort has recently changed ownership, so the original husband and wife team that used to run the resort are no longer there. Everything is basically the same... nice amenities, great activities for kids, but it doesn't have quite the personal touch that it used to. Still, we had a great time and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Because of the larger families now we rented two adjoining cabins and opened the door that connects them. Beth and I took a big room upstairs in one of the cabins that had a queen and a twin bed, and space for Nathan's pack and play. It worked out very well for the three of us. This was also the first year I was able to take the whole week off work and didn't have to come home early, which was an added bonus.

Nathan enjoyed his first family vacation, and especially enjoyed playing with and laughing at his cousins, and swimming with Beth and I almost every day. He also seemed to reach some developmental milestones during the week. He slept through the night without needing to eat a few times, started pulling himself up on the couch while sitting in my lap, and started eating solid foods instead of gagging on them. He also started rolling front to back a lot more often than before. We can tell he's starting to getting up on his knees to crawl.

Beth and I brought our golf clubs and managed to get out for a game mid-week. Our first attempt was a bust however. We left during Nathan's morning nap, and drove up to the clubhouse and there were 30+ boys under 12 with their parents all waiting to golf. The guy running the front desk said it would be at least an hour. We figured it must have been some kind of junior golf league. So instead of golfing in the morning we came back and watched our nephew win 2nd place in the Worm Races back at the resort. We went back later that afternoon and got right in for 9 holes at Wild Wedge in Pequot Lakes. This was my first game of golf since my surgery almost 4 months ago, so it would be a test to see what my range of motion was like. Much to my delight, it felt great to golf again. After a little coaching from Beth on my swing, I had some awesome drives. On one hole I even landed on the green 125 yards away with my first shot, and made par for the hole which is rare. It ended up being one of my best games in a long time.

Each family takes at least one night to cook dinner for everyone else. Ann & Mike made us some chicken on the grill covered with bacon and cheese, mashed potatoes, bread, etc. Beth and I made a variety of pizzas (my personal favorite being chicken teriyaki) and foccacia breadsticks. We also hit a couple restaurants while we were there, Rafferty's Pizza and Ganley's, which has two of my mom's prints hanging in their dining room.

We filled the time with lots of activities for the kids, and activities of our own... ladderball, swimming, playing on the beach, playing cribbage, phase 10, fishing, taking walks, touring the lake on a rented pontoon, trying some new beer and sharing homemade wine, and taking advantage of the wireless internet access. I also brought a small hobby electronics project to play with when the kids were sleeping. All in all, it was great week and I look forward to next year.

My old trunk lives on in film

2010-07-24T19:58:00.006-05:00

We've been getting rid of some old stuff on craigslist lately, mainly old furniture as a result of redoing our office. Among these items was my old trunk. My sisters had similar "foot locker" style trunks they used in college, so when it came time for me to start college, my parents found me one at a garage sale. We painted it black, filled it with stuff, and I hauled it out to Wisconsin for college career. As a central part of my dorm, it served me well as junk drawer, foot rest, coffee table, step stool, extra desk space, kitchen table, the list goes on...

In the years since college it remained mostly unused except for holding the occasional odd item I needed that was stashed away in there. So when we were looking to clear out some things from the house, we decided to post it up for sale on Craigslist. Similar trunks were going for $20 to $30, so we posted mine for $25. About a week later I was contacted by someone interested in the trunk and we set up a time on a Saturday afternoon.

He was very interested in the trunk and had asked a lot of specific questions about it on the phone earlier in the day. The man that arrived showed up with his dog, excited and barking. After putting the dog back in the truck, he then tells me they are shooting a world war 2 movie and they need an authentic foot locker. The producers had managed to borrow one from a member of the MN Red Bulls unit to shoot some trailer footage, but the owner wouldn't let them paint over some of the Red Bulls insignias and the like, so they needed one of their own on a limited budget. He was very happy about the handles on my trunk. Apparently he had looked at several trunks that day and most had broken or missing handles. This was important because he said there was an important scene where a young boy was supposed to pick up and carry the trunk by the handles. By this time I was pretty impressed with the story and was happy I apparently had the "perfect" trunk. All it needed was some repainting for their movie. He gave me the cash and started going on that his producers would want to know what he spent the money on, and how he would need to write up a bill of sale for the must-have $25 Craigslist trunk. He was thrilled with my tough old trunk and hauled it away.

After leaving, I wrote back to him by email and asked if he could tell me more about the production. The movie is called "Souvenirs". As I read about the movie and read some articles about the production everything made sense that my buyer had told me earlier. The movie is the fictional story of a Minnesota boy who finds his grandpa's old army foot locker full of "souvenirs" of the war, which gets his grandpa to open up about his experience. The grandson then grows up to fight in Iraq. While some of the press I read made it out to be a relatively low budget film, they still managed to bring in a notable actor James Cromwell due in part to his son (also in the movie) living in MN himself, and they'll be able to get some authentic army drills and equipment on film due to some cooperation with the local armed forces.

Since selling the trunk I've been keeping an eye on the production, and have started noticing stories about the movie showing up on local news. While obviously I have little to do with the movie, as a community theatre actor & singer I think it's really cool to have played even a small part in a serious film. I wish them good luck with the production and hope to see it when it's released, if for no other reason than to see my trusty old college trunk. Filming starts soon.

Links:
Official Souvenirs Website
Souvenirs Facebook page

The new home office takes shape

2010-07-10T22:51:00.006-05:00

Several weeks ago, Beth and I were discussing what I could do in the future to keep up my exercising habit as was recommended by my doctors. I loved getting out for long walks, but that meant Beth would have to stay home with Nathan until I returned if he was in bed. Bad weather (especially winter) would hinder my ability to go out for walks. I don't want to take on the monthly expense of a gym membership, and even if I did that would take more time for each session due to travel time, prep time, etc. I had wanted to try a treadmill at home, but we couldn't think of a good place to keep one, and didn't want to take up space in the common areas of the house. I knew I liked the treadmill from using them at cardiac rehab, and I like mentally disconnecting while I listen to my favorite podcasts or an engrossing audio book.

This led us to come up with a new plan for the house. Beth's office downstairs was a room she found she didn't like to use. It was secluded in a corner of the basement, was usually cooler than most of the house, and generally inconvenient, especially if she needed to run upstairs if Nathan started making noise through the baby monitor. The room downstairs can't be a bedroom due to the lack of a window, and would work better as an exercise room anyway. My office upstairs would have room for two people if we could clear out some items.

We started going through our things, cleaning and organizing, and ended up selling my old desk and an old bookshelf on Craigslist. We also sold my old storage trunk on Craigslist which I have an interesting story about, but that's for another post. Once we sell off Beth's old desk I think we'll have offset most of the cost of the new office.

On Monday we headed down to IKEA with Beth's dad to help us haul stuff home while her mom watched Nathan. We had made up a plan for the office and picked up almost everything that day (we had to go back for some items that weren't in stock on Monday). Of course, we had to partake in the Swedish meatballs with lingonberries for lunch at the IKEA restaurant before we left. We picked out a series of VIKA AMON tabletops and VIKA ANNEFORS table legs with storage that would come together in the form of a large T-shaped desk for the two of us. I also picked up a SIGNUM cable organizer to mount under each desk to keep all the cords tidy and up off the floor. We also came home with a new wall clock, desk lamp, and a few other small accessories. Now that everything has come together we absolutely love the new space. We have more workspace than before and the room feels bigger to boot!

We figure the room will stay an office for a long time. This room was part of an addition to the house, and it doesn't have ductwork for air conditioning; just baseboard electric heat. The best way to keep things comfortable is to keep the door open and the ceiling fan running. Plus the vaulted ceiling means there is no attic space above to insulate from the outside temperature. Overall, it works well enough as an office, but we wouldn't want Nathan or other future children to live in a bedroom with this relatively poor climate control.

Now the downstairs (former office) room is our next project. Beth has moved out of the room, and now we just need to sell off her old desk and get rid of some more items. Once it's cleared out we can look for a deal on a low-cost new/refurbished/used treadmill and set up a little exercise space. The cool temperature downstairs should lend itself well to working up a sweat. Having the ability to exercise my heart and body year-round at home will be great. I'll be able to keep up a relatively consistent habit, and be more available as a husband and father. I want to keep my heart healthy and I don't want to become the person who has a treadmill that never gets used. Granted I have more of a reason than most to use it. At least for now I'm able to get my exercise walking outside, and assembling and moving furniture!

Fourth of July 2010 - Boating & Cherry Wine

2010-07-07T13:07:00.009-05:00

The family enjoyed a fun Fourth of July this year on Mom & Dad's boat. The day started out rainy and windy as we made the 90 minute drive down to Red Wing, but the weather slowly turned around as we floated in the marina eating our lunch below deck.

Nathan enjoyed his first boat ride, much of which was spent sleeping thanks to the dark bedroom and slow rocking of the waves. He slept almost 2 hours for his afternoon nap. Once awake, Grandpa let him help steer the boat. He had a blast!

After we returned to the marina mid-afternoon, Dad and I went out to pick some cherries from some trees on public land not far from there. Dad had been there already to pick some for making wine and had also started picking some for me. By the time we got there, most had been picked already, but we were able to scrounge up maybe another pound, giving me about 10 lbs total, enough for at least 3 gallons (15 bottles) of wine.

We headed home at Nathan's bedtime so he could sleep on the car ride. This happened to be his last ride in the car seat since he's big enough now for the upright car seats. After putting Nathan to bed we enjoyed a relaxed evening, and I stayed up late to start processing my cherries for wine. The new batch is now fermenting away in the basement. Can't wait to try it!

Happy Father's Day 2010

2010-06-23T22:02:00.007-05:00

Sunday marked my first official Father's Day, whereas last year Nathan was still in-utero. While it was bit hectic, it was a very fun day!

We started the day meeting up with Beth's family for a delicious brunch at The Sunshine Factory. We filled up on good food, and all came back to our house for gifts and play time. The kids had fun playing with Nathan's toys, and Owen especially enjoyed riding inside Grandpa Doug's new rolling cooler!

Mid-day we had a little break from all the action and took some time to relax while Nathan had a good nap. Then we packed up the car with baby supplies, Dad's card, our Taco Salad and some new Onion Bread I baked to share.

Mom & Dad's house was very busy but fun. We had all our families, my grandparents, and Mom's sister. Everyone brought some food to share and meat to grill for dinner. Dad took on the job of managing all the grilling, and did a good job. Since we had all 6 grandkids together in one place, Mom & Dad took advantage and set up a photo. All the kids sat really well, and we had fun trying to get them to smile and/or look toward all the cameras! The pictures turned out great and will be fun to look back on in the years to come. Dad needed a new weed trimmer, so me and Mom and my sisters all went in on it together. To throw him off, we all gave him potted weeds with our cards before giving him the trimmer. I can't take credit for the idea, but it was fun to be a part of the joke. Dad was really confused after opening three pots of weeds! We had fun visiting with everyone, including Nathan who got to be held by just about everybody.

The past 7 months of being Nathan's Dad have been a joy, and I'm proud of being able to celebrate Father's Day as one of the Dads. Happy Father's Day!

Twin Cities Heart Walk 2010

2010-06-07T20:28:00.014-05:00

I've been planning on walking in the Twin Cities Heart Walk as a milestone in my recovery. Saturday morning I put on my zipper shirt and headed out to Target Field bright and early at 8am, and enjoyed exploring the stadium and all the booths and displays. I had my picture taken with the North Memorial team at 8:30, and met up with my parents at about 9am and gave them the tour. We had fun walking around Target Field, getting some free stuff, and taking in the whole event. We took a brief trip to the upper deck to see our season ticket seats and enjoy the view. I got a free massage for my sore neck at a massage & chiropractic rehab clinic booth, got some freebie toys for Nathan, a free pedometer, and enjoyed some free fruit and granola bars from a tent out on the Twins Plaza.

Most importantly, I got a free hat. Now I'm not much of a hat person, but it's what the hat meant. They only gave them to heart disease survivors. I just told the girl running the giveaway table I had heart surgery 2 months ago. Thankfully she believed me so I didn't have to show off my incision scar! Speaking of heart disease survivors... they had a nice "survivors area" set up with tables to sit at and get off your feet and out of the crowd. The area was roped off and they had free coffee and food for the survivors as well. What I found ironic and quite funny was the selection of food made available to the heart survivors there... just donuts and pastries. Glazed, fruit and cream filled, high fat and high sugar. Not exactly heart-healthy, but a nice gesture. While I was tempted, I passed and got a free banana outside. Now I just have to work on resisting food temptations like this more often.

Beth and I are fans of the NBC show The Biggest Loser, and O'Neal (the Minneapolis contestant from the most recent season of the show) made an appearance at the Heart Walk. Beth and I really liked O'Neal and his daughter Sunshine on the show regardless of them being from Minneapolis. I figured Beth would get a kick out of this so I said hello to him, told him my wife and I were big fans, and were proud of him and his daughter (who lost 124 lbs and 99 lbs respectively). He was very kind and appreciative during our brief exchange. I had my mom take my picture with him, and he proceeded to give both of us hugs, which I thought was nice. After we walked on, it dawned on me he probably thought mom was my wife, since I mentioned that my wife and I were big fans, and Beth hadn't arrived yet. We all got a good laugh when I shared my realization with Mom, Dad, and Beth later while we were walking.

Nathan woke up from his morning nap at just the right time so Beth could make it out for the start of the walk at 11am. Before we hit the street I changed into my North Memorial team shirt I had picked up earlier in the morning. Thousands of walkers poured out into the street, and filled the streets around the stadium. The rain was very light, and we didn't need our umbrellas for most of the walk. The first mile ran right through downtown, which was fun, and looped back to Target Field where people had the option to stop or keep going for the full 3-mile walk. Beth and Nathan stopped after the first 1-mile leg so she could go home and feed him.

Mom and Dad and I walked the remaining two miles, and eventually met up with one of my cardiac rehab nurses who walked with us for about the last mile. Once we got back to Target Field, Mom & Dad hopped back on the light rail to go home, I hung around a little while, and then headed home myself. Overall it was a great experience and we all had a good time. Two months ago I could hardly walk a block without burning chest pain. I've since had open heart surgery, narrowly avoided a heart attack, and now completed a 3-mile walk with no difficulty. Needless to say it feels great to be able to do the walk, and to be where I am today. I'm looking forward to getting back to a normal routine.

Nathan's First Twins Game - Happy Mother's Day 2010

2010-05-09T16:28:00.004-05:00

Happy Mother's Day! It's been almost a month now since my heart surgery and I'm feeling rather well besides the occasional neck/back/incision pain. Things seem to be healing up well and today we got to go out and do something fun as a family.

This morning started off nicely. We lounged around in cozy clothes and I made pancakes for Beth for Mother's day. She got a card from me that showed a husband lying back in a recliner thanking his wife for taking care of him. Oddly appropriate right now I thought. I drew on the card and added a spirometer and a heart pillow. Nathan gave Beth a new 'I Love Mommy' bib, wrapped in one of his blankets, since he can't use scissors to cut wrapping paper of course.

This afternoon we packed up the diaper bag, a backpack of other supplies and the umbrella stroller and headed for Target Field to celebrate Mother's Day with the Twins and the Orioles. This was Nathan's first Twins game and my first game since surgery. I had no trouble walking and just took it easy with lifting the backpack. For some reason wearing the backpack made my back a little sore, but otherwise I did alright. It was great to be out. Kudos to Beth for doing all the heavy lifting (Nathan) since I could not.

He did better than we expected playing in Mom's lap, drinking a bottle, and even sleeping for almost an hour during the game. Around the 8th inning he was awake and starting to get fussy. We were impressed by how long he made it, and didn't mind leaving a little early and beating the crowd a little bit. It also helped that the Twins were ahead 6 to nothing. We made it back to the car and listened to the last few at-bats on the radio on the drive home. Now we're all tuckered out and will spend the rest of the evening taking it easy at home.

Happy Mother's Day!

Open Heart Surgery and Me

2010-04-18T20:07:00.000-05:00

Wow, where do I begin? I'm sitting here in my recliner a mere week after open heart surgery, starting down the road to recovery, and trying to pull together the events of the last couple weeks here for posterity.

I had first noticed some chest pain and discomfort when I went walking for any extended period of time... out for a walk on my lunch break, walking into church carrying Nathan in his carseat, and walking around the neighborhood while Beth pushed Nathan in his stroller. I felt pressure at the base of my neck, which tended to radiate out over my collarbones and sometimes up into the back of my head. At first I thought it was some strange new muscle pain since I had just started being active once the weather warmed up outside. After a few days though it didn't take much to bring on the pain. Just walking from my car into my desk at work brought on a mild headache. The final straw was on a Tuesday trip to WalMart on my lunch break. I barely made it into the store before feeling chest pain and barely made it back to my car to sit down and call the doctor. I took the afternoon off work, went home, and had Beth bring me to the clinic for a mid-afternoon appointment.

Despite my young age (29) and lack of normal heart disease risk factors, my doctor took it seriously (which I'm told doesn't always happen). He ordered an EKG, a chest x-ray, and some blood work. All of these tests came up normal, so a stress echocardiogram (stress test) was ordered. We called the hospital and set it up for the following afternoon.

I went into work Wednesday morning and felt pretty good overall since much of my time there is spent sitting down with my body at rest. My boss was very understanding and helpful having dealt with his wife's heart issues in the past. We brought one of my coworkers up to speed on my big projects so they could move forward while I was out yet another afternoon. Little did I know I wouldn't be back for quite awhile.

The stress test was pretty straight forward. Record some ultrasound video of my heart at rest, walk on a treadmill until I hit 162 beats per minute, and record more video of my heart beating at that point. Getting to that point was a painful process, but I could appreciate the usefulness of the test... being able to re-create the problem for the medical staff who would be investigating. Like I had experienced before, chest pain set in fairly soon and got worse the longer I went. I kept telling the technicians about what I was feeling, pain level, etc. It was really tough. Once we hit the target heart rate I got back on the exam table and they took more video of my heart. After a few minutes of rest I was back to normal again. At that point I had my own cardiologist.

The cardiologist came in and described what they saw in the test. They could see in the video that some portions of my heart valves weren't opening and closing properly. This is usually caused by a blockage in one of the arteries of the heart. In my case, they were 90% certain there was a blockage in the Left Anterior Descending Artery. Needless to say Beth and I were shocked to be hearing this, and yet took some comfort knowing what was causing me so much pain and what could be done about it. The plan was to go in on Friday for an angiogram (test to locate the blockage) and possible angioplasty (implanting a stent).

After Friday's angiogram the terms "incredibly rare" and "incredibly lucky" were thrown around a lot. The blockage I had was not normal. It was called a Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection, meaning that the inner lining of the artery had torn and blocked the flow. This is very rare and there isn't any specific cause. Had the blockage happened only a quarter-inch "upstream" it would have most likely given me a heart attack and/or killed me. Because of the location of the blockage, a stent was not recommended. I would need open heart surgery to perform a bypass using an artery in my chest to bring blood flow below the blockage. The surgery would be a bigger ordeal and would require a longer recovery but in the long run would be better for me than dealing with the issues associated with stents. I stayed in the hospital Friday and Saturday waiting for my surgery on Sunday. My family set up my CaringBridge site to spread the news and keep everyone informed on how I was doing.

Thanks to my mother in law, our son was being taken care of, and I got to spend much of my time with my wife which made all the difference. She was my partner and friend throughout my hospital stay, and my second set of eyes and ears since I wasn't always able to focus on what was going on. Saturday night and Sunday morning were busy with surgical preparations. The last thing I remember before surgery was being wheeled down to an anesthesiology prep area with my family.

My first memory post-surgery was a half-conscious haze with a breathing tube in my throat. I was listening to my family talk to me and managed to talk back by writing messages in the air with my hands. I spent the rest of Sunday and part of Monday in the Intensive Care Unit, and moved up into my room on the 4th floor. Somehow I managed to get the best view of the downtown skyline from the corner room. Recovery in the hospital was rough, but it was the best place for me to be. Having Beth there much of the days really helped. My nurses and nurse assistants were very good to me, helping me when I needed it, and keeping an eye on my vitals. Sleep was ok, but never great. They also taught me some basic exercises I could start doing until I got my strength back. Progressively I got my various lines removed, and finally had my drainage tubes removed from my chest on Wednesday morning.

Thursday I got to go home from the hospital. A volunteer brought me down in a wheelchair while Beth brought the car around. It was a beautiful day and good day to go home. Each day since has been difficult in it's own way, and great in it's own way. Each day gets a little better. My muscle soreness has been getting better, my breathing has gotten better, sleep has improved, etc. My chest incision has been looking better, as have my drainage tube incisions. The recovery process has its own regimen to it. Right now I need to make sure I take all my medication, do my exercises, and take three 10-minute quarter-mile walks each day. As time goes on I'll e taking longer walks but right now that is about as much as I can handle. Everything happens slowly and I tire easily, but I can feel that getting better. Next week I start regular outpatient rehabilitation 3 days a week at the hospital.

It's going to be strange being home for 2 months without being able to lift or move anything over 10 pounds, but in the end, besides having a healed breastbone I think I'll come out of this a much stronger person.

Ciabatta Bread

2010-03-25T11:46:00.005-05:00

Once in awhile I come across something that catches my interest, particularly because it's something new I can try & learn. Lately it's homemade bread.

In my blog reading, I came across this "one minute Bread" posting over at Lifehack.org. The recipe seemed simple enough, so I took it a step further and looked into some more authentic recipes at allrecipes.com to see if they were any different. While true ciabatta bread seems to be a very lengthy process, I found one of the most popular recipes on the site was also quite simple. You can see the Allrecipes.com Ciabatta Bread recipe here.

Since this recipe calls for a bread machine, I took what I had learned elsewhere online and in the AllRecipes comments, and did without the machine. I also invested $1.25 in a water spray bottle which helps (more on that later). After a few loaves, here is what I ended up with:

1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon rosemary
3 1/4 cups bread flour (I used all-purpose flour)
1 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast
Seasoning for topping the bread (rosemary/basil/oregano)

- Mix all ingredients in a bowl except the flour and mix well
- Add the flour and mix with a spoon until it turns into a stiff, sticky ball of dough
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 2-3 hours at room temperature or higher until it doubles in size (see photo at right)
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F
- Transfer the dough to a baking stone or heavily floured pan. The dough is very sticky, so using a spoon or spatula will do you more good than your hands. Shape the dough to the desired shape, usually a longer wide loaf
- Let the dough rise at least 45 minutes after putting it on the stone/pan. I didn't have a good way to cover it, so I misted it with water to prevent it from drying out while on the stone.
- Top the bread with any seasoning you like. I usually sprinkled on some more rosemary and some basil.
- Place into a 425 degree oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown. For the first 15 minutes, spray the bread with water every few minutes. This keeps the outside soft enough to allow it to expand more in the oven, and supposedly gives you a better crispier crust.
- Allow bread to cool, and you'll have a delicious soft bread... that was relatively simple to make!

I personally like it warm with butter.

Happy 29th Birthday To Me

2010-02-22T19:43:00.003-06:00

Today marks another year of my life... 29 to be exact. While a lot has happened in the last year, the highlight was the birth of our son. Best part of today? Nathan was EXTRA excited to see me when I got home. A lot more cooing, laughing, and wiggling with excitement for daddy! so much fun. Needless to say I love my family and being a new dad.

Last night we had my side of the family over for dinner. We served up a taco bar, homemade guacamole, and I enjoyed making a really rich chocolate cake topped with chocolate ganache. Next Friday we get another birthday celebration with Beth's family.

Happy Birthday to me!

A little joint-replacement surgery for my Laptop

2010-01-22T11:53:00.005-06:00

In hindsight, the display hinges on my Dell D600 laptop have been a little flimsy for awhile. We really noticed a problem a couple weeks ago when one of the hinges was bulging up under the plastic cover. After a closer look and a little research, I determined the hinges were partially broken, and weren't far from totally breaking and letting the screen flop open.

I wasn't too happy that my hinges had broken, but I have to remember it's lasted almost 6 years now without any major issues. As it turns out, this is a fairly common problem, and replacement hinges were easy to find on eBay for less than $10 with free shipping. Since I used to repair laptops in college, I wasn't afraid to open up mine to do the repair myself, and Dell has a nice service manual available online. Overall it wasn't too difficult, just a lot of small screws to keep track of and some rubber bumpers to remove. My new precision screwdriver set came in very handy for the job.

Here's a photo of the damage to the left hinge, broken in two places, as shown next to the new hinge. The right hinge was only broken in one place, but still broken. The new hinges are installed and are working great. I like fixing things :-)

Building my magnetic stir plate

2010-01-20T12:10:00.001-06:00

Back in November I went out to learn more about brewing beer. Among the demonstrations, one guy showed us a magnetic stirrer he made using a computer fan and a magnet. He was using it to stir up a yeast culture. In theory, this helps the yeast grow and thrive more than just letting them sit. Since starting a healthy yeast culture is an important step in making wine and mead, I thought I could use something like this for myself. Plus, I love a good workbench project.

The principle is very simple: place a magnetic stir bar (a small plastic coated magnet) in a container, and then place a spinning magnet underneath the container. This will spin the stir bar, and thus stir the mixture. I started researching, and ordered some small stir bars. I tried using some salvaged hard drive magnets, but I didn't like the results after my initial testing. After that I bought some smaller stir bars from eBay, and it turns out the seller of those stir bars runs the website stirstarters.com, whom I must give much of the credit for the design and my inspiration. While he sells his own stir plates, he also understands the DIY culture, and provides details about his design including a schematic for the speed control. With this information, I set out to make my own with one major difference: I didn't want to have to keep track of another AC adapter. I just wanted to run AC wall current right into the device for simplicity.

To get power to my stir plate, I would need an AC adapter to convert 120V AC to 12V DC, and it needed to be small enough to fit inside my project. What I found was a wall adapter that converted to a cigarette lighter plug like the one in your car. These are often sold as cell phone accessories, and with some searching I was able to find them very cheap online. I removed the "car plug" and the prongs that go into the wall, and replaced them with wires to connect into my project. This gave me 12 volts DC for powering the stir plate.

To actually get the AC power into the box, I salvaged an AC inlet plug and power cord from an old computer power supply. The plug mounted nicely onto the project box, and looks pretty nice I think. I also used a molex plug and wires to carry the 12 volts DC out of the AC adapter.

The speed control circuit was fairly simple to build, with the exception of the voltage regulator which I put on backwards the first time due to a poor diagram on the package. Thankfully it didn't cause any damage, just a confused engineer. I was able to find all the parts I needed at the local Radio Shack, except for the potentiometer, which had an uncommon resistance value, so I ordered that and the project box from Jameco. Had I not already bought my parts from Radio Shack, I would have gotten everything at Jameco. They have good selection and good prices. I mounted all of it on a proto circuit board to keep things relatively tidy, and added a power indicator LED to the circuit because I had some laying around... and LEDs are just fun.

The stirrer itself is made up of an old computer fan I pulled from an old project, a plumbing adapter from Home Depot which happened to be the perfect height, and some super strong button magnets from Ax-Man Surplus. This whole assembly is held together with epoxy, and thanks to some careful planning and assembly, is pretty well balanced when it spins.

The completed stir plate works quite well. I can just plug it in, turn on the power switch, and adjust the speed. I haven't tried it out yet on a yeast culture, dissolving some bentonite, or anything else yet... but it can stir water like a champ! I tested it out on a 1-gallon jug and got a little vortex, so this looks like it will be a useful tool to have on hand.

Happy Birthday to my new Nephew Toby James

2010-01-19T22:00:00.002-06:00

Happy Birthday to my new Nephew, Toby James. He was born January 19th, 2010 and weighed 7lbs 11oz. We were able to visit him later that evening. He was very alert and very cute! My sister and her husband and their new son Toby (and big brother Sammy) all seem to be doing well.

Welcome to the family!

Kitchen Creative: My First Fondant Cake

2010-01-14T11:43:00.007-06:00

This past Sunday was our son's baptism, and we needed a cake. Being that I enjoy opportunities to be creative, and enjoy making fancy deserts, I wanted to make & decorate the cake. Years ago, I worked for a joint franchise of Subway and TCBY. When we added the TCBY counter, I wanted to learn a bit about cake decorating since we would be selling custom cakes. He paid for me to take classes at Michael's, which was fun. So... this was a chance to try it again.

As I researched and thought of ideas, I started to read up on Fondant, and found lots of how-to videos online with tips on technique. Fondant is basically a cake frosting with a dough-like consistency. It's typically rolled out flat, and then draped over a cake to give it a smooth texture, and is often used on high-end "3D" sculpted cakes. I found a recipe on AllRecipes.com that seemed simple, so I decided I would give it a try.

I decided to make a two-layer 9 by 13 cake (although in hindsight one layer would have sufficed). I cut some cake off of the top layer and used it to sculpt a small turtle, like the ones his nursery is decorated with. I then used canned frosting to stick everything together, and frosted the outside so the fondant would stick.

I made up a batch of about 3 lbs of fondant. This particular recipe seemed a bit greasy to me due to the use of shortening and corn syrup, so if I try this again I might try another recipe. I did add more powdered sugar to try to compensate though. The hardest part was doing the base of the cake, but perhaps if I had the proper supplies it would have been easier. Rolling out a sheet of fondant big enough to cover a 2-layer 9x13 cake and then transferring it to the cake was tough. A smaller round cake would have been easier to manage, but I was able to do it without too many tears or cracks.

I took the fondant that wasn't used on the cake and colored it with some food coloring gel to make blue and brown for the turtle. This worked rather well. I rolled out small sheets and draped them over the turtle and trimmed off the excess. I like how it turned out.

The final piece was lettering. I had plenty of blue fondant left over, so I rolled out a sheet and used a pizza cutter and knife to cut out lettering for the cake. It was very time consuming but it turned out well. To make sure they stayed in place I used some fondant thinned out with water as a kind of glue. The final result was put out on Sunday and everyone was impressed. Best of all it tasted good. I enjoyed a piece of turtle shell myself :-)

Merry Christmas 2009

2009-12-31T20:47:00.005-06:00

This Christmas was our first as a family of three, and while a huge Christmas Day snowstorm changed our plans, we had a great Christmas this year.

Wednesday night (Dec 23) we had a bunch of our friends over for some pot luck dinner and treats. We've dubbed our little get-together as the "Christmas Soiree" and we'll have to do it again next year. Including us, we had 8 adults and 2 kids (Nathan at 6 weeks old and Mikey at 11 months) for dinner. Beth and I heated up some souffer's lasagna, and served up some of our homemade lefse and my apple wine. Our friends brought garlic bread, meatballs, salad, deserts, and other treats to enjoy. We had fun catching up with everyone and introducing them to Nathan.

Thursday was Christmas Eve, and the snow had started to fall. We had planned on going to Ben's Gramma's during the day, but the storm made that too difficult, so we got to stay home, get some extra sleep, and clear snow in the driveway. By lunchtime the roads weren't great, but were good enough to go visit the Hauglands. We spent the afternoon hanging out, eating some good junk food (cheese curds!), and watching movies. We had a good dinner and opened gifts, watched another movie, and went down the road to church for a Christmas Eve candlelight service which was very nice. Nathan slept through the entire service.

Nathan's cousins Payton & Alex crawling around on Christmas Eve:

Friday was Christmas Day and brought still more snow. We had planned on going to Ben's parents' that morning, but this was also cancelled due to all the snow. This however let us spend the entire day at home which was really relaxing. We slept late, and made waffles for breakfast. The rest of the day was pretty low-key while we lounged around the house, took care of Nathan, and cleared more snow from the driveway & sidewalks.

Our get-together with Ben's extended family at his grandma's house was re-scheduled for mid-day Saturday, and Nathan got to meet more of is extended family. We all got to exchange gifts and have some good food. It was to see everyone again.

Nathan with his Great-Grandma Helen, and everyone else:

From there it was off to his cousin Sammy's 2nd birthday party. Sammy celebrated his birthday in style, with a robot and space-themed party. While Nathan wasn't big enough to appreciate the party and the pinata, he got a goodie bag of stuff to bring home like the other kids. Nathan enjoyed being held by his grandpa Phil and watching the action:

Overall we had a great, busy, snow-filled Christmas. Once Nathan is old enough he'll really enjoy all his new stuff!

Ben's Nuts: A How-To Guide

2009-12-22T11:30:00.001-06:00

For those of you who are not familiar, about 5 years ago I made a batch of sugar-coated roasted nuts to share at Christmas. I thought it would be fun to have a unique food gift to share with friends & family. I found a recipe that seemed simple and good, and tried it out. They were so popular I wasn't allowed to stop making them! As time went on I added a few more varieties of nuts to the mix, using two basic recipes which are simpler than you might think. I make the effort each year because it's fun to give them out, including the jokes about "Ben's Nuts" that come out every year, and never stop being funny!

With several years of nut-making experience, I figured it was a good time to document the recipe, the process, and some tips and tricks since I can't make nuts for everybody who may want them. Here's my how-to guide to Ben's Nuts:

Ben's Roasted Almonds/Pecans/Walnuts:
Yield: Approx 6 cups

Ingredients:
4 cups Almonds, Pecans, or Walnuts (approx 1 lb)
1 egg white
1 tsp cold water
1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 250°F. Lightly grease a roaster or cookie sheet with non-stick spray. I use large foil roaster pans. They're big and cheap, and they cool down faster than a heavy pan. I always line them with aluminum foil. The 18-inch wide heavy duty foil is worth it; it lines the entire roaster and doesn't rip when you're trying to stir the nuts, plus cleanup is easy.

2. Beat the egg white, water & vanilla, and beat until frothy but not stiff. I've tried a few egg separators, and I've found the "wire spiral" style egg separator from Pampered Chef to be the best for me.

3. Add the nuts and stir until well coated.

4. Mix the sugar, brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon in a separate dish, and then add this dry mixture to the coated nuts.

5. Toss to coat, and spread evenly in the prepared roaster or cookie sheet.

6. Bake at 250°F for 1 hour in the preheated oven, stirring every 15 minutes. The stirring prevents extra "clumping" of nuts & sugar and helps everything to cook evenly.

7. Allow nuts to cool, then store in airtight containers. Here's a photo of a finished batch of Pecans (usually the most popular nut):

Ben's Roasted Peanuts
Yield: Approx 7 cups

Ingredients:
3 cups Unsalted Peanuts (approx 1 lb jar)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups water
3/4 cup brown sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 300° F. Lightly grease a roaster or cookie sheet with non-stick spray.

2. Mix peanuts, sugar, and water in a skillet or pan. I usually start heating the water until it starts to bubble, then add the peanuts, and then add the sugar and stir. The hot water and the extra agitation of stirring peanuts helps the sugar dissolve.

3. Cook on Med/High heat until liquid is gone and mixture thickens. This is where you have to be careful. Stir occasionally and keep a close watch as it thickens. Once it starts putting off less steam, and the mixture doesn't "slosh around" as much when you stir, you can take it off the heat. If left too long, the sugar starts to burn and turns a darker color. If you take it off too early, some extra time in the oven can help cook off any extra water.

4. Remove from heat and stir the brown sugar into the mixture. This will mix with the thick sugar mixture and make a nice coating on the peanuts.

5. Spread evenly in the prepared roaster or cookie sheet.

6. Bake at 300°F for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, stirring at 15 minutes and again at the end. This will break up the thick sugar mixture before it hardens, keeping everything from sticking together too much.

7. Allow nuts to cool, then store in airtight containers.

Mass Production:
Granted, not everyone will be making as many, but when you make so many like I do you pick up a few things. The heavy duty foil comes in handy for cooling. I only have a few large foil roasters, so when a batch comes out of the oven, I can lift out the foil liner full of nuts and set it out to cool, leaving my roaster free for the next batch. Since they bake for a long time, I can start prepping the next batch about 20 minutes before the oven is done.

Once everything is done and cooled, mixing the nuts is the next challenge. In past years I would put them in a bag and attempt to toss them. However, as the amount grew the bag became very heavy, and the abrasive nature of the nuts led to rips in the plastic bag. This year I had used 6lbs of peanuts, 4lbs walnuts, 3lbs pecans, and 2lbs of almonds; 15lbs altogether. The finished batch weighed 25lbs (yes, that's 10lbs of sugar) and filled a volume of around 6 to 7 gallons. So this year I tracked down some new supplies from a restaurant supply store in the area: an 8-gallon heavy duty food-safe bucket for mixing, and an aluminum scoop for scooping and putting into containers. I was able to pour in portions of nuts into the bucket, cover it, and roll it back and forth and the mixture turned out great... much easier than years past.

The aluminum scoop made a big difference as well. I've tried scooping with bowls (which is awkward), and plastic cups/bowls (which really scratches the plastic). Having the right tools makes a big difference. We packed up the nuts in containers (bought on clearance after Christmas last year), put tags on, and now we get to enjoy giving them away! This year's batch yielded enough for 22 containers and some left over to serve to guests. Now I just have to pack away the bucket and scoop until next year.

Reddit Secret Santa 2009

2009-12-17T07:27:00.007-06:00

When I sit down on the computer and catch up on things online, I have my usual stops... Yahoo email, blog subscriptions through my Google Reader, and usually after that I check Reddit.com. The socially-driven site has helped me waste a lot of time and have some fun reading funny, interesting, and just random stuff online. Users submit links to other web pages they find worthy of sharing, and the Reddit community votes them up or down. Links with more votes get pushed to the front page of the website, while the less popular get voted down into obscurity. For those not familiar, this is not a new concept online. Reddit just happens to be one of those sites that I enjoy. The users there seem to be my kind of demographic, and the submissions and discussions are fun, even if I don't always agree with everything there.

Back in November, some of the users on Reddit suggested the idea of putting together a big Secret Santa with other members. When the suggestion was put out there the community responded with a big "yes!" and the project began. A website was put together (RedditGifts.com) along with a basic set of rules. This was going to be fun.

I finally signed up on the last day of signups. In all, 4,391 people from 54 countries signed up for what appears to be the biggest Secret Santa ever. The gift-giving statistics are staggering. Users who signed up had the opportunity to share a little about themselves and what they may want (or not want) from their secret santa. The Santas also knew their Santee's username on Reddit, and could browse their comments and postings to learn more about their recipient. Some people engaged in a little more research online to learn more about their assigned giftee to figure out the perfect gift. Since the gifts started shipping, the project has been getting attention from all around, including ABC News and the Washington Post. The folks at Reddit even offered to host RedditGifts.com on their servers because the site was getting so much traffic.

This has been a really fun project to be a part of. It's been interesting to see what people have gotten from their Secret Santas, as the website has a gallery where people can upload photos of their gifts and other members can discuss them. There have been some bad gifts, some extravagant ones, but overall people have come up with some unique and creative gifts within the suggested $15 limit. We've all enjoyed watching so much Christmas giving as new gifts appear on the site daily.

I was assigned a guy from Arkansas, and had an interesting (but not uncommon) challenge. He didn't tell me anything about himself, and he had not posted anything on reddit that I could go back and read. In addition, I couldn't dig up anything online. So I decided to give something creative, and something useful. For the creative gift, I broke out my painting supplies and painted a small 4" x 4" canvas painting of the Reddit alien logo, and a couple other Reddit things: the new message envelope and the voting arrows. For the useful gift, I gave a 22-piece precision ratcheting screwdriver set. After wrapping my items, I packed up the box and sent it on it's way. Thus far, I know it's been delivered based on package tracking, but he hasn't posted anything on the site to let me know if he opened it or liked it. We'll see.

I had been so engaged in putting together a gift of my own, I almost forgot I might be getting a gift myself. My Secret Santa turned out to be a girl from Washington. I told her about myself, and she made a "secret santa" account on Facebook to become my friend for a few days and learn more about me. As a result, she decided to give a little Christmas cheer to my whole family. A small package arrived one day, decorated with the Reddit alien and some other artwork. An early Christmas present, yay! Upon opening it, I found a letter and three packages with nametags made out to me, my wife & son.

The whole thing was wrapped nicely with the signature Reddit orange-red envelopes as tags, and came with a nice letter wishing us a merry Christmas and it included a short message (Hello World) to my son written in PHP code.

For me, "The Baby Owner's Manual: Operating Instructions, Trouble-Shooting Tips, and Advice on First-Year Maintenance." It's full of good info, but better yet it's written with a fun technical sense of humor and lots of "schematic" type drawings of all things baby. Fitting since I work in tech support and have an innate desire to diagnose & fix things. I was seriously laughing out loud flipping through this book.

For my son was a DVD of some old Christmas cartoons.

For my wife was a Buddha Board. It's meant to encourage mental relaxation/zen. You get the paintbrush wet, and the surface turns almost black with a little water from the brush, and it evaporates and disappears quickly. Very unique, and could be fun for our son and nieces & nephews as a simple, clean way to play with "painting". It was adorned with some Reddit Secret Santa alien labels.

This was fun, thank you Santa! And thank you to the dedicated people who helped put this all together. Nathan likes his new book:

Nathan joins the family

2009-11-29T09:59:00.007-06:00

On November 11th, we were blessed with a healthy baby boy. Nathan Benjamin was born at 7:51am November 11th, at 7lbs 4oz and 19 1/2 inches.

It all started on the evening of the 10th. We went into the hospital once contractions were frequent enough. We weren't dilated very far, so they had us take a walk around the hospital for an hour to see if things progressed. Unfortunately there had been no change in that hour, so they sent us home around midnight. We returned about 4am and got checked in and prepared for delivery. Beth got set up with an IV of antibiotics and they started the epidural, which relived her pain and gave her a chance to take a short nap. When our doctor arrived an hour later she was already fully dilated. Water broke shortly thereafter and after only 35 minutes of pushing, our son was born early Wednesday morning. The whole process went smoothly and both mother and baby did very well.

We stayed in the hospital for two days. Nathan picked up nursing fairly quickly and was a good sleeper. We had visits from our immediate family and our pastor; just enough visits so we didn't feel overwhelmed. I spent the first night in the hospital. The pull out bed wasn't very comfortable, but it worked, and I was glad I could be there for his first night. For the second night, I went home and Nathan went to the nursery so mom could get some good sleep. He slept for two four-hour stretches and had to be woken up each time to feed. By Friday afternoon we were able to go home, and as soon as Nathan was asleep, so were we! Everything else could wait.

I've been fortunate enough to be able to spend the last two weeks off work, and be home to adjust to life as a new dad. Being that Beth and I have had plenty of exposure to babies, everything has pretty much matched our expectations. There have been plenty of diaper changes, late nights, and changes to how we spend our time. Overall, he's been a wonderful baby. He feeds a lot during the day, but usually manages to sleep 3 to 4 hours at a stretch at night, so we've been able to get enough sleep so far.

We're also getting him used to going different places and being around people. He's a good traveler, falling asleep quickly in his car seat. We've taken him to grandparents' houses, some shopping trips, and a couple doctor visits. He's very healthy and is gaining weight quickly. We've also enjoyed having occasional visitors here at the house, and some generous gifts of meals. We had his first holiday get-together for Thanksgiving at my folks' house, and tonight we'll take him out for our first big dinner at a restaurant for Beth's sister's birthday.

Although Nathan doesn't do much these days, it's been great having all this time to get to know him and figure out our new life with him. Some of the best times I've had have been him sleeping on my chest while we lay on the couch or recliner. The time has flown by already. Even though it's been a big change, at the same time it all feels normal and the way it should be. Monday I'll be returning to work. It will be nice to go back to my regular routine, and interesting to see how I'll have to adjust. I expect I'll be more tired, and miss my family, but it should be good back to supporting our family again.

We're looking forward to watching him grow and develop, and see how are lives change along the way. Welcome to the family, Nathan!

Homebrew Demo at Barley John's

2009-11-09T21:09:00.006-06:00

Saturday gave us a day of beautiful weather and sunshine, perfect for cleaning up leaves, taking a walk, and getting stuff done. Throw in a 4 hour get-together over lunch to learn about brewing beer and call it a day.

The Minnesota Homebrewers Association hosted an event from 10am to 2pm on Saturday for National Teach-A-Friend-To-Homebrew Day, held at Barley John's Brewpub in New Brighton.

The event started with a toast to Jimmy Carter, who legalized home brewing in 1979. We raised glasses of Barley John's beer, and commenced brewing. They brewed three different beers, taught use "newbies" and got everyone involved in the process. I got to see how to brew from grain extracts, and saw some of the equipment and process used in all-grain brewing. To sweeten the pot (or brew kettle?), three brewing equipment kits were given away by Brew & Grow, Northern Brewer, and Midwest Supplies.

As somebody who's gotten started with wine & mead, and who knows a lot of beer brewers, I was curious. Plus I do enjoy a unique beer from time to time myself. This event let me learn more, meet some cool people, and see how it's done. I have to say I had a great time. I don't think I'm ready to join the club, but they do seem like a fun laid back group. I don't have the equipment or the time to take it up just yet. For now I'll stick with my wine & mead. Thank you to the MN Brewers for the afternoon of fun & learning, and the tasty burger from Barley Johns.

2009 Pumpkin Carving at the Workbench

2009-11-09T20:13:00.011-06:00

This Halloween I decided to tackle pumpkin carving with some serious tools. None of the flimsy plastic tools for me this year. Tools I was familiar with, that could easily handle a little pumpkin flesh. While these are not necessarily child-safe, it was much easier for me to be creative this year with tools from the workbench.

I had more ambitious plans since we had three pumpkins to start with, but a few cold nights froze two of them, so they were no good for carving. But we still had one!

After a light pencil sketch on the pumpkin, the carving began with a utility knife. I set the blade to a shallow cutting depth, and cut an outline of the shapes to be shaved down. This was enough to pierce the skin to make room for the next tool, the chisel:

With the eyes & mouth chiseled down smooth, next came the spade bits for two uniform pupils in the eyes:

To tackle the detail on the teeth I used a mini hack saw, designed so the blade protrudes outward. This makes it easy to stab, and the serrated edge cuts much better than an ordinary kitchen knife. The narrow but flexible blade also works well turning corners as you cut. It almost seems safer than a long sharp blade to me. This made it easy to cut out the gaps between teeth, as well as cutouts in the eyes:

Finishing touches to the teeth were added with the utility knife. A sharp blade made for easy shaving & smoothing of the corners of the teeth:

The finished pumpkin:

The first attempt at Rhubarb Wine

2009-10-17T22:12:00.004-05:00

Three months ago, my dad and I harvested the last 15 pounds of rhubarb from their garden. I spent much of the next night hunched over the sink washing & cutting all the stalks, and into the freezer they went.

Today, with some simpler wine & mead projects under my belt, I've decided to tackle the rhubarb. This is my first batch using actual fruit (or vegetables). I pulled all 15 pounds of rhubarb out of the freezer and into the nylon straining bag. Water & sugar was added in small batches. I boiled 1 gallon at a time, and dissolved 4 pounds of sugar into each gallon. With all the rhubarb in the fermentation bucket, there was only room for about 3 gallons of sugar water. I also decided to try one of the optional ingredients in the recipe: white grape juice as a substitute for some of the sugar.

After about 7 hours of cooling down, the tannin, yeast nutrient, and metabisulfite are added. Tomorrow morning Pectic Enzyme is added to help break down the rhubarb and keep the wine clear. Finally, yeast is added on Monday morning to start fermentation.

In a few days the bag of rhubarb is removed, and I can add more water and let the fermentation continue. So far it smells good. With any luck it will turn out tasting good too.

Baseball & Baby Showers

2009-10-09T21:38:00.001-05:00

Here I am, relaxing at home on a Friday night, watching the Twins and assembling our son's new swing. This photo summarizes the last couple weeks of our lives.

Our friends and family have thrown us two baby showers the last two Saturdays, both hosted at our house. We've received a lot of nice new things for taking care of Nathan when he arrives, both useful and just plain cute stuff. We're definitely looking forward to getting use out of all this stuff, and at 35 weeks along, we're not too far away. All the little toys look like fun, and we have our baby photo book filled with family photos already. Tomorrow we'll have our third baby shower, from the Brandt side of the family.

We've also been having a blast following the Twins at the end of their season. Our group of friends shares a season ticket package each year, which let us secure tickets to what would have been the final game at the Metrodome. However, the Twins crept up on the Detroit Tigers, and the "final" game at the Metrodome tied up the AL standings. This led to an amazing tiebreaker game at the dome on Tuesday, where we got to watch the Twins pull off a 6 to 5 win in the 12th inning of a very intense game. Nathan didn't miss out either. He was awake and moving (and listening to record-breaking cheering crowds) during both games.

Tonight we watched the second game of the AL Division Series, but I'm sorry to report we lost to the New York Yankees. We have our tickets for Sunday's playoff game at the Dome, and if the Twins can win that one, we're guaranteed a second crazy playoff game at the dome on Monday.

Finishing & Bottling the Apple Wine

2009-10-03T20:10:00.011-05:00

I'm happy to report my first wine experiment has successfully made it all the way to being bottled. The Apple Wine stopped fermenting while it was still a bit sweet, but I liked the flavor. Rather than ferment it out further, I decided to call it a Sweet Apple Wine and call it a day.

The wine had cleared up quite a bit while it sat in the carboy, but could have sat & aged longer. However, with our son's birth fast approaching, I wanted to bottle it before he came and life got busier. I borrowed my brother-in-law's Mini Jet wine filter to remove any remaining haze/particles from the wine, and the difference was impressive... crystal clear.

After collecting a surplus of bottles from craigslist, I was well stocked and ready to bottle. Bottles were washed & sanitized, I started the siphon from the 6-gallon carboy, and began filling bottles. I only spilled a little wine when the bottle filler bumped against the outside of a bottle; not too bad for my first try. All total, I got almost 31 bottles out of the 6 gallon batch. The last partial bottle was sacrificed for quality control purposes, so to speak. You can definitely taste the apple flavor. It still has some of the alcohol "burn," but that should mellow-out over time.

Corking went relatively well, considering I have the most basic corker available. I had to put a lot of force into it to cork each one. I can say now that I appreciate the mechanical advantage of a good corker. I may need to upgrade before bottling my next batch. I left the bottles standing upright for a couple days so the corks could expand and seal up, and then turned them on their sides for storage.

During the months the wine was in the carboy I was working out label designs in Photoshop and eventually arrived at the final design shown here. Just in case I decide to change label shapes in the future, I decided to use full-sheet label paper so I wasn't stuck with a fixed size. It's a bit more work to cut them out, but not too bad.

I've seen labels printed on inkjet printers before, and I know the ink can run & bleed when it gets wet... especially when the wine bottle gets some condensation on it. So I tried something a bit different. After finalizing my label design, I brought it over to FedEx Office (formerly Kinkos), and printed 6 sheets (36 labels) for less than $4. The key was printing in color laser-printing. This won't bleed when it gets wet, and as an added bonus, they have a nice shiny finish to them.

Now the wine can continue to age & improve in the bottles. It's been a fun project with results I can be proud of and enjoy. Maybe we'll break some out at Thanksgiving & Christmas, or maybe when our son is born! I'm sure we can find reasons.

A Better Way to Toggle the Turtle

2009-09-03T22:08:00.009-05:00

We've been having fun getting Nathan's room ready, including setting up the turtle motif. We found a small lamp from the same collection as the other items in the room, and it looks nice on the dresser. There was one problem though. The switch was located on the power cord, which hung behind the dresser. Every time we wanted to turn it on, we had to pull it out far enough to reach the switch.

Knowing how much I enjoy "projects," Beth suggested moving or replacing the switch. After trips to radio shack for the switch, Menards for a new cord, and a quick run to Ace for a washer or just the right size, we have a new switch, custom painted to match the room.

I cleared out some space with a spade bit and the dremel to make room for the base of the switch. The new cord was cut, stripped, and soldered to the contacts. The exposed contacts were insulated with some heat shrink tubing and hot glue, and covered up by the felt base of the lamp.

Here's the new switch. It was originally red plastic, and has since been painted blue to match the room. I made sure to find a switch that was rated for household AC current, that had a design that would be easy to paint.

The finished product:

Camping 2009 at Whitewater State Park

2009-08-28T20:35:00.007-05:00

Friday night, August 15th, we set off down the road for Whitewater State park for our 5th annual camping trip. This year the group grew to 11 campers including our youngest addition, Mikey, at 7 months old.

We arrived before sunset, set up our tent and got settled while we hung out with Bill & Sara. We soon noticed that the park's claim of "no mosquitoes" was true, and very nice. The rest of the group arrived later and we begin to fill up our 3 campsites. The biggest challenge (and most entertaining) part of the evening was putting up Jean's new tent. She bought it after last summer's trip, and didn't open it until this year, only to find that all the elastic cords in the tent poles were cut or broken. It took everyone to hold lanterns and sort through 40+ pieces of tent poles, and figure out how to assemble the 5 different poles to make up the tent. We eventually got it up and Jean had a place to sleep!

Saturday we enjoyed some good hiking, good food as usual, and great time with friends. We tried making donuts for breakfast this year, but some of our cans of biscuit dough got too wet in the cooler and exploded... mental note for next year. Tacos in a bag for lunch, simple and tasty.

The afternoon hike took us up to a high point in the park where we could see for miles. The view was excellent and we got to see some cool rock formations. Beth took it a bit slower, but did very well on all the steps, rocks, and rough terrain for being about 7 months pregnant. After we got back she relaxed and some of us went to wade in the river and skip rocks.

Our foil dinners worked especially well this year. Nick found a local firewood supplier and we got some good hardwood that doesn't burn up too quickly, and our fires burned well and made a good bed of coals for dinner. We were actually eating our foil dinners before dark! That may have been a first, or at least the first time in a few years.

We also learned that camping is not the best experience for somebody who's 7 months pregnant. Sleeping on an air mattress is not very conducive to staying comfortable and sleeping on your side. Beth hadn't been comfortable on the mattress or the camp chairs, and had worked pretty hard on our afternoon hike. Having been through this unusual stress, Nathan wasn't moving as much as he normally did and didn't respond to the usual ways of getting him moving. Since we knew Beth wouldn't sleep well that night and we were concerned about Nathan, we decided to leave after dinner and s'mores. Thanks to everyone for helping us pack up so quickly.

Rochester happened to be on our way home, close to the state park. For our own peace of mind, we stopped at the emergency room at St Mary's hospital in Rochester. The staff was excellent and got us in and out quickly. They set up a monitor so we could hear (and measure) Nathan's heartbeat for 20 minutes of observation. Thankfully, Nathan was just fine. Once Beth was able to recline to a comfortable position and drink some cold water he started moving again like normal. The best part of the experience was when I started talking to him. We usually talk and/or sing to him at night, so when I talked to him at the hospital, his heart rate immediately slowed down. It's pretty amazing to see how your unborn son actually knows and recognizes you, even if it's such a simple level. We're excited for the day we get to meet him.

After leaving the hospital we sent messages to the rest of the group to let them know all was well, and headed for home. At about 1am we pulled into the garage, came inside, and headed right to bed. I slept until 11am the next morning. I guess I needed it. We got to enjoy the bulk of the trip, made sure Nathan was OK and got to spend some quality time with him, and got out of camp just before the rain came. Overall it was another great (and memorable) camping trip. Now we get to look forward to Nathan's first camping trip next year!

The First Batch of Mead

2009-08-10T19:23:00.004-05:00

It's time to go back down to Pegboard Cellars (the workbench in my basement) to start a new brew. This time I'm taking my first stab at Mead. Since starting my wine, I've been reading and learning from The Compleat Meadmaker, a good book loaned to me by my dad. I also happen to work with a lot of home brewers and mead makers, so I've picked up information and advice for awhile from them.

This was also my first attempt at making a yeast starter culture. Using a recipe outlined in the book, I mixed up some water, honey, yeast energizer, yeast nutrient, and dry malt extract to make my starter. I put the mixture in a glass jug, added the yeast, and sealed it up with an airlock. From my [beginner's] perspective, the yeast starter gives the yeast a chance to grow and multiply, and get accustomed to the kind of liquid they'll be fermenting. In this case, a mixture of mainly water & honey. After about a day of fermenting the yeast starter, I had a healthy culture of yeast that was ready to take on 13-plus pounds of honey in a 5 gallon batch.

While I could make many kinds of mead just like I would make wine (adding fruit and other flavorings), I'm making a simple "Show Mead," meaning that it's only fermented honey and nothing else. The book had a Dry Show Mead, Medium Show Mead, and a Sweet Show Mead recipe. I opted for a Medium Show Mead, using just over 13 lbs of honey in a 5 gallon batch. Based on the advice of the book's author, and other meadmakers I know, I went with the "no heat" method, which makes the whole process much easier by not needing to heat anything up. Supposedly, this also preserves more of the honey's natural flavor. After sanitizing all the equipment, it was just a matter of pouring everything together (water, honey, yeast energizer, yeast nutrient), mixing it up, and adding some oxygen by stirring it up with a whisk.

Before adding the yeast, I dropped in my (sanitized) hydrometer to get a specific gravity reading. It looks like I have a starting gravity of about 1.092. This gives me an idea of how much sugar is in the mixture (water would be 1.000). As it ferments, I can take more readings to see how much sugar has been converted to alcohol, and estimate the alcohol percentage of the finished product.

Now the bucket has been sealed up with an airlock and it's bubbling like crazy. It should ferment pretty vigorously for about 2 weeks, and then I have to wait. They say mead isn't really good until at least 6 months to a year later. I guess I'll have to be patient. For now, it smells delicious.

Nisswa with the In-Laws

2009-08-07T17:00:00.001-05:00

I recently got back from the annual family vacation in Nisswa with my wife's family. For the third year in a row now, we've stayed at the Good Ol' Days family resort on Lower Cullen lake. It's not the "rustic cabin" kind of place like I used to go to as a kid, but a great vacation nevertheless. The rest of the family stays up there for the entire week, but this year (like every year so far) I came home early to conserve my vacation days. We had a great time hanging out with our family, playing with the kids, eating good food, and just relaxing. The resort has a lot of nice amenities, and lots of planned activities for the kids.

Each year everyone makes a dinner for the family. This year we made Brandt-style fish from the sunfish and Walleye I brought home from my BOTCO fishing trip earlier this summer. It was our first time making it. With the help of some good instruction from Mom, the fish turned out great, and made for an excellent dinner and some good leftovers.

The niece & nephews were fun as always, but with the first trip with the twin babies, the logistics changed quite a bit. Babysitters were always needed, and having two infants on differing sleep schedules made things interesting. Overall though everyone did quite well.

We almost went fishing while I was there, but the weather was too cold & windy out on the lake. I got as far as re-spooling some new fishing line on my poles though. I had meant to do that a long time ago, so at least it was nice to get that done. The plan was to catch some panfish and show the guys how to fillet without scaling the fish, but... no fish, no fillet. Maybe next year.

Many thanks to my in-laws for another nice vacation!

Cleaning Bottles & Racking The Apple Wine

2009-07-27T12:08:00.006-05:00

Earlier this month I was learning about winemaking and preparing myself for the first batch. One of my big concerns was getting enough bottles. Since a typical batch of wine is 5+ gallons, and you'll get about 5 bottles per gallon, I would need plenty of bottles soon. This is when I turned to Craigslist, and posted a wanted ad for free wine bottles. I didn't really know what to expect, but I don't think I expected the amount of response I got. As they say, be careful what you wish for, you just might get it. I got about a half-dozen responses, and decided to pick up bottles from three different people. All total I ended up with over 150 bottles. About 115 of those were green, most of the rest were brown or amber, a few clear bottles, and some other miscellaneous styles.

Over the last couple weeks I've been soaking bottles in large rubbermaid tubs with soapy water, scrubbing them out with a brush, and removing labels with a window scraper (razor blade). Having audiobooks and podcasts to listen to, and nice weather to enjoy makes the tedious work much better.

Here you'll see what the bottom of the carboy looks like a week after racking it into the carboy. The dark layer at the bottom is yeast and other suspended particles from the wine that have settled out. It's not finished by any means, but I decided to "rack" it again last night to remove the wine before the sediment begins to affect the flavor. I set up my equipment, and started a siphon to move it into my fermenter bucket, washed out my carboy, and transferred it back into the carboy to age & clear up some more.

The Nursery Takes Shape

2009-07-26T20:47:00.000-05:00

With the help of our mothers, the nursery was painted back on July 7th, and we've been working on filling it with furniture & supplies for Nathan's arrival in November.

Assembling the furniture was time consuming, but went rather well. I had to drill or re-drill some bad or missing holes, and cut one piece smaller so it would fit. Although I've come to expect some of that with any ready to assemble furniture, having tools at the ready certainly helps. A cordless drill is a huge time (and hand) saver for putting in most of the fasteners. Overall we're happy with the look of the furniture, and most importantly we're looking forward to the day we can put our son in his new crib.

Starting my First Batch - Apple Wine

2009-07-10T11:53:00.000-05:00

After standing by watching my family do this for years, I've decided to jump in and try my hand at making homemade wine. Dad helped me get started with some basic books to learn about making wine, and I picked up a starter equipment kit from Midwest Supplies.

I've been reading through The Joy of Home Winemaking and learning a lot about making wine from fruit. As a beginner, the book explains the process well, and gave me a good enough understanding to get started. I can tell though that there will always be lots to learn, which should make this a fun hobby. I get to learn stuff, make some good, unique wines, and share them with friends & family. Not a bad deal.

For my first batch, I followed the advice of the book, and started with apple juice from frozen concentrate. Cub had frozen apple juice concentrate (100% juice) on sale, so I picked up enough juice, sugar, and water for a 6 gallon batch. On another trip to Midwest I got some good tips and advice from one of their experts, and a small shopping bag of more ingredients... tannin, pectic enzyme, yeast, yeast nutrient, and some other necessities. Overall, it was a pretty easy process... clean and sanitize the fermentation bucket and equipment, and dump everything in. The most effort was spent heating up water so I could dissolve in the sugar.

After letting the mixture (aka the "must") cool down to room temperature for a day, I added the yeast last night. I stirred it this morning, and with any luck, I should see some fermentation soon as it begins to bubble.

Now I just have to be patient, and find something else to fill my time while the wine does it's job.

Kid-Friendly Coffee Table Conversion

2009-07-06T12:18:00.001-05:00

Preparation for the new baby has created more opportunities for projects, and I enjoy an interesting project. We recently moved around some of our furniture, and moved the TV into the living room since we expect we'll want to spend more time there with the baby. Our coffee table has been a bit of a concern since it had a glass top. However, since it matches our other furniture, we didn't want to get rid of it either. So we got creative...

With Vinney's help, I picked up a 4'x8' sheet of 1/8" thick wood, and cut it down a little bit smaller than the original piece of glass tabletop. Beth found a nice looking (and cheap) piece of vinyl remnant from the fabric store. After a few days of careful gluing with spray adhesive, cutting & folding of the vinyl, and lots of clamping, we have a new tabletop! I think it turned out rather well, and since it matches the black legs of the table, it looks like it was meant to be that way. Now we don't have to worry about our son (or my feet) breaking the glass.

Fourth of July weekend 2009

2009-07-05T08:01:00.000-05:00

We kicked off our Fourth of July weekend on the Phrolic, my parents' boat. This was our first overnight trip, which we've been meaning to do for a long time. We arrived Friday morning in Red Wing, and traveled up the river and anchored, where we enjoyed relaxing and eating a great lunch with cheeseburgers on the grill.

Friday night Mom & Dad hosted a wine tasting dock party for their boating friends. Dad put out several varieties of his homemade wine and small tasting cups, and everyone brought good food to share. The wines and the party were a hit. There were enough people on the floating dock that it nearly sank under the water at the height of the party. I'm a fan of Dad's rhubarb wine and the mead (honey wine). We stayed up late, sat out on the dock, and chatted with their friends. We settled into our cozy cabin in the front of the boat for the night and slept well. It was a fun evening and a great way to spend my day off work. Thanks to Mom & Dad for being such good boat-hosts.

Saturday morning we filled up on eggs, sausage & toast, and hit the road for home. That afternoon & evening was spent at our friends Kevin & Ellie's house in Shakopee playing Wii, cards, and having burgers & brats on the grill for Kevin's birthday. From their house we were able to see the fireworks nearby, and watched more fireworks during the drive home. Thanks for the fun evening!

A Rough Start for the Red Maple

2009-06-30T22:03:00.004-05:00

It was a little over a week ago we happily planted a new tree on the west side of the house. Last fall we cut down an old half-dead birch tree, and we've wanted to fill the space with something new (and not so dangerously close to the foundation!). Thanks to my Dad for his help and discount from Bachman's, we got a new Red Maple.

We found the soil to be somewhat clay as we dug the hole. Before dropping the tree in, we added water to the hole, but it didn't soak in very fast due to the dense clay-like soil. A few days later our leaves were wilting & curling, and looking pretty sad in general. We think it's a combination of over-watering and the shock of transplanting the tree.

As a last ditch effort, I picked up 10 bags of better topsoil dirt to put around the tree. I dug up the tree, still wet under the roots, and made the hole bigger and deeper for the new dirt. Our new Maple is now surrounded by 400 pounds of better dirt that should hopefully soak up water easier and help the tree. We may end up with a dead tree, but we'll let it go until next summer and see if it improves.

It's a Boy!

2009-06-29T19:39:00.002-05:00

On the morning of June 26th, we saw the first pictures of our son, Nathan Benjamin, due to arrive on November 10th, 2009. He appears to be doing well, and is pretty much right on schedule, as the ultrasound determined he would be due on November 8th, only two days off of our original due date.

We got together with Beth's family later that night at the Sunshine Factory restaurant to reveal the sex of our baby. Every one of them guessed girl, except my 2 year old nephew. We had mixed predictions from my family a couple days later, but of course everyone was happy to hear the news and the name. Now we can start to prepare for a baby boy in November!

Twins VS Astros from Row 11

2009-06-20T15:09:00.004-05:00

Big thanks to our friends Anna & Chris, who shared 2 of the four tickets they had for last night's Twins game. We enjoyed the game from Row 11, lower level behind home plate. We got pretty spoiled being so close, as we're usually in the upper deck.

We had dinner at Majors before the game, ventured downtown, and made our way to the Metrodome. The game turned out to be a good one. Kevin Slowey pitched and the Twins won 5 to 2.

BOTCO 2009

2009-06-17T14:37:00.001-05:00

I had another good BOTCO fishing trip this year. For those of you who aren't familiar, the BOTCO fishing trip was started over 50 years ago with my grandpa & five of his buddies. We've continued the tradition every year at the same lake. The trip promises good times & good fishing, and this year was no exception. We rented out three cabins, and this year had 12 guys make it up for the trip, spanning 3 generations.

Dad and I and my brother in law made the drive up to Big Lake in Bemidji on Saturday morning. We had a little rain during the drive and when we first arrived. The rest of the trip was beautiful - sunshine & clear skies until we left on Tuesday after breakfast.

We enjoyed some good Walleye fishing and made a couple trips out just for sunfish, and were able to land enough so I could come home with a limit's worth of sunnies. My walleye catch wasn't much, but Dad landed the Walleye King traveling trophy this year.

My cousin Billy ran his annual bass tournament. Over the two-hour timeframe our boat managed to land a few small bass, which are fun to catch. We didn't recoup our $5 entry fees but left with a few door prizes Billy had gathered up for the tournament. My uncle Tom landed the largest bass at about 4 lbs.

When not fishing or relaxing, we enjoyed some excellent meals. The highlight each year is our afternoon fish fry. Much of the walleye catch from the first couple days was breaded & deep fried for the group on the afternoon of day 2. along with cooking the fish, we fried up a big batch of chopped potatoes, onions, and bacon, some baked beans, and a variety of homemade wine and sweets.

Overall, a nice getaway. I came back with a tan, lots of fish for the freezer, and had some relaxing time off from work.

Workbench fun - Repairing a broken USB device

2009-05-03T21:42:00.006-05:00

My wife came to me after a day of teaching with a small crisis on her hands... or rather, in her hands. The RF wireless presentation remote she used every day (The Presentation Pilot Pro) was accidentally broken by a student. A helpful gesture of pushing in a chair happened to catch the USB receiver plugged into the back of her desktop, and snapped the plug right off, including a small piece of the circuit board. A new remote & receiver costs about $70, and to order just the receiver would still be $50, so any way to repair it and avoid that expense would be to our advantage. Of course this is my strange idea of fun, so I dove in and took it apart to survey the damage and see if it could be fixed.

The metal housing of the plug was actually soldered to the board for strength in two spots. One of those solder joints broke off the board, but the other joint held, taking a small piece of the circuit board with it when it was broken. As for the 4 connections for the USB, it wasn't looking good. I took several close-up photos of the damage since it was so small, and used my multimeter to try to find points I could solder to. Unfortunately the USB connections were solid, so when the plug was ripped off, it pulled off the metal contacts on the board and some of the substrate. This left me with nothing substantial to solder to, and I wasn't sure I could just put it back the way it was. I've done small repair work like this before, but this one wasn't so simple, so I decided to attack it from a different direction.

The largest chip on the board had a clearly written part number on it: "CY7C63723C" which after some Google searching turned out to be a "USB Combination Low-Speed USB and PS/2 Peripheral Controller." Jackpot. This was the USB interface chip, and in theory this is all I would need to connect the USB plug to. I found the spec sheet for the chip and found the four pins I needed, and double-checked the USB spec to make sure I connected it properly. To insulate and prevent any shorting, I covered the board by the connector with some electrical tape, and soldered the metal plug back in place. Using some small wires from Cat5E ethernet cable, I ran jumpers from the connector back to the USB chip. After some careful soldering, I was pretty thrilled to see that it worked when I plugged it into my PC! The device was recognized immediately, and I was able to move the mouse and use the buttons through the remote with no trouble.

With the receiver now working, I added some epoxy to the back of the board to strengthen the broken connection and fill in where the board was broken off. Lucky for us, the damage only affected the solder points for the plug and the structural part of the board for securing the plug. No traces were damaged, so I was able to bring it back to life with a little research and some careful fine-detail soldering. Now the receiver is working and has been re-assembled. The only signs of the repair are a couple wires visible through the hole for the indicator light.

Double Dose of the Twins VS The Royals

2009-05-03T21:05:00.000-05:00

This weekend we hosted two friends from Kansas City: Beth's friend Jenny from college, and Megan, a friend of hers who is also a baseball fan. They made the road trip up to the cities to see us, and see their Kansas City Royals play the MN Twins of course. Friday night was a great game. We ended up with a group of 12 of us, many of which were other friends of Jenny's who came out to visit. There was plenty of action on the field, and the Twins ended up winning 7 to 5.

We enjoyed having house guests, and sharing the extra space in our house. Saturday we slept in and took it easy, and grabbed some lunch at Applebees. We had originally bought 5 tickets for Saturday night's game, but Jenny's husband didn't make it up to Minneapolis, so we invited Vinney to join us. Vinney and I left early and found some dinner at a cool little bar called Mortimer's where we savored some good cheap bar food. $2 special on cheeseburgers, some fries, and a cool Honeyweiss. The game was neck and neck for awhile as the Royals pretty much matched us run for run. Unfortunately this dragged out to a tie after 9 innings. Two innings later the Royals came back with 3 more runs to win the game. But at least we had good friends to hang out with... even if some of them were cheering for the wrong team :-)

Taking care of some overdue house projects

2009-04-25T12:25:00.002-05:00

This past week I've gotten the bug to work on some house projects that have been on our list for a long time. Now that the weather is warming up, the temperature in the attic isn't ice cold, and not yet blazing hot, which works well for me.

We've been doing our best to keep the upstairs bathroom ventilated as we started to see mold appearing on the wall behind the door many months ago. That was taken care of with some bleach and mold-resistant primer and paint. Now I have a new bathroom ventilation fan installed in the ceiling. I picked up a nice little 70 CFM fan from Menards. After locating the right position up in the attic, I hooked up the wiring and ducting, and mounted the unit in place, and fished the wiring down through the wall to the switch box in the bathroom. As of now, I have a working bathroom fan. The only step I have left is to vent the air out through the roof. Installing the vent is a project for another day though.

Since I was already working in the wall outside our bathroom, I took the opportunity to install a second light switch in our hallway. Previously, we had to walk all the way down a dark hallway to reach the light switch. With some careful measuring I was able to fish my wires down into the walls without making any extra holes in the wall, which was very nice. It took some time to sort out the plan for wiring, but I was able to make it work nicely. Now I have two switches on our hallway light. A small convenience, but well worth the effort.

Jamaica Recap

2009-04-10T20:26:00.008-05:00

Well, we've been back home form Jamaica for almost a week now and the time off was wonderful. Beth and I got to spend 5 days in the warm sun on the beach, and see some of the sights of Negril, Jamaica.

Day 1 was our travel day. We left Minneapolis early Monday morning, flew to Memphis, and boarded our final flight to Montego Bay, Jamaica. Once we arrived they shuffled us through customs & immigration and out to the appropriate shuttle bus for Negril. We arrived late that afternoon at The Rooms in Negril. We had a nice big room with a balcony. After settling into our room we explored the beach, and ended up finding dinner at Margaritaville. Jerk Chicken pizza & Fajitas... yum! The sun set around 6:30 and we made it back to our room, and just relaxed the rest of the evening.

Day 2 was another relaxed day around our hotel. The continental breakfast was at our hotel's outdoor restaurant: fresh watermelon & pineapple, toast, muffin, and cereal. With a heavy dose of sunscreen we ventured out to the beach for some swimming in the ocean and just relaxing in the resort's lounge chairs. Beth read some books and I enjoyed some podcasts. Lunch was found at another restaurant down the beach, Jerk Chicken & Fries with some tasty suger-cane sweetened ketchup. That afternoon we met with our contact from the tour company. Kemeasha scheduled our return trip to the airport, and scheduled a couple tours for us for the next two days. After some more relaxing on the beach, we found dinner at another place down the beach, and watched the sunset from our table.

Day 3 started like the day before... a refreshing continental breakfast and a swim in the ocean, followed by relaxing in the lounge chairs in the shade of a palm tree. We got to see them knock down a few coconuts, too! We sampled some more of the 7-mile-beach dining options for lunch. I had some more jerk chicken, and Beth a tasty grilled cheese. Mid-afternoon we were picked up for our first (smaller) tour. Palmer was our driver, and we were picked up for a shopping & dinner trip around town. We met some nice couples from Delaware and Minnesota as well. The Time Square shopping center provided some nice souvenir shopping, and was not as high-pressure as the merchants on our beach. The next stop was the local craft market. The wood carvings were fun to look at, but beyond that, not much else resembled anything hand-made. Most of the 'shops' all had the same stuff for sale. Our final stop was Rick's Cafe, known for being the best spot for watching the sunset, as it's on the westernmost tip of Jamaica. However it was too cloudy for a good sunset, but we enjoyed some excellent dinner while we watched cliff divers jump into the ocean from the cliffs surrounding Rick's cafe. Beth pampered herself with some lobster, and I had a plate of steak, chicken, and red snapper. Once the sun set, we cleared out and hopped back on our bus and made the trip back to The Rooms.

Day 4 was our last full day, and our biggest tour. We woke up bright & early and were picked up by Palmer again, along with some of the same couples from the day before, and took off for the southern area of Jamaica. Our first stop was the Black River Safari. The smooth pontoon ride and fresh air was a welcome relief after a long bumpy bus ride to get there. We were brought up and down the river and saw Crocodiles, birds, Mangrove trees and more up close. Very interesting and fun. The next stop on the bus tour was the YS falls, a natural-spring-fed waterfall in the middle of a beautiful forest area. A short ride into the woods brought us to the falls. Beth and I got to jump in, catch our breath after hitting the cold water, and swim around while our guide took photos of us with our camera. It was very fun & refreshing. We also saw people sliding by on the zipline above us, having taken the "canopy tour." After drying off and looking at our photos, we hopped back on the bus and headed to the Appleton Estate Rum tour. A short drive through narrow mountain roads brought us to the Appleton Estate Rum factory. A tasty lunch was served with chicken stew, rice, and some cool rum punch. Our stomachs filled, we were taken around the plant to see how they make the rum from the sugar cane grown nearby. We were surrounded by the smell of molasses, and got to taste the product at various stages in the process... fresh -squeezed sugar cane juice, and "wet sugar" (sugar granules & molasses). At the end of the tour I sampled some rum, and we picked up a small bottle of a rum/cream liqueur. A long bus ride back and we enjoyed some dinner at our hotel's restaurant... Rasta Pasta for Beth and some more Jerk Chicken for me. I wanted to get a good overall sampling of the famous Jamaican dish after all.

Day 5 was our last day, and the trip home. Breakfast was delicious, and we made some time to walk on the beach and enjoy the water after we packed up our stuff. We hopped on our bus (driven by our favorite tour guide Palmer again) at about 10:00, and made the trip to the airport, picking up other travelers along the way. The airport process was slow and we cut it awfully close getting onto both of our flights home, but we made it home. We were stressed and hungry after a long travel day, but were glad to be home.

As our first "big" vacation. it was wonderful. We had just enough time to be away, had some fun, relaxed a lot, and enjoyed each other's company in a new place. So did we have a good time?

"Ya, mon!"

The Cabinet Completed and Moved-In

2009-03-27T12:18:00.007-05:00

I'm happy to say the custom cabinet is done. After a lot of filling, sanding, priming, sanding, and more painting, it's finally done! I really like how it fits in with the rest of our white decor in the basement. We've taken advantage of the extra storage on the back, and our cords are neatly tucked away in the compartment on the back.

Not all paints are scented equally

2009-03-09T19:07:00.004-05:00

On my last trip to Menards, I picked up a gallon of Dutch Boy's Cabinet & Trim paint for the new cabinet. After a lot of wood filler, sanding, and priming, the cabinet was ready for paint. I applied the first coat of paint to the entire cabinet, and the top sides of the shelves. I have to say I'm impressed with the tough, glossy finish from this paint. However, having inhaled the stuff for about 2 and a half hours, I had quite the headache. Whatever they put in that paint to make it extra durable smells a lot stronger than your typical interior wall paint. Our furnace in the next room picked up the scent and spread it throughout the house. By the time I finished my painting for the day we decided to open some windows to air out the house, and went out for awhile to get some fresh air.

So... for the rest of you. Paint in a well-ventilated area!

Back in Business

2009-02-26T11:45:00.000-06:00

I've officially re-launched an old online store of mine. Back in college I created and sold a do-it-yourself electronics kit. It was a small niche product for hobbyists who like to modify their computer case. For those of you who are curious about the finer details, you can check out the site at www.VUMeterKit.com

Since closing up shop in 2005 some things have changed which are making my life as a small store operator better.

PayPal has always had an easy to use "Add To Cart" button system. Now they can track your inventory as well. I only have a limited number of kits to sell, and I can set up my PayPal account to keep track of what's been sold and how many are left, and prevent me from selling when I run out. However I did learn a lesson on shipping pricing on PayPal. I hand't planned on doing international shipping at first, so I didn't set up a pricing scheme for international. To PayPal, apparently this means that international shipping is FREE. One of my first orders was from Canada and they got free shipping. So my oversight was their gain... but now I have some international pricing set up for next time.

The US Postal service's Click & Ship program is new to me as well. Back in the day I used to have to pack up all my shipments and wait in line at the Post Office to ship out my stuff. All I needed now was a digital postal scale. I found a nice non-USPS brand scale on eBay. This time around, I just weigh my package, print out postage, schedule a pickup, and it's done. Very nice. I can also order priority mail boxes delivered for free through the USPS, which is a great convenience. One thing I did stumble on was that my favorite PDF viewer, Foxit, is not compatible with the USPS click & ship program. The images they put on the postage label (barcodes, postmark, etc) do not display on the document when viewed or printed through Foxit. I had to switch to a computer with the standard Adobe Acrobat PDF viewer for this to work.

Pay attention to international shipping. It took me awhile to get it all straightened out, but there are VERY specific boxes I have to use in order to get the cheaper rates. A bit of a learning curve, but really not too bad now.

So far so good... I emailed my past customers about the new store and ended up selling a couple units. Now I just have to find some ways to promote the site.

The Big Two-Eight

2009-02-23T19:34:00.001-06:00

Happy Birthday to me!

It was a good weekend full of family & friends, cake, 3 days of babies, and finished off with my 28th birthday. I like to joke that I'm getting old, but I'm in good health, good spirits, and good company. So, another year doesn't make much difference to me right now. I'm good with it. My brother-in-law warned me about the 28th year of life since he's already lived through much of his. Apparently I'll have 3 kids by the time I turn 29, based on the fact that he has 3 kids now. I'm not so sure that will happen, but how can I argue with his evidence?

Friday we got together with Beth's family for dinner and got to see my new niece & nephew in the hospital. They've been in the hospital about a month now since their 10-week early birth. They're out of their incubator and have moved on to open "cribs." To top it off, we got to hold them for the first time, which was nice after several weeks of seeing them in their incubators. We chowed down on some Cold Stone ice cream cake and I opened some nice gifts.

Saturday was a nice day to sleep in, go to the gym, and get some painting done on the new cabinet. Saturday evening we went to visit our friends Kevin & Ellie and their new baby. We brought some dinner and hung out and had a good time. Their little guy was born premature as well, but he's doing quite well and lookin' good. Our friend Jean surprised me with some birthday cake too (and managed to load it up with 28 candles). Thanks Jean!

Since Sunday's schedule was looking a little tight, I decided to stay up to make some late night cheesecake. I enjoy making cool deserts, including the occasional cheesecake. I decided to make my own birthday cake... Turtle Cheesecake from Allrecipes.com, yum! I've done some different ones, but this one sounded good. They have some good cheesecake tips for those of you who are curious. The only thing I changed from the directions was baking it in a water bath, and keeping it in the oven for an extra hour after turning off the heat. This helps the cake cook more evenly and prevents cracking, and it gave me a chance to catch up on some taped episodes of MythBusters in the middle of the night.

Sunday we got ready for my birthday party with the family, and I got some more painting done on the cabinet. The family arrived and while it was a bit chaotic, I had fun with all my nieces & nephews. We enjoyed some excellent chili & cornbread, played in the basement, and got some more good birthday loot. After the house cleared out and we cleaned up, it was nice evening, the end of a good birthday and a good weekend.

The TV Cabinet Takes Shape...

2009-02-16T19:43:00.002-06:00

What started as three 4' by 8' sheets of plywood and some assorted lengths of solid maple is starting to look like a real piece of furniture.

Wednesday night Dad and I picked up the supplies so we could start right away on Sunday morning.

8 am we started ripping down plywood and laying out the cabinet. Add some nails, glue, and biscuit joints and we started to have shelves. With help of a drill jig we also made plenty of holes for shelf pins for the adjustable shelves. Thanks to Dad, I think it came together much nicer (and faster) than if I had done it myself. It's nice to be able to work with someone who's built cabinets for years, with a complete arsenal of tools and in a heated garage in the middle of winter.

By 6pm we had everything done except the doors (which will get done later) and had it loaded up in the truck to go to our house. Now it's sitting in our laundry room ready for some paint. While it's a shame to cover up such a nice wood grain, since everything else in our family room is white we'll be painting the new cabinet to match.

I have to say I learned quite a bit, and I'm proud to see my design come to life. Now I just have to paint it and set it up in our basement. Expect another update and pictures when it's done.

My Foray Into Furniture Design

2009-02-08T20:18:00.001-06:00

Since moving into our house, we've wanted a better TV cabinet for our family room. For the time being we're actually using one I built in junior high wood shop. While I'm rather proud of the piece, it doesn't exactly suit our family room nor the way we want to use it. The TV it holds now is bigger than what used to sit on it, and its placement in the room isn't exactly normal.

Because of the size & shape of our family room, the best place for our TV cabinet is somewhat in the middle of the room, leaving the back of the TV visible to half of the room. With the back of the cabinet exposed, we wanted to accomplish two things: conceal the unsightly cables and keep them away from little hands, and create some storage space accessible from the back of the cabinet.

Enter Google Sketchup. This free program from Google has been a useful tool for some of my other small projects, and provided a fun way to design our cabinet. The design shown here is the basic concept. I plan to include some doors on the front, and a panel to conceal the wires on the back.

While I've managed to stock my garage with enough tools to get by on small projects, I haven't really built anything large since our current TV cabinet. This is where it comes in handy to have a Dad with years of experience building cabinetry and a high quality table saw in his garage. At this point with the design laid out, Dad and I will be getting together to buy some materials and start building this thing! Let's hope it all goes well.

Quick & Easy Foot Switch

2009-02-02T19:08:00.000-06:00

So this all started with a floor lamp we bought from IKEA, with a handy foot switch built into the cord. The convenience of just stepping on a foot switch to turn on a lamp is really quite nice, and I've found more opportunities to do this elsewhere in the house.

During one of my many trips to Home Depot, I stumbled on the exact same foot switch I had seen on the IKEA lamp, in the lighting section, hidden in with the lamp parts. For just under $6.00 I had the foot switch, and for another $1.00 I had an extension cord to wire it into. Simply cut one strand of the two-wire extension cord and strip the ends back about half an inch. After twisting the ends, the exposed wire inserts into the switch. Once this is complete, press the wires into place and re-assemble the switch.

This worked particularly well for my office. I have a couple lamps on my desk, and turning them both on would be a bit difficult the way the switches hang off the back of the desk. So, I plugged both lamps into the end of the modified extension cord, and I can turn them both on and off by stepping on the foot switch under my desk.

So... not the most difficult house project, but a very nice convenience.

Back to Blog!?

2009-01-31T15:35:00.000-06:00

It's hard to know how or where to start, so let's just say I'm giving this blogging thing another try. Many years ago I kept up a blog when I spent a summer working for NASA, and I felt I had a lot of cool stories to share. However, as life moved on I let the blog slip and fade away.

Later on as I learned more about web development and enjoyed working with PHP and MySQL, I had fun building my own blogging system on my website. While this was a fun project to build, it also seemed like a lot of work to maintain and update the system... database work, code changes, etc. Once my "project" was done, the postings slowly dropped off.

So, admittedly I have an on-again/off-again relationship with blogging.

Now as my life progresses forward I see my friends and family keeping blogs and posting content online. I'm seeing the historical and sentimental advantages of this whole thing. My wife enjoys going back in the archives of her old blog and reminiscing on the past. I enjoy keeping up with what's going on with my family & friends through their blogs and even facebook postings.

So here I am on Blogger. The way I see it, using this well-established blogging platform, I don't have to think about uploading photos to my web host, potential bugs in my code, or how 'stuck' I might be in my design/layout. I think with all that extra mental weight off my back, I can focus on sharing a post with the world from time to time.