TeeBee's Blog

A foggy morning here in the Valley

A very different ride to work this morning, through the early-morning fog. See it here.

teebee

She Took My Queen! Waaaaaaa!!!

I'm teaching the kids how to play chess. Emma and I are on our 3rd(?) game. I was in a situation I didn't like at all - all her middle pieces were well-guarded by her back row. Plus her knight was sneaking around in ways I didn't like. I tried to shift momentum by bringing out my queen, and in a span of 3 brilliant moves, managed to lose it.

Ah well - if that's the price I have to pay to empower my daughter, so be it.

teebee

Left, left, left, right, straight, straight, right, park

My morning commute in pictures here. Every day I am reminded of how very fortunate I am to be able to live like this. Of course, the Miata helps too.

Better Living Through Chemicals

We spend a lot of time at Gina's sister's house in the summer, 'cuz she has a terrific inground pool and a hot tub. She's been very busy of late and has not had the time to maintain the pool. I, being the nice guy that I am, offerred to help out where I could. So began my odyssey into Pool Maintenance 101.

Saturday AM - go to Lisa's house, get samples of both pool and hot tub water. Off to Chicopee and Teddy Bear Pools, with Emma as my assistant. Man, what an operation. The place is jumping on a Saturday morning. Big sign in the back - "Water Testing". At least 5 enthusiastic people behind the counter, with what looks like a high school chem lab behind. My guy ribs me for the amount of water I brought (~ 3 gallons of pool water, ~ 1 gallon of hot tub water), and gives me some quart containers for next time. Takes both, does analysys, enters it into computer. Hot tub water needs dis, dat and da other ting - I get a printout. Pool water also needs dis, dat and da other ting, but waittaminute - there's too much copper in the water. If we add da other ting when there's too much copper, the water will turn green. Ok, need to do a test back at the pool, then add da other ting.

I take copious notes, take my printouts, and Emma and I wander around for awhile looking at the demo pools and hot tubs. Then, we're off for home.

Later in the evening, meet at Lisa's for dinner and pool/hot tub maintenance. First the hot tub. Instructions say to add x ounces of dis, y ounces of dat, and z ounces of da other ting. Do they mean ounces by weight, or by liquid volume? Expletive deleted! Well, we don't have a postal scale, so we get the Pyrex measuring cup and do it by volume. Hmm - hot tub is now a light shade of green. Oh well - I'll take the water back tomorrow and have it retested.

Next, the pool. We have to take a bucket of pool water and add da other ting to it. If it turns green, we need to add Chemical X to get rid of the copper before we can add da other ting to the pool. We do the test and voila - the water turns green. Done for the day!

Sunday - back to Teddy Bear with Alex in tow this time. I take some of the green pool water, and some hot tub water. First, the good news - the hot tub is fine and doing measurements by liquid volume was the right way to go. Now the bad news - the pool guy agrees that the test turned the water green. So off to the shelves to by dis, dat, da other ting, and 5 bottles of Chemical X to get rid of the copper. More notes as to what to do - add Chemical X, turn off chlorinator, wat 5 days, then add dis, dat, and da other ting. More wandering around with Alex, then we're off!

Back at Lisa's on Sunday evening, I pour in Chemical X and turn the chlorinator off and the filter on. Hot tub is still green, but doesn't stink anymore. Partial victory!

Next installment of "Better Living Through Chemicals" on Friday!

teebee

Blog humor - hehehehehehehehe!

Gina and I were at the community pool behind the Copeland's house last night. Henry and I are jibber-jabbering about blog stuff. I say something that catches Gina's ear. When she asks me to repeat it, I toss back "It's a blog thing, dear." Catchphrase #1 of the night is born.

Later, Gina is busting my chops about something or another. In my best geek voice, I threaten "Oooh - I'm gonna write about that on my blog!". Catchphrase #2 of the night is born.

Behold the sinister way blogging spreads across surburbia! Darn you, Henry Copeland! Darn you to heck!

teebee

Another fun Ebaymotors car

A 1966 Chevrolet Caprice Wagon. Originally a 283/three-on-the-tree; now a 454/4-speed.

Can you tell I like '60s big blocks? I think it'd be a blast driving something this big with a 4-speed.

Teebee's Flick Pick

Gina and I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean last night. A thoroughly enjoyable movie. Johnny Depp is great as the wierdly addled Jack Sparrow. Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley harken back to The Princess Bride as the hero and heroine. The effects surrounding the cursed pirate crew are excellent. Just the right touch of comic relief. No gratuitous violence. No nudity. No potty words. And if you pay close attention, you'll catch bits and pieces that are right out of the Disney ride. Don't bring the young'uns, though - some of the curse stuff is pretty scary and the battle scenes (while un-bloody) are still violent.
Stick to the rating - 13 and older.

teebee

A Good Friend Leaves the Valley

My friend and blog mentor Henry Copeland is leaving the area on Monday. Sad, really, when friends move away, especially when you have lots in common and get along so well.

I could go on and on about how interesting it is talking with Henry, how charming and gracious his wife Sophie is and how well Emma and Alex got along with their children Audrey and Leon. However, I don't want to get Henry down too much in what is probably a stressful time (he does occasionally ready my posts), so I'll suffice to say that they will be missed.

Good luck Henry, Sophie, Audrey and Leon, and godspeed.

teebee

Thanks to Mom, I now have a better digital camera, for awhile at least. Mom was kind enough to loan me her Argus 2.1 mp digital camera. Am trying to figure out how it works. This is the single worst user manual I have ever encountered. Plus the camera seems to crash when I try to record movies. Note to self - don't try and record movies. Rebooting consists of popping out the batteries and putting them back in. Interesting seeing how software glitches manifest themselfes in hardware devices.

Expect better pics soon!

teebee

Addition Update

On the 18th, they completed the foundation drainage, stoning the inside and outside of the foundation and adding a length of drain tile around the outside of the foundation. Then they did a very nice job of backfilling and doing a rough grade. We have our backyard back - for awhile at least.

Pics here.

Saturday AM update - roof trusses delivered. This will be the last house activity for 1-2 weeks, as our contractor needs to finish another house's roof before he starts framing ours.

teebee

Some Harry Potter questions/comments/predictions

Note - this post contains spoilers for the 5th book. Skip if you ain't read it yet!

• In the 5th book, Harry used an unforgivable curse, but absolutely nothing was made of that. You're telling me that the Ministry of Magic was ready to expell him in the 2nd book for Dobby doing magic in his house, but is going to overlook his using Crucio?!!
  
• What happened to all that stuff at the end of the 4th book about Snape going back undercover with the Death Eaters? Hagrid followed through with his visit to the giants, but nothing was made about Snape.
  
• A prediction - Harry and Luna Lovejoy will be a pseudo-couple in the next book, and a full-blown couple in the last one
  
• Another prediction - Neville will turn out to be the one that has to fight Voldemort in the end, and he'll lose, but he'll take old Tom with him
  
• Dumbledore calls Voldemort by his first name. The man has style!
  
• With the dementors gone, isn't Azkaban pretty much useless?
  
• Harry will be the next Defense against the Dark Arts teacher. OK, this one is pretty far-fetched. But...
  
• A 4th book rant: While I liked the book, I found the whole "set up the entire school year and Triwizard Tournament so that at the end, Harry touches the Triwizard Cup which is a portkey" hard to swallow. Seems like an awfully convoluted way of going about things. Why not just turn Harry's pajamas into a portkey on the first day of school? Or his toothbrush. Bang, zoom, off he goes to meet You-know-who. Done.
  
• The word "git" is fun. Git, git, git, git. I think we should arrainge a slang exchange with the UK for a month. They use all our slang, while we use all our slang. Kinda like a house swap or something.
  
• A prediction - Aunt Petunia will turn out to have wizard powers, but it horrifies her so she has been suppressing it.
  
• A prediction - The near-death experience with the Dementors has turned Dudley around. He has now dedicated his life to spreading happiness and joy, and has joined a seminary. :-}
  
  

teebee

Favorite EbayMotors Car of the Moment

A 1966 Chevrolet Impala SS Convertable, with a 427/4 speed. Sweet!

Addition update

Yesterday, the foundation cutters arrived to cut a door into our existing foundation, to allow us access to the new basement room. They were going to show up at 7:00 AM this morning, so I figured I'd have Monday night to get the shop straightned out - pull everything away from the wall, hang tarps to keep concrete and water spray from going everywhere, etc.

Wrong.

I get a call from our contractor at 11:55am on Monday - "Hi, Steve yeah I'll be at the house in an hour with the cutting guys".

Crap. Quick email to my boss to explain, rush home (stopping at hardware store to pick up tarps), fly thru shop getting everything ready. Whew - done in time. Concrete cutters show up and start installing serious stuff onto the side of the foundation - the bolt 2 vertical tracks on either side of the cut, and mount a saw with a 2 foot diameter. I had to go back to work, but Gina tells me it made quite a racket.

I came home, and there was the cut-out piece of foundation, lying peacefully in the new hole.

Pics here.

teebee

Well, I did it.

After 10 years.

I

shaved

off

my

beard.

You wouldn't think that would be a big deal. But it was.

I remember when I first started growing my beard. It was pretty wispy. It took probably 2 or 3 years for it to really fill in and be a proper beard, instead of a goatee with a fringe. I was so proud of that beard. I was the only one in the family that had one (except for Dad). It really became part of me - an old friend that greeted me in the mirror every morning.

So why shave off an old friend?

Well, for one, beards are not the best friend in the summer. Especially when it is really hot.

Your dust mask really never seals up. Neither does your scuba mask.

I had toyed with shaving it in the past. But my wife always talked me out of it. "I like you with a beard", she'd say. So it stayed.

But then, I had last week off from work. I said to myself "Well, if it is a disaster; if my chin has somehow vanished in these past 10 years, I can always grow a good part of it back before work starts again".

So I shaved it.

Baby experts say that babies focus on faces more than anything. Mommy's face, Daddy's face, pictures of faces. The face is a powerful source of recognition. You can meet an old college buddy that has put on (or lost) 100 pounds, lost (or gained) a head of hair, but you still know them because their face has not change in any significant way.

Shaving a beard is a significant change. When I think of it, there is probably not much else you can do (short of surgery) that can change your face more than shaving a beard.

It really was a bit of a shock. I looked different. Really different. Every time I looked in the mirror, someone different looked back. "Hey, who the hell are you!", my face recognition circuits would say.

My wife and kids (seemed to) adjust pretty quickly. But I'm just now starting to get used to the new look. I went back to work on Monday, and had to re-realize I looked different with every "What happened - you lose a bet?" comment I got.

There's also more maintenance. With a beard, there's not much difference between a freshly trimmed beard and one that's gone 3 or 4 days. I could even push it a week if I wanted. Not now - stubble is stubble, and it ain't pretty. I have to shave daily.

So am I going to stay this way? For now, at least, I'm gonna try this out for the summer and see how it goes. I'm kinda growing to like it.

And no, this has nothing to do with me turning 40 next month. At least, I don't think so...

teebee

Addition Update

Not much happening today. Concrete guys showed up early and pulled off all the forms. Pictures of nekkid foundation here.

Gotta get a better digital camera!

Next update will be from Rockport - am going there for the weekend. Expect extremely picturesque stuff!

teebee

Addition Update

Well, the foundation guys came back yesterday afternoon and set the forms in place for the foundation walls. Then, they came back this afternoon to pour them. Unfortunately, the rain also came. Things got a bit muddy in the rear - the concrete truck was sliding around in the clay. However, they finished up without incident. Pics here.

teebee

Addition Update

6:45 AM - concrete guys show up. The dogs checked them over to make sure they weren't evil, then they went to work. By 9:30, the footings were poured, and they were out of there. They'll be back bright and early tomorrow morning to pour the foundation walls. Pictures here.

teebee

Emma Bridges from Brownies to Girl Scouts

Emma's Brownie troup had their Bridging (did I spell that right?) ceremony last weekend. That's when they "bridge" from Brownies to Jr. Girl Scouts. It was a very nice little ceremony - the girls did a skit about friendship; they each recited a little speech before receiving their Girl Scout Vest. Cookies, juice and chatting afterwards. Real Norman Rockwell stuff. Some pics here in my members-only Yahoo group. Look under Photos, then a folder called Emma's Bridging Ceremony.

On a related note - I need to spring for a better digital camera. I have this $49 Jam Cam - takes 8 pics at 640x480, point-n-shoot, with a USB interface. Nice for recording facts, but not much for portraits. One of these days...

teebee

Addition Update

Amazing what 1 guy with an excavator can do! I came home today and the entire foundation hole was dug. It took them all of 4 hours to do it. Pictures here.

Today they will be setting the forms for the footings. Not sure if they'll be pouring them or not. They will also (I believe) be cutting thru the existing foundation so we can get from the old basement and into the new. Then its a 3-day weekend - I hope it doesn't rain!

teebee

Addition Update

Aaaaaaand they're off! Went home at lunch. Big excavator in the back yard, with my (ex) deck dangling from its boom. When I left, they were starting on digging the hole. After 7 months of planning and 6 weeks of delay, we're underway! Pics in the morning.

teebee

Addition Update

10:50 AM - got a call from the contractor. He'll be at the house in an hour.

Could our odyssey actually be starting? Stay tuned...

A good one

Go to Google
Type "weapons of mass destruction"
Click "I'm Feeling Lucky"
.
.
.
Bwahahahahahaha!
{sniff}
Ahh, geek humor!

Addition Update

Postponed another day. Damn.