Betsy and Brett's Alaskan Cruise
I'm working on some new picture-posting technology. It's not totally done, but, here's a link to pictures from our Alaskan cruise. No kids, but cool stuff, anyway...
David Marks and Woodworking
I feel like David Marks has taught me more - through his show - about woodworking than anyone else. Norm's show is more famous (and still actually on TV), but it has a different focus. The New Yankee Workshop is essentially a how-to show that tells you exactly how to build a particular piece of furniture. You watch Norm do it, you order plans, you make your copy. I think it's a great show for getting started with, but Norm has a particular pallette of techniques that he likes - no doubt influenced both by what his viewers can accomplish and the time constraints of his show - and, once you've seen a lot of them, there isn't a lot new, there. It's just the same basic building blocks in different furniture styles.
Wood Works, on the other hand, tried to focus on new and interesting ways of doing things. Certainly you can find something to complain about on any show - Mr. Marks' overuse of the ludicrously expensive MultiRouter comes to mind - but overall, I felt like I'd gotten more from his show than any other single source. If only for that reason, I wanted to shake his hand and tell him how much I'd gotten from the show.
The class actually ended up mostly being David Marks tuning up a bandsaw well enough to make the thin cuts he needed. But that was much more useful to me than what I signed up for. Like a lot of woodworking, if you have perfectly functioning machines, it's pretty easy stuff. What the shows on TV often elide is how difficult it is to set those machines up correctly, to begin with.
He also told a lot of anectdotes about the show - as you might imagine, almost all the students were fans. It was very comforting, after watching him be so constantly on top of things on the show, to see him wandering around the shop with a hand on his head, saying, "Where did I put that pencil?"
During the lunch break, Blake came in and got to meet him, which both of them enjoyed.
[Note: I back-dated this post for continuity, but I actually wrote the above on 7/12/06 -BAT]
RIP Light Lofty Plant Car
Well, the Betta, Light Lofty Plant Car ended up being a "starter fish" and was found floating in his tank, this morning. Blake's taking it OK. I felt it important to memorialize his name.
Walking National Electric Code
One of Blake's favorite books is Outdoor Projects 1-2-3, from the Home Depot. It's sadly out of print (they've switched to seperate 1-2-3 books for various outdoor subects, like Landscaping 1-2-3). Blake took my copy several years ago, and our copy is now disintegrating because it's been a little too-loved.
I think he was attacted to it because of all of the information about water in it (sprinkler systems, etc)., but it includes a lot about electricity, too. Electrical installation is governed by the National Electric Code, or NEC, or "code," which gives precise instructions on how to install electrical equipment (indoors or outdoors) such that it's least likely to cause a fire.
The other night we were driving to Home Depot before dinner to pick up some "backer boards," which are just generic 1" thick boards that are used to support wiring when you run it across a gap in an unfinished area (such as an attic). Blake wanted to know how I was going to affix the cable to the boards, and I told him, "with cable staples," which are similar to the staples you'd use to hold paper togher, except you hammer them into wood. Immediately, he said, "Don't hit them too hard!"
"I won't," I assured him. "Don't hit them too hard" is the standard advice on using cable staples. "Why do you say that?" I asked. "Because," he explained, "if you hit them too hard, you'll damage the cable." He was, of course, right, which is why that's the standard advice on using them. He confirmed Outdoor Projects as his source.
So, today, I was installing an AC (plug-in) smoke detector in his room. I'd installed a plastic junction box in a hole I'd made in his ceiling, and pushed all the power wires down into it. I brought the tools and supplies I needed to affect the connection, including a green Term-A-Nut ground terminator. "What's that?" he asked. I explained that I'd be using it to connect the two grounding wires running through the junction box, and attaching the "tail" from the connector to the junction box's grounding screw. "But Dad," he said immediately, "Plastic junction boxes don't need grounding screws!"
I was floored. I bet there are licensed electricians that don't know that (say, the ones that did the wiring in my house before I moved in). I explained to him that while code doesn't require grounding screws in plastic junction boxes, as I understand code, if a box provides one (as this one did) that you must ground it. They just don't have to provide it.
Still, an amazing experience. It's really incredible what they soak up.
New Pictures
Took some of Blake & Derek in the New House. Also, Blake and I went down to Mojoave, CA, to watch SpaceShipOne go to space. Was very exciting, but we were very tired.
San Carlos History Museum
Blake and I went to the San Carlos Museum of History - conveniently open the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of every month, from 1 - 4. Blake got to sit in an antique fire truck, and I got to dig through old maps and broadsheets. I got a few pictures of each. I enjoyed the old advertisements for San Carlos - "SAN CARLOS the land of sunshine. Home of millionaires -- exclusive." I found an old broadsheet selling lots and homes in the new development of "Brittan Acres" from 1934, which includes the lot our new house was on. List price, $850.
More Pictures
Posted these about a week ago, but forgot to link to them from here. More Boys and New House!.
Derekisms
Kee-pboo-boo (Peek-a-boo)
up Daddy peese (or up Mommy peese)
ok sit next you peese
I like it: ice cream (or just about anything else)
thank you <item> (whenever he gives you an <item>)
I love you, too (usually not when he's been told "I love you" to begin with)
