Finally got back to the construction project today, putting on the first coat of yellow paint and building a hidden base that I can anchor to the playa underneath the pyramid using rebar stakes. See flickr for a picture of the tricky compound cut that I had to make.
Not something I usually do, but we had veggies that needed to be used. Pasta primavera -- mmm mmm good!
Rosie spent the day at Run-em-Ragged and I spent the day running errands. We're both pooped but it looks like she had more fun! ;-)
It has been slow going in the 110F heat up here in Redding, but I guess it's appropriate since this is a Burning Man project.
Anyway, after three days and four trips to the hardware store, I present Danger -- ready to be painted.
I'm really pleased with how it turned out!
When we got to Redding I noticed a tick on Rosie. She probably got it at Pulgas Ridge this morning.
Beth suggested smothering it in vaseline and that seemed to do the trick. You can't tell from this blury photo but it came out intact. In fact, I'm not sure that it had even bitten her yet.
Sent from the road as Rosie and I drove up to Redding. Leaving before noon makes all the difference in avoiding traffic out of San Francisco.
I've been building cardboard models to explore the various ways to cut the faces of a triangular pyramid out of a sheet of plywood.
Tom worked out the equations to calcuate the angle between the faces so that I can figure out how to actually build these things. It turns out that the model on the left has perfect 90 degree angles between the faces, which would make it easy to build, but I think I like the look of the model on the right better. It has 112 degree angles between the faces.
hours short on sleep at start:
hours of travel:
hours awake at destination:
hours to sleep on plane
View from the top (of the off leash dog area) on a cloudy morning.
Robert is in town so I went ahead and tapped the keg so we could sample our new batch. It's only been on the CO2 for two days, and it's still a little flat, but it tastes good!
I bench tested the electronics for the proximity alarm today -- everything worked as expected and I was able to program the messages that I wanted!
The beer is in the keg! And the CO2 tank wasn't empty, so it should be carbonated in a few days.
We went to the Fire Arts Festival at The Crucible in Oakland last night and it was fantastic!
The Flaming Lotus Girls brought Serpent Mother (shown here) with a new and improved egg. Starting today they're packing it up and shipping it to Amsterdam for RoboDock.
More photos on Flickr...
I love this piece by Andy Goldsworthy at the Cantor Center on Stanford campus.
We were there to check out the current exhibit "Art of Being Tuareg: Sahara Nomads in a Modern World".
Egg Wash - A mixture consisting of beaten egg(s) (whole eggs, whites, or yolks) and a liquid (usually milk, cream, or water) that is brushed on the top of baked goods before baking to give them a glossy sheen and to aid in browning to produce a crisp outer crust. Can also be used to keep toppings such as nuts, poppy or sesame seeds, or sugars in place while they bake or to join layers of pastry so they do not separate during baking.
After an aborted plan to visit SFMOMA today (they're closed on Wednesdays!) I visited the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, located in the old SGI building across from the Century Theaters.
They have an amazing collection of old computers. I only uploaded a few of my photos to Flickr, but check out the original google server rack -- bare motherboards, two to a shelf, resting on pieces of cardboard!
Rosie and I went down to White Plaza this afternoon to catch up with Brat. The Stanford University Footbag Club plays there every tuesday.
When we arrived Brat was on his iPhone consulting with Sony Pictures on Adam Sandler's next big movie, which apparently involves footbag in some way.
The fermentation had quieted down so I transferred it to the carboy to settle. Time to go refill the CO2 tank so we can keg!
I made a pilgrimage to the Kwik-E-Mart in Mountain View. They were out of most of the products but I got a Squishee!
More photos on Flickr. I should upgrade to "pro" so that I can create more than three photosets...
You can find you local Kwik-E-Mart here: http://www.7-eleven.com/kem.asp
Finished cleaning the hot tub this morning!
Just waiting for the new cover to arrive (mail ordered yesterday) and then I'll refill it.
Crossing another project off the list...
Today was Rosie's evaluation for acceptance at the local doggie day care / boarding place. On the theory that a tired dog is a good dog we started the day off at Pulgas Ridge, followed by an early afternoon walk, and finally our 3pm appointment.
They took a very systematic approach to the evaluation, seeing how she reacts in different situations and with different archetypes of dogs... and she passed with flying colors! Apparently she is very well socialized and communicates well, both giving and receiving cues to avoid escalations.
The bike parade that started off the annual 4th of July block party in front of our house.
The festivities continued with wading pools and water slides, a dunking booth, water guns and water baloons, and an iron-kid triathalon. Along with lots of food and beer (and a margarita machine!).
Rosie good (food motivated) dog on a morning hike at Pulgas Ridge Open Space Preserve. Not just for weekends anymore!
This was the scene at Walgreens on University in Palo Alto this morning. Looks like the building was gutted.
I've witnessed a lot of fires lately... last Monday I got a close up view of the dish fire in Palo Alto while driving down Page Mill and then on Tuesday I flew over the Tahoe fire on my way to Toronto.
After a busy weekend including a combination birthday (Beth) and retirement (me) BBQ, buying an iPhone at 10:30pm Friday night (no line!), Owen's little league all star game, dog parks and off-leash hiking with Rosie, looking at property in the hills, brewing beer... I decided to take it easy this morning.
So, after dropping Beth at the airport and taking Rosie for a short run, we headed downtown for coffee and a crossword.
Ah... how long will it last?
