Gnawing Suspicion

The buttons on the washing machine stopped working last weekend. We've had an abundance of mice this year, and JP was convinced that one was to blame for this. She was right! As we popped off the front control panel to get a view, I spied a little grey friend hiding in the panel. I was able to put the panel back in place before he jumped out, but JP saw me shudder and she let out her mouse scream that could be heard in Omaha.

After I cleared her out of the room, I tried to catch the little guy but he got away and under/into the dryer. That night, we put out a trap and put up the dog food. In the morning, our friend neatly put himself in the mousetrap for us.

Fortunately, the mouse had only chewed through one of twenty little tiny wires. If he had chewed any more, it would have been tough to figure out which one went where. It took all of five minutes to fix the wire, but half an hour to clean out the mess the mouse left in the washer. He had been feasting on dog food and had amassed quite a stash in his nest.

Pickin & Grinnin

For my B-Day, I had a guitarish theme. We took our friends out to a new bar & grille behind Campbell's, called The Local.

Thanks SB for the cool Iron Maiden guitar picks at Christmas!! I love them and they have made me a better player, too.

I pooled my b-day $$ and hit the used guitar shop and picked up a sweet used Orange tube amp.

I feel like I missed out on dealing with high-voltage vacuum tubes and TV repair, so I'm looking forward to fooling around with the innards of the new amp. Nothing like 400 volts DC!

The tubes really make a difference in sound, so it was also time to reconfigure the pickups on my Strat. Trying out some Fender Highway Ones.

Fire Hazard

JP's Birthday cake warmed up the kitchen pretty well when we lit it up.

CES

For years I've dreamed of attending the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. 

This year I got to go! 

The realm of autonomous vehicles is here. This is a car that participates in the Robot Racing League. The company that runs it makes graphics cards for the kids' video games. Turns out that the processors are also really good at driving cars. All of the major automakers were showing autonomous cars and saying that kids born today probably will never learn to drive.

Gibson Guitars had a huge tent full of their axes. I got to play a $13,000 guitar.

Yamaha was showing off their road racing robot as well as a self-balancing bike and crop spraying robotic helicopter.

Leadbelly Nachos

Our favorite place downtown is Leadbelly. They have an awesome menu and a great atmosphere. After dropping CP off at the dorm, we stopped in to fill our bellies. I broke down and tried the nachos. It was way too much food.

GP got the Cuban Burger.

Brice Canyon

We really got lucky with the weather while we were in Utah. There was no snow at Brice, which is unusual for this time of year for most places above 8,000 feet.

JP & I hiked down one slot canyon and back up another. At the bottom, we stopped a father/son and asked how much further to the split in the trail. That's when we noticed what their shirts said: "Lincoln Southeast High School." No matter where you go, there are always fellow Huskers out and about.

4 Wheelin

Grampa built a sweet offroad Suzuki Samurai for his desert explorations. CP LOVES it! We went out in the desert for a few miles of dusty 4x4 action.

Old Cousin

While in Utah, we caught up with DP and his plane. JP & I haven't seen him since we lived in AZ. 

26 years? How time flies!

Snow Canyon

A trip to St. George could never be complete without a day at Snow Canyon. The weather was much better than mid-summer.

Utah Petroglyphs

For New Year's, we headed west out of Omaha to stay a few days with G&G. We hiked around a bit in the desert and looked at some really nice petroglyphs.

There are quite a few unexcavated ruins in the area, and plenty of pot sherds on the ground. Yes, yes, they stayed behind; they are just fun to look at.

Nixie Tube Clock

CP got a nixie tube clock for x-mas this year. Nixie tubes were used in the 50s - 70s before LEDs took over. The tubes are brand new, but were probably made in Russia 30 years ago. It came as a kit and it took him an entire day to solder all the components in place. The whole thing is run by an Arduino-compatible microcontroller that came pre-programmed.

There are some blue LED's under each tube that make it look really cool at night.

Old Neighbors

Our old neighbors stopped by over Christmas. A is going to school in Switzerland studying hospitality management and is going to spend a semester in Taiwan at a swanky 5-star hotel. C is still living in southern California. We tried talking her into moving back, but she likes the beach.

Merry Christmas 2017

White Christmas

It's nice having two grown boys around when it snows. And to think I was going to shell out $500 for a snowblower.

Day 11 in China - Home!!!

On Tuesday, we flew 13 hours from Beijing to Seattle, Minneapolis, and finally Lincoln. The entire journey with stops is around 24 hours. We left Beijing at noon on Tuesday and landed at 8 in the morning on Tuesday in Seattle. We got back the day we lost on the way over.

I couldn't find an "I heart Shanghai" shirt, but I did find one for Beijing.

So glad to be back home!!!

Day 10 in China: Baoding to Beijing

After the Governor's quarters, we hit a crazy indoor mall and picked up a large duffel bag for $8 to fill with all of our souvenirs. Actually, we filled it with dirty clothes and put the delicate items in our luggage.

The Baoding train station is big and modern and carries the distinctly Communist feel of a deserted building that is still in daily use. There's a huge plaza out in front, and a line of cabbies waiting to take you anywhere.

In Shanghai and Beijing, most of the facilities feature western fixtures. Not so in the Baoding train station. Good thing that my donkey sandwich was still behaving itself.

For the short jaunt back to Beijing, we were able to secure some 1st class seats. There were only five seats in the whole cabin.

Day 10 in China: Baoding Governor's Compound

After the donkey sandwich lunch, our host took us downtown Baoding to visit the former territorial governor's quarters. Baoding's history can be traced back to 200 BC; this compound of buildings was built in the 1700s. It's not unlike any historical exhibit in the states, except you can't read any of the signs (we hired and English-speaking guide).

Baoding roughly translated means "protecting the capital". Beijing has mountains and the Great Wall to its North, but to the south, there's a gap in the mountains and wall, so there has always been an army stationed here. At one point, there were 400,000 soldiers stationed in Baoding.

Life In Nebraska Post #1000

Holy cow! This is the one thousandth post on the blog. It took 12 years to get here. I should see if there's some way to archive all the post photos and put them in one of those Walgreens books. Maybe after I get caught up...

We moved here in August of 2005. The boys have grown up here and consider Nebraska to be their home. We've certainly had a good run here.

Day 10 in China: Baoding

Monday took us on another factory visit in Baoding (pop. 1,700,000). This time it was an investment casting foundry that is run by an old Communist guy and his two sons (and one of their wives). It is a success story for the privatization of Chinese industry. The family is warm and very dedicated to growing their business.

All over China you see people using these brooms. At first, it's funny - "Look at that! That guy just tied a bunch of sticks together for a broom." But then you realize that it makes sense, and they mock our need to pay money for a store-bought broom. They both do the same thing - why would I spend $10 for something that is growing in the yard? All over China this is the norm - they use things that get the job done and no more.

Baoding is known for their dog and donkey meat. On the way to lunch, one of the factory guys stopped off at a street vendor and picked up some donkey sandwiches. It was very tasty - much like a greasy pulled brisket. However, later that night my stomach disagreed with that assessment.

At the foundry, we noted that their metallurgy lab looked like it was from the 50s. They acknowledged this and explained that their intention was to upgrade their equipment last year, but then the air quality laws came out, so they instead invested in pollution control equipment. Many of their local competitors did not have the same foresight and thus did not become compliant - they are now out of business. We heard similar stories at all the factories we visited. The pollution control laws put a ton of factories out of business, but the remaining ones are now stronger and have more business than they can handle. The old buildings are being torn down in order to support the never ending growth.

Day 9 in China - The Great Wall

Sunday, we hired a guide to drive us to the Great Wall north of Beijing. It was a fantastic blue sky day with no wind. I think the cold kept the crowds at home - there were barely any tourists there, and the street vendors at the bottom were very eager to deal. I picked up some Chairman Mao pins for CP for a buck and an "I heart BJ" t-shirt for $3.

The challenge of a border wall is the support it requires. You can't just simply build a wall and expect it alone to keep out the invaders; it must be staffed and maintained. The Great Wall has guard quarters every few hundred yards. I can't imagine the resources that were required to keep this all in operation.

There is a feral cat colony at the wall. They all want attention, but cannot allow themselves to come closer than out of arm's reach.

After visiting the wall, we boarded a bullet train and went an hour (at 180 mph) southwest to Baoding. The restaurant there hat a cat motif on their seat cushions.

Day 8 in China: Hot Pot

After going numb from the cold at the Forbidden City, we sought out some hot food. Our guide took us on a wild goose chase in the blocks surrounding our hotel in search of a restaurant he had heard of. After 45 minutes of wandering around in the cold, we finally found it on the third floor of a sketchy looking office building. We were nervous going into the building, as it looked only partially occupied, but once we turned the corner and smelled the food and heard the din of a packed restaurant, we became excited.

The place specialty is Hot Pot. Now that I've had it, I'm severely disappointed that I missed having it while I was in Chongqing two years ago. It's AWESOME. Here's how it works: There's a cauldron of boiling soup stock in the middle of the table. Half is normal, the other half has an inch of red hot oil floating on top. You order whatever ingredients (or you can go buffet style) and then cook whatever you want while you chat. After a long day in the cold, this was a welcome meal.

The secret to Hot Pot is the Sichuan Peppercorn. It has a flavor known as Mala, which is hard to describe. It's hot, but it's so much more than that. It's also tangy and it actually numbs your mouth. In old times, it was used as a local anesthetic. Never in my life have I had anything like it. 

I'm no stranger to hot foods, so I dove in and indulged - why not? We had an everlasting flow of tasty Chinese light beer for coolant. As the heat kicked in, the numbness and a new weird sensation kicked in. I don't know how to describe it - just trust me and try it.