…and boy are my arms tired.

May 17th, 2008

So today was national bike to work day. Every year, millions of people hop on their bike to save gas and commute to work. As most of you know, I ride in the BikeMS ride every year. Thanks to everyone that supports me. I have not ridden my bike since last years ride in october.

I got up early and got everything ready. I was going to have Angie take the truck with her today, but alas it had one flat tire and the battery was dead 🙁 That’s what I get for not driving it for 3 months. I found this solar power charger that I am buying to make sure this never happens again.

I packed my bag and headed out to work. My commute is about 15 miles each way. The ride in was semi-uneventful. I did see a dead snake in the bike path on my way out of Tierrasanta. I stopped at the Qualcomm rest stop just before my work for a quick drink (They didn’t have any t-shirts this year).

The ride home was just as uneventful, but it was super hot. It’s going to be one of the hottest weekends.

Tonight we went out to dinner and the movies. We saw Iron Man. What a fantastic movie! The story pretty much stayed true to the comic book, just changing the locations and situation for the modern day. There are a ton of Marvel movies coming out. And a new Avengers movie that brings all the characters together. I guess with a lack of talent in hollywood to write original scripts they have turned to pulp-comics for stories. (Take that Mrs Wrin! My high school english teacher who though comics were trash and a waste of time.)

This weekend will be filled with lots of work in the yard. Hopefully we get the rest of the DG moved into the back of the yard. Once I have all the borders installed and the DG moved I can start tamping it down and making it solid. After this is done, it’s time to start laying track. Look or new photos soon.

Oh BTW, I was looking at my creepers and the thyme is growing great. It has grown 1.5 inches in 2 weeks. it’s really going to cover the area nicely. Also, the white star creeper has taken hold and looks great. I will try and plant the irish moss this weekend as well, along with the new alberta spruces I bought last weekend.

Beware of what you buy on ebay…

May 14th, 2008

This last week or so, I have have been buying additional track and parts for the Pond Haven Railroad. As some of you may or may not know, LGB no longer exists. They went bankrupt and then were bought by Maklin. Last week it was announced that LGB of America could not reach an agreement at this time to distribute LGB/Maklin products in the USA.

This coupled with the poor dollar oversees has caused track prices to skyrocket. Rather than pay these outrageous prices I have turned to ebay.

In true Simpson’s fashion, I tell you this story to tell you this:

I was searching on ebay and decided to type in Atari 2600. I don’t know what made me do it, but I found this page

They want $199 for a console, two controllers and 1 game. Highway robbery!!!!

You can buy a joystick with the console built in for $14. I got one for Angie a few years ago. Check the out the Atari Plug&Play Joystick

Pond Haven Railroad materials arrive.

May 12th, 2008

The 9 tons of Decomposed Granite have arrived. It didn’t look as large as the 7 yards of top soil I ordered years ago. I was afraid it would not be enough.

We started shoveling and filling in the path next to the stream. Once we got down to the lower pond, I had some more excavation to do. I decided to put a ring of keystone bricks around the redwoods. I wanted to make it look more pleasing to the eye.

After this, I started clearing all the weeds from the far side of the pond, they were growing too well without water so it was time to investigate. I found two places where the liner was below water. I pulled the liner back up and then noticed some very wet dirt next to the fence. I found the pipe for the pond to be seeping water. When I lifted it, the water started spraying out. I noticed a cut in the pipe. It’s my guess that it’s been there since the beginning and they never did a leak test on the pipe before burying it in the ground. Unfortunately, the people at Lowe’s had no clue on how to fix it and didn’t have any 2″ couplers. I had to turn off the pond and wait until Monday to get the right parts.

We started to clear the extra debris and dirt away from the pump and shed. We need to remove about 3″ of dirt. All of this material will be used as fill for the herb garden area. This turned out to be harder than we planned, as we started working on this after moving all the extra keystone bricks. Angie and I were both pretty tired.

You can see more picture in the Photo Gallery

We ultimately moved about 1/2 of the DG. I am sure we will have plenty (maybe too much). If so, I will ring the other redwood tree and lay the DG down on the ground as a road bed for the track that goes around the tree.

Did Ellen just sexually harass her audience?

May 12th, 2008

On Friday Ellen Degenerous did a special mothers day show. She had 50 pregnant woman in the audience (and one man, not pregnant).

She danced through the audience touching every stomach and talking into their belly. This struck me as interesting as every other industry would have you up on sexual harassment charges.

Just when you thought it was safe to destroy your drives…

May 10th, 2008

I used to think melting your drives was a good idea.

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20080510/ap_on_hi_te/shuttle_recovered_data_9