A Weak of improvements

Yes, I know how to spell. Yes, it was done intentionally.

Once again not a whole lot was accomplished this week. I did finally manage to get a nice enough day Sunday to cut the hardwood floor transitions. My neighbors repeatedly asked why I did this- I pointed out the 'quality' ones you get at HD were 20$ for 3'11" of wood, that the finish wasn't high gloss, that I'd require 4x of these and there'd be a total of 5 seams, and that (frankly) I hated the way all of them looked.

So I cut my own.

It's a simple pattern- a 15-20 degree angle up to a little less than half, a small steep nub down on the other side, and a recessed channel for the carpeting under the nub. I then take runner boards and put them down on the floor, nail them in place, then nail thru the new transition into them. Add a bit of glue first for security (where possible) and these babies aren't going anywhere. I haven't decided if I'll use the Stainless Steel Screws on them or just nail them in place- not that anyone would know the proper view anyway. They are a bit thicker than usual but since I'm hiding the fact I ripped out a wall and I want it to look like a little nook to go work in front of a window, I figure they'll police a roller chair quite nicely.

The furniture in the babies room was evacuated to my inlaws, against my wishes. I thought I'd said repeatedly to leave it here as I really don't want to have to call anyone for measurements- in fact, I was going to put one of the dressers in our bedroom behind a door, but my wife surprised me after I told her 5x this week, including yesterday, by having one of my friends show up with his car to load the furniture up.

I'm also arranging an 'inspection' of the house by a number of my neighbors and friends that have had children. I'll give them each a clipboard and tell them to goto town, finding all of the problems they can see. I figure that'll give us a nice list to work from to go do improvements instead of sitting on the sofa watching movies. I mean, we are having a kid, right- no more free time; might as well get used to it now. That includes picking up every little piece of junk that drops to the ground.

I also made the mistake of showing my neighbors kids how to pop a wheelie on their bike- I was afraid they were doing it wrong and might hurt themselves (kept flipping the bike over). I'm now their new best friend- the one comes over and bangs the door, bangs the doorbell, opens the door.... ach, oh well. No harm.

Garage is slightly more re-organized now. I can get in and out- got rid of some more stuff, put a microwave off the floor and onto the generator- we're getting there. Still don't have the pulls for the drawers built- they're just sitting in there- and I haven't run any dust collection hose yet (growl). Need to get that built ASAP.

So much work...

RIP, Harvey William Stoll

Today my Grandfather, the man who taught me most about home improvements, wiring, woodworking (with my father), who built hoochie sticks, showed me scouting, took me on hikes, how to find blueberry bushes in the wild, to pick the cherries off of his trees in the back yard, how NOT to put rocks in the springs in the garage, passed away.

He was very ill and very much in pain. Now he's not.

Den & Panoramics

I finally managed to get the den carpeting cut up in order to install the new hardwood floor. There's still quite a bit of work to be done in order to get it ready but I think I'll have to delay that until later- I need to construct the floor transition pieces our of 3" hardwood and attach them. That means rounding wood ... which means somehow setting up the router. I spent most of the day cleaning up the garage in hopes that I could do this quickly and efficiently (everyone laugh now)

As for panoramics I've been knocking them out as I go. Having a bit of trouble with the tools- all the new ones 'disappear' as soon as edited- and without that thumbnail I've got to manually load them all.
Can you see the annoying curvature in the horizon? Sheesh. You'd think there'd be a simple tool to just click the parts you want 'flattened'.
Photo is an IR image from a modified 300D Canon Rebel and is 35 frames. The Rebel has a buffer of 4 shots and writes slower than a kid sending a thank you card. This was a LONG photo...

Finally Home

Flying has become such a pain in the ass now adays I don't know why I even bother. It's not for the per-diem. It's not for the exotic locations.

This trip involved pushing back from the gate and THEN being told there was a ground stop in SFA. That meant 1.5 hours with a warm plane, lots of water, and no air. Which meant the 1.75 hour connection now was 5 minutes long.

The second plane, same issues- late. 15 minutes to make a connection from C to F concourse in Chicago (about 1 mile if I know how long it took me to walk).

And when I arrived home my house was exactly as I'd left it- even the ties I left on the sofa were easily found.

Of course I spent most of today going off and throwing crap out because, frankly, if it's got to be cleaned it looks like I'm going to be the one who has to do it all. So my new solution is to simply throw everything out.

Want some crap?

Food in Reno: Day 3

Reno, NV. Lots of Breweries. Lots of beer. Lots of good food. Day 3.

Today we snuck out for lunch to B&J's Brewery- 13999 South Virginia, Reno NV (Summit Mall). Walking into the place was overwhelming- it was one of the nicest laid out restaurants I've been in. Everything practically gleamed- and looked brand new. I was told they'd been open for about 2 years so they must really take care of their equipment (or replace it monthly). Hardwood floors were in great shape, too- no obvious discolorations on the white wood (implying no spills ;P)

They offered a sampler of 7 beers for fairly cheap and would substitute, but today they were out of their cask conditioned ale. Included in the presentation was a handy dandy (see photos) chart with the beers and a great description of everything about them. Scores to follow.

I ordered the Melt- and it was delicious. Cooked to perfection the garlic and rosemary sourdough bread crust was crisp and dry as it hid the caramelized onion and two cheeses beneath it. I couldn't stop eating it- in between samples of beers- and snatched huge quarter cut french fries like there was no tomorrow.

This place gets a 10/10 for service, food, and beer. Did I mention I learned about it by overhearing one of it's employees while at Great Sinkhole, errr Great Basin?

Blonde: 2/5/4. Just not a fan of Blondes...

Heff: 3/6/6. Fairly exploding with floral aroma the finish was great, for a heff, but again just not my beer.

Pirahnna Pale Ale: 3/9/9. Excellent Hops with a nice complex mixture (or at least no overwhelming one type). Flavor was excellent and bitterness was spot on. Could drink another one or 5.

Jeremiah's Red: 2/7/7. Nice soft malt finish with a good sense of floral hops. Bitterness could be a bit more, but don't let that distract you from this great beer.

Nutty Brewnette: 2/6/6. I wish it had had some bittering malt in it- but that's not the mark of a good nut brown. Was very well received by several members of the table.

Porter: 2/7/9. Great porter- excellent head (N2/CO2) and even better retention. This head slid down the glass the entire time I was sampling beres.

Stout: 2/8/7. The stout was excellent but the finish was weak- it should be lower but I just can't bring myself to nail it for finishing sweet. Drop the SG by another 1/4 point or so and it'll be perfect. Great head as well and excellent aroma.

Food in Reno: Day 2

Reno, NV. Lots of Breweries. Lots of beer. Lots of good food. Day 2.

Day 2 finds us at Great Basin Brewery, located at 846 Victorian Ave. The entire area is packed with food joints so Great Basin Brewery must have something special to attract attention.

It doesn't.

Now usually I can find a couple of great things to say about a place, so I will here too. There's free parking in the back in a garage, the beer is served cold and not over/under carbonated, and the lighting is great.

The food, on the other hand...

I had one of the more expensive items on the menu- a $17, 14oz (hah) "pepper encrusted rib eye". It was more along the lines of pepper dusted, and while I was very happy that it was cooked to perfection it quickly became a game of 'find the steak in the fat'. I don't get rib eye's from the supermarket with that much fat. This one was less than 3/4" thick- looking like it had been pounded to achieve that feat. The potatoes were excellent though.

My coworker had chicken shishkabobs. He remarked on their lack of ... ingenuity... when devising them. Chicken, green pepper, chicken, onion, repeat. Thats it. In a part of the country where practically EVERYTHING has colour, you can't do better than that? Can't even mix in some yellow/red peppers? How's about some mushrooms? Or onions bigger than 3 layers thick, sadly clinging to the chicken in a desperate attempt to flavour them.

Lastly, since this is a brewery, I should mention the beer. The beer was fairly good, if you didn't mind waiting over 25 minutes for the first waitress to come up to order one. Then to subsequently have to ARGUE with said waitress over the cost of a sampler pack (they don't do samplers, you can 'buy' 12 samplers for $12!!!!). When said samplers arrive you have to rely on the obviously busy waitress's memory to hope you get the right ones- they don't even provide a tearaway sheet for notes. I thought Silver Peak's was expensive from the night before- boy was I wrong.

The Icky (named after a fossil) was a strongly hoppy beer with an excellent finish- if you love cascade. There seemed to be quite a bit of that one particular hop in there with no other flavours- and if there were other hops they were simply overwhelmed. A score of 3/7/7

The Vienna Lager (At least thats what I think she brought me) was quite smoky and Delicious- it gets a 2/7/8 Score- very pleasant.

The Truckee Red had an excellently clean finish- could have used a bit more floral hops- and the malt wasn't overpowering at all. Score 2/8/7

Lastly she delivered a 'Boont Amber' guest beer from ?Anderson Valley?. Note the question marks and the quotes- I have no idea what I really was given and even though I asked her to repeat it 3x I still don't know. Score of 2/6/8

Overall the price for the meal was cheap but so was everything else. Good outdoor seating, lots of space, but just skip it unless you're coming in on "Tightwad" Tuesdays where beer is 2.50$ a pint.

On an aside, I overheard a conversation about another brewery south of town called "BJ's". Think I'm going to hit that in the next two days before I leave.

Beer Ratings

Since I'm going to talk about beer alot I ought to post a ratings.

There are 3 numbers- I stole this from my wine courses.

The first number: Aroma. How much I like, how much I can sense, the 'nose' of the beer. Score is 0-3. Even water can get a 1.... so if you see a 0 there must be a problem.

The second number: Taste. This is the 'mouth feel' of the beer. How does it sit- does it burn, is it pleasurable, does it hit the right nerves- literally how delicious is it? Score is 0-10.

The third number: Finish. How does the beer go down? Is it floral? Hoppy? Metallic (over hopped with Cascade can cause this). Do the little beer bubbles make themselves known as the beer disappears down your gullet? Can you continue to drink this beer? Score is 0-10.

All important questions that must be known. And yes, I get mocked for writing down numbers.. .but it's worth it.