Wednesday, February 29, 2012

February 29th

Happy leap year.

I'm still in San Francisco, and I had the news on TV while I got ready for work.  It's raining, as it tends to do in the winter, so there are a lot of road "accidents".  They were interviewing this one idiot, who'd come off the freeway and couldn't see where he was going, so he hit something and wrecked his car.  I don't understand why the police don't chase him down and give him a ticket for driving too fast for the road conditions, seeing as how that's a driving offence here.

February 28th

I got up disgracefully early and drove the van to San Francisco - there's a couple of new guys starting this week, so I'll be down there training them and drinking too much Coke.

After work, I took the train to the hotel (it's not worth moving the van back and forth all the time), but there was some sort of delay, so it took over an hour to get to the hotel.  Could have walked it in that, but I'd already bought a ticket, and I was already sitting down with all my stuff.

February 27th

I'd taken today off, as I'm almost at the limit of vacation that I can accrue, and I'd rather use it than lose it.  I had thought about doing stuff, but in the end we met Vince for lunch, then just sodded about for the rest of the day.

February 26th

Vic was doing some guinea pig training in the morning, so after my daily Warcraft tasks, I got up in the attic and dropped wires for the fan.  Of course, there's a 2x4 over the top of the wall I want the switch on, so I had to drill a hole through that.  And then I couldn't get the wire nuts to hold (probably too big, so I'll get some smaller ones).  And then the cable holder staple things I have are too small to hold the 4 wire cable down, so I'll have to get some bigger ones.  And then I looked at the wall I was going to mount the switches on, and it'll look off-kilter with 2 switches due to the stud coming down the centre of the wall, so rather than an On-Off switch and a High-Low switch, I'm going to try and get a High-Low-Off switch.  In the meantime, I might just wire it up as on or off, and choose whether to have it high or low based on how loud it is :o)

When Vic got home, we went to see Don's band play at the Capitol Bowl.  The band was pretty good - at least not as bad as Don seems to think they are, and the Bowl is a nice place, even if it's in the ghetto.  To the point where some guys were stealing stuff out of a convertible in the parking lot - we'd brought the van as it locks.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

February 25th

It was a windy old day, so I shelved any plans to go flying once I heard "gusting 25mph" on the AWOS.  It's interesting, as Mike seems to think the way forward in home electricity generation is wind power, and it would need to be this windy pretty much all the bloody time to make that work, even if the neighbours would tolerate the noise.  Aaanyway, I played some Warcraft, then went out and picked up some stuff I need for the house - a new light bulb, and some wire to do the fan.  I got 15' for each run (down to the switch and back up again) and I'm hoping that'll be enough.  Maybe I'll get that finished tomorrow.  When I went out to get the mail, Fred was looking over his new fifth wheel... it's longer and swooshier.  I got the tour, and it is nice - it's 35' long and something like 15,000lbs though, so I don't see me being able to tow it with the van.  I helped get it reversed into it's spot - it's right up against the fence on once side, and it's maybe 3" from the house on the other side with the slide outs out.  We figured it's best that way, as the fence posts are rotted through, so this'll stop it bouncing off the trailer in the wind.

February 24th

Stephan's txted me (they're lucky I noticed - I don't txt myself) to say that the van was ready to pickup, so I sloped out of work early so we could go and pick it up.  While we were there, chatting to Stephan, he showed us a "show" van that they're working on.  It's just silly.  335hp out of a water cooled intercooled 1.8 turbo.  A 32" TV mounted behind the passenger seat.  All the panels have been recovered in suede.  New seats and headliners throughout.

Anyway, it'd be nice to think that the van's running better from the way home, but I really don't know... I'm hoping the main differences are the fuel economy and the emissions (it just squeaks through the 15mph test, but passes the 25mpg by a mile, suggesting a poor fuel map).

Friday, February 24, 2012

February 23rd

We got up early and dropped the van off at Stephan's, then headed home so I could start work.  Yay.

At the end of the day, I had the first BSOD I've seen for years, and the first I've ever seen on Windows 7.  Here's hoping that's not a bad sign.

No call about the van, so maybe it's trickier than I thought?

February 22nd

I'd ordered a new ECU for the Vanagon, which is supposed to increase mid range power, lower fuel consumption and lower emissions, and it arrived today.  As it needs programming, and I don't have the cables or software, I called Stephan's, and booked it in for tomorrow.

February 20th

Today was President's Day, when Americans celebrate George Washington's birthday by going shopping.  Still not feeling that great, we just dossed around the house all day.  But hey, I should be well enough to go to work tomorrow.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

February 19th

It was a lovely day to go flying, if I could have stopped blowing my nose.  I've still got a bit of a head cold, so I'm thinking altitude changes might not be such a hot idea.  Vic wanted a Massive Mining Bag, so I spent time grinding reputation for the Sons of Hodir to get one.

In the evening we watched the 500th episode of The Simpsons.  Jeez, has it been 23 years already?

February 18th

I'm feeling a ways better, but I'm still not 100%, so I spent the day doing chores around the house and playing Warcraft.  Vic wanted a Bag of Jewels for her toon, so I spent some time grinding for reputation with the Consortium so I could get the pattern to make them.  They don't seem to be much in demand in the Auction House, so that was time well spent.  Not.  I'm also working on the Firelands dailies, along with trying to get the materials to make some cooler gear.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

February 12th

We were both sick, but I think I might survive.  I played a lot of Warcraft all day, as I'm trying to collect the materials to build some cool gear.  Honestly, it's just like working, grinding on the promise of something better at some point in the future.  Tilly's spent the day cuddled up to Vic, who's been asleep :o)

February 11th

We were both sick, so we pretty much watched TV, slept and played Warcraft all day.

Friday, February 10, 2012

February 10th

I don't think I'm going to make it... go on without me...

February 9th

Yes, I'm definitely sick... it's the bubonic plague for sure.

On the plus side, 2 of the foster guinea pigs left today, so we're down to... 3 fosters, and 5 full time residents.

February 8th

I think I'm coming down with something, as I have a sore throat :o(

Sunday, February 5, 2012

February 5th

After waiting for it to warm up a little, we went out and sorted the garden - Vic pulled all the crap off the flower beds, and I used the mower as a vacuum cleaner to get rid of it all.  I believe this is the first time the grass has been cut this year!

I tinkered with the whole house fan - basically i'm going to try not securing it, but using buffers to hold it in place. I've put pipe insulation on the bottom, so that it'll hopefully be quieter than if it's solid mounted.  We'll see.  We dragged it up into the roof, and muscled it into place, then built the buffers.  Now it just needs wiring in (oh, and the hole cut in the ceiling, but that's a leap of faith).

February 4th

I started the day playing a little Warcraft, but then remembered that I have too much stuff to do.  So, I went into the garage and changed the oil in the Jeep.  We then went out or supplies (supplies!), and I finished building the box for the whole house fan.

Now I just need to actually install the fan, wire it in and cut the hole in the ceiling of the hallway.  Yay.

In the evening, we met the cat ladies for dinner at a spaghetti place.

February 3rd

Vince came over, and we went to a local barbecue place for dinner, where we whined about the cold weather, despite it being warmer this year than I can remember for this time of year :o)

Friday, February 3, 2012

February 2nd

Vic was at the shelter teaching a critter class, so I went up into the attic and carried on building my plenum chamber.  Well, until I ran out of lumber and sealant, anyway.  It's getting there, really it is.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

February 1st

It's the beginning of the month, so the solar stats are:

Power billed 
Power generated
   

January 31st

After work, I went up into the attic to spend a little time cutting and hammering and so on.  I've got to the point where I can start building the plinth that the fan is going to sit on.  Yay.



After I was finished up there, we watched Contagion, which is a good, but depressing view about what'll happen come the zombie apocalypse.