New Palm Pilot

That's some of the SMD soldering i did. SMD stands for surface mount device, as opposed to hole mount devices. SMDs stick right to the surface of printed circuit boards. Hole mount devices have legs which go through the circuit board, and get soldered from there. They're bigger, and waaaay easier to work with. So i'm proud that my SMD work is... i dunno, fairly neat. I hope nothing burns up. I'm still waiting on some cheap 10,000 microfarad capacitors. I don't know why they aren't called 10 farad capacitors -- same thing. Nobody says they're two thousandths of a kilometer tall. I'm almost that tall.

Today i did get a cheap new (to me) Palm Pilot. It's not dented, it's barely scratched, it's got a pristine screen with a screen protector already stuck to it! The digitizer always (always!) responds to the stylus! Awesome. And it was $17. Including shipping.

So: the barrier to entry for reading e-books is not the cost of a Kindle. Because as astonishingly incredible (worthy of AWE!) as those are, they're pricey. And big, and possibly fragile. But they have free wireless browsing of Wikipedia, which makes my pulse race a little bit just thinking about. But you can read e-books on a Palm Pilot too! Karen reads books on her Palm Pilot, and Karen was really resistant to the whole idea.

So if you want me to hook you up with a cheap e-book reader, i totally will. Getting books onto the device is a little involved and geeky, but not prohibitively hard if you know how to get into undernet on IRC and accept DCC transfers... and then convert the files to clean html... use Plucker... okay, i'll do that too. Just buy one of these.

Sometimes i talk to stuff.

Okay, first: i LOVE that face Houston makes. He must have special muscles in his mouth to make his lips like that. I hope he doesn't forget how to do that when he grows up.

One time while we were living in England, i was about to eat part of a Kit Kat candy bar. I thought i was alone in the house, and i started thinking about the fate of the candy bar; it was about to be crushed to pulp, swallowed and digested. So i said "Goodbye!" Kind of loudly. Then from upstairs, my dad said "What?" I paused, embarrassed, and said something like "Uh, nothing?"

It's more fun, obviously, to talk to things which can respond. Like dogs. So i was talking to Graham today -- he responds to normal conversation by cocking his head and staring, wondering with his fairly smart (for a dog) brain what in the world i'm talking about. So i told him "Hi Graham. I am a person. You are a dog. I am superior." Zane was with me in the kitchen, and he said "Daddy, you are not superior." in his "You are being silly" voice. Totally adorable. Then he told me i'm the best daddy. Also adorable.

Hook-ed on elec-tro-nikes

Tony left! Yesterday! But while he was still here, we did some electronic tinkering with wires and resistors and stuff. So i remembered how much i like making stuff with electronics. Mmm, solder. I rummaged through my various piles of embarrassing mess and found an amplifier kit from a while ago. And built it today. Now it needs a power supply, and -- total weirdness -- it's going to need two transformers. Or a toroidal transformer with multiple secondary windings, but those are really expensive, and i already have one of the other kind from back in the day when i was supercooling my computer processor. And "EI" transformers like the one i have are cheap. Oh, ha ha, no, they're not emotionally impaired -- EI refers to the shape of the core of the transformer. They're noisy though, like EI kids usually are.

But anyway, i'm learning a lot about AC power supplies, and having fun building my amplifier! So far so good, although i'm really worried to hook it up for the first time, since that's when the magic smoke tries hardest to get out. If i can keep the magic smoke inside the components, i should have a Very Sweet Sounding amplifier for my ZUMBA! classes, and any other boom-box needs i might have. Hey!!! I think i'll make a USB charging port as part of my amplifier! And it's going to be housed in a Bart Simpson shaped tin. Pictures eventually.

Goodbye kitty

Just a drawing today. Plus, here's the hat Tony gave me! Cool.

Geeked!

That's our kitchen table. Tony's over here, and he's going to hard-wire his GPS into his motorcycle... but the specific GPS needs an extra resistor between a normally unconnected pin in the mini-USB plug and the ground. So we had to figure out how to put that in there and then seal the whole thing up to be weathertight. It's a little messy, but should work great!

It's fun to geek out with a friend. We sat there talking about resistor values, polarity, unregulated power supplies, fuses... you know, geeky stuff. SMD soldering (Tony was impressed that i've worked with "surface mount devices").

A truck in the street

This morning, a tree service chopped down our neighbor's extremely dead tree, shoving the whole thing into a chipper. Oh, except for the trunk. Luckily, the giant truck blocking our whole street had a small orange cone letting approaching traffic know to have caution.

So... Karen brought a picnic out for us all to enjoy. It was lovely.

Back to work.

Ugh... i worked today. It was a fine day, but after having such an irregular schedule for these past two months, getting back to work with no planned interesting things going on is a bummer.

But wait... Tony's visiting! There's a ZUMBA! party on August 6th at One and Two Thirds Ball Park! Which will be expensive... and i'm working anyway. On the 8th of the same month, we're invited to go salsa dancing with some ZUMBA! buddies, but who knows what's gonna happen with that. In September, we get to go see U2, the band, with Bono and The Edge and Larry Mullens Jr. and Adam Clayton. You know, "Juanito" is an improbable name. So what if i introduced myself as "Flash McHandsome"? Would people start calling me Flash McHandsome? Or would everybody just start avoiding me, and ignoring me when they couldn't? I don't know.

And praise God i've got a job. And i'm good at it, and it's secure. And it pays barely enough for us to avoid going into debt deeper each month! Score!

Houston's rocket

Houston built a model rocket before i went to camp. Then he and Karen painted it while i was suntanning on the beach chatting with teenagers. So today, we went to launch it! It worked flawlessly: the decades old electric launch device worked perfectly. The igniter lit the solid rocket fuel. The motor shot the rocket into the air, the cone popped off, and the parachute deployed... and it turns out we chose a too-small park to fly the rocket in. Because seriously, it went SO HIGH. And then a little breeze blew it into the stand of woods next to the park. We spent almost an hour tramping through the undergrowth craning our necks, but didn't catch the slightest glimpse of the rocket. Very very sad.

The same thing happened with my only model rocket i set off when i was a kid.

A day at the lake!

Today we got to go visit a cottage which belongs to somebody associated somehow with Karen's family, and once a year or so we get to go up there for a day trip. I think this is the first year all the kids have been okay with water. Even Zane went on a tube... well, more like an elaborate, personal-watercraft-shaped inflated toy. It was really fancy, and like fake tanks, from a distance it looks quite genuine. I wonder how many of our neighbors were wondering why that Sea-Doo was following that boat so closely.

Maybe most impressive to me was Houston's instant love of the kayak. He hooked a tube to the kayak and towed anyone around -- even me. At one point he let the kayak drift a good fifty feet from the raft, so he jumped in (life jacketed) and swam to the kayak, clambered aboard and whizzed back to the raft. I was pleased that he solved that problem by himself. I don't think Katrina tried the kayak, but she did swim everywhere. No distance was too great for her to attempt!

Everybody jumped on the trampolines, even grown-ups, and even though it LOOKS like Zane must have broken at least six hundred neck bones in today's picture, he didn't even break one. It looks waaaay more alarming that it was. Ha ha!

Finally, Karen and i are cute.
___more___

Michelle got married today!

Okay, so Michelle got married today! She's one of my favorite ex-coworkers from Wedgwood. We had some good times and some really not good times. All the toasters at the wedding said that she's beautiful and smart, and it's totally true. I have stratospheric respect for that lady.

She and her now-husband Kevin had ten people standing up for them. Each. Ahem: holy cow. And ALL her bridesmaids can dance. So it was pretty intimidating at first to get out on the dance floor, but since i'm not intimidated by much, i got out there and might have shaken my booty a slight-to-middling amount. But not a lot. One of my other favorite ex-coworkers Jennifer was there, and she did shake her booty a lot. No question.

I am so happy for her and Kevin.

...i know i was gonna post pictures from camp today, but i can't. Too tired!

Young Life Camp Done!

I'm home!!! This makes me very happy. I'm getting to hug my kids and Karen, and talk to them and stuff! And i'll get to sleep in my own bed! Without yelling at kids for being obnoxious or telling dirty jokes!

I'll post pictures tomorrow. But before things fade from my memory, i'll drop a few details on ya.

The boys we took were mostly fine, with the silly ones remaining silly, the selfish ones remaining disappointingly selfish, and the passive-aggressive ones cutting it out a little bit. The girls were very easy to get along with -- a joy, even! -- but we had to send one home. That whole situation made me furious. So the next day, Karen surprised me by coming up to visit! I was sitting there talking to somebody, in a dark mood, and suddenly, Katrina wrapped her little soft arms around my neck! That was amazing! My Karen and our little ones are really good for me. Seeing Karen and the kids was unspeakably excellent.

One of the leaders had astonishing red hair, which he let me lock up into dreads. His hair will end up shockingly cool if the locks don't fall out. Oh, and it turns out that the technique i made up to do dreads is very similar to Sisterlocks, which is a patented (or trademarked?) method of putting very thin, versatile dreads in hair, but white people aren't recommended to get them because they're expensive, and straight hair doesn't hold them. So maybe i'll call my method Whiteylocks.

Oh! I asked around if it would be possible for me to lead a ZUMBA! class at camp. None of the people i talked to knew what it was, so i kind of explained, and eventually got a "i guess so" from the powers that be, and had THE BEST CLASS I'VE EVER HAD!!! It was so awesome. Like seven people came up and said "Are we doing ZUMBA! again tomorrow???" so we did. Funny. There's a video i'm currently struggling with -- the audio is bad. I'll post it to The Internet soon.

The week went well. I'm really impressed with my head- and co-leaders, Sara, Jen, Joe, and James. Quality people, hold the obnoxious, with a side of awesome. That pretty much sums it up.

Young Life Camp Tomorrow!

Look! I'm doing a crazy, out-of-control wheelie, about to squish two little girls! Except... not. My scooter is just pretty light.

Tomorrow, i abandon my family for a WHOLE SIX DAYS of Young Life Camp. We leave tomorrow. It's always fun... i always get tan... i always meet interesting people... Yeah. But my kids! Houston's tooth just sprouted through his humorously stretched gum tissue today! Zane is potty training! I love getting hugs from Katrina! I miss Karen!!! I still have to do laundry and pack. So i should be getting to that...

Yesterday was an interesting day

Seems like i always post interesting things the day after they happen. Well, yesterday at 12:34 and 56 seconds, it was 12:34:56 on 7.8.9. Unless you live in the rest of the world where they put day-month-year, or year-month-day, but not month-day-year. Gotta say we do it confusingly. Is 7-8 July eighth or the seventh of August? It should go little to big or big to little, not medium to little to big. Humph, Americans.

So i guess on the seventh of August, it will be 12:34:56 7-8-9 again, Rest-of-the-World style.

Other news: Houston is swimming! Today he started out on his face, gliding, and then ever so naturally flipped over on his back and did a few strokes on his back! Go Houston! He's getting more water safe. Katrina is really comfortable in the water as well. She said that she tried floating, sank to the bottom, put her feet down and pushed herself back up. No panic! I guess she's got a high specific gravity, which makes sense with her being 98th percentile tall and 75th percentile heavy. Or whatever. She's slim. And other big news: Zane's potty training! We might have bought our last diaper ever! Amazing! ...unless we become full quiverers. Better happen before my do-it-yourself-vasectomy kit i got on ebay comes in.

Cootie Catchers

I must have been, like, eight when one of my friends said "Hey, do you want me to tell your fortune?" I had no idea what he was talking about, but he produced a cootie catcher, and told me i would have eight kids. I also remember learning the definition of "humor". I remember lots of stuff.

So today when Katrina said "I can make one of those!" i expressed my surprise tinted with incredulity. But she flitted off to get some paper, and industriously set about making a cootie catcher. I was very proud. Houston decided to try to one-up Katrina by building a tiny cootie catcher -- so small he had to have me write on it. It's tiny. We also have at least two giant ones, which is sitting there under the tiny one in today's picture. And there's possibly ten medium sized ones floating around in our house.

There we go. Our kids are learning folded-paper games really early. I'm so proud!

Our garden pest

Our garden pest is actually a groundhog. Or woodchuck. Same thing. Karen got to take a picture of it, and i wish i'd been home, because then i'd have... well... probably tried to subdue it with a blanket and extradite him to some peaceful country area. Next to a freeway, maybe? Because he did eat our squash leaves... and our lettuce, carrot tops, broccoli, some bean leaves, and even some of the onions. Not the tomato plants... yet. I should go check.

I hope my chicken-wire fence works -- according to The Internet, woodchucks can climb fences. I guess pinwheels can also keep them away. Curse those agile cowards.

Wascawy Wabbit

Today while we were at Zumba, we were robbed again!!!1!11!!!

Yes! One of our beautiful zucchini plants in the back yard got all its leaves eaten by some varmint yesterday. Our other plant, in a different planter, was fine. But today while we all were out of the house, our other plant got denuded of leaves! Why can't the rabbits eat all the succulent leaves of the weeds we have in our back yard? Because garden plants are delicious? Grrrrrrrr.

So i put up a lot more chicken wire to keep them out. I hope. I hope rabbits can't climb chicken wire. Also, i hope they aren't as clever as Bugs Bunny.

Bottlecaps

Houston sorted his bottlecap collection with me today. We put them into rows of unique sorts, Houston examined them carefully, finding even the slightest differences, like one of the Miller Lite bottlecaps has a little symbol on the crimped part, and Houston said "Come On! Look at that!"

He has a new container with all the duplicates, which he plans on smashing with his vise and/or hammer.

Fourth!

I love sitting on somebody's back lawn near a creek, with a giant telephone pole looming opaquely into the sky. Which does block some of the fireworks, but the grandeur of the pyrotechnics compensates. I love playing with the kids. I love the fireflies, with their astonishing ability to make light come from their butts, and how docile they are when you catch them. Then the sky descending into darkness, which we never really pay attention to. More playing with the kids and talking with the grown ups. Then... THE FIREWORKS!!!!! Our humble little show in Grandville is far less impressive than the show downtown, i'm sure, let alone shows in bigger cities. But it's just the right length, and the fireworks are set off one at a time, for the most part. We get to see and appreciate the diverse types of firework. And then of course, the Grand Finale, which is awe inspiring. Bright! Loud! Pretty!

So there ya go. This night is my favorite yearly event behind Christmas day.

Also, we spent most of the day with Karen's family, who were generous enough to take us on the boat, and i got "llike three feet of air" on Jim's wakeboard.

Fishing

For a while today i was alone at work with three kids. They wanted to go fishing, and in Wedgwood's giant renovating process, they built a pond. They use the water to sprinkle the lawn, and it has a little pier, and they stocked it with fish. So they let the kids fish from it.

The kids are too squeamish to find worms. They're too squeamish to put the worms on the hooks. They're way too squeamish to pull the hooks out of the fish's mouths, since that involves touching a live fish. But me! I'm not squeamish at ALL. But i'm empathetic! The worms getting jammed on hooks! OW! They writhe exactly as though they're in pain. And the fish getting yanked out of their homes by a hook! I can rationally accept the whole process, because a worm's and a fish's pain is not the same experience i have... and stuff... But i did feel sick when putting the worms on the hooks. And i tried to get the fish to feel loved when i was extracting the hooks from their jaws. Plus, bluegills and sunfish have fascinating mouths -- there's rows of teeth things in there. And if you tilt the fish to the left and right, their eyes tilt to compensate, keeping aligned to the horizon. How in the world can fish do that? They have no inner ear! Especially in air where their swim bladder has no buoyancy. Wow, i can't believe i spelled buoyancy right. So i sent very loving thoughts to them, and tossed them back.

Also, Houston, Katrina and Zane love me! And they're so cute! I took them to the store today, and Houston wanted very much to dress up weird. He wore one sock with one of his Crocs, and a sock, slipper, and MY Crocs style shoe on his other foot. And an adult-size-M shirt, inside out. What a goofball. Zane calls fireworks "Thundercrackers", which is the most descriptive term i've ever heard them called. Astonishing.

A post to keep my weblog from feeling lonely

Today i let Karen sleep in. And sleeeeep she did, since she was awake until absurdly late working on a picture book documenting our trip to NYC. She's doing it on the computer, so it'll be a bound book from Snapfish (their layouts are kind of horrible, and their quality could be better, but Karen's doing most of the layouts on the computer anyway).

While she was snoozing, i took the kids shopping. While we were there, we got to the sample area, and there were treats! This is a big deal for the kids -- they thrill at eating quarter muffins for FREE! Halfway through the noshing, Houston suddenly started crying heartfelt tears. "Waaaaahhh!" he said, fat tears rolling down his cheeks. Surprised, i asked him what was up, and he said mournfully "My tooth!!!" There was one of his teeth kind of bent out of socket. I hugged him and got him a napkin to soothe himself, and after a minute it kind of popped out. Then Houston was back to normal. Except he told me "I feel sorry for my tooth." And then, "I think it will feel lonely now that it fell out." Cute kid, anthropomorphizing his teeth.