Wednesday, May 30, 2012

May 29th

My work laptop's fan has been getting noisy, and it spent a morning screaming last week, so I now have a new one.  It's got an i5 processor and an SSD, so it's a lot faster than the old laptop, and I spent a while getting stuff on it.  It's not perfect yet, but I can work with it :o)

May 28th

Today was Memorial Day, when Americans remember their wars by going shopping.

The wind was doing funny things ("variable" and "gusting" aren't words you want to hear from the AWOS at Lincoln), so I wasted the day doing stuff around the house and garden.

I did, however, put some gas in the YSR and fired it up.  And the battery charges!  I'm calling that done for the moment - I want to try and get the fairing lower fitted, then I'll take it out for a ride :o)

Sunday, May 27, 2012

May 27th

Valerie and Christina headed home, and we went over to the airfield, where I cut all the zip ties out of the wiring running down the length of the plane and tidied everything up.  I then ran the new wires back to the fuel tank and tidied them into the cable management, then zip tied everything together again.  I drilled a hole in the tank and got the fuel level probe installed and wired, then wired that and the outside air temperature probe into the EIS.  It looks like everything works, but the rev counter is even less accurate than it was with the old Key West regulator.  I need to drain the tank to get the fuel level probe all set up (you have to tell it what's empty and what's full), but other than that it's pretty much done for the moment.  We took the plane out for a circuit, but it was bumpy as hell, so we just did one longish circuit before heading home to feed Tilly.

May 26th

We all went out to breakfast, and then Valerie and Christina went off to do stuff while I played Warcraft, then I got the YSR all back together.  In the evening we barbecued, for, I believe, the first time this year.

May 25th

Vic's friends Valerie and Christina were in Sacramento to argue about their taxes, so they came and crashed with us.  After playing with Tilly, of course.

May 24th

John was in town for work, so he came over and we went to look at a local skateboard shop.  I tried a long board, but it just felt weird compared to my normal skateboard (that I pretty much never use).  As it was his birthday, we took him to dinner before he had to go back to the hotel and get some more work done.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

May 22nd

I went to the airfield and finished installing the regulator.  I've decided to use rivets, as they're tidier, and it's not like you take the thing off regularly.  Plus there was one rivet on it before, so you're going to need a drill to get it off anyway.  I managed to smack myself in the face with the rivet gun when it popped off, as I was standing all hunched over the plane so as to not break anything else.  There was quite a bit of blood.  Still... I'll heal.

I ran the wires for the fuel level probe, but I think I've scraped the insulation off them in a few places, so I've decided to take it all out and start over - I'll also tidy up the wiring that's already there at the same time - it should all be able to go into the cable management, if I'm careful.

May 21st

I went out and picked up some parts for the plane, then cut down the fuel level probe.  You're supposed to use a pipe cutter, but I don't have one, so I was very careful with a hacksaw :o)

May 20th

Dave and I wiped in Ahn'Qiraj yet again, but we think we're getting closer to being able to kill off the 2 bosses who have been troubling us.

I've received the parts for the plane that I'd ordered, so we went over to the airfield to see what we could do.  I removed the old regulator, but couldn't install the new one as it's deeper than the old one, so I need longer screws.  I got it all wired up though, and that's tidied up the wiring somewhat.

We looked at the eclipse a couple of times, through a monocular pointed at the wall, as the sun was still too high to actually look at.  Meh.

I started to look at the fuel level probe, but it's too long, so I'll need to cut it down.  I sort of gave up after that, so we went home.

May 19th

Vic was running a booth at Petfest at the SPCA, so we got up distressingly early and went to get her set up.  I then went home to play Warcraft, where Dave and I wiped again in our 40 man raid with just the 2 of us.

After packing and picking Vic up, we went to dinner with Vince.  He's fixed the BMW - it was just the clutch after all.

Monday, May 14, 2012

May 13th

I started the day washing the solar panels, then went on to cut the grass, then dumped the water in the hot tub.  The new drain coped admirably, but we can see that there's a bit more of a low point now.  We went and picked up some parts and some more rolls of sod.  I did some levelling, then laid these and watered everything.  Hopefully all the new grass will live and we're finished, other than a few bare bits that will get seed at some point.

I did a little bit of paint patching, but it's still not perfect.

I'd bought a couple of diodes, and I sat down and did some soldering on the YSR - the indicator warning light is passing enough power trough to the "dark" side that all 4 lights light up, so I've wired up both wires from the flasher relay to the warning light with a diode, then joined them.  I've patched into a ground line, and now I can use an LED warning light, as the power's only ever coming one way.  I've now got 4 LED turn signals, working just fine.  It's probably one of the tidiest bits of soldering I've ever done, and is all covered up in heat shrink :o)

I found that the instrument lighting LED wasn't working, and found that it had pretty much fallen out - I've added a few blobs of solder to stop that from happening again.

In the evening we watched the new Underworld movie.  It's always nice to see Kate Beckinsale trying to out do Carrie-Anne Moss :o)

Saturday, May 12, 2012

May 12th

I started the day working in the garden.  Vic had managed to get me some rolls of sod, so I spent a couple of hours before it got hot levelling everything and putting down sod.  When I was finished, I soaked everything and cut the pipe to length and put the grille in.  Job done - I just need to water the crap out of it to try and get the grass to set up home there before it all dies.

I fed Tilly (late) and showered, then sat down and hit Ahn'Qiraj again with Dave.  We wiped, but then the characters we were trying to kill disappeared.  We even left the instance and came back in, but no, they were gone.  Boned.  We called it a a day then.

I did a little paint touch up, then went out and fixed the speedo cable on the DRZ.  I had been planning to replace the warning lights with LEDs, but they're all in a moulded block, so if one bulb fails, you just replace the whole block (which, I'm assuming, will be a bit more expensive than a 50c bulb).

I sat and caught up on TV until Vic got back from an SPCA event.

May 11th

I had already arranged to go to the office in San Francisco when a customer teleconference was called for 7am.  So, I got up at 4am, got ready and was on the road at around 04:30.  Luckily I was on the DRZ, as there was a big accident that pretty much stopped traffic on I80 outside Sacramento - I got to filter to the front and putter past in the one lane that was still open, with the road covered in glass and a car sitting on its roof.  If I'd driven, I'd have ended up taking the conference from the side of the road there, I reckon.  Anyway, I made it to the office and managed to get set up in time.

The CTO, Jamie, is leaving, so we all went to lunch together, then I had a pretty uneventful afternoon before riding home.  After filling up on the way home ($15?  What is the world coming to?), the speedo stopped working.  When I got home, I found the cable had come unscrewed, which was a bit of a disappointment, as I was already making plans for a better dash.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

May 9th

Vic dumped a load of rock into the trench, then I put in the overflow pipe from the downspout to the drain that we already have (so hopefully if it gets too full, it'll dump the excess water into the drain).  We put down the landscape cloth to (hopefully) stop it filling up with dirt, and covered in with dirt.  I've stamped it down, and we need to add more dirt, but it's pretty close to finished - well, other than having 3" pipe sticking out about 2' - I'll cut that to length and put a cover on it when we've finished.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

May 8th

Well, the rock showed up (along with dirt for the vegetable beds), so I stapled some glorified landscape cloth together (it allows water through, but not soil, so it shouldn't get clogged up again too soon) and lined the trench, then Vic dumped a load of rock on there.  I built the piping together, and tomorrow we'll hopefully get that covered.

The shower, it no longer leaks!

In the evening, Vic watched The Vow while I played Warcraft.  I sort of followed the movie, but there weren't enough space battles.  Even Vic thought it was a bit slow.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

May 7th

I was in the bathroom when Vic got out of the shower, and it's still leaking a little.  So, later on I dried everything out and added more sealant.  Let's hope that'll sort that.

Vic's ordered the rocks for the soakaway, so we'll actually start moving forward with that.  Yay.

I got a bit more painting done.  Hopefully that's another colour that can go away.  When I get around to taking the cans into the garage, that is.  What I'm saying is I'm not very organised.

May 6th

After doing a few daily quests in Warcraft, we went out and bought some bits and pieces at the Home Despot for the drain we're going to put in the garden where it floods.  Now we just need to order rocks for the soakaway part.

While we were there, I bought some clear sealant so I could fix the little leak in the shower - basically the sealant that was originally installed has failed, and it's been leaking and growing mould for a while now.  I cut out the crappy sealant and resquirted new stuff.  We'll see how well that works.

We watched the ho hum MotoGP race from Estoril, then watched the Moto2 race for some more entertainment.

I did some more painting - brushing up complicated bits more than anything.  I'm starting to think I can move some of the tins into the garage, as those colours are finished with.  Luckily I've thrown out the old colours that we no longer have, so I've got space for them.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

May 5th

I was just doing my daily quests in Warcraft when Dave popped up and suggested we run a 10 man raid in Ahn'Quiraj.  It's a level 60 area, so our 2 level 85 toons cleared it OK, so we moved on to the 40 man raid.  We wiped towards the end, but I think we might be able to finish it with a little application :o)

I did some painting - mostly patching.  Still, it's getting done, and short spurts will hopefully mean it gets done.  It's been really windy, like gusting >20mph, so no flying today :o(


As the moon was at it's perigee, I went out and took some pictures of it.  I need a bigger lens :o)  The interesting thing, when you have the camera on a tripod, is how fast the moon actually moves - I was having to adjust the camera every few minutes.  Due to the long (~1/3") shutter speeds, I was using the remote shutter release, which is actually quite useful - I now have some other ideas about things I'd like to try using it for.

May 4th

Happy Star Wars day.

We watched The Darkest Hour, which I thought was terrible, but Vic thought was OK :o)

Thursday, May 3, 2012

May 1st

First day of the month, so here's the power stats:

Power billed

Power generated









In the evening we watched We Bought a Zoo, which was nice in that the required romance didn't overpower the rest of the story.