Gingerbread House 2007

JP & the kids put together this year's gingerbread house. As usual, the icing (liquid nails made from powdered sugar) was problematic and we resorted to using ziploc baggies to squirt it. Next year I need to remember to setup a caulk gun...

Aside from the initial house construction, the boys completed the house themselves. Note the P-51 in sitting on the table. It seems like there's some sort of WW-II plane sitting on every flat surface of the house.

Wagon Wheels

CP made breakfast for us the other morning. I don't know how he did it, but he was able to flip this pancake by himself.

Ice Storm No. 2

Last night we were brushed by the ice storm that left 2.5" of ice in Oklahoma & Missouri. We ended up with about 1/4" here in Lincoln, and Beatrice had 1/2 - 3/4" with another inch of slush on top of that.

The boys had the day off of school and played all day. I slept in and went to work in the daylight.

XMas Season

This weekend was very mellow. Saturday, the boys & JP put together X-Mas decorations while I worked on my amplifier project (I resurected a 10" powered subwoofer and now have something that can rattle the walls). Later that night, we went to the women's UNL basketball game (sorry, I forgot the camera) and watched them defeat USC. I think these games are the best entertainment value. Who needs movies when you can go to a live sporting event?

Today GP's cub scout den had a Go-See-It trip to the Nebraska History Museum downtown. We were late and left 15 minutes before we needed to be there, hit every red light, had to look for parking, and still made it on time. The boys had fun running around the empty museum. It's been snowing/icing all weekend and no one was there.

Today JP finished up the outside decor with a pair of grapevine reindeer. It beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Coolest XMas Ornament

On Wednesdays at work, I co-host our microcontroller club at lunch. One of the engineers had some experience in microcontrollers and offered to teach us all how to use them. I thought I had found heaven with PLC's, but microcontrollers are king. They are little plastic chips that are basically an entire computer, complete with a processor, memory, I/O, serial communications, etc. All on a chip that costs $2. Today we built a scrolling marquee. Instead of a big banner, this one only has one column. In order to see the message, you have to move the marquee, as shown above (1 second exposure). My next challenge is to hang it on the christmas tree and then spin the tree so that you can read the message. I will have to wait until JP is not here for this one...

DIY Practice Amp progress

So... I built a practice amp, but it was not very practical as collection of tangled wires and a circuit board. I sketched up a cabinet that could be built with the scraps of 3/4" finished birch plywood that I used to build our piano bench. With the help of nearly all my power tools, I ended up with a very solid box. I need to laser out a metal panel at the top for the cable jack and some knobs and lights (knobs & lights are always good). Right now, the panel is made out of the side of a Busch Light box.

The cheesy speakers sound OK, and the audio amp IC is staying under 80 °C, so it should be OK. Once this is complete, it will be time to start building some cool effects citcuits (more knobs & lights!).

JP's new PB prints

Along with the wrought iron wall thing, JP got some prints for the dining room. She took advantage of me being shut-in due to the ice storm Saturnday morning and we hung them up. All we need now are some guests so that we can use the dining room.

Husker Volleyball Star

Yesterday, Tracy Stalls, a Husker volleyball star visited CP's class and signed autographs. This morning, she's on the front page of the Lincoln paper. It's really fun living in a small town.

The lady Huskers are on a 70+ game winning streak.

First Snow

We finally got our first snow last night. The only problem is that it came in the form of an ice storm.

JP's new Artwork

JP finally got a piece of artwork from Pottery Barn to hang above the fireplace. She has been searching for the last two years for something that would fill the space. I was practicing my guitar and JP had to take a picture to send to Mary, her Pottery Barn co-dependent. I have to say that I am grateful for JP's sense of style and her shopping abilities.

Special Ops

I took the boys to the Dollar Store in Savanna to get some high quality machine guns and then it was on to the Palisades. We hiked the Sentinel trail and the boys ran the entire way with their new guns. I am in their crosshairs in every picture we took.

Later that day, we went to see Brad at his place. He introduced the boys to his latest xbox 360 game: Call of Duty 4. I was impressed and have asked santa for an xbox 360. CP turned into a commando for the remainder of the trip.

Thanksgiving in Lanark

We took off the day before Thanksgiving and drove across Iowa to Lanark. We hit a blizzard in Des Moines and made it through before the rest of their 4" of snow fell. Illinois met us with rain and good driving conditions.

We gave Great Gramma her X-Mas gifts, since she is not planning on coming to see us. JP knitted her a shawl.

The dogs were happy to be together. Maggie barked her head off chasing squirrels and birds. We have no squirrels in Lincoln - must have something to do with not having trees. The first day we were there, they both ran around. The second day, they slept.

After thanksgiving dinner, we gathered 'round and played the kids' favorite game - "The Dice Game." Aunt Sue started the tradition a few years ago and the kids really look forward to it. This year she made it better by having some of the presents be specifically for the boys. In years past, it has been CP that falls apart when someone steals his present. This year it was GP's turn. Must be something about being seven. I ended up with an awesome LED flashlight that I have been wanting for a while. Thanks Aunt Sue!

Air Guard Firehouse

Today we (Den 11) went to the Nebraska Air National Guard fire station for one of our requirements. Sgt. Mark Wit gave us an awesome tour.

The highlight of the tour was a demonstration of how much water the air force trucks can pump out. The truck on the left holds 3000 gallons, and the one on the right does 1500. I think we watched all of it shoot through the air in about a minute. The base here is dedicated to a bunch of KC-135's that do in-flight refueling, so there's an overabundance of jet fuel. Sgt. Wit said that if they can't put out a fire with their equipment, something's wrong, and you don't want to be around. Click on the photo below to enlarge it.

Guitar Amps

I found the kids' toy acoustic guitar last month and started playing it. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I was hanging out in Guitar Center (just around the corner!) looking at fancy electric guitars. I figured that I know so little about guitars, I would be better off learning how to play before dropping $600 on something that might not suit me. I found a nice used Ibanez for under $100 and have been having fun playing with it (except for a weird shoulder pain that sent me to the Dr. and is going to end up in physical therapy).

The problem with electric guitars is that you really need some electricity in order to make them sound right. With a $2 chip and some parts from a speakerphone I salvaged, I made a 200-miliwatt amplifier that runs off a 9-volt battery.

This is my corner workshop in the basement. It's actually worse than it looks with wires and junk everywhere. I need to spend a few hours cleaning up now that I have an amplifier built. The new Ibanez is standing up. The guitar on the floor is a toy that produces sound, but is unplayable. The 12th-fret is almost a full note off of an octave of the open string.

The mini-amp is OK, but as the tool guy says: "more power!" I built a pre-amp using a normal $0.39 op-amp and piped that into an integrated circuit chip that gives me 2 channels of 12 watts of pure acoustic power pumped into some old surround speakers. As Borat would say, "Niice!" I am on may way to being a rock star. All I need now is some talent.

Cub Scout Rocket Launch

Today was our third cub scout rocket launch with the THOR group from Omaha. We were blessed with absolutely perfect weather - sunshine, blue skies, 60°, and NO WIND! We had a huge scout turnout and the launch pad was packed all day shooting scout rockets. Our entire den 11 (GP's den) showed up.

GP shot his mongoose from last year. He named it "Mashed Potatoes." We shot it with a C6-0/C6-7 two-stage setup and it probably cleared 1500 feet. The booster stage came down at 100 mph into the crowd of scouts. Even with no wind and a streamer recovery, we spent quite a while searching for the bright yellow & pink rocket. It must have semi-glided on its way down.

Since GP was the first new scout to sign up this year, he got a bonus rocket - a Wizard, which is a foot-long basic rocket. During construction, the body tube rolled off the table. By the time I realized that it was missing, Maggie used it to clean her teeth. No problem when HobbyTown is virtually next door, though. 20 minutes later and I was back in business with a 4-pack of 18-inch body tubes. With a couple new tubes, some scrap balsa, and a little imagination, we soon had a new 36" 2-stage missile.

Hobby Lobby had a 40%-off coupon in the paper, so I applied it to a Mean Machine (a classic 6-foot tall rocket). I liked the design of GP's new Wizard so much, I turned the Mean Machine into a meaner machine with some cool fins. The Mean Machine is only a single-stage, but it is a near-perfect 2.3X scale copy of the new Wizard, but with an E engine.

We launched the big rocket first. It was a big beautiful slow liftoff to a few hundred feet. The chute popped out, but did not unfurl and the beast stayed stable and headed down nose first and tried to take a core sample of the prairie. Poor CP was devastated! He had been so proud to be carrying around a 6-foot long missile amongst his friends. The smaller 2-stage one went next. It staged perfectly and went really high. It popped the chute out, but also continued on its ballistic trajectory and missed a car by inches as it rejoined the earth. I learned a very important facet of rocket science today - it is possible to have too much stability. When the nose cone pops off, the rocket should not be stable and should tumble. If it doesn't and keeps flying straight, the chute will be mashed against the body and not be able to unfurl and open.

The THOR guys sent up quite a few I-engine shots. It's amazing to see a 5-pound rocket blast to 3000 feet. Next year we will have to try high-power (HobbyTown has a cool G thru I-Engine V2 that has my name on it). I'm ready.

Samurai!

CP shows off his Kamikazi uniform. The boys dogfight on their bikes.

Smoke & Fire

Our WW-II air force is OK for most activities, but when it comes to real aerial combat, you have to have smoke and flames.