Hungry Mouths

This year we had a pair of robins build a nest in the backyard spruce tree. They had a brood of four chicks that all made it out of the nest. It was fun checking up on them every day. By the end, there wasn't enough room in the nest for four fledglings. 

New Project Bass

A friend up at corporate knew I enjoy playing bass and lent me an instrument he no longer used. The neck needed more adjustment than Grampa's back and it had paint drips and a thick layer of grime on it. A little bit of TLC and some new strings brought it back to life and it plays like a champ. It's fun to try out different instruments. When I started, I couldn't tell the difference between a $200 instrument and one that cost $2,000. I'm finally beginning to be able to discern what makes up the difference in price. 

Stringy Helper

One of V's favorite pastimes is helping me change strings on a guitar. She is very helpful keeping track of where all the loose string ends are.

OK Gaduation #2

JP, Nana, and GP went down to OK City for our nephew's graduation. Hard to believe how fast these kids are growing up.

The graduation was on a Sunday afternoon. Cam had finals starting on Monday, and I had a midterm to complete on Sunday, so we stayed behind and ate tater tots and fish stiks until we felt ill.

Study Buddies

The boys next door came over to help me study for a test. They were more interested in the effects of Heteroskedasticity (Chapter 8 of my class) than I.

JP took them in the car to drop off our boys at school. They were a bit worried, as the only time they go for a ride is when they go to the groomer or vet. They didn't realize car rides could be fun.

First Pool Party

We officially hit 98 degrees last weekend. Nothing but sunshine and wind - time for a pool party! The humidity was only 10%, so despite the warm air and 80-something water, getting out of the water was like jumping into Lake Michigan.

Fortunately, a storm blew in and gave us an excuse to get out of the sun.

Gulf Sunsets

No trip to FL is complete without a Siesta Key sunset.

We spent a night at a beautiful little resort on Siesta Key. 

My best friend from high school stopped by and we caught up on our lives. He's running his own computer business in SRQ.

After looking at mowers in SRQ, we headed north and spent the remainder of the week in Tampa, working on more mowers. There, we stayed in Clearwater Beach. We intended to stay in a dive hotel on the beach, but they had recently shampooed the carpets (due to a messy spring break crowd??) and the place smelled like sockless sneakers. We were able to find a place across the street that was clean and didn't smell.

Dolphin Fingers

While JP was having fun with friends on the deck at Wilderness Ridge, I was enduring a week-long business trip in FL. We have a bunch of prototype and pre-production mowers being tested there - someone has to go and check on them now and then...

The corporate travel agency only has boring hotels that are usually somewhat creepy. I spent some time online and located what I hoped would be creepy hotels, but in better locations. The first was in Pompano Beach directly on the ocean. This is my associate's room with a private deck on the beach. For under $100!

Between our hotel and the water was a sea turtle nest. I never realized that they laid eggs on the east coast - I guess I just assumed it was a gulf coast thing.

The gulf coast put chicken wings on the map, so the east coast answered with dolphin fingers. Tasty!

Deck Season at the Lodge

One of our favorite places to go is the deck at the lodge of Wilderness Ridge. While I was out of town, JP and the old neighbors went over. While there, the new neighbors called and asked JP if she would be interested in going over to the lodge - "We're already here!" Everybody was thinking the same thing that day.

Dishwasher Guardian

The dog helps pre-wash the dishes so the dishwasher can finish the job with the phosphate-free so called "detergent" that has trouble on its own. She usually licks the silverware in the basket while JP loads the dishwasher. Since L was awake, she decided that she needed to hassle the dog by blocking access to the silverware basket. 

Once the dishwasher gets going, L's favorite nap spot (other than a laundry basket full of warm clothes) is on the counter above where it's nice & warm.

Catnap

It's so difficult being a cat. Those dumb people leave their shoes in the middle of the sunny spots. Have you ever tried to sleep on top of a pair of sandals?

Opening Day @ the Pool

Our old neighbors were tired of life in the urban center of Lincoln: too much traffic, crime, and the ills created by the liberal attitudes of a big city. They built a beautiful place out in the hills above the city where the air is fresh and clean and windy. The snow melted and we helped them christen their new pool!

Their dog LOVES the water. He rides the floating chair around.

The lizard and I enjoyed catching some rays.

Landscaping Crew

How nice it is to have two kids that are old enough to run the mower and string trimmer.

UNL Fashion Show

Our neighbors took us to the UNL Fashion Show. The show was preceded by a VIP cocktail reception and dinner. Everything was handled by students. The stage & lighting was done by the theatre department, photography: art department, centerpieces & table linens: merchandising school, food service & menu: culinary school, and the models and clothes were all done by the textile department. 

Good Talker

This week we attended the LSW speech team banquet. The school recognizes academics and awards letters for academic "sports". CP got his letter as well as an academic award for keeping his GPA up. The cat is very excited about all of this (she's showing us her face and not her butt in the photo).

These are just the freshmen members of the speech team. I think in total there are 100 kids on the team.

We learned that LSW is going to host a national speech event next year!! Should be exciting.

DEMs for Windows Wallpaper

Several years ago, I created a program that processed digital elevation model (DEM) data files into relief maps. This was before Google Earth & Maps, before Microsoft's Terra Server. There were no good online sources of detailed maps. Now that it's easy to get good maps, I haven't used my program in years. Until last week. 

On my work computer, I have some DEM maps of the Nebraska counties as my wallpaper. Someone mentioned something about them, and was surprised to learn that they are actual maps of real places. They thought that it was all just abstract fractal-based art. That prompted me to generate some maps of the US with random colors. Each map is three degrees wide by two degrees high. There's a map for nearly every lat/lon in the lower 48. I excluded areas with less than 300 ft of relief (Florida does not make for pretty maps - it's too flat).

The collection is located here: http://1drv.ms/1gZis5n. You should be able to download them into a directory and then set your windows wallpaper to show the images as a slideshow that changes every couple of minutes. If you're interested in knowing where a map comes from, the filenames contain the the coordinates of the corners.

Some maps may have white circles on them like this one (click on it to see it full-size); these represent impact craters. This one is upheaval dome in Southern Utah. The crater info was taken from the earth impact crater database several years ago. I've noticed that some appear to be in the wrong spot.

New Apron

I stumbled across a Guinness store while in Vegas. JP now has a new apron in her collection.

Annual Pre-Easter Brunch

We were blessed with perfect weather for our annual neighborhood Day-Before-Easter Brunch. We had old and new neighbors and a houseful of kids. We tried to remember how long we've been doing this - our best guess is that this is year 6 or 7.

We were able to move out to the deck and enjoy the sunshine. We put the remaining fruit salad into the blender and made some tasty fruit smoothies. Before long, we had to break out the sunscreen as everyone's winter-white skin started turning pink.

We had five little girls that I set up in the basement with the drums, maracas, tambourine, cowbell, guitar, and most importantly, a microphone. They had fun making noise for over an hour. 

JP's new Dress

JP bought a pretty khaki dress last year that looked nice, but fought against her hair and skin color. She spent a couple hours and $4 for some blue dye and made her dress new again. She is very excited.

Spring Tease

Last weekend, we hit 80 and had a beautiful spring day. The girls next door joined us on the deck with their dogs. They love JP.

I finished up my homework and took advantage of the warmth to change out my snow tires for summer tires.  Silly me - a day of warmth in the spring means nothing. The wind picked up and it snowed the next day. 

Then it got cold and the water in the pipe going to the sprinklers that I turned on when it was warm froze and burst the vacuum breaker and created a large fountain on the side of the house. 

Treat Drawer

We keep the treats in the same drawer as the AA batteries. Any time I need to get fresh batteries, the animals think it's chow time. M rides along every morning to take the boys to school and then she gets a treat for being good for riding in the car. The cats can't be left out, so they also get goodies, too.

Family Photo

We tried to take a picture of the dog and both cats all together. Fail! I ended up with scratches all over and the cats were mad at the world for the next hour.

Former Neighbors

Our normal Friday Night hangout session with our former neighbors was bumped up a notch when another former neighbor stopped by. 

Favorite Chair

We all have our own favorite chairs. V is no exception. Hers is the barstool with a chinrest. 

Honor Roll

CP is proud to be not only have perfect attendance, but also be on the honor roll. He's really enjoying high school.

Pi Day!

We celebrated Pi Day (3/14) with some apple pi in the lab.

Next holiday: Star Wars Day (5/4).

New Vanity

While I was in Vegas, JP & the boys stripped the oak vanity in our bathroom and turned it white. It was a surprise to see when I got home. We just need a new countertop and sinks and it will look like a new bathroom.

ConExpo 2014

This year I finally got to go to ConExpo in Las Vegas. It's a traveling trade show that only comes around every three years. Supposedly it's the biggest trade show that Vegas hosts - 100,000 attendees. 

We stayed at the Luxor at the south end of the strip. At night, the light from the top of the pyramid attracts zillions of bugs, bats, and nighthawks. There are flying things up as far as the eye can see. 

The ConExpo show fill all of the expo buildings plus outdoor areas to the east and west of the convention center. All of the equipment manufacturers show off their biggest and best equipment. The sky was filled with cranes, aerial lifts, and concrete pumps.

The high clouds were drifting by slowly - they gave the illusion that the cranes were moving. I'm really glad my job doesn't entail working in a 200-ft manlift.