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Month: August, 2006

Sunday Fun

27 August, 2006 (23:19) | General | No comments

So Brahm is in town this week to celebrate the birth of his nephew. He’s also down to hit up the aquarium wholesalers and get some stuff for the tank. He and Jess are heading up Tuesday, hopefully she won’t break the bank.

In the mean time it was Sunday and we were bored. We dropped by Brahm’s parents house and played with his puppies. The little white one is Olaf and the big brown one is Kenada. Kenada has this odd temperament — she’ll let humans do anything to her, other dogs are nearly eaten on sight. I’m not exaggerating, she has nearly killed a dog or two since Brahm’s had her. She has killed at least one dog in the past.

Since Jess and I happened to have a Frisbee in the car, we decided to toss it around and see what’d happen. It turns out the dogs love chasing it, but will let it hit them in the face before they try to catch it. They know to bite it and try to take it away though. Dogs can be kinda dumb. Luckily, dogs that are good at chasing but bad at chasing turn in to sleepy dogs quickly. tAnywho, she’s a sweetie and really likes Olaf. So, naturally, we took loads of pictures. I’ll shut up now and let the pictures speak.

After screwing around for a while longer, Charles showed up. After much debate we decided to try out the driving range in Sorrento Valley. Since none of us know how to play golf this was bound to be fun. As it turns out, Charles has a bit of a natural gift and did a pretty decent job. Brahm and I spent a lot of time trying to hit the balls hard while Charles worked on actually hitting them. Funny how that works out.

Either way, we went through about 200 balls between the four of us and had a blast. Driving is a much more physical endeavor than I had expected. It’s also terribly fun when you get it right, and rather painful when you get it wrong. Since there’s a driving range near my office, I may have a lunchtime activity when it cools down a bit!

Leopold Bench

27 August, 2006 (00:09) | DIY | No comments

Sunday we saw the Leopold Bench go up on Make. Since we’d just gotten back from two dives we decided to wait until this weekend to build it.

We went out to Home Depot and got the required bits and pieces:

6 3/8“ hex nuts
6 3/8” by 3“ hex bolts
1 2×6 (8′ long)
2 2×8 (8′ long)
1 2×10 (8′ long)

That totaled up to around $25 ($27 after CA state tax) and is the base price of the bench. Not too bad at all!

Jess convinced me (she’s very convincing) that we needed to stain it pretty colors: green and brown to be specific so we picked up some more stuff:

2 3” brushes
2 quarts of stain
1 can of
1 5“ orbital sander
2 packs of circular sand paper

This all totals up to around $100 and is entirely extra.

After we got the materials home we started by cutting the boards down to the right sizes and shapes. We got to use the mitre part of the mitre saw for the first time, making the 30° cuts for the supports. Since our saw can only cut up to a 2×8 we had to make two cuts for each one. Lining this up was more difficult than I imagined, but it worked out.

Once it was all cut we sanded stuff down. Doing this with an orbital sander worked out pretty well. Since we’d be sitting on this thing splinters weren’t acceptable. Consequently there was a lot of sanding.

After the sanding was done we drilled some holes for the bolts. It turned out to be easiest to take one board, mark the three holes, drill them, then line things up and mark the second board and drill it separately. This may sound more complicated, but trying to drill through both boards at the same time just doesn’t work. Also, our wood was really wet (actually gooey on the inside. yuck!) and that didn’t help at all.

We then test fit the bolts and ran in to an alignment issue with one of the holes. In the process I managed to smash the top thread on one of the bolts. This completely prevented the nut from going on. Jess decided to whip out the Dremel and take the first few threads off Gaijin Smash style. Once we got the bolts in there was the matter of screwing the seat down. This part was very easy — three screws per side and your done! We used 3” deck screws to make sure there was enough grip.

The final building bit, the back rest, is an issue of personal preference. According to the plans you’re supposed to make some extra cuts on the long supports so that the back rest can be perpendicular to the ground. Since we intend to use this bad boy primarily by watching the aquarium, we were looking for a more reclined look. We achieved this by not making the extra cuts, and just screwing the back rest directly on. This provided the correct posture we wanted, and was really really easy.

At this point a test was in order and it passed with flying colors.

Jess got out the stain and some paint brushes and got to work. The main color is “Green Tea” and the secondary color is “Coffee”. This is a water based stain that went on very easily. Sunday we’ll put on some clear urethane to seal it up be done.

w00t! Now we can watch the aquarium in style.

Dive #57: NOSC Tower

20 August, 2006 (16:41) | Dive Reports | 1 comment

Date & Time	2006-08-20
Visibility	10 - 15 ft.
Max. Depth	58 ft.
Min. Temp	56° F
Bottom Time	29 min.
Air Info	HP 100: 3,288 - 1,880 psi = 17.6 psi/min

After a nice surface interval and trip to the tower we headed down to the diver’s jungle gym.

On the descent we came across a school of blacksmith all milling around the top of the wreck. On the bottom we came across some baby senoritas and the other usual San Diego critters.

Diver Dan came by to hand a spiny lobster off to me. I think he was trying to confuse/bug me (hah!) but it didn’t work. I played with it for a minute, taking a good look at it before setting it down on the structure. As I set it down I saw an electric ray slightly buried in the sand! Not only was there an electric ray in the sand, it was four feet across!!1! I could tell because I compared it to the size of my fin — same size.

We puttered around for a little longer before we got cold and decided to head up. Tremendous dive!

Dive #56: P-38

20 August, 2006 (16:21) | Dive Reports | 1 comment

Date & Time	2006-08-20 @ ~ 9am
Visibility	30 - 40 ft.
Max. Depth	124 ft.
Min. Temp	55° F
Bottom Time	22 min.
Air Info	HP 100: 3,326 psi - 1,230 psi = 11.0 psi/min

Jake called us Saturday and told us that Danny @ Goby Diving had 2 spots on his boat that needed to be filled. The first dive would be on the P-38 off of Torrey Pines. Since it lies in ~ 130 ft. we knew a few things: we need lots of air, this will be a short trip. Jake set us up with some high pressure 100 ft³ steel tanks and we got out the dry suits. According to the VT Pro you only get 10 minutes @ 130 ft before you go into deco. To be safe I did the math to ensure we would have enough air for the stops if that were to happen.

Once we made it out to the site and dropped anchor we geared up and started our descent. There was a really ripping current (~ 1 knot) on the surface at least so we had to all link arms on the float and head down. On the way down I kept adding air to my suit and BC. Unfortunately I added too much air and started having buoyancy issues. I had a hard time getting the excess air out and had to cut out early. LUCKILY, I got to see the plane! Very, very briefly. But at least I got to see it! The rest of the dive was a slow ascent with Jess and John as we recovered.

Next time out we’ll get some doubles, nitrox, and O2 for deco and have a good ol’ time!

Banky’s Battery Info Part Deux

18 August, 2006 (15:36) | Computers | No comments

It’s been almost exactly 1 year since I first looked up the battery info for my trusty iBook G4, banky. In that year, some things have changed and some haven’t.

Battery-Info-Short-2005 1 year ago I was cycling the battery roughly 31 times/month — almost every day. Since I leave it running at work, that’s to be expected I suppose. I also never shut it down, so it has to sleep a lot.

1 year ago, my battery was able to hold 73% of it’s original charge. That’s a degradation (assuming linear degradation) of about 1.2%/month.

1 year ago I didn’t have any stickers on my laptop

Battery-Info-Short-2006 As of today I’m cycling the battery roughly 31 times/month. Again, almost every day.

Today my battery is able to hold 11% (!!) of it’s original charge. That’s a degradation (again, assuming linear degradation) of about 2.5%/month. The loss in charge has accelerated, therefore it can’t really be linear.

Today I have loads of stickers on my laptop.

Wedding Photos

16 August, 2006 (23:04) | General | No comments

Now that Jess has finally finished editing her picks from Eamonn & Megan’s wedding from almost two weeks ago (8/5/2006), I have something to post!

Here you can see Bryan and I holding our Man-Bouquets during the ceremony. As co-best-men it was vital that we hold these silly bundles of bamboo. The florist was very specific that we not try to kill each other with them, too bad. What you can’t quite see in this shot are the all white canvas slip-on Vans that Eamonn decided we had to wear to go with the suits. They were … not the most comfortable things ever made.

Julia and I, nearly immediately post ceremony. drinks = 1, 0.

Bryan, Jess, myself. drinks = 0, 0, 0.

Bryan, Julia, Jess, myself, drinks = 1, 1, 0.5, 0. Julia bet me that I couldn’t get a good self-shot of the 4 of us with her camera. As always it’s the person holding the camera, not the camera itself!

The four of us again. You can’t quite see Bryan grabbing my crotch. Lucky you. drinks = 2, 2, 1, 1.

Bryan and Julia. Another photographic bet — that I could only get a horribly washed out photo. Walking backwards and zooming in to the rescue!

Jess and I. drinks = enough, enough - 1

Julia and I. drinks = enough + 1, enough.

Jess, me, Julia, Bryan, Eamonn & Megan! The couple looks surprisingly rested given how late it was when I dropped them off at their hotel room. Good jorb!

I think I got the ears on Bryan perfectly. Eamonn looks as proud as he should.

In short, we had a blast, I think I need to lose some weight (and fast!) and Bryan’s probably going to be next in the wedding line

Waring Pro’s Belgian Waffle Base Recipe

12 August, 2006 (18:07) | General | No comments

Being put up for posterity’s sake.

Ingredients

1½ cups all purpose flour
1 ounce nuts (optional)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¾ cup pumpkin puree (or misc)
2 large egg yolks
1 cup whole milk
¼ cup maple syrup
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted/mushy
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large egg whites

Destructions

$waffleIron->setHeatIndex(4);

$dry = mix( qw(flour nuts cornstarch bakingPowder salt cinnamon ginger nutmeg) );
$dry->setAside();

$wet = mix( qw(puree yolks milk syrup butter vanilla) );

$wet->mixInto( $dry )->blendWith( $whisk );

$whites->mixUntil( “stiff peaks” );

$whites->foldInto( $wet );

Snorkel Report: La Jolla Cove

12 August, 2006 (17:56) | Dive Reports | No comments

We met up with Julia bright and early this morning to initiate her into the wonders of San Diego marine life. Going on previous data, we expected the water to be warmish. Maybe in the low 70°F’s. Well, it was a little lower than we expected. The life guards were calling it 68.8°F but it felt a whole lot cooler for poor Julia.

Jessica and I had our 3mm wet suits on, natch. The visibility was great, ~ 20 ft. in some spots!

After some cursing and fighting of kelp grass stuff we were out. We quickly ran across some homo sapiens subaquatic which were Doing It Right and looked like they’d had a terrific dive. We also came across some devolving humans heading from land back to sea with a camera in giant housing — and the lens cap on. Hopefully they did that on purpose.

There were of course garibaldi out in force. There were some huuuge mackerel in the shallows. A few calico bass and few other bass besides. I even managed to find a spiny lobster hiding under a rock!

We came across a school of garibaldi. Given how territorial they are this struck us as a bad omen. They quickly disbanded when they saw us and headed for their respective territories.

I came across what appeared to be a senorita cleaning off a garibaldi. Fish are funny when they get cleaned, they just freeze mid-water and don’t move at all lest the cleaner leave.

We also came across a school of baitfish of some kind being cleaned off by little silver/black striped fish. It was awesome to watch it happen in the top inches of the water column since they were so well lit.

Over all it was a great trip. Next time out Julia will remember her camera & housing so I’ll have pictures which will be awesome. If I’m lucky the housing will be rated up to ~ 40 ft. and we can take it diving the next time we’re at the Cove.

Dive #55: La Jolla Shores

7 August, 2006 (21:47) | Dive Reports | No comments

Date & Time	2006-08-05 @ ~ 9:00 AM
Visibility	5 - 20 ft.
Max. Depth	53 ft.
Min. Temp	64° F
Bottom Time	30 min.
Air Info	HP 80: 3,100 - 1,500 psi = 20.5 psi/min

Figuring we could sneak in a dive before the wedding Jess and I headed out to the shores to continue playing with our dry suits.

Since I’m a bit of a dumb ass I made multiple changes to my gear configuration at once and subsequently got very disoriented. First I put my computer on my right wrist (vs. left). Then I moved my light from my right side to my left (always opposite computer). That combined with new shoes and such got me totally confused.

Luckily, we had a good dive anyway! We found a cluster of spiny lobsters hiding in a rock and found two wander around the sand flats. I got to see a bat ray with a minimum 4 ft. wing span fly by. We also saw a very large halibut get up and swim away. Jess got to see a second bat ray but I was too far away by that point to get to see it.

We’re doing better with the buoyancy each dive and I think we’ll have it nailed pretty well in short order.

August 2006
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20	21	22	23	24	25	26
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Month: August, 2006

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