Nebraska's First Ever Democratic Party Caucus

Tonight we made history as participants in Nebraska's first Democratic Party caucus. Instead of just going to the polls and voting, we went to the country club lodge with all the other 75 registered democrats in south Lincoln. We split into two groups, one for each precinct, and went into separate rooms. We then divided into three groups: Clinton, Obama, and undecided. Speakers from each group then tried to convince the others to vote for the better candidate. JP spoke up for Obama from our group. Of the four people that spoke up, three were from Illinois and one from Texas. Once the undecided folks decided, we then counted heads and found that Obama won 2:1, which matches the results for the entire state.

We brought the kids along to let them experience politics in action. They were unimpressed with the event, but were very interested in eating dinner at the country club.

Funny to think that I was a proud member of the teenage republicans in high school. Did I change, or is the world changing?

TP's 40th

JP Threw a big party for me last weekend. I think everyone was ready for a mid-winter party. We went through our scrapbooks and pulled out some funny photos from the last 40 years.

JP managed to light all 40 candles without burning herself. Pretty good for someone that usually burns herself when pulling tater tots out of the toaster oven.

The highlight of the evening was when I got to open my gift. JP bestowed a new addiction on me: Guitar Hero III. It has taken over my free time. I thought it would interfere with trying to learn the real guitar, but it hasn't.

The game features the song "One" by Metallica, a seven minute plus heavy metal song. The song is beyond CP's capabilities, so he plays it in practice mode on the slowest setting, which means it takes about 20 minutes to complete. He sticks with it and gets most of the notes. I need to get a microphone for him so that we can record his performance on video.

My favorite songs in the game are "Number of the Beast" and some crazy sped-up song by Dragonforce. I have conquered "Easy" and have moved to "Medium." I need to start practicing to get to get to "Hard."

Sunset

Lately, I have been leaving work as the sun goes down. We have the most spectacular sunsets here. The sun warms the colors so that all the prairie grass glows red, and the darkening sky brings out an almost ultraviolet tint in the snow.

Pinewood Derby

We raced our cars at the Pinewood Derby this morning and took the coveted Non-first or second place positions, which means that we are done for the day and do not need to come back later to race in the finals.

One car in GP's den lost its axle on the first run. We found a stock non-polished replacement for it, and the car won every heat by at least a full car length. So much for spending an hour polishing axles...

Pinewood Derby Construction

This year for the pinewood derby, we decided to abandon the whole "car" concept and went for a more WW-2 look. GP demanded a Curtis P-40 Warhawk with blue camoflage.

CP chose a battleship, shown here with the USS Arizona.

Both boys helped out a lot with their vehicles. CP ran the scroll saw and both of them used the hand sander with 36-grit paper to shape their models.

V-17

GP & I built the V-17, a massive paper rocket. If the V-2 was good, a V-17 should be about eight and a half times better, right?

XMas 2007 Part 2

We were supposed to get an inch or two of snow, but instead we had a beautiful sunny day. The boys ran out to try out GP's new sled.

Nana really got into bowling on the Wii.

Merry Christmas!

XMas 2007

This year we had Nana and Gramma & Grampa for Christmas. They all arrived on Christmas Eve.

Santa came during the night and left a load of goodies for everyone. CP got some cool star wars stuff.

GP got his lava lamp.

And both received a healthy supply of WW-2 gear. (Note the B-25 attacking the tank)

GP's Self Portrait

GP took his self portrait.

Werft 1

On the second day of X-Mas vacation, we needed something to do, so we made up some paper airplanes and a paper hangar to match. This one was designed for 1:144 scale planes and works well with a lot of the boys' planes. The internet has some amazing resorces for paper models. Download them, print out on cardstock, and build your own things. I barely have time to assemble these models, I cannot image how anyone has the time to actually design stuff like this. Pretty cool.

Katrina is a total lap cat. Whenever anyone is sitting for more than two or three seconds, she is there.

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!).