Posts filed under 'Hobbies'
Yep, Leo is officially a daddy’s boy. He use to say more than daddy, but because our mind age is very close, we’re able to communicate through just one word, daddy. Daddy? That means he picked something up for me. Daddy! That means he wants me to pick him up. Daddy! Means he wants to go out to the shop and play with the tools (never too young right?). Daddy? Means he wants to eat some of my food. The differences are subtle, but they’re there. Leo actually cried this morning when Angie took him away from me which is an ominous sign (in reality he recognized he and I had our jackets on and I think he thought I was going to go outside without him).
William has been growing like a weed. Although William eats about as much as Leo does, he has sprung up a few inches and his feet continue to out grow shoes about every other month. He got his name on the board 3 times last week for goofing off in school, so he is no longer the sweet and innocent kid a few years ago. On the flip side, he doesn’t wet the bed, sleeps very well, can dress himself, can help cook, and let’s Hank in and out of the house, so he is pretty darn useful anymore.
Angie has been on nights for the last week and a half and by my count has 17 nights left. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it still takes a long time to chug through 5 weeks of it. I think this round is going much more smoothly than the last go round, mainly because Leo is older and no longer needing to eat in the middle of the night. I think it is also going pretty well for Angie too, at least she is getting home at a reasonable time in the morning.
Other than that, it seems like spring is finally coming. We might be getting a dusting of snow, but April is a week away so the cold won’t last much longer. I went for my first and only outdoor ride a few weeks ago in Columbus. There are some great hills down there and the traffic is much lighter than Indy, but I realized my helmet has seen better days. Many, many moons ago a certain puppy (Hank) tore all the padding out of my helmet. I rode with it like that for basically 8 years. I am not even sure the helmets are meant to be used for 8 years. I can certainly see there is fading all over it and wouldn’t be surprised if some of the foam has been compromised, so I bought myself a new helmet and some socks. It looks uber cool (does any helmet look cool?) and matches the bike, so hopefully I look a little less dorky in my spandex shorts.
Out in the shop, I finally got my 12″ Fay and Egan Jointer up and running. It took some more precise measurements to setup than what I expected so the process was a little longer. In the end, it is a smooth running machine. Along with the jointer, I have been working on building a TV stand for out living room. I finally to a point of adding the finish, so hopefully it will be ready for prime time shortly. It is replacing a TV stand Angie bought her freshman year at IU. I can’t remember what happened to it our 2nd through 4th years of college, but it reappeared when we moved to MN and we’ve been using it ever since. It looks rather funny with the large tube tv sitting on it now in this big living room. It does nothing to hide the wires (now with all the networking crap by the tv the wires have doubled) and it seems to be a kid magnet. The stand I am building will be substantial to say the least. It sucks up all the free room in the shop and with the top on, I am guessing it weights well over 100 lbs. It will be stained the same dark chocolate color that I used on the Arts and Crafts bookshelf, so it will definitely have some visual weight to it.
March 24th, 2010
Will is going to be so happy this is done:
And I am going to be so happy he stops asking me when it will be done.
November 23rd, 2009
As much as I hate myself for drinking pop every time quit, I seem fall of the wagon harder each time. Recently I have gotten in the habit of drinking a pop around 8-9 pm each night and while I never thought caffeine had that much of an impact on my system, I have definitely noticed it lately. Sometimes I will just stare at the TV and/or computer screen and have this great need to do a million things at once, but I don’t know where to start or what I really want to do, so I just sit there. I can sometimes feel my heart race and when I something goes right or a find something to read, I get so excited I feel like I need to go run around the block a few times. In any case, I need to stop.
Summer Promises
At least once, I said I would try to ride to work with Will this summer. We did it last week with some pretty good results. He loved riding in the trailer. In fact, when I told him we were going to ride to daycare, he hounded me for the next 30 minutes while I packed and got the bike and trailer ready. “Daddy, Come on”, “I want to get in (the trailer)”, “I want to ride.”
Logistically, it was tough, He arrived at daycare a little earlier and left a little later and I got to work a tad late and left a tad earlier. Riding home with the trailer attached and then with Will in it wasn’t a lot of fun either. Will did get a big kick out of the whole thing though and he was perfectly content in his trailer. I’d like to do it once a week as the savings in gas is worth it, but we’ll have to see how it goes. Angie will have a lot of July off, so I might just ride in alone a lot or drop him off and let Angie pick him up.
Copycats
My sister-in-law wants to be like me.
Bathroom Rehash
I put the door trim up this weekend. It still needs to be painted, but I am hoping Angie does that. I also put the door hardware on again and fixed where the door was sticking while it closed. That just leaves the air vent as the last big thing to finish up, so hopefully that can be done this weekend.
Other projects
Well when we fixed the bathroom door, we also worked on the basement door which had basically fallen off its hinges. The hinges are still bent, but the door swings much better than it use to. Now I need to add a door stop so you can’t push the door clear through the opening. I also still need to add my “pantry” to the basement steps. Add that to the list of things I hope I can knock out this weekend.
Speaking of steps, I finally bought a few materials and put proper steps on the garage. It actually was a quick project and it is much better than stepping on stacked pavers that tended to roll off and out from under your feet when you stepped on the edges. I think Angie will appriacitate them more when I get the garage empty enough for her to park in again, but that is a long ways off.
I also built a raised bed for a garden this weekend and planted it. We’ve had some decent steady rain, so I am hoping the plants grow nice and fast. It is my first attempt at a garden, so I am not expecting much. We might end up with too much food or we grow nothing but weeds. Only time will tell.
The garage and the fence are the last big projects I need to start and finish this summer. I’d really like to do the fence, but the garage is half done and all the supplies are on hand. If anything, I need to just clean the shop really, really well and get things organized so I can actually do some work. As it is now, I spend hours looking for stuff. The unisaw rebuild is wrapping up, so the old saw needs to be setup to sell and that will free a lot of space. But I have added a ton of basically free wood, a unisaw for my dad, and a metal lathe probably all within the last few weeks. It has caused a bit of a space problem. At any rate, I think I convinced myself to side the garage during this rant, so that is what I am going to set about doing this weekend.
Hoosier Heartland
Well it seems the rotation Angie was hoping to get in Indiana is back on again. Initially they told her there were no spots available, but then she e-mailed a few people and magically they found a spot. Since the rotation is four weeks long, I won’t be able to go during the entire time, but Will and I will probably burn up all my available vacation to spend as much time as we can there. It should be fun to be in Indiana that long without really anything to do. No holidays or anything else like that to worry about. I am assuming Angie will be working a lot, so I am sure Will and I will have lots of excess time on our hands to visit everyone.
The caffeine seems to be kicking in again and I can’t sit still, so that’s the end.
June 3rd, 2008
April sucked. Snow or rain every Friday and May seems to be on the same track. Some brief comments that will cover a variety of topics:
Bathroom
I can’t believe next Friday I will start gutting the bathroom. Angie and I need to nail down some final details for the bathroom plan and I need to finish buying supplies. Fortunately, Angie is between rotations this weekend, so she should have no excuse to put me off.
Camera
I really killed my old camera last weekend. If you remember, the movie function gave up the ghost some time ago, and then over the weekend I was moving some heavy equipment with the camera forgotten in my pocket and I crushed the LCD screen in the back. It was a pain to use, but it was still useful by looking through the tiny view finder. That worked for about 10 more photos then the lens would no longer retract. It will beep at me and flash some lights now, but other than that it is pretty much dead.
Since I’ve never bought a digital camera, I asked my brother and sister-in-laws for advice and settled on the Canon SD1000. It is a generation old, but it was cheap and overnight shipping it was cheap. It kind of drives me nuts not having a camera on hand. For the few months, I have just been wishing I could record some videos of Will or more recently, take some photos of the tools being rebuilt. In any case, I think this new camera is going to get a workout this weekend.
Last Weekend
So about that heavy equipment I was moving… I have met a few guys that have similar interests in restoring older machines and one has basically having a giant garage sale to thin his inventory and get some more floor space back. About 12 guys showed up and there were lots of exchanges of machines. Many guys (like me) already had deals in place and this was the perfect time to exchange machines and look through more stuff. I picked up an 8″ jointer, a lathe, a smaller motor, and a bearing press which are big machines for me, but were nothing compared to other machines moving. A few needed a forklift for loading/unloading, but most just needed a gantry crane.
Machine Rebuilds
Even though I promised not to talk about it much, I am getting pretty close to getting my 1949 Unisaw rebuilt. I have the motor ready to go and I finished rebuilding the saw arbor earlier this week. Last night I spent a few hours stripping down the cabinet and got a coat of primer on it. There are still some miscellaneous parts to strip and paint, but the cabinet is the biggest/hardest part to do. I should have it finished up this weekend, which means parts can start going back in.
I’d really like to get it done before my dad gets here, one so he can see it and use it and two because I don’t really want anything to distract me during the bathroom remodel.
30 Rock
I won’t say 30 Rock is my favorite show, but watching Alec Baldwin makes sitting through the rest of the show worth it. Last night he made a reference to leaving GE (the Cindy Crawford of corporations) to lie down with a “tramp” like 3M and I nearly split my side laughing. It pissed off Angie because she is hyper-sensitive to noise when Will is sleeping, but it was mostly entertaining because that is exactly what happened with our former CEO. He didn’t get the top job at GE and jumped ship to join 3M.
May 2nd, 2008
So after some missteps, some extra driving around, some frustration, some yelling, and some returning, Angie and I finished the majority of our Christmas shopping this weekend. In all, it wasn’t too bad, thanks to online shopping, but I am glad its over; one big check box, checked. But alas, I have numerous topics to cover so, more subtitles:
Brat Pack
Our local mall has a play area for small kids, so parents like us can take turns watching the little one while the other gets some shopping done. Its a great idea and for the most part, I don’t mind letting Will play around for awhile, but it can get a little dangerous. There is a fuzzy brown bear that stands next to the entrance with his arm in the air clearing indicating that kids taller than his arm are too big for the play area (I would also suggest they add a bear with his arms stretched out to indicate how “narrow” you have to be to enter the play area). Most of the parents are fine and their kids are fine, but then some tool will bring his 10 year-old in and let the 150 pounder just run crazy through the area. The kid is clearly crushing the high density foam structures, which he thinks is cool, and scaring the crap out of all the parents and the kids. You’re not fearing for your kid’s safety, you’re fearing for their life. I just hope Angie isn’t around when the little brat knocks Will down. Words will be used and embarrassment will ensue. This is a completely separate issue from the parents who bring their 27 kids to the same area and let them just go freaking nuts.
While I am ranting about kids, what the heck is up with those stupid roller shoes? I have only seen one kid that looked smooth sliding around on the shoe, all the others are half falling down or just letting their parents pull them along. I wonder if the mean kids ever knock the roller kids down?
A Little Heat Please
I knew my truck had a block heater on it when I bought the truck, I didn’t know I would like it as much as I do. Not only does it make startup a snap, but the truck warms up so much faster and generally doesn’t act frozen during the first few miles after startup. Its pretty easy to plug it in at home, a simple extension cord out of the garage and the problem is solved. At work though, its a different issues. The particular lot I use has multiple levels and there are many covered parking spots for people that have been here for a really, really long time. All of these parking spaces have these 4′ outlets above them, making the empty lot look like some kind of charging station.
Anyway, it turns out that by parking on the ground level, I can easily reach the outlets from the lower parking level. In all the years I have parked and walked through these parking garages, I have never once seen anyone using the outlets, for a long time I couldn’t understand why they were there. So I decided to test the waters and snag and outlet and plug my truck in while I was at work. I figured someone would get bent out of shape because people pay for those spots and the outlets are not for general use. So far though, the closest anyone has come to saying something has been a guy talking on his cell and staring at me while I unplugged the truck and drove off. Now I generally try to be a little more sneaky about it and not make it obvious that I drive the big red truck.
AF
What the hell happened to Abercrombie and Fitch? 12 or so years ago my brother-in-law introduced me to the outdoor-type store where one bought flannels and waffle shirts for a little more than your average bear would pay. The trade off was that the shirts, esp the flannels, would last forever (I still have some at home). My senior year of high school, I am sure I never wore anything, but the AF. It was all understated clothing too. A few shirts said Abercrombie on them, but generally people in that small town didn’t know what it was (let alone how to pronounce it). Now it is something completely different. Angie had to buy something for her niece and I could only bear to be in the store for about 3 minutes. Not only is the store in near darkness and about 100 degrees, but the pump the music up so loud you can’t hear yourself think. As Will and I walked out of the store seeking some quite area so our hearing could come back, the greeter said something to me. I thought he said “thanks for stopping,” but I wasn’t sure. Before I could say we were waiting on my wife, he said “does the music pump him up?” referring to Will. I was still completely confused, and just said he likes to dance to it, which Will promptly did for the greeter. The the greeter said “sorry its so loud, its suppose to be part of the experience.” I mentioned how much the store has changed, and he just nodded.
This brief encounter made me wonder, if I can barely stand to be in the store for five minutes, how do employees work there for hours? How do they not have hearing loss and how are they not covered in sweat from wearing those layers of AF clothing? I am also surprised that kids don’t see through the noise and enlarged explicit photographs everywhere. The store clearly doesn’t want you to think or speak, they just want you to be silent and look cool in their clothes, like the models.
27
A few days ago, I turned 27. Will ended up and had strep throat, and I had to stay home with him and try to work. I tried to not make a big deal out of my birthday, like I usually do, because I knew Angie wouldn’t have time to do much, if anything. She got a nice North Face jacket and baked some cookies, which was all I really needed. Oh, and she got Will to say Happy Birthday Dad, which was pretty cool to hear. I got a ton of cards too, and Angie’s sisters sent me a few things, although I am still waiting on one of their gifts.
Speaking of Angie making cookies, its rather ironic that she has become extremely good at making chocolate chip cookies (I mean really good). Growing up, I made my fair share of baked items, and my siblings rewarded me with the nick name “Bob Crocker” (it wasn’t a term of endearment either). So it is somewhat fitting that I am basically married to Betty now. I will also say that it is no surprise to me that Angie is very good at making cookies. I have told her for years that if she really applied herself to something she would be far better at it than most people. Unfortunately, she chose medicine for a career, so she doesn’t have ample amounts of free time to master all the baked goods I enjoy. Maybe someday though.
Black Sunday
So after two trips to the mall yesterday, I finished buying gifts for Angie. On my first trip I went out on a limb and tried to pick out clothes I thought she might like. I knew it was going to be hit or miss and rather than wait until x-mas morning, I made her look at them when I got home. In short, it was a miss. We decided to go back and have her point some things out that she might like and then I was left to decide what to buy. I ended up and strayed again and bought her this really heavy and warm top and bottom. I am not sure what the feminine term is, but its fleece line and mostly meant for lounging around the house, which she always complains is too cold. Anyway, I can safely post this because again I was too excited to wait until x-mas for her to see it that I gave it to her last night.
More Heat Please
Even though it has been in single digits for the last few weeks, I have attempted to work in the garage to finish a project for my dad. I have an little electric heater that just can’t crank out the heat fast enough and I end up freezing my finger tips off every time I touch the cast iron tools. So I have decided to try a propane heater, in hopes that it will crank out enough heat to at least make it comfortable to work. The garage has plenty of air leaks, so I am not concerned with passing out from lack of oxygen, but more concerned about burning through a 20lb propane tank in a few hours. The last thing I want is to have to run to the store for propane every time I want to dink around in the garage.
December 10th, 2007
One thing I am learning about home improvement, you have to have a plan for the trash you will create. I had been gearing up for the semi-annual neighborhood clean up (you basically get to rid yourself of a ton of trash for very little money) for a few weeks. I brought things up from the basement, arranged things in the garage and got it all packed into a big trailer. It was great, just a few hours of work and suddenly my garage was empty again and there was room to move around.
In retrospect, I should have done a better job of cleaning the basement. I went down there last night to finally start working on it again and spent a good hour cleaning the place up. I easily have another truck load of junk to toss out, but there isn’t another clean up until September. I may not have to wait until the clean up though…
After the clean up on Saturday, while I still had help and a trailer, I was able to finish cleaning up some rock, sand, and concrete. My friend and I got it put into large trash cans and loaded it on to the trailer for a little drive into the country. I had heard about this place where you can dump stuff like this (because almost everyone won’t take sand and/or rock) and I had visited the place before but never actually used their services. This place is pretty “unique,” to put it nicely. The owner must own a few good sides acres and they are just filled with junk. Driving up to his house is like driving through a junk yard, in fact, that is exactly what it is, a yard full of junk. You might be thinking you understand, but you have to imagine the scale of this junk. There were probably 20-30 cars buried in grass, big salt trucks wedged between trees and all kinds of rusted out heavy machinery. After you pay the guy your nominal fee, he directs you were to dump your stuff and then you get to the really interesting part of the property, the rock mountains. Just off one of the major highways and nicer neighborhoods in Twin Cities area, tucked behind a few wells placed trees are massive pits and piles of, well everything you can imagine. There are piles of concrete, asphalt, rock, sand, construction waste, and more rock. Massive land moving machines sit idle in their own rust and weird roads wind around all the piles, so you can add your own piece to the pile.
It was strange to say the least. Nevertheless, it was money well spent. I now have both sides of my garage cleaned up along with the inside. I may have to visit the guy again and ask what else he will take, I may need to rid myself of some shingles very shortly here.
In other news and mostly just to document the event, I rode the Ironman the last weekend of April. I chose the 66 mile route, which ended up to be more like 64-65 miles and averaged 17.3 mph through the ride. I rode with a guy I used to work with and some of his friends. The plan was for a nice easy ride, but the nice weather and some time constraints had someone pushing the pace the entire time. I burnt out at about 63 miles and limped back to the cars, but I felt good having not done a distance like that in a few years.
May 8th, 2007
This is how busy I am: I have been relegated to writing my blog on my own time. Gone are the days of reflecting on the weekend early Monday morning and composing a thought-provoking, comical entry. Now I am trying desperately to recall two week old events and come up with something meaningful to say. (As a side note, I am writing this in my cafeteria with 3 women sitting beside me discussing their teenage sons and how different they’ve become of late. Extremely humorous to say the least.)
Anyway, so the last few weeks have been filled with cooking for me. I completed my five course Christmas present cooking class and have emerged as a certified know-it-all. The five classes were divided into four subjects and a graduation class. The subjects covered were fish, vegetables, soups, and meat. All were filled with incredibly useful information and I think I ended the class with a binder full of about 70 recipes (which I promptly destroyed when I left it on top of the car last weekend on my way to the grocery store). I have attempted several of the recipes at home with mixed results. I enjoyed all of the dishes, but my better half has a slightly more refined palate and didn’t care for my lamb stew or bacon wrapped spinach. I may start posting recipes that generally go over well just to document them should they get left on top of the car again.
In Will news, he officially reached 3/4′s of a year old yesterday. He is in the 50th percentile for weight, 60th for height, and 90th for head size. Yeah, he defiantly gets that from his mom… He has become extremely mobile and playful. He loves to show you his tongue and how he can make farting sounds on your skin. He also loves to knockdown towers you build with his blocks (it is a surefire way to get him to stay in a particular room) and he loves to play with Hank’s stuffed bone. He mostly just waves it around and waits for Hank to snatch it out of his hands, but you could sense his disappointment when Hank was at the groomers and was unable to heeds Will’s call for him, “Hey, hey… ckkk.” It was pretty sad to watch.
I’ve got some other things I need to cover, but those will have to wait a few more days. Lunch is over and I have to get back to the grind.
January 24th, 2007
If ever there is a storm in a household, it has to be in the kitchen and it has to be on Thanksgiving day. I tried to secure the traditional bird the day before the great day of thanks, unfortunately both grocery stores I went to were sold out (I was also amused to see two women in Target debating who should get the last turkey baster). So we decided to go a less sleep inducing bird, chicken. Now I haven’t prepared many large meals, so to take on the holy grail of meals, Thanksgiving, I thought might be a bit out of my league. Its not that it is difficult to prepare each dish, it is just a lot of work and takes some forethought to get everything done around the same time. 
The menu was as follows:
- Roasted Chicken
- Stuffing
- Sweet Potatoes
- Green Beans
- Rolls
- Dutch Apple Pie
I won’t say what was from a can or box, but I will say the bird was 100% all me. Everything actually turned out pretty good. I find I try to cook to not ruin the food instead of cooking to make excellent food. Its a small distinction and one reason why I will never be America’s next Top Chef.
I was thoroughly tired after that marathon meal, but I knew there was a storm in the basement brewing. In fact, as I type, it is continuing. At this point I am finally putting the drywall up on the ceiling, but I can’t believe it has taken me 2.5 days to get ready for it. There was insulation to finish, some framing to wrap up, some video and data cables to run, a lot of electrical to finish up and good cleaning was in order. I finished the cleaning this afternoon and went and rented a lift for the drywall. It is a bit awkward to use by myself, but once you get everything set it place, it makes screwing up (or down depending on how you look at it) the drywall a breeze. Doing the ceiling first is a good idea for a number of reasons, but mostly because for me it is the biggest pain. This house has been sitting here for roughly 90 years and the floor joists aren’t exactly flush anymore, if they ever were. Fixing the problem isn’t too bad, but it certainly makes for slow work. Two more days to go and I can only hope I get 90% of the drywalling done, but now it is well past my bed time…
November 25th, 2006
Last summer I discovered my delight in cooking on the grill. I grilled everything from pineapples to corn on the cob (grilled pineapple slices is something you have to try). Everything I cooked though was grilled, which means it was usually done in less than 15 minutes (except the potatoes). Anyway, my point is that I had done a lot of fast, very hot cooking, but I wanted to try the other art of cooking with a grill, barbecuing.
Now I am not exactly sure what prompted me to do some barbecuing, but Easter seemed like the perfect excuse to have a different meal. So I bought a rack of pork ribs and went to work slowly cooking them. It took about 6 hours of work, but the results were worth the time and effort. I thought they were pretty tasty (and they did pass the wife test), but I think I was just more happy that they weren’t terrible. I would have been very disappointed if I had worked on them for 6 hours and they ended up tasting like leather. Needless to say I was excited about my work as I took a half a dozen photos of it. Too bad there weren’t leftovers.
April 16th, 2006
So on the 5th of April I took my bike out for the first time. For one reason or another, I never got my trainer out this winter and I just hoped that all the work I’d done in the gym would pay off. Nothing really prepares your legs for the first ride of the season. You can ride a trainer, but it won’t prepare you for the wind, the bumps in the road, the stop signs, or the big hills. You can lift weights, but they won’t give you all the endurance you need to keep your legs moving along for an hour or more. So really the first ride of the season for me is nothing more than to wake your legs up and get the motion back.
I have been trying to drop some pounds all winter, but all I did was trade muscle for fat. I kept coming back to when I was riding to work a few summers ago; I had no trouble staying light. So I decided it was time I learned how to ride down to my plant. The ride is about 6 miles longer than what I use to ride to work, but once you get outside of the cities, it flattens out and stop signs are few and far between.
To make sure I could do the ride in a timely manner I did the round trip this morning. I held back a little on the way there to make sure I had enough gas for the ride home. I guess I held back too much because my trip home was faster by about 20 minutes. So now that I have the route down, I will likely only ride it once before the baby comes. It wouldn’t be such a great thing to be at work with only a bike and get “the call”.
April 15th, 2006
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