Of course, at those moments, you don’t hesitate, question, or even sneeze… you get it ordered immediately!

That’s what happened to me this past week. Last Friday I received notice from my manager that we had been given the thumbs up to order the suite upgrade for both myself and my fellow eLearning colleague. I wasted no time in getting the order in. By Thursday I was provided with the proof of license documents giving me a green light to download and install.

So now… it’s Friday evening and I’ve downloaded the suite — but I can’t install it.

Currently we are in the middle of course development on an extremely tight deadline that simply doesn’t afford me the time to upgrade to an all new versions of most of the software I depend so heavily upon.

Come April though… I’ll be doing some serious tinkering!

No sweat, I can do this!

I already had a couple of ropes that I keep within my CERT bag.  Nothing extravagent, basic 100′ ropes that I picked up at Home Depot.

So I decided, you can’t really practice without rope, so I took one of my ropes and cut it in to 10′ sections.  This way each kid can have their own segment of rope to take home and practice tying their knotes — hopefully not to tie up their little brothers or sisters!

My plan is to also provide them with about 12″-18″ of nylon construction string so they can dress the ends of their ropes.  I’ve done one end for them, they now will be able to dress the other end of their ropes using a Sailor’s Whipping as pictured here to the right.

Of course, not being a scout myself, I had to learn these knots myself.  The book for the bear scouts has a few different knots that the kids must learn to complete this achievement, a sailor’s whipping, timber hitch, Reef (square) knot, a bowline knot, and a sheet bend.  Each has their own specific uses, which oddly I don’t find within the scouting book, but I was able to locate a great source online at Grog’s Scouting Knots.  Here they list the different knots and provide some information on their usage.

We’re also going to play a little game where the kids will add a small weight (a bean bag) to the end of a rope and then attempt to toss the rope in to a target.

Should be fun, but I know time will be limited and we’ve got a lot of other things to do all within 1 hour.  Wish me luck!

Then I ran in to my issues with AS3.0 as I noted at the very bottom of that same post — how to pass additional information on to the function through the event listener.  My vague understanding is that I would have to extend that class to make that happen.  I’m not quite ready for that — IF that is indeed the way.  Same goes for determining which listener was the sending listener –  just never figured that one out, if it’s even possible.  And most oddly, HOW to swap out the correct images to make the push-button look like a two-position switch.

How I succeeded?  I re-wrote it all in ActionScript 2.0.  The re-write, or “back port” only took me an hour, AND, I was able to do exactly what I wanted to do.  End result…  a better product done much quicker.  I still want and expect to learn AS3.0, but for now, I’ll easily settle for quick and functional.

So…  how what did I do?

We’ll start with the end product first.  In the first image, once the app is launched, the learner will click on a switch to move it to the on position.  Since this is meant as a training aid, I added a “Show/Hide” button which is off when launched and simply toggles the display of the results of the switch.  The second image simply shows the results being displayed.

Image 1: Switch 5 & 7 on, results hidden

Image 2: Switch 5 & 7 on, but results shown

So, what about the code?  How different is it?  Most significant, is how event listeners are implemented.  In AS2.0 it’s MUCH MORE direct and much simpiler.

//  BEGIN CODE
stop();

// setup initial variables
var sw1Val:Number = 1;
var sw2Val:Number = 2;
var sw3Val:Number = 4;
var sw4Val:Number = 8;
var sw5Val:Number = 16;
var sw6Val:Number = 32;
var sw7Val:Number = 64;
var MacAddrVal:Number = 0;

// setup initial switch settings
sw1_btn.icon = "SwitchOff";
sw2_btn.icon = "SwitchOff";
// repeat 5 more times, 1 for each additional switch
address_txt._visible = false;

// begin switch functions
sw1_btn.onRelease = function() {
  switch (sw1_btn.icon) {
    case "SwitchOn" :
      MacAddrVal = MacAddrVal-sw1Val;
      address_txt.text = String(MacAddrVal);
      sw1_btn.icon = "SwitchOff";
      break;
    case "SwitchOff" :
      MacAddrVal = MacAddrVal+sw1Val;
      address_txt.text = String(MacAddrVal);
      sw1_btn.icon = "SwitchOn";
    break;
  }
};

//repeat same function for each switch

result_btn.onRelease = function() {
  switch (result_btn.label) {
    case "Show" :
      address_txt._visible = true;
      result_btn.label = "Hide";
      break;
    case "Hide" :
      address_txt._visible = false;
      result_btn.label = "Show";
      break;
    }
};
// END CODE

The one thing that helped me most was the .icon property that is available in AS2.0 but is not in 3.  To use it I just had to take each image of the switch position and convert the image to a graphic symbol.  Once a symbol, it was just a matter of setting the icon property for the button to the state desired.  That’s really all there was to it.

Below is the switch in action, feel free to tinker with it.  Now it’s on to other little tools on my list and if I can get them done in AS2.0 I’m gonna.

I decide to create a simple little graphical tool which allows one to get a grasp, or understanding, on how to set a MAC address on a card via a bank of dip switches.  Seems simple enough.

As you can see, just a series of switches that can be displayed on the screen, the learner clicks on a switch, it changes state and displays itself as such graphically, and updates the MAC Address display to either add or subtract it’s Base2 value from the total displayed.

So, if switch 1 and 7 are set to ON, the value displayed should be 65.  Again…  seems simple enough.

At least until I try to implement.

I create a simpleButton on the stage and convert it to a symbol.  I then edit the symble for this button as the following images show

Button_UP depicts the switch in the OFF position and Button_DOWN depicts the switch in the ON position.

I drop seven instances of this one switch on the stage and give each of them their own name, sw1_btn, sw2_btn, sw3_btn, etc.

Now, I create an Actions layer and begin plugging in my code.

address_txt.text = "0";

sw1_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, sw1);

sw2_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, sw2);

sw3_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, sw3);

sw4_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, sw4);

sw5_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, sw5);

sw6_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, sw6);

sw7_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, sw7);

function sw1(event:MouseEvent) {

    address_txt.text = "1";

}

function sw2(event:MouseEvent) {

    address_txt.text = "2";

}

function sw3(event:MouseEvent) {

    address_txt.text = "3";

}

function sw4(event:MouseEvent) {

    address_txt.text = "4";

}

function sw5(event:MouseEvent) {

    address_txt.text = "5";

}

function sw6(event:MouseEvent) {

    address_txt.text = "6";

}

function sw7(event:MouseEvent) {

    address_txt.text = "7";

}

That ultimately gets me this:

So I’m close(er).  But here is what’s stumping me.  I’m most certain there are several better ways of doing this but these are my questions.

1) My original thought was to have each eventListener call the same function, however, I can’t seem to figure out how to pass something to that function to let me know which switch has been pressed so as to know the value to add or subtract from the MacAddress text field.

2) How can I get simpleButton to act like a toggle?  By default, it seems to act like a momentary switch — push and release and it presses and depresses or DOWN and then UP.  I want to be able to CLICK the switch/button and it remain in that new state until I CLICK on it again.   Once that is figured out, I then will have to evaluate the state of the switch/button after the CLICK so I can add/subtract the value from the MacAddress text field.

3) From within a function, how can I determine which listener was the sending listener?  This is sort of the same question as my first question, but I’m curious of there is a way to determine from the CLICK event which listener fired it.

Anyway…  I’m getting closer, but I still have a ways to go.  I’m combing though all things Flash at Lynda.com to see if I can locate what I need, and have been combing the AS Reference Guide at Adobe.  Sooner or later I’ll “get it.”  Until then though, if anyone has any helpful tips, I’m open to them! 

I make it a point to ensure that I stop at all stop signs and lights, use hand signals, and especially visually thank motorists who acknowledge me and my presence with a smile and a thank you.

Today though, was the first time I had to lock up my breaks to avoid being creamed by a car. Actually, it wouldn’t have mattered, I would have been toast anyway — the motorist wasn’t paying attention to the crosswalk and it wasn’t until he was within 10 feet of me that he finally stopped sharply.

What strikes me as so odd though… in nearly every encounter, but one that I can recall… the motorist who was in the wrong has added to it with a verbal assault mouthing something likely foul. Each of those always get a long glare from me. But the one lady who realized what she had done immediately said sorry and I returned her apology with a smile and a thank you.

And while I’m at it… I’m astonished by the number of folks who are still driving around talking on their cell phones without a hands-free device. The state of Washington passed a law recently about this, however, motorists can not be pulled over for this offense alone. But using the speakerphone on your cell is NOT considered “hands free” just because it’s not up to your ear. Hands free means “not in your hands.”

So anyway… to all you motorists out there. Please stay alert and don’t run me over. I’m doing my best to follow all the rules of the road — just please, pay attention.

bike commuting, cycling

I thought I might actually get a full week of commuting by bike, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be.

Next month will be interesting to see how many days I get in. The weather is beginning to turn which means I need to locate some warmer threads as well as some descent rain gear if I expect to get another 12 commuter days.

Stay tuned… we’ll see how it goes.

I went to my iMac G5 and downloaded the latest Tech Tools Deluxe and ran it and it confirmed my fears. So, as a last-ditch effort I attempted to wipe the drive and restore my OS and data from my SuperDuper image. Letting that run over night resulted in a failure.

I limped along for the remainder of the week booting from my SuperDuper image and made my Genius Bar appt last night for today at 10:30. I wasn’t in a great hurry due to my last experience — about 8 months ago I had an almost identical experience and it took the local Apple store 5 days to resolve.

Today’s experience was pleasantly different. After telling my story of what had happened and the actions I performed, the Apple Tech simply stated, “sounds like a failed hard drive.” He quickly checked and found that they had one on-hand and swapped it out on the spot. He asked me if I wanted to check it in to have the OS installed and drive throughly tested? or to simply install it a let me take it home to install the OS myself. Of course, you know what I opted for!

The only drawback though was… the drive, the “technically” a 160GB hard drive, is geometrically different from the one replaced and subsequently smaller in size. This caused me a little grief where I had to move some of the data from my SuperDuper image over to another hard drive before I could actually restore my image — otherwise, I would have run out of space.

A bummer to lose that additional disk space, but I’ll deal with it. The Macbook is back up and running and I only lost minimal data — the time since my last SuperDuper image. In that was some photos and a new audio book and CD from iTunes. Luckily, I was able to copy back to the library the purchased content — a very nice feature of iTunes. The photos that were lost were from an event at work and a few bike pics. Nothing that I’m really upset about. But thank goodness for a tool like Super Duper!

Now, to my colleague, I’m sorry that he was injured. I’d happily put my first aid test on hold for another time, BUT… hey, at least he did it and someone who was trained was present.

I’ve taken first aid and CPR training for years now, and even CERT training for both work and my neighborhood, but this is the first time I’ve been able to test myself in a life situation. I don’t count when I cut my thumb deeply with a carpet knife… that was a self-inflicted accident and I really didn’t treat myself except to try and stop the bleeding.

Of course this reminds me though… I don’t have a first aid kit for when I ride my bike. Gonna have to figure out way to remedy that.

I have the coolest commute!

This week, I made my way in, door-to-door, 4 days. I might have made it 5, however, Wednesday I had to take my pickup in to the dealer to have some significant work done on it. I’m pretty confident that I can make it a full 5 days this next week.

I experienced a couple of interesting things today on my commute… one pretty cool, the other, well… not so cool.

As I made my way down to downtown Bothell and to the Landing where I catch the Sammamish River Trail, there was a rush of cyclist coming down the path. So many that I had to wait a few seconds for a break in groups in order to enter the trail. So I dropped in to the middle of their pack and was amazed at how cool it was to ride with a group. I was easily riding 4-5 mph faster than I typically do. I don’t believe it had to do with drafting, but rather, a sense of motivation to keep up. But it was so easy! Much easier to ride at that speed than when I ride alone.

A fellow rider at work told me that some groups don’t really take kindly to straglers joining their group rides like this. Albeit it was after the fact, I’m not all that concerned about it as I was commuting to work — THEY were out for the joy of riding. I simply fell in and stayed with traffic for the 2 miles that we shared the trail. It was cool though and I did enjoy the 2 miles that I was with them.

On my way home though this afternoon… I was subjected to a sight that I don’t think ANYONE should be subjected to. The weather is pretty warm for this part of the country today and as such I decided to stop in Woodinville, about 3 miles from the house, and hydrate myself before taking on that last 3 miles. Suddenly, along comes riding in a gentleman in his late 60’s, early 70’s wearing sandles, black socks, and a SPEEDO! Ugh! I couldn’t believe my eyes. Sure, it’s warm, but comeon… that was just a cruel sight to subject the public to.

I guess on the plus side though… at least he was wearing a helmet.

The key to studio portraits is, it’s not your job to make someone look good… it’s you job to make some one look GREAT! Not simply capture the moment, but capture the person’s essence and make them look even better — some how.

That just isn’t me. Not that I want ANYONE to look bad, but I’d prefer to capture the moment versus bolster an ego. Of course, everyone seems to be super critical of themselves — myself included. But I’ll leave the pleasing to someone else and I’ll just stick to capturing what I see.

Technorati Tags: studio, portrait, photography

So, remember that tank of gas I bought on the 6th? This Sunday when I fill up again it will have been a full 4 weeks. 4 Weeks on a tank of gas and almost 300 miles on a bike.

I’m pretty pleased and eager to see what I can do for the month of August. If I hadn’t had a business function yesterday, I could have made it 13 days and over 300 miles. Oh well… that gives me something to shoot for in August.

On barbecuing
Last weekend we invited some good friends over for dinner on Saturday. I was grilling my first ever roast on the grill and wasn’t sure how long it might take. Once we determined that it was going much faster than I had expected, the wife invited our friends over. Now, knowing we were fixing to have company I began getting things ready – seating, cleaning tables, etc. Before I knew it, I look at the digital thermometer and my roast was up to 167 degrees! I meant to pull it at 150. I then open up the lid to the grill and I was horrified by a charred, black ball that was supposed to be my roast.

I wanted redemption, so I took another shot at grilling a roast today. I watched over this one like a hawk! Well, maybe not THAT close, but I certainly did check on it often. I also made a change and wrapped it in foil to then unwrap it once it got to 130 degrees, and finally to pull it off the grill at 140 degrees. AH… PERFECT! Redemption was mine.

On church
Lately, Daniel has been curious about church. We’re spiritual, but I wouldn’t consider ourselves religious. We attended a church back when we lived in California, but not since we moved up here to the Seattle area over 11 years ago. Some good friends of ours have been attempting to get us to visit their church for years now, so with Daniel’s curiosity and our friends’ nudging, we decided to attend today. Daniel loved it! He had numerous questions and we’re answering them one at a time. Undoubtedly, we’ll be attending for next several Sundays. Mel and I both enjoyed it too. Initially, it felt a little intimidating, it’s a larger church than what we’re used to, but it did feel welcoming and we were comfortable. We’ll see how it goes. There’s another, smaller church a couple of blocks from the house that we’re interested in checking out too.

So that’s it… that was the weekend. This week is going to be a busy one. I’m going to shoot for a 4-day commute by bike this week. For sure, 3 days, but I’m thinking I may shoot for 4.

OH… and for you SysAdmins out there… Happy Belated SysAdmin Appreciation Day! I hope your users were nice too you. I made it a point to thank ours.

Hope you all have a great week!

Catchy title eh?  First off, the dump simply refers to another info/brain dump that this post is fixing to turn in to.  But first…  I commuted by bike the full distance 3 days this week.  My last attempt (last week) as well as the week of the 4th on my third day I didn’t feel quite up to a full ride in to work so I drove in a little closer to work on those days and biked in from there.  That effectively cut the 10 mile commute to about a 6 mile commute.  It definitely helped on those days.  But this week, I did 3 days the full distance for a total of 60 commuter miles!  At some point I’m going to push towards a 4 day commute, but I think I’ll put that off one more week and do another 3 day full ride week next week.  So, on to the dump.

Great support for bikes at work

A couple of weeks ago I approached the office manager to see if we could purchase a bike rack for parking our bikes at work.  There are five of us who bike in pretty regularly — three of those five are from my department!  I was pleasantly surprised to receive word back almost immediately after my request that it had been approved and already ordered!  As soon as it arrived, I was like a kid at Christmas…  I grabbed my tools and slapped it together and found a place to put it in the shop.  We ended up purchasing this six-bike unit.  VERY cool!

Panniers

So yesterday, I needed to lug my laptop home with me, but I wasn’t quite prepared to do it on my bike.  So I had to get creative.  I ended up locating an extra laptop bag — a standard current Dell bag.  I grabbed some wire, only because I couldn’t locate any zip-ties, and began rigging it up to secure the bag to my rack.  Amazingly, it attached very nicely and looked pretty good.  I even received a comment on my way home from a fellow biker who thought it was very clever.  The only drawback to the laptop bag as a Pannier was that it sat a little too far forward and my heel would hit it if I peddled normally.  So I had to keep my foot angled like I was pedaling with my toes in order to clear the bag.  It wasn’t too bad, but it wasn’t very comfortable either.

I’m been Jonesing for a Pannier bag that will fit my laptop so I can cart it to and from work, but DANG!  The only one that I’ve been able to locate that even mentions a laptop runs about $160 list.  That means I might be able to locate it for something like $125-$130 online.  But DANG…  that’s a good chunk of the cost of the bike itself!  I just can’t see paying that kind of money for a pannier.  So now…  I think I’m going to look in to some sort of DIY project to create my own Pannier.  We’ll see what I come up with.

DIY

Speaking of DIY stuff, the day I purchased my bike, I sat in on a two-hour maintenance class put on by our local bike shop.  One of the things that the instructor mentioned was using a large rubberband to close the front brake when parking your bike, especially against a wall, so if it happens to get bumped that the wheels won’t roll causing to bike to fall over.  I thought that was an engenious idea.  I wasn’t crazy about using a rubberband, so I sought out another solution using some of my wife’s sewing materials.  I took a 1″ wide strip of heavy-duty elastic and made a loop (much like a rubberband).  Works like a charm.  Every time I park my bike, I put this strap on the front brake and my bike stays nice and secure.

Other Wish List Items

Seems that like with hobbies, none of this stuff is cheap.  Just trying to make the purchase of this bike pay for itself is likely to take me most of the summer.  On that note, regarding my gas mileage/savings, I filled up on Sunday, the 6th with 19.485 gallons at $4.29/gallong for a total of $83.77.  As of today, Friday, the 25th, I have only traveled a total of 174 miles and my gas guage is just under a half a tank.  For the month of July, I have driven to work 6 days, 2 days of vacation/holiday, 1 day sick, and 10 days commute by bike.  Upon my next fill up I’ll be able to determine my gas mileage in the pickup and THEN I’ll be able to determine how much money I’ve saved on gas.  Of course, that saving has already been consumed by the purchase of the bike, but hey…  my ROI is looking pretty sweet so far!

So back to my wish list times…  One of the next things I want to acquire is a bike computer, a set of fenders, a good air pump for my garage, a maintenance rack would be nice, a pannier bag, and another pair or two of padded biker shorts.  I also want to begin considering some sort of wet weather gear.  I already have a hi-viz rain jacket, but I need something for the lower portion now.

So, just like my photography hobby, this stuff just isn’t cheap!  There’s always some sort of accessory that you’ll want to get.

I’d be interested to know…  how many other are actively riding more these days?  Not necessarily commuting, but just getting out for a ride every now and then.  How frequent and how far are you traveling?

OK…  that’s it for now.  Dump over.  Time for me to get ready for my weekend.  More work on the deck!

Have a great weekend!

First off, we’ve been blessed with the most awesome weather over the month of July. It must be in direct exchange for the never-ending winter we experienced. It’s just been beautiful.

I made good, continued progress on the deck and its railing. I’ve got as much of the railing up as I can at this time and have started on the arbor. I hope to finish off the arbor this next weekend and begin putting up the spindles in the railing sections — they are called spindles, right? Once I complete that, then it’s back to digging holes and pouring concrete to set the last 4 rail posts and then I can wrap up the railing. I’m estimating about 3 more weekends to wrap it up, if all goes well.

We capped the weekend off with another BBQ. Of course, I grilled both days over the weekend, Saturday was some tastey hamburgers (nothing beats a home-made grilled hamburger!) and Sunday I attempted my first cross-rib roast on the grill. I used an indirect heat method to grill it, placing a bread pan-shaped pan amongst the coals to act as a drip pan as well as keep the coals pushed outwards to the sides of the kettle. It went far quicker than I expected and before I knew it it got away from me and lept up to 167 degrees. To add insult to injury, seeing how quickly it was going we invited some good friends over for dinner to enjoy the roast. Well… after cutting away most all of the char from what used to be my roast, I busted out the hot dogs! Yes… ALWAYS have hot dogs waiting in the wings for such a disaster — it’ll save your butt every time.

So I know what I’ll do next time, beside pay closer attention. Once my coals are ready I’ll drop the roast on the grill, monitor it until it get to about 100 to 110 degrees — that should be plenty to nicely brown the outside of the roast, then quickly wrap it in tin-foil to finish it off and pull it at 140 degrees. Let it sit for about 20 minutes covered, then slice. I think I may try it again this weekend!

OK… so my Home Depot and grilling experiences could have poo-poo’d the weekend, but they didn’t. We recovered nicely from both and enjoyed a really nice dinner and conversation with our good friends. It made the entire weekend a success regardless of the other negatives ..AND.. our deck is one step closer to being complete.

So another week begins now and another busy one at work. Having biked to work 3 days last week, my goal is yet again to bike 3 days this week, likely Wed, Thur, and Fri. I’ve also started my One Hundred Pushup Challenge. So today was day one of week one and it seems to have gone well. I’ll let you know how I feel tomorrow — I KNOW I’m going to be sore!

I’m eager to burn through my week and get things done so I can get back to the deck and more grilling next weekend. So far, this has been one of my most enjoyable summers since I was a kid — I can’t wait to get outside these days. I haven’t felt like this since I was a kid playing baseball.

Enjoy your week… I’m going to enjoy mine!

‘You can do it. We can help.’

Today was the worst experience I’ve EVER had at a Home Depot — there was one other time with my father-in-law, but that time was more of an embarrassment than frustration, I’ll share that moment some other time.

So I’m working to finish up the deck railing and I decide to make a run to the Home Depot to gather up more supplies — 4ea. 2″x6″x12′ pressure treated boards along with a few other supplies.  I locate everything else, but when I go the stack of wood where these boards were last weekend, there’s a bunch of 2″x4″ boards in that area.  I look up above and I see what appear to be what I’m looking for.  Not good, there’a another unit of lumber atop of it.  So I go looking for an associate who could fire up the forklift and pull it down for me so I could get my 4 pieces of lumber.  I can’t locate anyone.  So I go up to the checkout and ask, and as luck would have it, the guy I’m looking for is walking down the isle towards me.

So I tell the guy what I’m looking for, he does a search and agrees with me that the lumber I’m looking for is up in the rack.  So he begins to hunt down a forklift.

So I wait…  and I wait… and I wait.

At the hour mark I start hunting down other associates.  I get redirected back to the kid who is supposed to be helping me.  He’s still searching for a forklift — that HE can operate.  He flags down one pair of associates on a forklift they tell him he’ll have to wait, they have to pull down some other merchandise for another customer.  He flags down yet another associate, same story.

By this time, I’m now an hour and a half in to my wait and fuming.  While the guy who is supposed to be helping me is still hunting a lift, the two guys who he originally stopped come walking by me and I ask them for assistance since they appear to be finished with their previous task.  I’m told to go see the associate who is seeking out a lift.  I explain that I’ve been waiting now for over an hour and a half, and they insist that I must work with the kid who can’t seem to locate a lift.  I begin to express my frustration that a wait of this length of time is not acceptable — they both simply turned and walked away from me.  I was flabbergasted!

Finally, I’d had enough and went to the counter and asked for a manager.  15 minutes later a gentleman shows up extending his apologies and states that he checked with the associate to get the story of what was going on.  I asked him WHY does it take upwards of 2 hours to pull down a unit of wood?  His response was, “It shouldn’t, but I don’t know where you are in the queue.”  I then asked, “a two hour queue is acceptable in this store.”  He had nothing to say.

He finally got a forklift operator to assist me and who walked up and down the isle looking for the wood in question.  I pointed it out to him and he tells me that it’s not it.  He then begins clearing out the pile of 2″x4″s that were where the 2″x6″x12’s were last weekend and low and behold, there they are.

The kid who was seeking out the lift ran over to me, apologized, and practically dove in to the lumber pile to help me pick out my 4 boards.  ARGH!!!!  I could have been out of that silly store 2 hours prior!

Please…  Home Depot.  If you’re going to put someone in a department, especially one like lumber, please ensure the individual is fully equipped and qualified to be in that department.  This kid should have been able to run a lift himself for starters, but even more importantly, he should know that state of merchandise within his department!

You might ask, “why didn’t you just leave and go some place else?”  Well…  I had already invested THAT much time in the place.  It didn’t make sense to me to throw that away and start all over again somewhere else.  However…  my NEXT supply run may very well take me directly to Lowes or McClendons.

So back to that slogan, I think it needs an adjustment… “You can do it.  We *MIGHT* be able to help.”

Commuting:

Today’s ride was amazingly easy — a very good ride.  I need to get a bike computer so I can see just how fast I’m traveling.  It seemed I was traveling faster today than previous rides as I was bumping myself into the next higher gear.

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, I am SO grateful that we have the trail system that we have here in the Seattle area.  Last week, in the brief one mile or so that I must ride in the street amongst car traffic in order to make it to the office, I almost got ran over twice.  Both times were in the same area, just a light apart from one another.  I tell you, for anyone riding…  always look a driver in the eyes.  Make sure that they see you and even acknowledge if possible.  There is an alternative route I could take to remove this section of road from my ride, but it adds an additional 20 minutes to my ride.  If it continues, I’ll go ahead and make that change — 20 minutes is nothing compared to being dead or seriously hurt by a dumbass not paying attention.

While on the topic of my commute and riding, my rack arrived via FedEx today.  Of course, it’s already on the bike.  I had to manipulate the brackets a little to get it to fit, but my metal working skills from the Army came in handy.  I’ll likely post a picture to Flickr in the next few days.  But now, I don’t have to wear a backpack or fanny pack if I need to carry something with me to work.

Health and Fitness:

One thing that I’ve noticed since I’ve begun riding, I haven’t lost any weight.  I thought that I might, but I believe that I’m building muscle instead — which is totally fine with me.  I know my quads have hurt in places they haven’t hurt in years!

Today also makes a week + 1 day that I’ve cut my caffeine intake to zero.  I started to just cut out sodas, but decided to cut out coffee as well.  A while back I made a trip in to the emergency room for an irregular heartbeat.  The ER doctor checked me out and told me that what I was experiencing was PVCs — premature ventricular contractions.  I can’t explain what exactly a PVC is, but wikipedia does a decent job.  The Doctor told me that they were “some-what normal” (as in several people experience them) and likely caused by too much caffeine, but what is odd, I only began really experiencing them AFTER I had started working out — and doing mostly cardio work too.  So I’ve decided to give it a whirl and see how long I can go without caffeine.  Who needs the uncomfortable feeling of a weird heartbeat?  Water will do me just fine.

On the homefront

I started on another three sections of the deck railing.  Seems things went MUCH faster this evening than they did over the weekend.  I likely won’t finish off the top rail of these sections until this weekend, unless I find a spark of energy throughout the week — which I may be able to find as I’m anxious to see how this all turns out.  Strangely enough, I’m enjoying this, more so than I enjoyed putting down those deck boards.  Woof!

On commuting

I’ve been keeping a really close eye on my mileage per trip and especially this tank full of gas.  I want to now exactly how I’m consuming it all and how often.  I figure, most automobiles have about a 300 mile range regardless of the size of tank it’s equipped with.  As of today, I have traveled just over 120 miles in total over a nine day period since filling up.  One day I was sick, and two days I commuted to work by bike.  This week, I have used my pickup two days so far and plan to commute by bike at least two days this week, perhaps three. If I can pull off three days, that will mean 120 miles over a 12 day period, which of course, is an average of just 10 miles per day.  At that rate, I would possibly be able to stretch a tank of gas out to a total of 30 days.  Pretty cool feat I must admit.

On fitness

Naturally, commuting by bike has really helped me in this area.  I can feel a big difference in my quads as well as my stamina while riding.  Each day, the ride gets easier and easier — except when there’s a head wind.  But I’ve decided I need to begin expanding on this area — fitness — and incorporate something more that just riding my bike.  I’ve been reading with interest the “Get Fit Slowly” blog and specifically the One Hundred Pushup Challenge going on there (based on this site).  I wish I had stumbled upon this sooner, as it was already in in to week 3 when I found it.  But I thought that this is right up my alley.  Nice and easy, nothing all gung-ho or anything.  Just a simple way to build up my upper body strength.  It got me to thinking too…  this is the same way we did it when I was in the army.  We didn’t get fit from lifting weights or anything fancy…  it was just basic calisthenics that did it for us, and naturally, besides my time in high school, I’d say it was the time in my life when I was most fit — at least in my adult years.

So, along with my gas mileage monitoring, I think I’ll begin posting updates on my pushup challenge as well.  What the heck…  it’s what a blog is for anyway — keep me accountable. 

See…  I told you it was just a bunch of stuff.

Seriously… some nifty new features in this release. If you’re running a Wordpress site, do yourself a favor and upgrade.

Technorati Tags: Wordpress, 2.6, upgrade

One of my most favorite parts of the summer is firing up the grill, grilling ANYTHING after it’s been marinading in something for hours, and enjoying a nice dinner outside on the deck with my family.

I don’t know what it is… but it certainly is one of my most cherished moments of the summer.

In the shot above, this is the never-ending home improvement project — our deck. On a whim, about 4-5 years ago, I decided to start ripping up boards of our old deck — on a Sunday afternoon. Not sure what the hell I was thinking, but in the end, it’ll certainly be a nice deck! All the boards were replaced with composite deck board and mostly what remains is the completion of the railing. Now with Darrin being old enough to play on the deck, the railing is my mission for the summer. What you seen in this shot, what is not painted white is what was accomplished today, along with power washing. We power washed yesterday and part of today, while the railing work that was done was done today.

I anticipate at least another 2-3 weekends worth of work. I’ve said it before, if I had to earn a living via carpentry, my family and I would starve! I’m just way too slow at this stuff. I think about thing too much before I act. I suppose that’s good in some way — but then again, this has been a 4-5 year project already.

Having purchased a quarter beef and half a hog, we wanted to keep close tabs on what we’re eating and as important, what we have left.  We came up with a rather simple little tool for the task — a basic spreadsheet of numbers representing each cut and the quantity of each that we have. Now, any time we make a meal, we simply decrement the item on the spreadsheet.

Better yet, the wife placed the spreadsheet within a small binder within a sheet protector.  Now we just mark on the sheet protector marking off each cut as we use it and the sheet remains untouched.  There are even blank spaces at the bottom of the spreadsheet so that we can add items that we purchase from the grocery store or perhaps Costco.

So far it’s been VERY handy to keep track of what remains in the freezer and allows us to plan accordingly.

Though simple enough to make, feel free to grab this PDF to use as a sample for your own.

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I was treated with a nice surprise on my commute in to the office yesterday, about three miles in to it a bald eagle was hanging out in a tree likely looking for breakfast there in the river.  As I got closer it decided to take off and make its way back across the valley.  During this morning’s ride, I was treated to two bald eagles.  About in the same area as yesterday.  Seeing stuff like this certainly makes the commute a little easier.  In commuting by car over the past 10 years up here in Seattle, I can’t say I recall EVER seeing a bald eagle.

The pics below are just more of the scenery that I get to look at.  These were taken today on my commute back home.

I don’t think the shots turned out all too bad, but I still have lots of learning to do. No strobes were used… this was pretty much a seriously low-budget affair. I wish I would have taken a shot of the setup, it’d be easier to show it rather than explain it. There will be a make up session as not everyone was able to make it. I’ll try and capture a shot of the setup then.

Tomorrow evening is my annual opportunity to knock the crap out of a golf ball, then hope I can locate the silly thing. I’ve loaded my bag with 4 sleeves of new balls. I know better than to buy expensive balls, the chances are just to great that I’m gonna lose em.

Every year at work we have a Summer Solstice golf event that is a blast. It’s a nine-hole scramble so the pressure and intimidation is removed. Then at the end, the finishing order is determined as normal, then a coin-flip determines who is actually the first place team. Prizes are awarded accordingly, typically being a gift certificate for lunch at a local eatery and company-branded schwag. The last place team is always awarded our special travel kits. Throughout the year, our traveling folks collect up the free soap, shampoo, and what-not from hotels and contribute to the prize pool.

It’s a load of fun and I can’t wait to tee off… I just hope I see where the heck it lands!

Technorati Tags: golf, HATNUS

Ah… it’s very satisfying to have a stocked pantry and/or a full freezer.

With our “economic stimulus” check that President Bush so graciously offered back to us, we decided to put it towards a half a pig and a quarter of a beef (grass fed). We received the pork 2-3 weeks ago, and the beef itself was just finished and ready for pickup today up in Stanwood.

We’ve tried to remain as local as possible with our food purchases of late. With the pork and beef coming from local farms as well as a CSA produce subscription that we get every week. It may ultimately cost us more, but it’s been very satisfying knowing we’re getting good food grown or raised locally and without all the processed crap that ends up in the general food supply.

We have an inventory sheet in the kitchen now so we always know what we have and what we’ve consumed and when it will be time to reorder. I would not be surprised if we end up going to a half a beef in the next couple of years as Darrin gets older — bubba likes to eat!

Technorati Tags: Organic, natural, grass-fed, beef, pork, CSA

The ride was nice… a few rough spots on the trail due to tree roots, but I’m not complaining. I’m just glad that there exists such a nice trail for cyclists to use away from car traffic. The last bit of the commute was the most treacherous having to mingle in and negotiate traffic. Naturally, Fall City Road tends to be a rather busy road too.

My calves must sense the end of a ride… seems every ride so far, as I near the end of it they start cramping up on me. I’m hoping that the work day will give them a nice rest before my commute back home this evening.

Take THAT! OPEC and speculators!

[UPDATE] Ride home was quicker, right at 1 hour. Took another route through Redmond Town Center rather than through Marymoor Park which I believe made it a little shorter of a commute by maybe a mile or so. I’m still not keen about having to deal with traffic through that area, but the RTC route I can deal with on the way home, not so sure on the way in.

Also found out that we have a bike club at work — predominantly at our other site next to Microsoft. Every month they do a group ride over to the Celtic Bayou. Next group ride is slated for next Wednesday. Not sure I’ll participate since Thursday I’m supposed to play golf.

Technorati Tags: Biking, Commuting, Cycling

Took a quick ride this evening — and I mean quick, no more than 20 minutes. But that was one painful 20 minutes and 2.2 miles. Every little bit helps to get my butt in shape.

It doesn’t look like much, and to more experienced riders, it certainly isn’t, but it certainly kicked me in the butt. Quick way to get a great lower-body workout, that’s for sure. A hazzard if you will for living in a hilly neighborhood.

Technorati Tags: Biking, Fitness, Workout, Legs

This evening I mapped our walk through our neighborhood and found it to be just shy of 1 mile. Pretty good, and something that we need to continue to do more of.

So then I got to thinking about my bike ride this past weekend. Just shy of 14.5 miles round trip, but when I mapped it, it tripped me out just how close to work I actually was! Based on Google Earth, it appears to be about a 11.5 mile ride, one-way, but if to Ride #2 was 7.2 what remains can’t be more that 2-2.5 miles tops. That should put me just over 10 miles for a one-way trip.

Now, if I do it right, I could start off by taking my bike with me to work, ride it home that evening, the rest overnight, and ride it back to work in the morning.

I have to say, I’m pretty jazzed about doing this. Dammit… I can do this!

But hey… you use what you got! Even if it is ghetto, it’s been very handy in determining how far I’ve ridden. Some day, when I get a new bike I’ll outfit it with a GPS meant for a bike, but for now, this little guy will do me just fine.

So today, while Darrin was napping, Daniel playing his Nintendo DS, and the wife settling in after her quilting retreat, I decided to treat myself to a bike ride. It was nice to get in some me time after being a single-parent for the last 3 days.

I made it all the way from Bothell Landing to Redmond City Hall before turning around — 7.2 miles one-way. Round trip I put in 14.4 miles — my longest trek yet. It gives me even greater confidence that I’ll be able to actually commute by bike here in the near future. I’m slowly working up my endurance to do so. Today’s accomplishment made me feel even better about this goal.

Next step, unless I take the full plunge, will be to do a trek all the way to Marymoor Park, and my ghetto bike computer will be with me for the ride.

Today, day 3 of the “I’m looking forward to my wife’s return” weekend, the boys and I took a ride/walk through the neighborhood. We had a great time, Dan got some good experience riding on the streets and Darrin… he just loves to go places — doesn’t matter where. We even ran in to a couple of Daniel’s friends along the way.

Tomorrow the wife is scheduled to return. I’m very much looking forward to it, but I also have to say that I’ve really enjoyed my dedicated time with my boys. We’ve had a great time and how fitting that it should wrap up on Father’s Day. I think every dad should have the opportunity to spend four dedicated days with their kids prior to Father’s Day… it gives the day a whole new perspective.

Yum… Daniel helped me prepare them, then we all three settled in for some home made hamburgers! Daniel is typically a pretty picky eater and usually won’t eat much meat. I had him help me prepare them by breaking up a slice of bread to crumbs before adding it to the meat along with some Worcestershire sauce. He them pressed them out in to patties and then we tossed them on the grill — the George Foreman grill. I just couldn’t see firing up the charcoal grill for just 4 burgers.

Day 2 of the “no mom or wife around” weekend is almost in the books. Only a couple more hours before bed times. Then it’s quiet time for dad! YEA!!

Only one injury to report thus far… Darrin still doesn’t have this running bit down at 15 mos, ended up doing a faceplant on the sidewalk yesterday evening — Ouch!

Wife is attending a quilting retreat this weekend so the boys and I are doing our “guys only extended weekend.” So far, so good… but I’m sure by Saturday, I’ll be wishing Sunday would get here sooner.

We have piano lessons later today then, if the rain holds off — or passes sooner — we’re gonna do some burgers on the grill. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice, so I’m thinking a nice walk or bike ride on the Sammaish River Trail might be a nice outing.

Now that I’ve reclaimed the blog, I’ve decided that there was no longer a need to maintain multiple blogs. So… I decided to consolidate my photos and elearning blogs in to the main blog, kevindevin.com. Hopefully it doesn’t cause too much pain, but heh… you didn’t have anything else better to do than switch around an rss feed now did you? I didn’t think so.

One thing I was curious about… Could I take exports from the two blogs which were running under WordPress 2.3.2 and import them in to a 2.5.1 installation without losing data. I quickly asked around but finally just chickened out and quickly upgraded to two sites to be exported to 2.5.1 before proceeding. Better safe than sorry!

A note of caution though if you ever decide to do something like this yourself. *IF* you happen to be using something like TwitterTools to publish a tweet any time you post to you blog, ensure that you disable TwitterTools BEFORE beginning the consolidation!

Friends don’t flood their friends with tweets! DOH!

Definitely not the center image!

We just recently purchased Flash CS3 at work. So now, as I wrap up my eLearning certificate with the UW, my next step is to dive in to teaching myself Flash. I’m looking forward to it, something different for me and an opportunity to “roll my own” where I feel Adobe Captivate lacks. Don’t get me wrong, I think Captivate is an awesome rapid development tool, but it’s not without its own idiosyncrasies. Of course, I’m not so naive to realize that Flash won’t have its own set of issues, but I’m up for seeking them out.

With the price of gas going up and my gut getting bigger, I’ve decided this summer would be a good enough time to try and tackle both if I could.

So, I pulled old Betty out of the garage and gave her a little TLC to get her back on the road. I’ve likely put more in to her than what she’s worth, but I couldn’t see spending mucho $$ on a new bike if it ultimately was going to end up hanging on the wall next to Betty. Why not just give old Betty a little TLC and see what she can do. Then, if this experiment sticks, I’ll begin looking at investing in a new bike. But for now… Betty’s my gal.

I took her out on her re-re-maiden voyage today. A half-hour trip down the Sammamish River trail and then back. I wanted to see 1) how well she rode, and 2) how well *I* rode.

I’m not exactly pleased with the new tires. I believe I may have gone a little too cheap on them. There a slight bump in the front tire and I thought a felt one in the rear. Sort of like a tire with a broken belt on a car. Not a major issue, but definitely a nuissance.

Overall, she rode pretty well. Me… I did ok. About 3/4 of the way through the trek my right calf muscle started cramping up, so I’m glad I limited my ride to the distance that I did. I’m pretty much pleased with the ride and feeling better about taking this experiment to the next step — a couple more practice runs going further each time and then ultimately an attempt all the way in to work. It’s about a 14 mile trek by road, so I’m anxious to see how far it is on the bike trail.

I brought with me my little old Garmin GPS to tinker with and see what all it can tell me. It’s not a fancy unit, but what the heck, it might be useful.