David’s Neighborhood

OK - today was the day before the convention actually starts.  I flew into Dallas this morning.  I remember part of the beverage service and the landing.  I guess I needed sleep.  I purposely took the seat next to the engine so that:

A) The white noise from the engine would be soothing.
B) The noise from the engine would prevent people from talking.

Both worked.  At one point the noise got annoying so I put in my earbuds and listened to music.  I made it half-way through the second song before I was asleep again.  That helped me be slightly more alert.

The directions from Yahoo had me using the toll road when there was a perfectly good non-toll road alternative.   Luckily I knew this from previous trips.  So I made it to the hotel with very little fuss.

My buddy got here Tuesday so we met up at the hot tub for some catch-up and some relaxation.  Make a note of this - pools in Texas generally aren't heated.  This can be quite a surprise after sitting in a hot tub for a while.  We found it easier to use the ladder into the deep end instead of the stairs at the shallow end.  The stairs gave us too much of a chance to chicken out.

It started to rain a bit while we were in the pool but no storm so we just waited it out.  It worked.  A couple of rounds of hot tub - pool really relaxed the muscles kinked up from days of prep, hauling around heavy luggage and sleeping in an airplane.

Reaper is nice enough to do a "meet and greet" with food for all the early arrivals.  They also gave us our convention packets so we don't have to clog up the official registration tomorrow.  There were some really fun things in the packets this year.  Two of the reformulated Pro Paints, some CAV cards, some other surprises.  The new Casketworks is not in color which seems like a throwback to the early days but it makes sense.  Only a few pages were in color.  Most of the catalog was black and white anyway.  Doesn't help the color swatches they used to have tho.

Most everyone had left by around 10:00 or so.  Getting back to the hotel I changed into my comfy clothes, poured a margarita (darn these small hotel cups) and set about fixing the pieces that broke off the Hirst Arts piece I brought as a gift.  ReaperClark kindly provided me a tube of two part epoxy so I didn't have to hunt around for a store this late at night.  Unfortunately as I fixed it all back up I noticed a missing brick at the join of one of the sections.  A completely missing brick.  Argh.  I'll have to give it to the person this way and send them the missing brick and that annoys me.  But it should also teach me to leave things until last minute.

I stopped at the package store to get my contribution to ShinerCon later this weekend.  For those not informed a 'package store' is a liquor store and ShinerCon is one night when we all meet in someone's hotel room and indulge in Shiner beer.  Shiner is a local brand of beer.  There's a secret handshake and some of us attach Shiner bottle caps to our badges the next day.  It's all part of ReaperCon.

The convention officially opens at noon on Thursday.  That lets me sleep in a little and hopefully hit that hot tub again.  I won't have time after that because I'm going to be at Reaper from 9:00am until around 11:00pm if last year is any indication.  And Sunday I'll be going directly from Reaper to visit my dad.  And don't think I won't be hitting the hot tub once I get to that hotel.  But I get ahead of myself.

Tomorrow I have one class on painting army highlights.  The rest of the day is mine.  There's games to play, people to chat with, painting to do, shopping to do, and otherwise just hang out.

I'll report back on Official Day One tomorrow.  I would add pictures but I can't get them from the camera to the computer I'm using here.  I could probably have used one of the adapters from home but the one that would have been easiest is USB 2.0 and this is an older computer that doesn't support it.  Ditto on the media player - I can charge it using the computer but not transfer files.

Margarita number three is almost gone so it's time to toddle off to sleep.

From Southernfood.about.com

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup cake flour
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick (4 ounces) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
• 3/4 cup half and half

PREPARATION:

Roll the dough to about 3/4-inch thickness on a floured surface. Cut out biscuits with a 3-inch round cutter. Gather up dough scraps, reroll, and repeat the procedure until dough is used up. Place biscuits on an ungreased baking sheet.

Bake biscuits in center of a 400° oven until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Serve biscuits hot, with butter.
Makes about 12 biscuits.

Notes: I found the dough particularly sticky, no doubt as a result of the amount of cake flour vs. regular flour.  You may want to adjust the proportions.

Well after many years of not keeping fish, I've decided to try my hand at it again. The last time I kept fish I was into large live food eating fish. Easy way to put that experience is my tanks and filters weren't large enough to handle that type of fish keeping, so it wasn't enjoyable.

This time around I've done alot of research into what I might like to keep and I've turned to a buddy that's big into his fish. I've decided to keep african cichlids, which my buddy had kept for a time and then got fed up with how nasty they are, he kept and all male tank. I on the other hand always have to try my hand at breeding be it reptiles, bugs and now fish, it's what keeps me interested in the animals in my care.

Overall of tank

This is that tank so far, it's a 55 gallon with and Aquaclear 110 and a Tertra Whisper for filter, a marineland powerhead that's rated for moving 300 gph, a aquaclear powerhead rated for 270 gph and the standard 48" lighting which I plan on upgrading.

Right now I have 3 goldfish and 1 koi that I rescued from the pond next door to me. The house was foreclosed on and these poor guys were left behind. They'll be going to my girlfriend's parents pond in the next week or two.

 I plan on keeping Pseudotropheus saulosi and Metriaclima estherae (Red Zebra). Pseudotropheus saulosi  the males are a nice blue with striping and the females yellow.  The Metriaclima estherae 

I'm planning on getting the males are a powder blue and the female are a bright red/orange. The powder blue males are proving hard to find around here. When this species was brought into the pet trade an orange male variant were the first males brought into the pet trade so being line bred that's what I'm finding is orange males and I want the blue males. 

Left side of tank

Right side of tank

Well, after 2 days of work on the bathroom I have alot done. Please note: My bathroom is really small. So small that 6 sheets of 4' x 8' drywall 'should' cover it. As of noon today, I have two walls completely torn down and replaced with greenboard, one wall 3/4 down and that same amount covered in greenboard, and the bathroom fan put on it's own switch finally. All the main walls are up for the bathtub surround, but we are considering buying another surround to help protect the wood behind the windows.

On the job note, I still have not heard anything. I sit in limbo still Ah well.

Got the second unit finished.

orcwarband2

They're on the right (the first is on the left.  Now that they are done, I'm working on my Arrer Boyz next.  I'm going to take a quick break to read my new book--it has got me thinking about some things that I may mull around here.

Too much to do and not enough time!  How many times (hah!) have you heard that?

I leave for ReaperCon next week and pretty much immediately after I return we go on our first camping trip of the season.  We haven't really dredged out the camper for this year, I only have half the linens washed, the icebox needs to be scrubbed, etc.  We don't have a way to hook up power to the camper where it is so I can only work during daylight hours.  And there's no way I'm getting the last two curtains made before the first trip but that's less of an issue since they're replacement curtains.

Our weekend is half-booked so I'm really hoping I can use the other half.  Reeeeally hoping.

I need to finish painting and landscaping a piece I'm bringing to ReaperCon as a gift so that's also going to have to get done this weekend so it has time to dry before being packed.

So, if anyone can toss a day my way it would be greatly appreciated.

PS - the dandylions have won this round.  I will resort to chemicals to win the battle.

Well, it is now nearly 24 hours past when I should have heard about the job situation. As some of you may know I was suspended from work pending termination due to my Dr's Offices not filling out the paperwork ahead of time. I attended a review board on Friday, 5-2-08, and was supposed to hear back within 2 business days. It is now Wednesday, 5-7-08, and I still have not heard back about it.

Next, well, a few days ago my wife was taking a shower, and some (4) of the tiles in the shower fell down, some breaking. So Monday I went to fix them, temporarily, until the job situation improves. That did not work out so well and I will explain why. While remodelling the new babies room (which shares a wall with the bathroom) I noticed that the drywall behind the bathrub surround was 'gone', destroyed by a leak. Well, this has lead to the surround flexing due to no support behind it, which has caused the grout holding the tiles on the wall to weaken and break. So, when I tried to put the new tiles in place, it flexed the surround some more, which caused even MORE tiles to fall off. The leak was caused by my 'valve' that was old and not working well, and by the surround which had broken when the home owner who tiled the tub surround did it incorrectly. Needless to say I need to replace the surround.

Now, on top of the leak we've had tiles coming up off of the floor in the bathroom for over a year now. It looks like we may be doing a quick/inexpensive remodel of the bathroom REAL soon. One plan is to remove all the tiles from the bathroom, re-drywall it with greenboard, a new floor, and a new tub surround. Our bathroom is so small that 6 sheets of 4'x8' greenboard will cover the entire bathroom.

Now, yesterday we bought a new showerhead and valve, due to the leakage of the old one. I installed it, but doing so turned off the water heater. No I can not get the pilot lite to come back on, and I don't have much pressure coming out of the valve. At least, not nearly the water pressure that I had. We have a service plan on our appliances through the gas company, so they will come out for free to relite the water heater and to fix the tumbler on the drier, which is off-balance, but they can not be here until tomorrow. And the plumber, to fix the valve with no pressure, will also be coming out tomorrow, as that is the soonest we can get a plumber out.

So Easy Fish Fillets
Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Rinse 4 fish fillets (any white fleshed fish),
and dry off with paper towels.
Lay fillets on a rack in shallow pan,
slather each fillet with mayonaise, and then
sprinkle with a little lemon pepper.
Crumble approx. 20 saltine crackers in bowl, 
and spread cracker crumbs to cover mayonaise.
(Looks better if crumbs are not completely crushed)
Bake 20 mins. at 400 degrees or until fish flakes easily.
Cracker top will brown, but you might want to check
while cooking to make sure crackers don't burn.

Somehow it became my responsibility to keep the yard free of the Yellow Menace.  We didn't have a problem with them until a few years ago and then they invaded.

If you don't live in an typical American suburb/small town you might not understand the mindset.  Dandelions are a scourge.  To have them in your yard shows a lack of character on your part.  Neighbors talk about you over backyard fences.  You're not invited to block parties.  You're shunned.  Well, maybe not that bad but if you live in an area with the putting green yards and you have dandelions you really are an outcast.

One of our neighbors showed us a yard tool called a Weed Hound.  This thing really works and gets down about three inches under the surface to pull up roots.  Personally I think it could be about six inches taller but that's just me.  The Rastl household has found that using this hurts Mr. Rastl's back too much so Rastl gets to pull all the weeds.  Funny that.

So every day when I take the dogs out I scout the yard for offending yellowness.  And then I go around and yank the suckers out.  There is something strangely satisfying about the crack of hearing a taproot break, knowing you got it in just the right place.  I'm not strong enough to just push down on the plunger to clear and rest the tool so I have to spin it around and drop it on the ground.  Spin it back upright and off to the next one.

Right now there's a pile of pulled dandelions on the tiny section of patio bricks, waiting to be bagged up.  It kind of feels like a victory pile as I see all the weeds that didn't get a chance to fulfill their mission.

Some notes on dandelions.

They hide.  A lot of the time until you see them flower you don't even realize they were there.  The center of the plant is just below the surface and once you locate it you can see all the flower heads waiting for their chance.  So another strain is getting down there and locating the heart of the beast.

They're huge.  You pull out one from the center and suddenly you've got a foot-wide spread of leaves.  Since they're so low to the ground they can keep their leaves under the grass.

They'll be back.  I can break off the taproot but I know it's still there.  Waiting for a chance to grow.

But overall if I can keep them from going to seed I think I'm doing well.  I might slowly reduce the number of them in the yard as they don't regrow after being pulled but if they go to seed I'll have a whole new back to deal with later.

In summary.  If you need to get rid of dandelions, don't want to use chemicals, and can invest a little bit of money in a tool go for that Weed Hound.  And somehow get someone else in your household to use it.