https://secure.trod.org/ en-us 40 <p><a href="http://trod.org/ayla/gallery/2007/2007-11-17/" style="float:left;margin-right:5px;"><img src="http://trod.org/ayla/gallery/2007/2007-11-17/.llgal/thumb_2007-11-17_01_phto0009.jpg"><br /> </a>Ayla has this strange way of letting us know that she is hitting one of her <i>milestones</i> in development. When she started mimicking sounds, I used simple words like “hi”, “hello”, and “Ayla” that could be made without forcing her into complicated mouth positions (<i>reminder, she is only 3 months old</i>). When Joy was dropping her off at daycare one morning, Ayla looked up and clearly said “Ayla”, which shocked Joy and the daycare worker. The shocking part was that this was the first time she had clearly made an ‘L’ sound, and she hadn’t been prompted to say it either. Ayla has since incorporated her name into her normal vocabulary, and it can often be heard in the middle of cries or general babbling.</p> <p>The most recent milestone she revealed to us was rolling over. She’s been able to turn herself over with some effort since 3 weeks, but it always seemed like a coincidence.. although a highly repeatable one. On Friday, she decided to show us that she can roll over on purpose. Starting from her back, she tucks her arm against her side, then uses her foot to push herself over onto her stomache. After doing this quickly a few times to make sure we got the point, she then pushed with her arm and continued in the same direction onto her back again.</p> <p>I figure that since she is trying to do so well, I would try teaching her how to play the drums. Do you think that 3 months is too early?</p> Sun Nov 18 11:30:28 -0700 2007 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/48 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/48 <p>It looks like we have neglected to post anything on this site for a while, which means we missed talking about a few very important happenings in our lives. The first one being the birth of our beautiful <a href="http://trod.org/ayla/">baby daughter</a> on August 4th, and my new job working over at <span class="caps">ASU</span>. We will try to post articles about both of these events in the near future.</p> Sun Sep 09 10:15:57 -0700 2007 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/47 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/47 <p>What do you mean I can’t go back to work?! It really sucks to be put on bed rest. I can understand the logic behind it, but I really hate not being in control.</p> <p>If anyone has any suggestions for dealing bed rest let me know! I am only on day four and I am getting antsy already. And I bet I am starting to drive Ken nuts. :)</p> <p>Joy</p> Mon Jul 30 12:02:08 -0700 2007 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/46 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/46 <p>Yesterday was hard. We had to say goodbye to Anteros, one of our beloved cats.. one of our family. Last weekend he got sick, but seemed to be getting better, then started showing signs that something was wrong. We finally took him to the vet on Friday, and the blood tests showed that there were problems with his kidneys.. really bad problems. Besides the hard choice that we made yesterday, the other option would be to spend a lot of money to put him on IV fluid for a couple days and then retest him to see if he might respond to treatment. That treatment would have been a special diet and giving him fluids 2 to 3 times a week for the rest of his life. Basically having him on the cat version of kidney dialysis. As the morning went on, we could tell he wasn’t doing well, and any treatment would have just prolonged his suffering, so we said goodbye. We will miss him.</p> Sun Jun 03 14:41:35 -0700 2007 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/45 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/45 <p>Last week our blower stopped blowing. There was a distinct hot electrical smell coming from the air intake, so it was a fairly safe bet that the motor was finally dying. It had issues last year, but we managed to get it started back up and left the blower running all the time. I climbed into the attic, opened up the cover to the blower, and pulled the unit out to see if I could clean it, and possibly get it going again for a little bit longer. It just wasn’t going to go. I vacuumed a lot of dust off the motor and fan blades, but it still wasn’t going to start back up. Even giving it a helpful push wouldn’t get it spinning again.</p> <p>We made a few calls, and quickly confirmed that local suppliers only dealt with licensed contractors, and <span class="caps">HVAC</span> professionals would charge us at least $60 just to come out and tell us the motor would need to be relaced. After some online research, we decided to purchase a new motor and capacitor from <a href="http://davespartsonline.com/">Daves Parts Online</a>. The entire order came up to just under $170! I’m fairly confident that the service charges alone from a licensed contractor could have easily outdone that price.</p> <p>The new motor and capacitor arrived yesterday. I immediately changed into my work clothes and headed back into the attic to pull the blower. Removing the blower was the easy part, the hard part turned out to be removing the fan blades from the old motor shaft. It seems that 10 years of fine dust can really make parts stick together. After a full afternoon of carefully applying various implements of destruction, I managed to extract all the parts and give the fan blades a good cleaning to get rid of the dust buildup. I was just finishing the final assembly of the blower unit when Joy arrived home from work. At this point we decided that taking a break for dinner would be a good choice to give my back a break, and stop our stomaches from grumbling.</p> <p>With a full tummy, and a rested back, I hauled the newly reassembled blower back into the attic. The old motor was lead-less (<em>it had a plug on the side rather than loose wires</em>), and the new motor had leads, so now I had the fun task of removing the old wiring harness from the control board and running the leads from the new motor and attaching them top the proper locations. I performed a quick test before closing everything, and was happy to see the motor start spinning right away! I re-attached the front, plugged it back in, and headed back down to finally relax!</p> <p>It’s so nice to have air blowing out of the vents again, but it’s even nicer to know that there is one more thing around the house that I can do myself without paying someone else.</p> Wed May 02 11:14:11 -0700 2007 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/44 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/44 <p>I think about changing the look of <a href="http://trod.org">TRoD.org</a> all the time, but it has had a similar look since 1994, and the look is sort of “historical” now. With the new baby on the way, I’ve decided that we need to create a <a href="http://bowley.info">new site</a> that we can use to post information about our family. This will allow us to keep friends and family informed, and we won’t have to worry about how it will fit into the <a href="http://trod.org">TRoD.org</a> website.</p> <p>The new website is located at <a href="http://bowley.info">bowley.info</a>. We will be updating it on a semi-regular basis in order to keep everyone informed.</p> <p>This new site has also reminded me that I need to add a feature onto this site that I can use to keep track of the various domain names.. Guess I’ll have to add that to my <em><span class="caps">TODO</span></em> list (as soon as I create a todo list).</p></p> Wed Mar 21 11:49:23 -0700 2007 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/43 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/43 <p>While resting on the table in urgent care yesterday, I realized that it has been about 20 years since the last time I had to get an injury stitched up for doing something stupid. Last time, while a freshman in high school, I managed to cut open a gash in the back of my leg when I fell off my bicycle. This time I was playing in the garage with power tools.</p> <p>Joy was sleeping on the couch, so I planned on going to the Sun Dragon fighter practice by myself on the motorcycle. The motorcycle was covered in sawdust from random projects, so I decided to do a quick cleaning with the shop vac. At this point I decided I needed an accessories rack to organize the attachments for the shop vac. After pulling the motorcycle out of the garage, I got to work looking for suitable materials.</p> <p>I found a board I had salvaged from an old couch, and some dowel that could be cut into pegs, and came up with a plan. I would cut some 45 degree holes in the board, put pegs in the middle of them, then mount the board to the wall. This sounded like a quick half hour project, so I might as well get started.</p> <p>I marked the general location for all the holes, then got started on making the jig to help with drilling all the holes. I determined that a 1.5" forstner bit would be perfect, so I chucked it up in the drill press. I grabbed a scrap 2×4 and used the band saw to rip one corner to 45 degrees, and clamped it to the drill press, along with another short block to hold the board in place. Everything was looking good. All I had to do was drill out all the 1.5" holes, switch bits, then drill the holes for the pegs.</p> <p>The first hole went in fairly well, being careful not to make too aggressive of a cut. The second hole was causing problems right from the start. Due to the angle of the cut, and the bit I was using, it wanted to move the board more than just cut into it. I was using the first hole to help hold the board in place, so when the drill bit really caught the wood, it pulled the board (and my fingers) sideways.</p> <p>I knew something had smacked my finger, but didn’t know exactly what had happened. I somehow instinctively shut off the drill press and headed inside. My hand was clenched into a fist, but I was happy to note that I didn’t see any blood, and everything I could see looked fine. I headed into the bathroom to rinse off my hand and see what (if any) damage had occurred. As the warm water cascaded over my hand, I slowly opened my fist and watched as the water turned pink. I slowly turned my hand over and looked at the jagged cut going across the tip of my left index finger, and it didn’t look pretty.</p> <p>I called Joy and asked her to get some gauze and tape to wrap my finger, and that I should probably have it looked at. We got the finger dried and taped up before the shock set in and then I had to sit down on the floor for a few minutes so I wouldn’t end out falling and causing more injuries. A few minutes later, I was back up and grabbing the keys to the motorcycle in order to pull it back in the garage before we left.</p> <p>Eventually we ended out at the urgent care facility where they poured iodine over a very open wound, and eventually set to work putting a few very loose stitches in my finger to hold it in approximately the right shape. Apparently there is some flesh missing, so the doctor couldn’t just stitch it up normally.</p> <p>Three hours after the initial act of stupidity that started all this, I was back home and preparing to go out and visit with friends for the evening.</p> <p>Unfortunately, that quick little “half hour” project will have to wait for a while until I can get back to completing it. My guess is that I might be able to hold out till next weekend before going back to the drill press and try again.</p> <p><strong>Update:</strong> I have a <a href="http://www.trod.org/ken/finger/">photo gallery</a> tracking the healing progress.</p> Mon Jan 29 07:28:26 -0700 2007 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/42 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/42 <p>2006 is coming to a close, and it’s about time to finish up some of the many half done projects around the house. Off the top of my head, here are some of the projects that need to be finished:</p> <ul> <li>in-wall <span class="caps">DVD</span> shelves</li> <li>laminate flooring</li> <li>base boards</li> <li>painting (bathroom, hallway, kitchen, anything that doesn’t move)</li> </ul> <p>The first project is going to be the shelves. I cut out most of the wood a while back and had most of it put together in a dry fitting, but never got around to finishing the wood. Right now, it’s all taken apart and the first coat of oil has been applied. The goal is to have it finished and mounted in the wall before 2007 slaps us upside the head.</p> Wed Dec 27 10:58:41 -0700 2006 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/41 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/41 <p>I’ve taken care of the comment display, and user icons seem to be working better now. I still need to work on the rss/atom feed, an image gallery, mileage tracking, and minor consistency cleanups. For now, my goal will be to keep the look as minimalistic as possible.</p> Thu Nov 16 13:12:39 -0700 2006 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/37 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/37 <p>I will be adding more features here, and eventually replace drupal with my own application. The immediate things that still need to be done around here:<br /> <ul><br /> <li>Fix comment threading display</li><br /> <li>Move milage tracking from aps site</li><br /> <li>Build an image gallery</li><br /> <li>Figure out what this site should look like</li></p> </ul> Wed Nov 15 14:55:23 -0700 2006 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/4 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/4 <p>Everyone already knows the bad news – that we are not going to be parents early next year. The official diagnosis is Missed AB (Missed Abortion). It sucks, what can I say. If you want to know more, but just aren’t sure if you should ask – go ahead. I am open to talking and explaining – and I will tell you if it is too much at the moment. This doesn’t mean that we won’t ever be parents, it just means we have to wait awhile for my body to heal then… well you know!</p> Sun Sep 17 10:42:38 -0700 2006 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/36 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/36 <p>We were informed on Friday, September 8, 2006 that we are not going to be parents. The information that we have at this time is that Joy had a blighted ovum, which means that something went wrong and the fetus couldn’t be formed. Unfortunately the gestation sac continues to grow and produce hcg which makes all blood tests look normal, and all the normal symptoms associated with pregnancy continue. We are very sad over this news, but we understand that there is nothing that anyone could have done. We also hope to try again in the not to distant future.</p> Tue Sep 12 11:21:44 -0700 2006 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/35 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/35 <p>We’ve been trying for a few months now, and it’s finally happend. Joy’s pregnant! She was pretty sure due to things being late, and other physical clues, and then three home tests (two different manufacturers) also agreed… we didn’t even know they could give an answer that fast!</p> <p>The personal <span class="caps">TODO</span> list is going to need a little adjustment, but nothing that can’t be handled.</p> <p>Right now the tentative due date is March 12, 2007.</p> Wed Jul 12 14:22:06 -0700 2006 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/34 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/34 <p>Highlands War is fast approaching, and I really want a wheel barrow for hauling stuff around on site. Okay… the wheel barrow has been on my <span class="caps">TODO</span> list for a long time, but for some reason I’ve finally decided to do it. Perhaps it’s the heat and humidity calling for me to go outside more often. <strong>g</strong><br /> <br/><br/><br /> Anyway.. my new project page is <a href="http://trod.org/projects/woodworking/wheel_barrow.html">here</a></p> Tue Jun 27 16:10:51 -0700 2006 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/15 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/15 <p>Wow.. The table is now sitting in the lobby over at Import Corner (103rd Ave and Van Buren). I think it still needed a little bit of finish work, but Mo seems happy with it. Now I’ll have to see about getting a couple more made for some of the smaller trays. And hopefully I’ll be able to spend a little more time on getting the fit a little bit better.</p> Tue Mar 07 11:07:38 -0700 2006 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/7 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/7 <p>I’ve mentioned this to a couple people, but I really need to pay attention to how I get into things. Luckily there was a reprieve on the Google interview that was scheduled today (changed from another phone interview, to actually meeting face to face later in the week), so I was able to dedicate today to just working on the table.</p> <p>I still feel like the table was a rush job, but hopefully not to many others will notice. I’m pretty sure it will take a miracle to actually have the stain dry in time, but I’m going to try to get two coats on there before finally falling asleep. It would be nice if I could get a coat of clear ploy on top of 4 or 5 coats of stain, but we’ll see after tomorrow if that will work out.</p> Tue Mar 07 00:33:21 -0700 2006 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/14 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/14 <p>My back is feeling better, and it’s time to start working on that list of things to do. I’ll ignore the annoying tasks that involve making money for the moment, and just look at a few of the projects that need to get done around here.</p> <p>Top items on the short list involve cleaning the house and replacing baseboards in the hallway and master bath. The laminate flooring is down, and there are only a few minor issues that need to be hidden/disguised. I think we finally have everything we need to get working on that project.</p> <p>The other project that is fairly imporant is the table stand that I need to finish designing and get the prototype put together. Right now my problem is finding the hinges I want to use, but that seems to be a mental stall tactic, since the rest of the base can be built without the hinges. I really would like to have a prototype finished up this weekend. This would be the first project of this type that would be designed and built for sale, and not just for personal use.</p> <p>There is always a bunch of computer related projects to work on, so after glancing over a few of those, I think I’ll head out to work on the table.</p> Fri Mar 03 10:17:29 -0700 2006 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/13 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/13 <p>Well, Tony and Sally have their stuff moved to their new house. It only took one 20’ box truck, and a few trips of various personal vehicles to get everything moved. The only downside is that I forgot to put on a backbrace, and pulled my back on about the 4th or 5th box I carried out to the truck, but I grinned and kept going. The next day was a little more difficult. I was supposed to head over and help unload the trucks of <span class="caps">SCA</span> gear, but moving anything didn’t seem like a good idea. Instead I hobbled around the house, found my backbrace, and by the afternoon we headed back over to Tony and Sallys new house to help them unload.</p> <p>Hopefully my back will start feeling better soon. Until then, I’ll just keep grinning and acting like it’s not that bad. =-)</p> Sun Feb 26 12:59:06 -0700 2006 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/12 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/12 <p>Once again <a href="http://www.estrellawar.org">Estrella War</a> has come to an end. There should be plenty of “No S**t, There I Was..” stories from this war, but only a few from our camp.</p> <p>The first big thing was the wind that whipped through camp on Wednesday. People who didn’t stake down there tents/pavilions/dining flys/etc where running around trying to either recapture them, or hanging on for dear life trying to keep them from blowing away. The barony of Atenveldts “Big Red” even came down when it’s center pole snaped during a commanders meeting. Luckily they were able to repair the center pole and get Big Red back up within a day or two. Our round pavilions shed the wind exactly how they were supposed to, and the only problem we had was the layer of dust on <span class="caps">EVERYTHING</span>!</p> <p>The rapier fighting was fun, but the numbers where definitly against us. And aparently the inspecting marshals were also against us. When I handed my blade over for inspection on Friday, the person inspecting the blade saw something he didn’t like, so he flexed the blade farther than he should have, and my poor blade didn’t return to it’s fully upright position. Luckily I was able to borrow another blade for the battles on Friday and Saturday. This also lead to the purchase of new rapier and dagger blades over the weekend which I will be getting ready over the next few days. Everyone seems to think that I should have slugged the person inspecting my blade, but instead I turned the other cheek and walked away before I could do anything to get myself removed from the field. In truth, I was still somewhat in shock saying “damn.. the blade bent.. huh…” and the severity of the situation just didn’t register right away.</p> <p>During the Thunder circle, Joy and I were elevated to silver, and Craig and I were both blooded for our victories on the field of battle.</p> <p>Now it’s time for everyone to get back to work. For me, that means more Ruby and Ruby on Rails work, along with washing a few more loads of cloths, while trying to clean up the house before Joy’s graduation.</p> Wed Feb 22 07:34:53 -0700 2006 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/5 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/5 <p>I finally picked up some new hard drives and have Bones and Garm migrated over to the new drives, so hopefully the errors can finally go away. The upgrade also provides a much needed increase in storage space on Bones (the server hosting this website). I still have to replace the backup drive in Garm, but that will only require a couple minutes of down time.</p> <p>Nonobaddog is still happily working with the power supply borrowed from the Wynter box, and the Wynter box is currently using the new power supply.</p> <p>The happy result is that everything is up and running, and shouldn’t be sending me too many error messages for a little while.</p> Wed Feb 08 12:46:01 -0700 2006 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/11 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/11 <p>I finally tracked down the problem with nonobaddog (the workstation, not the pet). It seems that the power supply just doesn’t want to work any more. I pulled the power supply from the wynter box and connected it to nonobaddog, and now everything seems to be working normally again. I guess it’s about time to look at the bank account and see how many parts I can afford when i make my trip to the computer store.</p> <p>It’s nice having nonobaddog working again. All my development stuff is set up and configured on there, and I have a couple <a href="http://www.rubyonrails.org">Ruby on Rails</a> projects that I really want to work on some more. I could always check out a working copy onto another system, but I’m starting to run low on development machines around here.</p> Mon Feb 06 08:47:29 -0700 2006 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/10 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/10 <p>Am I insane yet? I sure feel like it sometimes. In the last couple days I’ve performed a wedding, finally fixed my motorcycle, and had computer hardware decide to stop working.</p> <p>Friday started out as normal as can be expected when you have to perform a wedding. I wake up nervous about my fear of talking in front of people, still upset that the motorcycle is not running, and just hoping that Joy will survive the day as she tries to make sure the wedding goes as smoothly as possible for Craig and Selene.</p> <p>The wedding had a few bumps, but still we all pulled it off wonderfully, and all the guests had a great time! When we finally got home around 11pm, there was a message on the answering machine that the o-rings were finally in! Unfortunately, this just added to everything else running in my brain, and sleep just didn’t work as well as expected for that night.</p> <p>On Saturday morning, I headed over to the dealer to pick up my o-rings and some coolant to refill the bike’s radiator, then headed home to put that bike back together. It ended out taking me a couple hours, but that was probably due to the TV being on in the garage while I was working. The end result was that Joy and I took the bike for a ride to get something to eat that afternoon! It was great being back out on the road, and I know the motorcycle was happy not to be sitting in the garage all the time.</p> <p>Saturday evening I decided to take a look at Bones (the server hosting this web page) and see about the hard drive that had gone bad. That task still has be stumped, because the system won’t boot without the bad hard drive connected, but nothing is using it. I guess I’ll just work harder when I finally pick up a replacement drive. Around the same time, I noticed that Garm (my other server) is reporting errors on it’s one remaining drive, so I guess that trip to the computer store will be occuring sooner than I originally expected.</p> <p>To top the computer problems off, Nonobaddog (my main workstation) had a power problem with the <span class="caps">UPS</span>, and now it’s decided that it doesn’t want to turn on any more. It’s always been a little bit strange (hence the name), but normally it can be convinced to work again… and I’ll keep my fingers crossed that it just wanted to rest for a while.</p> Sun Feb 05 10:01:51 -0700 2006 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/9 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/9 <p>It’s been tough for the poor motorcycle recently. It has been down for weeks now, but at least there is hope that it will soon be back on the road where it belongs.</p> <p>I had noticed a little drip on the ground next to the bike, but I just assmed it was from the water I ran through while pulling into the driveway. Eventually, Joy also noticed the drip and asked me about it, so I decided to investigate. Turns out that it wasn’t just water, it was anti-freeze. I was even able to trace the drip back to a connecting pipe between the cylendars, and when I started the bike, it became very apparent that this problem needed to be fixed before the bike left the garage again.</p> <p>After a couple weeks of searching, including a much needed partial cleaning of the computer room, I finally found the repair manual at about the same time I found the fix on the Internet. Turns out that the leak is not entirely uncommon, and it involves replacing two o-rings.</p> <p>“Great! This should be an easy fix!”… at least that’s what I thought.</p> <p>After taking off the passenger pilon, in order to remove the main seat, so I could remove the bolt to take off the gas tank, I finally got to the radiator cap. I then put a pan under the bike and managed to remove the drain plug from the water pump. although annoying, this really wasn’t that bad. Then came the fun of trying to slide this little pipe around in order to get the o-rings off. Not quite as easy as the on-line instructions made it sound, but it did finally work.</p> <p>I decided to just remove one of the o-rings and take it to the local dealer to see about getting the replacements. Since the bike is out of commision (and looking pretty sad with all those parts removed), dad came to the rescue and drove me over to the dealer. This is when I learned that no-one around here had any in stock. I finally told them to special order the o-rings. Two little round pieces of rubber.. and I have to wait a few days to get them. <strong>sigh</strong></p> <p>After leaving the dealer, we decided to stop by the local AutoZone to see if they might have o-rings that would work. After seeing the look on the persons face behind the counter, I realized that they weren’t going to be any help. None of their o-rings where even close to the ones I needed.</p> <p>Now I just get to sit here and wait for the phone to ring with the news that those two little pieces of rubber are finally in, and I can start putting the bike back together, and get it out on the road where we belong.</p> Mon Jan 30 09:05:33 -0700 2006 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/8 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/8 <p>It was great meeting up with the Opnix people, but unfortunately I didn’t get home till late Friday night (or Saturday morning.. don’t really remember). I ended out getting a late start on Saturday morning, but figured that I would still be able to make the trip in time.</p> <p>I rolled up some cloths in a wool blanket, grabbed a sleeping bag (just in case), strapped everything to the bike, loaded plenty of tunes on the mp3 player, then headed off to Las Vegas. The first leg of the trip to Wickenburg flew by without any problems, so I topped off the gas tank and headed north. I had planned on stretching my legs about an hour down the road, and Wickiup seemed like a great place to stop. I pulled up to the Wickiup Trading Post, and realized that I really needed to take a break before heading off for my next gas stop in Kingman. I walked into the Trading Post to look around, and it turns out there is a restaurant in there! After looking over the menu, I decided on a ham and cheese melt combo. It wasn’t the best I’ve ever had, but it sure tasted good to eat something while giving myself a little break from the road.</p> <p>After the break, I felt refreshed enough to make the rest of the trip! Everything seemed wonderful until about 10-20 miles outside of Kingman when the wind kicked up, and started knocking me all over the road. I read the weather reports, but I didn’t realize that it was going to be that bad! By the time I got to the truck stop, I needed another break. After gassing up the bike, I gave Joy a call and let her know that I was almost there, and probably only one more stop at the dam. After the wind calmed down a little bit, I headed off toward the Hoover Dam. Of course by the time I got to the dam, I just couldn’t stop thinking about how close I was, so I just kept going.</p> <p>I was starting to get a little bit sore, but I figured I could just stand up and stretch at any stop lights I might find. After getting off the freeway onto Sunset in Las Vegas, I had more than enough chances to stretch my legs. The traffic on a Saturday afternoon was stop and go all the way to the park. I was happy when I realized that it was just about 4:30, and I should have enough time to check out the fair and walk around for a bit. Unfortunately I got there just as the others were planning on leaving to get something to eat and change before comeing back later that night for the parties after the public would be gone for the day.</p> <p>On Sunday, Joy and I went out to get breakfast, rode the motorcycle up and down the strip for a little bit, and eventually got back to the house to find the others still asleep. I watched TV for a while, and eventually everyone woke up and prepared to head out to the fair again. Unfortunately for me, everyone else had already been all over the fair, and I didn’t get a chance to walk around until after it closed on Sunday, which was too late to see anything. Maybe next year I’ll be able to make it up a little earlier and look around.</p> <p>Joy decided to join me on the motorcycle ride back to Phoenix, so on Monday morning, we headed out to a nice lunch with our hosts before heading back, and finally headed home around 1 in the afternoon. We gassed up in Kingman, and we started to notice that it wasn’t getting warmer like we had hoped. After pulling over to put on a few more layers, we finally made it down to Wikiup and stopped for a bite to eat (can you guess what I had?). Selene and Craig saw the bike and stopped to make sure everything was alright just as we finished up and prepared to get back on the road.</p> <p>About this time, we realized that the last part of our trip was going to be in the dark. It got a little bit nerve wracking when we pulled in behind a motorhome with no tail lights working. We ended out following them all the way into Wickenburg with my high beams lighting up the back of the motorhome so other motorists could see he was there as they passed. Fortunately there were no accidents, and we made it to the gas station in Wickenburg. I gassed up the bike, We gave my parents a call to let them know were were almost back, then headed back out for that last 45 minute stretch in order to get home.</p> <p>We were able to rest for about 5 minutes after we got in the house before we headed out the door to the vet emergency room for the dog…</p> <p>Maybe one of these weekends we will be able to rest again.</p> Sat Nov 05 18:13:58 -0700 2005 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/18 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/18 <p>Did you ever have one of those years where it seemed like you were constantly busy? It’s been that way for a while now.. and this weekend isn’t any different. We’ve been planning on attending the <a href="http://www.lvrenfair.com">Las Vegas Age of Chivalry Renaissance Festival</a>, and we were really starting to look forward to going… then things happend.</p> <p>Our truck has been having “issues” for a while, and they have progressively getting worse. The main problem was the engine losing power while idling. As with most things auto related, it comes down to electrical or fuel. The problem seemed to be somewhat random, and didn’t seem to be electrical, so we started going the fuel system. Could it be something as simple as the fuel filter? Probably not, the problem seemed to be effectiong only one cylinder.. so maybe the fuel injector? “Right! It’s got to be the fuel injector!” So we call a shop that cleans fuel injectors, and they refer us to a person who specializes in diagnosing engine problems. I was able to get the truck to limp over to meat with Joe, and spent a little time connecting wires to the trucks computer and quickly found out that the problem was with the third cylender misfireing. Turns out the spark plug wire had broken.. a quick $35 trip to the parts store and the truck was running fine again!</p> <p>The other issue was that a bunch of people from Opnix (company I worked for that died during the dot-com crash) were getting together Friday night. Damn.. that really puts a kink in plans. We had planned on leaving Thursday night, or Friday morning. Luckily we had made a few calls while the truck didn’t look like it would make it, so Joy had a ride lined up with Craig and Selene on Thursday night, but I still wanted to meet up with the old Opnix people, and do a little networking. we came up with the idea that Joy would go up Thursday night, and I would run up on Saturday morning to meet them.</p> <p>The complicated part of this plan is that I planned on taking the motorcycle. This of course caused Selene to panic about me making the trip on a motorcycle, and Joy was a little uncomfortable with it as well, but a little more understanding. The bike has had a recent oil change, new spark plugs, new chain, and has been running fine, so no worries on that part. I would take off in the morning while I’m wide awake, and hopefully avoid the crazy people while they sleep in a little bit. =-)</p> <p>I guess I better figure out what I need to take, and hope for the best tomorrow. I’ll post an update of what happens when I get back.</p> <p>Ken…</p> Fri Oct 07 09:44:40 -0700 2005 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/17 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/17 <p>While I was looking around the Internet, I ran across a test to see if you were “white trash”. Now, I know I wasn’t born in a trailer, nor have I ever lived in a trailer, although I have visited a few. I don’t have any appliances or vehicles in my front yard, although I do have some broken down motorcycles hidden by tall grass in the back yard. And now that I have short hair, I can’t even do the mullet thing any more…</p> <div style="font-family:verdana;font-size:10px;width:150px;BORDER: 1px solid;PADDING: 5px;BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffc933; TEXT-ALIGN: left"><div align="center" style="margin-bottom:5px; font-size:12px;" nowrap><b>I am 23% White Trash.</b><br><a style="font-size:10px;" target="_blank" href="http://www.fuali.com/test.aspx?id=35205d9c-5462-4324-926d-bc2d7ca95e98"><img src="http://www.fuali.com/testimage.aspx?img=ee0e4a4c-d212-49ac-a0d7-71f0f9dd4eab.gif" alt="Not at all White Trashy!" border="0" style="margin-top:5px"></a></div><p>I, my friend, have class. I am so not white trash. . I am more than likely Democrat, and my place is neat, and there is a good chance I may never drink wine from a box. <div align="center" style="margin-top:5px;" nowrap><a style="font-size:10px;" target="_blank" href="http://www.fuali.com/test.aspx?id=35205d9c-5462-4324-926d-bc2d7ca95e98">Take the<br>White Trash Test<br>@ FualiDotCom</a></div></div></p> Tue Jun 07 08:20:21 -0700 2005 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/16 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/16 <p>Back on March 13th, we quickly determined that we would have a full day. We woke up early (for a weekend) and headed out for archery practice. Since some of our many plans for the day fell through, we ended out with only two activities for that Sunday afternoon: The final court for the Baroness and Baron of SunDragon before they stepped down on March 26th at Mixed Weapons War, and a performance over on the far side of town.</p> <p>We ate lunch, then headed over to SunDragon to say “hi” before trecking across town… it seemed like a simple plan at the time, but it didn’t quite work out that way. Upon arriving, we were informed that people were donating hair for Locks of Love. This of course triggered a fight or flight response if anyone even attempted to get near my hair! We walked over to the tent and were amazed at the people who had already had their hair cut, and all the people waiting in line to have their hair cut. We walked around and talked to people, and basically did the whole social thing. Joy was curious if she even had enough hair (they require at least 10 inches), and since they already had it pulled back and measured, she just let them cut off the pony tail. Wow, Joy now has barely shoulder length hair. I couldn’t just stand by as the person who always whined “your hair is longer than mine” get’s her hair cut that short. As I was standing around, a nice young lady (jokingly) says “you could get your hair cut too”, and I responded “Okay” and sat down in the chair. The look of shock on all the faces was worth it! I believe I had three girls sitting in front of me, trying to make sure I was okay, and Joy turned around from talking to a group of people and came running over to witness what was about to happen. They pulled back my hair and began to measure…. 17 inches! (they could have gotten 18, but that would risk a bald spot). <strong>snip</strong> <strong>snip</strong> <strong>snip</strong> ….</p> <p>No one in the <span class="caps">SCA</span> had ever seen me in short hair…. heck, Joy had never seen me in short hair! It had been over a decade since I had started letting my hair grow, and here I am donating 17 inches of hair to such a worthy cause. By the end of the day, over 300 inches had been donated by over 20 people, with the longest (22 inches) coming from Wallace.</p> <p>After getting an award for fighting at Estrella War and getting our hair cleaned up (first time a barber/stylist has touched my hair in over 8 years), we finally headed off to the east side of town. After shocking quite a few poeple, we eventually ended out at my parents house to show them our new styles. We saw plenty of jaws drop that day and in the days that followed….</p> Thu Mar 31 15:56:22 -0700 2005 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/33 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/33 <p>Why didn’t anyone tell me how easy it was to make a lathe?<br /> <br /> It all started because Estrella War is coming up Real Soon Now, and I’ve had a canapy for our rope bed on my “honey-do” list for over a year now (since I built the rope bed). The corner posts for the bed are made from 4×4 material, and I needed to redo the legs at the foot of the bed after one of them blew out last year (not enough wood to handle the pressure caused when the cheap side rail decided to twist). I made all the legs the same height, and decided to use 2×2 material to make posts for the canapy and mount them to the tops of e legs. After some discussion, it was decided that it would be easy to just turn about 2" of the end round, and drill a hole to match in the top of each leg. I then realized that I didn’t have a lathe yet. In a fit of panic, I found a 12’ 2×6 in my garage, some scrap 2×4, plywood, 1/2" dowel, a sawhorse, some random clamps, and a scrap of rope. The next thing I knew, there was a pole lathe in my back yard and the 4 posts had nice round ends on them!</p> <p>I know I’ve read plenty of pages talking about how easy it is to make a lathe, but for some reason no-one hit me upside the head and actually convinced me it was that easy!</p> <p>The only problem I had was that the dowel needed to be resharpend after the 3rd leg. Hopefully some day I can get some metal poppets to use, but hardwood dowel it good enough for turning cheap home center soft wood. =-)</p> Thu Feb 03 20:48:04 -0700 2005 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/32 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/32 <p>Yesterday my dad called to see if I had seen the latest Fry’s Electronics ad in the paper, and pointed out that they were advertising a Magellan eXplorist 100 for $59.99. I’ve been wanting one for a long time, so I started doing a little research on this unit. One of the big things I noticed is that no-one has any reviews on this model. I did find some reviews for the eXplorist 200 that said it was a good entry level <span class="caps">GPS</span> unit. When I did comparisons on the 100 and 200, the only real difference is that the 200 has a built in map, and the 100 doesn’t. The other downside is that the eXplorist doesn’t have a connection for an external antenna, so it is limited to working better outdoors. I decided that I wasn’t planning on using this unit for finding my way back to a cubicle, so the outdoor limitation was fine, and there is a good chance that I will be using it where there aren’t many roads, so the map isn’t really that important either. I’ve already entered about 5 or 6 <a href="http://www.geocaching.com">geocaching</a> locations so that I will have something to do when I get bored. =-)</p> Sat Jan 29 09:22:47 -0700 2005 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/22 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/22 <p>Since Joy and I are both still trying to recover from this evil cold that so many people seem to have contracted, we decided to stay home rather than travel down to the southern war practice. Instead we started our Sunday with the customary archery practice, then spent the afternoon working on some of our <span class="caps">TODO</span> list. I think we finally have the measurements mostly figured out for Joy’s coat, and the new legs for the rope bed are almost in a useable condition. The legs still need the have corners beveled, sand smooth, and then apply some finish. As for the coats, I need to finish the lining for Joy’s coat, then use the lining as a pattern for the outside material.</p> <p>Hopefully I will be able to finish up one of these projects in the next couple days so I can see what is next on the <span class="caps">TODO</span> list.</p> Sun Jan 23 23:27:03 -0700 2005 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/19 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/19 <p>I had to start somewhere, so I started working on the war coats since no matter what the daytime temperatures are like, the nights are always cold at Estrella War. To begin with, I’m currently working on the wool lining, and if I have time (and can find the right material) I’ll work on the outer layer. I am about 6’ tall, and my coat is going to take about 4 yards of 60" wide material for each layer.</p> Mon Jan 17 08:42:52 -0700 2005 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/21 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/21 <p>Wow! <a href="http://estrellawar.org/">Extrella War <span class="caps">XXI</span></a> is getting closer every day! We still have a rope bed to repair, we have no idea what condition the pavilion is in, there are a couple items of garb that still need to be made so we don’t freeze at night, and probably many more items that I just can’t think of right now.</p> <p>The part that makes it real hard to get these last minute items taken care of is all the events leading up to the war. There seems to be a war practice almost every weekend in addition to the normal practice, then there are meetings about who is going to do what, and just in case you didn’t have enough to do, there is bound to be family and friends that also want to visit with you. Of course the part about visiting with family and friends is probably one of the best ways to decompress after panicing about everything else.</p> Thu Jan 13 14:04:53 -0700 2005 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/30 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/30 <p><a href="http://www.trod.org/drupal/image/tid/21">We decided to visit Las Vegas, Nevada for our 8th Anniversary!</a> We were a little late taking off in the morning on Wednesday, but we still managed to arrive about a half hour after check-in started. This time of the year is when most of the big shows are shut down for repairs, so we didn’t get to see many of the things that we had expected to see… of course this also explained why we were able to afford to stay at TI (Treasure Island), which is a 5 star resort. We spent much of our time wandering from TI down to Ceasars Palace, across to the Flamingo, and back up to the Venetian… and of course visiting everything inbetween.</p> Sat Dec 18 11:01:14 -0700 2004 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/31 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/31 <p>My supplied finally arrived, so my three tippless arrows now have tips. Along with the tips, I received the spools of Dacron B50 that I needed to make a new bowstring. After finding a random section of <span class="caps">MDF</span> in my garage, and a box of finish nails, I set to work makeing a Flemish twist bowstring (black and red). After rubbing plenty of wax into the string, pulling the string a few times to help get the initual stretching out of the way, I set the brace height and decided to add serving and a nocking point to the string. The serving was a little difficult getting the tension correct, but I think I’ll be able to do a better job on future strings. A little more wax and I was on my way to tieing on a nocking point.</p> <p>I went out to shoot with the new string this morning, and found out that today was tournament day! The nocking point made a <span class="caps">HUGE</span> difference, and it doesn’t look as obvious as the big brass things that most modern archers use. If my accuracy improves just a little bit, I should be able to get bowmen without too much difficulty.</p> Sun Sep 26 11:52:37 -0700 2004 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/29 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/29 <p>I’m not sure exactly how it happend, but I seem to be heading towards a new hobby… Archery! I’ve already purchased a set of arrows, a couple hay bales to use as targets in the back yard, and I should be picking up a longbow soon. That’s right, I said “longbow”. As if archery isn’t difficult enough, I’ve decided to start out with one of the harder bows to shoot accurately. My thinking is that if I am able to gain any level of proficiency with the longbow, switching to a recurve later should be a little easier, although I’m not sure when, or if, that time will come.</p> Thu Aug 26 09:48:55 -0700 2004 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/28 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/28 <p>It must be that time of the year where you just need to “DO” something. I finally put together the ugly settle table that will be used as a shop bench, and I’m looking forward to getting the wood needed to put together the <a href="http://shadowlands.ansteorra.org/shadow/mar2002/Settle/settle-toc.html">nice one</a>. We now have laminate flooring in the master closet, and planning on installing another section in front of the sink for the master bath, and in the hallway. I still need to put down new baseboard in the closet, replace the frame around the door, and paint the front bathroom. Who knows where this madness will lead us!</p> Mon Aug 02 14:57:25 -0700 2004 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/27 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/27 <p>Well, after trying to wear myself out in Las Vegas and finding out that I do survive after walking for long distances on little sleep, and not always enough food, I’ve decided to walk for a good cause. After finding out that <a href="http://www.nickstoys.com/">Nick</a> had signed up for the Arthritis Walk 2004, we talked him into forming a team, and joining together for this great cause. If you would like to sponser any of us, feel free to visit our <a href="http://give.chariteam.com/?x=2x52x4401xnx1254356xnx64021x9721">team page</a> or go directly to <a href="http://johann.chariteam.com/">my sponsership page</a> and donate using the simple, and secure, online donation form. You don’t have to do a thing, we’ll do that walking for you… donate today!</p> <p><span class="caps">BTW</span>: The walk will be on May 15, 2004. You can find more information about it <a href="http://www.arthritis.org/communities/chapters/walk/overview.asp?chapid=64">here</a></p> Mon Apr 26 14:22:00 -0700 2004 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/26 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/26 <p>Woohoo! It’s been done! Tony is now a married man as of April 24, 2004 at 11am!!!</p> <p>And to help out the happy couple, there is a new <a href="http://tonyandsally.org/drupal/">website</a> that they can use to publish pictures from the wedding, and information about how their new married life is going.</p> <p>There probably won’t be anything new there for a couple days, but be sure to check <a href="http://tonyandsally.org/">it</a> out and watch for updates when the couple get’s back in town.</p> <p><a href="http://tonyandsally.org/drupal/">http://tonyandsally.org/</a></p> Mon Apr 26 08:02:00 -0700 2004 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/25 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/25 <p>Okay.. the server has been modified to use software RAID1 for the root filesystem. After finally performing this task, and reading all the HOWTO’s (of course I didn’t perform these two tasks in the proper order), I feel confident in saying that this is an easy task to perform. The main reason this was done was so that both hard drives will be used to the best of their ability, and if for some reason one of the drives should fail, the system should keep running until the drive can be replaced.</p> <p>Okay.. the server has been modified to use software RAID1 for the root filesystem. After finally performing this task, and reading all the HOWTO’s (of course I didn’t perform these two tasks in the proper order), I feel confident in saying that this is an easy task to perform. The main reason this was done was so that both hard drives will be used to the best of their ability, and if for some reason one of the drives should fail, the system should keep running until the drive can be replaced.The only hint I can give anyone else who wants to attempt this task: Read the HOWTO’s <b>before</b> you get started.. or at least before you finish.</p> Tue Apr 20 00:12:00 -0700 2004 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/24 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/24 <p>We’ve been busy scanning in stacks of pictures we have laying around here, so feel free to look through the <a href="image">image galleries</a> to see what we have. There are pictures of our pets during their few moments of behaving nicely, past Estrella Wars, our house under construction, and even pictures from our wedding!</p> Fri Mar 26 13:46:00 -0700 2004 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/23 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/23 <p>Since I have to play with as many different features as possible, I’ve decided to enable the personal weblog (“blog”) feature on here. I’m still not sure why someone would want a public diary, but at least the option is here if someone really wants to.</p> Thu Mar 18 22:55:00 -0700 2004 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/6 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/6 <p>Woohoo! It’s about time we put up a site where we can post stories, and whatever else we want to do.</p> Thu Mar 18 09:05:00 -0700 2004 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/20 https://secure.trod.org/post/show/20