Danny Update

Imagine waking up in the morning and having this look back at you.

At some point in his life, somebody introduced Danny to the bed. He jumps up there any chance he gets. The first two nights we brought him home, he was on the bed all night. Two people and a dog on the bed all night long. Oh, did you know we have a full-size bed?

By the third night, he must have had enough and jumped off at about 11:30 to perch himself on his L.L. Bean bed for the rest of the night. He's pretty much settled into that schedule, but when we get up in the morning he's right there ready to jump up, even if he's still half asleep himself.

Danny Update

What a face!

Today was a big day for Danny. First thing this morning he went to the vet. Danny was a perfect gentleman with Dr. Cronin who thought he was a little over one. What a surprise! We've got anywhere from one to five-ish for his age. He certainly acts one-ish, but we'll see. Then he had to go to the tax man and get registered with the town. A couple rounds with the tennis ball and he was tuckered out for most of the afternoon. His dog walker Diane came out to meet him in the afternoon and was impressed how sweet he was.

You forget what it's like having a dog in the house. Like, everything on the floor is fair game for playing. I was awoken this morning by a wet sock in Danny's mouth. In another episode, he... well I'll spare you the details, but lets just say we'll be keeping the lid on the laundry hamper from now on.

Meet Danny

Meet Danny. We went to Portland Maine for a lobster dinner and came back with this beautiful Golden. We can't thank the people at Sunshine Golden Retriever Rescue enough, especially his foster Mom, Linda. We promise to take good care of him. More to come...

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NordicTrack Pro

Complete NordicTrack Pro.

• works fine
• heart monitor

Hawaii Fauna

Here's Valerie playing host to a Macaw on Kauai.

They have a Koi pond at the Grand Hyatt Kauai. Every day the guests are encouraged to help feed the Koi. These fish go crazy when it's feeding time and it's just a massive sea of orange and white for about 20 minutes.

At the Hyatt, they have Swans in the pools surrounding the grounds. They are graceful creatures, but Hawaii Wildlife law mandates that since they are wild birds their wings must be clipped.

This is not the Geico Gecko, but one we saw in the wild.

A sea turtle.

A spider web.

Blocks to Sticks

About two months ago, we had a big tree taken down near the power lines. I requested that the wood be blocked up in firewood size blocks and put at the end of the driveway so I could split them at a later point. Somewhere in that, the tree guy heard that he should dump everything about 80 feet from the end of the driveway. Sigh. Last weekend we spent about half a day rolling each block the 80 feet to the driveway so we could split it.

I ordered the log splitter earlier in the week and we had it Saturday. From 9:00 until about 4:30, we were out splitting the big blocks into fireplace sized sticks. Valerie worked the splitter and I got to split the wood. It went pretty good, but we're both sore tonight. Yes, all this wood was from one tree.

While splitting wood, it brought back memories of splitting wood with my Dad. The wood season usually started in the summer when we would venture to a friends camp in the Adirondack mountains. My Dad, Bruce, and Reggie would select trees that were dead and take them down. Then the trees were blocked up and left to dry for a few months. When Fall came, we'd venture back to camp to pick up the blocks and bring them back. That's when the hard work started.

I operated the controls as Dad hefted the humongous blocks up wood up on the horizontal splitter (the old kind, that didn't tip up vertical). We'd work as a team, he lifting and either gesturing with his hand or nodding his head when he was read for me to push. Occasionally I'd miss the cue or be daydreaming and he'd look at me for a few seconds before waving his hands. He was probably wishing my brother were at the controls, but he never lost any fingers.

When the splitting was done, it was the kids job to bring the wood to the shed where it lay protected until it was ready to be used. I'd load up the wheel-barrow, wheel it for what seemed like miles (although it was maybe 50 yards), dump, and do it all over again. And again, and again, and again. Once there was enough wood, Dad would show us how to stack it. We built vertical columns of wood on the end and stacked the rest in the middle. All three of us would be out there stacking wood, Dad making corrections along the way so the pile rose 6 feet high as perpendicular as if measured with a square. That wood eventually heated our house in the winter, usually the year after it was split.

Tomorrow, I stack. To this day I can still stack wood without any end supports.

You may call me Sir Electric

Our stairwell has a light switch on the first floor and a light switch at the top of the stairs. Ever since we moved in about four months ago, the light has never worked right. In order to operate the light from downstairs, the switch on the second floor had to be on.

No big deal, you say. Just keep the light at the top of the stairs on all the time. But, when you go to bed you don't want to leave the hall light on, so we would turn it off. Well, when morning came and the sun was out, we just walked downstairs and left for the day. When we got home, flicked the switch at the bottom of the stairs and...nothing. Rassin, frassin, fricking, frackin switch.

So I dug out my trusty Home Improvement 1-2-3 by Homer D. Poe and looked up three-way switches. I've never really understood how three-way switches work and usually relied on my brother -in-law to hook them up for me. But Homer explained it pretty well. So I opened up both switches and the light and diagrammed the whole thing. I then took my diagram and compared it to the book. Aha, the hot wire was hooked to a traveler instead of the common terminal on the master three-way switch. I turned the power off at the panel, made the right connections, and voila! The light can now be turned on from either the top or the bottom.

Four months for something that could have taken a professional 5 minutes; priceless.