Last Chorus Concert

Last week we attended GP's chorus concert. It's sad to think that we are now done with elementary school. The school here in Lincoln was the best experience for the boys, ever. We have our issues with NE and the lack of life here, but the bottom line is that this is the best place to raise kids.

Olive Garden

Nana stayed with us on her way to & from seeing her other grandkids in OK City. We're halfway there, so it makes for a perfect rest stop. On her way back, we went out for dinner (a big treat for us, as we only go out to eat once in a blue moon) at GP's favorite place - the Olive Garden. Both boys thoroughly enjoyed their meals. GP ate ALL of his order of fettuccine alfredo. It was probably 4 pounds of pasta and sauce. Plus breadsticks and two plates of salad. Won't be long before he's taller than me, too. (CP is now an inch taller than I).
 

End of the Day

GP had a long day. 10 minutes before this photo, he was in a most foul pre-teen mood. Looks like he just needed a nap.

40

Our young neighbor hits 40 later this year. He is feeling the pressure of mid-life and bought himself a toy. It's got an aluminum big block that puts out 426 hp thru a 6-speed manual gearbox. SWEET!!!

Feline Video Games

JP found some video games for the cat. It's cute, but the cat has become like the boys and wants to play video games 24/7.

New Datalogger

I finally received the production prototypes of my new lawnmower data logger circuit board. We're going to get a bunch made and install them on mowers across the country to measure fuel consumption. Some of our customers can accumulate 1,000 hours per season on their mowers. The bigger mowers can burn two gallons an hour, which adds up pretty quick at $3.50 a gallon. Fuel economy is starting to become more of a conversation topic with landscapers.

The datalogger records engine RPM, fuel flow, fuel level, throttle position, manifold pressure, and the date/time once per second. With an 8 GB SD card, it can record continuously for 3.4 years before it runs out of space. I love being a geek and getting paid for it.

New Old Stock

I found a marquee for my Omega Race arcade game. I had the choice of a used one, or a "NOS" one that was brand new with the protective paper still on it. That's a no-brainer - give me the new one! When it arrived, I was excited to peel off the paper and see my new found treasure. It was "new", but the temporary adhesive on the paper was 30 years old and had become permanent. It took over an hour to peel it all off in little tiny crumbs. Omega Race is looking pretty sweet now. I only have to make a patch piece of star & planet black-light background, and then it will be complete.

Easter Brunch

This year for Easter, we hosted a neighborhood brunch. JP cooked up 3.5 pounds of bacon, and it all evaporated quickly. Next year we should serve at least 8 pounds. It was a beautiful sunny day, but the wind forced us to setup camp in the garage. We have such beautiful weather here, except for the wind that blows 15 mph too much ALL THE TIME.

Snow Tires Be Gone!

GP Helped change out my tires this year. It took over an hour, but he stuck with it until the last lugnut was tight and the snow tires were all up in the attic. Nice to have a capable helper!

Spring Break

For spring break, I had to go on a trip for work. It was a grueling week-long ordeal in Florida. The last two nights we stayed at a place on Clearwater Beach next to a big resort that had live bands every day. It was tough, but we were able to accomplish all of our goals for work.

Owls are back

We've been hearing the owls at nite, hooting back and forth. They used to hang out on JRO's roof, but it looks like they're now perched on ours. One of them hacked up a hairball and dropped it onto the deck. Kinda gross, but I love having them in the neighborhood.

School's Out!

It's been two long months since my last post. I've been a bit tied up with school and work this spring. I took the final for my class this morning and I should have some free time on the weekends again to get caught up with the blog. Stay tuned.

Science Fair

GP had his 5th grade science fair yesterday. His experiment was to see if increased CO2 helped plants grow. He grew radish seeds in both a lasagna pan and a sealed-up glass jar. Each day he exhaled into the jar for 90 seconds to fill it with CO2. After a few days, he had over a hundred 5" tall seedling in the jar, and only a handful of scraggly ones in the lasagna dish.

I took the afternoon off so that I could see his exhibit. My favorite display was one that examined the "5-second rule". If a piece of food is dropped on the floor and you pick it up within five seconds, it's OK/safe to eat it. The girl dropped pieces of bread onto various floors & surfaces around town and then swabbed them and cultured the bacteria. She proved without a doubt, that the 5-second is a myth. The most frightening surfaces were a computer keyboard and the TV remote. If you drop food on you keyboard, don't eat it.

New Lights

 

Last weekend we finally broke down and replaced the nasty old lights we had on the front of the garage. Menard's helped us out, as usual.

Pizza Night

JP keeps a container of bread dough in the fridge so that fresh bread is only an hour away at any time. Our latest weekly trend is to have pizza on Friday nights. JP makes the crusts, and everyone gets their own custom pizza.

NU B-Ball

GP & I were exploring the UNL campus after his "Saturday Science" event at the new physics building. As we were leaving the bookstore, the girl at the couter asked if we would like some free tickets to that afternoon's mens basketball game. Of course we would like them! One of the highlights of the game was a pack of stunt dogs (all rescued) from KC that performed tricks during halftime.

Snow Geese

This winter has been exceptionally mild. The snow geese are migrating north already and passing over daily. When I took this picture, there was a continuous stream of geese from horizon to horizon, and they kept it up for most of the morning.

Huskercats

There's a program at UNL for managing feral cats called Huskercats. The cats are fixed, vaccinated, and released on campus. It's fun to catch them napping in the sun.

Record Snow

It's only snowed three times this winter. We went six weeks without any, and then made up for it all in one day. IT started raining Friday nite and turned to snow in the morning. It snowed and snowed and snowed all day until we had 14" of it. It was wet and stuck to everything and stayed stuck for two full weeks. Fortunately, it was on a Saturday and no one needed to go anywhere. We cleared off the driveway and then the sun came out WITH NO WIND!

AV Storage

Valentine's favorite place is on top of the wii. It's nice and warm, protected, and she believes we will sit and watch her for hours on end (as we watch the TV immediately above her).

We finished the Danish AV storage cabinet in a nice chocolate brown. As soon as we put it in the basement, CP filled it up with all his games. It's so nice to not have a pile of games on the floor.

Swordfighting

The Nebraska SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) had a training event in town, so I took the boys for the afternoon. There were about a hundred combatants all wailing on each other with homebrew weapons of every shape & size. When we got home, I didn't hear one word about machine guns and grenades - it was all about swords, lances, and shields.

Jalapenos

I got tired of paying $3.00 for a little jar of jalapenos, so when I saw this @ Sam's Club, I nearly wet my pants! Five pounds of spicy goodness for $4.80!!

Rocksmith!

Where did February go?!? Life has been crazy busy lately and I haven't put up a post in 6 weeks. Time to catch up!

For Christmas, we received Rocksmith. It's a video game similar to Guitar Hero, except that instead of using a little plastic guitar, you plug in a real guitar. It's truly incredible. I only get to play it a couple hours each week, but even with that small amount of time, my guitar skills have increased by an order of magnitude.

I'm hoping that the boys will get interested in learning to play. It's never been easier.

Fall projects in January

We've had record high temps for the last month. It's been above freezing every day for the last month. We're running 40 degrees warmer than January 2010. It's too hard to sit inside on days like these; the to-do list becons...

We've been looking for a Danish-design media storage cabinet to go under the big screen in the basement. All that JP has found are several thousand dollars. Ikea has exactly what we're looking for for $400, which is great, but it ships in 14 boxes and will cost an additional $350 to ship. That won't do. The nearest Ikea is up in the twin cities, seven hours away.



We hit The Home Depot last nite and purchased a sheet of 3/4" plywood (the nice sanded birch stuff), two 1/4-sheet pieces of 1/4" pretty plywood, and two 1/4-sheet pieces of 1/8" hardboard. I spent all day in the garage (with the door open!!) and cut, routed, trimmed, drilled, sawed, glued, etc. all day. We now have our Danish-design media cabinet. When the weather warms up enough to paint, we'll finish it up. Until then, we now have a place to stash all the xbox games in the basement.

Christmas 2011

We had the full crew here for Christmas this year, as well as an absolutely gorgeous day outside. Two years ago, we had a blizzard; today it was sunny and 50 degrees. My Hawaiian Tropic was calling out for me...

Christmas Tree

Yesterday was the ultimate Christmas Tree setup day. It snowed all day, and it was Saturday. CP really helped out this year and put 90% of the ornaments on the tree. GP decorated the kids' tree in the kitchen.

As usual, the dog slept, and the cat helped.

Snow!

I know I'll be cursing the stuff within a month, but the first snowfall of the year is always exciting. It snowed all day on and off. Big flakes, small flakes, wet flakes, and slushy flakes. We ended up getting about four inches. It's supposed to remain below freezing for the next week, so it will be sticking around for a while.

The dog likes to run around in it, but the cat prefers to stay inside. She had fun watching the giant flakes swirl around on the deck.