Washing Quickly

Our washing machine broke down this past week. Now we need to work with our Halifax based landlord to get a replacement. PITA.

2 young children and 2 adults can produce a mountain of laundry quite quickly. Sox was able to take it to a laundromat today and got everything washed. Now we are in the process of running our dryer. The coordination needed to make time to get the washing was a pain. I can’t imagine living in a place where I needed to use a laundromat on a regular basis. The laundry room in my old apartment was bad enough.

Apples Picked

I harvested as many apples as I could from our tree today. It hadn’t produced anything in a few years, but we had it pruned last spring. I think that made a big difference.

Sprout has been pretty excited to eat the apples off the tree. I knew they were ripe when the squirrels started taking them from the tree and eating them. This picture shows what I picked today and doesn’t have the 25 or so Sox snagged this morning for applesauce, nor does it show the few here and there we picked for eating.

This yield could have been much bigger too, but there was a big wind storm yesterday that knocked a lot to the ground. That is the bad part of procrastination. As I was gathering, the ground was alive with slow, lethargic wasps eating the apples on the ground, and some of the ones in the tree.

LOTD – Olympic Photography

Only a few weeks late, but here are some Olympic links. These links are all photography related and I found them pretty amazing.

This page contains some pictures depicting preparations for the games.

I didn’t catch any of the opening ceremony, but these pictures certainly left an impression. The sheer scale of the ceremony is astounding.

Finally, for the photographer in me. Ever wondered what a quarter million dollars of photography equipment looks like? Check it out.

Twitter Try

I’ve decided to try out twitter for a bit, and see if it can add anything interesting to my blog. My tweets are here.

I haven’t been to interested in Twitter since I don’t really get the point, but I thought I would try it out anyway. So far I can see how it would be more useful if I had a cellphone to post with. For now I will rely on the web, and a couple powershell scripts that I found and modified.

Bike Fears

I took my bike into Oak Bay Bikes today to check out the mark on the frame I found on Sunday. I was concerned that a crack was forming, even though I couldn’t feel anything on the inside of the seat tube.

My fears were confirmed, and that is indeed a crack. Bummer. It isn’t bad yet, and the seat post I have is incredibly long so it extends well past the cracked area. Problem is I don’t really want to be riding the bike when it fails. It is probably fine to ride on for a while, but who wants to take changes like that?

Next step is to call Santa Cruz and see if they can help me out. I see they are making the Chameleon again so there may be some hope.

Reduce Telemarketers

The Canadian version of the National Do No Call List (DNCL) is now available for signing up. I just tried, but the site was down (maybe due to volume). It is sad that we need a list like this to try and stop telemarketers, but let’s look at the DNCL more closely.

From the site:

2. Who can still call you?

* Registering on the National DNCL will reduce but not eliminate all telemarketing calls and faxes.
* There are certain kinds of telemarketing calls and faxes that are exempt from the National DNCL, including those made by or on behalf of:

* registered charities seeking donations
* newspapers looking for subscriptions
* political parties and their candidates, and
* companies with whom you have an existing commercial relationship; for example, if you have done business with a company in the previous 18 months––such as a carpet-cleaning company––that company can call you.

* Telemarketers making exempt calls must maintain their own do not call lists. If you do not want to be called by these telemarketers, you can ask to be put on their do not call lists. They are obliged to do so within 31 days.
* For more information, see Part II of the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules and the Telecommunications Act.

Good god, that is pretty much all the unsolicited calls I get. Charities seeking donation, newspapers wanting me to buy their waste of paper, and political parties. What is the point in signing up then? I’m still going to sign up all the numbers I have, just on the off chance that it might block one, but something else to remember is that you must remember to renew your entry in the DNCL every three years. I think that sucks, but phone numbers turn over still, and marketers need to be able to reach out. Still, couldn’t the phone companies let the DNCL know when a number has been released?

On the charity note. A tact I have taken recently for charities seeking donations is this: I tell them I don’t donate nor buy things over the phone. So far that has always made them stop talking and go away. Another ploy I use at work is that I always tell them they have reached my work number. I usually get an apology 🙂 Nice!

Incredible Bender

I love fall rides. I got out for a great spin at the dump with some friends and I was reminded just how much I love riding in the fall. The air temperature was perfect, traction on the trails was incredible, there was no mud at all,the rocks were dry, and the sun was out.

We started off on Skull trail which has been something I have avoided lately as it get my heart rate too high too quickly. Today I powered up the trail, and only had one tiny dab that I could have avoided if I had slowed down.

After Skull we went up inventive, then up to C-Section, down to the fire road, then back up to Old Payoff, North Ridge, Mind Bender, then took the fire road back to Who’s Yer Daddy. Throughout all the climbing I felt awesome. My cardio was good, and my legs were strong.

I was beginning to wonder why since I haven’t been riding that much lately. On a whim the other day I jumped on the scale and was shocked to see that I was under 180 pounds. At some point since Sox and I have been together I was around 205. Perhaps the weight loss is allowing me to ride better. Maybe not. Doesn’t matter too much, but I really want more rides like today’s.

After the ride we stopped off at Bagel Queen for some tasty treats and a yummy Americano.

The only bummer on the ride was that while unloading my bike I spotted what I think might be some cracks in the frame. The marks on are the seat tube near the quick release. My seat is up pretty high, so I pulled the seat post out to double check I had the minimum insertion, which I definitely did. I felt the inside of the tube, and I couldn’t feel any crack on the inside. I will take it into a shop soon to get their opinion. That would be bad if I have to scrap the frame.

LOTD – Awesome Giggles

I work in an office where this product isn’t needed. Actually, none of the places I have worked I have not needed these sandwich bags, but I can see that some people might need them. The baggies have an image printed on the side, so that when you slide your sandwich it, it gives the appearance of looking moldy.

via BoingBoing

This looks like a pretty awesome concept for a coffee mug. If it were for sale, I would consider it.

via Gizmodo

Finally the bachelor in me giggles at this shampoo dispenser. I would have loved to have this while I was in University.

via BoingBoing

Snowbirds Zoomed

Sunday the Snowbirds were in town for a show off Dallas road. We got down there in plenty of time and eagerly waited for the show. I think Sprout quite enjoyed the show, and talked about the NoBirds for quite a while. I don’t think they did their proposed 40 minute show, but the show we got was pretty good.

After arriving I immediately noticed that the shooting conditions were less than ideal. We were facing the sun, and the Snowbirds were going to be back lit. Also, it was cloudy meaning I needed to overexpose the whole scene to try and properly expose the planes. Some dark clouds snuck up behind us while we were watching and threatened to rain on us. It was a little scary for a few minutes.

After reviewing my shots, I am pretty happy with a lot of them, but I noticed that I was deleting quite a few. I had on my long lens, and for most of the shots I was zoomed out to the full 200mm. I wasn’t very careful about bracing the camera as I shot, so I ended up with motion blur. C’est la vie. Below are some pics, but the rest of the pictures are here.

Windy Pressure

Played my first Fall Ulti game tonight. We lost. We lost bad. It was fun to get out there and run around again. A couple people on my team are from my summer league team, but other than that they are all new people. I think it is great to play with new people. You learn new strategies, pick up new plays, and have lots of fun.

It was a little windy out there tonight, so the zone was on us quite a bit. We did a great job of marching it up the field, but several times we would throw it away right at the end zone.

I felt like I played pretty well, making few mistakes. I was a handler for quite a bit, and I think I am starting to get really comfortable in that role. I’ve played enough now that I don’t feel pressure when I get the disk. Of course, sometimes I just wanna run, and really like popping, or stacking. Running felt good tonight, but it was pretty weird running on the artificial turf.

Coolest part of the game was hearing what I thought was a hawk screeching a lot. I soon learned it was an osprey, as it flew back with a fish in its talons. It landed on a light stand next to our field, after dropping a big crap on our field. It sat there eating its fish while we played on.