No shovel here!You want photos? We've got your photos right here.
The Pacific Northwest has been having some cold weather this week - and the moisture came along for the party, too. So - five snow days started the winter break early this year.
We've had fun in the snow - enjoy the show!
Here is the link to the Picasa Web Album to see them in their full glory.
You want to see the cars on the hill? Click here for tips on what not to do in Portland snow events.
The registration website for the Portland area 2009 Tour de Cure event is live. The event this year will not be called Summit to Surf - because it is not being held up on Mt. Hood and in Hood River. This year, the event is being held in Hillsboro - with the start and ending all taking place at the Hillsboro Stadium. There are 10 mile, 27 mile, 63 mile, and 100 mile rides.
We had a great time last year, and got some cool photos of Tegan and me. The local ADA person liked them so much - we are featured on the website for the Portland event. Check us out!
Team Tegan 2008
Tegan and Brian - Red Riders 2009
It was a really nice day today...high temperature was about 61°. Cloudy in the morning, but sunny in the afternoon. A perfect day to get the Christmas lights up.
I even got the wreath hung in our large window
Lights strung along the fence
Fence posts replaced - from 1 to 11
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...and the Elves are back at OfficeMax. This time it is integrated with JibJab. Fun stuff, eh?
These are two different Elf dances, though they look the same. Enjoy!
After quite a bit of rain and wind recently - the grass needed cutting and the leaves were piling up. This past weekend was full of other things to do that managed to use up all the daylight hours. The weather has been nice for a few days, so things have started to dry out a little. Today I got cut #16 for the year in the bag, and then in the yard debris container. I should have done the oil changing maintenance on the mower, but by 4:45pm - it was getting dark. Maybe next time.
The grass has really slowed down in growth - but I don't think this was the last mowing of the season. Everything is still green - but it has really gone dormant. A few trees still have those die-hard leaves attached - and a trim up in December just might happen this year to get the last leaves and prevent the grass from matting up this winter.
Guess I'll have to turn my 'extra' energy to inside the house projects now. Or maybe just catch up on reading my This Old House magazine. Then I'll have a list of more projects to add to my to-do list.
Last Sunday I moved the last post into place. The six foot section that I had been leapfrogging along was trimmed to a new size, about three feet, and attached to post number 11 and the corner post. I don't have a photo, because I finished so late in the day - and this past week was busy enough that I haven't thought about it.
Now...I just need to figure out how to make a latch for my new gate that will work well from both sides of the fence. The latch also needs to be able to be reached by someone who is not 5 feet tall - so a latch at the top of the gate won't work. I'll either have to cut a hole in the gate so you can reach through from the street side, or maybe attach a string or coat hanger type extension through the gate.
Guess you'll have to stick around for that new adventure...and then how I move the existing steps and build a new landing, since the new gate is coming from our deck which is a more than a foot above grade.
Stay tuned!
We've been having rain here in the the Pacific Northwest. I'm not sure about this - but I think it has rained everyday since at least before Halloween. This makes the fence fixing a little more challenging. The return to PST from PDST didn't help either...
This week it took me two nights after work to dig the hole for fence post replacement number nine. Something about the location of the hole caused me problems. See...it was about two feet from a maple tree. The maple tree has a foot and a half diameter trunk. The roots encountered in this post hole were some of the worst I've dealt with. The post ended up being located directly between two roots that paralleled each other between one and two feet below ground. That post hole digger just couldn't cut them, and they were too deep to be able to get a good swing with an axe. Maybe if I had a sawzall - that could have got them out. Anyway - I dug the hole Wednesday and Thursday nights after work, and put the post in the concrete this morning. The rain started to let up when I finished.
After a nice lunch of leftover pizza, the sun came out and the day looked great. With all the rain we've been having, the temperatures have been in the 60s. So - with no excuse - I looked at the fence and knew that if I didn't continue, I'd be wishing that I had when I was out there in the pouring rain tomorrow. So I got out and dug hole number ten - this was the easiest hole yet. No rocks, roots, or rebar. By dinnertime - the post was set.
One more post to go! See if you can figure out how many sections my fence has...I am not replacing the corner posts, and I will have replace 11 posts when I get that last post done. It is a little tricky - since I did add the gate, but you can count the gate as a section. Leave a comment and I can reveal the answer sometime soon. Or stop by for dinner some time and count them yourself, and marvel at my surveying skills, brute force hole digging labor, or just enjoy the two-toned fence color.
I got post number eight placed in the ground this weekend. This is the first post after the new gate that I created last weekend. I can't believe how long it took to measure, re-measure, estimate, think about all the issues, think again, re-measure, finally cut the pieces and start to assemble everything...and then rethink it again. Apparently when you don't consider that your screws are 3" long - they won't help you connect two 2x4s when laid flat.
So Connor and I went to the helpful and confusing Home Depot, since the True Value which is closer, is closed on Sunday. We managed to find some parts that would help (actually there are more that 140 parts at least that are similar to what I was looking for in the aisle).
Closeup of the connector and new hinge
Completed gate
The rebar is at the top right corner...it wouldn't move
C'mon! Let me through - I'm late!
This just isn't working...
A local place called Safari Sams is much like Chuck E Cheese. If you have kids less than 10 - you've probably been to a place like this more than once for a birthday party. Or maybe you just like the cheap tokens at Chuck E Cheese - and enjoy the cheap video games or the photo booth.
Brian and Connor on his 5th birthday
Connor counts his tickets at his 6th birthday party
This looks easy - but don't be fooled
What kind of magnet is doing that?I had a spare hour on Friday, October 17th - so I thought - 'Why not cut the lawn?' That idea sure beat 'Why not dig a hole for a fence post?' or 'Why not check the 401K account and see what we lost today?' Or ask your own question here. As it turns out - it wasn't the simple ten minute chore as was looking for...
The weather here in Oregon is still quite nice - the rain hasn't started the continual drizzle, the sun is bright in the sky, and the temps are still making it into the upper 60s. The lawnmower started right up...and then died. I primed it again and it started up. And it died.
This same thing happened two years ago. I really didn't know what was happening, I just knew that the mower was stalling due to lack of gasoline. So I traced the gas flow from the tank to the engine, looking for anyplace that might be plugged or gummed up - hoping to see a nice metallic part labels 'fuel filter'. No luck with the easy solution. I did manage to solve the problem then - and I even had a few photos of my engine disassemble-ment. Here is one of them, after removing a few of the plastic covering parts.
This time around - I couldn't remember what I did to fix the problem two years ago. I did have a feel of where I should look - so I got out my tools and started to take the mower apart. After half an hour or so of cleaning the dirt and grime off - I took off what I think is the fuel reservoir.
This is a float of some kind....not sure how it works!Are you tired of the phone calls, junk mail, and ads on TV? No - I don't mean the credit card offers....those will continue. With election day just over two weeks away - everything will soon switch to Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping.
Voters in Oregon get to vote today - or at least those of us who got our ballots. Our vote-by-mail ballots arrived today. Voting in Oregon no longer takes place at polls - every registered voter gets a ballot in the mail. They have to be turned in by 8pm on election day - and that doesn't mean in the mail box. If they are sent in the mail, you need to mail them early enough to arrive at the official counting office by election day.
Today the temperatures in our part of the world did not reach 55°. Since I had been paying attention to weather forecasts - I prepared for this event by cleaning all the heaters in our house. We don't have a central heating system (NW Natural keeps the junk mail coming, trying to get us hooked up to their clean natural gas....). In each of the rooms in our house we have Cadet wall heaters.
This is nice in that we can turn off the heaters in rooms we are not using - like our bedrooms during the day, and then all the rooms besides the bedrooms at night. At the same time. this is not nice. Because - programmable thermostats are difficult to find, since these heaters run at 120V and not the 24V of a normal furnace thermostat. There are a lot of neat programmable thermostats out there and they are widely available. Last time I looked - Loews did not have an 120V models, and Home Depot was out of stock. Time to take a trip to the store again, I guess.
The other pain of these heaters is that you have to take them apart every six months and clean them. There are no filters on them, and so the dust collects. Turning them on in fall without cleaning them gives your house that nice, burning smell. The design doesn't make it too easy to take apart, though it is not too difficult. Just removing three screws is all it takes - but putting two of the three back in is a little tricky.
I got all the heaters (almost all - still have three more to clean, but they don't get used much) cleaned last night. Tonight they will get a workout. First time since last May that we have had to heat the house. Winter is coming!
Another interesting thing about Cadet, the maker of the heaters. This company is based in Vancouver, Washington - and I know the location very well. At some point in the past - solvent got into the groundwater at the site (and many of the surrounding business properties as well) and it is currently being cleaned up. My company, AMEC Earth & Environmental, was involved from the start when the contamination was discovered. Back then - I even analyzed some of the soil and water samples in our analytical laboratory. Later, I was in charge of managing all the environmental data from monitoring wells, soil borings, and air sample data and using GIS to create maps of the contamination, groundwater contours, and cleanup progress. AMEC did such a good job of defending Cadet against the Port of Vancouver in a lawsuit and actually getting the cleanup going -that we worked our way out of a job. Cadet sold the property to the Port, and the Port has their own environmental consultants working on the project now... No links to them here...but you know how to use Google, don't ya?
Ready, set, search!
Not sure if you are a gamer. I like to play computer games, but the time available for this is a lot less these days than it was in the days of Space Eggs, Sneakers, Castle_Wolfenstein, Olympic Decathlon, The Oregon Trail...and don't forget all the Infocom cames like Zork I, II, III, etc!
A side note - did you know that many of the Apple ][ classics can be played online in your web browser! Go to Virtual Apple - and find the disk you want to load. Castle Wolfenstein - ah - hear the amazing sounds again coming from that 2" speaker inside that Apple ][ plus computer case: - "Halt! Comandant!" Or - Apple Adventure - return to the Colossal Cave! These text and early 280x192 pixels screens had tons of great game play. Games today may look incredibly realistic - but without the gameplay - there is no fun.
Back to the main story - Physics games. These games may not have a detailed storyline - in fact the most enjoyable games are where you can create things and watch them interact. The first game I found in this genre was Crayon Physics.
This program was developed by Petri Purho. He has quite a few free games he develops in a week's time. Check him out at Kloonigames.
Another fun physics game I found is called Phun! This program was developed by Emil Ernerfeldt. It takes Crayon Physics type play to a new level. There is no goal in this game - you just create shapes, springs, wheels, hinges, water....and let the physics of the objects do the rest. I think the little boys in all of us (you know - who like to destoy things) love this game.
I think there were a few other games in this category that I have tried - but these two stand out. If you want to try - but don't want to download anything - a Crayon Physics look-a-like is available to play online. Find it here - at Magic Pen. Have fun playing with physics in the computer... Or maybe just get out the Legos or Erector Set and watch live physics in action.
The last day of September included a lawn mowing. With the approaching fall rains - I figured I better get out there and trim it up. It is supposed to start raining on Thursday and continue through the weekend. Looks like our soccer games will be quite wet. We've been lucky so far this season.
The lawn itself does need a little more attention beyond a cutting before the growth slows down this winter. There are a few weeds I got with broad leaf weed killer today, but the edges on the driveway and in the back yard need to be visited by the edger. If I had the energy - there does appear to be a lot of thatch that needs dethatching. Not sure I'm up for that amount of effort.
I have also noticed that the ground in getting quite hard packed down. If I see a neighbor down the street with a coring machine...I should slip them a few bucks to let me borrow it for an hour. Even if I owned a coring tool - I really don't have the energy to go around and drill all those soil plugs up by hand.
I know the Mick & Brian Adventures blog has been a little slow lately. If you check the header - you'll know why. We had a very busy summer, with just enough down time to sit back and relax. We didn't use the grill much that I remember - but the weather here - we can grill anytime. Nicely BBQ'ed burgers in January sound good, don't they?
Something that Google released in early September is interesting to note. I wanted to write about this just about a month ago....but you know. Adventures happen. Just yesterday, we participated in the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes, here in Portland. We registered at the last minute - and just went and had fun! We walked on a team organized for one of Tegan's friends - Lili. The Team we were on was called Hi Lili Hi Lo - and they have done this for a few years now. Lili was one of the Walk Ambassadors for this event - very exciting! After the walk - we got to ride on the Oak's Park rides all day long! I even discovered that as you get older - you don't have the same ride endurance. I went on about 3 rides too many - and by the time we quit at 4:30 - luckily lunch was four hours past....
So - on to the main topic of this post - facial recognition comes to the impoverished masses!
We have used Picasa to manage all our digital photos - probably since before we got our digital camera, and only had photos sent to us by others. We started using the Picasa Web Albums soon after to share photos of our adventures with all of you. Now - Picasa Web Albums have facial recognition technology!
What does that mean? Well -the Picasa/Google servers look through all our photos that have been uploaded. The software find all the faces that it can recognize - and then starts sorting them by facial characteristics. Once it has finished that - it presents the faces it thinks are the same person to you to identify. It does actually work very well. Now - whenever we upload new photos, it can find our 'classified' faces and tag the photos automatically. Neat!
The first face groupings presented for identification are usually all the same face. Sometimes - interesting things happen. Photos of Tegan and Connor were sometimes grouped together. Sometimes they were at the same age, or shared a similar smile, or Tegan's long hair was up in a hat... Sometimes Connor's nephews were grouped with him, and vice versa. I don't think my face and Mick's were ever mixed together...but I guess we need to be a lot older before we start looking like each other.
Just for fun - I grabbed a most of the shots of me (Brian). Take a look, and see the tough job that the Picasa computers had to deal with. I think they are up and processing again after dealing with this crazy face.
Click on me to see it slightly larger - if you dare.Remember the trouble we had with a maple tree growing up under our front fence? Well - at the end of April our neighbor finally cut this tree down. Looking at the stump - it was only eight to nine years old - but the stump was about 10 inches in diameter. It was taller than our house. So - a serious growing tree.
Well - about the end of July - I noticed maple leaves again
Apparently the stump had lots of stored energy, since it's spring growing spurt was cut short. So it decided to send up shoots. Some of these growths were about eight feet tall. Once again - the fence was in jeopardy.
Three weeks ago I took a few board off the fence, and had a go at the stump with an axe. It didn't go well, because the fence had a lower horizontal support at ground level. I don't have a chain saw (the perfect tool for this job, don't you think) - so I used a circular saw to cut the stump down. Piece by piece. I added a few more hits with the axe, and a nice, large, 1-inch drill bit also helped. A little Roundup should help keep the stump moving along the slow path to decaying in place.
So - the grass has started growing again - though September in Portland is turning out to be a very dry one. Less than an inch of rain - less than July or August, I think. Another yard work update is coming - because I need to get the grass short, try and aerate it a little, and put down some grass seed. Gotta fill in those gaps before the winter sets in, and Yukon kills off more patches.
Two weeks ago, the turn signal on our 1994 Ford Explorer seemed to be blinking a little slowly. But I wasn't really sure. You know how it is - each car is different, and if you drive more than one car - you're really not sure if what you are hearing is quite right. We had just gone camping at Fort Stevens State Park on our annual church campout. I thought maybe the blinker relay was recovering from having to drive the lights on our pop-up camper.
So anyway - on Monday the turn signal still seemed slow, and on my way to work in the morning the ABS light came on. I wasn't happy about this as we just had the ABS computer replaced - maybe it has been a year or two, but it should last longer than that - right?
Leaving work that afternoon - the Explorer had a dead battery. I didn't connect these two other symptoms at the time - because that morning as I drove to work I noticed a back door partially open howling in the wind, because the door had been closed on a seat belt. I thought maybe the dome light had been on all night, and maybe I just barely got the engine started and.... I still hadn't put the puzzle pieces together. I had a dentist appointment to go to, but since the dentist was only three blocks away - I went for a quick walk.
After the dentist - Mick came with our minivan and we jump started the Explorer. So far, so good. On the way home - I now had no blinker lights, the ABS light was still on, and it almost stalled at a stop light. I soon realized the battery wasn't being charged, was completely dead, and I might not make it home. So I turned off the AC, the radio, and tried to hit all the lights green.
I made it home, but it was a Connor soccer night. After soccer practice and a quick dinner - I started to take the alternator out. It was actually pretty easy - two small bolts to remove a guard, two air hose connectors to loosen to remove an air flow hose, and then three bolts on the alternator. The only hard part was loosening tension on the belt - I needed Mick to pull the belt off as I moved a tension adjusting wheel out of the way. Then - a quick trip down to the local Tualatin Schucks store.
I got there five minutes before 8 PM - closing time. I wasn't too happy - as they "didn't have the parts to be able to mount my non-standard alternator" in the testing equipment. Non-standard? C'mon! Ford Explorers are not exactly a rare item around here. Yesterday I saw two other Explorers at a 4-way stop - and these were the same model Explorer (1991 to 1994) that I was driving. At this advanced age - lots of these alternators are probably failing!
Anyway - the Schucks employee told me the Tigard store was open until 9 PM, and they could test my alternator there. A quick 15 minute trip from Tualatin to Tigard - and the results were what I expected - the alternator was dead. This kindly Shucks employee even took $25 off the price of the alternator because of the problems I had with the Tualatin store. Nice customer service! Thanks Tigard Schucks!
A quick trip home - and a relatively painless installation of the new alternator. After pushing the Explorer back from the garage (nice thinking....drive up to where I can't jump start it) and starting it again with help from the minivan - a quick trip around the neighborhood to add some juice to the battery. Success!
Now the list of things I can do to repair our Explorer has expanded. Replace the alternator, change the spark plugs or the air filter or the battery, replace the brake pads (but due to 4 wheel drive hubs - never again!), and change the oil & filter. Everything else goes to In and Out Auto Care in Gladstone. Tell Dan that Mick & Brian sent you - and he'll take great care of your car.
Wow - it has been a month and a half since the last lawn mowing, back on July 12th I think.
Wondering where all the fabulous blog postings have been? Wondering about the status of the yard work?
We've been busy in August. First - the Minnesota Johnsons came out to visit the Oregon Johnsons. That was an adventure. See below...
We then had a break for a few days...and camping at Fort Stevens soon after. Those photos just got uploaded to the computer today - and thus that slide show will have to wait a bit.
As to the yard work progrss...the grass was to be cut today - but a storm passed through - so wet grass, and no yard work. Which also reminds me the the story of the cutting down of the tree also has some more tales to tell. The tree is trying to grow back. After less than two months - the growth is over six feet tall. So - another fence saving cutting is in order. More on that as events unfold.
Today in church, Connor lost his 3rd tooth. Just after having a conversation with Mrs. Jane Van Ryn before the service about her grandson just having lost a tooth...
Just in time for school to start this week. And school photos to come in the next three or four weeks.
Ah...remember 1st grade photos?
The rest of our team wore “Team Tegan and her Daddy” t-shirts designed by our friends, Nate and Jody Orrison.
Team Tegan and Her Daddy
Colossians 3:1 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed,
do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.
This version might have better resolution photos.
Or just go see them on our Picassa site
Here is a quick slide show of some of our photos from the Tour de Cure ride today up in Hood River, Oregon. We all had a great time, no one got hurt, and the weather was incredible.
I've got over 150 photos to choose from - so this movie is a quick way to see our adventure. We'll probably post them on Picassa soon.
The bikes are loaded in the car. The sun is rising, and the temperature is still cool. Soon - the family will be awake and we will all climb into the car and drive up to Hood River.
We are excited!
Just for you - since we don't have any ride day photos yet, and I'm sure you are sitting by the computer all day long today - here is a logo that Nate and Jody created for our team T-shirts.
Nate and Jody were going to ride on our team (they are serious bikers) - but they had a crazy relative that thought getting married in July was the thing to do this year. Who gets married in July? Uh...I guess Mick and I did....so I guess we can't blame them. Since they could ride with us, Nate and Jody created this cool design and had it made into a silk screen for us. Wednesday night Mick and I screened it onto a bunch of shirts, after a quick explanation from N&J how to do it - since they were getting on a plane at 1am Wednesday morning. Most of them turned out really well.
Brian measures screen placement
T-shirts drying....don't touch!
Logo closeup
The Tour de Cure event - Summit to Surf XIII - takes place in two days. You can still donate at our Team Tegan and Her Daddy page.
We've met our team goal of $5,000 - currently we are over $6,000. At one point we were in 2nd place out of 71 teams. Looks like the other big teams are finally getting their money in, and we are slipping back a little. Brian is a little short of his $2,000 goal...you could help with that if your charitable giving account is not empty this month...
Last Sunday - we took a drive up to Hood River to take a look at the course, and give it a test ride. It has incredible scenery - and in the Pacific Northwest - the scenery always includes ups and downs...unless you are at the beach.
We got on the bikes and went...it was hard - but we made it. There were quite a few other bikers on the trail, but I'm sure there will be a lot more this Saturday. Over 1,040 riders have registered. Not all of them will be doing our 10 mile course - but I'm sure all the family groups will. Even with the Gorge Games going on in Hood River - we saw many other cyclists.
Tegan, Brian, and Connor take a break from the 1st climb
Since it was going to be in the 90°s today, we got on our bikes before 10am this morning. We we out on a wondering path - ended up at the end in Cook Park in Tigard. We went over the Tualatin River twice - and this weekend you wouldn't want to be in the Tualatin. Apparently there is an outbreak of blue-green algae. A total of seven miles today - when we got home the temps with past 80°. This was a good test for us - because the Tour is in two weeks - and it will be in Hood River around noon. The temperature is sure to be warm then.
Be sure to check out our fundraising progress - we are at over 80% of our $5,000 goal.
It has been hot...in the 90°s for sure. I mowed both the front and back yards this morning before it got too hot. The grass was quite long in areas that get some shade and some watering. In the areas of full sun and that have received no water - the growth has stopped, and the brown patches have set in.
Looks like the summer season is upon us!
I was taking a look at the world from my computer in Google Maps tonight - and I turned on Streetview. It has greatly expanded it's reach recently! At least in the Portland area. A few weeks ago, the coverage area was much larger - reaching out into the suburbs. But now - you can see all the way to the Oregon Coast, and up into the Cascades.
Check it out - you can see Lolo Pass Road! This is where we go on our annual Christmas Tree Hunt. Take a look at this! The topo view really gives you an idea of the terrain we drive into to get that tree. These Streetview shots must have been taken in summer...no snowdrifts to drive through on these views...
Or - you can see the starting point for our Tour de Cure ride! This is the end of the road for this route for Google.
Our Tour de Cure fundraising is really kicking in. We reached $3,675 for the team today after a couple of big donation came in. Thank you donors! We are really closing in on our $5,000 goal - with just 4 weeks left before the ride. We should have no problem getting there - the AMEC match is good for at least $1,000 more...
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