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computers — No Comments
16
Mar 08

Starting to settle

I believe all of the Blogger links are now directing here properly. Most of the theme matches, though I still have some fixes to do. Lightbox isn’t quite working automatically for my images, but I suspect I’ll have it going soon. And the new domain name doesn’t seem to be working properly yet. Once I get that figured out the worst thing is the 2 or 3 people who’ve posted on here will have to re-register since I can’t automagically recognize their google accounts anymore.

I did turn on OpenID which lets you use an existing Yahoo account, but it’s kind of involved and confusing to setup through Yahoo.  Google is apparently testing OpenID in a beta version of Blogger but for now it’s not quite an option for those accounts.  So to leave feedback you’ll have to quickly register on here it looks like 🙁

computers / projects — No Comments
16
Mar 08

Excuse the dust

I’m giving up on blogger. It’s not that Blogger is bad, just that I much prefer the hack and expand ability of WordPress. As I start to focus in on what I want to do with my personal site when I finally redo it a flexible blog seems more and more important. So I setup a new WordPress blog on my site and am working on redirecting all my traffic to it. So things may be a bit bumpy while some things sort out. Read on for all the details: Continue reading →

diy / house / new house / projects / wind — 1 Comment
14
Mar 08

New Carport Tarp

Last sunday while we were recovering from the previous nights party, Amy and I remembered about the Yuma Bargain Warehouse and decided to go see if we could find a new tarp for the carport. I had guestimated that it would be a 20′ x 20′ tarp…and after measuring the tattered rempains of the original that was looking about right. At the warehouse we found a good selection of tarps, of course the one we liked best (green mesh) they were out of in 20′ x 20′. But they had black mesh, heavy duty white and silver in that size. The black mesh was tempting…but being a mesh we weren’t sure if it would give as much shade as we wanted – and it was over double the cost of a silver or white tarp. The silver we didn’t like the looks of so at $37 the white tarp won out. We also picked up 2 – $2 bundles of nylon rope and headed home. Last night we finally put the tarp up, took a little over 30 minutes. Continue reading →

diy / new house / projects / weather / wind — No Comments
07
Mar 08

So the winds are gone…

Well, the winds are gone…and so is half of our carport tarp. As I mentioned in my last post the high winds on sunday really did a number on our carport. Here are some better photos of the destruction in action:

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beer / diy / homebrew / projects — No Comments
05
Mar 08

Overbrew! brewverflow?

Overbrew! brewverflow?

Posting form my phone is a little annoying – but it’s better than nothing. The text above was all I sent – but I had to remove 3 paragraphs of drivel that Verizon felt they needed to add. And of course being a phone it’s hard to enter much of a message.

The cause for such spur the moment updating however is our critical capacity on homebrew. The Yuma Brewers have been busy this year even if we haven’t been updating our old blog! Matt’s fridge is at capacity – plus J has some kegs at his house in his new converted freezer. Mark found us a pile of new kegs and Rich just got a used fridge for $10. And don’t forget my own cooler project.

Matts freezer/fridge above is holding 7 kegs and a 20lb CO2 bottle, we could move the CO2 out to make room for one more keg…but he’s basically at capacity. We did finish one of those last Wednesday, and one will be coming over here tomorrow for my birthday party. Thanks to Tommy we’ll also be tapping tomorrows beer with Nitrogen which will be an exciting experiment. But we’ve got more waiting to go into kegs so it’s a good thing more homes for them are becoming available!

diy / new house / projects / wind — 3 Comments
02
Mar 08

Wind sucks today

Better photos to follow later but I wanted to test posting from my phone. As the title says the wind here sucks today. The front half of our carport tarp has been destroyed…it’s actually gotten worse since I snapped this photo and is now torn all the way to the very top – right through the double stitched anti-rip sections 🙁

I kind of knew it was going to happen. I was never very happy with the choice of material the previous owner used for the carport, he claims it was UV rated but it’s only a few years old and already it’s badly faded and I could tell it was getting weak. In fact just yesterday I was looking at some tears that had started around the grommets in it so I knew it wouldn’t be lasting forever.

I’d like to go out and take it down before it gets any worse…but with 45MPH gusts predicted (Though I think they’re bigger based on how much our trees are swaying!) I don’t think it would be a wise idea for me to go outside and play with a large sail in high winds on top of a ladder. Since it’s a total loss at this point anyway I’ll just let the wind have it’s way and start thinking about how to deal with it.

I’d love to make something that could be rolled back for occasions where we want some sun…or when the wind gets like this 😀 But for now I’m just hoping we can find something we can afford as a replacement. I’m hoping my old boss Gwyn at Racecraft can help me get some vinyl impregnated awning fabric like she uses and help me sew it up to be the right size. Going to have to make some phone calls this week it looks like!

beer / diy / homebrew / house / projects — 2 Comments
01
Mar 08

Crazy project update (Take 2)

Hmmm, didn’t get any images with that. Apparently Picasa’s blogging features still have some issues even if you stick to their <=4 images rule. So here goes again:

Well, with my dad posting his much anticipated big reveal – I figure it’s time for me go to the other direction and post an incremental update on my latest crazy project. Namely the conversion of our back cabinet into a beer/whine fridge. When I last blogged about this I left the insulation specifics somewhat up in the air. Since then I’ve spoken to our resident refrigeration expert and decided on my final plan of attack (Well for everything except the doors. The first layer will be aluminum foil to act as a reflective heat barrier and somewhat as a moisture barrier. After that will be a layer of plastic to make sure I’ve got a good external moisture barrier. I’ve been working on layer one since before my last post about this, but it was just today that I finished it:

While I do expect the aluminum to help as a moisture barrier…I didn’t go crazy making sure it was 100% airtight since I still have the plastic layer (and a few other layers) coming. I did use 3M Super 77 spray glue to bond the aluminum to the walls and itself so even where it appears there are gaps usually there’s a layer underneath and it is all sealed at some point. Lines for more serving taps will require more holes in the future…but for now I just want to keep the holes as small as possible even though my tap is insulated inside.

Oh yeah, I also picked up some Brasso and cleaned the tap tower back up again. It had gotten real nasty looking living outside as long as it had without being cleaned. And I picked up some vintage tap handles cheap on ebay…well most were cheap. This one I paid a bit much for..but I just had to have it to go with my Schlitz ball and in memory of many a happily wasted evening at the union. Goes rather nice with the brass tower I think!

So layer one is finished. Tomorrow I’ll try and do layer 2 – the plastic moisture barrier. Once that’s up layers 3 and 4 should go quick and easy since I have them on hand…but just what they are I think I’ll leave up to the imagination for now.

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Uncategorized — No Comments
24
Feb 08

Untitled

I’ve had a nasty virus the past week. Saw the doctor on thursday and he gave me some cough medicine that really does a number on me. It does a great job at what it’s supposed to, manages my coughing and dries up the mucus like nothing else. But it leaves me pretty wonked out and mentally kind of “out of focus”. Today I was starting to feel better. Instead of being light headed and woozy from the virus and the medicine I’m down to where I can be light headed and woozy from either the virus or the medicine. The medicine woozy is just slightly more tolerable than the virus woozy.

So when Rich called to remind me that tomorrow is our pickup day for the citywide cleanup I just explained that we had already got rid of a ton of stuff to move and don’t really have much more built up again yet. He then told me about how well he trimmed his trees – and offered me his trimmer. Heck he’s only a block away and a nice long pole trimmer would let me do a nice job. I may not feel safe to drive a car or stand on a ladder under the influence of this medicine…but a pole trimmer within walking distance. I guess I can try that.

The activity did me pretty good actually. My ears unplugged and with my blood flowing I started to feel better – my throat is still pretty rough from all the coughing but overall I’m feeling a lot better. And the yard is looking at LOT more open. Here’s a quick pano I snapped. It’s got a bit of a focus problem in the kitchen, and the last frame showing the empty ficus area was unusable…but compared to the shot I uploaded a few days ago you can see how much more open the main backyard tree is now.

Oh yeah, it also shows off how our yard lights up at night. This is without the kitchen “work” lights on.

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diy / lockpicking / locks / new house / security — 1 Comment
24
Feb 08

Nefarious skills put to positive use

Amy and I have known it was coming. From the day we moved in we dreaded it but we knew it was unavoidable…sooner or later we were going to lock ourselves out of the house. The issue is the style of lock. On the house we were renting they were pop-locks where they would unlock anytime you opened them from the inside. On this house they’re twist locks that stay the way they were last set. So whereas before we knew that the act of stepping out of the house would unlock it – now if we step out while it’s locked it stays locked.

Continue reading →

darkroom / photography — 1 Comment
23
Feb 08

I haven’t forgotten how to expose a photo!

Well, apparently I haven’t gone completely insane OR lost the ability to meter a scene. It is the lens. J stopped by today to remove our superfluous ficus in the backyard so it can have a happier live feasting on spent grains and the remains of the hot liquor tank and providing him with ample shade in return. So of course I had to grab my camera. First exposure way WAY over exposed. I knew my exposure couldn’t have been that far off.

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