March 2006 - Posts
I have been thinking about a new grill for a while now. John helped me make the Grillmaster last a good seven years but now it is good and dead. I have been looking at a
Vermont Castings grill, but I have no idea about the quality, since almost all grill reviews are for super-cheap grillls. I want something that will last me 10 - 15 years without having to replace every part. I know, I am ridiculous. Webers are overpriced, what should I do?
http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2006/03/30/eline/links/20060330elin013.html
That's pretty depressing. I am a person at fairly high risk for skin cancer and I rely on sunscreen to help combat that. My children love to be outside, and therefore also wear it a fair amount in the summer. It just adds to my skepticism about everything I buy.
Someone I know is involved in a new venture called Bits du Jour. It is a website that will feature a discounted deal on a software item, membership, or some other digital desirable each day. Check it out. They have an RSS feed, so you can just subscribe and watch for things that are of interest. Cool...
I haven't posted in a while because kind of a lot has been going on at work and I couldn't really post anything about it in a public forum. As this point, anyone who knows people at the office have probably heard, so I guess it is probably safe to at least acknowledge it. With our recent acquisition there were organizational changes, as there usually are, and last Friday we had to let a bunch of people go. Some of those people were friends and trusted colleagues who have been with the company longer than I have been walking. Two of them were 30-plus year people who both more or less mentored me when I joined the company and began my career. These were quality people who invested the better part of their entire career with our company. There are many considerations in these situations, some of them make sense to the people involved, many don't. I'm not going to decry the process or the practice, I'll only say it is a difficult situation for everyone involved (yes, even management). I am very torn over the whole situation, even though I understand it on some level.
Some of the people who I have become friends with, I will continue to see and interact with outside the office. Many, I probably will not see again, unless I bump into them at art fair or the mall or something like that. Considering I usually spend the vast majority of my waking hours in this office (during the week -- I try to not come in on weekends!), I see my coworkers more than I see my family (now THAT is depressing). With that in mind, it is pretty tough to see people go...
Like this. If you haven't ever heard of Adam Green -- don't worry, neither had I until a few minutes ago. Listen to some of his music. I am still trying to decide if it is good, or just funny, but it is definitely one of the two...
Some song title highlights include: "Hey Dude"(on two different albums), "Hairy Women", "Chubby Princess", and "Crackhouse Blues"
The lyrics are just what you might expect based on those titles.
I got the Jeep back up and running last night, and was even brave enough to drive to in to work today. Overall, once I settled down and just got to it, the whole repair was pretty easy. The hardest parts were due to my unfamiliarity with the engine compartment on the Jeep (the air cleaner box is removable, which makes accessing the power-steering pump bolts MUCH easier). Fussing around trying to access bolts wasted a lot of time. Once I figured out how to remove the other bits, the actual repair was rather routine. The one other part that took a lot of time (although no skill or mechanical acumen, per se) was getting the old gasket off. For that, I needed just patience and a paint scraper. One final little tidbit: when you need to remove a post from the old water pump pulley mount to move to the new one, put two nuts on the post, tighten them together (very tight), then put your wrench on the inner one, and you should be able to loosen the post. Found that buried in the instructions after wondering how in the heck to do it...
Photos here:
http://www.chrisoverbeek.com/photos/test/category1011.aspx
Okay, so color me stupid. The bearing on the water pump appears to be completely shot. I will be attempting to replace the water pump tonight. Wish me luck.
Today, I tried to replace a leaky radiator hose on my lunchtime. I got everything drained and got the old hose off. I cleaned up the fittings and put the new hose on and tightened the clamps. As I am refilling the radiator, I hear dripping. I check, and there is coolant coming out at the bottom fitting on the engine end of the hose. I check the hose clamp -- tight. Not sure if the leak is from the fitting or from the water pump, as the point of the leak is totally blind, and even with an inspection mirror, I can't tell where it is coming from. At that point, I gave up and cleaned up and came back to the office.
Tonight I will be removing the hose again, and trying to determine if I have a serious problem or if I am just a moron. Hopefully I am dumb. The other possibility is that there is a leaky seal on the water pump, and I am really not excited about the prospect of tearing into that...
Does anyone have any tricks for figuring out where a leak is when you can't see the point of the leak?
I've posted a few times about the rather amazing effect music has on my memory. I associate smells, sights, even the emotions I was feeling with some songs -- apparently whatever I was hearing at the moment.
I was just goofing around on an mp3 site looking for some music to have in the background while I review code this morning, and after a few trips through some top X lists, I came across a Neil Diamond Greatest Hits CD (in the European top 100, I think). That got me going through old Neil Diamond albums, because my Mom was a big Neil Diamond fan. I started listeing to tracks off Tap Root Manuscript and it was like I was back in the living room at the house I grew up in. Wearing my dad's old studio monitor headphones, looking at the cassette holder or the album jacket, bopping my head along to Cracklin' Rosie. Scary, scary stuff... The rest of the album is just as familiar, although I associate different memories. Childsong is riding in the backseat of the Delta 88 on the way to Chicago, counting tractor trailers with Dave, looking forward to peanut M&Ms at the border crossings (wierd family tradition...). I Am The Lion is back in the living room, but with Michelle and I both laying on the floor, chins in hands, listening.
Kinda creeps me out how vivid those memories are when I hear the music...
I want to see the end of the Indiana/Gonzaga game.
I live in the midwest.
I don't have a choice. Up until about an hour ago, I had coverage of every game in the NCAA tourney, either on my cable or on the internet. Suddenly, with the last two games, they only let me see the current CBS game -- which happens to be the west coast game. Yo -- CBS -- those of us in the midwest could give rat's behind about Dick Enberg and UCLA -- show us our local teams. WTF? Give the people a chance to see ALL of the games. I am about to turn off the TV, period.
[EDIT: Poor John had to follow his Hoosiers defeat by watching the score at the top of the screen while we were subjected to tHE UCLA game -- not a very fun way to watch your team. Bummer...]
Things are back to normal today, apparently, anyway. No baby on the way just yet. John and Michelle are here to keep us company, though, so that's cool.
I am at work right now, since I missed all of yesterday when I was supposed to be here. I probably won't stay here real long, but I needed to get some printouts, my laptop, and my phone cradle so I could work from home. It is kind of pathetic -- I was here at 7 AM this morning. I never get to work that early during the week!
I am having some anger issues over the pitiable play of my MSU Spartans in the NCAA tournament -- keep your insults and jibes to yourself, lest I unleash a fit of fury on you. Seriously, though, that really bums me out, and I know have to sit around with John and watch Indiana (who hopefully can keep their heads better than my sorry Sparties did!).
After 6 hours of contractions, I finally got Jodi to just lay down, and now her contractions have stopped. I think she's disappointed, as I think she's ready to be done with it, but I'm not sure that's what's best for all involved. For now, it looks like it won't be a St. Patty's day baby, but she's still having the occasional contraction, so we'll see...
Jodi is having contractions again, so I am staying home and 'helping' with the boys. What that really means is I hang out and annoy everyone (not on purpose) and holler at Jodi to stop doing housework and rest. John and Michelle are coming this afternoon, just to visit, so at least we have a built in kid-watching-unit if things do progress. For now, it is mostly just that Jodi is pretty uncomfortable and I am unsure of what is going to happen. Being the Daddy has it's issues, too, you know. It's just that they are in my head, not in my abdomen...
Well, since I managed to break one of the steps on our back porch a while back, we've had a dangerous entrance that needed remedy. Saturday morning, I got rambunctious and pulled out the tiger saw (reciprocating saw) and started cutting up the old steps.
http://www.chrisoverbeek.com/photos/test/picture1766.aspx
Once I had the old steps off, I realized I needed to put new ones in. I measured everything up and headed to Lowes. Once there, I pretty much wandered around the lumber area for 10 minutes wondering what materials to use. In a stroke of genius, I called Dave to ask him what I should do. He started helping out with suggestions when mid-conversation I saw that they had pre-cut stringers, treads, and bannister posts. Hrm. Maybe I should let Dave go and actually do something. So I blew 120$ on pre-cut pieces and deck screws and headed back to the house to do some damage. After spending a solid hour and 20 minutes digging post holes, measuring, putting posts in, remeasuing, swearing, re-digging, and remeasuring (you get the idea), I finally had the posts in place and fairly square. About 40 minutes after that, Voila! New steps.
http://www.chrisoverbeek.com/photos/test/picture1767.aspx
Wow. That was cool. (hah!) Actually, all things considered, probably one of the smoother home improvement projects I've undertaken. I didn't have to replace the whole deck!
http://www.skype.com/
I am curious about it. I generally don't have issues with paying for landline phones and I certainly would like to keep my cellphone, but the whole Skype concept is intriguing to me. I am curious about the quality and reliability. Given the general latency of the internet and the sketchy consistency of long-distance internet connections, it seems like there would be some serious issues with it. Comment if you use it and have thoughts...
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