JenBob: June 2008

Windows Teaser

For those of you who can't wait to see the whole post, I am putting up this shot of our new windows.

-J

So many berries!

One of the really nice things about our house is that there is an entire row of wild raspberry bushes. Row doesn't really do it justice. The things grow everywhere and in that sense they are probably a weed, but a weed that bears really tasty, beautiful berries.

I mean look at these beauties.

So I went a little overboard picking berries today. I was just going to pick a few, but then I started picking and just couldn't stop. I picked for about an hour and ended up with 3 pounds of berries. That's right, I said 3 pounds. And I didn't even make a dent in the berries out there. I could go out tomorrow and pick another 3 pounds and the next day and the day after that too. This abundance will go on for about 3 weeks and then they're gone until next year. In the meantime, I have to figure out what to do with all of these berries.

Of course there's black raspberry cobbler. I'm going to make some jam, that should use up quite a bit. But for tonight, berries in milk. Kirch is always going on about eating a bowl of blueberries in milk, so I thought why not?

He's right! It was really tasty and simple. Thanks Kirch! And one last parting shot of the berry goodness. Can you tell I'm obsessed? If you're in the area, bring a bowl and pick to your heart's content.

U.K. First Week

I don't have access from the hotel to the internet, so I've had to batch everything up and find a decent time at the office (7pm on a Friday seems to work) to post these.

The Hotel Bar

This is where Sejin and I spend our evenings. The beer is good and the staff is very friendly.

Football

The European Cup is currently being played over here. We've been watching Spain kill the competition. The final is this Sunday.

Office Space

This is where we work. It's a completely open space. I find it really annoying.

Office Commute

This is the road we walk down every day to work. It's only a fifteen minute walk to the office. It helps to wake up when your body thinks it's 3:30am.

Weird

Some things are just a little different over here.

Money

Money over here is pretty annoying. They have a coin for everything, so everywhere I go my pockets are jingling. Back home I'm all about the plastic. Here's stinky noisy coins.

Travel Partner

This is Sejin. So far he's having a harder time with jet lag then I am, but otherwise he's keeping me sane.

Real English Pub

Actually got out of the hotel the other night with some chaps from the office. The five handles you see at the bar were five different hand pumped English Ales. Quite tasty they were. We sat outside the pub and nearly froze to death. Sejin and I then retreated to the warmth and comfort of our hotel bar.

Dinner

They have a hot chocolate machine over here too, so Sejin and I are able to continue our tradition of working late with hot chocolate dinners.

- b

Young Lust Ringer

If you get a chance, call my phone while I'm here. You'll think you're in the middle of Pink Floyd's Young Lust from The Wall.

- b

Jet Lag Sucks

Going east IS the worst.

Though only going five hours east is a little easier then nine, it still sucks.

Getting up in the morning is nearly impossible. It makes me sick.

After three or four cups of coffee, I'm only half conscious.

Going to bed isn't easy either. Convincing yourself that it's midnight, when your body thinks it's seven is annoying.

- b

Perfect Pint

No Shit

- b

Across The Pond

Landed in England yesterday.

After only a few hours sleep and having a car that's too big for English roads, driving was interesting.

It took the two of us (I'm traveling with my co-worker Sejin) to navigate and concentrate enough to not get in an accident or piss off too many natives.

Besides drinking a lot of this

And a little place to play.

We didn't do a whole lot. Then again, there wasn't a whole lot to do.

That's pretty much it so far. It's really not that different from the states, so my experiences are mostly uninteresting.

- b

Before You Go

When you're not going to be around for a couple of weeks, it's good to get things cleaned up and left in a manner that doesn't remind those left behind what a mess you've made.

Take our bathroom door for instance. Granted it wasn't completely my fault for it not being installed (the bathroom was a pseudo crate for Gretchen for a while), but it was a good idea to get it back up.

Ironically with me gone, a door on the bathroom won't be as necessary, but it's visually quite appealing and easy to install.

Well, it should have been easy. Turns out the help I had working on this door a few months ago didn't use the right hinges to drill the holes.

After filling the old holes with glue and chunks of wood, I drilled new ones and got the door installed. Still not too big of a deal. The door's up and looking nice with the trim. In a couple of weeks we'll have new windows and everything will be sweet!

- b

Oh The Potential

Got some gift cards in the mail yesterday.

They've been "designated" Jen's gift cards. She gets to "use" them.

I've made my recommendations and arguments for her to get something (she's not so good at such things).

I figure I've spent years and years buying whatever for whatever. She can do it to.

It's a big responsibility. I hope she carries through while I'm away.

Maybe when I get back, there will be a shiny new something sitting around.

- b

Smelly Cherry Poo

We have a huge wild cherry tree in our yard. Up till this year the worst part about it was the birds eating the cherries and pooping on the cars.

Now it's different.

Now it's Gretchen eating all the cherries and pooping everywhere but the cars.

I swear she and the squirrels are in cahoots. They drop cherries if she promises not to chase them or something.

The problem is the cherries stink. Not on their own, but once they get in Gretchen. She burps, vurps, farts whatever, she stinks like stale rotten cherries.

It's disgusting.

If she 's playing and starts panting near you, she reeks.

In the first hour I was home, she pooped cherries three times.

I'm considering not letting her out without a muzzle.

It's nasty!

- b

Got Bacon?

- b

Office Jockies

Bunch of jerk-offs they are.

Sit around calling each other on speaker phone, so the conversations are in stereo for us poor saps in the cubes.

If not on the phone, they're having serious boo-hoo chats about multi-million dollar golfers and their knee injuries.

Are you serious?

How can you feel sorry for a million dollar golfer with a knee injury?

Jerk-offs!

- b

Traveling Man

Apparently a couple of weeks in Farnborough isn't enough. I have to come home and fly to Atlanta the next day for a week.

Last night Jen told me to stop doing so well at work. Maybe I could salvage some summer.

Somehow I doubt it.

- b

Stinging Nettles

I rode through some Stinging Nettles yesterday on my ride with Gretchen. My right shin felt like 1,000 little ants were crawling over it for the entire day.

The entire day.

I've done this before. It used to happen quite frequently, but I never remember feeling the sensation for the entire day.

Another sign I'm out of practice?

- b

Car's Done

Got my car back last Friday. On the drive home I realized the front passenger side window didn't work. Last night when I went to put gas in it, I realized the gas cap leash wasn't assembled correctly. This morning I realized the tank was leaking gas.

If you click the picture, you can see the drip. Apparently it's only a problem when the tank is full. It did not leak in the parking lot today at work.

I tried tightening the clamp, but it wouldn't tighten. It doesn't appear to have ever been loosened. Makes me think the alignment of the tube (though rubber) and pipe was changed during the ten weeks it took them to "fix" the car - the second time. If the alignment of this changed, what else changed? How long till my tires start wearing funny? How long till my rear differential grinds itself apart?

They should have totaled the car.

I called them this morning and told them so.

What happens next is any one's guess.

- b

Briefcase Interview

Interviewed a guy today to replace my old position.

He carried a briefcase.

On paper he had all the qualifications.

In person he didn't work out.

He walked out with his head down.

It's what he didn't say that spoke the most.

Not sure why it bothered me. He wasn't jobless.

Guess the weekend tired me out - ran me down a bit.

- b

Hot Projects

Yes. That's a thermometer maxed out at above 120 degrees. I was doing some work in the attic. Who knows how hot it actually was up there. I was only up there twenty minutes or so (around 3pm doh!). Completely soaked my clothes and my gloves. No wonder the rafters were hot to the touch.

I basically went around making messes everywhere this weekend. I'd start one project and either fall into another or it'd get too hot and move onto something cooler. The whole house is torn up. There's more demolition then construction at this point. Having to leave at the end of the week to go overseas seriously limits the prospects of finishing any of it. That annoys me.

Sometimes I wish I wasn't handy. Sometimes it's a curse.

By the way, Monster Wire is only 18 awg. Bastards are just making you pay for the name. I realize there's different quality copper, but come on?

In other news Gretchen's sleeping arrangements have made the progression from crate, to gated bathroom, to gated bedroom, to bed. We took her out of the crate back in March when she had a cone on her head. We took her out of the bathroom this weekend "just to see." She did good the first night on the floor, but jumped on the bed and woke us up as soon as the sun came up at 5:15am Saturday morning. The second night we decided to not even bother with the blinds. 5:15am again she was in the bed licking and ready to go. Last night, due to exhaustion, we didn't fight to get her on the floor before falling asleep, so she slept in the bed. I slept like the dead and never noticed her there - not even at 5:30am when the alarm went off.

Hmmm. Is that the trick? Leave her in the bed and she'll leave you alone? I don't think so. She'll go back on the floor tonight. Getting up early isn't that bad anyway - especially if you need to get in the attic early before work and before it gets too hot.

Turns out the cat was in the bed too. Brave (stupid?) cat. That would have made a mess if Gretchen had noticed.

- b

Storm drain

Summertime storm hit tonight. Typical lightening, rain, wind and thunder, then I looked out and saw this.

The red arrow is pointing to my drain outlet bubbling like a mini geyser. Holy crap! I ran out to see the rest. Here's a close up of the drain. The red arrow here points to a spider I didn't see until editing the photo.

The drain at the detached garage was completely overflowing. The water was running completely over it, around the corner and through the flower bed like I didn't want it to. Damn! So much for all that work.

Then I saw this, and realized it was just "one of those storms." Everything was flooded.

We got about 2.5" in thirty minutes.

Now I don't feel so bad, though I don't like the water puddling in front of the drain by the attached garage.

- b

Dirty Dog

Gretchen sheds like crazy. CJ was never this bad. I've been brushing her nearly daily and the vacuum still looks like a miniature version of her.

- b

Garden Update

Here's a little update on our hanging garden. The tomato plant is doing well. It really started to grow this past week, but no blossoms yet.

The pepper plants on the other hand have these tiny little peppers starting.

And the cone flowers started blooming. They'll be with us for the rest of the summer. It's fun sneaking up on all the finches that get in them for their seeds.

This is another one of our rose bushes, but cool in the fact the blossoms bloom in bunches. Snip once and they all go in your vase.

And yes the porch pooper is back. Not sure if it was last year or the year before we first noticed this, but something leaves these little piles of droppings for us every morning.

- b

Insurance Rant

Got a letter about my accident that took place in January. Apparently the other insurance company won't pay. In a previous letter my insurance company told me they agreed it was the other guy's fault and they were going after the money. Now they tell me the other company won't pay so it goes to arbitration. whatever arbitration decides is what I'll get.

Huh?

You told me in the last letter you agreed it was his fault and you were going after the money. Now you tell me that because they won't pay someone else will decide who's at fault and I could take a hit?

Excuse me, but I already took a hit. It's been five months and I just got my car back. The body shop (the insurance company recommended) has spent more then twice the value of the car and I could take a hit?

Where's the customer service in agreeing it was the other guys fault, but making me take a hit on my deductible payback?

Insurance competition is so thick these days, it really surprises me they'd pull this kind of bullshit.

- b

No Power

Tuesday night a storm rolled through. We lost power about 7:30pm. 3am it all (lights, stereo, fans, etc.) came back on.

Being on a well, we lose water too, but we're prepared.

- b

Hot Ride

Went out for an abridged ride this morning with Gretchen. Temperature was somewhere in the mid seventies. The ride was just enough.

She had enough energy to chase a few squirrels, but laid in the water (a shot I missed) back at the lake. She actually tried to lay her head down in the water before she realized that wouldn't work.

Hopefully Wednesday morning will be cooler and we can do our normal loop.

- b

Sunday Dinner - Hawaiian Seafood Chowder

After a hard day of work in the hot, hot sun, I made a seafood chowder for dinner. At least it was a hard day of work for Bob, I lazed around most of the day as it was just too hot to do anything. Unless of course you're Bob. At any rate, this chowder turned out really well. It has clams, mussels, mahi-mahi, shrimp, crab and the secret ingredient, coconut milk.

Happy Sunday. Back to the grind tomorrow.

-Jen

Sunday Breakfast - Coconut and Ricotta Pancakes with Ginger-Lemon Syrup

I've been working on making a cookbook. It's really just a collection of recipes pulled from various sources. There's a nice website that will pull it all together for you and print it in hardback. I thought it would be nice to have everything in one nice neat package so I don't have random scraps of paper everywhere and have to go searching for recipes. Which cookbook was that in? The thing is, I like pictures and most of my recipes don't have any. I mean, what's the point of a color cookbook, if there's no pictures? Occasionally, I'll troll the internet in search of something similar that I can use but today I decided I'd take a picture. Usually I forget or by the time I'm done cooking, I just want to eat it, not pretty it up and take pictures.

I've been inspired by this lady to take more pictures. She homeschools 4 kids and still manages to keep up a kickin' blog. The pancakes were delicious btw, if I do say so myself.

By the Pool

Yesterday afternoon went something like this.

I tried doing some things in the morning (like power wash the rest of the deck), but when the heat outside got like this

We decided an afternoon by the pool was better. The dogs on the other hand don't like the pool or the heat, so they stayed inside. It wasn't until the evening and with some convincing, they decided to come out and play.

The pool was nice at 82 degrees. The skimmer's keeping it clean too, so no floaters to worry about this summer.

I might try and be a little more ambitious today, but don't get your hopes up.

- b

AC's Fixed

Thursday night the AC quit working. Faced with at least four days of 90+ degree heat, we had to get it fixed.

Nobody wanted to do it. Nobody could get here till next week.

???

I don't get it. My AC doesn't work. I'm willing to pay you to fix it and you won't? In "this economy" I'd think companies and their personnel would be happy to make more money - money at a premium because I need it done now and am willing to pay for it.

Finally we found someone.

It was a quick fix. He was gone in fifteen minutes.

The condensation pump backed up, thus shut down the AC. Huh?

So this is the pump. The white PVC pipes are inputs from the AC coil. As the AC runs, it condensates and the water runs into this pump, which pumps it to our septic system through the clearish vinyl tube between the PVC pumps. The wire circled in red, is the overflow switch. If the pump overflows, it shuts down the HVAC. The AC won't run. You can't really see it in this picture, but the floor is wet from overflow.

So why did it overflow?

Two reasons.

The root cause was this.

This is where the pump pumps the water to. It's the drain pipe off our kitchen sink. The vinyl tube is basically glued into the top of the drain pipe. This is a great example of bad plumbing. If the kitchen drain backs up (as it has the potential to do), so will the condensation pump. The plumber guy that showed up disconnected the tube from the pump, blew in it, temporarily cleared the blockage and left with the AC running. By the time I got home, it was clogged again and not running.

The second reason all this failed was our whole house dehumidifier. It pumps water out constantly (it's a dehumidifier. that's what it's supposed to do). If you look at the first photo again, you'll see a hole in the bottom right hand corner of the pump. That was the inlet for the drain tube from the dehumidifier. The pump at the HVAC unit was handling the water from the AC and the dehumidifier. When the drain clogged, the dehumidifier just kept pumping water into it.

Luckily the dehumidifier was also part of the solution. It's located in another room, so it requires quite a bit of tubing to drain into the pump at the HVAC unit. When Mattioni was here in April to install our new water conditioner, they installed a proper water drain for these types of things (the water conditioner requires it for backwash purposes).

I knew my condensation pump drain was a bad implementation and should have switched to this new setup as soon as Mattioni left, but it wasn't a priority. Since this new drain is farther away from the HVAC pump, I had to shut down the dehumidifier (which you should do while running the AC anyway), and use it's longer drain hose to get the HVAC pump drain to reach the new setup.

Took about twenty minutes. The AC came on as soon as the pump was able to evacuate the little bit of water it needed to register as not overflowing.

Now I have to go back and rerun all my drain hoses to the new setup, so I can run the dehumidifier when we turn off the AC after this heat spell.

I also have to figure out what to do with the old drain.

Currently I have the old drain hose pinched off to keep the septic gasses at bay, though I need a more permanent solution.

At least the AC is running and the house is cool.

- b

Repositioned

I got "moved" at work. I'm no longer working on the team I was, but leading another.

At least that's how it was described to me. At least that's how my boss and I see it. May take some time and extra effort on my part to make it reality.

Part of the new position is traveling. First destination is Farnborough, UK for a couple of weeks.

Should be interesting.

- b

No AC

For some reason the AC died today.

That's not good going into a 90+ weekend.

- b

More Flowers

Took some more pictures of the various flowers in our yard. I guess after all the yard work we've done this spring, it's nice to see a positive result.

The rose bushes are doing really well so far this year. Hopefully we can stay on top of them and keep the blossoms all summer long.

I tried getting artistic with this one and added a filter to make it look like an oil painting. You'll have to click on it to really see the effect.

It's amazing what a little "touching up" can do, but in the end I decided the alterations took too much time and I'm not very good at it.

I really like what I call the "clump flowers". They grow in clumps and take over an area. It's nice because that area becomes awash with color. It's also nice because they tend to keep the weeds at bay.

I really like this shot.

Some more clumping flowers, though these are tiny.

This was my favorite shot of all.

- b

Site Feeds

It's been brought to my attention that people actually want to access this thing via site feed.

If you don't know what that is, then you probably don't need to worry about it.

If you too want to access the feed, either use the link to the right under the archives

OR

use this http://jenbob.net/blog/atom.xml

- b

Inguinal Strain

Went to a surgeon today about my possible hernia. The short end of it is I don't have a hernia or any other operable affliction. It's possibly an Inguinal strain.

Sounds like good news huh?

Not quite.

Basically I'm left with pain and discomfort until it gets worse or goes away.

What kind of pain and discomfort?

Imagine heartburn, gas, and tightness in your belly at the same time - all the time. It gets worse as your bladder fills, you bend over or just some elastic in your underwear is tighter then others.

His suggestion. Pain killers like ibuprofen or naproxen.

Alcoholism here I come.

And yes hernia checks are unpleasant.

My Dr. last week was a woman. She had the latex gloves on and was done before I realized I was standing naked junk eye level with her. Really not that bad.

This guy today made a show of it. He made me stand on a stool and drop my pants to my ankles (my pants were already off last week. Pants around your ankles is embarrassing enough all on its own). Then asked me to drop my drawers. My shirt was long, so I had to pull it up - on a stool - in the middle of the room - with my pants around my ankles.

Without gloves he starts flipping things around, pushing, pulling and asking me to cough.

There was obvious pain every time he did his check on the left side (funny. the pain right now is felt on the right. keep drinking), but there wasn't the tell-tale bulge that signifies a bonafide hernia.

He asked me to lay down. I asked if he still wanted me naked as I was.

Yes.

Again with the flipping, pushing, pulling and asking me to cough. The pain and embarrassment was getting to the point I didn't want/need him touching me anymore.

Back up on the stool - flip, push, pull, cough. Still no bulge, so no surgery or fix offered by him.

He actually equated it to a person going to the dentist with a toothache that quits aching at the dentist. Thoroughly annoyed I called him on it. I have pain. I've had it for six weeks. Ibuprofen was all he suggested.

I realize women go through similar situations almost routinely, but standing on a stool in the middle of a room naked from your ankles to your held up shirt has got to count for something.

- b

Radar Junkie

Anyone else a radar junkie? It seems whatever activities I'm into (cycling, motorcycles, yardwork, etc.), I always care about the weather.

- b

Skimmer Works

The pool work we had done in April fixed our broken skimmer. Fixed it a little too well maybe (not really).

Came home tonight to find the pressure guage at 0 and the skimmer basket like this. The pump basket wasn't much different.

Basically both were sealed tight and not producing any pressure through the filter.

So what is this crap?

It looked like some kind of seed pod or tree dropping. There's a row of white pines behind our pool that filled the pool with pollen last year. I checked their new growth, but didn't see anything like this. I walked around the yard a bit till I found the culprit.

The source is this little seed/blossom looking thing on my neighbors tree. What I can't figure out is why it's a problem this year. Without the skimmer working last year, this would have been a worse mess. Maybe the tree only does this periodically? Maybe I should figure out what kind of tree it is?

Maybe I should write about more interesting things instead of gunk in my pool.

- b

Terrible Tuesday

The day that follows Margarita Monday.

Ouch, though not too bad. Just kind of dull. Sort of a mental holiday.

Physically I'm here. Mentally I'll see you mañana.

- b

Margarita Mondays

There was a time years ago that Jen and I started drinking a lot of Margarita's. It was the summer after we met (that would be 2001 and living in Spring city) that we started experimenting with different recipes and tequilas.

For many reasons (most cost effective and 100% pure agave being most important) we settled on Sauza's Hornitos Reposado for the tequila. The rest all depends on mood (salt, Cointreau, etc.).

So that went on for the summer and shortly into the fall. After that I think we stepped it up to martini's...

Anyway it's summer again. Work sucks. I left at a reasonable time tonight and have been drinking margarita's ever since.

- b