Should I just pick this up like I never dropped it?
Last weekend the following things happened:
-UT beat Iowa State (yay)
-A&M beat Alabama (????)
-I spent 3 hours washing my car and I'm still not done
-Scream-a-thon
The football games were football. That's that. As far as washing my car, I decided that I wanted to take the time and really clean my car. That means bonding with it and hand-washing it myself, versus paying $8 at a car wash. It had been a long while since my car had been washed, so it had a pretty solid layer of grime. I pre-rinsed it and then worked a section at a time, soaping and rinsing. All-throughout, I was keeping the whole car wet because our water is pretty hard and it would start leaving water spots. Well, all of this went fairly smoothly until I went to go dry it. It turns out cheaping out on some terry towels at AutoZone was a bad idea; the towels had zero absorbing qualities. That was both annoying and tedious, going over the same spots of the car over and over again, spreading the water around with the cheap towels because it wasn't actually absorbing water (well, technically it was but it was all but useless).
Once dried, I worked a clay bar for the first time. You use a spray to lubricate the paint, and then take a clay bar (literally a bar of clay) and rub it across your paint. It pulls up various specks and other contaminants that you missed during washing to really smooth out your paint. That helps for the next step, waxing. A friend at work gave me an old spray bottle of some wax he thought I should try. It was fairly easy to use — just spray and wipe. I almost finished Windexing my windows before I had to stop for Scream-a-thon. Today I will wrap up cleaning the windows, vacuuming the inside, and tidying up my rims. If I was a true car-washing enthusiast I would have polished and sealed as well, but considering this already took 3 hours, it was enough for me.
Scream-a-thon was basically an 8 hour adventure where we watched all four Scream movies back-to-back. It was both enjoyable and tedious. The middle Scream movies aren't as good at the first and most recent, so it was a slight lull in the middle for me. The fourth one is the best in my opinion so it was a good way to wrap up.
Showing posts with label my life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label my life. Show all posts
Monday, November 12, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
home ownership weekend
On Thursday night, we had our brand new dishwasher delivered to us. They had called me earlier in the day (around 1:30PM) saying they were ahead of schedule, and they could deliver it then. Well, obviously I'm at work so that wouldn't work. The scheduled delivery time was 5-7pm. Fast-forward to 9:30PM, they finally deliver the dishwasher. Fantastic.
I've been wanting to take pictures of my projects around the house to share the knowledge, but unfortunately it's hard to take on a project and focus on taking pictures, because it will take even longer. Luckily, installing a dishwasher is rather easy. A dishwasher is almost equivalent to a washer with respect to installation. The main difference is that you have to fit it into a sometimes tight space, so you have to adjust the legs and do some shoving, like in our case. Here's a quick summary of what you do:
-You screw on a water line that goes from your hot water valve (under the kitchen faucet) and run it through the dishwasher opening (so it's accessible when you slide dishwasher into place)
-Attach drain line to garbage disposal, and also run that through opening for later installation
-Pull out electrical line (assuming your DW is hard-wired), just like above, so it's accessible once DW is in place
-Adjust DW legs so it can fit through the opening in your counter top and slide it into place (being careful not to snag any of the lines that you pulled out and need to install).
-Wire up electricity (MAKE SURE YOUR BREAKER IS OFF!!)
-Screw in hot water line to DW
-Clamp drain line to DW
-Using a level, adjust the legs so that your DW is level both vertically and horizontally
-The last step is to secure the DW to the countertop. DW are usually secured in place (so they don't move around or topple) with two brackets that screw from the top of the DW to the bottom of the countertop. Attach those and you're done!
-Reapply power and give 'er a whirl. If you're lucky like us, it'll work perfectly.
Later that night (or maybe it was Friday), Taylor was having some weird quirkiness with her garage door. She told me something looks like it snapped. I go out there, and sure enough, the extension spring on one side of the garage door snapped. Most garages I've seen have two extension springs — one on each side — that are attached via a pulley to the garage door. Garage doors are heavy, and the springs help counteract the heavy weight of the doors, whether you're opening them manually or a motor is doing the work. Each spring needs to be matched with the weight of the door. For example, if your door weighs ~100 lbs like ours, you need a 100 lb extension spring on each side.
After some research, inspection, and trial and error, I ended up replacing both springs. If one went, it was probably only a matter of time before the other one broke, too. Also, they lose their springiness over time and they probably would have had uneven tensions.
It looks complicated, but it's pretty easy once you figure it out. The spring attaches to a pulley on one side (the side closer to the door) and a mounted bracket. The pulley is connected to a pulley system that attaches to the bottom of the door. As the door lowers, the line pulls down, which in turn pulls the pulley and the spring. As the spring gets extended, it exerts more tension and helps counteract the weight of the garage door. I know that didn't make any sense, but that's okay. You probably won't be replacing one of these anytime soon. There is one more line that goes from the bracket, through the spring, and attaches anywhere on the other side. This is a safety line, and it doesn't do anything except go through the spring. Imagine for a second the power of a string that can pull 100 lbs of weight. It's pretty damn strong. Now imagine if that spring is fully extended by the garage door and is completely taut. Finally, imagine it snaps. They aren't joking when they say these things can cause serious injury or death. If that thing breaks and flies at you, you're going to have a bad time. The safety line is there to hold the spring in place in case it snaps, like it did in our garage. It's important you have one and that it's installed securely.
This whole process took me a while (figuring out what to do, and a few trips to Lowes to get the right parts), but in the end it's pretty easy. It probably saved me a couple hundred or more in parts and labor to have a pro come do it. The power of DIY.
I've been wanting to take pictures of my projects around the house to share the knowledge, but unfortunately it's hard to take on a project and focus on taking pictures, because it will take even longer. Luckily, installing a dishwasher is rather easy. A dishwasher is almost equivalent to a washer with respect to installation. The main difference is that you have to fit it into a sometimes tight space, so you have to adjust the legs and do some shoving, like in our case. Here's a quick summary of what you do:
-You screw on a water line that goes from your hot water valve (under the kitchen faucet) and run it through the dishwasher opening (so it's accessible when you slide dishwasher into place)
-Attach drain line to garbage disposal, and also run that through opening for later installation
-Pull out electrical line (assuming your DW is hard-wired), just like above, so it's accessible once DW is in place
-Adjust DW legs so it can fit through the opening in your counter top and slide it into place (being careful not to snag any of the lines that you pulled out and need to install).
-Wire up electricity (MAKE SURE YOUR BREAKER IS OFF!!)
-Screw in hot water line to DW
-Clamp drain line to DW
-Using a level, adjust the legs so that your DW is level both vertically and horizontally
-The last step is to secure the DW to the countertop. DW are usually secured in place (so they don't move around or topple) with two brackets that screw from the top of the DW to the bottom of the countertop. Attach those and you're done!
-Reapply power and give 'er a whirl. If you're lucky like us, it'll work perfectly.
Later that night (or maybe it was Friday), Taylor was having some weird quirkiness with her garage door. She told me something looks like it snapped. I go out there, and sure enough, the extension spring on one side of the garage door snapped. Most garages I've seen have two extension springs — one on each side — that are attached via a pulley to the garage door. Garage doors are heavy, and the springs help counteract the heavy weight of the doors, whether you're opening them manually or a motor is doing the work. Each spring needs to be matched with the weight of the door. For example, if your door weighs ~100 lbs like ours, you need a 100 lb extension spring on each side.
After some research, inspection, and trial and error, I ended up replacing both springs. If one went, it was probably only a matter of time before the other one broke, too. Also, they lose their springiness over time and they probably would have had uneven tensions.
It looks complicated, but it's pretty easy once you figure it out. The spring attaches to a pulley on one side (the side closer to the door) and a mounted bracket. The pulley is connected to a pulley system that attaches to the bottom of the door. As the door lowers, the line pulls down, which in turn pulls the pulley and the spring. As the spring gets extended, it exerts more tension and helps counteract the weight of the garage door. I know that didn't make any sense, but that's okay. You probably won't be replacing one of these anytime soon. There is one more line that goes from the bracket, through the spring, and attaches anywhere on the other side. This is a safety line, and it doesn't do anything except go through the spring. Imagine for a second the power of a string that can pull 100 lbs of weight. It's pretty damn strong. Now imagine if that spring is fully extended by the garage door and is completely taut. Finally, imagine it snaps. They aren't joking when they say these things can cause serious injury or death. If that thing breaks and flies at you, you're going to have a bad time. The safety line is there to hold the spring in place in case it snaps, like it did in our garage. It's important you have one and that it's installed securely.
This whole process took me a while (figuring out what to do, and a few trips to Lowes to get the right parts), but in the end it's pretty easy. It probably saved me a couple hundred or more in parts and labor to have a pro come do it. The power of DIY.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
dining room project - stage 3... painting
Last weekend, I did some painting while Taylor was at work. If you've been keeping up (and why wouldn't you be?), you'll know I've had two stages of work done so far in the dining room: checking for asbestos (easy stage!), and redoing the ceiling. Now that the ceiling has been retextured and repainted, it's time to do the walls.
We decided on keeping the whole accent wall thing, and doing a burnt orange-ish accent wall with the remaining walls being off-white. We went with a rust color, which is a darker burnt orange color. Burnt orange itself would be really bright on a wall, so we went with something a bit darker.
Also, we decided to try out a local store called Rooster's, which sells Benjamin-Moore paints. I have to say, these guys were very knowledgeable and eager to help us out. They gave me some good tips to try out this time around. Their paints are a bit more expensive than Home Depot or Lowes paint (I got a step down from their highest grade, at $49 a gallon), but they have great coverage and in general good quality. They're also all low-VOC (less fumes). I could tell the difference once I started rolling the paint. One of the tips the guy gave me was to try painting from a 5 gallon bucket instead of a pan. It was definitely easier.
Previously before painting, I would spend a lot of time masking off the room to prevent accidents. Well, I decided that I could get away without doing that for the dining room. Not having to mask saved me an hour or so, because it can be quite tedious. Instead, I opted to be a bit slower and more careful around the edges. I did spend a couple hours cleaning the walls with TSP to make sure they were in good, painting condition, however. I also invested in a nice canvas, waterproof cloth that I could easily spread out to all the baseboards (and reuse). I did my best to make sure the floor was covered, but I didn't actually secure or tape the cloth. It naturally stayed in position (for the most part!). I like the canvas cloth because a plastic drop cloth is susceptible to tearing, bunching, and doesn't absorb paint so you end up tracking it around on your shoes.
Before I painted, with the canvas laid out
(remember you can click any picture for a larger version)
I did all the off-white walls first (first cutting in with the edge tool, then paint rolling), and it turns out I didn't need to do a second coat like I had anticipated. After drying, they all looked pretty good and consistent. I attribute this to a) the nicer paint and b) repainting over a light color.
Corner shot (ceiling: new color; right wall: new color; left wall: old color)
Once done, I repeated the same thing with the accent wall. I thought I would be okay with one coat again, but after letting it dry some I noticed some patchiness. Oh well! I called it a day and opted to do the second coat the following day (I try to wait 4 hours before recoating). I did have some 'accidents' on the ceiling and side wall with the rust paint. With a damp paper towel, I was able to easily wipe off the boo-boo. The baseboards got a little messy, too, but I'm planning on repainting them to match the eventual crown molding.
Corner shot (all new colors!)
Accent wall, still wet, coat 1
Room after second coat and cleanup
Different angle, for fun
Corner shot so you can see the three colors better
Good news! We also scored some dining room furniture. Here is the dining room with some furniture...
This is the 'before' shot from the old residents. Old paint, old light fixture.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
break over :(
If you're an avid blog follower, you know that I typically (practically exclusively) update my blog at work. Since I've been off for a while, and before that was kind of busy, you surely have noticed that it's been a hell of a long time since I updated my blog. For that, I apologize.
I wanted to take some pics of some of the stuff I've been doing around the house and post it on here for informational/educational reasons, but I have been bad about that too. It's not too late, though. I still have work to do!
My next upcoming project will be to "redo" the dining room. They did a poor job painting the dining room accent wall, and the color choices are questionable at best (the walls AND ceiling are like a salmon color... gross). Who paints popcorn ceiling? Ugh. Either way, I decided I'm going to take this opportunity to attempt to remove the popcorn ceiling and re-texturize it (knockdown texture), and then repaint the walls. Maybe even apply some new crown molding if I'm feeling up to it. I'll be sure to document this one, because it'll be a doozie.
My holidays were good. I spent some time with family, some time with friends, and a night in the hot tub. No complaints, really. Too bad it's over. Had to end sometime, right?
I wanted to take some pics of some of the stuff I've been doing around the house and post it on here for informational/educational reasons, but I have been bad about that too. It's not too late, though. I still have work to do!
My next upcoming project will be to "redo" the dining room. They did a poor job painting the dining room accent wall, and the color choices are questionable at best (the walls AND ceiling are like a salmon color... gross). Who paints popcorn ceiling? Ugh. Either way, I decided I'm going to take this opportunity to attempt to remove the popcorn ceiling and re-texturize it (knockdown texture), and then repaint the walls. Maybe even apply some new crown molding if I'm feeling up to it. I'll be sure to document this one, because it'll be a doozie.
My holidays were good. I spent some time with family, some time with friends, and a night in the hot tub. No complaints, really. Too bad it's over. Had to end sometime, right?
Monday, December 12, 2011
moving/dad week[end]
I spent most of this weekend moving in and setting up my living quarters. I'm still missing crucial pieces of furniture, like everything in the living room, but luckily Travis's futon was available for sitting needs.
It's kind of a strange feeling being in a house and realizing that you own it. It's nice, too.
My dad was in town for an extended weekend, so with his help we took care of a few things around the house, like replacing outlets and light switches. No, the outlets weren't bad, but the previous owners painted over them completely when painting the house. This gave the outlets and switches a gross painted/crusty look. They were sorely needed in the two rooms we painted, because the outlets would be the absolute wrong color. I went ahead and bought enough to replace all the painted ones in the house, though, since they're relatively cheap.
We did some house shopping, too, and he gifted me a nice gas grill. It's burnt orange.
On Saturday night, we had our traditional "get everyone together for dinner at Benihana when my dad is in town" dinner. The only problem was that Benihana closed (how?!). Luckily, there is a Benihana-alike right down Anderson Mill called Kobe. It turned out to be more than satisfactory for us, as we were all able to get more or less what we usually do. Went back to the house and gave a quick tour to new people.
My dad stayed through Thursday morning, but sadly I had to work this week. I was able to leave a little early on most days, but he had to keep his time in various ways.
On Sunday and Tuesday I spent a couple hours or so studying for a final exam in one of my work-sponsored graduate classes. The professor is not good, so we don't typically pay attention during the lectures (whoops). I spent those two hours+ each day rewatching lectures at 1.8x speed (nice). Final exam was on Wednesday and I think I did alright, but not great. His testing style is questionable at best, giving us curve ball questions that don't really make sense. Oh well.
I really need to get some living room furniture.
It's kind of a strange feeling being in a house and realizing that you own it. It's nice, too.
My dad was in town for an extended weekend, so with his help we took care of a few things around the house, like replacing outlets and light switches. No, the outlets weren't bad, but the previous owners painted over them completely when painting the house. This gave the outlets and switches a gross painted/crusty look. They were sorely needed in the two rooms we painted, because the outlets would be the absolute wrong color. I went ahead and bought enough to replace all the painted ones in the house, though, since they're relatively cheap.
We did some house shopping, too, and he gifted me a nice gas grill. It's burnt orange.
On Saturday night, we had our traditional "get everyone together for dinner at Benihana when my dad is in town" dinner. The only problem was that Benihana closed (how?!). Luckily, there is a Benihana-alike right down Anderson Mill called Kobe. It turned out to be more than satisfactory for us, as we were all able to get more or less what we usually do. Went back to the house and gave a quick tour to new people.
My dad stayed through Thursday morning, but sadly I had to work this week. I was able to leave a little early on most days, but he had to keep his time in various ways.
On Sunday and Tuesday I spent a couple hours or so studying for a final exam in one of my work-sponsored graduate classes. The professor is not good, so we don't typically pay attention during the lectures (whoops). I spent those two hours+ each day rewatching lectures at 1.8x speed (nice). Final exam was on Wednesday and I think I did alright, but not great. His testing style is questionable at best, giving us curve ball questions that don't really make sense. Oh well.
I really need to get some living room furniture.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Bam - homeowner!
Hey, I'm a home owner now. Weird, huh?
I can't move in until December 2, because the old owners are leasing the house back from me for today and tomorrow. This weekend I'll hopefully start painting and moving some stuff.
I hope to be moved in sooner rather than later, for obvious reasons. It's my first house, after all. It should come as no surprise that the first purchase I made for the house was a TV for the living room. That might be more exciting than the house itself. Nah, just kidding.
Here are some projects that I need to take on (not necessarily anytime soon):
-Repaint a couple rooms (asap)
-Run ethernet cables through walls
-Eventually remove wood paneling (we are going to paint it preliminarily)
-Restain deck
-New fancy kitchen faucet?
Still trying to figure out how we're going to furnish the living room, but Ikea has a cool modular entertainment center.
I'll take pics of the empty house once I can.
I can't move in until December 2, because the old owners are leasing the house back from me for today and tomorrow. This weekend I'll hopefully start painting and moving some stuff.
I hope to be moved in sooner rather than later, for obvious reasons. It's my first house, after all. It should come as no surprise that the first purchase I made for the house was a TV for the living room. That might be more exciting than the house itself. Nah, just kidding.
Here are some projects that I need to take on (not necessarily anytime soon):
-Repaint a couple rooms (asap)
-Run ethernet cables through walls
-Eventually remove wood paneling (we are going to paint it preliminarily)
-Restain deck
-New fancy kitchen faucet?
Still trying to figure out how we're going to furnish the living room, but Ikea has a cool modular entertainment center.
I'll take pics of the empty house once I can.
Monday, November 14, 2011
15 days
15 days until the closing date of our house. Our appraisal came back today and everything is good on that front, so I think that means we're essentially set. That was the last variable as far as I know that would have hindered a smooth close. Now the credit union just needs to put everything together and do what they need to do. Given that, I've officially given my 60 days notice to Justin.
I'll want to move in as soon as possible, since you know, it'll be my brand new house. On the other hand, we really should paint and stuff. How do I balance?! That reminds me, I need to call the utility companies.
In other news, Taylor showed me this cool shirt and I bought it:
http://www.threadless.com/product/3333/Live_Music_Capital/tab,guys/style,shirt
I'll want to move in as soon as possible, since you know, it'll be my brand new house. On the other hand, we really should paint and stuff. How do I balance?! That reminds me, I need to call the utility companies.
In other news, Taylor showed me this cool shirt and I bought it:
http://www.threadless.com/product/3333/Live_Music_Capital/tab,guys/style,shirt
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
countdown to close - 20 days
20 days until my scheduled closing date. As you can imagine, I'm pretty excited so this is really drawing out my days. You know how your day feels longer when you are anxiously awaiting something that night? That's how the last week felt, and the next three will probably feel.
The last variable left is the appraisal which should be in at the end of this week or the beginning of next week. Assuming everything is good there, I'll be set to go.
What will we need to do when we get the keys? Nothing needs to be done, but we want to repaint any necessary rooms. We're not totally keen on a couple of the room colors, so we'll probably do that first. Also one room as wood paneling which I'd like to remove, but other people have told me they'd just leave it. Maybe that'd be easier?
I'd also like to run Ethernet drops to the rooms. Why? Because I'm a nerd, mostly. But more seriously, I'm sure most of you can attest to the numerous problems you run into when dealing with wireless internet. Random cutouts, having to power cycle the router, random speed drops, etc. I want to run ethernet drops to each room so you can just plug in your PC and go. No need for random wireless problems. Wireless is good for laptops, phones, tablets. Running desktops off of wireless is just asking for problems. Who's with me?!
Speaking of problems, the "Great Desk Soak of 2011" ended without much issue. Like I said before, I noticed some speaker problems and it still seems a bit messed up. It turns on and off, but the volume knob doesn't work most of the time. It stays at one volume regardless of what the knob is set at. Maybe I can take it apart and try to fix that. Otherwise I'll just learn to deal for now.
The last variable left is the appraisal which should be in at the end of this week or the beginning of next week. Assuming everything is good there, I'll be set to go.
What will we need to do when we get the keys? Nothing needs to be done, but we want to repaint any necessary rooms. We're not totally keen on a couple of the room colors, so we'll probably do that first. Also one room as wood paneling which I'd like to remove, but other people have told me they'd just leave it. Maybe that'd be easier?
I'd also like to run Ethernet drops to the rooms. Why? Because I'm a nerd, mostly. But more seriously, I'm sure most of you can attest to the numerous problems you run into when dealing with wireless internet. Random cutouts, having to power cycle the router, random speed drops, etc. I want to run ethernet drops to each room so you can just plug in your PC and go. No need for random wireless problems. Wireless is good for laptops, phones, tablets. Running desktops off of wireless is just asking for problems. Who's with me?!
Speaking of problems, the "Great Desk Soak of 2011" ended without much issue. Like I said before, I noticed some speaker problems and it still seems a bit messed up. It turns on and off, but the volume knob doesn't work most of the time. It stays at one volume regardless of what the knob is set at. Maybe I can take it apart and try to fix that. Otherwise I'll just learn to deal for now.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
whoopsies
I drink a lot of water. Yesterday, this bit me in the ass. I had a full, 32 oz cup of water sitting on my desk. One careless movement and BAM —now there is water all over everything. My desk was soaked in water, which got over my speakers, my wireless USB adapter, and even my computer. I turned off my computer as fast as I could, and then started toweling off all that water.
I'm going to go home tonight and run a hair dryer over everything to dry up and remaining water, but I think I already had my first casualty this morning. My speakers have a separate unit to control volume, treble, bass, and power. It didn't really get that wet, but it did splashed some. I dried it off with a towel but apparently not good enough. I powered it off last night with the power button, and when I woke up this morning it was on again. Uh oh. I tried to power it off and the button is unresponsive. The volume knob works, but it also seems to flicker around and do some weird stuff. Since my computer was off, I couldn't actually test to see if it worked. I'm assuming there is some permanent damage, but maybe it's still usable.
Hopefully I get luckier with my computer.
I'm going to go home tonight and run a hair dryer over everything to dry up and remaining water, but I think I already had my first casualty this morning. My speakers have a separate unit to control volume, treble, bass, and power. It didn't really get that wet, but it did splashed some. I dried it off with a towel but apparently not good enough. I powered it off last night with the power button, and when I woke up this morning it was on again. Uh oh. I tried to power it off and the button is unresponsive. The volume knob works, but it also seems to flicker around and do some weird stuff. Since my computer was off, I couldn't actually test to see if it worked. I'm assuming there is some permanent damage, but maybe it's still usable.
Hopefully I get luckier with my computer.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
times are a changin'
It's been almost a month since I've updated — sorry about that! I went ahead and updated my blog template because I was getting tired of the old look. Also, most of all that side matter wasn't important and no one cared about. I "cleaned" it up. I couldn't decide on the background photo, so this will have to do for now. Maybe I'll find a better one to replace it in the future. It's just some stock photograph that Blogger will let you use.
Actually, it turns out that Google has made some changes to some of its services, too. It updated the look of Google Reader and Gmail. Gmail I don't care much about, but the changes to Google Reader impacts how I shared my links on the right. I can't do it anymore! So unfortunately, for now, those links on the right will be stagnant until I can figure out how to do it the new way. Why kid myself, they were already pretty stagnant to begin with.
Last week, I flew to Georgia to do some training with our customer. Without going into any detail, I'll just say it went really well and we received a lot of praise from them and our management as well. Sweet.
Oh, and I guess I have some big news. Taylor and I are in the process of buying a house. The offer was accepted last weekend, and we're in the contract and mortgage approval process right now. I'll post up some pictures once everything is a done deal, but until then I'm still waiting for something to blow up in my face. Always better to be mentally prepared for disaster and stress, right?
Actually, it turns out that Google has made some changes to some of its services, too. It updated the look of Google Reader and Gmail. Gmail I don't care much about, but the changes to Google Reader impacts how I shared my links on the right. I can't do it anymore! So unfortunately, for now, those links on the right will be stagnant until I can figure out how to do it the new way. Why kid myself, they were already pretty stagnant to begin with.
Last week, I flew to Georgia to do some training with our customer. Without going into any detail, I'll just say it went really well and we received a lot of praise from them and our management as well. Sweet.
Oh, and I guess I have some big news. Taylor and I are in the process of buying a house. The offer was accepted last weekend, and we're in the contract and mortgage approval process right now. I'll post up some pictures once everything is a done deal, but until then I'm still waiting for something to blow up in my face. Always better to be mentally prepared for disaster and stress, right?
Sunday, September 25, 2011
man oh man
It's been pretty slow for a while, hasn't it?
That's my fault, or rather, work's fault. It's been so busy the last few weeks while we try to meet deadlines and milestones. The week before last I logged an almost 60 hour week, which wears on you quickly. But enough about work, what else has been going on?
Last weekend was ACL weekend, and leading up to the weekend, my excitement was minimal. In my opinion, the bands they booked were weaker than the last few years, which is pathetic because it was the "celebrated" 10th year anniversary of the festival. Well, it didn't seem like they pulled out all the stops here. The two "biggest" (in my opinion) headliners — Coldplay and Kanye West — were both given the lower, Friday timeslots. Stevie Wonder closed Saturday (meh), and Arcade Fire closed the entire festival on Sunday (even more meh). In fact, the highlights of the weekend weren't even really related to the festival. Taylor and I bought some new bikes, using the festival as an excuse to finally replace my old, stolen bike. We got the whole shabang: bikes, helmets, lights (you need them to ride at night, legally), and a car rack. We mounted them on her SUV, parked at Mark's (or around), and biked down a trail about 15-20 blocks to the park. Last year, I rode my motorcycle which got me pretty close to the entrance at motorcycle parking. The bikes have it the best, though, because the racks are right at the entrance.
The other highlight of the weekend was the rain. Apparently it wasn't as widespread as I thought, but it rained all three days at Zilker. On Friday and Saturday, there were even some heavier downpours. I almost started getting worried that we were going to have another mud bowl because of the rain, but luckily the ground was so dry that all of it soaked up pretty well.
This weekend has been good. On Friday night, we went to a high school football game featuring the Cedar Park Timberwolves against the Vandergrift Vipers. It turned out to be a great football game. We were rooting for the Timberwolves, who got down 13-0 early. They rallied and scored three unanswered touchdowns, giving them a 21-13 lead. In the fourth quarter, the Timberwolves' quarterback threw a nice pass to a wide open receiver, who had a clear shot into the endzone to ice the game. Sadly, he fumbled it right before the endzone and the Vipers recovered in for a touchback. The Vipers marched down the field and scored a touchdown, bringing them to within two. They had to go for the two point conversion, which they got on a magic heave. The quarterback was getting major pressure, and basically just heaved it in the general direction of a receiver. The receiver jumped way up, and while falling backwards, raised one hand to tip it into his chest as he fell down on his back. It was damn ridiculous. The game went into overtime (college rules, they each get an opportunity from the 25 yard line), and the Vipers scored on their very first drive to give them the advantage. The Timberwolves looked uneasy and faltered on their first couple downs, but managed to sneak in a touchdown. This is it: you can either kick the PAT and tie, which is the safe choice, or go for the two point conversion and end the game right there. What would you do? Most people say go with the safe bet. Not the Timberwolves, they could taste victory. They went for two, and wouldn't you know it, they got it. Great ending to a great game.
Saturday was spent running some errands, and then making a pasta bake dinner. Today was a pretty productive day for me. I did some reading, finished all my laundry, went to the grocery store, made a potato salad recipe (average outcome), and watched a ton of football. And it's only 6pm! There's still more football to watch.
Hopefully, now that things have calmed down a bit at work, I can ramp up my blog again. Take it easy!
That's my fault, or rather, work's fault. It's been so busy the last few weeks while we try to meet deadlines and milestones. The week before last I logged an almost 60 hour week, which wears on you quickly. But enough about work, what else has been going on?
Last weekend was ACL weekend, and leading up to the weekend, my excitement was minimal. In my opinion, the bands they booked were weaker than the last few years, which is pathetic because it was the "celebrated" 10th year anniversary of the festival. Well, it didn't seem like they pulled out all the stops here. The two "biggest" (in my opinion) headliners — Coldplay and Kanye West — were both given the lower, Friday timeslots. Stevie Wonder closed Saturday (meh), and Arcade Fire closed the entire festival on Sunday (even more meh). In fact, the highlights of the weekend weren't even really related to the festival. Taylor and I bought some new bikes, using the festival as an excuse to finally replace my old, stolen bike. We got the whole shabang: bikes, helmets, lights (you need them to ride at night, legally), and a car rack. We mounted them on her SUV, parked at Mark's (or around), and biked down a trail about 15-20 blocks to the park. Last year, I rode my motorcycle which got me pretty close to the entrance at motorcycle parking. The bikes have it the best, though, because the racks are right at the entrance.
The other highlight of the weekend was the rain. Apparently it wasn't as widespread as I thought, but it rained all three days at Zilker. On Friday and Saturday, there were even some heavier downpours. I almost started getting worried that we were going to have another mud bowl because of the rain, but luckily the ground was so dry that all of it soaked up pretty well.
This weekend has been good. On Friday night, we went to a high school football game featuring the Cedar Park Timberwolves against the Vandergrift Vipers. It turned out to be a great football game. We were rooting for the Timberwolves, who got down 13-0 early. They rallied and scored three unanswered touchdowns, giving them a 21-13 lead. In the fourth quarter, the Timberwolves' quarterback threw a nice pass to a wide open receiver, who had a clear shot into the endzone to ice the game. Sadly, he fumbled it right before the endzone and the Vipers recovered in for a touchback. The Vipers marched down the field and scored a touchdown, bringing them to within two. They had to go for the two point conversion, which they got on a magic heave. The quarterback was getting major pressure, and basically just heaved it in the general direction of a receiver. The receiver jumped way up, and while falling backwards, raised one hand to tip it into his chest as he fell down on his back. It was damn ridiculous. The game went into overtime (college rules, they each get an opportunity from the 25 yard line), and the Vipers scored on their very first drive to give them the advantage. The Timberwolves looked uneasy and faltered on their first couple downs, but managed to sneak in a touchdown. This is it: you can either kick the PAT and tie, which is the safe choice, or go for the two point conversion and end the game right there. What would you do? Most people say go with the safe bet. Not the Timberwolves, they could taste victory. They went for two, and wouldn't you know it, they got it. Great ending to a great game.
Saturday was spent running some errands, and then making a pasta bake dinner. Today was a pretty productive day for me. I did some reading, finished all my laundry, went to the grocery store, made a potato salad recipe (average outcome), and watched a ton of football. And it's only 6pm! There's still more football to watch.
Hopefully, now that things have calmed down a bit at work, I can ramp up my blog again. Take it easy!
Thursday, September 8, 2011
SO BUSY
I laugh to think that I was busy at work before. Now we are busy. I'll probably have to work a lot this weekend, and there's also a chance I have to fly out to Jacksonville, FL for a couple days early next week for work. Unfortunately, if I have to do that, I still don't get any reprieve on all the other stuff I have to do. So that would just delay me by 2 days.
At least I started off this week with an enjoyable 4 day weekend. I think when the next 2 or 3 weeks are up, I'll have to take another long weekend to wind down.
At least I started off this week with an enjoyable 4 day weekend. I think when the next 2 or 3 weeks are up, I'll have to take another long weekend to wind down.
Monday, August 29, 2011
stl and atx
Two weekends ago, I went to visit my family in St. Louis. My dad flew from Florida and I met up with them all. Thursday night I got in, unpacked and situated. Friday around noon we headed out for a two hour drive across state boundaries into Illinois. Family got a cottage along Lake Carlyle for the group of us. The cottage was kind of trashy, but nothing horrible. It felt like staying at a motel 6 along the lake, but since it's on the lake you can't really complain. There were about 7 of us staying in a place that barely accommodates 4, but us Habibi's make it happen. It consisted of me, my dad, my uncle Mehdi, my aunt Patty, their two children Brooks and Shaudi, and Brooks's two children Aaliyah and Aiden. I guess that's 8 of us, awesome.
It took a while for the rest of the family to join us on Friday, so I did a fair amount of reading and finished book two of the Dark Tower series. Saturday and Sunday was spent out on the lake. There was a lot of tubing and a tiny bit of water skiing. I tubed a couple times and it was pretty fun because he was taking sharp turns in the boat trying to make us fly off. I tried twice to water ski, but I had trouble getting up on the skis. I actually got up for a few seconds, but as soon as I started to straighten up I would lose my balance. Ah well, still fun to try.
We drove back Sunday, I packed up, and I left Monday morning. The following two weeks at work were crazy hectic.
I haven't been in the mood to write in my blog lately, just because I've been all over the place at work. For some reason I can't get myself in a great zone to write at home, which is why this blog entry mostly sucks. The flow is bad and there's no enthusiasm. I had a fun weekend in St. Louis but I probably didn't convey it well.
Oh well! Things should start chilling out at work this week. I'm still occasionally sharing stuff on the left hand side links, so don't forget to check those out sometime.
It took a while for the rest of the family to join us on Friday, so I did a fair amount of reading and finished book two of the Dark Tower series. Saturday and Sunday was spent out on the lake. There was a lot of tubing and a tiny bit of water skiing. I tubed a couple times and it was pretty fun because he was taking sharp turns in the boat trying to make us fly off. I tried twice to water ski, but I had trouble getting up on the skis. I actually got up for a few seconds, but as soon as I started to straighten up I would lose my balance. Ah well, still fun to try.
We drove back Sunday, I packed up, and I left Monday morning. The following two weeks at work were crazy hectic.
I haven't been in the mood to write in my blog lately, just because I've been all over the place at work. For some reason I can't get myself in a great zone to write at home, which is why this blog entry mostly sucks. The flow is bad and there's no enthusiasm. I had a fun weekend in St. Louis but I probably didn't convey it well.
Oh well! Things should start chilling out at work this week. I'm still occasionally sharing stuff on the left hand side links, so don't forget to check those out sometime.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
take a little trip...
Sorry it's been so long, I've been swamped at work with a plethora of things.
And that's still true, so this entry will be mostly useless. I am going on a trip to St. Louis today to visit with my dad, uncle, and aunt, as well as some cousins. I think we're going to be staying in a cabin for the weekend, but I really don't know too much.
The sucky part is that I think I am on the onset of a cold. Mold has been high for August and I haven't seemed to be suffering from allergies, but it's still possible that this is just a random allergy thing. Let's hope that's the case, because otherwise my timing for getting sick is at an all-time bad (last time I remember being sick was during my Vegas trip).
See you guys later. More updates later next week.
And that's still true, so this entry will be mostly useless. I am going on a trip to St. Louis today to visit with my dad, uncle, and aunt, as well as some cousins. I think we're going to be staying in a cabin for the weekend, but I really don't know too much.
The sucky part is that I think I am on the onset of a cold. Mold has been high for August and I haven't seemed to be suffering from allergies, but it's still possible that this is just a random allergy thing. Let's hope that's the case, because otherwise my timing for getting sick is at an all-time bad (last time I remember being sick was during my Vegas trip).
See you guys later. More updates later next week.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
why no updates?
I don't know why, but I haven't felt that there's been a lot to talk about.
The stuff happening in my life lately is just the daily stuff you'd expect: work, reading, sleeping, hanging out, music, etc.
So what all has happened in the last couple weeks since my last update? Well, I finished the Millennium series (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). Overall, I enjoyed it and I would probably recommend the series. The downside is that the series was not intended to be only three books, but ten. Sadly, the author died and they published the three manuscripts he had already finished posthumously. That means that, while some of the loose ends were tied up, there are many character nuances and other questions that will forever remain unanswered. Oh well, what can you do?
I'm starting a new book series - The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. I'm about 60-80 pages (can't remember) through the first book, which supposedly is the worst of the series (but by no stretch do I mean bad). That means that it's all uphill from this book forward, which is nice. I heard about this series because it was a recommended read and a noted influence from Damon Lindelof, one of the creators of Lost. Did you guys know I liked that show? Guess I'll read a book recommendation from them, 'cause why not. It's seven books in all, though the first and the last were separated by almost 30 years. I have the first four that I bought together as a pack on megasale from a closing Border's. I've been staring at them the last couple months wondering when I'd ever get to them. Guess that time is now.
Last weekend I went to Justin's first show (I think) with his new band, Brandon Wayne and the .357's. Unfortunately, I barely got to see Brandon Wayne and the .357's. The show opened with Brandon's brother, Ryan, much later than I was expecting, and he played for longer than I expected. Afterwards, Brandon went on to do some solo and duet work with his brother. Finally the full band started playing, but I was only able to stay for one song before we had to take off. I also played photographer again, and I'll post the few pictures I got once I go through editing them.
What else? The NFL lockout is over. As I write this, the Senate is voting on the debt-ceiling bill which should hopefully pass and go to the president to get signed into law. I think I'm going to see a pre-screening of The Change Up tonight, because Taylor won some us some passes.
In about 2.5 weeks, I'm taking a trip with my dad to St. Louis to see my aunt and uncle. I think our plan is to go camping for the weekend. Should be a good time. Following that, the next big thing that's upcoming would probably have to be ACL 2011, which I'm not really excited about. Not many bands that are my "style" this year, as it seems like it's heavy on the folk and country this year. I don't particularly mind either, and I could listen to them for a little bit. Unfortunately, with ACL you have to be prepared to stand outside in the heat and allergen-ridden air for three full days. Am I willing to do that for this year's setlist? It's still up in the air.
This weekend is Justin's birthday, don't forget to wish him a happy one. We're having a party at our house for the occasion.
I still haven't gone running in a while, how disappointing. It's just so hot... I'll get back into it soon.
The stuff happening in my life lately is just the daily stuff you'd expect: work, reading, sleeping, hanging out, music, etc.
So what all has happened in the last couple weeks since my last update? Well, I finished the Millennium series (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). Overall, I enjoyed it and I would probably recommend the series. The downside is that the series was not intended to be only three books, but ten. Sadly, the author died and they published the three manuscripts he had already finished posthumously. That means that, while some of the loose ends were tied up, there are many character nuances and other questions that will forever remain unanswered. Oh well, what can you do?
I'm starting a new book series - The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. I'm about 60-80 pages (can't remember) through the first book, which supposedly is the worst of the series (but by no stretch do I mean bad). That means that it's all uphill from this book forward, which is nice. I heard about this series because it was a recommended read and a noted influence from Damon Lindelof, one of the creators of Lost. Did you guys know I liked that show? Guess I'll read a book recommendation from them, 'cause why not. It's seven books in all, though the first and the last were separated by almost 30 years. I have the first four that I bought together as a pack on megasale from a closing Border's. I've been staring at them the last couple months wondering when I'd ever get to them. Guess that time is now.
Last weekend I went to Justin's first show (I think) with his new band, Brandon Wayne and the .357's. Unfortunately, I barely got to see Brandon Wayne and the .357's. The show opened with Brandon's brother, Ryan, much later than I was expecting, and he played for longer than I expected. Afterwards, Brandon went on to do some solo and duet work with his brother. Finally the full band started playing, but I was only able to stay for one song before we had to take off. I also played photographer again, and I'll post the few pictures I got once I go through editing them.
What else? The NFL lockout is over. As I write this, the Senate is voting on the debt-ceiling bill which should hopefully pass and go to the president to get signed into law. I think I'm going to see a pre-screening of The Change Up tonight, because Taylor won some us some passes.
In about 2.5 weeks, I'm taking a trip with my dad to St. Louis to see my aunt and uncle. I think our plan is to go camping for the weekend. Should be a good time. Following that, the next big thing that's upcoming would probably have to be ACL 2011, which I'm not really excited about. Not many bands that are my "style" this year, as it seems like it's heavy on the folk and country this year. I don't particularly mind either, and I could listen to them for a little bit. Unfortunately, with ACL you have to be prepared to stand outside in the heat and allergen-ridden air for three full days. Am I willing to do that for this year's setlist? It's still up in the air.
This weekend is Justin's birthday, don't forget to wish him a happy one. We're having a party at our house for the occasion.
I still haven't gone running in a while, how disappointing. It's just so hot... I'll get back into it soon.
Monday, July 18, 2011
the park bench refinishing adventure
On Wednesday or Thursday of last week, Taylor asked if I wanted a park bench. They had a couple sitting out front of the hotel that were old and ragged, so they decided to ditch them. Rather than throwing them away, I provided a home for them.
Coincidentally enough, I snagged myself an achievement award at work on Friday, which earned me a $25 Home Depot gift card. Perfect!
On Saturday, I went to Home Depot and got myself the following supplies:
After the wash, it was clear that it did clean off a lot of the mildewy mess on the top layer of the wood, but it didn't do as much restoring as I was hoping. I also tested the wood stain to see what it would look like if I didn't do any sanding. It didn't turn out too bad.
Despite the fact that the stain worked well without any prep sanding, I had to do it anyways. As you can tell from the picture, there was still chunks of finish that hadn't completely worn off along the edges. Also, not pictured is the backside where most of the finish is still intact. So I had to sand it all anyways, to get the old finish off both sides and even out everything. I took the bench apart at this point.
Sanding was pretty much the worst part. It took me a long time to sand everything. I started with a 60 grit to really work off the old finish. After that, I sanded again more quickly with 150 grit to smooth it all out a bit more.
Once done, I applied the stain with Taylor's help. We had the wood panels laying on a plastic tarp and applied the stain on the top side. What we didn't account for (lesson learned!) was that the stain was dripping down the sides and onto the bottom of the panels. By the time the top layer dried, we had some clumps on the bottom side that were also dried and stained. When we flipped the panels, we had discovered them too late. That caused our panels to be stained unevenly on the backs and sides. Oh well, it didn't look all that bad.
That was all on Saturday. On Sunday, I started with the legs. I did a preliminary sanding to get some of the crap off the legs like pieces of stuck bird crap and other various things. This also evened out the layer a bit, but not that much because I didn't try hard enough. After sanding, I soaped and washed the legs to make sure they were as clean as possible for the primer coat. Lesson learned #2: don't get rust colored primer. I don't know why they thought this was a good idea, but the only primer spray paint that was available at Home Depot was rust-colored (well, it's close but not exactly). That means that when the top coat chips off, it looks like it's just rusting but that's the primer undercoat. Oh well. So I applied some of the primer coat on the legs and let it dry. That process took about an hour.
Once done, I began the black spray paint topcoat. I wanted two coats here, and it took much longer to dry than the primer. This process took about 3 hours. I also took this opportunity to spray paint the old wood panel screws (so they would be black instead of goldeny-metal) and the new wood screws for the support beam that runs across the middle. It's the little things, right?
Once everything was dry, the hard part came: putting it all back together. It was more difficult than it should have been because the wood panels fit "inside" the legs, not on top. You have to attach all the panels onto one leg first, then prop them into position somehow and slide the other leg into place. I had Taylor to help me with this step, which was good because I would have had no chance otherwise. Once together, I tightened all the nuts, then drilled the support beam into place (goes down the back/middle to help distribute the weight in the middle).
All done, and it only took me the better part of an entire weekend!
And the obligatory comparison shot:
Did I mention that there are two park benches, and this was only the first? I can't imagine doing this all over again anytime soon. Maybe Justin or Andy will feel like a project...
Coincidentally enough, I snagged myself an achievement award at work on Friday, which earned me a $25 Home Depot gift card. Perfect!
On Saturday, I went to Home Depot and got myself the following supplies:
- A can of weatherproof (we'll see) cedar-colored wood stain
- A can of rustproof primer (for the metal legs)
- A can of rustproof black spray paint
- A jug of wood-cleaning acid for mildew/mold/etc
- A sandpaper variety pack
- Sanding block
- A couple paint brushes
- Replacement wood screws
- Plastic tarp-style stuff to lay on the ground
After the wash, it was clear that it did clean off a lot of the mildewy mess on the top layer of the wood, but it didn't do as much restoring as I was hoping. I also tested the wood stain to see what it would look like if I didn't do any sanding. It didn't turn out too bad.
Despite the fact that the stain worked well without any prep sanding, I had to do it anyways. As you can tell from the picture, there was still chunks of finish that hadn't completely worn off along the edges. Also, not pictured is the backside where most of the finish is still intact. So I had to sand it all anyways, to get the old finish off both sides and even out everything. I took the bench apart at this point.
Sanding was pretty much the worst part. It took me a long time to sand everything. I started with a 60 grit to really work off the old finish. After that, I sanded again more quickly with 150 grit to smooth it all out a bit more.
Once done, I applied the stain with Taylor's help. We had the wood panels laying on a plastic tarp and applied the stain on the top side. What we didn't account for (lesson learned!) was that the stain was dripping down the sides and onto the bottom of the panels. By the time the top layer dried, we had some clumps on the bottom side that were also dried and stained. When we flipped the panels, we had discovered them too late. That caused our panels to be stained unevenly on the backs and sides. Oh well, it didn't look all that bad.
That was all on Saturday. On Sunday, I started with the legs. I did a preliminary sanding to get some of the crap off the legs like pieces of stuck bird crap and other various things. This also evened out the layer a bit, but not that much because I didn't try hard enough. After sanding, I soaped and washed the legs to make sure they were as clean as possible for the primer coat. Lesson learned #2: don't get rust colored primer. I don't know why they thought this was a good idea, but the only primer spray paint that was available at Home Depot was rust-colored (well, it's close but not exactly). That means that when the top coat chips off, it looks like it's just rusting but that's the primer undercoat. Oh well. So I applied some of the primer coat on the legs and let it dry. That process took about an hour.
Once done, I began the black spray paint topcoat. I wanted two coats here, and it took much longer to dry than the primer. This process took about 3 hours. I also took this opportunity to spray paint the old wood panel screws (so they would be black instead of goldeny-metal) and the new wood screws for the support beam that runs across the middle. It's the little things, right?
Once everything was dry, the hard part came: putting it all back together. It was more difficult than it should have been because the wood panels fit "inside" the legs, not on top. You have to attach all the panels onto one leg first, then prop them into position somehow and slide the other leg into place. I had Taylor to help me with this step, which was good because I would have had no chance otherwise. Once together, I tightened all the nuts, then drilled the support beam into place (goes down the back/middle to help distribute the weight in the middle).
All done, and it only took me the better part of an entire weekend!
And the obligatory comparison shot:
Did I mention that there are two park benches, and this was only the first? I can't imagine doing this all over again anytime soon. Maybe Justin or Andy will feel like a project...
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
busy this week
There probably won't be much happening on the blog this week. I'm working overtime this week in order to take care of some extra stuff at work.
Not much happened for me last weekend, though. Taylor was busy Saturday and Sunday because of a bachelorette party. Travis flew in Thursday, but almost immediately left for a wedding. He came back Sunday and hung out for a couple hours before I had to take him to the airport.
The rest of my weekend was filled with wasting time around the house (piano, games, dog-washing) and tasting the failure of my second batch of pickles. WAY too much cayenne. Next batch will be simple:
-Half/half vinegar/water mixture
-2 tbsp dill
-Cucumbers/Okra
Let's start basic, shall we?
Not much happened for me last weekend, though. Taylor was busy Saturday and Sunday because of a bachelorette party. Travis flew in Thursday, but almost immediately left for a wedding. He came back Sunday and hung out for a couple hours before I had to take him to the airport.
The rest of my weekend was filled with wasting time around the house (piano, games, dog-washing) and tasting the failure of my second batch of pickles. WAY too much cayenne. Next batch will be simple:
-Half/half vinegar/water mixture
-2 tbsp dill
-Cucumbers/Okra
Let's start basic, shall we?
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
july 4th weekend, 2011
This weekend has been pretty tumultuous, but mostly due to recent events. Let's start at the beginning though, and work our way through.
My long weekend started on Saturday, which more or less started out by going to our local municipal pool. Taylor has been swimming laps on a daily basis, so I joined her to hang out and cool off in the pool. By the way, leaving your iPhone out in the sun for 40 mins will apparently cause it to go into emergency temperature control mode, so don't do that.
After swimming, we went to Amber's birthday BBQ at her place. Amber is one of my used-to-be coworkers (sadly, laid off), and she was having a weekend-long "Amberganza". They did a whole bunch of stuff, but we opted only for the BBQ portion. Later that night, I have no idea what we did. My memory is awesome. I think we jammed (we alternated between drummer/singer) for a good portion of the night.
The following day was the third weekly "Sunday Fun-day" that Justin and Ellen co-founded. It involves relaxing, drinking beverages, and watching movies. I joined them for part of it, where we attempted to watch Haggards, one of the worst movies I've been told to watch in recent memories. We watched about 15 minutes of it before we switched to Hackers, a classic. While watching, I attempted round two of my pickling adventure.
My first pickling experiment used the following recipe:
-1 tbsp fresh dill
-1 tbsp peppercorns
-1 tbsp sugar
-2 jalapeno peppers
-Half water, half vinegar brine
-Stuff the jar with cucumbers and okra
The pickling process itself went off without much of a hitch, but the pickles ended up a bit too sweet and not really spicy at all. I changed things around a bit for round two:
-3 tbsp fresh dill
-2 tbsp peppercorns
-1/2 tbsp cayenne pepper
-Half/half vinegar/water
I think I may have put way too much cayenne pepper. It didn't look like a lot in the scoop, but once I added it to the brine the whole thing turned red. Uh oh. It's all settled down at the bottom of the jar now. I'll let you know how those taste next weekend.
That night, Taylor and I went to HEB and got some supplies to grill. We grilled up two half pound burgers and topped them off with cheddar cheese, sauteed onions, mushrooms, and BBQ sauce. The burgers were pretty good. Since the patties themselves were fairly thick and I'm not an experienced burger-griller (I do chicken tenders and steaks mostly on the grill), I decided to play it safe with the meat thermometer. Well, I don't think that thermometer was working well enough. It was registering between 120 and 180 throughout the burger, even after I took it off. I was worried that portions would be undercooked (since a burger isn't "brown" unless it's 160ish), but it was brown all-throughout. I wanted to get a nice pink in the middle, but maybe next time. We used an 80/20 ground chuck, and it was still juicy despite being well done. That night, we watched a couple episodes of Game of Thrones, a new show on HBO. It's pretty good.
July 4th was relatively mild for us. We hung out for most of the day, and then went to Erin's (our kickball friend) party that evening, where we had even more grilled food (hotdogs). We did some chatting, but only ended up staying a couple hours.
However, we found out about an unfortunate event that happened Sunday night. Kelcey's brother, Kevin, was seriously hurt at their lake house. He was swinging on some trapeze thing at the top part of their dock when the cable snapped and sent him flying back into the dock, hitting his head hard on the concrete (knocking him unconscious) and sliding into the water where he sank immediately. The lake water is only about 10-15' at their dock, but it is very murky and the visibility is terrible. His friends found him after about 4 minutes and luckily one of the friends knew CPR and administered it. A helicopter aired him to the hospital where they induced hypothermia and a medical coma to force his body to pump most of the oxygen to his brain. They started bringing his temperature back up slowly a couple nights ago, and last night they took him off the paralytic (to induce a coma). Happily, he awoke an hour later, was responsive, and recognized himself and his family. That's the latest word I've heard, and I hope to hear more good news in the future.
Keep Kevin and the Fraser family in your thoughts and prayers. You can find more information at the medical journal his family is keeping at www.caringbridge.org/visit/kevinfraser/journal.
My long weekend started on Saturday, which more or less started out by going to our local municipal pool. Taylor has been swimming laps on a daily basis, so I joined her to hang out and cool off in the pool. By the way, leaving your iPhone out in the sun for 40 mins will apparently cause it to go into emergency temperature control mode, so don't do that.
After swimming, we went to Amber's birthday BBQ at her place. Amber is one of my used-to-be coworkers (sadly, laid off), and she was having a weekend-long "Amberganza". They did a whole bunch of stuff, but we opted only for the BBQ portion. Later that night, I have no idea what we did. My memory is awesome. I think we jammed (we alternated between drummer/singer) for a good portion of the night.
The following day was the third weekly "Sunday Fun-day" that Justin and Ellen co-founded. It involves relaxing, drinking beverages, and watching movies. I joined them for part of it, where we attempted to watch Haggards, one of the worst movies I've been told to watch in recent memories. We watched about 15 minutes of it before we switched to Hackers, a classic. While watching, I attempted round two of my pickling adventure.
My first pickling experiment used the following recipe:
-1 tbsp fresh dill
-1 tbsp peppercorns
-1 tbsp sugar
-2 jalapeno peppers
-Half water, half vinegar brine
-Stuff the jar with cucumbers and okra
The pickling process itself went off without much of a hitch, but the pickles ended up a bit too sweet and not really spicy at all. I changed things around a bit for round two:
-3 tbsp fresh dill
-2 tbsp peppercorns
-1/2 tbsp cayenne pepper
-Half/half vinegar/water
I think I may have put way too much cayenne pepper. It didn't look like a lot in the scoop, but once I added it to the brine the whole thing turned red. Uh oh. It's all settled down at the bottom of the jar now. I'll let you know how those taste next weekend.
That night, Taylor and I went to HEB and got some supplies to grill. We grilled up two half pound burgers and topped them off with cheddar cheese, sauteed onions, mushrooms, and BBQ sauce. The burgers were pretty good. Since the patties themselves were fairly thick and I'm not an experienced burger-griller (I do chicken tenders and steaks mostly on the grill), I decided to play it safe with the meat thermometer. Well, I don't think that thermometer was working well enough. It was registering between 120 and 180 throughout the burger, even after I took it off. I was worried that portions would be undercooked (since a burger isn't "brown" unless it's 160ish), but it was brown all-throughout. I wanted to get a nice pink in the middle, but maybe next time. We used an 80/20 ground chuck, and it was still juicy despite being well done. That night, we watched a couple episodes of Game of Thrones, a new show on HBO. It's pretty good.
July 4th was relatively mild for us. We hung out for most of the day, and then went to Erin's (our kickball friend) party that evening, where we had even more grilled food (hotdogs). We did some chatting, but only ended up staying a couple hours.
However, we found out about an unfortunate event that happened Sunday night. Kelcey's brother, Kevin, was seriously hurt at their lake house. He was swinging on some trapeze thing at the top part of their dock when the cable snapped and sent him flying back into the dock, hitting his head hard on the concrete (knocking him unconscious) and sliding into the water where he sank immediately. The lake water is only about 10-15' at their dock, but it is very murky and the visibility is terrible. His friends found him after about 4 minutes and luckily one of the friends knew CPR and administered it. A helicopter aired him to the hospital where they induced hypothermia and a medical coma to force his body to pump most of the oxygen to his brain. They started bringing his temperature back up slowly a couple nights ago, and last night they took him off the paralytic (to induce a coma). Happily, he awoke an hour later, was responsive, and recognized himself and his family. That's the latest word I've heard, and I hope to hear more good news in the future.
Keep Kevin and the Fraser family in your thoughts and prayers. You can find more information at the medical journal his family is keeping at www.caringbridge.org/visit/kevinfraser/journal.
Monday, July 4, 2011
the double-weekend update
For some reason I posted this last week and it went back into draft status. So this is from last week.
I wouldn't say much happened during the last business week. However, I have had some notable events this past weekend and the weekend before that.
Sir Mix-a-lot
Justin had a show the weekend before last, and he asked Andy if he would help with the sound. I arrived a little later, and ended up helping out Andy with the house PA levels while Andy worked the recording output levels. It was cool to be involved with the show and have an impact on how it sounded. Most of the night was fine-tuning, but there were some instances when the sound was just too loud or soft and the adjustments definitely helped.
Kickball Canceled
We had a nice downpour on Tuesday night, but by Wednesday morning most of it was dried up. Strangely, our kickball game that night was postponed anyways. I doubt there was any moisture on the fields, but whatever. Molly scheduled a game night and a few kickballers met up at Molly's. We played Scattergories and Outburst.
wtf iPad?
At work, they are piloting a new program to determine the impact on an engineer's productivity if given an iPad. I was one of the lucky few engineers chosen, and so now I have a brand new iPad 2. I don't think my work fully thought through some of the implications of the device, but we'll see how it goes. For now, I won't be complaining about a free new tech toy.
Seaworld
Last Saturday, we had a company picnic hosted at Seaworld. A $10 ticket included parking, park admission, and a lunch. Overall, a pretty good deal since admission alone is at least $40 or so. It was terribly hot, but we managed to last a few hours out there. We saw a handful of shows, enjoyed mediocre lunch, and saw some penguins. Too bad the drive was nearly 2 hours each way.
It's like I'm a real engineer
At some point last weekend, I decided to tackle this broken monitor Taylor brought me several months back. Some Dell 17" monitor at her work stopped turning on, so she brought it over to see if I could figure out what was wrong. I ended up taking it apart and examining the board. With Andy's help, I was able to spot some faulty capacitors. We went to Fry's and Radioshack, neither of which had the exact replacement parts. I instead went with a higher capacitor value since I didn't have too much vested in this monitor and didn't care if it didn't work. I took out the old capacitors, soldered the new ones in, put it all back together, and voilà — it worked! I felt pretty proud. For $3 I fixed a monitor that probably would have cost $100 in shipping and labor to get fixed by Dell.
Pickles!
I decided to try pickling, for no real reason. Andy has an okra plant, so I bought some cucumbers and pickling supplies (cans, dill, peppercorn, etc). Pickling wasn't as straight-forward as I was hoping, but it didn't prove to be terribly challenging. The hard part is boiling the jars and getting them in and out of the boiling water without a jar grabber. First, you have to boil the jars in the water to sterilize them. Next, you make your brine with water, vinegar, dill, and whatever other ingredients you want (I chose to add a couple jalapeño peppers and peppercorns). You bring the brine to a boil, stuff the jar with your items, and pour the brine in. Next, you place the mason jar lid on and finger-tighten the ring around the lid (not too tight, because you need the air to be able to escape). The pot I had was not tall enough to place the jars upright in the boiling water, so I had to carefully place the jar upright, then tip it over so it was sideways in the pot. After boiling for 5 mins, we grabbed it out of the water and set it aside to cool. Within an hour, it was vacuum-sealed because of the escaping air. Now I'm going to wait about a week and see what kind of crazy concoction I made.
I wouldn't say much happened during the last business week. However, I have had some notable events this past weekend and the weekend before that.
Sir Mix-a-lot
Justin had a show the weekend before last, and he asked Andy if he would help with the sound. I arrived a little later, and ended up helping out Andy with the house PA levels while Andy worked the recording output levels. It was cool to be involved with the show and have an impact on how it sounded. Most of the night was fine-tuning, but there were some instances when the sound was just too loud or soft and the adjustments definitely helped.
Kickball Canceled
We had a nice downpour on Tuesday night, but by Wednesday morning most of it was dried up. Strangely, our kickball game that night was postponed anyways. I doubt there was any moisture on the fields, but whatever. Molly scheduled a game night and a few kickballers met up at Molly's. We played Scattergories and Outburst.
wtf iPad?
At work, they are piloting a new program to determine the impact on an engineer's productivity if given an iPad. I was one of the lucky few engineers chosen, and so now I have a brand new iPad 2. I don't think my work fully thought through some of the implications of the device, but we'll see how it goes. For now, I won't be complaining about a free new tech toy.
Seaworld
Last Saturday, we had a company picnic hosted at Seaworld. A $10 ticket included parking, park admission, and a lunch. Overall, a pretty good deal since admission alone is at least $40 or so. It was terribly hot, but we managed to last a few hours out there. We saw a handful of shows, enjoyed mediocre lunch, and saw some penguins. Too bad the drive was nearly 2 hours each way.
It's like I'm a real engineer
At some point last weekend, I decided to tackle this broken monitor Taylor brought me several months back. Some Dell 17" monitor at her work stopped turning on, so she brought it over to see if I could figure out what was wrong. I ended up taking it apart and examining the board. With Andy's help, I was able to spot some faulty capacitors. We went to Fry's and Radioshack, neither of which had the exact replacement parts. I instead went with a higher capacitor value since I didn't have too much vested in this monitor and didn't care if it didn't work. I took out the old capacitors, soldered the new ones in, put it all back together, and voilà — it worked! I felt pretty proud. For $3 I fixed a monitor that probably would have cost $100 in shipping and labor to get fixed by Dell.
Pickles!
I decided to try pickling, for no real reason. Andy has an okra plant, so I bought some cucumbers and pickling supplies (cans, dill, peppercorn, etc). Pickling wasn't as straight-forward as I was hoping, but it didn't prove to be terribly challenging. The hard part is boiling the jars and getting them in and out of the boiling water without a jar grabber. First, you have to boil the jars in the water to sterilize them. Next, you make your brine with water, vinegar, dill, and whatever other ingredients you want (I chose to add a couple jalapeño peppers and peppercorns). You bring the brine to a boil, stuff the jar with your items, and pour the brine in. Next, you place the mason jar lid on and finger-tighten the ring around the lid (not too tight, because you need the air to be able to escape). The pot I had was not tall enough to place the jars upright in the boiling water, so I had to carefully place the jar upright, then tip it over so it was sideways in the pot. After boiling for 5 mins, we grabbed it out of the water and set it aside to cool. Within an hour, it was vacuum-sealed because of the escaping air. Now I'm going to wait about a week and see what kind of crazy concoction I made.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
I take my kickball seriously
Last night we had our second game (my first game) of kickball.
For some reason, whether it be my competitiveness or my lack of understanding the consequences of my decisions, I always injure myself. Usually this involves scrapes on my knees and elbows, and tonight was no different. Actually it was a bit different. This might be my best injury to date.
I was running from 2nd to 3rd base in a fool-hearty attempt to capitalize on the loose ball around shortstop. It was ill-advised, but sometimes you just gotta go for it. Well, when I was about 5 feet from the base they threw the ball at my feet to tag me out. At that point I jumped in the air and contorted in such a way to dodge the ball, which I did successfully. Unfortunately, after contorting, I couldn't land on my feet properly and while I don't remember exactly what happened, I'm pretty sure I landed hard, flat on my stomach on the ground. The ball that missed me went straight into the hands of a nearby player, so I had to then immediately get to my feet and dive 5 feet forward to get on base. Sadly, I was tagged out a split second before my hand reached the base. Somewhere in there, I managed to scrape both my knees, my right elbow, and my right hip. My right hip is somehow rubbed raw, probably because it was scraped through my shirt. Let's just say that the hydrogen peroxide was not my friend.
On the bright side, after that debacle of mine, we recovered to the tune of 18-3. It was pure domination.
For some reason, whether it be my competitiveness or my lack of understanding the consequences of my decisions, I always injure myself. Usually this involves scrapes on my knees and elbows, and tonight was no different. Actually it was a bit different. This might be my best injury to date.
I was running from 2nd to 3rd base in a fool-hearty attempt to capitalize on the loose ball around shortstop. It was ill-advised, but sometimes you just gotta go for it. Well, when I was about 5 feet from the base they threw the ball at my feet to tag me out. At that point I jumped in the air and contorted in such a way to dodge the ball, which I did successfully. Unfortunately, after contorting, I couldn't land on my feet properly and while I don't remember exactly what happened, I'm pretty sure I landed hard, flat on my stomach on the ground. The ball that missed me went straight into the hands of a nearby player, so I had to then immediately get to my feet and dive 5 feet forward to get on base. Sadly, I was tagged out a split second before my hand reached the base. Somewhere in there, I managed to scrape both my knees, my right elbow, and my right hip. My right hip is somehow rubbed raw, probably because it was scraped through my shirt. Let's just say that the hydrogen peroxide was not my friend.
On the bright side, after that debacle of mine, we recovered to the tune of 18-3. It was pure domination.
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