10 Dec 2007
As the title says, this weekend I learned about baseboard heaters. I learned much more than I ever hoped to know. I also learned a thing or two about the Wii’s sensor bar.
Saturday:
It’s Saturday night. Holly and I have spent all day on a roadtrip down to La Conner and Seattle to pick up a set of the most amazing sheets in the world and grab a bite to eat at Racha Thai. We finally get home and it’s freezing. We turn on the heat and settle in to watch some TV.
All is well until the all too familiar acrid stench of an electrical fire starts to fill the air. We get up and look around for the source of it but can’t find it. Holly primes the fire extinguisher to be sure that we’re good to go if the need arises. The stench abates temporarily.
A few minutes later we smell it again. We repeat the search routine. We still can’t find it. We suspect that it is somehow related to the heater behind the entertainment unit. We’re exhausted and don’t want to deal with it so we turn off the heat and call it a night.
Sunday:
We got up late. Very late. I swear those sheets are beyond cozy. I honestly wonder if they are laced with some sort of sleep inducing drug. They are simply fantastic!
After a lovely breakfast of homemade waffles we decided to start catching up on some work around the house. I decided that I was going to check out the heater behind the entertainment unit and see if I could figure out what had been causing that burning smell. I thought it would be simple; probably a wire a little too close to the heater that just needed to be tied back. But you see, nothing is ever that simple…
And now, a brief Leo Picture Book Story Moment:
Leo is a cat. By definition that means he is strange.
Just like other cats he likes to sleep,
he likes to play with string,
and he likes to hang with his brother (Max).
Leo also likes tenting,
talking on the phone,
and helping to butter bread.
He also happens to like playing hide and seek,
and playing ball… by the heater… where he also seems to have played with the Wii’s sensor bar…
This is a Wii sensor bar that has met it’s end on the element of a baseboard heater. You might also argue that this is a reason not to have cats.
At this point, knowing what the problem was, I called my Dad. I figured I would have to find a way to scrape that melted sensor off the element. Then investigating further I figured maybe I would have to replace the element. After talking with Dad it seemed apparent that I would need to replace the heater.
So I learned how to remove a baseboard heater. How to wire a baseboard heater and how to otherwise install a baseboard heater.
I never realized just how badly Leo wanted to be gamer. Hopefully he doesn’t toss the new sensor bar down into the heater. So to all of those gamers in the MLG who talk about how they go through a gamepad a month while practicing, let it be known that my cat is harder on equipment than you are. He melted the damn bar!
In reality though, I know he just did it so he could get a new box to play in.
02 Nov 2007
I like word games. I always have. Classics like Scrabble and Boggle leap instantly to mind.
Lately, I’ve been playing a flash game called Quick Words. You are given six random letters and you have to find as many 3-6 letter words as you can before the time runs out. You need to find at least one six letter word to move to the next round.
For a long time I spent all of my waking hours playing a game called Bookworm Adventures Deluxe made by PopCap Games. You are presented with a 4 x 4 grid of tiles and you have to spell words. The longer the word, and more exotic the letters, the more damage it does to the boss you are fighting. There are special modifier letters too. Things that cast a fire ball, or heal you, or multiply your damage, etc. It is just a really cool concept.
I’ve been seeing a lot of reimaginings of classic game concepts in the last year or so, and they tend to be some of the best games. For example there is an RPG out there that is essentially Bejeweled. It is called Puzzle Quest. When you match three of a kind you get mana, and you can then use that mana to cast spells against your enemies. You can also match three skulls and deal some damage to your opponent.
Peggle is another that tries to marry together pachinko and pinball into a game of skill. It still tends to be mostly luck in my experience, but I can see where if you could think four bounces ahead it could be about skill.
There are even some games, such as BioShock, that embed what used to be standalong games inside of them. The hacking minigame in BioShock is just PipeDream from over a decade ago. The interesting thing is to think how at one point, PipeDream was a standalone game. No one would ever pay full price for that today.
Even with all of that, I’ve been slacking when it comes to gaming lately. My poor Xbox Live gamer score has leveled out at around 10,000. I need to get back to it. There are never enough hours in the day or enough days in the week though.
Someday you’ll be able to rent time outside of time. I’m sure of it. You’ll pay for two hours and step into a pocket wormhole. Inside of that pocket two hours will pass, but you’ll only miss two seconds of real time.
Of course, when we have that level of control over wormholes we’ll be able to live in Italy and work in British Columbia with a one minute commute time. I’ll have to address how that will change the world in a future post. The really interesting tidbit is how it could almost completely replace the internet as we know it today. Think about it. Soften that noodle between your ears.
I’ve been watching my Red Wings dominate the league. The Senators are looking very strong this year as well. The Canucks have been dreadful. It is pretty amazing because they really didn’t change personnel over the summer. There is still hope, but I think it might be time for a new coach. The Oilers even have a better record than Vancouver.
/end rambling
12 Oct 2007
* Update: pictures have been added. *
Once again it is that time to put digital pen to digital paper. Life has been very, very busy since my last update. In fact, it has been too busy to update. So I will forewarn you that this is a very long update. Perhaps you should go grab a drink and put up your feet before you dive in.
Since my last installment, exactly one month ago today, I got married. I went on most of a honeymoon (still a couple of days to go before it is over). I saw a rafter of wild turkeys. I drove to the top of the world in a compact car. I watched the stars twinkle over the tree tops on a cold October night from the warmth of a hot tub (some people call them spas…). My goodness, I’ve just done so much.
So where should I start? Some would say the beginning, some would say the middle, some would be wrong. I think I’ll start with the beginning. It tends to make more sense that way. A month of insanity could make for a long entry.
I will start with bringing attention to the new subtitle of the blog. While life is still “a wonderful new adventure” with Holly, this is definitely the start of “a new chapter”. A chapter as a husband. A chapter as a Mr. to a Mrs. A chapter of wonderful change and great importance.
Now, onto everything that has happened in the last month.
We finally got the washer and dryer (about f***ing time)… When they did finally show up the delivery guys informed us of a slightly different model number for one of them that would have been quite a bit better for us due to the fact that you can move the controls to either the top or bottom of the unit (which would have helped since we stacked them). Too bad for us those guys work on the delivery end of things instead of the sales end.
I also finally got the car. A few days after telling them I just wasn’t interested in getting a car anymore they miraculously found the exact car I was looking for while doing inventory on the lot. Yeah, the lot. It had been there all along. (Technically it was on their sister-dealership’s lot. Still, if you sell cars, and you can’t keep track of the cars you have, maybe you shouldn’t sell cars.)
Anyway, I do have it. It is a wonderful little 2007 Mazda 3 Touring Edition. It has a lot of pep and tons of little extras that I really enjoy despite my best intentions not to. I swore that a sun/moonroof was just a waste of money, and yet, I use it all the time. I have more cup and bottle holders than any three normal vehicles combined. It has automatic sensing rain wipers and head lights. Just about everything is pefect. The iPod adapter flat out sucks though…
It only took a couple of weeks before I christened it with a nice big scratch.
What else are there for updates? My old 360 is on its way back to me. I have to say that the support Microsoft has setup for dealing with the 360s that have failed was the most painless customer support I have ever had to deal with. I didn’t even have to talk to anyone. I called a number and it told me how to submit a repair request online. A couple of days later I got an e-mail letting me know that a packing box was on its way. I got the box, packed my 360 up all safe and sound in the foam, plastic and cardboard they sent, and dropped it back in the mail. A week later they let me know that it was fixed and on its way back to me. It didn’t cost me a cent or a moment of hassle. A big Thank You to Microsoft! (this is the point where the PS3 fanboys jump on me from behind in the dark of night and gank me with their stories of how their PS3 never failed, blah, blah, blah… and then I say… Halo 3, Mass Effect, Eternal Sonata, Bioshock, Beautiful Katamari, Gears of War, Lost Odyssey, and then of course all of those 60fps sports games…grin) I think I need to start a software and hardware ranting blog, good times could be had. (Don’t get me wrong, I’ll probably buy a PS3 someday too.)
Work is pretty well same old-same old. I got moved away from my lovely window to a place that is hotter, brighter and covered with a strange growth of gameplay programmers. Hopefully this breed of programmer with which I am mostly unfamiliar with (other than their generally ineffecient code that has a tendency to plague my profiling) will be as easy to get along with as the more common and somewhat bioluminescent renderers.
Admittedly I have been talking to a few people out there at other companies, but only because they insist on calling me. It feels good to have your ego stroked once in a while; and someday, a manager out there will figure that out, and their software engineer retention rate will go through the roof.
Holly and I tied the knot! Let me translate that for those of you in shock, we got married! Rings on fingers. Solemn vows. Legally binding contracts. October 6th, 2007 was by far the greatest day of my young life! I have never smiled so much, or been so happy. I love you Holly! My wife! Mrs. Q!
It was very cold and raining in small buckets when we got married. The little ceremony happend out at Deas Island Park underneath a picnic shelter. It might not sound beautiful or amazing, but I assure you that it was both. We had our photographer and an RCMP friend stand in officially as witnesses.
Holly looked absolutely stunning in her dress! Her hair was done up in ringlets with snap dragons through it. Her eyes were bright with love and happiness. She had a very striking orange and white bouquet. She was a vision. The dictionary description of a beautiful woman.
Our photographer proved to the world just how photogenic Holly is with some amazing photos. She even managed to take some pictures that had me in them that I didn’t hate. There were over 500 pictures taken.
After we got married we went to a friend’s place to borrow their camera for our honeymoon. It was hilarious. As we started up the steps we could hear yelling and jumping from inside “Oh my god! Holly’s in her dress!” When we got inside more pictures were taken. It seems a lot of picture taking happens when you get married.
After that we did what can only be described as a very us thing to do. We picked up a pizza, ate and zonked out on the couch for a couple of hours. I wish I had a picture of me going in to the pizza parlour in my very snazzy Italian cut pinstripe suit.
Then we headed out for an early Thanksgiving dinner (I should probably prefix that with Canadian so as to remove any perception of time travel for my American friends :) ). We showed up at Holly’s parents in our wedding attire to surprise them all with the news!
Her grandparents and aunt and uncle were there. It was a full house and they were all happy to see us so happy. We opened a few wedding presents, ate a great meal and had a stellar desert. Then we hung around and watched the hockey game until our photos arrived. We went through all 500+ photos on the TV with her parents. I guess I can start calling them The In-Laws.
The next morning we got up exhaustingly early and started our honeymoon. 30 minutes or so into the drive I reached into my pocket to pull out my cellphone and plug it into the car charger. In went my hand, but out came the living room fan’s remote… I was phoneless. My first point of disconnection from the world. We drove down to a little town called La Conner in Washington State. We had reservations for four nights at a place called Skagit Bay Hideaway.
Skagit Bay Hideaway is run by a husband and wife team who also happen to be a chef and an architect. All of the meals are planned so that they can be heated up in the microwave so that they don’t have to bother you in the morning. The suites (of which there are only two) are poems of well used space.
I know you are thinking that microwave breakfasts sound horrible (I thought the same thing, then again I didn’t even know that breakfast was included). I assure you that these menu items that have been developed over the course of their ten years in business are sheer genius. We had several wonderful breakfasts:
Monday - ham and cheese quiche, peach scones, pineapple and grapes
Tuesday - french toast, sausage, plum and blueberry fruit cups
Wednesday - southwest green chili egg scramble, blueberry mini-scones, orange slices and cranberries
Thursday - belgian apple pancacke, bacon, kiwi slices and more grapes
The suites themsevles are quite large. The bathroom is a good size with a huge surround shower that gives every normal shower an inferiority complex. The livingroom/dining area has a wall that is mostly window, a skylight that filters down from the floor above and a fireplace. The upstairs is a nice loft stlye bedroom with the aforementioned skylight and doors that open up onto the semi-private balcony that plays the role of home to the hot tub. There are no clocks, no TV and no internet.
Here is a link to a YouTube video of the hideaway.
It felt wonderful to be fully disconnected from the rest of the world for the first time in a very long time. I won’t deny that there were pangs of withdrawal from time to time, but it felt so good to be unreachable. Holly and I, without all of the world’s nomral distractions, had amazing conversations; lazy multi-hour breakfasts; cheese and cracker feasts infront of the fire and fun day trips around the area.
When we first arrived in La Conner we were actually too early to check into the Hideaway. We still decided to go and try to find the place. It is nestled just a little distance past a very frighteningly named street; Pull & Be Damned Road. I don’t know the history of that street, and I’m not sure that I want to.
After we located the Hideaway, and confirmed that we couldn’t check-in early we headed back to downtown La Conner. We walked around, checked out a couple of shops and then decided to grab some dinner. We settled on the La Conner Brewing Co. as a place to eat. We went in, got settled in, ordered a beer sampler and got kicked out for not having ID (we had left it in the car). We had a good laugh over it as we walked back to the car to grab our IDs. I can see how Holly is questionable. I think she could pass for 21 or under, but not me. I haven’t been ID’d in a looong time; especially since growing the beard.
La Conner Brewing Co. take two went a lot smoother. They came over to the table and we already had our IDs sitting out when they got there. They looked sheepish and treated us great after that. We got the beer sampler and ordered the special of the day; pizza (that’s my kind of place). I only liked the stout and the wheat beer. Holly liked the brown amber. The pizza was a delicious little roasted beet and gorganzola number. It tasted at least 1000x better than it sounds.
On our way out of town we picked up some meat, cheese, crackers and wine at the local grocer for dinner.
The next day we took a day trip down through Deception Pass to Whidbey Island. We drove through historic Coupeville, which really had nothing to offer, and out through the natural prairie. Driving through a prairie is a special treat for a prairie boy like me. The area of Washington State where we were is perfect for Holly and I. The prairie flatlands that roll toward the horizon to meet the mountains is truly the best of both worlds. The prairie for me and the mountains for Holly.
On Tuesday we stuck close to the suite. We were both feeling a little under the weather. Other than a supply run into town we just relaxed and enjoyed the hot tub.
Wednesday brought on another day trip. We took a drive along Chuckanut Drive. We had been told that there was a great little lookout point called Cyrus’ Gate Lookout. When we turned off where the directions said to, I can honestly tell you that I was concerned that they were wrong. As we turned off the road and started up the mountain the asphalt turned to gravel and two healthy lanes shriveled down into two little almost lanes.
Our little car pulled its way up the mountain like a champ. Switchback by switchback we approached the clouds. The road got progressively narrower and narrower down to the point where it was just barely a one lane dirt road. Five and a half kilometers of uphill driving later, just when I was ready to throw in the towel and say we must have taken a wrong turn, the barely one lane dirt road mushroomed into a parking lot with a beautiful view of the bay and islands below. We even took a picture of the car up there on the top of the world, just to prove that it made it.
I won’t bore you with the details of the rest of our culinary adventures in La Conner, but I will give a brief summary. At Kerstin’s (they don’t have a website) the food and service isn’t worth the money they charge. Seeds makes some of the best sandwhiches you might ever be lucky enough to eat. La Conner Brewing Co. is always a safe choice, just stick with what they are known for (the wood fired pizzas) and the beer.
On our last full day in La Conner we finally saw the famous wild turkeys. The whole rafter of turkeys was just wandering down 3rd Street looking for something to do. Apparently early in the morning they walk down the main drag of La Conner knocking on windows looking for food. They are held sacred and protected by laws in La Conner. Holly absolutely squealed with glee when she saw the turkeys. Out came the camera and many pictures were taken.
Here is a link to a YouTube video of a news spot on the turkeys. I kid you not.
Thursday morning we checked out and headed to Seattle for phase two of our honeymoon. We got into town pretty early and headed to the famous Pike Place Market before checking in. It was my first trip to the market and I have to say that it was pretty cool. From the flying fish to the local artists to the specialty shops and tacky goods, it was all eye popping and entertaining.
We bought our first piece of cartoon art together as Husband and Wife. It captures the spirit of our cats Max and Leo pefectly. We also found an awesome little kitchen shop that has everything you ever imagined and then some. I finally found one of those halfmoon shaped pizza cutters that I have always wanted. There was an 80 dollar one that wasn’t dish washer safe, and a 10 dollar one that was. I’ll be getting the 10 dollar one. Don’t get me wrong, I can see and understand the quality of the 80 dollar cutter, but I can also see that I can replace the 10 dollar one 7 times (which is probably at least four life times) before it costs me as much as the fancy one.
The salesman was telling us that we should never put any blade in the dishwasher because it would temper the blade. My brain jumped straight to “How bad is your pizza crust that you need an incredibly sharp blade to get through it?” The pizza I make, you can cut through with a butter knife and a little pressure, with just one hand. I’ve just been planning on extending that principle to the whole width of a pizza in a single go.
We picked up a couple of fresh crabs at the market and had a barbarously decadent meal of crab meat dipped in melted better. You definitely feel like you’ve earned the succulent meat of the crab once you’ve pried it out of the shell; crab juice and butter up to your elbows with remnants of exploded shell all over the table.
Today we just tooled around the area around the hotel. We checked out a used book store and picked up a few books. Stopped in for brunch at an Irish Pub. We also went to a used music store and a Blockbuster in search of movies. We bookended our afternoon with trips to a local coffee shop, Caffe Ladro, like imitation Seattlers (or whatever they are called).
We went for dinner at Dahlia Lounge. We have wanted to go here for quite some time, but just haven’t had the chance. It is quite well known in Seattle’s restaurant scene. I had the Tuscan grilled bread salad, signature crab cakes and topped off the evening with the famous doughnuts for desert. Holly had the Alaskan halibut ceviche, followed by the signature duck and topped off the evening with the decadent triple coconut cream pie. I give everything I tasted at Dahlia Lounge an exuberant 10 out of 10! The service, the atmosphere and the food was all exquisite.
Following the trend of servers with cool/weird/interesting names while we visit top restaurants in Seattle, our servers name tonight was Cleopatra. Our server the first time we went to Racha Thai was named Thong.
I hope everyone is doing great out there. I’ll try to keep the updates a little more frequent from now on.
