herveus

herveus @ 2025-08-11T11:18:00

2025-08-11T15:38:08Z

Welp. My pants are bankrupt.

Pennsic has happened. TL;DR is that it was pretty good overall.

Setup was brutal with the heat. The previous two years (at least), my FitBit recorded 22,000+ steps on Friday. This year, only 20,000 steps, and that's because we were not stupid and stopped for hydration and rest in shade as needed (and it was needed more). No breaking ourselves.

The one serious rain storm came Saturday morning, and, of course, we did not quite have our tent prepared for some of it, so a bit of water got in, but nothing serious.

We opened for business Monday morning. Sales were reasonable to good. They roughly matched last year's numbers and ended up just a bit higher in the end. We sold 63+ pounds of string in little balls. Many balls had to be wound there.

Aunt Pat's Place had enough staff in the back to allow them to offer Eggs Benedict. Pat's hollandaise rocks. That was breakfast many days.

I only bought one dinner at Beast and Boar, and that was a half chicken with sides that ended up feeding all three of us at the booth.

Flaming Dragon was there with their barbecue and haluski. I had lots of haluski, and even took a full tray of it down to Cambion for Celtic Happy Hour. It was well received.

Once the heat broke, the weather was glorious. Warm, but not stupid hot. Also the forecast had that holding nice and dry through the weekend, so packout would be dry!

Our lead minion had to decamp early in War Week for a family emergency, but things stabilized and he was able to get back just in time to help us pack out and then pack his camp. Thus, along with a random young guy who was looking for a minion gig, and considerable thought and work in getting combobulated for loading during the day, loading out and dropping tents and all that went faster than usual. Faster enough that we rolled off site at 9pm instead of closer to midnight. At that point, Megan declared that she was just driving through to get home.

I was ahead of her and driving faster, so I got home at 0200; she rolled up an hour later.

The last load of laundry just finished.

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New member of the household

2024-06-10T13:56:40Z

Friday, I met up with Vortigern and brought Bella home.

Bella was born feral but immediately confined with mom and got lots of human attention from the getgo, so she's pretty well socialized. She's maybe six weeks old. Very affectionate. Loves to curl up on my chest to nap. Runs around with vigor. Climbs. Climbs a lot.

The two older cats are still not sure about this. Or more accurately, are unamused. Alexx, at least, has gotten as far as sniffing at Bella when she's napping in her crate and not growled or hissed then. No paw-sticuffs so far.

Of note, Bella immediately took to the litter box for business. No oopsies so far.

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Pennsic happened

2022-08-15T18:03:25Z

I just spent two weeks camping in western Pennsylvania with a few thousand of my friends. My pants are totally bankrupt.

Pennsic has usually featured attendence of just over 10,000; maybe 11,000. This year they did not quite reach 8,000.

We set up shop there and peddle our wares. We had our best Pennsic ever in sales. Woo!

The weather was cooperative. We set up under sunny skies. We tore down canvas tents after a couple of sunny and dry days. The humidity was a bit wretched for much of the time (dew points in the lo 70s suck). The temps may have hit 90 early on but mostly stayed in the 80s. Entirely tolerable. There was a bit of rain, including one deluge that dropped maybe two inches in the first hour. The storm Did. Not. Move. We were stuck until it rained itself out after dark. Some people did get flooded out; not us.

Social activities were limited by the need to man the shop, but not crippled. People could come to me.

Drama was pretty limited. I did not get splashed by it.

I got to see old friends and new friends, some for the first time.

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A fine weekend

2022-06-22T01:42:30Z

Father's Day weekend was splendid. It was also the first date with my girlfriend.

Just to be clear, I'm doing this with the enthusiastic encouragement and consent of my wife. As in, upon discussing the concept with names attached, I was commanded "Then ask her out". So I did. And after six plus months of regular phone chats, we finally were able to get together. We are not experiencing marital difficulties -- just some envelope expanding into new territory.

Alys Mackintoich would be the girlfriend. The weekend went swimmingly, and we look forward to repeat engagements. Ocean City, NJ, is a pretty neat town. The dolphin watching cruise was a dry hole for dolphins, so we have a voucher to do it again. The cruise was otherwise pretty nice, module a stiff breeze (yes, I did end up a touch windburnt). Got to see friends I have seen very little of over the pandemic.

It turns out that Alys is a hockey fan, so we watched the Stanley Cup game Saturday night. Alys is also a herald (how I got to know her to start with), a fencer who can't any more, and a lawyer for a day job. We've known each other for the better part of a decade.

Wheee!

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Megan's weaving adventures continue

2022-06-15T14:08:25Z

Megan has been spending some quality time in Montana getting taught how to weave on her Baby Wolf more better.

The warp was put up Monday, and she's now doing diamond twill instead of herringbone. This picture was posted on FaceBook noting it was the next winningas warp in process. Within half an hour, someone had called dibs on a pair. The warp will make two pair. Today, someone else called dibs on the second pair.

There appears to clearly be a supply/demand imbalance for decently woven winningas. Wheee!

We're making no particular claims as to authenticity beyond "purpose woven in wool in a twill weave", and sometimes "wool" means "sock yarn with some nylon for the weft". They should function just fine.

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Moscavaja balka band with pix.

2022-01-13T22:18:26Z

Some years back, I ran across a post from Tina Bean on FaceBook with this picture:

She was wondering if anyone could help her with working up a pattern. I don't think I ever shared my pattern with her (but I can fix that), but I cooked one up using 13 cards.

Note the stuff going on on the left side. I read that as the beginning of the band. Like the weaver did a length, and this got cut off and somehow survived. I was really excited by that recognition. When I chart out a band for twill or Snartemo, I do something like this to start it out.

I finally hit the right combination of empty loom and motivation to try this out.

Some years ago, I had picked up some cones of a 10.8nm shetland single from Webs. It was a mill end, but they still have the description on their web site. It's 5000 yards per pound. When I examined it, it seemed to be nice and tightly spun.

This seemed to be a suitable yarn to try. I went with the beige and brown.

1 cm wide.

The warp is behaving just fine. A bit of the wool sticking together, but nothing very bad. It's not very fuzzy yarn. Unweaving has not been an ordeal.

As weft, it's a bit more fragile. I've broken the weft half a dozen times or more. It's no big deal to cope with.

If you note the loop of warp hanging down, you'll see that it's twisted back on itself. I read that as the yarn being a bit overspun, which I take as a Good Thing™ in this context.

I am reckoning it will be six to eight hours per yard of weaving time. I'm guessing I have two feet or so done now. There's a nice little roll on the cloth beam.

The pattern is 52 picks long and it is twist neutral.

I have the cards all threaded S (as I use the term). Note the slashes that show how the cards lean. Backslash is a backward turn; slash is a forward turn. The vertical line is an idling card. Row 18 is the transition from rep to twill; the odd numbered cards turn; the even numbered cards idle. That's all it takes.

You can also see this post on our Patreon (www.patreon.com/posts/moscavaja-balka-61128582)

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Moscavaja Balka band

2022-01-03T02:33:44Z

Way back in 2012, Tina Bean posted the picture of the Moscavaja Balca band in the Historic Tablet Weaving group on FaceBook.

The picture sure looked like the actual start of the band. I sat down and drafted a turning draft that I have finally gotten around to actually weaving. I'm also finally trying out the 10.8nm shetland singles I snagged at Webs on a mill end.

The yarn is working out fine as warp. I've had the weft part company from time to time. It's clearly a bit overspun. I'm happy with that.

It's coming out 1cm wide, and it's six to eight hours to weave a yard, or so.

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Bankruptcy

2021-10-19T12:41:19Z

...as in, my pants. Totally bankrupt after two weeks out west.

White Wolf and Phoenix set up shop at Great Western War (GWW). I flew out to Tucson to join my wife, who is staying in Tucson for a bit longer to visit.

Other than having to get up at 0400, the trip out was unremarkable. I did not even have to change planes in Houston (Hobby). I did have to check a bag going out because I had extra stuff going out, but I could leave the bag behind coming home.

MJ had Alexx with her. Alexx's last road trip was when she was quite young, while her girl parts were still there. She has been inured to being on a leash from the getgo. Her sisters are not so sure (or worse) about the idea. So, roadie cat. Alexx really liked (preferred) being outside in Tucson. There was tall grass she could hide in and lounge.

After I got back home, Alexx managed to slip out of the RV unleashed and declined to come back. Of course this was in the evening. Thankfully, the next morning saw a cat with more than the usual amount of burrs come trotting right up, apparently none the worse for the wear of being outside all night loose. There was much worry overnight.

We headed off to Bakersfield Sunday afternoon with the aim to get to the Winco on Panama Ln and park there for the night. That had us going around LA after dark on a Sunday evening and traffic was no issue. One dinner stop and two gas stops and twelve hours later, we parked for the night.

Setup at GWW went remarkably smoothly. We did not get in each other's way at all. We got the RV situated in Dry RV parking -- about a third of a mile walk from the booth. Heading back there on Tuesday evening, I heard a familiar voice and found Ryrid, with whom I had a cribbage date. I even had Rorik's cribbage board for memorial purposes. There was cribbage and Scotch and good fellowship along with much smack.

We had modest expectations for sales, hoping to cover expenses. That meant we had a target amount to make each day. The first day surpassed that number. Each succeeding day was better. We even did a useful amount of sales on Sunday morning before packing down. The end result is that we did considerably better than merely covering costs and made a small profit. Yay!

Ottavio invited me to the 3DC whisk[e]y tasting as his guest. That was spectacular. I tried maybe ten different whiskies and managed to not get plastered. Well buzzed, but no more. And met more people who I knew or had met decades ago.

I sent whisky out with MJ in order to be properly equipped to share it as is my wont. There were several impromptu tastings, and more than once, a customer got a bonus tasting of whisky in the shop.

The site rules said "mask up in public spaces". Period. The streets and merchant booths were among the areas defined as "public spaces". Camps could insist on vaccination or relax masking at their discretion. There were camps with signs requesting that visitors be vaccinated. People were pretty good about masking up. That was encouraging, especially in the light of Kern County being more problematic than most counties in the state. Outdoors and not crowded were pluses. There was a report of one attendee who developed symptoms and departed with their party and tested positive. One. One more who showed symptoms a couple of days after the event.

As Янка noted, one of the food vendors was Oscar's Meat Pies. English meat pies. I'd never tried steak and kidney pie, for no particular reason. I've fixed that gap, and they were really good. One more food onto the "get this" list when opportunity knocks.

Sunday was pack down and leave. MJ wanted to be down to maybe just the roof and floor before sunset. We did considerably better than that. As with setup, teardown went particularly smoothly, with each of us working different aspects and not getting in each other's way. We were off site and approaching I-5 before 1700, giving us an hour and a half of daylight to go. We got over Tejon pass and stopped for dinner at the bottom of the other side. The goal was to get to I-10 before stopping; we hit the first rest stop and found a place to park for the night. One good sleep later, we headed the rest of the way to Tucson, getting in in time to greet Wander before she headed off to tend to her father.

Megan's associate (we don't call her "apprentice" since she leveled up; she's a "journeywoman" now) sent us a couple of parcels with pieces she had woven while stuck at home. OMG! She was instructed to include the time spent weaving each band on its tag, and that number informed the price. Several pieces never made it to GWW, being shortstopped in Tucson. Several more went home with other people at GWW. More excellence.

All in all, the entire two weeks were made of win. It seemed like each day was better and more glorious than the previous. When I stepped on the scales at home after all that, I find that they showed new-to-me numbers, as in down seven pounds from when I left, as of this morning. There was plenty of walking, and less snacking, and starting to use a fresh hole in the belt. In the last year, I'm down about 30 pounds, and it's been good for me in diverse ways, and that without any gimmicks. Just eat a bit less and be a bit more active. Go me!

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SCA COVID policy sanity

2021-09-28T02:10:13Z

I have not read the official announcement, but once again, the SCA BoD scores an own goal, DDoSing themselves.That seems to happen any time they make a significant announcement as everyone hits the web site to download the document.

But on the other hand, kingdoms are now at liberty to require proof of vaccination and/or negative COVID test as a condition of participation. And that means all in-person activities, not just regular events.

Some kingdoms have already announced dates this takes effect. I'm reliably informed that some kingdoms have explicitly declined to do so. I'm looking at you Trimaris (Florida).

Still, I'm delighted at this attack of sanity. I'm sure they had a lot of letters encouraging/imploring/demanding this action.

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Armistice (not!Pennsic)

2021-08-10T16:23:10Z

We went to Armistice and set up shop. For a 1,500 person event, sales were excellent. As it was, we did not do much more than cover expenses, but we're OK with that.

It was good for our souls, and the drama level was negligible.

People were mostly not masking, but aside from one troll merchant, there was not really any drama around it. Being outdoors and light enough on the ground was a big plus here.

A memorial ship was made and burned to good effect. We got a new person to make a boat kind of late in the process, but it was there, floated, and burned.

The Longship Company made arrangements to bring the Gyrfalcon, their four oar boat, and it was a big hit. Many of the Coopers insisted on getting a turn. It will be interesting to see if similar arrangements can be made for Pennsic. It's slightly complicated. The Pennsic rule about no boats and other floating things on the lake is not a Cooper rule; it's a Pennsic rule.

Setup and teardown were uncomplicated. The weather was quite civil, and even at the end, it did not get into stinky hot.

...so, my pants are totally bankrupt.

And we're now aiming to come to GWW. Megan really wants to visit friends in Tucson, and I'm really nervous about October in Mississippi. Delta should simply be referring to the big river nearby, but noooooooo. The Tater in Jackson is totally Not Helping.

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Pennsic and not-Pennsic follies

2021-04-16T17:22:09Z

Today, the Pennsic Mayor announced that Pennsic 49 would be postponed yet one more year, to 2022. No real surprise there. Given the constraints the BoD has placed on events, there was no way to do Pennsic without a huge variance.

However, Coopers Lake Campground is running an event they are calling "Armistice" over the same period that is meant to be most of Pennsic. It's a bit more expensive ($250 for 12 days), but not out of line. We have to decide if we want to attend and set up shop. I'd really like to; Megan is dithering at the moment.

For another factor, Fred Blonder has said that he intends to be there and burn a memorial ship. I'd like to be in on that, which will require my presence.

If we go, we won't have Morgyn, so we will have the ability to set up a smaller rig and camp in the RV.

Decisions...

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Virtual Heralds Point - Electronic submissions (including payment)

2021-02-03T03:29:45Z

Howdy!

There's two parts here. First is the announcement of Virtual Heralds Point, in which you can make that (those?) heraldic submission(s) you've been sitting on because COVID or "I have to write a check?". Second is my personal bits of coolness.

The announcement:

From Dame Marie de Blois on behalf of Dame Lillia de Vaux, Virtual Heralds Point coordinator:

The SCA College of Arms will be hosting a Virtual Heralds Point beginning on Sunday, 24 Jan 2021, and ending 14 Feb 2021.

Are you in need of heraldic consultation for names, devices, badges, household names, etc? This Virtual Heralds Point can help.

You'll be paired up with a herald for the consultation and do the consult via any compatible contact - email, Facebook, Zoom, etc - so that it can be live or asynchronous as needed. The herald working with you will have other heralds to lean on for advice; we also have processes for senior heralds to doublecheck things after your consult and before final approval, so the entire process may take a few days to complete from beginning to end.

As an extra bonus, for this Virtual Heralds Point only, we will be able to accept electronic payments via PayPal invoicing. The cost per item will be as usual for your kingdom.

Sign up to request a consult here: http://heraldry.sca.org/heraldspoint/

Additionally, if you are willing to assist with this effort by being a consulting herald or a heraldic artist, we would be glad to have you! We need both name and armory heralds, and both by-hand and digital artists are welcome.

If you are familiar with the forms program and processes used at Pennsic, you'll be very familiar with the program and processes we are using for this Virtual Heralds Point (and it's been updated and improved by Istvan). If you are not yet familiar with them, we will be happy to get you up to speed on them with user guides, checklists, and Zoom training as needed.

Sign up to be a consulting herald or artist here: http://heraldry.sca.org/heraldspoint/

As this is a new thing, and we haven't tried it out yet, there may be a few snags as we figure out the best ways of managing everything remotely. Please be patient as we work out the bugs.

==============
Second: Having been to Korea on business enough times to have experienced all the seasons and having developed an affection for Korea and things Korean, I jumped at the chance to acquire a copy of a book that listed names from the Goryeo period (900s into 1400s). Given the evidence in the 13th century of an Englishman writing of his travel to Korea, the time range in the SCA for Korean names is pushed back to the 13th century. I have a spreadsheet with the data from the book, and it's currently filtered on 13-14c. And I've used it to help document Korean name submissions quite successfully.

I was approached by someone to assist a submitter with getting their Korean name submitted. As it happens, the name appears to be unremarkable for 13-14c Korea, and is probably unremarkable from several hundred years earlier all the way to today. But that's not surprising.

Instead of simply giving the submitter the documentation to put in the submission, I steered her to the Virtual Heralds Point. She signed up and asked for me to be her herald (and I covered that angle from the other side). We chatted in FB and I showed her the writeup for the Korean name and the English name she had tried to submit several years ago (paperwork black hole). Both were simple and fine names, and to put the cherry on top, her submission was the first one to get all the way through to payment, beating out something from Ansteorra by about half an hour.

Am I kvelling a bit? You bet. Is it silly to do so? Of course. But I can only be honest about it.

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Pennsic Memorial Ship Burning

2020-08-16T14:19:51Z

In the SCA, at the Pennsic War, there has been a twenty year tradition of making a small viking ship, adorning it with tokens (often painted round shields) to remember those who have passed, setting it on fire, and towing it across the lake. It's been a very moving thing for people.

Last year, the ship (now four feet long) had about 120 shields plus other combustable mementos. This year, before COVID-19 caused Pennsic to be postponed until next year, plans were under way to accommodate possibly double the number of shields. That plan is on hold.

About three weeks ago (four?) we were asked if we planned to do a virtual ship burning. After some discussion, we decided that was doable, although we pushed the date to "after Pennsic" to give room for planning. The weather obliged us to postpone it a few more days, and now we are at "today".

People were asked to email names and images to me so I could print things out and paste things on shields. Early this week, I had about a dozen names. I announced the "rain delay" and noted that submissions were still welcome. Last night, when I went to bed, I was up to 42, and this morning, I found a few more, pushing our count to just over 50.

The ceremony will be live streamed on Facebook through the Memorial Ship page (https://www.facebook.com/pennsicship/) and eventually appear on Youtube. We aim to start around 8pm EDT tonight, Sunday 16 August. I expect the stream to start a bit ahead of time just to get things all in order.

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Cats...

2020-03-21T00:41:47Z

So in today's kittom update:

Alexx is fully in heat. Assuming the position and begging for service. Calleigh will put a chomp on her throat and mount, but that's as far as her instincts take her. It's kind of funny to see. And up in the apartment, Marisol is doing the same thing, getting the same treatment from Jessamine, who is full sized and can really smother Marisol.

Otherwise, Calleigh has been in my lap repeatedly demanding and getting scritchins'. And the fur flies...

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Cats and life.

2020-03-20T01:05:18Z

Cats.

Calliegh, the older kitten from the batch feral-mom Peaches presented us with, lives in the house with MJ and I. I have clearly become her human. She jumps up in my lap demanding pettings. I can get her to fall off my leg leaning into the pettin's. She will give me nose boops. She spends nights in her crate, and she now goes in willingly. I usually don't even have to pick her up. Yay!

MJ took Alexx, one of the younger kittens, on a road trip, from Birka to Estrella. Alexx had been living upstairs with Morgyn and Jess and Marisol. Marisol is the sister of Alexx; Jess a mature cat who was persuaded to come inside before she got settled in as a feral. Once Alexx returned, Jess had really strong Opinions on Another Cat In The House. So downstairs Alexx came.

Alexx was not real keen on Calleigh initially, there being significant growling and some hissing. But it's not been a week and they get along reasonably well now. There is kitty-grab-assing of the usual sort, and the occasional growl or swat, but I'm happy with the progress.

We have an appointment for Alexx and Marisol to get certain repairs to them on May 1. Until then, we will have to deal with heat. We'll survive.

One interesting detail about the kittoms: Calleigh is two months older than her litter mates. It looks like Peaches dropped one and went into head a week later, then while nursing one was gestating two. That might explain how haggard she looked. Once she was back to eating for one, she filled right back out. We were able to trap her and get her fixed; she still hangs around, because there is food to be had. She can be demanding about that. She will even come in the back door, and has eaten food in the house, but she's still feral skittish.

In return, we have found mice, half-mice, a vole, and three rats so far. I'm not sure who ended up eating the rats. Crows may have made off with the carcasses, or maybe a local fox, or maybe local cats. In any case each one disappeared within 48 hours of us finding them. We have not had mouse problems in either building of late, as well.

Meanwhile, I'm now teleworking 100% like all my coworkers. It's going OK.

Since Gulf Wars was cancelled, there's a whole week of leave I'm not taking. That means I can do all of Pennsic, assuming there is a Pennsic this year. We shall see how things go.

I have enough things to do around the house to keep me occupied.

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herveus @ 2019-05-20T14:44:00

2019-05-20T18:52:29Z

Yesterday (Sunday) we went to my nephew's wedding. I characterized our trip as "going to Falwell land". (being not far from Lynchburg).

I did not realize how thoroughly apt that statement was.

My nephew and his wife are both recent graduates of Liberty University. I found that to be rather disturbing, given the actual mission Liberty [sic] University has been working to.

The service was somewhat uncomfortable. The pastor spoke at considerable length before we got to the vows. You might call it a full-fledged sermon. You might be right. He made sure to trot out the claim the the Biblical definition of marriage is one man and one woman. It was plain that the vision of marriage he was pushing was needlessly asymmetrical in responsibilities and authority.

I did behave myself. But there was discussion in the car on the way home.

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RV Refrigerators

2019-05-16T01:01:46Z

The refrigerator in the RV went toes up over a power hit. Not making any cool when powered. And Megan does not trust the propane side of it.

Tonight, I was able to get it out. There will be alcohol shortly.

None of the dimensions of the unit were smaller than the door opening. Close, but no cigar.

Since it was dead, it did not need to come out in one piece, but the easy approach of hacking off the refrigerant plumbing from the back side was Right Out.

Ammonia is the principal refrigerant. Plus hydrogen and sodium chromate.

Not cutting that tubing.

Fine. I cut the front of it back and that let us get it out the door with lots of scraping sounds.

The plan is to put a dorm fridge in the space. That should suffice, especially when plugged in.

Oof.

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Employment status change pending

2018-12-13T00:50:21Z

The contract I have been working under for the past seven and a half years was supposed to be recompeted for something like three or four years ago. Haha... MSC finally got a solicitation out and made an award a month ago or so.

The current contract ends with the end of the year. The new one kicks in on 2 January. Lots of transition. Yeah.

CACI won the new contract, and they appear to be picking up pretty much all of us. They did not even call me in for an interview before making me an offer of employment. It was satisfactory, and I accepted it. Now for the paperwork.

I will be technically Out Of Work on New Years Day.

The new job will have me commuting to Chantilly, at least for the time being. That will suck. I figure my commute will roughly double. And Metro is not a viable option at all. On the other hand, all of us on the team will be working at a location instead of teleworking most or all of the time. I look forward to the social aspects.

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Grief...

2013-05-28T12:36:53Z

Last night, my protege and dear friend Craig (known also as Pedro) passed from this world. As a small sop, I read that six other people have benefited from parts he no longer needs.

Please hold Devora in the light in the coming days.

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Busy weekends...

2013-03-04T02:33:08Z

We've been in the new house for over a year now. The front bathroom was a known project when we moved in, but there is a second full bathroom to carry the load.

We stripped the bathroom down to bare studs, leaving only the toilet in place for now. I was able to recycle the tub and sink to Community Forklift. That beats tossing them.

The ceiling looked like it was sagging badly. The curvature was profound.

It wasn't rotten drywall ready to fall down. It was a ceiling joist that had bowed down a lot, probably because the "vent" fan was blowing its output along that joist *under* the insulation. Amazing.

The past two weekends involved getting the ceiling redone right and rearranging the wiring, in part to shift the door for the linen closet from the hallway to the bathroom. Last weekend was pulling down wall board, doing and redoing some electrical bits, and cutting out studs that needed cutting. Oh, and pulling up most of the tile from the floor.

Yesterday, we finished removing the nasty insulation from above and then dropped the drywall. The bowed joist was well out of line, maybe an inch and a half at the worst. Trimming that with a circular saw was an adventure. We hung a new bathroom vent fan so that it could be vented properly.

Today, I wrestled with the soffit where the fan was to vent. The alligator tapped out.

Vent tubing was installed, secured, and taped up with the generous application of aluminum tape.

With the ceiling bare, I could finish the wiring. The fan worked and it's quiet!

R-30 fiberglass batts got emplaced. Nice, clean, thick batts. Not the nasty multi-layered, vapor-barriered compressed thin batts that I pulled out of there.

Finally came the sheetrock. Panel lift for the win.

I still have bare studs, but it's progressed to 'having a good ceiling'.

I'm sore, but it's a good sore. Dr. ZRFQ has been in invaluable help in this. Both in the grunt work and in providing spare neurons for the making of synapses.

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IT follies

2012-05-15T20:04:16Z

Because of "heightened security", passwords now expire in 30 days instead of 90.

Oooookay.

The system nags you about a "soon to expire" password for the last 14 days of the period.

Oooookay.

That means that either you change you password every two weeks to shut it up, or you have to affirmatively dismiss the warning, which, by the way, causes the authentication dialog to reappear in the browser. And that will be happening two weeks out of four. Brilliant.

I'm having a hard time seeing how this enhances anything other than irritation on the part of users.

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Real Estate Follies: I don't think it is a train

2012-05-01T19:15:49Z

We have an appointment to go sign lots of paper on Friday afternoon. When we are done, I will own only one piece of real estate, and I will have (for the nonce) no mortgage loans. The first is a Good Thing; the second temporary according to our grand financial plan.

The buyers did not get stupid with the house inspection. That they inspector found fresh termite spoor was annoying, and is fixed. Likewise the significantly positive radon test was annoying, but is fixed. The appraisal took longer to obtain and then to be presented than seems reasonable, but it came in "big enough". At that point, the lender had all the documents needed save the appraisal. The buyers had their act together. We're ready to get this done.

Meanwhile, the tax refunds have also appeared and are about to pay for the overdue alignment and fresh tires on the van. This is a good thing to do *before* a cross country trip.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I think I have done enough grading/groundwater redirection to keep the crawl space from flooding. I suspect strongly that the hole in the front yard was over the old septic tank, and with water flowing down the driveway, across the front, and into the hole, it was making its way into the crawl space. I've seen water gathering in the front yard, but not getting to where the hole was, and I haven't seen water in the crawl space since then either. I still need work done on the crawl space; the sump pump doesn't, for starters, and we really do need a vapor barrier between the dirt surface and the rest of the house. Soon, I say.

I have a working wash tub in the shop now. It had a single basin tub that was shy a leg and leaked. I've installed a double basin tub. I ended up doing some solvent welding and some copper plumbing. I haven't forgotten how.

I've been looking at getting a planer for my shop; the one I had been using for years wasn't actually mine, and its owner reclaimed it. The DeWalt portable did yeoman service, but I think I'm going to upgrade a bit: Grizzly G0453PX 15" Planer with spiral cutterhead

I have several 220V circuits in the shop that are not being used. I'll have to do a bit of wiring, but that should not be hard.

I've got loom orders to get finished, but the planer is not holding up the works there. Yet. This might be an "after Pennsic" item.

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Updates on life and house

2012-01-27T18:03:22Z

We bought the house on 30 December. We have pulled up the carpet in the living room and the dining room to reveal the hardwood floors. The bedroom we will end up in has been painted and is ready for it's carpet removal. I still have to paint the baseboard trim and the new door as well. It's coming along nicely.

We've managed to get the two larger containers from United-Mayflower emptied and returned. Now we work on the three SmartBoxes. One is already empty.

The new house is a lot less formal than the old. It's all on one level, and, being more cozy, just feels nice. We also use the back door as much or more than the front door -- something I grew up with and did not have in the Bowie house. There's something about using the back door.

Meanwhile, I'm sitting here at work instead of being somewhere between Hinsdale, MA and Manchester, NH. I'm expected to obtain a Security+ certification within six months of coming on board, and a class+exam was arranged for this week. I passed the exam with a really good score (well more than just "passing"), so that worked out fine. I found that 30+ years in the trade left me knowing much of the material already. The class just organized and highlighted much of it. I also managed to not be "that guy" in the class, although the instructor did note that I was close. I agreed and allowed that I tried to behave myself. The instructor told me that I got the highest score on the test he had ever seen.

The effect is that I'm not going to be at Birka. I'm glad Evan was willing and able to go to help Megan with the lifting and toting. I like going to Birka, but I'll be taking advantage of the situation to mind the dog and to work on the house. There's no shortage of Things To Do.

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The Herveus has a new address

2012-01-03T17:36:13Z

We had until the 30th of December to close on the new house or else.

10:30 am, Friday, we started in on the signing.

The rest of the weekend involved getting things into the house, tearing up the carpet in the living room, and related cleaning and unpacking. The hardwood floor in the living room has some dark patches that may well be urine burns from dog pee, but it's mostly OK. We'll be putting a rug down over the worst of it. We've made excellent progress on emptying out the large storage bins. One is down to mostly shelves and the china cupboard. The other has a bunch of lumber I need to extract next so we can get to the sofa parts. We are especially thankful to Dave and Sallie who spent the weekend with us lending a hand.

Meanwhile, we wait until Thursday to get the telecom services moved over. No land line, intartubes, or TV until then.

I've met several of the neighbors to useful effect, and we got a light show last night. Thankfully, no one was injured, but the neighbors two houses over are probably out of home for a bit while they clean up after a fire. From my vantage point, I'm guessing an appliance went up, but it didn't get a chance to get into the structure. One fire truck arrived but never disgorged people before being excused, and the truck that set up line to a second hydrant never opened the hydrant. That is good. No ambulances were required.

Chocolate (the dog) seems to be settling in well. He seems to have adjusted to the new circumstances. The house is no longer an echoey empty place, and he has more space to run around in, although full access will have to wait until we can get the fence resolved. In particular, I've got a twenty foot wide driveway to block off, and that's going to be a substantial gate.

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taking the leap

2011-12-19T19:20:33Z

plentiful rain falling
water draining into hole in ground
puddle gathering deeply
water seeks its level inexorably
pumps are my friend

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