This cracks me up!
USATODAY.com – Microsoft wipes Apple off the map
Jul 262005
Jul 252005
NASA is going to try to get Discovery off tomorrow. Fingers are crossed.
I’ll be watching at http://www.spaceref.com/tools/video/nasa/nasavideofeed.html and primarily http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
Here is a blow by blow launch journal: http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050710/NEWS02/50712012/1007/news02
Jul 202005
The first F-22 squadron is now operational!
hat tip: Mudville Gazette
Jul 172005
What a day. Sarah and I drove down to the Kentucky Speedway in Sparta Kentucky for a Ford event where we got to drive the not yet released 2006 Ford Fusion, a car if you’ve read my blog, I’m really interested in acquiring. The test drive did nothing to dampen that thought. Very fun car to drive and just the right size for me.
Here is a dump of the pictures I took while we were there. Most of it are Fusion pictures but there are a few of the new Fusion NASCAR body, the Shelby Mustang GT 500 (wow!) and of the event itself.
Jul 152005
Adios comcast cable modem …. hello SBC DSL
We are signed up for a year at $25.00 per month. Half the comcast cost. They assure me a similar deal with be available at the end of the period. We will see!
I really can’t complain about the comcast service. We did have a couple of days where the DNS was down (which makes it hard to surf the net!) but other than cost it served us well.
So far so good on the DSL. We’v had it a couple weeks at this point.
SBC DSL (pick Indiana)
I’m signed up! Go FUSION!
Jul 072005
Jun 302005
As of now NASA is ‘Return to Flight’ on July 13.
Jun 132005
May 192005
May 022005
Images from our first trip to WB Pizza:
Wow .. i can order right off the menu!
I can’t believe i ate the whole thing.
Yummy!
May 022005
Having animal protein allergies really limits where one can eat. Last weekend Sarah found a place that caters to this with vegan friendly fare. Its great to be able to go to a place and order normally without worrying about what is in the ingredients that’ll cause problems.
We’ve rewarded BK Pizza on 56th and Allisonville with repeated business since a week ago Saturday (4 visits in 8 days!). Here’s a few pictures of the menu:
Cheese Breadsticks in the foreground (for me) and garlic breadsticks in the background (for Sarah). The garlic butter is animal protein free.
Pepperoni, Onion, Extra Cheese for me
Weird vegetables and stuff for Sarah 
Apr 262005
I have always been fascinated by airplanes, from the mundane (airports) to the cool (A-10 Thunderbolts). One of the more fascinating things of late is the Boeing-Airbus battle on the airliner front.
The scorecard (from the WSJ). In addition to the 787 orders (these are through march), Boeing just this month sold 20 to Air India and 60 to Air Canada).
Boeing 787
|
Firm Orders |
Number Of Aircraft |
| Air New Zealand | 2 |
| All Nippon Airways (Japan) | 50 |
| Blue Panorama (Italy) | 4 |
| First Choice Airways (U.K.) | 6 |
| Icelandair | 2 |
| Total Firm Orders | 64 |
| Pending Orders | Number Of Aircraft |
| Chinese Airlines | 60 |
| Continental Airlines | 10 |
| Ethiopian Airlines | 5 |
| Japan Airlines | 30 |
| Primaris (Las Vegas, business-class only) |
20 |
| Vietnam Airlines | 4 |
| Total Pending Orders | 129 |
| Total Firm and Pending Orders | 193 |
Airbus A380
| Firm Orders | Number Of Aircraft |
| Air France | 10 |
| Emirates (United Arab Emirates) | 43 |
| Etihad Airways (U.A.E) | 4 |
| FedEx | 10 |
| Korean Air | 5 |
| Lufthansa (Germany) | 15 |
| Malaysia Airlines | 6 |
| Qantas (Australia) | 12 |
| Qatar Airways | 2 |
| Singapore Airlines | 10 |
| Thai Airways | 6 |
| Virgin Atlantic Airways | 6 |
| International Lease Finance Corp. | 10 |
| Total Firm Orders | 139 |
| Pending Orders | Number Of Aircraft |
| Chinese Southern Airlines | 5 |
| UPS | 10 |
| Total Pending Orders | 15 |
| Total Firm and Pending Orders | 154 |
Source: CIBC World Markets, the companies
Apr 252005
On April 16, Sarah and i took a class on Thai cooking. It was mostly a watch the cook make stuff kinda thing but we did learn a couple of techniques that have proven useful and a couple of recipes. The cucumber salad is awesome!
Here’s a fuzzy picture of the teacher: 
Sometime during the week of April 4, i got the bright idea to build a raised garden bed to help with our veggie production. Somewhere in that crazy scheme was also floated the idea of less grass in the backyard to mow. Having inadequate wheels for the job i arranged to borrow my brothers F350 and a barely adequate wheelbarrow. 40 bags of top soil and 20 bags of Pea Gravel later (40lbs per bag * 60 bags = 2400 lbs!), Sarah and I could not believe how sore we were and how much work we had done. We created a raised garden bed that measured 4’ x 10’ using 2×10 with 3 different areas and filled it up with the top soil. Here are some shots of the results of the garden project:
The rock bed is a pretty simple design, a 10’ x 10’ square, that matches the size of our patio. The idea is to give us a little more room to get around without having to pour concrete or build a deck (and there is that advantage of not having to mow!). Here’s some shots of the rock bed project:
Apr 172005
First thing that happened was upgrading the water system in the house (Sat, April 2). Being a computer programmer and less an handy guy I asked Dad to come over and help with the installation. When we bought the house we had the rough-in included for this upgrade so that made it very easy to do. I bought a water softener at Menards (this one). That was easy enough. I’m certainly good at buying things and bringing them home The next part, the part i needed Dad’s expertise, was hooking the new softener to the already installed piping. There was a bit of a height difference so we had to do some bends to get it all to come out. A bit of soldering, and some weird pipe glue later we had soft water! Here’s a shot of the final product:
The Morton Water Softener Unit
Getting the water where you need it. The one on the right is the master water on/off switch. The incoming water into the softener is the middle pipe coming out of the wall and you can’t really see it but the out for the softened water is the left pipe going into the wall.
Here is a better shot of the piping in and out of the wall. The rough-in we had done when we had the house built had nice easy valves to control the water flow. One valve each, the incoming, outgoing and a connection between that effectively bypasses the softener. We have to do this now (bypass the softener) if we are using the outside water. A leak in the pipe going to the outside spicket at build time was fixed by making the outside spicket use the house internal water. That wasn’t a big deal until we installed the softener. Salt water isn’t good for plants. For now we have to bypass the softener when watering. In the future Dad and I will put in another spicket that is connected to the pipe coming out the top (the blue handle). This will eliminate this annoyance.
Here’s a shot of the inside of the softener. Looks like we need more salt!
Sarah says she doesn’t notice the difference in the ‘feel’ of the water in the shower but i sure do. It feels softer .. oddly enough. We have noticed the difference with the amount of soap that needs to be used for things like the dishwasher and laundry.
Apr 172005
Okay .. we’ve been busy on the homefront .. however i haven’t been busy with keeping the blog up. I’m going to go through some of our projects over the next few posts (and going back in time a bit!)
Apr 172005
for Sarah and I at least.
Kinda frustrating as we both had stuff to do and the DNS problems seemed to afflick us right when we needed the internet the most.
Maybe comcast is jealous because i finally scored high-speed DSL access at work!
Apr 102005
Mar 122005
SHIP OF WAR: USS Nitze, the Navy’s Toughest Destroyer
http://tinyurl.com/5ohn6
Music executives are pinheads
FT.com / Industries / Media & internet – Top music labels try to raise prices for downloads
Literal Barrage � Tips For New/Upgraded WordPress Users
Tips For New/Upgraded WordPress Users
Feb 232005
nifty tool
