Basement Wall No. 4

Saturday we framed up wall number 4 in the basement. The whole family got involved pushing it up into place.

The shape of things to come is becoming evident. Check out the duct tape TV screen. 120" of HD! The TV wall is next on the list.

Blue & Gold

This year JP volunteered to put on the Blue & Gold banquet for cub scouts. She put together displays for all of our activities throughout the year, and the scouts voted for their favorite. My single vote for rockets was not enough (despite the really cool display I made). Laser tag won by a landslide.

Next year at this time will be GP's last cub scout event. JP wanted to do this year's banquet in order to set a precedent for next year, when GP will be moving on.

In all, we had about 200 people and the whole shindig went off without a hitch, thanks to JP's planning and attention to detail.

Blizzard of 2011

The great blizzard of 2011 that pounded most of the US just missed Nebraska. We only received a few inches of snow, but with it came 40 mph continuous winds. Having no trees between us and the north pole, the snow blows and blows and blows around and all over. I had to get in on the passenger side of my car due to the snowdrift that piled up during the day. 10 deg and non-stop 40 mph wind - Yuk! It was total whiteout at times on my way home from work.

Old Friends

While in the SRQ area, I hooked up with some old highschool friends. Here are F & B.
Also saw MAL, who is now MAG. She has a 13-year old son with a brain tumor that has just started to undergo chemotherapy. Check out her blog: theNathanReport.blogspot.com.

Florida Trip

I hate business travel, and I really hate going to warm places in the middle of winter. I had to go to Florida for a few days to check on some of our test mowers. Flew into Ft. Lauderdale, then drove up to Tampa, spent the weekend in the SRQ area, and then on to Orlando. Rough.

My coworker and I started Sunday in Venice and worked our way up to the northern tip of Ana Maria Island. We found three sharks' teeth at Venice. I was surprised to see that the pier I used to love to fish from is alive and well after being away for 25 years.

The pier at Bradenton Beach is also alive and well and much cleaner. I couldn't believe how clean Sarasota Bay has become. It's beautiful now!

We stumbled across a Packers playoff party in Florida. Go figure.

Misc

Check out how tall CP is! Today he swiped my sneakers. That's my shirt he's wearing.

This weekend we finished up framing under the kitchen table area of the basement. $125 of lumber. The builder used three 2x6's stacked flat as a header above the window. I never noticed it, but it was sagging about half an inch. We beefed it up with some additional 2x6s on edge in the window frame as well as a double 2x8 header in the basement frame wall. We also added that beam that runs across.

JP has been busy baking artisan bread from her new favorite cookbook, "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" We're both putting on weight. Who can resist fresh baked bread EVERY day?

Good Karma

On my return trip from WI, I left my portfolio on top of the self-check-in kiosk. I made a mental note to grab it, but I was so amazed that the machine printed out a real old-school cardstock boarding pass, I walked away without my stuff. In my portfolio I had all my trip notes, business cards, and most importantly, the family Kindle. Throughout my trip, whenever I had a few minutes, I worked on the book I've been reading. The thought of losing my Kindle devastated me.

I realized that I left my stuff on the ticket machine while I was tying my shoes on the far side of the security wall. It took five solid minutes to walk back around (and downstairs to the baggage claim and back up to the lobby) to the ticket kiosk (@ O'Hare). Of course, my belongings were nowhere to be found. I asked the ticket agents, the passenger herders, etc. - no luck.

I went back through security (got the full body scan this time) and met up with my group. We got on the plane and just as the door was being shut, a woman came on and asked if I was TP. "Yeah, that's me. I'm in the right seat, though." I thought she was going to try to take my seat. She asked me again and then asked if I was missing anything. "Yeah - I lost my leather folder and Kindle!" From behind her back she handed me my portfolio. I thought I would never see it again! OK, maybe It would find its way back, but most likely sans Kindle.

I try to have a positive outlook on life, and when I realized my loss, I hoped that some kindred traveller would help me. After all, it's O'Hare, right? Chicago is just about the friendliest place I know. I had a wonderful flight back to NE.

...and so it begins

After a two year hiatus, we returned to Menard's. We filled the Odyssey up with 2x4's and started on finishing the basement. One wall is done. Quite a few more to go. Anyone have a framing nailer & compressor?

Tailgating

I took advantage of an opportunity to go to the Packers / Bears game the day after New Year's. I've always admired the Packers for being able to pack 80,000 fans into Lambeau Field every game. Green Bay has a population of only 83,000 people.

New Year's Eve

This year the usual gang got together to celebrate the arrival of the new year. We all went to the lodge for dinner and then from house to house for drinks & games. (...and legal fireworks @ midnite!)

Legos

I should have told everyone to buy stock in Legos this season. GP got Lego Universe (PC-based MMOG), and CP got a motorized walking AT-AT. GP's lego game is taxing the old laptop - it's pretty graphics intensive and needs a lot of horsepower. CP's AT-AT had over 1100 parts. We had read reviews of it that said to expect 8-12 hours of assembly time. As we unbagged the parts, my level of concern kept climbing.

CP started after lunch and worked all afternoon on it.

After 4-1/2 hours, he had his AT-AT walking along. I just hope that it doesn't become a dog toy - the dogs HATE it.

Christmas

GP got into bed with us @ 4:30 this morning. He was too excited to sleep, so he figured he would let us in on his excitement. We managed to contain everyone until 5:40. In the boys' minds, that's close enough to 6:00. They dressed themselves in their new Boston shirts and were ready to go, as can be seen in the picture.

Dinner was nice, as usual. Ate too much, as usual.

Christmas Eve

This year we have Nana here for X-Mas. The O's came over Christmas eve.

Santa's little helper.

Helpful Kitty

JP is knitting a sweater for the dog. The cat wants to help, too.

CSSBB!!!

This week I gave my presentation to the UNL Six Sigma Black Belt certification board and received the piece of paper that says I'm now officially certified as a six sigma black belt. I was never planning on it when I started back to school, but it worked out with this last class (4th stats class in a row) and I figured that it was now or never.

Now that the semester is officially over, I'm ready to relax and get a life again! JP has plans for me - exercising, finishing the basement, fixing the one strand of lights on the xmas tree, etc.

If you're clueless about what six sigma is: wikipedia article
Or interested in getting certified: UNL Engineering

Old Tron

Last weekend we had a movie viewing party at the neighbors' for the original 1982 TRON. This weekend we're all heading out to see the new "Tron Legacy" Everyone is stoked for some good scifi action. Hopefully it won't be over the top slo-mo kung fu fighting and bullet dodging. We're wanting more video game connections like in the orginal.

In Production

The other day at work, I received a big box full of these circuit boards. It made my day! This is the first circuit board that I designed from scratch that has made it into production. I'm not an electrical engineer, nor do I play one on TV, but it is fun to dabble in.

What is it, you ask? It's a multi-purpose tachometer signal conditioner. It accepts pulses from a wire wrapped around a spark plug wire, a normal NPN switch, or a switch contact closure and converts the pulses to solid 5-volt pulses that can be used by other instruments. It also converts the pulses to a proportional voltage signal, and it has an alarm output that can be used to turn on/off whatever you need if the speed falls below a setpoint. It runs off of 9 to 30 volts AC or DC and cannot be hooked up backwards.

I love my job!

Holiday Spirit

CP turned his nerf rifle into an M-16. It looks like he's ready for the holidays in the holy land.

Farewell Katrina

This morning we put down Katrina. She had some dental surgury and wasn't able to recover. Turns out she had severe kidney problems. She was 6 and a survivor of Hurricane Katrina.

When we first brought her home from the cat rescue lady, all she wanted to do was to be near our faces. She climbed our legs and climbed up JP's back when she was tying the boys' shoes. Any time we sat down, she was immediately in our laps. I don't think JP ever ate breakfast without Katrina sitting in her lap.



All of us will miss her. She followed JP around the house all day, sat in our laps at night in front of the TV, and slept under the covers with us. Valentine will probably miss her the most.