Appointments and Projects

I've missed a few days, so I'll get you all caught up. After I picked up JB at RDU Tuesday evening and after getting some Chinese food for supper we headed home. On Wednesday we didn't do much except for going to the Holly Springs Wal-Mart to stock up on groceries. That Wal-Mart is supposed to be the largest in the state and JB was impressed. I still think it's neat that the freezer cases light up go when you approach and turn off when you move away.

Thursday I had lunch with Mimi and Rollin in RTP and ran a couple other errands. I left JB at home asleep with the toaster (aka the xB), my library card, and 5o cents. Sure enough when I got home I found JB in his recliner wrapped in the electric throw, his computer in his lap, newspaper scattered around on the floor, and a stack of library books on the coffee table. Since I have two recliners, which of course is the minimum number one should have, I piled up in my recliner until supper time. For supper I cooked (gulp) my chicken strip fry and added some of JB's shrimp. Yummy if I do say so.

Today was project day. I've been having trouble for several months with one of my garage door openers. So with JB's help we replaced the faulty opener with one I bought on eBay. We had it working in an hour or so except for reprogramming all 7 remotes I have. Where's Chris when I need him. I got my exercise today by digging a nearly 4 foot deep hole for the mask of the new satellite dish. Tomorrow maybe I'll trench and bury the coax.

Last thing I did was hang the plaque that JB brought me. He got the plaque on it on his Africa trip in Mossel Bay which is on the east coast of South Africa. Mossel Bay's claim to fame is a mention in the Guinness Book of Records as having the mildest all-year round climate in the world, second only to Hawaii. JB being from Maui appreciates good climate. I suspect JB will finish his stack of books before I finish my book. I just cannot stay wake for more than a page or two.

Killing some time

JB is due in from Maui shortly. He's been in LA at our uncle's for the last week. Since I needed to pick JB up about 4:30, and I had a lunch appointment it RTP I decided I kill some time at Wally's house. I really didn't have time to go home and then come back to RTP to pick up JB at the airport. So I went over to Wally's and he showed me his newest accessory for his noise canceling headphones - an adapter that adds a microphone which allows him to use the headphones for the phone. Works with both desk phone and cell phone. Very cool.

I went for a run while killing time and set a personal best according to Paula Radcliffe who congratulated me after my run. Neat thing about that Nike+iPod - it gives you some positive feedback whenever you achieve a milestone. Lance Armstorng told me yesterday 'Good workout - you burned a serious amount of calories.'

Well in case you are wondering.... I did get the garage cleaned up. Here are the before and after pictures. Funny how things are. I have to clean up the house before my sister comes for a visit and clean up the garage before my brother comes. So if I could get them to come at the same time I have the whole place clean. Oh well.

It can't be dark already

I spent the night at Wally's and Carol's house. Staying over on a Thursday night is typical for me. I often do that during baseball season went we go see the Durham Bulls play. Chris is our designated driver so Wally and I get to enjoy refreshments at the game. If I enjoy a bit too much Wally and Carol let me stay in their guest bedroom. I've done that often enough that the guest room is now referred to as "Don's room". After sleeping over we get up and go to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. We did that today. It was nice to have Chris with us since school is out for a teacher workday.

Since I slept over I got to witness Carol's reaction to the TV. "Oh My!" She then said all the right praises us guys need to hear. She even commented on the no visible wires. She seemed to like it well enough.

On the way home I stopped by Lowes and Ace hardware. I got some of those new Compact Fluorescent Light (CPL) bulbs and a motion detector for Fluorescent lights. I installed the CPL bulbs in my new home office overhead light and installed the motion detector in the garage ceiling lights. I attached it to the fixture closest to the door. Opening the door will cause it to turn on two of the fixtures (of the 12 fixtures in the garage). I've tried this before with another detector (Leviton) but the two fixtures would not fully start and flickered badly. This motion detector (Cooper) starts the fixtures fine. Still a small amount of flicker but I can live with that.

I did my run and then cleaned up the toaster. The wet roads yesterday got it dirty but I used my California Duster and some spray car detailer to clean it up. Needless to say I'm staying in tomorrow - snow or no snow.

Practice makes perfect

Today was one of those cold rainy gray winter days. It never stopped raining and it never got out of the 30s. I was up at 7am hoping to see snow but I was disappointed. Most the snow was melted by the rain that was falling. It rained all day.

After I woke up from my afternoon nap I headed up to Wally's. Wally and Carol had a beautiful sun room built on to their home this summer. All it needed is a nice HD set in it. Only Wally and Chris are home. Carol is out of town on a business trip. She gets back tonight. So boys being boys we decided to install an HD set before she gets home and surprise her. Nothing like going on a business trip and coming home to see a 42 inch LCD hanging on your wall. For sure it's every guys dream!

Wally picked out a wall mount before he picked out the TV set. The mount needed to allow the set to tuck into the corner of the sunroom. Wally got an UCL Articulating Wall Mount at Costco a couple months ago and then started looking for a set to use the mount. Turned out he found a 42 inch LCD HD TV also at Costco and had it delivered today.

This is my third large flat screen install and 4^th wall mount of a large screen set. I didn't like the 1^st place I put my 50 inch set so I moved it. So by now I've gotten good at mounting these things. Of course Wally and his son Chris did most of the work. I was just the guy who drilled the holes in the nice smooth walls for those great big lag bolts.

Anyway I think we did a good job. Notice no wires… Also in the lower right of the frame you'll see the wall mounted heat pump Wally and I installed in October.

Boy is Carol going to be surprised!

Toaster gets new window vents

I installed the window vents on the toaster Thursday while I was cooling down from my run. The vents are 'in channel' type. I had to hunt for those. They fit in the groves that the window slides up and down in. The in channel design makes for a very clean seamless look. The vents stick on using 3m VHB tape which means there is no taking them off.

In the case of the toaster they are for more than just looks. Twice last summer I left the windows cracked and it rained. The 1^st time the seats were wet I just figured the wind blew the rain in. But after the 2^nd time having wet seats and a puddle on the floor mats I realized that the nearly vertical windows and the way the door seal is that any rain that comes off the top will just flow directly into the open window. The in channel design should allow the rain to just drip off the edge of the vent.

It takes me about 20 minutes this time of the year to cool off and stop sweating after I run. I heat the garage to about 55 degrees so it's a good place to cool off without getting uncomfortable during the in process. In the summer it takes like an hour before I cool off. The AC in the garage and the fan I have out there help the summer.

I use this cool off time to clean up whichever vehicle I drove last. I have a California Car Duster and it keeps them looking good between washings assuming I avoid mud and wet roads. I've been known to stay home and not go somewhere because the roads were wet. I really like a clean car and I have to say it pains me if my car gets dirty too quick after I wash it. I clean the brake dust from the rims also during the cool down time. I tried some of that wheel spray that is supposed to prevent the brake dust from accumulating. Nope still accumulates. I also spray the tire black stuff on then clean the over spray from the rims. That one cleaning takes care of both the brake dust and tire spray.

If by chance I have not drove either vehicle then I use the cool off time to put up tools and do general garage clean up. I'm way behind and I really need to be spending extra time cleaning the garage before JB gets here next week. 4-5 hours should put the garage right.

What is your Power Song?

I used my new Nike + iPod for the last two days. I have to tell you I LIKE IT! If you have an iPod Nano and you run (or walk) for fitness or training you need to get one. For $30 it's a winner. At first glance it you might think you need to buy a pair of Nike+ shoes. But after reading Nike+iPod FAQ you'll see any old shoes will work. People (and vendors) have come up with creative ways to attach the sensor to any shoe. Some folks can knit and Nike+iPod Shoe Hack made a little cozy to hold the sensor. Some floks used duct tape. You can see Nike+iPod Shoe Hacks and Accessories for the ideas others came up with to attach the sensor to their shoe.

Me? I used a coin wrapper, a couple staples, and some tape. The sensor just needs to be secure and not move around. You can always shell out the $$$ for a pair of Nike+ shoes which have a compartment designed in them for the sensor. But that takes all the fun out of it.

OK so it attaches to any shoe, but why do I like it? It's small, wireless, and just plain slick. That white stub on the end of my iPod is the receiver for the shoe sensor. It's also easy to use. Best of all it keeps you company by talking with a sexy female voice as you run. And that sure helps me run! She tells me how many calories burned, time, or mileage depending on the type of workout chosen. You can choose a male voice if you want. I already knew about how far I ran, and about how long I run, so I chose calories. I entered my weight and how many calories I wanted to burn and started running. After a bit she reduced the song volume and told me "50 calories burned so far." She then brought the volume back up so I could hear the music. She repeated the process again and let me know "100 calories burned so far." She keeps it up every 50 calories until the last 50. For the last 50 she cranks up the volume and counts out every 10 calories until I reached my goal of 600 calories burned. She then told me the distance, and work out time. You can get her to tell you then workout status at any time by pressing the iPod center button. If you hold the center button for a couple seconds she plays your power song so you get that extra kick to get up that big A$$ hill. NEAT! You can buy workout playlists and even training sessions from people like Lance Armstrong if you want.

After the work out you can dock your iPod and it will upload (for free using iTunes) to nike.com the work out data and you will get a nice graph. Here is the graph for my run today. Across the top is the workout distance, time, pace, and calories. The curve bents down at the end because I stopped running and left my iPod going while I took the pictures. The dots along the graph are the mile markers. If the mouse hovers over the dot it shows you the time for that mile. The red towards the right is when I pushed PowerSong. You can set goals and create challenges for yourself. Also you can have a private running club and see your others club members runs, and challenge them - "1st one to 100 miles this month gets a free beer" - stuff like that. It's all free and easy to use.

The iPod itself stores the last 1000 workouts. You don't have to use iTunes or nike.com. You don't even have to listen to music while you run. It has a 'no music' option. You can even tell it that you are walking and it'll keep track of that activity. The only complaint I have is with the music blasting I can't hear the beep of my heart monitor watch. If you want to know how it works read EETimes article Runners get iPod virtual trainer.

So "Satisfaction" by the Stones is my power song what's yours?

Good things take a long time...

I spend a few hours watching the NFL playoffs and playing with JBs scanner. In some ways I'm impressed with the film (aka negative) scanner. I'm not sure exactly how good the scanner is. I would say it it does beat scanning a print using my flat bed scanner. But it took me 30 seconds to scan the print using my flatbed and it took 5 minutes to scan the negative. If you have selected negatives to scan then the film scanner could be the way to go. But if you are wanting to scan a few thousand negatives then this is not the way to do. Even the preview scan takes a minute. I'm retired and I'm not willing to spend the next year scanning negatives.

So here is a sample quality comparison. The image on the left is scanned from a print. The one on the right from the negative. I did not correct or post process either. I let my flatbed scanner software to its thing and ditto for the negative scanner. Yes the flatbed scanned picture is darker. The print was dark to start with and that's how it scanned. But notice the tie. You can't even tell that the tie is a paisley tie on the left, but it's clear on the right it is. The negative has more range of exposure, and finer detail. I would say the negative scan is a bit over exposed. I remember that suit. It was a light gray-blue with a slightly contrasting weave. About one notch darker than what the negative scan produced.

I have a lot of negatives that I don't have prints for, and some negatives that are not with their prints. It's hard for me to look at a negative and tell if it's one I want to scan or not. I'm going to see if I can just put the negatives on the flat bed scanner and scan them in mass. Then invert them and see what they are. Pick the ones I really want to scan using the film scanner and ignore the rest. In effect create a contact sheet. The film scanner came bundled with PhotoShop Elements and I think it can invert. Stay tuned.

Well I caught up last night on my reading. Maybe tonight I can actually get ahead.