home reno: guest bathroom underway

Posted on April 30, 2011 by admin

/sitting at  the Tucson airport on my way to Portland

I haven’t posted much on the house lately. That’s not to say Tavo hasn’t been working on it 6 days a week for many months. Most of the work is tedious and less than glamorous. However, we’re getting to some exciting points in the process.

Last week Tavo installed sound board around the master bedroom. This is to make reduce sound as it will border the living room. Also, he started the layout on the guest bathroom. Seeing the walls and shower frame is exciting.

The goal for this week is to have the drywall completed on all of the outer walls.

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car wash and rummage sale…

Posted on April 23, 2011 by admin

We have a group of nearly 20 people at church going on a trip to Honduras in July. The cost will run just over $20k. So we’ve been having a number of fund raising events. Today we did a car wash and rummage sale at the church. This was our second car wash and second rummage sale, but first car wash AND rummage sale. It was nearly three times as successful as our first car wash, but only about half as successful as our first rummage sale. It was a lot of work, but we had fun.

We had a pretty sweet layout. Three stations: wash/rinse, dry (with leaf blowers as seen above), and vacuum.  I found we could wash a car in about three minutes, but the vacuuming added another 10-15 minutes per vehicle. The next time we do this, I am going to recommend we cut the vacuum station.

After today, we are nearly half way to our goal.

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farewell Dr. Richards…

Posted on April 23, 2011 by admin

Sad night. My good friend Ben is leaving for Albuquerque tomorrow morning for a new job as a staff scientist for commercial company. Ben was my first friend here in Tucson and therefore my oldest friend, so it is quite sad to see him go. Yesterday he completed PhD at the University of Arizona in Optics.

Our book group won’t be the same. We have been meeting mostly monthly for years. We won’t miss some of the horrible books he’s picked though.

Ben introduced me to shooting and hand guns in particular. I have a lot of good memories of going to the silhouette range and even shooting in a match.

And the endless conversations over the economy. There’s only a few other people I can have those conversations with (without losing my mind).

I learned much from him about the Van Allen radiation belts and FEMA camps.

We will continue our legacy together at reformedaudio.org where we hope to generate enough revenue to soon retire!

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Toscanos…

Posted on April 17, 2011 by admin

Yun and I spent the weekend in Mexico. Saturday night, we went to a restaurant called Toscanos which is near Dr. Vargas’ clinic.

Toscanos is an Italian place and this was my first Mexican Italian experience. It was a good experience.

Our appetizer:

Yun’s dinner:

This was also my first experience with the tannat grape. We bought a bottle of wine from Uruguay called Traversa. It was especially impressive and inspired a conversation regarding a future trip to Buenos Aires and Montevideo. Yun’s parents also committed to going to Honduras in July.

I would definitely visit this restaurant again. We had fun and the food was great.

Here is our dessert:

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Hevelius…najlepszy piwo.

Posted on April 15, 2011 by admin

Made my first trip to Total Wine tonight. Incredible. Like BevMo, but better. They have a much more impressive Spanish wine selection. I have been working my way through the various regions and the various grapes (mostly tempranillos and garnachas).

I purchased a Polish beer as well. Hevelius Kaper. It is made by Elbrewery in Elblag, Poland. Elbrewery makes a couple of my favorites: EB and Zywiec. The Hevelius is much stronger (8.7%). It is named after Johannes Hevelius, or the name his mother called him Jan Heweliusz. He was an astronmer, like Nicolaus Copernicus, or as his mother called him Mikolaj Kopernik. Polaks have always been genetically superior astronomers.

The beer was good. Strong. But enjoyable.

I enjoyed it while watching the movie Faster.

I like Dwayne Johnson (The ROCK) and Billy Bob Thorton. This movie was a movie about revenge. Dwayne Johnson is the Arnold Schwarzenegger of the 2000s. I’ve loved nearly every movie of Arnold’s. Commando. Predator. Terminator. I get the same feeling with Johnson.  He was great in The Scorpion King.

I’m not sure this movie would appeal to many. However, if you like the Arnold movies I mentioned above, you might just like it.

* Recommended

Posted in movies, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

shark tank…

Posted on April 13, 2011 by admin

ABC has a new show out there called Shark Tank. Hulu has four episodes archived here. Interesting premise. Entrepreneurs present business plans to venture capitalists who potentially bid on the opportunity to invest in those plans.

Good show.

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couple of good releases

Posted on April 12, 2011 by admin

We saw two movies over the weekend. Both were great.

Limitless.

Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper (Hangover fame). Awesome movie, mostly due to the premise of the film. A pill that makes you smart. Side effect happens to be death. So the fun is short lived.

* Recommended


The Adjustment Bureau.

This is the story of a politician who meets a ballerina hiding in the men’s bathroom. The politician is played by Matt Damon, the ballerina by Emily Blunt. The premise of the story reminds me of an old Twilight Zone episode where life, as a series of events, is orchestrated by individuals who are responsible for these series of events. Nothing is left to chance.

The underlining theme seems to have something to do over the determinist debate. Matt Damon refuses to do as the adjustment bureau dictates. I suppose this might be intended as a case for freewill (whatever that means). If that was the intent, the movie failed miserably. However, the plot was enjoyable enough to watch and as such:

* Recommended

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poker night

Posted on April 10, 2011 by admin

Friday night was the first of many poker nights at the house. Fourteen guys played. It was awesome. It would have been more awesome had I taken the pot.

I had taken an early lead and was chip leader for a good portion of the game. Ben was clearly impressed as can be seen above by his pointing to my massive pile of chips.

Sadly, that came crashing down when I went all in on a hand I was sure I had. Even so, I had the opportunity to smoke three cigars (they get better the more you smoke) and enjoyed time with the guys.

First place: Daniel Lindberg ($85)
Second: Bill Nye ($50)
Third: Ben Hoffman ($30)
Fourth: Me ($10)

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ok, not allergies. something nonetheless.

Posted on April 1, 2011 by admin

So the dogs apparently don’t have a case of bad allergies. Good guess on our end. Thank you internet for leading me to believe I could self diagnose my dogs ailments and then prescribe the wrong medicine.

Yun took the beasts to the vet yesterday and was given some doctor-prescribed medicine and some cones for their heads. The dogs hate the cones, much like we hate listening to them run into things in the middle of the night.

Apparently we have another week of this.

Posted in scout!, tila! | 2 Comments

household allegeries

Posted on March 28, 2011 by admin

This has been an unusual Spring. A few weeks back we could hardly see the mountains due to the amount of dust and pollen in the air. This has taken its toll on us and the dogs.

I have never had allergies in my life and I’m pretty confident the dogs haven’t either. However, last night we realized the dogs had a problem opening one of their eyes. Not good. We did a bit of online research and concluded it was likely due to allergies. I have a similar problem with my eyes, but not to the same degree.

We have been sniffling and sneezing quite a bit. So we went to Walgreens tonight to buy some Benadryl. Apparently it is not only safe for humans, but a popular allergy remedy for pets. After the Benadryl, we applied some chamomile tea bags to their eyes and gave them an immune supplement Yun purchased earlier.

Ah yes, the wisdom of the Internet.

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