Practice Flight

Not sure what to make of it yet but today was very interesting. I've been tossing the idea around of getting my pilot license and decided to do something about it today. I met a friend for lunch at the local airport in San Carlos so we could talk about why he flies, costs, strategy, etc.. I explained that it seems like an ideal way to see more of the country and not have to deal with the traffic and general hustle and bustle of driving everywhere. I was imagining flying to Sacramento from San Carlos in 45 minutes to see family, or heading to the foothills for a nice weekend of camping without sitting on the bridge for 3 hours or taking friends on a nice Sonoma afternoon wine tasting and getting there in 20 minutes. How about taking out of town guests on a site seeing tour of the Golden Gate and Yosemite by air!

So I decided to go for the intro / 1 day training to see what it is like. I was expecting to sit back and have someone go over the general concepts, maybe take the flight yoke for a minute or so... but what I ended up with was basically doing a solo take off and landing, working the trim and heading I'm not sure how far out to sea. Holy crap was it terrifying and exciting. It all seems like a blur now but pulling back on the stick and throttling up on the run way, clearing the buildings and pulling away from the ground... amazing.


Will I continue? I'm not sure. There are some serious costs and time involved in pursuing this but it could be life changing. Here are some shots I took while out near Half Moon Bay and flying over Highway 92 on the way back, looking at all the suckers stuck down there in traffic.

Kitchen Finished

Well, It's not 100% but all the big stuff is done. My punch list is: painting the door, base board trim, spot lighting, window trim, wainscoting, sink bezel, cutting board counter top, pulls / knobs and upper cabinet resizing / mounting. Probably more to do items but you have to draw the line somewhere. Here are a couple of photos of the final work and a link to the entire photo spread:

Kitchen Remodel Photo Album

Epic Ride 2010: Arrival in Boulder

Well here is an out of order, late post about a ride Ken and I took this Spring. The story is that I bought a motorcycle in Boulder a year-ish ago thinking that I would be out there to take it to Kansas, weekend trips... etc. Well I never made it back there to do any riding and figured I should just bring it home. The bike was a low mileage 1983 BMW r100s. These things go for 200k to 300k miles so with only 8k on the odometer, it was barely broken in. It has been outside for some time and had some oxidation on the aluminum engine and pits here and there but in general was in good shape and tight.

So as it turns out Ken was itching to do some riding on his R100 GS as well and we agreed to meet before it got too far into the hot summer. Ken arrived in Boulder a few days before me and went with Ben to pick me up at the Denver airport. That was Friday night, June 11th. The flight was delayed and the bags were somewhere else. Ben had some nasty food working it's way through his system and we really couldn't wait around past 2 am. We notified the airline that we wanted the bags delivered and headed home for a beer and the rack.


It rained for the next few days but we used the time to tinker with the bikes and put up some plywood in Ben's garage.


How come I always end up working on things when I go visit him? Ben had also rented a bike, a Yamaha FJR1300. A great ride but the bars, pegs, wind shield situation just felt weird. It went like stink. The idea was that we would all head out Sunday morning and at some point Ben would head back. Ken and I would head to Yellowstone and then the West Coast. Sunday it was still raining but kind of clearing so we only took a short ride up near Estes Park.


Turns out these side trips really helped sort our gear out for all the rain ahead but we didn't know that, yet.

5 Burners, No Waiting

Step by step, getting closer. Ran about 50 feet of 3/4 conduit and 8 gauge wire to the 40 amp 240 volt fuse today. Not as hard as I thought but I am done for the day for sure.

Counter Tops Are Installed

Finally got the counter tops in. The color and design is great but the managed to chip the front corner on the left side of the sink. It looks like a white smudge in the photo (but bigger in person). What do you think?

Maker Faire 2010

Jodie, Elke and I went to San Mateo today for the Maker Faire. I've been meaning to go to this for a bit now and finally had the time, money, etc... The Maker Faire is kind of a invention, mad scientist, Burning Man, yuppie fest. It is amazing how much time people have to really dig into this crazy, useless nonsense. And it is really cool to check out. Like the giant burning metal tree below. It is an an art piece called Soma from the Flaming Lotus Girls.

or the giant motor driven metal snails with flaming antennas

or the giant custom tricycles

or this poor SOB that volunteered to be in the metal box in-between the Tesla coils. The bolts were tied to the live music. It was pretty impressive and cool to see electricity in some type of physical form.

and this just seemed like it would be fun to screw around on. It's a hydraulic powered giant mechanical spider. I can imagine doing some all terrain stuff or urban exploration / parking scofflaw vigilante.

Time to Order the Counter Tops

Put the plywood on top of the cabinets, bunch of electrical and plumbing, cabinet cutting for vents, faucet... here are the photos:

Here comes the sink!

Not sure if I posted any photos of the sink yet but it's been sitting on the floor for some time now. Here it is, almost ready to install. A little trimming on the edges of the cabinets and cutting some holes in the plywood pedestal I built. Yeah, it only weighs 125 pounds and is about an inch and 1/2 thick! It is an awesome fireclay sink by Shaw's / Rolh)

the appliances have arrived

they're here..... after a false alarm on Friday, they showed up today. I was a bit worried how they were going to get through the kitchen door entrance (29 inches wide) but we only had to remove the handles. Nice and easy. Now some electrical and gas work and we'll be (mostly) back in business.

Here is the link to the official site to see them in their native habitat:

http://www.geappliances.com/products/cafe/

Sink Enclosure

Getting closer. I'm having to fab up the base of the sink cabinet and the pedestal of the sink because they don't make anything that fits the sink I got. It has been slow going but I think I've got it sorted out. Essentially, this is the last cabinet left to install because to the left of the sink is the dishwasher. I'll just need to figure out how to mount the cabinet wall (leaning against the sink base in the photo). I'm thinking L brackets to the floor and rear wall and calling it done. Spent part of the weekend install the permanent pocket door and painting it a few times. Now to pick out a faucet and put on the plywood counter top all the way around.

again with the cabinets

So these went in fairly easily but I realized how out of plumb the wall on the left of this photo is. The top leans out about 1 inch from the top of the 42 inch cabinet to the bottom. Nice. I guess this is why people moan about working on old houses. I need to fab up some shims and then put the final screws in. Also, it looks like I'll be running trim on the sides since I don't want to be looking at the gaps, etc... The good news is that all the measurements came in correct so the filler pieces all fit.


Next up is to figure out what is going on with the cabinet that is set in place now with all the drawers (how far it will sit from the pocket door wall), how I'll fab up the cabinet base and such for the sink (the sink cabinet is on top of the other cabinet in the photo but it looks way to small to me), and then how to put the dishwasher wall panels together.

and I think we are going to go with this counter top: Cesar Stone Lagos Blue. I think the brownish color and the yellow flecks will work well with everything. What do you think?

Ovehead cabinets

Put two of the uppers in tonight. Like the cinder blocks holding up the cabinets? Worked great.

Corner Cabinet In!

It was a bit or work, but sorted out the heating vent behind the corner cabinet by routing a duct under it and making a new bottom for it. The figured out how to level them out, etc... and screwed them in the wall Check it out:

Stinson Beach Valentine's Day Weekend

Here is a quick post. Planned on getting a romantic bungalow for Jodie and I but the property management company double booked it. I made a bit of a stink and we got upgraded to a sweet 3 bedroom place right on the beach. Wanting to share the wealth a bit, I invited Philip up for a night as well. So Saturday was some hiking, hot tubbing, general goofing off for the three of us. Sunday was a romantic dinner for Jodie and I, sunset walks on the beach and Champagne. Very excellent weekend:

Photo Gallery

Kitchen Reboot

Seems like everyone is saying reboot lately; movies, careers, computers... so I figure I can say that I'm rebooting my kitchen, getting back to it and all. Jodie and I have been painting and are beat. I reorganized some photos and added some new ones. Check out what my kitchen looks like after a year of "work"

Kitchen Photos