A couple of weeks ago, we went up to Raleigh to visit some of out friends and also see one of Cathy's favorite bands, The Urban Sophisticates. They are a mix of hip hop with horns and have a great sound. They played at the Pour House in downtown Raleigh which is always a good time. I brought the camera, but ended up doing more drinking then picture taking and it showed :) Check out their website as they have their music streaming on it.
Since I've had the MacBook Pro I've been wanting it to "hibernate" instead of "sleep" when I close the lid. There are times when I've shut the lid, stuck it into my backpack, just to not look at it again for 3 days over a long weekend. During that time, even in regular sleep mode, the battery dies as the laptop is not all the way off. My Thinkpad on the other hand can fully hibernate, in which it turns itself all the way off and stores its current state to the hdd.
Turns out that the MacBooks have the same mode, but its not an option in the menu. After a little digging, I've found a site that tells you what to do. I've outlined the steps below for "mac noobs" such as myself.
This is easy as pie. With the below steps, you can take any MP3 and make it into a ringtone for your iPhone.
So the kitchen is 95% done! Cabinets with pimpy soft close sliders are all in. Appliances are in. Finishing touches are almost done. We picked the final paint color tonight and I'll be picking some up tomorrow to get the wall paint finished. After that, the trim/doors are going white and the crown molding gets installed. Finally the stair banister pieces are getting traded out for nice metal ones and we'll be able to call our downstairs "finished" :)
After the Barber race on Memorial Day weekend, we decided to go hiking on the Amicalola Falls trails around Ellljay, GA. The hiking was pretty good, but like last time, the views weren't quite there. There were more trees then you know what to do with, but no clearings or balds to see any views. We got to stop by the falls and walk the 600 steps to the top. Good exercise :)
This area is the start of the Appalachian trail on the south end. I still want to take a long weekend and go hike some of the trail. We'll see when we get to it
I can't believe I'm blogging about a kitchen instead of the race car :)
Poor "RedRum" has been sitting in the driveway getting rained on. I discovered yesterday that I have a coolant leak somewhere. Looks to be around the middleish of the motor so maybe its a cracked hose or similar. Going to diagnose this weekend and get her ready for the Barber race at the end of August.
Ok, back to the kitchen. We got the granite installed today. Looks absolutely AWESOME. We also decided to punt on the track lighting. Having 6 halogen bulbs gets HOT and there isn't quite as much light as we wanted. We are going with 4 5" recessed canned lights instead. 300W of brightness :)
The wall and new lights are getting installed tomorrow, so we should have a "done kitchen" by tomorrow night.
So despite a few minor setbacks, Robert (the contractor) has been kicking ass on the kitchen. We started the install with him cutting a hole in his arm on our microwave mount when he "discovered" a hot wire just hanging inside the wall. The PITA continued as the wiring to remove the soffett was a lot harder then originally planned. They actually have to undo some of the wires from the fuse panel and re-run it in order to make it fit. It ended looking great though!
Yesterday the cabinets started going in and are now fully installed. The only thing left is to shim the one next to the fridge and the wine rack above it. We also had the trash compactor installed, the new boxes put in for our track and pendant lighting, and the wall for our backsplash/bar built.
Tomorrow morning the granite installers come to template out and Robert is going to finish off the wall as well as install our fancy shock "auto close" drawers. Over the weekend I think we're going to start to paint and also install all the lighting now that the boxes are ready. I'm thinking I might also tackle the under cabinet lighting now that all the wires are run already :)
I took a few shots along the way to show the progress.
Today started the install of the new kitchen. We picked out some awesome "mocha" colored cabinets from a local shop in Macon. They have everything from solid wood sides, to the soft close drawers. We also got the 42" tall cabinets and are removing that soffet from above the current cabinets. The tall cabinets should make the kitchen look a lot taller. Also getting some "baltic brown" granite installed, under cabinet lighting, and ceiling track lighting with some pendant dropdowns. Should be pretty "pimpy". Here are a couple of pictures of the work in progress so far. It looks really weird having a "blank room" instead of a kitchen :) Tomorrow the new cabinets go in, Wednesday the lighting, and then Saturday the granite gets installed.
Funny article I read today from slashdot. I've done this I think 3 times in my 4 years at WebMD. With a 20+ minute commute, that sure sucks!
Finally! Corporate email support, 3G, GPS, and now I've got one :)
It was quite an adventure this morning, as I got in line around 6:30am at the store a few mins from our house. I was 55th in line (lucky number, sweet) and there were people that spent the night waiting.
The whole process with AT&T was a total and gigantic clusterfuck. Their systems were up, their systems were down, their systems were slow. They did something last night so where the staff had no idea what they were doing and were reading off instructions off printed sheets. Half the people that showed up to buy a phone had no idea of contracts, some didn't have their license on them, just plain WOW
At least I had my laptop and wireless, so I got a bunch of work done while I waited. I got the phone and busted out of there after the lady told me everything was perfectly setup. 3 hours later and I've still got No Service. Time to call AT&T. Coming from Verizon, I'm real happy to have the iPhone, but real skeptical on being an AT&T customer. I hope this experience so far isn't repeated on down the road :)
Yesterday ended up being the last day we had Rascal as a foster. I was figuring it was about time he got adopted out, and I did just buy a new lens for my camera, so it was time to take some pictures.
The new lens is simply awesome. Its the 24-105L and its miles beyond the 17-85 that I had before. Instant focus and great contrast and colors. I had to adjust the photoshop workflow a bit as I no longer need to do anything to the pictures before posting :)
On the dog note, Rascal did get adopted out today, which made us a bit sad. He was an awesome dog and if not for the fact that I won't allow 3 dogs in the house, Cathy wanted to keep him. We got a new hound/lab/something mix, Jess, for the next few weeks, so we'll see how Zoey adjusts to having a new friend around
Over memorial day weekend we went to do some camping in the NC mountains. We tried a new spot, Fire Creek, next to Hayesville. While the hiking was great, the views kind of sucked. Hence no pretty overlook pictures. This was the first time out camping/hiking with Zoey and she had an absolute blast. She was a great dog off the leash and she had a blast playing in the streams.
The 4Runner also proved itself off road. We picked a far away camping spot, about 6 miles down a hole ridden gravel/rock road. Got the point the GPS had no idea where we were anymore :)
The pictures aren't the greatest quality, but it was a great time!
I've used craigslist off and on to sell and buy random stuff. I've sold both our recent cars on it, and also bought the Jeep using it. We've also recently started cleaning out junk out of the house. I'm loving the fact that we can get $25 for an old desk that I hate. Finally got rid of the old fridge in the garage, and we're upgrading Cathy's end tables/coffee table in the fireplace room.
We also spent a decent amount of time on the house this weekend. Finished painting the ceilings downstairs, and Cathy spent a bunch of time sanding/caulking the fireplace room to get it, and the trim ready for paint.
Also had the install contractor come out and confirm everything for the new kitchen. New cabinets and the granite is getting ordered today. Should be here in a few weeks. Kitchen is going to look pimp. Its pretty funny how your perspectives change over time. 2 years ago, I wouldn't have given a crap about a new kitchen, while now, its actually going to be kind of cool having a pimpy looking kitchen.
I also tore down the front of the race car. The drivers side axle was way busted, but nothing else was damaged or worn. Since I have some spare axles, I'm going to repack them with Redline grease and raise the car 0.5" before I do anything else about axles. I forgot that last time I swapped the springs, I must not have adjusted the ride height all the way correct, and the car was too low. That screws up the suspension geometry and eats axles. Oh well, lesson learned...
So its been a busy back half of April for us. We've continued on the house repaint by starting on the dining room and front hallway. We also finally found a SWEET Jeep for Cathy. 1998 Wrangler in great shape. It has an ARB bumper, Warn winch, new 33" tires, and a 20k mile motor/transmission. We already threw on some wheel spacers for a wider/better stance, and the suspension lift gets here next week. The below pic is "pre spacers". Looks much better now.
I also broke my hand at soccer. Blocked a shot, dove after the rebound and got kicked right in the left pinky. 6 weeks in a splint, so the racing is once again put on hold. At least I'll save some money! The car should have the new HDTV in-car cam for the next event, as well as the new splitter. Should be even faster then last time and have awesome video to boot. The next even is May 31st at Road Atlanta.
Pic of the Jeep and a recent one of Zoey. I'll take some shots of the Jeep "post spacers" this weekend, and finally get some of the painted walls to go with our "before" shots.
So we bid farewell to the Mini today. Sold it through craigslist and a guy from Fl few up to drive it back home today. Guess that makes 17 cars in 12 years, soon to be 19. Not bad!
All in all, it was a nice car, but ironically a little too "Mini" for Cat. The inside of the car is generous and has plenty of room, but the car just "ends" outside of the windows. Its a different experience then being in a normal car, as everyone is RIGHT NEXT TO YOU on the highway.
I actually liked the car, and if it was a 5 speed, it probably would have replaced the Mazda3 for daily beater duties. It was fun as hell through the turns and got 30mpg for my commute.
Right now, the top of the list for the 4Runner replacement is a 2002-03 Acura TL. They are basically a Japanese, FWD, BMW 330i. Exactly what Cat wants. Then as soon as the 4Runner sells, its going to be time for a Jeep. I'm excited about that one :)
Its amazing how fast you lose a skill if you don't use it for a few years
In my current day job of product development and client-side engineering, I haven't been messing much with ASP, other then the occasional support for some in-house apps
I recently took a side job to make a database driven website for a jewelry store. The front end was a piece of cake, and took less time then I estimated. The asp back-end/adming tool/shopping cart on the other hand, bleh. Having been working pretty much 100% with Javascript, I "lost" the ASP syntax, methods, etc. I had to look all that up on google. I knew "what" I wanted to do, but I just couldn't write it off the cuff like I can with JS these days.
In the end, it took certainly longer then planned, but I'm glad that I did it. I got the "asp mindset" back, and I haven't lost a step in my day job either. Guess I came out smarter overall :)
Labels: All, CSS, General, Javascript
So we got a Mini Cooper! Cathy wanted to cut out the almost $600/month payment on the 4Runner and something with better gas mileage. This guy was meant to be an ITB race car, but after looking at the costs, we decided to postpone that build, and have Cat daily drive it
So far its pretty cool. We took it in to get detailed as the interior was kinda messy. Going to get the plate for it tomorrow and Cat can start driving Friday.
So along with all the race car fun, we've also started to really work on the house. When we moved in over 6 months ago, we knew the house was in need of repainting on the inside, but we just didn't realize how much of a pain that is.
So far, we've completed the master bedroom and the trim in the upstairs hallway, as well as the 2nd spare bedroom. Painting turns into a real hassle when you not only have to do 2 coats on the walls, but 3 coats (including primer) on the oak stained trim, and also paint the ceiling.
We got motivated the other day and realized that if we do the living room, and lose the TV for a while in doing so, we'll get a lot more done on the house. Otherwise, its just too easy to get lost in front of the 50" big screen.
I'll have some in progress pics of the living room tonight. We ran the speaker and subwoofer wire from a box behind the TV, under the crawlspace, and into the rear walls. Looks very pro. I'm looking forward to hooking the surround up and watching a movie!
Now that I have a "blog" I guess I'll start posting a little bit of stuff here.
Primarily, I'm going to use this to keep track of my racing addiction, but I also want to use this to retain some of the neat code snippets and other info that I learn over time.
Most recently, I started playing around and discovering jQuery. What a sweet library. Its fairly compact, and as they imply, it makes DOM manipulation very easy. I wrote a few scripts of my own for JS motion and fading, but I realized that I'm trying to reinvent the wheel here and decided to use jQuery's instead.
I also happened upon thickbox (Thanks Corey!) and really liked it. It does basically what lightbox does, but less code and less "crap". There are a few features of lightbox that I liked, so I wrote my own versions of them on top of thickbox. I'm going to use my version of it on here to revamp my very poorly setup photo gallery, and also through my blog for images.
