Fischer Price Little People - Time Warp

"I love the look, old school bald dude. Check me out,
I have a sweet ride, hair and actual arms and legs.

I'm not sure why I

carry a frog everywhere."















Hey, you guys seen Tokyo drift?















Tragedy at the Parking Garage!

Egg Nog Season

Some like the Dairy Nog, others Holiday Nog. This season, I am recommending Dean's 2% Egg Nog. Not too heavy and none of that artificial flavor.

Applebees

Does anyone really like Applebees? My choices for a late night snack around here are pretty much limited to Perkins, Applebees or the Flameburger. They don't have beer at Flameburger (at least it's not on the Menu. They have an ok sirloin for under $10. Other than that ????? We just had really marginal appetizers. I though you really couldn't screw up appetizers? I was wrong.

Paul Rogers and Queen

Heard the new track C-lebrity on KQRS about 10 minutes ago. Found the YouTube 3 minutes ago. The song clearly states what is bad about today's fame for the sake of fame. The classic rock style has still got it.



. . . and that's the way it was and we liked it that way!

The Best Movie of All Time

"Well, this is definitely Lower Wacker Drive. If my estimations are correct, we should be very close to the Honorable Richard J. Daley Plaza." Jake: "That's where they've got that Picasso." Elwood: "Yep."

I knew that degree would come in handy . . .

Thanks to John, I was inspired to search for making my own UHF HDTV antenna. I have had my HD conversion boxes since the spring, but have been making do with an old set of rabbit ears/UHF loop. I could never get a good signal on some of the stations. I am less than 4 miles from the transmitter tower, but got a bad signal never the less.

I Googled for about 1 minute and found this website.

So, having some coat hangers, some duct tape, aluminum foil from the kitchen, and 60 minutes, I built this:

Signal strength is way up and my NBC problem is gone.

5 years of electrical engineering classes and a degree finally pays off.

The post where I try to embed a video.

This was just a stupid video. So I removed it. Sorry.

I Voted!

Electric Cove Heating

A few years ago, I began looking at electric heat for our basement rec room and spare bedroom. My options were pretty limited ( and ugly ) at the local home stores.

Luckily, the electric utility at one of our fixer-upper projects, Black Hills Power, sent a flyer in a monthly bill that presented me with a new option: Electric Cove Heat


Radiant Systems of Valentine, Nebraska offers a radiant heating system that mounts between the wall and the ceiling and operates off of a standard line-voltage thermostat.




The unit is simple to install, has no moving parts and warms the room evenly, safely out of the reach of small children. I now have two, 240 Volt units installed. I have a 47" in the bedroom and a 94" in the family room. Both units are run off the same circuit and draw only 7.5 Amps running together at the same time. We used to run a 1500W forced air space heater in the spare bedroom and I can say that the 600W Cove heater heats the room much more comfortably.

Plus they look great!

Sanctuary - My new favorite Sci Fi Show

If you are looking for new Sci Fi / Monster fodder, check out the new SciFi Channel show Sanctuary. It stars ( and is exec produced by ) Amanda Tapping of Stargate SG-1.

I almost buy her new accent acquired for the show. The supporting cast was pretty sketchy in the first episode, but is coming up to speed.

Watch the premier and follow up episodes now online.

A good general premise (save the monsters, save the world ), a shadowy nemesis organization revealed in episode 2 and lots of creepy but personable creatures.

Neanderthal man (the guy from the Geico commercial ?? ) stars as the butler. Look for other BSG and SciFi show crossovers cast in supporting roles.

Shot just about 100% on blue screen with good quality digital scenery.

LoneStar

Probably the best looking and most fuel efficient semi-tractor on the market. Definitely the most EVER spent on a marketing campaign for a semi-tractor. It's got it's own full length psudo-documentary.

Check out one of the cool videos HERE

35W Bridge Now Open

Had to take some video of my first crossing of the new 35W Bridge. Taken with my 4 MP Sony still camera so sorry for the contrast issues.



Should help my commute. Trimmed 5-7 minutes off already, even in peak traffic.

Off peak (or when they get the 35W/Crosstown project completed next year) should run about 15 minutes less than without the bridge. Yea!

It keeps my toilets clean

This works. Keeps the rust, lime and mold away. Hooked up in-line with the bowl fill tube.

KABOOM!!

Plus it's "As Seen on TV!!!"

Open Office

I just had the need to edit a MS Word document on the home PC and add some features that MS Works does not quite support yet. A neighbor recommended Open Office.

I downloaded the 127M install file in about 5 minutes, it look the virus scanner a few minutes to digest and then I fired it up. The install took another 5-7 minutes or so with stops for the virus scanner/registry monitor intermittently

and hey, I 'm editing! Cool! Anyone have any experiences with this package good or bad?

Jerry Reed too?

First Don LaFontaine and now Jerry Reed. RIP dudes.

I guess death gets you a spike in YouTube rankings. I wonder whose death had the longest run? OK, a bit morbid, but I'm in the statistics game now days so I wonder about these things.

and so it's Fall

60's, raining and windy here after an awesome sunny and 80's long weekend.
Nothing better to punctuate the end of summer.

Dining in the Hills

If you are ever out in the Black Hills of South Dakota and want to know where the locals go, go to Hill City and head on over to the Alpine Inn. Your dinner choices are easy. Small or Large.

Bacon Wrapped Filet Mignon that is . . .

Simply take your pick of any of the fine German Beers, pick how you want your Filet cooked and you are on your way to a most excellent dinner.

Save room for desert as they have some of the best selections that more than make up ( if you feel the need for it ) the limited choices for your entree.

Get there ON TIME at the 5 PM 1st dinner seating. You will have company on the big porch.

The service is excellent and the food is the well worth the $ 8.95 small / $ 10.95 large.

You should finish just in time for the 7 PM cowboy shootout just outside the front door.

A trip out west doesn't get much better than this.

Not too Bad

For those of us in the upper mid-west, the summer has been not too bad. Not quite hot enough to keep us at the local pool 24/7, but not quite cool enough to fetch premium mid-summer prices on snow throwers.

Pretty much everyone agrees that summer, once again, has disappeared quickly. That, unfortunately is not too good.

Time to squeeze in those last few bits of summer fun before it's ALL OVER. A last family road trip, weekend projects yet to be completed, those last few local festivals and of course, the State Fair.

So everyone, make the most of these last few weeks and hopefully you will create some memories to reflect upon when the snow and ice once again have us all entrenched in our igloos.

The Lawn - to mow or not

So it's been a little dry here. The lawn is a little brown, but in places it's growing ok. I haven't mowed in a couple of weeks. It doesn't look THAT bad. Is it wrong to let it go a little?

I don't really have neighbors that would complain. I don't have to answer to a homeowners association. There is probably some kind of city ordinance for it but I'm sure that wouldn't apply until the would need to bring in the Farmall and go to town with the bushhog.

Maybe I'll get to it next week. . .

No Inspections

As a follow-up : The city council voted down the mandatory pre-sale home inspections.

DTV Converter Box

I have been running my Zenith DTT900 DTV converter box ( via big box electronics retailer - red NOT yellow ) on the "office" TV for almost a month now. I live pretty close to the transmission towers, but my OTA reception has alway been marginal ( stucco/plaster house , metal lathe, faraday cage etc . . . ). My cable reception has also been pretty bad, but that's another story. I have the DTT900 hooked up to a amplified RCA 4" UHF loop/VHF Rabbit ears-style set-top antenna like the good old days. I get an excellent picture except for a couple of channels. It makes the old Toshiba 27" look great. Who needs 1080p!

The remote has volume control via the DTT900 and also provides program guide access ( current program and what is coming up ) a channel signal strength meter, favorite channel settings and a sleep timer ( does anyone use those? ). I feel I spent my government cheese ( er DTV converter ) money wisely.

I really view 60-80% of my "television" programming via streaming on-demand video on the computer anyway. Heck, there is enough on NBC's vintage programming to keep me entertained for months ( if I had time to watch ) ! Nothing much beats Randolph Mantooth as Emergency's Johnny Gage or the first few opening bars of the Miami Vice Theme.

Mandatory Pre-Sale Inspections

The local city council will probably vote on Monday to make any real estate transaction dependent on the seller having a pre-sale inspection on the property to be sold. The results of the inspection must be shared between buyer and seller and, here is the sticking point, any deficiency found in the property structure, utilities or anything else the inspector finds to be a of a high priority, must be fixed prior to the sale of the property.

I have trouble with some of this government oversight. Even though I would ( and have ) probably get any property I sell inspected prior to the sale just to cover any post-sale buyer's remorse, I don't want the government telling me I don't have a choice.

On the other hand, I would support loan originators requiring this from their buyers. Way too many home estimates are drive-buys. The holder of the loan should make sure what they are loaning the money for is in good condition. The government does this with FHA loans where they require a pre-buy inspection.

To the City Council's credit, like everywhere else, they see foreclosed and abandoned properties popping up on every block. These are properties, in most cases, that the city now has to maintain. They don't want a bad situation to get worse. They have already put a hold on creation of any new rental properties. That is a good idea and no longer leaves the easy out for a instant absentee landlord. I'm not sure going the extra step with the pre-sale inspections will be as effective.

Hey cool, it works! I read an article somewhere about how so many Blogs do not survive the first post. So, I wanted to do a second post just to make sure I did not fall into that abyss.

Now what do I talk about?

I am coming to you via the Minneapolis WiFi Wireless system provided by USI Wireless. Apparently we are one of the only municipal systems in the nation to be rolled out successfully. Service is pretty good. "Roaming" service where you connect with just your laptop or via your own wireless adapter get you speeds that vary greatly depending on your location. If you use a fixed, tuned antenna and the modem available from USI, network connectivity is stable and connect speeds meet or exceed my plan ( 3Meg ). For just under $20 a month, it's a good deal. When I have questions, customer service is local and wait times are short.

Is this thing on? Test 123

Why am I doing this? I have spare time? No. Will I be cooler? Maybe in my own mind.

I have been inspired by Mark and Lou who have really cool looking blogs and interesting stuff to talk about.

First some definition. electronhose was a general term used back in my tech theater days to describe any electrical cable larger than your run-of-the-mill extension cord. This was generally a high current / high voltage cable used to power the main switch. It still comes up on occasion and still seems appropriate when describing any large cable, high current or not.

Deep Thought: I suppose you could use it as a verb to describe any kind of digitally-induced error as in "we've been electronhosed". But let's not get out of control here.

Apparently, as a two-word term, it has some significance in particle physics as well and several hundred thesis papers appear to be published referencing the topic. For this site, if I ever mention it again, I will keep it to one word thus avoiding search engine and the follow-on flack from the those testy particle physics types.

I wanted to try and post a picture so here goes. It's Dad and I at the cabin loading a dumpster with what should be the last of the trash removal.