Well, he may be small in stature, but he’s huge in heart. Oskar and Xavier created this masterpiece today with a little assistance from dad. The snow had a hard time sticking together, but it was probably for the best since Oskar decided he REALLY wanted to make this for the animals anyway. We “dressed” the snowman in a layer of birdseed. More pictures below… (more…)
Archive for January, 2008
Snowman
Sunday, January 27th, 2008Web Hosting Support Nightmare
Thursday, January 17th, 2008
Honesty Box has been, up until recently, hosted at a company called ThePlanet who’s incompetence is absolutely amazing. During the 6 months that we hosted our application there, I encountered some of the worst technical support I have ever seen. The last request thread went something like this - due to copyright restrictions, I need to paraphrase the actual conversations. This is just one of a dozen similar interactions with their support department. I would like to say thank you to all of the tech support folks who handled our requests, I understand the nonsense isn’t your fault, but instead expectations of IT departments everywhere - your spread too thin and asked to do too much. If this type of thing interests you read on - otherwise, this is mostly geek. To summarize, don’t host your website with them.
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Weekend at Oma’s
Sunday, January 13th, 2008
Oskar and I are home from our weekend at Oma’s. Xavier’s staying until Patty comes up this next weekend. They boys had a great time Saturday burning off some steam running laps in the basement of the old house (still for sale if anyone’s interested), the mall and finally exploring the Elgin Public Museum. After that Chris and I went to the SCCA Chicago Solo awards banquet. I picked up my 9th place trophy (Wahoo!) and some Hoosier Tire door prize SWAG which the kids put to good use this morning. Some commented photos below. (more…)
Yikes! A few days without an update!
Tuesday, January 8th, 2008
Last week Vince and Jan came for a brief visit before heading on to see Christopher. We checked out Mayo and the downtown subway. The kids were ecstatic to see them. We had a nice visit and celebrated their 10th anniversary at Michaels on Thursday. The house is almost back together after the holiday and it’s getting back to life as usual here in MN. I bottled the MrBeer homebrew last Saturday. Sunday while Gretchen nursed a cold, Oskar and I worked on a photo booth for taking macro photographs of stuff for eBay and I caught up for dinner with Joe Rinehart on Sunday. I’ve been working too much this week, pulling 16 hours Monday and probably 12 by the end of today and was able to have Joe over to the house for dinner. I guess the end of the month makes it all worth it. Last but not least, we converted Kathy to Mac… so Kevin and Rachel - your the last stand for PC.
MrBeer Homebrew Batch Coming Along Nicely
Thursday, January 3rd, 2008
After a 7 day fermentation in the basement, which was a few degrees too cold for the yeast, I moved it into the kitchen and it’s coming along nicely — definitely a good move. The MrBeer kit was a present from Kathy; Kevin, Steve, Chris and I all worked on this first batch together on Christmas. It’s been fermenting for 9 days now and I think in another 2-3 days it should be ready for bottling. I tested it just now and it has a nice yeast smell and is losing the sweetness it had when I decided to move it upstairs. It’s a little sharp on the tongue but it’s still not done, I’ll taste it before I bottle it and let you know how it is. It has a very nice amber color and should make a good pale ale judging from the color and smell at this point.
NTIA Coupons Now Available
Tuesday, January 1st, 2008
Happy New Year! Here we are, the dawn of a new year - the dawn of a new era. While most people I know have cable or that other dish thing the few choice folks who wish to watch TV the old fashioned way (over the air) can now get their $40 coupon from NTIA. Uncle Sam is subsidizing the cost of the digital revolution. The coupons are first come first served (I ordered mine, so now I can tell you about it) and are limited to 2 per household. Don’t forget in February of 2009 - planned obsolescence strikes and all the old TV’s become junk. Get your coupon today by calling in or using the website. I called and was very impressed with the voice recognition software they used to get address and name. While you can’t actually use the coupons - because there’s nothing you can buy - it’s a first step. Devices are expected to be available in February of this year. It’s certainly cheaper than buying a new digital TV right - perhaps I can give cable the old heave ho? Oh wait - I need it for the internet 
