Ride Time

I have the joy that is my monthly fitness test on the schedule for this afternoon. Especially during the winter months when I don't get to ride outside after work, it is nice to find out what exactly the trainer workouts are or are not doing. After a few months of being at pretty much the same level, I am expecting change this month. Unfortunately during the off-season, that change is usually a slide towards less power since you can only do so much on the trainer and maintain for so long. It was nice while it lasted . . . at least my fitness doesn't fall off as quickly as the stock market on a Friday.

This weekend is suppose to warm up a little bit, for Saturday at least. I'll be headed up to Boulder for another ride with the teammates, some of whom I still have not ridden with. A change of ride scenery will be much appreciated since I feel like I have been doing the same few rides outside when I get the chance.

Between home projects and working on the website stuff, my weekend should be relatively full. I was able to update some pages last night and take some steps towards being able to publicize it. I get to practice my Photoshop skills and stretch my design muscles and help craft a lasting impression for those visiting the team site. Speaking of . . . Hutchison is making some lasting impressions of his own, talk about dedication! He doesn't even own a Subaru.

I almost forgot, after finding out that Go Fish has all you can eat sushi and apps on Tuesdays for $28, we decided to give it a try on a regular night to see if the concept was even remotely less terrifying than one might think. It wasn't half bad. The service was very good, the specialty rolls were exciting and new, and I lived to tell about it the next day. I will have to go back after not eating for a week to get my money's worth. That's a wrap, let's call it a week!

The Bad and The Good

I keep hearing about layoffs in the news and figured somebody has to be keeping a tally. It turns out I was right and the total for 2009 through 1/28 is 151,352 pink slips handed out.

I have friends and acquaintances in just about every job sector out there from construction to tech to other. Nobody has warm, fuzzy feelings about job security and who can blame them? It isn't like you can leave one job and transition easily into something else. Everybody has half an eye out for themselves or somebody else on the job front. There is the notion of weathering the storm by hiding out in the academic world, but what does that really get you besides more debt at this point? Unless you know what you are doing, an MBA is essentially the newest college diploma in the sense that everybody and their third cousin has one, rendering it meaningless and just a bit to get you past the rough screen in the application process. I digress . . .

On the brighter side of things, I took a look at the race calendar for 2009 and made some reservations for out of town races. I'm all set to stay in scenic Albany, WY for the Dead Dog Classic Stage Race. I booked a luxurious cabin (not the double wide this time) at the Albany Lodge. I also reserved my room at one of the non-manky hotels in Salida, CO for the hardest omnium in the state. Last year, the start list read like a who's who of American Cycling. I am getting excited about the season, with any luck, I will do enough work on the website tonight to add a link. Here's a teaser:

Complex

Trying to start up another blog site is difficult. We should have some actual team information available to the world in the near future. Wading through the ins and outs of Blogger and Wordpress doesn't make for light reading. I thought this stuff was supposed to be brainless.

Shiny

As another cycling season approaches, we are coming close to the date when everything shows up shiny and new. This year we will be on the Ibis Silk SL again for the team bike, the only difference will be custom paint.


From first glance, I'm going to have to make the official statement . . . these things are going to look sweet. There will be some special parts and bits, above and beyond the stock bike in 2009. We should have some TRP Brakes on the way.


Red, like the picture says should fit the color scheme quite nicely. I won't go into the wheels unless there is any design change for 2009. The team wheel will be the Shimano 50mm carbon tubular. It has been a great all around wheel for the races in the hills, the plains, and crit courses.

Aerus will round out the selection for the non-stock bits. They are providing bars, stems, and seatpost in a tasty carbon finish. I can't wait until the new bike shows up and I can start training again. This time off is going to take its toll, but what's the sense of training on an 'old' bicycle . . .

That Which Does Not Kill You

Amazing what happens when you combine two relatively innocent words. Space . . . there are so many things that can be said. It can relate to the scientific, the physical, the mental and emotional. Who doesn't love a good crawl, be it a stroke in swimming or a trip from bar to bar to bar?

I spent some quality time in the crawlspace on Sunday and if I didn't contract the Hanta Virus or somehow shorten my lifespan significantly, I'll be amazed. It was dark, dusty, cramped, and the presence of crunchy, old mouse carcasses should have served as a deterrent. If they couldn't survive down there, what makes me think I could? There were two purposes to my visit to the no man's land beneath the back addition; to brace the floor so it wouldn't feel like a diving board anymore and to insulate to regulate the temperature inside the back room. I came up with a couple other tasks to be completed while I was wedged in there, helmet mounted light on, legs hanging out . . . There were some places I could see daylight. Silly mice could have walked out the way they came in, instead of up and dying. I also removed the random light bulb and can of fruit punch, unfortunately neither had a date.

You know it is bad when you feel like you have to shower after the experience, using undiluted bleach for soap. I guess I am exaggerating slightly, but when it is all said and done, I hope to never enter that space again, walking, crawling, or otherwise. The floor is now well supported and the rush of cold air is nowhere near as strong as it once was. I managed to insulate the remainder of the ceiling and walls without killing myself. I should hurry up and get to the drywalling part since I'm sure the 1/2" drywall will significantly improve the structural integrity and more importantly prevent me from finding something else I really want to fix.

I made the mistake of violating my 40 degree rule when it comes to riding. I joined the group ride down at Chatfield on Saturday morning despite the temperature. I only briefly lost feeling in fingers, it all came back eventually, but there was a stretch where I couldn't shift because I didn't have enough sensation to distinguish between the parts of the lever. After a pretty big week on the trainer, riding out in the real world didn't feel spectacular, but I knew that might be the case. This week is going to be relatively light and I have my next fitness test on Friday to see what's what and where I'm going. The ACA calendar has been released, I know what I am doing every weekend through the end of August now.

Just in Time

Now that the mid-winter burst of spring is over, it is going to get cold outside again, which means it is going to get cold in the back room again. Good thing I got started on insulating last night. With a few batts in place, it was already a little less drafty. I was quickly reminded why I hate being anywhere near fiberglass insulation. Even coming close to think about touching the stuff makes my skin itch/prickle. I had on gloves, long sleeves, etc and could still feel the biting sensations.


It is all one step closer to drywall and finishing off the space for "real" even though I know what is under the surface and it horrifies me. Speaking of under the surface, the other night, I pulled the sight glass from the Astoria as one of the other small projects on the machine.


The assembly is supposed to have a little red ball that floats and shows the water level inside the boiler. There was some crud built up on the inside of the glass preventing the ball from moving freely. I cleaned it up, made sure it all went back together properly and reinstalled it. The ball promptly dropped out of sight and the glass filled with water as I filled the boiler. I figured the ball was stuck in the bottom elbow, never to be seen again.


This morning, it decided to join the party as I went through the ritual to make the morning coffee. I think there might still be an air bubble or two in the loop between the top and and bottom connections to the boiler, but this is a start. The real trouble begins in a few days when I get a hold of some real coffee beans. What came with the machine were great for practice, but in the words of Joey Brenner, "Yuck, these beans are gross." He has a wholesale account with Amante which is nothing but trouble. By this time next week, I'll be well on my way to being over caffeinated.

Let There Be Light

Nothing like a warm afternoon to get some work done around the house after work. Yesterday after the workin' day was done, I accomplished a couple tasks on the to do list. One was setting a fence post for the new gate on the south side of the garage. This will let me put my trash can back in the corner and deposit it in the alley on the assigned day.

Since I painted my trim pieces for setting the light fixtures by the door of the garage the day before, I figured I would put up some lights to give the backyard the warm glow and needed light for traversing the 40' from the back door to the garage. I think it came out pretty well. Someday, I might take the stickers off the windows and give them some treatment to give the garage a more "lived in" look.


I also decided it was time to shed a little light on the espresso machine in the back room so I could actually see what I am doing in the wee hours of the morning when I pull the first shots. As you can see below, I still have some insulating to do, some drywall to hang, and another half wall to build . . . all in good time.


The light above is one of a pair that will be hanging when all is said and done, one for the coffee area and one to light the way to the basement. So far it is a great improvement over the bare bulb that was hanging on the brick wall. It might almost be too bright in there, but we'll see once the remodel is done.

My work as a junior electrician is almost done. I am still waiting on my motion sensor for the garage lights. Per my dad's recommendation, I hunted down a dual-zone, dual-bright unit that provides everything you could want and more. There is a downward facing sensor that turns the light on when you open the door from the garage as well as the one that will pick you up walking towards the garage. The dual-bright function kicks on at dusk and provides low level lighting until the sensor is activated. It stays in this mode for a set period of time after dusk, before resuming regular motion activated operation . . . pretty slick.

Now to play junior insulation installer . . .

From the Basement

As predicted, last night workout on the trainer was a big one, probably by far the longest trainer workout in a while. It is funny how long an extra 15 minutes seems when you are going nowhere fast. Amazingly, the workout felt pretty good for what it was . . . 50 minutes at threshold, 10 minutes of "weights on the bike" mixed in, and then some higher cadence stuff at the end. In the grand scheme of going nowhere, I rode 27.81 miles. Oh yeah, it was all on the time trial bike, in time trial position for all intervals and efforts.


Last night, I found Fox Soccer Channel with the sound off and the iPod playing through the stereo to be the perfect distraction. I was watching the Sky Sports feed for a while and then some Argentinian U-23 soccer. Some of those guys are pretty incredible and it didn't hurt that one team was much better than the other. It kept me entertained, yet allowed me to focus on the effort and what an effort it was.


The bottom number is the calories burned count. I will be conservative and say the Cateye is about twice as high as the actual number, but that still a lot of calories to burn in one sitting. It was nice and very reassuring to be able to complete the workout feeling that the efforts were tough, but that I wasn't struggling with the later intervals as I have in the past. The theme for this off season has been maintaining my baseline a little higher than years past in the hopes of building from that higher level come spring. We'll see what the next test says . . .

Repair Shop

Since I now have both power and water to the espresso machine, there are many things I can do with it like make espresso and clouds of steam. I can also take it apart and start determining what's what on the machine and what needs replacing given the age of the machine.


I snapped a quick shot with the camera phone since I didn't have the camera sitting close by when I disconnected the boiler element and pulled the drain plug on the 11 liter monster to see what would drain out the bottom of the boiler. Fortunately it was just water. Unfortunately if there is any scale build up, it will be clinging tightly to metal surfaces until I flush the machine with a citric acid solution to descale.

I had an "uh . . . shit . . ." moment on Sunday when I turned the machine on for the first time and started pushing buttons. The right brew group worked like it should, but the left brew group was doing funny things. The switch would activate the pump motor, but no water was coming out. I was pretty sure that I checked both sides of the machine prior to buying so my first though was that somehow in changing screens, gaskets, and cleaning the group bell, I had put something back in such a way that the machine didn't like.

After doing some consulting with those in the know at Home-Barista I decided to take a look at what was going on. With the boiler element disconnected (boiling water spraying everywhere wouldn't be helpful), I took the group bell back off and hit the switch to call for water . . . no water. Next, I disconnected the coil for the solenoid, no need to splash that with extra water, plus I wanted to see if it was engaging, clicking, doing anything. Next, I pulled the group cap . . . note to self, check all water flow paths before taking off any sort of cap.


I thought there might be some pressure from the pump so the water that was coming out seemed normal, until it didn't stop flowing. After getting a little wet, I realized it was flowing in directly through the line. With the water and cap both off, here's what I found.


There was some scale build up inside the cap where the group jet and screen are, preventing water from flowing through.


I did a little delicate picking and some soaking to clean off the munge, but parts will be replaced in the near future since those two pieces are a whopping $2.38. The good news is that one of the parts distributors/service centers is no more than four miles from the house.

This morning, I took some pictures of espresso . . . does the fun ever stop?


The answer is no, it does not. Tonight, I'll let the machine be since I'll be busy with the Mike Carter workout of death followed by a consulting trip to Deb's house to help with the bathroom remodel project. That is if I don't collapse on the basement floor post workout.

Working on the Weekend

Much was accomplished this weekend on all fronts. The garage now has electricity for real, no wires running in through the hole for an outdoor wall fixture now, no sir/ma'am! I ended up with a panel on the garage, fed from the upgraded house service. It left me with a wire overhead, but required no cutting through the roof of the garage, which seemed like a very good idea. I have 125 amps at my disposal in the garage and 200 amps at the house now.


I have to fill in the trench soon, but I will probably be smart, plan ahead, and bury a coaxial cable and a Cat 5 cable for phone and cable service in the future. That way, I could put a satellite dish on the roof of the garage, out of sight . . . we'll see how much 100' of direct burial cable costs.

Matt E. and I did some framing on Saturday night for kicks and because I wanted to have walls in place when the electrician showed up so I could talk him into wiring the coffee "shop" for me. Surprisingly we measured right and ended up with walls that were plumb and level . . . I leave out square because the floor is slightly out of level. From the brick wall to the end of the future cabinet area, there is a 1" drop.

I did some more demo work and now you can fully appreciate the floor beneath the floor in the back room. I can't even guess what the thought process was, but again this structure is pretty questionable all the way around. I was very excited to see what was waiting for me behind the fiberboard on the ceiling. The wire with the orange housing is for the espresso machine, give me 220 volts, I have coffee needs!

The answer . . . ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!! Well there were some spiderwebs and about 15 pounds of dust. the wiring was put in after I exposed the distinct lack of insulation. I was trying to figure out how they got the fiberboard between the roof "trusses" and the tops of the wall. That would seem to indicate they put the fiberboard on and then slapped the roof in place. I really don't want to know. I will insulate, drywall, install some new, pretty light fixtures and pretend none of it ever happened.

After a couple weeks of waiting with great anticipation, I have the Astoria all hooked up and running. I have some troubleshooting to do, some cleaning to do, some parts to replace, but I had a very tasty Americano this morning instead of the usual drip coffee.

The guts of the machine are pretty clean. There will be parts that will be removed and cleaned further as I make some of the necessary adjustments and repairs. Add a new hobby to the list . . .

Part of getting things up and running was cutting into my plumbing to add a supply line. I had my reducing tee all ready to go, cut my pipe and then very quickly found out that my 1/2" tee was not the right size for my 5/8" pipe . . . stupid outer diameter dimension . . . since I was smart enough to turn the water off first and have a bucket handy, it wasn't a big deal leaving everything shut off while I went to Home Depot to pick up some parts. I ended up with brass compression fittings which actually make me more comfortable than the John Guest fittings anyways. Once that part was taken care of, I hooked up the softener cartridge and carbon filter and let them run until all of the residue and whatnot was purged. Thus ended my career as a junior plumber, task accomplished, no leaks to speak of . . . yet.

In between all of this working, I did manage to get out and enjoy a spring like ride. I headed out west with the hopes that all roads would be clear and clear they were. Golden Gate Canyon was in better condition than I could have imagined and even relatively gravel free. It was nice getting in some sustained climbs with some steep bits at the end. I managed to keep it in the big ring the whole way to the second summit on Saturday. Usually, I drop to the small ring for the last climb which has some kick to it, especially a solid 45+ minutes of climbing in (1:45 of ride time by then).

Unfortunately I had to work on MLK day . . . it would have been nice to have some recovery from the weekend, but no rest for the weary.

Zap!

I had the experience today of witnessing Lasik surgery. My first question for the, uh, whatever you call the guy wandering around the office asking anybody if they have any questions guy was, "Can you really trust a Lasik surgeon who wears glasses?" I watched on the monitor as they sliced away at Deb's eyeballs, creating flaps that would then be manipulated by laser beams to correct her vision. The best part of it (I don't really care that she saves time and money on contact lenses) is that she gets to sport the latest in high fashion for eye wear.


Seriously, are those Doggles? You make the call . . .


This being the second time I have driven home a doped up sister after a medical procedure, I think I am starting to see a strange and horrifying trend emerging. I think my sister is addicted to surgery.

Tonight, I'm returning to my cultural ways, hitting up the symphony for some "exuberant and light-hearted" music . . . that's straight from the program notes for tonight's concert which will include Beethoven's Symphony No. 8. It should be a nice finish to a week that included some cleaning, some destruction, and a little of everything else I could come up with.

Totally Justified

The espresso machine purchase has been validated by the WSJ! Not really since I don't get my daily coffee(s) at Starbucks or elsewhere to begin with. I did some initial cost analysis on my coffee consumption and I'm not really saving much of anything. If you count the multiple shots of espresso prior to each of the Cherry Creek Time Trials for eight weeks and the occasional on the road coffee, my coffee shop purchases are well under $200 per year. I spent a little more than that on the new setup.

Parts and pieces keep trickling in. I have the water filtration bits in hand now so I can do the plumbing work needed to supply the machine with fresh, clean, softened water to hopefully avoid any sort of scale build up inside the boiler. I have a line on a timer (if I can verify that I can use it without any issues) thanks to the fact that there used to be an electric hot water heater at home in NC and my dad hung onto the mechanical timer.

Doing a little more demo in the back room continued to uncover the wonders of the 'how not to build world', this time in the electrical realm. My favorite was the piece of Romex just hanging free inside the wall. I can only guess somebody decided against wiring something and just stopped. I also need to figure out how exactly I am going to support the joists of the floor. There is a "floor" below that which I can only hope is solid enough to spread the load for posts under each existing joist. Given the amount of cold air that flows when I remove my temporary access panel, some insulation down there will be a good thing . . . once I get past the couple mouse carcasses I saw. Isn't home improvement grand?

Smashy, Smashy

As promised, I got down to some good, old fashioned destruction last night after riding the trainer. Phase one of destruction was not captured on film, but it was spectacular. I cooked a steak in one of the cast iron pans since I didn't feel like going out to the grill. For kicks, I decided to make a bourbon sauce to go with it, using the simple method of cooking the steak with some peppercorns floating around and then deglazing the pan with some bourbon after taking the meat out. I let the alcohol cook off a little before making a giant fireball to burn off the rest and then I added some butter to finish it off. Nothing crazy, minus the 4' flame part.

After dinner, I set about dismantling the back room, not knowing exactly what I might find. Having poked around a little bit, I knew there was some insulation and some super cheap paneling material.


Just to give you an idea of how cheap, you can see how thin it is from this section.


If I had to guess, I'd say it contributes absolutely nothing to the R-value of the wall which is part of the reason the temperature swings back there are so violent. I was scared to actually measure stud spacing, it is not what it is supposed to be.


What I didn't know was how much and where insulation was missing. The pieces to either side of the windows . . . uh, yeah, that's where the window slides when it is opened. I had considered at one point replacing the windows, but not knowing what the framing was like, I decided against it. Sure some casement windows would be great in there, but I don't know if the walls would support the load. Sad, but true, putting up some drywall is the path of least resistance. In all honesty the entire thing should just be ripped down and something legit built in its place, but eh, the next owner can do that.

I am still trying to sort out the existing electrical. I don't understand exactly where it goes after it enters the add on, but there are a number of other outlets on the same circuit. I will add a circuit for the 110v needs in the new coffee room to go along with the 220v required for the espresso machine. That way, I can slowly start re-organizing the wiring for the rest of the house. I'd prefer not to have multiple rooms, often at random on the same breaker.

Speaking of the espresso machine, I did some cleaning this weekend, taking apart various parts and pieces that had some accumulated coffee munge. I had ordered new screens and gaskets because of the general condition as shown below.


Also in the same order was a canister of Joe Glo Backflush Detergent which is one of many coffee equipment cleaning products out there. I mixed up a batch large enough to do some soaking and set out to clean the group bell.


After some soaking in a hot bath, it all cleaned up nicely and went back together smoothly. It will be another couple days before I can fire it all up to make sure it survived the trip across the neighborhood and into my house. The full report will follow.

Full Day, Bring on the Night

I didn't even have time to think about how much I was working today, it was pretty non-stop and packed with thrills and excitement. Gotta love it when there's shouting and all sorts of fired up people in the office at 8:00 AM. Nothing like the aftermath of some miscommunication happening in the office next to yours. Fortunately all disasters were averted and the company made some money in the process. Let me pause to pat myself on the back since nobody else will . . . sniff, sniff.

I decided to be very motivated for a Tuesday evening, we'll see how long that lasts. I plan on heading home to take Dempsey out for his afternoon constitutional before riding on the trainer. Looks like I have another solid week on the bike to keep me out of trouble. Tonight I get to ride the time trial bike and simulate some TT efforts in position . . . wooo . . . hoooo.

After riding, I have to move some things out of the back room to the garage so I can get on with the demo necessary. I'll be removing the remaining faux wood paneling to see how much electrical work will be needed to get outlet, switches, and fixtures where they need to be. I will also find out in a hurry how much insulation I can shove in there in the hopes of keeping the temperature out of the extreme ranges it has hit in the past. I am almost afraid of what I will find. I have the floor tile in my possession now, so I might snap a few pieces together to see how it is going to look. Pictures to follow . . .

Rest of the Weekend

I managed to get out for a couple rides this weekend despite my legs being utterly trashed. I'm pretty sure Mike was trying to kill me with last week's schedule, but that which does not kill you, blah, blah, blah. Saturday, I met Brian and Matt M. out in Golden and headed up some more. Lookout wasn't bad except for the wind that was picking up. The back side of the buffalo herd overlook wasn't too bad either even though that road is pretty well shaded and not very well traveled. Kerr Gulch wasn't too bad, but by the time we got down to Bear Creek Canyon, everything was wet and still slushy in places.

We convinced Matt to keep going to Evergreen with us for a stop at the Tin Star for a donut and some hot chocolate to warm up. Poor kid had never eaten an apple fritter before, tragic, just tragic. The stop was much needed between the cold and wet, riding was getting to the unpleasant point. Unfortunately it got worse. We parted ways, Matt rode back down the canyon towards his house and Brian and I decided to continue on Evergreen Parkway in the hopes that it would be a bit drier. It wasn't but there was more wind to accompany the completely slushed over shoulder. I looked back at one point to see Brian heading through the ditch and into the bank as an especially large gust blew through. We made it to the end of the ride and lived to ride another day and eat another fritter.

Sunday, after my manual labor, I hit the park for some easy spinning with Shawnee. Between the week prior and the morning's work, I knew my legs wouldn't put up with very much at all. One hour of light spinning was enough to make me happy. And so ended another weekend, too quickly as always, but much was accomplished. There will be enough distraction in the coming weeks between projects at my house, Deb's house, riding, and just hanging out. Hopefully I remember to take pictures so I can document it all.

Hard Labor

Digging a 2' deep trench that is 70' long is a lot of work. In an effort to avoid said work, I checked with some contractors I know to see what it would cost to have this done, if it would even be possible to get their equipment into the yard.

Answer #1: "Our smallest excavator is 5' wide." . . . I have 4'4" access - FAIL
Answer #2: "Yeah, I could do that for $600." - DOUBLE FAIL

In theory I could rent a trencher from Home Depot for $140 for four hours and dig the trench that way, but I'd have to get the thing back to the house and I don't have a truck (or easy access to one) with a ball hitch. Plus I'd probably cut a foot off. In reality, Home Depot doesn't rent any digging equipment during the winter since the blades get trashed when people try to cut through 6" of frost. Saturday afternoon, after my ride (more on that in a moment) I did some work with the mattock to see how hard it would be. I would say that trench digging pretty much honks, but it isn't $600 bad! On Sunday, we got the thing finished in about two and a half hours with two of us working.


Today, the trench is filling up with snow, but at least I didn't have to dig in the snow. Depending on how frozen the dirt gets, backfilling might be an even bigger pain. Just a reminder what the purpose of all this hard work is:


The car is clean and dry, the outside world is snowy and cold, no more car scraping for me, sort of. I was half tempted to bike into work today on the mountain bike but I'm not that crazy. Most of the wiring was run yesterday for all of the outlets, fixtures, etc. The order is called into the supply house for the other items needed to finish the job; service panels, direct burial cable, and specialty items not available through regular sources.


The car said goodbye to its dry, safe home and headed out into the cruel, cruel world. The power to the garage is temped in for right now, but all of the loose ends should be tied up by the end of the week, pretty much bringing the job to a close, but not really. I still have to build the room and plan out work benches and storage for the garage, but it is nice to finally have something usable.

Reckoning of the Day

As promised, I kept track of what I actually do. Turns out I do work some on a daily basis, but I'll let you make the call. I am being honest here, unless you are a prospective employer. In that case, I do nothing but slave away and they have to kick me out of the office at 8:00 when the cleaning crew is locking up. I have references.

7:30 - got to work and worked
7:45 - checked emails, sent some IMs, caught up with the office population (~8 min work)
8:00 - caught up on the WSJ.com, wrote list of things to do for the day, possibly next week, depends on how the day goes (~6 min work)
8:15 - read the gossip news on thesuperficial.com, tracked my UPS package in transit
8:30 - checked on change orders for a job, did a quick scan of the Blackberry dork forum (~12 min work)
8:45 - looked at some plans, verified that all people in construction have no clue what they are doing, planned tomorrow's ride (~9 min work)
9:00 - chased paperwork around, tried to track multiple changes and revisions on a job (~15 min work)
9:15 - got irate with work (~15 min work)
9:30 - rekeyed lock cylinder . . . for my house (~15 work "training")
9:45 - talked to purchasing manager (~15 min talking to somebody I work with)
10:00 - looked at some paint options for metal surfaces (~15 min could apply to work)
10:15 - got a couple phone calls, looked up some people online (~3 min work)
10:30 - full on work
10:45 - still working
11:00 - working away
11:15 - work, work
11:30 - yup, work
11:45 - almost done working
***field trip*** - installed cylinder at house, went to bank, grocery store, called some people
12:15 - checked messages, wasted time, rechecked list of things to do (~9 min work)
12:30 - crossed some things off the list
12:45 - ate snacks, took water break
1:00 - work
1:15 - work
1:30 - too break to scribble a blog entry
1:45 - ???
2:00 - I really don't know what happened with this block of time
2:15 - work
2:30 - relearned commands useful only on the old, old, old Macs we use (OS 9.2)
2:45 - work
3:00 - work and some emailing (~7 min work)
3:15 - work
3:30 - work
3:45 - prepare to leave work (~3 min work)
4:00 - QUITTIN' TIIIIME!!!

Repairs

I talked about fixing the glow ball the other day and got around to doing it more "permanently" last night. I broke out the solder and attached the wire to the negative pole of the LED, which was easy because it was roomy compared to the legs of the microchip. I need to take another look at the solder at the chip itself because my skills aren't what you would call "good" when it comes to soldering in small areas.


Trying to get a good connection on the chip was tricky and if you make accidental connections, you get interesting results. Connecting legs 2 and 3 seems to be ok, but if you make contact with 1, the LED doesn't light up. If you connect to leg 4, the switch no longer requires a five second hold to activate it, meaning a well placed tooth while Dempsey is chewing results in the ball going dark.


As you can see from the picture, the ball again "works". I did some field testing last night, bouncing the ball all the way to the park and then playing fetch for 10 minutes so Dempsey could so some chewing. I put the quotations around works because this morning we had a strange sequence of events.


It was pretty much a giant shell game but instead of cups and a ball, it was two red LED balls and two black dogs in a dark park. I got to the park and Guiness and his owner (sad how many dog owners know each other by dog names alone) were there, with a new LED ball. Magically, around the same time, both balls started to go dark and both dogs kept trading balls.

I wanted to take a look at my soldering work when we got home from the park so I pulled the plug on the ball. I knew pretty much right away that there had been a ball swap! Both were acting up similarly, turning on properly, but turning off somewhat randomly. Fortunately Guiness' owner bought four, knowing they were finicky, so I'll get to soldering on this one. If we cross paths next week, we can trade balls back. The good news is that with a respectable solder job, the ball should do what it is supposed to . . . I hope.

The mudroom remodel is underway, in concept at least. I have all my measurements, flooring is ordered, the water filtration and all required fittings are on the way. I am still trying to find the right cabinets. I looked at some cool 1950's ones yesterday that would have worked if I had 8" more space to play with. I am looking at another set tonight that are also metal and retro. Just to give you an idea what I am thinking . . .


These were done by a custom auto shop that appears to dabble in kitchen items as well. I will do some calling around to see how much professional painting will cost, if all else fails, there is plenty of information on painting metal cabinets out there.

Recommendations

I got some recommendations the other day about what I should include in my blog. One was outlandish tales . . . sometimes I think my every day life includes these, but the recommendation was more in the vein of something like, "So, the other day, I bought a pair of boxers at the thrift store and just found out they belonged to JFK." First of all, I don't buy my boxers at the thrift store and second of all, I just don't have that level of creativity.

The other recommendation was to keep an accurate account of my time use for a day. This would be easier to do, except that some times I do absolutely nothing. Well, it only seems that way . . . until you start jotting down notes on 15 minute intervals and then look at what was work related and what was just goofing off. In the spirit of procrastination, I'll take a stab at it for real tomorrow and see what a Friday in the life looks like.

My humdrum Wednesday perked up a bit when I got home yesterday afternoon to find my Woot Bag of Crap sitting on the front porch. I present you with the haul:


In keeping with the theme, I took a crappy picture, but there's the box, the cheap-o Christmas stocking, the snowman key chain, two Go Duster Pro dusters, and the best crap ever . . . the USB panic button.

I have been playing with the panic button all day long. Despite Target's wonderful description "Desk Toy, Features USB Connection, Made of Plastic" for the device, I am going to go out on a limb and say this thing kicks ass. With a little poking around, you can find better software for changing the operation of the button. There are customization options from sounds and images to simple VisualBasic applications that shut the computer down or activate the Task Manager to quickly end a process. Most of the contents of the Bag of Crap were given away, but for what I kept, I have to say best $8 spent. Nothing like the rush of actually buying something that is usually impossible to get before it sells out, combined with the anticipation created by tracking the package every 27.4 minutes. Thanks Woot!

See you tomorrow with a real account of a day in my life . . .

Uh Oh

Creative juices lacking for the day. My brain hurts from trying to straighten out a project where the owners, architects, construction team, and anybody else possibly involved can't make up their minds about what is supposed to be happening on the job.

Bad news, parts of Boulder County are on fire and it is really windy . . .

Good news, it's quittin' time and I'm going home.

Lack of Sleep

There's something not very pleasant about waking up at 3:45 for absolutely no good reason. I tossed and turned for a while before deciding to get my day started well before 5:00 AM.

Task one of the morning was to troubleshoot Dempsey's fancy ball. It seems like every time I even think the words "coolest ever" the brain for the LED in the ball craps out. After doing some fiddling and jiggling, I found that there was a loose connection between one of the poles on the LED and the microchip, yes, microchip on the printed circuit board. There has to be a more simple way to create an on/off button that a dog can't activate inadvertently by chewing. I'll see how long my temporary jumper holds on, making the necessary connection. Eventually, I'll need to solder it properly.

I continued my morning adventures with some research into materials for the coffee room project. I've always liked the look of the rubber floor tiles with the raised coins.


Since this will also serve as my regular entry as well as my coffee corner, it will be nice to have something that is easy to clean and can take a beating. Given the questionable nature of the subfloor, a forgiving nature in the material will be a plus.

I thought I had cabinets that would work perfectly and quite a nice price for a set, but somebody else bought them from the craigslist listing faster than I could. There will be more options in coming days/weeks I'm sure. I have some basic requirements, but since I'm going to be painting the cabinets anyways, I will also have some flexibility in the range of products I'll be willing to pick up on the cheap.

I did some basic exploratory work on the electrical in the back room and what I found was a confusing, jumbled mess. I don't really look forward to sorting it all out, but it will have to be done. Adding the 220v circuit will be left to the capable hands of a licensed professional. Sure would be nice on days like these to have easy access to a good espresso for an afternoon pick me up . . .

Busy New Year

I am not sure if I can remember everything that has happened since I last blogged, serves me right for taking time off while not being at work. With 2008 coming to a close rapidly last Wednesday, I had a few moments to make one final impulse purchase for the year. I've been talking about buying an espresso machine for a while now, the machine I was looking at was one of the Breville models that Woot has been blowing out on occasion. I didn't end up buying it, instead, I bought this:


I'm not sure what the appropriate equivalent would be . . . gasoline to start a fire, brick shithouse . . . this is well above and beyond the equipment necessary for home espresso making. Once I do a little plumbing work, add a 220v circuit, and take care of a couple other small items, I'll be up and running. In addition to helping Deb with her bathroom remodel, it gives me another project to tackle for 2009, redoing the back addition on the house. In the near future, not only will it receive the insulation and drywall it has always deserved (the faux wood panel doesn't quite cut it), but it will also be transformed into my very own coffee shop. The machine needs a little cleaning and I will likely get the panels powder coated a less offensive color. I also picked up a grinder, again more of a workhorse ever needed for home use, but the good news is that if my house gets bombed, the grinder will survive.


I took the grinder apart and gave it a good cleaning. Everything appears to be in good shape and the burrs seem to make whole beans into ground coffee . . . I won't know what's what until I start pulling shots on my own.

New Year's Eve was pretty much a standard one, except this year I was awake to ring in the new year. On day one of 2009, I got out for a nice long ride with the Pinkertons and others. It would have been nice to get out for a ride Friday as well, but I had to get everything ready for final inspection on the garage. That involved moving as much dirt as I could to get the grade up to where it is supposed to be around the foundation. Fortunately the inspector didn't seem to care about much other than seeing that the other inspections were signed off on and that I had the engineering letter for the foundation. In a matter of a few minutes, I was all signed off and official.

For my ride on Friday, I ended up doing a night time urban assault with Brenner on the mountain bikes. I forgot how much fun it is ripping around at night, cutting through the parks and going pretty much where ever. We ended up riding for a couple hours before heading over to Bistro One for dinner and drinks. This was only the second time I had eaten a meal of real food at Bistro One and it did not disappoint. Between the three of us (Shawnee joined in for dinner) we split the Lamb Shank and the Meatball Fettuccine, both were excellent. Dessert seemed like a good idea, so we got the Peanut Butter Cake with Oreo Crust. It was much more sophisticated than it sounds and every bit as tasty. Joey and I hit Herman's Hideaway at the end of the night to see his boss's son playing in a band. I think he is talented, but the band didn't do much to showcase and/or make his skill evident.

Although Saturday was ridable, I took the lazy route for solidarity sake. Deb is still a gimp and we had movies left to watch.


And soup and grilled cheese to eat. The indoor grill/griddle really does make a pretty sandwich, perfect grill marks on top, nicely browned on the bottom. I'll have to try making something a little more exciting on it sometime soon.


Despite the cold and gloom on Sunday, I managed to get out and install the new light over the back door. I also started cleaning up the Astoria, if you look closely at the picture above, you'll notice one of the brew groups is incomplete. There is some funk accumulated from commercial use, but nothing chemicals won't fix. I have a few seals to replace, but again nothing out of the ordinary. Overall, I declare the weekend a success!


I'm sure 2009 will be a banner year, here on January 5th, I have no complaints . . .