Another Snowfall

Wednesday afternoon into Thursday afternoon we had another snow and added about 3 or 4 more inches. I have really enjoyed the snow because the wind stopped blowing and I don't have to live with it for another 4 months :)

   Kuuipo really enjoys the snow and is taking the cold temperatures in stride.

White Christmas

Last night it began to snow and this morning we woke up to a blanket of several inches of snow and the temp was 0ºF/-17ºC. It should not get above freezing so the snow will last until at least tomorrow. Kuuipo sure did enjoy it.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!!

Wyoming Christmas

So this Christmas I am going to Wyoming and visit my family. Since Kuuipo  is going with me we rented a car and drove the 17+ hours. Each year it seems to get a little more difficult to drive. However the weather was good and the roads were dry.

 Unfortunately the wind has been howling so far and there is no snow on the ground. It is possible that we might get some snow Christmas Eve in to Christmas day. But up here you never know.

Kuuipo enjoyed the ride with "buddy".

To get to Casper you have to leave I-80 and then go about 110 miles on two lane roads. Once you leave the Interstate you drop down into a wide flat area that looks more impressive than this picture.

As you get closer to Casper the road takes you right by Independence Rock. Click the link to read more about  it.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Christmas.

Windows 8

At my work we have to record alterations markings for clothing and match that up against the individuals that own the clothing.  We have large numbers to track and we used to do it serious old school with matrix style paper that had three carbon copies (yes I actually said carbon copies). If you are under 30 you probably have no idea what I am talking about. While they were actually carbon-less paper the concept is still there. One copy went here, one copy went there, and one more copy usually got lost or was very hard to find. And God forbid if you actually wrote on another piece of paper that was on top of these forms, EVERYTHING transferred.

So we finally moved into the 21st century and converted everything into a SQL database that used the tablets as the interface.  We used these for about six months but with the large amount of data the tablets were not powerful enough to use them. So now we are using laptops that convert into tablets and I was able to purchase one of these tablets at a reasonable price.  The tablet has a docking keyboard that enables it to be used like a laptop. 

It originally came with Win 7, and when using the keyboard and mouse it's just fine, but trying to use it as a tablet is difficult. Not to mention there are no apps for the Win 7 OS.  So I decided to upgrade to Win 8 and at only $40 it was a no brainer. However actually doing it was quite the adventure.

Downloading Win 8 and burning a bac- up DVD was easy but the actual install...not so much.  First off the HDD on the tablet is only 32GB so that only left me with about 14GB available.  I start the install and after about 5 min it tells me that Win 8 needs 16GB available, ARE YOU KIDDING ME? OK fine, I will go in and remove some programs.  I only got it up to 15.2GB and that was it.  OK fine, since I have nothing important installed I will just format or erase the HDD and then install Win 8.  Guess what? I  couldn't boot to DOS to format the drive. OK fine, I will just run a program to wipe the drive. I tried Boot and Nuke and KillDisk and damned it the wouldn't work, I kept getting errors. OK fine, it has been almost 4 hours now since I began the download of Win 8 and now I am getting really frustrated.  Then I decide to try the install from the backup disk hoping that I can format the drive. I am finally able to boot from the external disk drive (getting to the BIOS is not easy either) and then I click on the typical ((recommended) as they say) and after 10 min I get the error "another operating system is detected, if you continue with the install you will lose all your information. Install some other freaking way" (That last sentence I added). ARE YOU KIDDING ME? OK fine, I will now use the custom install (for advanced users), which I think I am one. And guess what I find? The format button, and all was good in Brett's world.

So finally I was able to get Win 8 installed!!! I really like it and it works great on the tablet. It runs lighter than Win 7 and the boot time is incredible.

• With Win 7 it took 1 minute and 10 seconds to boot
• With win 8 it takes 16 seconds

Here are the pics:

Master Bath finally completed

We have been using the bathroom now for a couple of months but two weeks ago we have finally completed all work. The last piece was the threshold that we ended up ordering on-line.

 If you remember we both took a week off from work with the hope of actually getting most if not all of it done. However we both got sick and then finally decided to take are time and do this as best as possible which turned out to be the best move.

Below is the "transformation" of the master bath.

Battle on the Midway

Thank you to all Veterans!!

Like I said in my last post, we scored some tickets to the #20 SDSU and #9 Syracuse game on the USS Midway. It was sunny, 68°F and the wind was about 15mph in other words a beautiful day. We walked around a little before we went to the ship.

The Bob Hope tribute was pretty cool, all the statues were life size and they were running a sound track of his performances. And what is a veterans day without the 911 Truthers (sarcasm).

911 Truthers

 If this game had been a battle of the mascots we would have won easily. What the hell is that? An orange tennis ball?

Unfortunately it wasn't and the Aztecs suffered a loss 62-49. The Aztecs could have made it a game if they had made their free throws, but went 14-33, a whopping 42%.

Since we were sitting in the military section we received some hats which were OK but we also got a coin that was pretty cool. Actual size is 2½ inches. The date is different because the game was postponed from Friday to today.

Overall it was really cool and as you can see by the video and the pictures we were really close to the court.

Erin Andrews

Dick Enberg and Steve Kerr

High Winds and a Basketball Game

This weekend we finally got our first winter storm. Keep in mind a winter storm for San Diego is probably a mild annoyance for most everyone else, but for us it's a big deal.  We probably got a half inch where we live but our mountains were suppose to around 6 inches of snow. It was a fairly cold storm (for San Diego) and this morning I finally had to turn on the heat. I usually fire it up when the inside of the house gets around 60°F and it was close enough at 61°F, outside was a "cold" 52°F.

Today we had unusually high winds for San Diego and as I was watching SDSU beat up on Air Force I kept hearing what sounded like a door shutting hard. "A" looked out and the wind actually broke my gate.

So now I have another project this weekend, but it will have to wait. We just scored two free tickets to the Battle on the Midway being played on the USS Midway between SDSU and Syracuse University. Friends of ours had the tickets but could not go so they gave them to us. The tickets are going between $150 to $500 dollars and the court-side are going for $1,000. It looks like only about 5,000 seats will be available and the game is sold out. We are very lucky and grateful for them.

My next post will be about the game.

Banquette

This weekend was spent building our banquette for the breakfast nook. We always thought that space would be perfect for a built in. The hard part was the design but in the end we decided to have a simple L with a shaker design that would go with the cabinets and doors.

It took 5 hours on Saturday and another 6 hours on Sunday to complete the box. It sits 16 inches off the floor and we will add anther 3 or 4 inches with a cushion. The back will consist of throw pillows against the wall. We still have to paint it and then build the table but we are unsure of what kind of table (round/oval/rectangle).

I used 2 inch brad nails and wood glue to assemble the box

 

I then used wood screws to attach the studs and the second box.

When I went vertical with my stud supports the 2nd L box was too big to do in the nook so I had to assemble it in the dining room. Getting it back in was a challenge. I knew that it came out so it had to go back, it just went back a certain way.

 And the wall was the casualty.

 

I always like to leave a little time capsule or at least a note saying when it was built and who did it. That way when someone tears it out I think it would be pretty cool to get a note from the past. You can see it below.

I used wood glue and 2 inch brads to attache the top and side panels.

No wall is ever straight and when we cut the top it had to be an angle cut so both pieces would fit. I got the cut down and they fit perfectly. However when I assembled it I forgot to do a dry fit before I glued and nailed down the first panel. I HAD A 50/50 CHANCE OF INSTALLING IT CORRECTLY. I got it wrong. When I put the second panel on it did not fit. So I used the circular saw and made it fit.

We used 2 1/2 inch trim to make the shaker design. And Kuuipo just had to get in the picture :)