LittleJoe

This evening while I was upstairs being a geek...

...my wife was out front playing in the snow (I thought she'd been reading!). When she called me outside around midnight, here's what she'd built:

Very awesome. Note the attention to detail: sculpted eyebrows, apples for eyes, and a banana for the smile :-)

So scary I had to post it

Gift from customers

My coworker, Bill, has done some programming for a group of folks at work. To thank Bill for his efforts, they gave him this cute little toy sheep, complete with Santa hat. You can see the sheep doing its trick by watching this short movie.

Always time for espresso

My son, Ben, is home from college for a few weeks, so we went up to Timberline at Mt Hood for some snowboarding (Ben), skiing (Joe), and ski-boarding (both of us). Well, the skies never did clear up as we'd hoped, but it was still a great time. After an hour or two, it was time to refuel with some espresso:

Yup, I brewed some espresso before we left home, and had a thermos and cup in my backpack :-)

...and even though the clouds hung around, it was still beautiful:

But this being our first ski trip this season, our legs could only hold out for about half the day. Man, we're going to feel this tomorrow! :-)

Mechanical Karma

Why is it that whenever I work on a car, it takes 2 to 3 times the amount of time I expect? I must have some nasty mechanical karma. Maybe I was a beater car in a prior existence and refused to start for my owner. I don't know, but geez there seems to be a pattern! :-)

Well my son's coming home from college for winter break soon. He's had his car for sale, but since we still have it, he's looking forward to using it and enjoying the subwoofer. We'd taken the subwoofer out a while back for a minor repair, so I reinstalled it today. I figured it would be about a 15 minute job. Wrong. Aside from a few miscellaneous delays - and reading through the manual to figure out which wire goes where - when it looked all ready, I turned the ignition key, fired up the stereo and went to the trunk to listen to...nothing. After spending way too much time tracing wires, I found the problem: a blown fuse in the engine compartment. Ugh! OK, so it took 2 hours instead of 15 minutes :-)

Gunshot - all healed

I've posted a few times about my nephew's accidental gunshot wound. It's been about 2 1/2 months, and amazingly, he has healed with no major permanent damage aside from some nasty scarring. Two pictures of the wound from back in September - and two pictures from today - are posted here (Warning: these are graphic pictures of a bad wound).

Appropriately enough, today is Thanksgiving Day.

Neighbor's new home

The folks who used to live across the street from us are very much into fishing. So they decided to do something about that passion, and bought a plot on a river outside of town. Here's the front of their new house:

Yeah, that's nice enough, but check out the view from their living room:

...and here's a better shot from their window. Yup, this is their back yard!

One of the best spots in the area to catch salmon and trout is right behind their house now. They can just go out back and drop a line. Awesome.

 

Mutant snowflakes

Winter is here. Officially. Starting this morning. After sunrise, the temperature suddenly plummeted, and the snow started. These were mutant snowflakes. Big, wet, did I say BIG? I saw snowflakes 2 to 3 INCHES across! This was just weird!

So here's a picture of the neighborhood this morning as the snow was falling:

...And looking the other way:

...And then later in the morning when I came down from the office for a cup of coffee, I saw that our beautiful maple tree had broken under the weight of all of the heavy wet snow, trapped on the leaves that normally would have fallen by now:

Sadly, I had to pull out the chainsaw and amputate a couple of large branches from the tree. I was able to knock the wet snow off of the other branches and they sprang back up to proper position. But I'm afraid that I'll have to take this tree out before the spring comes; I detected too much old damage that I'd not seen before :(

Autumn here; winter coming

Here's a pic from our bedroom window this morning:



Winter may not be here yet (there won't be skiiing at Mt Hood for a couple of weeks yet), but the autumn is definitely here. We've turned on the heat, half the folks at work have colds or flu, and the leaves are finally changing color.

Must be flu season

Well crap! Seems I've got a bit of a cold/flu thing going. I almost never get  sick, so I'm a total wuss when it hits. So I've got the layers of fleece going and many times a day I'm having my "Citrus Cocktail" -- juice of 2 oranges, a grapefruit, a lemon, and a lime:

 

Of course, normally I prefer my lime juice encapsulated in a margarita, and I typically only use this glass when having a pint of beer, but desperate times call for desperate measures. We'll see if I can blast this thing out before Monday.

Maryhill Winery, Emmylou Harris

Yesterday evening we went with some friends to Goldendale, Washington. "Why?", you ask. Well, Goldendale is on the east side of the Casacade Mountains. On the east side of Washington state the weather is drier and there are some very good wineries. One of them is Maryhill Winery. Someone got smart and build an outdoor amphiteatre there, and yesterday eveing we were treated to some wonderful blugrass from Sam Hill, followed by the legendary Emmylou Harris.

(FYI, the Sam Hill bluegrass band has had that name for 10 years, but this particular evening they happened to be playing music on Sam Hill. The hill on which we were sitting was named for the one and only Sam Hill.)

Well, I did take a couple of pictures of the view. It was a perfect evening: bring a picnic dinner, buy a bottle of wine from the winery that is right there, and kick back for a couple of hours of awesome music in an incredible setting, sharing it all with friends. Ah yes.

Feng Shui - part 4

Our latest addition to our Feng Shui adjustments can be seen here.  It is a mirror that we ordered to fit the wall area behind our stovetop.  Shirley picked up the mirror 2 days ago, we used mastic glue to fasten it to the wall and packing tape to hold it in place for a day and a half to let the glue set.  Today Shirley removed the tape and cleaned the mirror; I saw it when I got home this evening and we both love the look.

Feng Shui - part 3

We've added a few more adjustments to our home as we do our Feng Shui tune-up.  As we make changes, I'm updating our Feng Shui photo album, and including captions with the pictures to explain a little bit of the reason behind each thing we do.

You'll notice a few crystals in the pictures, and you might catch that each is hung using red thread or ribbon.  We are also using red ribbon when hanging any metal wind chimes.  Red is considered an auspicious color in Feng Shui, and 3 and 9 are considered auspicious numbers (9, of course, is 3 times 3).  So for any crystals or chimes that we hang, we use red ribbon or thread cut intially to a length that is a multiple of 9 (9, 18, 27, etc.).

Well that may all sound kind of strange.  That's OK.  We don't really mind.  We're having fun just following the suggestions from our Feng Shui consultation, and so far we really like the look and feel of the changes...and that's what matters most to us :-)

Gunshot - part 3

Well now, after less than a week, my nephew gets to go home from the hospital tomorrow!  He's already been taking walks with crutches and putting weight on the injured leg.  Amazing.  It turns out that - through some miracle - the gunshot did not damage the bone, nor any nerves, nor any major blood vessels.  This is still a nasty wound, however, as evidenced by a couple of pictures taken yesterday (WARNING: These pictures are a bit graphic; two pictures of the wound can be seen here)

He's still, of course, got plenty of healing to do, and will be going to the hospital each day for a while to get the wound's dressing changed.  To have such a bad injury, however, and to be healing so quickly is incredible!

Gunshot - followup

We went and visited my nephew in the hospital this evening.  Yesterday he was told that he would be in the hospital for at least several weeks.  After his 2nd surgery (first was yesterday evening; second was this morning), they said he's looking much better than they'd thought and may be going home in a few days.  He'll still have a long period of rehabilitation.

Gunshot

Well, I've never spent my evening cleaning up after a gunshot -- until today.  My nephew ended up shooting himself in the leg, so while he was going into surgery, my wife and sister and I cleaned up the blood at his house.

Good Lord, this is so surreal!

I am not a fan of guns.  I was trained when I was younger in gun safety and how to shoot rifles, shotguns, and handguns.  I don't like it.  We don't own guns.  In my nephew's case, he and his family are what one would have considered careful gun owners.  The guns were kept in a safe.  But only one gun had a trigger lock on it.  It turns out that the other gun - the one without the lock - had a bullet in it.  The guns needed to be moved, as some painting was going to be done in the house.  Well apparently, while moving the guns, the one went off.  My nephew was the only one home and fortunately had the focus to be able to call the police/ambulance, and to call his mom.

I never would have thought that I would spend an evening of my life cleaning up someone's blood after a gunshot wound!  We don't live in a "bad" part of town.  We're a "normal" family, regular jobs, etc.  This is why I do not like guns -- gun accidents happen too easily.

So this evening my nephew was very lucky.  He's undergoing surgery.  He'll need some lengthy rehabilitation, but should be OK overall.

Thank you God.

Sri Lanken Chicken

Barry "Noted Chef" Sanders was kind enough to share this recipe with me.  It is the roadmap to palette nirvana. Sri Lankan Chicken Serves 2 Marinade 1 cinnamon stick 2 tbsp vinegar 2 tbsp paprika ½ tsp chilli powder (more or less to taste) 4 cardamom pods 2 whole cloves (the spice not garlic) Ingrediants 2 chicken breasts bone and skin remove, cut in rough piece 2 tbsp vegetable/canola oil 1 onion finely chopped 2 cloves garlic finely chopped 3 cm fresh ginger grated 1 tbsp minced chillis 6-10 curry leaves  (you can find these at an Indian store) 1/2 tbsp ground cumin 1 tbsp ground coriander ½ tsp turmeric ½ cup coconut cream (cream not milk) 1 tin crushed tomatoes chopped cilantro for garnish lime wedges for garnish Serve with basmati rice Method 1. Remove cardamom seeds from their pods and discard the pods.  Grind cardamom seeds and cloves in a pestle and mortar.  Once ground up, add paprika, chilli powder and vinegar and work into a paste.  Put the paste into a medium sized bowl with cinnamon stick and cut up chicken.  Coat the chicken well in the paste and allow to marinade covered in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours. 2. Once the chicken has marinated, heat the oil in a medium sized skillet or saucepan over a medium.  Saute the onions until golden brown onions, then add the garlic, ginger, chilli mince and curry leaves for 3 minutes making sure it doesn’t burn. 3. Reduce the heat, add cumin, coriander, and turmeric and cook the spices for another minute or until fragrant. 4. Now add the marinated chicken mixture to the pan and return the heat to medium to high, and brown the chicken for 3-5 minutes. 5. Next add the can of crushed tomatoes and bring mixture to the boil.  Add coconut cream.  Reduce heat to a simmer. 6. Allow to simmer uncovered for 25-30 minutes until sauce has thickened. 7. Serve on a bed of basmati/jasmine rice and garnish with cilantro and lime wedges.

Feng Shui - part 2

It's been a couple of weeks now since our Feng Shui consultation.  We'd been on vacation in Tampa dropping our son off at The University of Tampa and kicking back on the beach.

Well, we're back home and have made a number of adjustments based on the consultation, with more to come.  For now, I've posted a few pictures with comments in this photo album to reveal some of the adjustments.  I'll post more pictures as we continue with the changes.

Getting Feng Shui -ed

We've started making some simple adjustments to our home, based on a Feng Shui (pronounced "fung-shway") consultation.

There are different systems of Feng Shui, but much seems to be common sense - simply improving the flow within a space via a few adjustments here and there.  We had watched a video about Feng Shui (gotta love NetFlix!) and liked what we were learning.  Well my wife was talking about this with her acupuncturist, and found out that the acupuncturist's husband is a Feng Shui consultant.  Coincidence?  :-)

So we faxed Rich the floor plan of our home as a head start, and then met with him for an hour or two and walked through the house.  Rich practices Black Sect Feng Shui, which was the system to which the video introduced us.  Much is based around a "compass" of sorts, called the bagua  (pronounced "bah-gwah").  Much is also based on intuition, and that appeals to me a lot; we as a species could use to pay more attention to intuition.

So what adjustments have we made?  So far we've dressed up our entry quite a bit.  We have a front porch (that was a requirement for me when we built the house), and then our front door opens to a stairway leading up to the 2nd floor.  Our entry area was rather empty.  We've now added a couple of small metal wind chimes on either side of the porch entry, and added a plant just inside the front door, another plant on the landing of the stairs, a mirror on the wall of the landing, and may add a small water feature to the left of the stairway.  Just these initial few adjustments make the home feel far more inviting and I love having the plants there.  As I pass through the entry, whether coming into the house or leaving, I now get a positive lift from this space.

We've also hung a small metal wind chime in another area of the front porch, and have hung 50mm crystals in a couple of locations inside.  The sound of the chimes is quite subtle and very pleasing.  We've both always enjoyed how light plays with crystals, and the one we've hung in a corner of the master bath does an especially nice job of catching the morning sun and sending little bits of rainbow in all directions.

We have more to do (our consultation with Rich was just a few days ago), but already I am liking the fresh, gentle, and alive feeling that these adjustments have brought to the spaces in our home.  Rich also talked with us about the importance of intention - that consciousness, intention, and form are all connected.  This all feels right to me, and that nod of approval from the intuition is a good thing :-)

So for now, we've made a few adjustments.  There will be more over the coming weeks, and then I'll post a few pictures showing the adjustments.

Cheers.

Taking TypePad for a drive

One of the early (maybe the first?) Domino bloggers, Jake Howlett, posted about TypePad.  Well, although my Domino-related blog is built in Domino, I do like the general appearance of Moveable Type.  I've just been too busy with work and studying things that pertain directly to work to learn about Moveable Type.  Now, however, it appears that with the TypePad service there is a very easy way to create a blog based on Moveable Type.  So here we are then.

There's quite a variety of topics about which I've been compelled to write.  There are also photos I'd like to share.  But if something isn't related to IBM/Lotus technologies or web development or other geek topics, I usually refrain from posting about it in my Domino blog.  The items and pictures I post here may be of little interest to anyone but me, but if this site can serve as a catch basin for the miscellanea that pass from free synapse through keyboard/mouse to cyberspace, then that's good enough.

Thus ends the obligatory first post.