LOTD: Collection Curtain

Some day when I own a house and have some spare cash, I would like to set up some sort of green energy collection. I am thinking solar panels and battery storage. Maybe a small wind turbine. There are lots of options there.

Friday while reading Gizmodo, I saw an interesting idea. Curtains that double as solar panels. You close the curtains since you want to block the sunlight from the room, but why not make that curtain more functional? Embed tiny solar panels in the fabric and put them to work while keeping your house cool.

Read about it on Gizmodo.

Bailed Watching

It started last night. I got into a weird funk and was not myself. My plan was to go out to the midway and take some night time pictures. I bailed on that and sulked at home while staying up late watching a movie.

This morning I was still in the funk and I don’t imagine I was very enjoyable to be around. Not a good thing for Fathers day.

Of course the coffee I made this morning was pretty gross, so while we were out we stopped at Serious Coffee so I could get something enjoyable. Well, that one turned out to be pretty gross too. We got to a park so Sprout could play, and I couldn’t even enjoy watching him.

Finally after Sprout and Beet were down for their naps I started to perk up. Now I am feeling better but over half of the day is gone. Meh. Down with bad moods I say! Especially on Fathers day.

Jerseys Check

A great night for Ulti tonight. Very little wind, and you could almost call it warm. Bonus points for the team jerseys arriving tonight too.

The game itself was pretty good. The team played pretty good, but we still need to work on the basics like stacking, cutting, clearing, and holding the force. It is still a lot of fun though. I was handling quite a bit tonight but my throws weren’t as accurate as I would have liked them.

There was one controversy too. As my check caught the disk close to the sideline, I could see one end zone and I thought he looked out. I asked him to check his feet, and as I looked to the other end zone, he passed the disk on to one of his teammates. Turned out he was in, but this caused a bit of a debate on the rules. I agreed he was in, but I asked him to check his feet and there was no time in which he did that. Not only that, but after catching it he stepped out of bounds, and threw it from there. In the end he got the disk back and we played on with their team in possession still. The ended up scoring anyway, it was just a little weird, and tense for a bit.

Back to the jerseys. We were told our color was salmon. I ask you, is this jersey salmon colored?

Surgery Recommended

Yoshi was in at the vet today for some surgery. He has had a couple lumps growing on his chest for a while but recently they started looking really gross. Our vet was more comfortable removing them than leaving them on so we went for it.

While he was under Yoshi also had his teeth cleaned, and a small part of his gum removed (it was growing down over his tooth). Of course with pets anesthesia is a bit tricky and can be dangerous so it is not an easy decision. He was under once before with no side effects so that helped us a little.

His appetite upon arriving home was normal, and he was quite happy to eat. Less happy to take his antibiotics though. This resulted in him spitting one out a couple times reducing it to a paste which coated my fingers. Yeuck.

One of the after care things we need to do is provide him a soft cushy bed. We also have to prevent him from licking and scratching his incision. The solution recommended was an old t-shirt. Looking good Yoshi!

Visiting Tired

We are just winding down an incredible weekend. Tiring, lots of visiting, lots of food, and lots of fun. Friday night we didn’t really do too much, but Saturday we watched the Oak Bay Tea Party Parade with some friends. We then stopped at the office to check on a couple work things while Sox did some shopping at Nicholas Randal. Then it was home for nap time.

Saturday evening we went to one of Sox’s co-workers houses for a pasta feast. Lots of adults, and lots of kids at a lot of home made pasta. Very, very yummy.

Today we went to another of Sox’s co-workers for a visit, some playtime, and some lunch. Home again it was nap time for everyone except me. Don’t feel too sad for me though since I got to finish my novel.

This evening we had some friends and their three kids over for a big home made pizza feast that also celebrated a couple birthdays. After a quick bath we managed to get the kids in bed and asleep.

Just thinking about doing all this makes me tired!

Recommended Clean

Friday Sox got the call from PreTech Collision that our car was ready. PreTech came recommended from the Honda dealership, so we took our car there to get the body work done.

I realized after the fact that I never took any pictures of the damage done to our car, but the fixed up car is looking good. It seems to be in better shape than when we got the car, which is just fine in my book.

The best part? They completely cleaned the interior which included a carpet shampoo. Sure the car stinks of cleaner, but at least we know it is clean.

I met Sox down there after riding in from Oak Bay on my bike. The Enterprise car rental people drove Sox, Sprout, and Beet down there and I was there to help do the transfer of car seats to our car. One funny thing was that Sprout didn’t want to get out of his seat. He wanted to just sit there eating his crackers. After giving him ample warning that his seat was coming out, I did it. But I left him strapped in it as I removed it from the rental. He thought that was funny, and I thought it was a fair compromise.

Surpassed Fun

Friday was my last day of Bike to Work Week. My main goal for the week was to break 80 km so I could get a free beer 🙂 Then on Thursday night once I had surpassed that I thought that I should try for something more lofty. At first I thought I should make 100 km a goal, but when I arrived at work on Friday I noticed I was 4 km shy of the 100km mark. Too easy.

The goal changed to be 120km for the week, which meant I needed a long commute home (over 24 km). My day transpired against me, so I was only able to eek out approx 16 km on ride home Friday which lead to a week total of approximately 112.35 km ridden. I am still very proud of that number, and it is something I am aiming to beat next year.

Over the week I came to love riding my mountain bike turned road bike. I put some fat slicks on my green machine, and wow, was it ever a blast to ride. I know the balance points on that bike really well, so I felt very comfortable leaning it into corners. It also has a favorable geometry, comfortable seat, cushy front fork with 5 inches of travel, wide handle bars, and some nice hydraulic rim brakes. Fun fun fun.

The other thing I grew to love was riding with my messenger bag. I bought a plain jane MEC Brenta Courier bag. I found this way more comfortable than a back pack, and offered more visibility when looking for traffic. I also thought that my gear was more stable on my back when twisting to look for traffic. Overall the slicks and the pack were excellent purchases from MEC.

Effective Ground

Ulti last night was awesome. We lost the game 11-9 but as a team we played great.

I was very happy with how I played too. I was able to pace myself so I didn’t run out of gas, but I was still very effective in the game, making cuts, handling the disk, and being strong on defense.

One specific play I was happy with we were pulling. Actually I was pulling, and we were planning to throw on the zone defense. I actually volunteered to be the top of the cup, so with me pulling I had to book it down the field.

I gave the disc a whirl and it floated down the field. It was an awesome pull and gave the whole team to get down field and set up the zone. As I got set for a lot of running I saw the handler getting ready to toss the disc to my right. I went to block it with my hand but it was pretty low to the ground. Then I felt an amazing sensation of disk hitting the pad of my hand and I saw it fall to the ground.

Turn over on the line. Gotta love that.