Author Archives: admin

The sandals have returned

Posted on by
1

So many people know that I am a sandal guy. I even wore sandals to two weddings this past summer. This winter Bridgit and I surveyed the pile of Chacos that we had and decided which ones needed some love. We decided to send in 3 of the 5 pairs we had for repair and to return a pair to REI because I hated the toe loop on the Z/2 style.

The cool thing is that chaco can repair and refurbish sandals and make them like new for less price and waste then pitching them and getting a new pair. To get three pairs back into new condition it was only slightly more then buying a pair new. Though a complete repair is about what you can get them for on end of season sales, which is how we got a few of ours.

We each had a pair that was the brink of falling apart. My black pair had webbing that was almost completely worn through (I must have rough toes) and a grove worn under the balls of my feet It got new straps and sole. Bridgit had a pair where the soles had almost worn through and had some worn webbing they got new straps and soles too. Then I had a newer pair that only got the main strap replaced.

I love RSS

Posted on by
Reply

I noticed today that Bob had updated his blog engine. I hadn't seen any updates in a while so I checked it out. I realized how much I depended on RSS doing the hard work of web browsing for me. No more checking sites for updates, now the computer does it for me and tells me that there are new posts. I (meaning the computer) probably watch 30 RSS feeds. That way I save time only looking at what I haven't seen before.

My baby, the wino

Posted on by
Reply

Bridgit and I were in the living room and heard some interesting noises this evening while we were waiting for dinner to finnish baking. It sounded like glass on a table and we went into the kitchen to find that Eli had pushed the Kik Step over to the counter to get my freshly poured glass of wine. He had been drinking and had a sweet innocent look on his face that was betrayed by a nice wine mustache. The noise we had heard was him trying to get the top heavy wine glass to stand back up.

I always though that I might have to some day lock the booze up, but never thought it would be when he was only 15 months old.

Aspen Extreme

Posted on by
Reply

So we were at Mt. Brighton over winter break and Bridgit mentioned this move to me because it starts at Mt. Brighton. I asked her how it was and she described it as “hot sex and hot skiing.” She also said that it would get me geared up for ski season so we put it in the Netflix queue.

So the skiing was pretty cool. Camera work has come a long way since 1993, but there were still some cool shots (I am assuming of stunt ski doubles). She had lied to me though: there was no sex scenes. There were a few “kiss then cut to the morning” bits though, pretty lame. I was also confused because it sure seemed like there was a dubbed swear word near the beginning. I played it over again and it sounds like the cheesy overdubbing they do for TV with a different actor.

I highly recommend this move if you are interested in early 1990's fashion, and ski fashion in particular.

Break round-up

Posted on by
Reply

Well, we all had to go back to work today. Not that work is bad, it's just not as good as not working.

That said we had a great break. I like it when Christmas is placed early in a break because gets it out of the way. Bridgit and I did the music for the Christmas Eve afternoon mass at HTSP. We don't get to sing together much anymore, especially since being parents, but Bridgit's folks watched him during mass for us. We had the immediate family over Christmas Eve for dinner and that was fun. Christmas involved driving around a lot. Then there was Christmas 5 days later with Bridgit's family.

On the 29th we had a big party with all the old friends, most of whom live out of town now. We did the same thing last year and it worked great, so I think we might have a tradition now.

We had a great new years eve, we shot a TON of trap in the afternoon. Bridgit's folks were kind enough to allow a party to be held at their house and they also took Eli to my parent's party. We did a tapas/small plates pot-luck that turned out wonderfully. We feasted on crabcakes, bacon-wrapped dates, crostini, sausage, filet on caramelized onions, roasted vegetables on barley, and many other delicious items. We then headed over to another party around 11pm and toasted in the new year.

As darkness fell so did the snow and by the time we headed back to Bridgit's parents to spend the night there was about 6 inches so when we got to our destination we made a snow man at 3am. The next morning we had breakfast and went skiing. We then bid farewell to family and friends who had to trek home to Grand Rapids, Portland, and Savannah and headed to my folks for the afternoon.

We spent the first part of the year having tons of fun. With daycare for Eli paid for we took advantage of it and went skiing, out to lunch and a movie, and got some cleaning done. On Saturday we went to the “New” DIA with Bob and Brie and on Sunday prepped for going back to school/work/daycare.

Apple Certified

Posted on by
Reply

Over break I took my test to make me an Apple Certified Help Desk Specialist. With no studying or preparation I got an 85%!

Now I can put this cool logo on stuff

<%image(20080107-Cert_Help_Desk_Wht_1ln_sm.jpg|200|41|)%>

CAFE

Posted on by
Reply

So Bush is supposed to sign the new CAFE standard today. Sure its nice that we are raising fuel economy standards, but we are doing it in the stupidest way possible.

CAFE is the reason that SUV's make up almost half the vehicles sold. Because there are different standards for Light Trucks and Cars it was too much work to make a station-wagon that was fuel efficient. You just had to lengthen and widen the wheelbase and make it a crossover or just put one a truck frame and your wagon is now a truck and you only have to average 22mpg for your trucks.

Then there are the oddities out there like the PT Cruiser. For mpg it is classified as a tuck because you can remove the back seats.

The other thing that pisses me off is that auto companies get credits for Flex-Fuel vehicles, even though nobody is ever going to put E85 into them. There are only 1,200 E85 stations in the whole country. If you can put E85 into an 18.6mpg truck it magically turns into a 31mpg vehicle.

I just don't know what people are thinking. The best way to help the environment and cut dependence on oil is to use less gas. That means people need smaller more efficient cars, not larger slightly more efficient vehicles that in theory can use biofuel.

It is coming….

Posted on by
Reply

Kid number two. I realized today that I hadn't mentioned anything on the blog about it. Our second child should be arriving late June or early July. We haven't decided on a due date yet, they piss me off. I also think Naegel's rule is the worst calculation ever. It is based on Dark Age reasoning and science. The funny thing about due dates is that they are +/- two weeks. What is the point in calculating a specific day when it is really a 4 week range? Anyway…We are excited. Bridgit is feeling worse this time around, so things are less fun.

I don't think we are going to find out the gender this time either. It was fun having a surprise. Also it is fun to respond with “hopefully a crocodile or a baby” when they ask “Do you know what you're having?”

Fall Cleaning

Posted on by
Reply

We got the two royalex canoes down in the basement. They get to winter down there to prevent cold-cracking because they are plastic boats with wood and the two materials have different expansion/contraction rates at extreme temperatures. Since they set up it means that the rest of the basement can be cleaned.

<%popup(20071118-canoebase.jpg|640|325|)%>
On the Wed. Bridgit and her mother cleaned the basement for me. Awesome!