I decided I should do a parody on the Kohler ad that depicts a pair of snooty DINKs* visiting a gallery and talking with an egotistical architect.
In my case, I won’t be using some fancy pants faucet. I am building a “working kitchen” and the emphasis is on the WORKING. I have not yet settled [...]

I could kick myself if I were more limber … I spend 5 hours completely rebuilding my work machine today because I *thought* I had some security software gunking up the works. I was wrong, it was just Microsoft Windows being a PITA.
The problem: Lotus Notes “Single Login” aka “Log in to Notes [...]

If I stumbled across pictures of trees that look like the one here, on any of my usual blog surfing excursions, I would have assumed it was a really twisted Photoshop job. But, the Dark Roasted Blend website is all about “weird and wonder things” - some real some just really good. In this [...]

Tropical storm Hanna has just passed over head and the winds are starting to switch around as the eye moves north-northeast. Zen and I took a quick walk around the rental property to see if everything was still where it should be. Just before the storm we moved a few things included a glass top [...]

I spend a good portion of the weekend working on the farmhouse plans. In addition to being the owner, general contractor, and building the kitchen, I am also the architect. Fortunately for me, the steel contractor has a very accommodating drafting staff so they took my original floor plans and matched them up to the [...]

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From AVWeb

By Mary Grady, Contributing Editor

Seven years later, we still are caught short by the appearance of that date on the calendar — September 11 — it brings back all those memories of a day when aviation, and our country, were changed forever. While everyone was affected in one way or another, those of us [...]

For the farmhouse project, I will be building the kitchen. One of the big tasks will be building the cabinets. I learned my lesson from my last kitchen and will have few if any base cabinet doors and shelves. Instead, I will have drawers - lots of drawers.
There are some very nice high-end hardware for [...]

This is not a story of barn yard animals. It does, however, indicate that the engineers at Verizon Wireless have a sense of humor when it comes to disaster readiness - a subject that typically has very little to laugh about.
I once conducted an interview for a new-hire candidate where I posed the [...]

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I talk about the farmhouse construction ad nauseam. One comment (other than “SHUT UP”) that has been repeated, is “you could not build this place without the internet”. I’d agree, at least in so much as to say I would not be able to do as much of the work myself and with the [...]

If you are curious as to what bamboo cabinets might look like, you could use the Google image search but that vast majority of what you will find are very stark very modern design - perfectly flat and no character. That would be very easy to build but not my style. So, I used GIMP [...]

I struggled with the quickest way to mock up the kitchen cabinets so I could get an idea of what design I’d like and what paint colors or species of wood I might want. Given the kitchen will last a long time, I want to get something I will like for a long time.
I have [...]

I am offended that Lenovo has created a Thinkpad that is so blatantly biased toward right handed people. the new W700 has a great feature - a digitizer pad - that helps with artists and CAD/CAM applications. The problem is it is on the right side of the keyboard. There is no reasonable way [...]

That one word - “NEXT” - was my mantra for nearly 20 years. Then it became my justification. After that … well, it became just a word. or did it ?
What has happened to all the writers?
I mean, according to my calculations, there are three groups of writers - those with a seventh grade education; [...]

One of my kitchen faucets just arrived (thanks again to eBay). It will look right at home in my kitchen but it’s not likely for everyone. That’s OK. It’s my kitchen.
I think, if the woman in the Kohler commercial has pulled a pre-rinse faucet out of her hand back - an impossible feat [...]

Yesterday came and went with very little fan fare. This blog’s log changed but without announcement. I don’t know who actually noticed. What was it all about ?
September 19th is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. To recognize this “art form” the following logo was posted for one day only …

There is nothing like the comfort of your favorite old jeans and that comfiest of comfy old broken in shoes. It’s time to concede, these shoes are ready to be retired. I’ll hate to see them go …

BTW: This is the start of a “weeek of photo posts”. I will have a pretty full week [...]

For the past week and likely for the next few, my days starts very early and before the sun. This morning, I went back into the bedroom to roust the sleepy head and found she had made throughly good use of the warm bed after I exited an hour earlier …

I needed to simplify my parent’s PC. The primary tasks include email, reading blogs (not just mine), calendar, and banking. All of these are web applications - Gmail, Google Reader, Google Calendar, and on-line banking.
I was having them use a sidebar that served as a feed reader and had a notification service for Gmail. The [...]

Today I had the “pre-concrete” inspection. I got good and bad news. The good news is I have well respected reliable contractors. The bad news is the plumbing drain lines did not pass.
I learned a few important numbers today. First, the farmhouse is 10,000 feet from the nearest telephone company hub - well [...]

The concrete slab pours (yes, plural) are about to start. This means the drain lines for the bathrooms - current and future - need to be roughed in. This series of pipes represent the first floor toilet, the shower drain, the outlet for the washing machine, the bathroom sink drain, a stub for [...]

Viral videos got there name for a reason. You see one and the first thing you think is “I’ve got to show this to __fill in the blank__”.
Well, I stumbled across a clip that probably never aired on the Red Bull Air Race series. My friends know I fly. My friends know I fly old [...]

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Yes, you read that right - soup in five minutes and I’m not talking about from a can … well, not exactly. Let me explain.
I believe in a well stock pantry and freezer. I also am a strong proponent of cooking with “building blocks”. In all honesty, nearly everyone cooks with building blocks, [...]

In the fullness of time, the farmhouse will have nearly 13 tons of HVAC system running. There is a 5 ton “heat-only” water-to-water exchanger to feed the radiant floor head in the house. Another 5 tons for heating the shop, and then a 3 tone water-to-air unit for cooling the house. For safety [...]

I own myself a big “thank you” for actually thinking ahead and making soup. The weather today is miserable - just ask Zen (who is trying to sleep through the entire day in hopes it is all just a dream). Thankfully, the power is till on as is the internet connection.

With any luck, [...]

I am planning to build my kitchen cabinets. Part of the motivation is I enjoy spending time in my workshop. Part of hte motivation is cost - as the farmhouse construction budget seems to have taken on extraordinary amounts of helium and is drifting toward the stratosphere. This post is not able any of that. [...]

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With any luck, I will be “here” in a couple more hours …
 

FYI: This is a real image but my little point-and-shoot was not up to the task so I made this image using an old technique. If you are shooting a still scene and have a tripod, you can [...]

The farmhouse project continued this week with the goal to pour the first layer of the concrete slab. The over floor of the farmhouse consists of packed sand/clay mix, followed by 2 inches of concrete, 1 inch of high density foam board, wire mesh, radiant floor tubing, and then a 4 inch pour of concrete [...]

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

We’ve had four days of fowl weather separated by very warm an humid spells. I can take the less than enjoyable weather. What has Zen and me spending much more time inside of doors is the plethora of mosquitoes that have bred in this near perfect environment for them. It is as close to that [...]

If for no other reason than to add a little color, I have tried placing a few pieces of frozen fruit in my evening cocktail. It started with a few frozen strawberries. They added some nice colored objects and did not affect the flavor. They were pleasing to the eye. Next, I tried a few [...]

GeoEye-1 will deliver higher resolution images and a much faster rate. U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency gets first dibs at the images but Google gets exclusive on-line rights after that. Oh, and if you were curious, there will be a GeoEye-2 a bit later on.
Credit: Vandenberg Air Force Base Media

I’ve received a strange error from my ISP a couple of times over the past month. You might have seen it as well. “This Account Has Exceeded Its CPU Quota”. I don’t really think it is true but I’ve learned, with ISPs that your are guilty until proven innocent. So I am digging around for [...]

I was reading a transcript (or what appears to be a transcript) between Katie Couric and Senator Sarah Palin. My take away from the short read is that our education system has failed us - completely. There are times I think absolutely no coherency exists in what the interviewee is expressing.
Couric: And when it comes [...]