Woodenbadger.com

STOP!

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 21:11:00 +0000

Today this teenage girl on a bike had the distinction of coming the closest to being killed by me.

Occasionally when I'm on the north end of town and coming back in on 105 I'll take Jefferson instead of Willamette. I'm not sure why I don't do this more often, because it's really a better route. I just seem to be programmed to drive on Willamette, because for the longest time I didn't know Jefferson was there.

As you can see here, it's a straight shot on Jefferson off of 105 all the way to 28th st. What makes it a good route is that the only time you have a stop sign or light is on 18th, so you don't stop anywhere near as much as on Willamette.

18th to 28th is a residential neighborhood, and as you're driving south, College Hill is on your left. The ridge parallels Jefferson and Willamette, so all the streets that run perpendicular to them are short and steep as they come off the hill.

I was heading south down Jefferson, going maybe 25-30 mph. There was another vehicle maybe a few car lengths behind me; maybe a second or two back at the speed we were going.

I was around 24th street when a cyclist flying down one of those steep hills shot through a stop sign without slowing down and missed slamming into the side of my car by maybe a quarter of a second. Had she stretched her arm out in passing she could have touched the back of my car easily. So not only did she miss slamming into me by a hair's breadth, she missed getting t-boned by the car behind me by only a second or so.

It happened so fast that I don't recall seeing the other driver slam on his brakes. She just flew through the gap between us like a movie stunt. In my rearview mirror I did notice that another cyclist with her had her bike tipped over on its side, and I was wondering if maybe they overestimated their braking power and just weren't able to stop. I can't imagine anyone being stupid enough to try a stunt like that on purpose. I see plenty of people around town cruising through stop signs in front of traffic with several seconds to spare, but never anything as reckless as this.

I was so shocked that instead of just driving away, I turned the car around and headed down the street she'd gone down in search of her. Sure enough she was sitting at the side of the road with a couple of friends. I went into old person lecture mode and rolled down the window to give her a piece of my mind. She was maybe 11 or 12, and was apologetic for having almost smooshed herself against my car. She wasn't wearing a helmet, either, so there's a decent chance she'd be dead had myself or the car behind me had the misfortune to connect with her.

I wasn't quite as freaked out as I might have been had I been the one on the bike, but it still shook me up just a little.

Playtime!

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 02:48:00 +0000

I started building the kids a play structure maybe a week and a half ago. This was all part of the master plan, and one of the reasons we left a big, open flat spot in the backyard. When we expanded the deck we used Trex for all the new stuff, and replaced all the existing cedar since it would have looked a little goofy if we hadn't. I ended up salvaging about 40 20' 2 x 6s, along with some 2 x 4s, and a bunch of railing material. I had to pull out millions of nails, but I got them all cleaned up and stored them under the deck, where they've been sitting for a couple of years.

The idea with the playhouse was to salvage as many of these as possible. I used them for floor joists, bracing, decking... When I get around to the roof I'll use them for the rafters and the purlins to hold up the roofing. I've made a pretty big dent in them.

The building is slow going. The first day I decided not to move things back and forth so I set up a table in the back. It's got the miter saw on top, and I've got a big plastic bin underneath I'm storing things like hand tools, clamps, fasteners, and anything else I think I'm gonna need. I still end up hiking up to the garage half a dozen times a day for things I forget, though.

I usually get the most work done on the days the kids are gone. I drop them off at school and daycare, then usually I need to stop by the hardware store for a new batch of stuff I need to pick up. Then I head home, carry all the new stuff out back, and then make a couple more trips to pack out the power tools and other stuff I leave inside. I usually don't get started working until 10 or so, and have to start cleaning up by around 2 if I need to pick up the kids.

I've made some decent headway, but there's still a lot to do. I need to attach the railings to the bridge, put down all the decking, build the climbing wall, figure out how to attach the slide, add the fireman's pole, add some railings, and put the roof on. If it's done in 2 weeks I'll be feeling pretty good. I'm starting to think those kits that promise that you can build and play the same day would have been a lot easier. But no where near as cool. Or as big.

You can see pictures over at my flickr account.

Where were you at 8:00 PM PST on 8/16/08?

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 01:38:00 +0000

You should be somewhere, glued to a television set tuned into NBC. You're excused if you happen to be in Beijing at the aquatics center, you lucky dog.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you know who Michael Phelps is. Tonight in less than two hours we should see history being made. After tying Spitz's long standing record of seven gold medals in a single Olympics, tonight Michael Phelps should add one more for a total of eight.

His last race is the 4 x 100 medley relay, in which he will be swimming the butterfly leg. Apparently the US has never lost this event. Unless something goes horribly wrong, they should win this one as well.

Not only has he won seven gold medals, but in six of those he set world records. The seventh he could only manage an Olympic record. Let the enormity of that task sink in for a second. It's entirely possible that he could leave these games annoyed at having only broken seven world records instead of eight.

This is moon landing big! Spitz held onto his record for 36 years. It's entirely possible that no one else will equal or best this in my lifetime.

So go make sure your TV is working! If not, find a bar or something. Just make sure you're watching.

Creepy Crawlies

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 05:27:00 +0000

There are two types of spiders in my house. There are the web spinning kind, that more or less keep to the top one foot of the ceiling. There's always a cobweb or two floating around up there, almost invisible against the white paint. Occasionally I'll leave them alone, until I do something like walk into a web, then it's time to throw down. Out comes the vacuum and I start sucking them up.

One time I was staring at what I thought was a speck of dust on the ceiling of the hallway. Then it moved. Then I realized it was a microscopic baby spider. Then I realized there were dozens and dozens of them running around up there, probably just having popped out of some egg sac somewhere. Blech. The vacuum earned its keep that day.

Then there's the other kind of spider. I still don't know what the hell these things are, but they creep the shit out of me. They don't do webs, probably because they scare their prey to death. They are gigantic, and hairy. They are often found in bathtubs, skittering around trying to find their way out. What really freaks me out is knowing that for every one that I see, there are probably ten more hiding out in my shoes and my underwear drawer.

Think I'm overreacting? Take a look at what I saw hanging out on the wall on my way downstairs.
I stuck the dollar bill on the wall for scale. People never believe me when I say, "Oh, including legs it was about the size of my palm." Need more? Can do! That's what macro settings are for.
Not good enough? Let's go in for a close up!

Look at the size of that thing! It thirsts for human blood!

I seriously need to find out what kind of spider that it. If it turns out it's venomous I may have to cleanse the house with fire.

It's Better Than It Sounds

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:57:00 +0000

A while ago Sarah found some recipes online for these smoothies this woman was making in an effort to sneak veggies into her kids' diet. As I recall the first one we tried out was a mixture of spinach, mango, ice and maybe a little fruit juice. The sound of blended raw spinach sounded pretty nasty, but supposedly the other ingredients were supposed to make the taste disappear. As I suspected, it tasted pretty nasty. Sarah didn't give up, though, and tried different mixtures, though all of them had spinach in them. Some were better than others.

Another problem we were having was that our blender was having trouble dealing with the smoothies. There were almost always chunks of frozen fruit and ice left in the bottom. For a Valentine's Day present I splurged and bought a Total Blender. I'd been dying to try one ever since watching the 'Will It Blend?' movies, though I wasn't planning on running hockey pucks or iPods through mine.

The new blender did not disappoint, and now smoothies could be made with ease. I found that if I added enough fruit, the spinach did indeed disappear. I was making mine with about a 50/50 blend of spinach to fruit, and that was working fine.

Recently I started on a different tack. I wanted to put protein powder in my smoothies, but I didn't think that would jive too well with fruit. So I made a new recipe. I have to admit that this one seems even nastier than the fruit smoothies. It's surprisingly good, though. I don't even think it's an acquired taste because I don't remember having to choke down the first one I made. I've tweaked my ingredients to where I like them, but you may want to adjust to your own liking. This is a great way to get a good portion of leafy, green veggies into your diet if you're not eating them already.

So that's all that's in it. I start with 1 cup of milk, then add spinach up to about the 4 cup line of the blender. I don't know how much people compress spinach when they're measuring it, since I could probably stuff a pound of spinach into there if I pushed hard enough. I give it a gentle shove, so it's not super loose, but there's still some air pockets in there. Then I add 2 tbsp of peanut butter, 2 tbsp of wheat germ, and two scoops of chocolate protein powder. I top it off with maybe 6-8 ice cubes and a little bit of water.
Then I put on the top and let 'er rip. This makes sort of a milkshake consistency, though not so thick you need to eat it with a spoon. You can add or subtract liquid to adjust that, though it probably won't blend if you take too much of the liquid out.
There's the finished product. That's about 600 calories or so for about a 28 oz. smoothie, with 18g of fiber. You could toss some flax seed meal in there if you want to up the fiber count. The peanut butter adds some fat, but better to eat it this way than on a PB&J. This makes a pretty decent meal replacement, and is good for after workouts.

Commute

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:54:00 +0000

I decided to take some pictures of my commute this morning. The kids, Noah especially, aren't too happy if I stop moving, so I waited until after I'd dropped them off. Then I stopped every couple of minutes on the ride back and snapped a pic, so I'd have a slideshow of my ride home. Here's the route that I'm taking, and here's the photoset. I even geotagged all the images so you can see exactly where I took them.

Did I mention I got a Flickr account? I like the organizational tools better than the photo album on my own site, so I'm duplicating everything there. Better to have stuff backed up in more than one spot, anyway.

Camping Indoors

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 00:25:00 +0000

The other day I dropped the kids off and decided to go for a little longer ride. There was a sporting goods store out by Home Depot that I wanted to stop by, and it was only another couple of miles down the road. I was trying to find another flag that I could mount on the trike.

When I got there I found that they were having a huge tent sale in the parking lot out in front of the store. I wandered around for a while looking at everything and noticed some tents near the back. They were pretty crappy quality, but the smallest of the three was only $18, marked down from $70 or so. I didn't feel like toting it around for the rest of my ride, so I stopped by again that evening after picking the kids up.

We had a little tent from Ikea that Ian liked, but it was tiny, and he ended up jumping around on it and breaking the poles. This one is a little bit bigger, about 7' square at the base, so it'll probably stand up to the little beasts better.

He tried sleeping in it the first night but got freaked out and moved back to the bed. The last couple nights, though, he's been doing better. I'm not sure how long it's going to last because it takes up most of the free floor space in the room. It'll be fun while it lasts, though.

Not a Job for People With Allergies

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:54:00 +0000

We went up to Sarah's parents again this weekend. Friday we didn't have anything planned after a morning meeting we had scheduled, so we called up Bill to see what he was up to. He was at Ben's, getting ready to start combining for the first day of the season. Ian and I got our worker guy pants on and headed on over. Here's Ian and Grandpa heading out to the field.

Here they are in the cab. Ian's job was apparently Air-Conditioner Technician. He was responsible for keeping everything cool. AC is probably the reason this job is so coveted.

This is Ben doing a spot check on the stuff the combine is leaving in its wake. It's a high tech process involving a piece of plywood. If there are too many good seeds left then things need to be tweaked.

I am a Horrible Blogger

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:03:00 +0000

I can't blog worth a damn. These month long periods with no posts are pretty weak. So here's my fantabulous update.

I bought a recumbent trike. I'd been looking at them for a few weeks and test drove a couple in Portland but couldn't quite bring myself to buy a new one for $2K+, then I saw a used one on eBay. I managed to get it for $600. Unfortunately it was in Washington, so I had to drive about 8 hours to pick it up. I still don't have a great picture of it, but here it is strapped to the back of the 4Runner.

I've been taking the kids to day care with it. They both fit in the Burley trailer, and it's about a 30 minute ride.

My parents came to visit at the end of June. We had a good time. Grandpa and Ian planted some herbs on the deck outside the kitchen.

We spent the day in Portland. We went to Ikea then swung through McMinnville on the way home and saw the Spruce Goose. It's big!

I trounced my mom with my best game of Scrabble ever. 448 points. Two seven-letter words in a row! Bam!

We went to Sarah's parents for the 4th of July. Ian got to experience fireworks for the first time. Sparklers were lit. No one was burned or blown up.

We're landscaping the backyard - finally. It only took us 6 years. There is much earthmoving going on. There are a bunch of pictures here.

Hawk

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 20:47:00 +0000

I was cycling down on the paths by the river today. While passing the U of O ball fields a cyclist going the other direction was nice enough to point out this hawk hanging out on one of the backstops. I jumped off and spent a few minutes snapping some pictures.

Now I Look Like Van Gogh

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 16:53:00 +0000

Not really. I can't even see the scar from the front. I have to hold up a second mirror to see from the side, and even then it's not very noticeable.

I was supposed to check in at 9am, but Sarah had meetings at 7:30, so I dropped her off first, then the kids, and got back to the hospital at 8ish. I sat around in the waiting room for maybe half an hour, then they took me back to the pre-op area, where I got to put on one of those cutsie gowns that's split up the back to show off your ass, and a pair of socks. Luckily I was smart enough to bring a book. (Silence of the Lambs).

Maybe fifteen minutes after I got settled a nurse came in and got an IV established, then I sat around for probably another hour. The surgery was scheduled for 11:15, I think, and I'm not sure when they came and got me.

I really don't remember much, which I'm guessing is due to the Versed I got. Someone from anesthesia came down and gave me a couple shots while I was in the pre-op area, and I really don't remember anything except waking up around 1:30 or so in the post-op area. I watched quite a few surgeries when I was doing my paramedic rounds, and it seems to me that the people were conscious for longer than I can remember. I think I just don't remember. I hope they didn't steal my wallet.

So it took me an hour or so to come out of my drug induced haze. Sarah showed up around then, and before long they gave me my discharge papers and I got to leave. I was still a little out of it and slept for a while when I got home. Despite popping a couple Percoset, I was awake after a few hours. I watched some TV until 10:30, then went to bed.

I got up this morning feeling good. My throat is sore from the intubation, and it actually hurts more than the ear. I even let Sarah go back to bed so I could take the kids to school. All told, I think it went pretty well. Let's hope it fixes the ear problems.

Under the Knife

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:21:00 +0000

I'm scheduled for surgery tomorrow morning at 9am. My ears are not working right. I've had problems with them off and on since I was little. I've had tubes several times, most recently this January. The tube placed in the right ear fell out much earlier than expected, due to the fact that my eardrum is weak. This was the right ear, and now the left one seems to be following suit.

The eardrums are getting sucked back into the inner ear instead of staying taught like they're supposed to. This is messing up my hearing. I can hear that people are talking, but I'm constantly having to ask them to repeat themselves because everything is 'muddy'. Apparently the state the drums are in can lead to long term hearing issues if it isn't corrected. Placing tubes allows the drums to inflate properly and work the way they're supposed to.

So the problem is that the right drum is so weak that the tubes won't stay put. So the solution for this is to cut some cartilage out of my tragus and graft it onto my eardrum to strengthen it. Once the eardrum is tough again then we can try another tube.

To the best of my knowledge this is the first time I'll be under general anesthesia. Having the tubes put in wasn't too bad because it was quick, but it's disconcerting to have someone poking sharp things into your ear. (It's really, really loud, too.) I'm glad I don't have to be awake for hour or so the surgery is going to take.

Aside from some localized pain and nausea, I have the possibility of getting some of the nearby nerve bundles twanged. My surgeon said she once had a patient that had a metallic taste in his mouth for several months after this surgery. Blech.

So assuming I don't die on the operating table, I'll let you know how I'm doing tomorrow afternoon.

Biking to School

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:50:00 +0000

There's a dad at Ian's school who's always dropping his daughter off on his bike. She's in a trailer, and he leaves her and the trailer at school and then heads off to work. I always feel a little guilty watching him, and then jumping into my SUV and driving off. So on Sunday I decided to try taking Ian to school on our bike.

We've got a Burley trailer that fits two, so I can take Ian and Noah together. Since Vicki isn't back from Italy yet, I have to bring Noah back with me after I drop Ian off. I tried a couple of routes on Sunday, and this is the one I stuck with.

Amazon to Unity 2
Find more Bike Rides in Eugene, Oregon

It's almost 5 miles, and it only takes about 25 minutes, versus maybe 15-20 in the car, so it's not like I'm losing much time. In fact, I end up saving quite a bit of time because I'm getting my daily exercise at the same time. 50-60 minutes on the bike means I don't feel obligated to spend that time on the treadmill at some point during the day, so in fact, I've ended up saving maybe 45 minutes or so. Also, at today's prices, each round trip to school costs about $2, so I'm saving money, too.

The first trip on Monday went pretty well, until the ride home. I shifted the route just a bit, and ended up riding by the hospital when I heard a bang. About a hundred feet later, it got really hard to pedal, and I hopped off and discovered my back tire had blown. If I'd been a real hands-on cyclist kind of guy I would have yanked the wheel off, swapped in my spare tube and then taken off again. As it was, I pushed the bike down to the Starbucks a block away, called Sarah on the cell and waited for her to pick me up. I had a White Chocolate Mocha and a sausage biscuit. Noah had some banana bread.

That afternoon I stopped in at Paul's Bicycle Way of Life and got the tire fixed, along with a quick lesson in swapping out a tube. It's way easier than I would have thought. I'll remember that for next time.

This morning I went again with just Ian, and things were much smoother. It was a little chilly, though. I might need to get some gloves, and maybe some glasses. My eyes were watering something fierce.

Let's hope I can stick with this, since it seems to be a pretty positive experience all around.

Like a Clown Car, But Smaller

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:39:00 +0000

Today I tried taking both kids for a bike ride for the first time. Last summer I got them both in the trailer, but we just went for a walk since Noah didn't have a helmet. Yesterday, though, we went for the gusto. The worst part by far was the trip to the bike store.

I don't know if you're familiar with bicycle helmets, but they aren't the easiest things in the world to adjust. It's way, way harder when you're trying to fit it to a small child who doesn't want to have anything to do with it. I spent probably a good thirty minutes in the bike shop trying to find him a helmet that would fit right. Meanwhile Ian was running around the store like a maniac, occasionally knocking over a bike or two. Ultimately I found one that seemed like it would work, so we headed down to Alton Baker Park for a ride along the river.

Surprisingly, Noah was much less vocal about his discontent when he was actually in the trailer. The only real downside is that he's too short. If you think about how a helmet fits, it adds an inch or two of thickness to the back of your head, so if you're sitting in anything that would normally have head support, it's going to tilt your head forward by the thickness of your helmet. The Burley trailer we have was actually designed with that in mind, and the mesh part behind the seat is angled back specifically for that reason, but he's so short that his head is against the top of the seat. So Ian is fine, but poor Noah's helmet is going to gravitate toward his nose until he gains a few inches. So much for the view. Luckily Ian is there to dole out goldfish crackers.

I didn't want to push it the first time around, so we just made a quick loop down to the footbridge and back along the other side of the river. When we got back some ducks showed up and Ian and Noah amused themselves by feeding them goldfish crackers. The ducks were appreciative.

Shaving Already?

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:33:00 +0000

Hey, you ever wonder what would happen if you picked up one of those sweater shavers, held it against your lip and then turned it on?

What, you have, but you're not dumb enough to do it because it'll hurt? Guess what! Ian's done all the hard work for you!

Hello, short bus.

Raisins

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 16:53:00 +0000

Here's a quick thought to tide you over... Raisins are the only food I can think of that come out of the baby bigger than when they went in. He's like a little raisin rehydrating factory. Gross, huh? Be glad I don't include pictures.

The Price is Right

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 15:44:00 +0000

I just found a new website on which to waste scads of time. It's called Slickdeals.net, and it's basically a forum filled with people rabid about tracking down every good deal available anywhere. Not only do they talk about great online deals, the kind you find on tons of other sites, but people mention things they've found at brick & mortar stores.

One of the things I've been looking at is getting another universal remote. I picked up a Harmony 720 at Costco last fall and really like it. A week or so prior, I'd noticed that Harmony just came out with a new model, the Harmony One. Unfortunately, it retails for $250, so was out of the running.

Then I noticed a threat on Slickdeals with a title like 'Harmony One - Circuit City price mistake?'. So I gave it a look. Someone had been in their local Circuit City and found a Harmony One priced at $149. He'd noticed that the older Harmony 880 had been marked down to the same price, and was curious as to whether it was just a price mistake. Soon other people had chimed in that they'd visited their own store and found the same thing.

Sarah was with Noah at a baby shower, so Ian and I went for a little roadtrip. We ran down to Circuit City and started looking around. I found a single Harmony One, sitting rather dejectedly on the floor at one of the aisle endcaps. There was no price anywhere nearby, and it looked as though they hadn't quite gotten around to putting it up and pricing it yet. So I grabbed it, found a CSR and asked him to check the price. $149. I asked him if there were any more, but they were out. When the cashier was checking me out, she said, "Did you just call about this?" Apparently someone else had, and they were out of luck.

What's interesting is you can look at eBay and see all the people that probably cashed in on this deal selling their remotes. Several days ago they were commanding a price of around $210, and now they've dipped to around $175 or so.

Onto the next great deal. I got an email flyer from Best Buy and one of the thing they were selling was a Western Digital Passport 250GB 2.5" external hard drive. It was marked down to $99 from $209. That's a great price for a tiny portable drive. Since they said the price was only available online, I ordered it and opted to pick it up in store. I was pressed for time and couldn't wait for the final email telling me it was actually in stock, so I grabbed a printout that had my order number and headed to the store.

When I got there I found out they were out. I'd ordered a black one, though, so I took a look at the shelf to see what was there. They had an identical drive in white, so I brought that one to the register and showed them my printout and they pricematched it for me. I got a pretty good deal.

What's really great is a couple of days later I got an email saying that my original order had been cancelled due to a pricing error, and as an apology they sent me a $15 coupon. Nifty.

Winter Vacation in Bend

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 03:35:00 +0000

I hesitate to call this a real vacation. I just noticed that Sarah had four days off in a row, and we thought it would be fun to go somewhere with snow, since we don't have any. We tried Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood, but they only had openings for one night. So we decided on Bend.

We made one dumb decision right off the bat, and that was picking the wrong room. The place we're staying had these nifty spa rooms and we thought the kids would get a kick out of having a mini pool in the room. Turns out they weren't quite what we thought; moreso a two-person jetted tub than a real hot tub. The bottoms were molded into seats, so they weren't really anything either of the kids could have stood on very well. Also, it took up most of the extra space in the room. (We'd turned down getting a two room suite for this.)

By the time we checked in and realized we'd screwed up, there weren't any suites left, so we switched to a slightly bigger room with a queen and a murphy bed. The only issue is that we're sharing the room with both kids, so basically we have to go to bed the same time as them. At 8. Unless we stay up and stare at the walls.

The focal point of our trip was going to be fun in the snow; specifically, tubing. The big ski resort near Bend has a tubing run. After some poking around online, I found that there was a winter snow park in the National Forest near here that had a sledding hill they'd just finished building. We thought that might be a better choice to start with before spending $60 or so for all of us to go tubing for 2 hours.

Good thing, too, since Ian went down the hill once and was done. This was after probably 20 minutes of getting dressed and a twenty minute car ride. For about twenty seconds of excitement. Noah, as can be seen in the pictures, was stuffed into snow gear a la the kid from Christmas Story, such that he could barely move. He seemed semi content just to lay comatose in the sled while we pulled him and Ian around.

The first day we convinced Ian to go down the slope at the very bottom of the hill a few times, but that was it. We did the entire thing again Friday morning, and this time he didn't want to go at all. The kids were pulled back and forth for ten minutes or so while Sarah and I went down the hill a couple of times.

We made the mistake of buying hard plastic toboggan type sleds instead of something inflatable. On Thursday I tried a laying on my stomach. Big, big mistake. Without a foot thick cushion of air, every little bump hurt. Not to mention the big ones. I hit one right when I was right at the bottom of the hill that slammed my ribcage back into my spine. I whacked my jaw something awful, too. It's a good thing I had my teeth clenched otherwise I might have bitten off my tongue.

Anyway, we've come to the conclusion that we need a lot more work before we're good at outdoor winter sports.

Disgustingly Cute

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 15:32:00 +0000

Falling asleep isn't always pretty. When the guy next to you on the airplane nods off and slumps onto your shoulder and starts drooling, it's ugly. When the drunken frat boy passes out with his head in the toilet, it's not something to write home about.

But when your three year old crawls into a laundry basket and then falls alseep, it's just adorable.

Pictures like this are important, because some day I'm going to need them. When he's seventeen and wrecks my car or burns down part of the house I'm gonna need to remember he's got some points stored up so I don't kill him, and this should be worth a few.

Lights Out

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 03:50:00 +0000

If you don't have kids of your own, you probably can't understand how ecstatic I am about the following: I just put Noah in his crib for the night, and he went down without a peep!

He was in our bed for probably the first 9 months or so. For the last few months we've had him in a portable crib in the corner of our bedroom. The beginning of putting him down was pretty awful; lots of crying for maybe 15-20 minutes. That diminished to just a few minutes as of late. But tonight, we read stories, then it was into bed. He lay there while I sang him a song, then I left. Not a word.

Yay! I remember fondly how great I felt when Ian slept for the first time without making a fuss when I left. It's a good, good feeling.

What's more, he's sleeping through the night maybe 75% of the time. Until recently, if he woke up in the middle of the night he usually ended up back in our bed. We realized, though, that he didn't need midnight feedings like he used to, so as long as he's not poopy, we're leaving him where he is if he wakes up. And wouldn't you know it, he tends to go back to sleep in just a couple minutes. Then there are those fantastic times he sleeps the whole night, and it's Ian that rouses us.

I can't wait until they get old enough to be lazy and I have to beat them out of bed. Some day they'll be old like me and will realize just how great sleep is.

Measure Twice, Cut Once

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 15:56:00 +0000

I think on virtually every woodworking project I've completed I've made at least one boneheaded mistake. Usually it's early on in the assembly and I smack myself in the head and get it fixed before going any further. With Ian's kitchen, however, I managed to screw up and not notice it until way late.

I made the doors to the oven and dishwasher with hinges at the bottom, just like the real thing. (I strive for authenticity.) I used almost full width piano hinges, flat to the face of the kitchen rather than trying to mortice them. What can I say? I was pressed for time, and also I'm lazy.

Anyway, if you look at this picture, it's easier to understand the issue. When you open that door just past 90 degrees so it's laying on the floor, the bottom inside edge of the door is sticking up the thickness of the stock, plus a little extra from the hinge, say 5/8" total. The problem? The drawer slides that green bin is riding on are only 1/2" high. The result? When you try to pull it out it moves a few inches and thunks into the edge of the door. Then Ian starts crying because he can't reach all the stuff he dumped in there.

To answer the question, "What is that, anyway?", it's supposed to be a vague representation of a dishwasher. The bin is kind of like the dish racks inside the dishwasher. I even got a couple of buttons at an electronics store for extra realism. That's what those black dots are in the upper left of the picture.

It took me so long to realize I'd screwed up because when I was working on this in the garage I had the entire kitchen sitting on my workbench. When I opened the door there it could swing a full 180 degrees, moving completely out of the way of the drawer slides. Oh, bother.

So today I fixed it. In doing so, I ran into another annoying little issue. To get the drawer slides out required removing the bin portion. If you've ever tried to remove ball bearing slides like that, you know that each slide has a little black lever you need to push on to disengage the lock. (That's what stops the drawer from pulling out completely when you tug on it.) Usually these are easy to reach; you grab the sides of the drawer and flick that catches with your index finger.

I unfortunately had placed the slides so far back on the bottom of the cabinet that I couldn't jam my fingers into the 1/2" gap to release them. Lying on the floor with a flashlight, I was able to stick a butter knife into the gap and trip one of the releases. The problem was that even if I could have managed to do both at once, I didn't have a free hand to pull on the drawer to get it out, and the command seemed to be too complicated for Ian the Helper Monkey.

Finally I gave up and just taking it apart. I unscrewed the bin from the piece of wood it was fixed to and then had enough space to get to the screws holding the entire works to the kitchen base. Once I got it out, I got the rest of it apart.

I ended up just putting a scrap piece of 3/4" stock underneath everything and putting it back in. Not only does it slide out when the door is open, the scrap piece is shallower allowing me to reach those catches if ever I need to pull the stupid bin out again.

I hope he appreciates all this. When he's older I'll show him pictures and tell him how much I was cursing.

Helper Monkey

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 03:29:00 +0000

Have you ever seen those helper monkeys? The ones that disabled people get to perform simple tasks like turning lights on or retrieving objects. Ever want one of your own? It's a dream that can become a reality, simply by having a child. A three year old is a perfect substitute for a monkey.

I remember fondly the first time I got Ian to do something. I was sitting on one of the recliners watching TV. I was cold, and thought it would be nice to have a blanket, but I was too lazy to get up and get one myself. Enter Ian. He probably wasn't much older than two at the time, but with some urging I got him to walk over to a nearby basket and grab me a blanket. It was great.

At almost three and a half, he can now perform relatively complex tasks. He's tall enough and strong enough to yank open the fridge door, so not only can he put away his own cups of milk, he can fetch sodas. Not five minutes ago Sarah was sitting down with Noah and asked me to get her a Diet Pepsi. Did I get off my own butt to do it? Heck no. I called for the monkey butler.

"Daddy, you want a Diet Pepsi?" he asked me after pulling out one for Sarah. What a considerate little guy.

Now I just need to teach him how to drive so he can run to the store and get ice cream.

Christmas Comes Early

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 00:24:00 +0000

It's only Christmas eve at our house, but the festivities are already done with. Sarah got stuck with working 8a to 4p on Christmas, so we celebrated early. Saturday we drove to her parents and had our annual family gift opening mid-afternoon. The kids ripped through their presents like tornadoes, covering the living room floor in wrapping paper in no time flat. Sarah's mom surprised us all with Wiis for each of families (along with one for herself). It didn't take us long to head downstairs to hook hers up and dive into Wii Sports. I'd like to point out that Boxing is no joke, especially if you're not in great shape like me. Three two minute bouts and I was sweating like a pig.

On Sunday afternoon we headed to the big Coleman Christmas party held in one of the warehouses at Sarah's aunt and uncle's nursery. I think Ian spent at least a couple of hours sliding down one of the packing line conveyor rollers on a piece of cardboard.

We left there around five for the ride home, which was unpleasant as it was dark and very rainy. All the vehicles were throwing up road spray and I couldn't see much except for the rear lights of the cars in front of me. It was strangely hypnotic and I kept worrying I was going to space out and drive into the ditch.

We managed to make it home ok, and I spent an hour or so after we got home putting the finishing touches on Ian's present. For the last month or two he's been paging through toy catalogs staring at play kitchens and asking for an 'oven'. We actually bought one, then decided it was a little too small and rickety so I took it upon myself to make one from scratch after returning the wimpy one.

The frame is all 1/2" Russian birch. The faucet is a cheapo bathroom faucet I got from the hardware store, along with some plastic outdoor plumbing drains I used for burners. I also found some replacement stove knobs so I didn't have to try to figure out how to make those. The sink is a stainless steel mixing bowl. There are more pictures over in the December gallery if you're interested.

One of the other presents that gave us a big laugh was the toy vacuum cleaner Sarah got for Ian. It's not just a generic toy vacuum, but an actual Dyson. We've got a real, full sized model which lives in the half-bath on the main floor of our house since we don't have any other closet space in which to store it, and it's a pain to keep it downstairs since we use it up here a lot more. So Ian was running around vacuuming this morning, and afterwards Sarah was in his room getting laundry and she came out laughing after seeing what Ian had done in his bathroom. The first picture is our hall bathroom.

How Much Would You Pay?

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 02:34:00 +0000

My ears are not working right. I've had ear issues most of my life, but recently they've gotten seriously annoying. I'm just getting over being sick for about the last three weeks; a nasty throat infection that seems to have crawled up and taken over my ears. Sarah wrote me a prescription for some antibiotics and we seem to have beaten that into submission, but then the ear problems started up.

I've had lots of ear infections, and tubes twice. They fix things for a while, but my right ear seems to revert to its previous status once the tube works it way out. So when I started having ear pain about a week ago, I stopped in at the ED and let Sarah take a look. "Ugly," she called them, and told me to go see an ENT. I went today.

After a quick glance she confirmed the ugly diagnosis and sent me down the hall for a hearing test. That confirmed the indeed my right ear wasn't working too well. When I was done I went to a different room where a mighty ear microscope was used to peer into my head.

The right ear had some icky drainage which got suctioned out. If you've never had the pleasure of having someone suction out your ear, don't worry that you're missing anything good. It's painful and louder than you can imagine. Not quite as spooky as having the tubes put in where they have to cut into your eardrum, but still bad.

When she looked at the left ear, we had another surprise. I'd been noticing this odd sensation when I tried to equalize pressure in my ears. Instead of a 'pop', I could feel air just moving out constantly. Apparently that's because there's a small perforation in that eardrum. Luckily it's not hurting my hearing and should clear up by itself.

So the diagnosis was that my right ear is indeed messed up and needs some fixin'. She said at the very least I'll probably need another tube. There's some more permanent fix that involves harvesting cartilage from somewhere and grafting it onto the eardrum, thereby strengthening it. Sounds spooky, but being able to hear would be nice. She said we'd discuss it during a followup two weeks from now. In that time I need to put some antibiotics in my ear.

Which leads me to the question at the title of this post. How much do you think that 7.5 ml bottle cost? HOW MUCH WOULD YOU PAY? $5? $10? KEEP GOING!

With insurance: $30 Without: $105

$105! For a quarter of an ounce! That's like $6,700 a pound. That's half as much as gold. You'd think for that much, it might at least be endorsed by some celebrity. Kobe Bryant Certified Ear Drops, maybe.

Proud Moments

noreply@blogger.com (Gabe) — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 18:43:00 +0000

If I was a normal person then I'd be waiting for Ian to hit milestones like his first baseball pitch or first perfect football toss. Being the geek that I am, I'm way more excited about his first successful mouse click. Ian has a couple I-Spy books that he really enjoys, and the other day I was in Target with him and saw an I-Spy computer game so I picked it up. We spent hours sitting on the couch playing it, with him pointing things out and me doing all the computing.

Then a few days later we were sitting at the kitchen table, and I had the brilliant idea of running downstairs and grabbing a mouse I had laying around. I plugged it in and showed Ian how it worked and in just a few minutes he had it figured out. I realize it's kind of a dumb thing to be excited about, but I thought it was cute.

The mouse is a little big for him, and he tends to jiggle it when he clicks, so he's been using the mouse to get the cursor where he wants, and then uses the buttons on the laptop's touchpad instead of the mouse button to select things.

I'll teach him how to throw a football next week. After Sarah shows me how.