K2 speed 6 poles

These came in the mail today, they're made entirely of carbon fiber - aside from the fancy leather bits. They come with a double sided clip to hold the poles together when not in use that include a key ring and a built in bottle opener. Together I'd say they weighed about 3 lbs. Most of the weight coming from the handle area.

They came with this little cardboard tag that reads:

"Brewed from only the finest ingredients, we know of no other ski pole with as much style and performance as ours. Born on the shores of Vashon, WA, with a lightweight smoothness, and full-bodied durability that is unmatched.*

*K2 poles do not taste good. Please pole plant responsibly."

I'm going to try to take them on a test drive this weekend hopefully.

Coffee Table: Step 2

Following up from Coffee Table: Step 1, I drilled a bunch of holes in the ends on the planks and ran a threaded rod through them along with some shorter pieces that will become the legs. It'll probably end up looking more like a park bench than a coffee table when I'm done.

Call of Duty

Nazis are like ninjas, aside from the obvious one in the window and the one disguised as the tree there 10 others hiding in this picture.

More winter to come

It's cold, it snows about an inch every night, it's cold, the snow never melts, it's cold, the deer have started to eat all of the bark off the trees in the front lawn, it's cold, driving in these conditions is totally sketch, and did I mention it's cold!

Enough already.

Today in the weekly group meeting it felt like the AC was on. Cold air was spilling into the conference room through the vents, and you could just feel it. I clung to my laptop as the only heat source in the room - at least my knees were warm. Once out of the conference room the main floor seemed much warmer (thank goodness).

For lunch Kyle and I went for Thai and when asked, "how spicy?", I went for EXTRA HOT. It didn't warm me up at all and now I have a stomach ache.

The Pizza Connection

Tonight Matt and I went to The Pizza Connection to pick up two larges after doing some part swapping on the Sciroccos. Hulk Hogan works there as one of the pizza chefs, my guess is he took the job there after the failed comeback series of American Gladiators on NBC.

It was snowing outside when we walked in and the Hulk Hogan asked us "you two see anything on the weather about this snow?"

"Just a few flurries over night, last I looked." I said.

Hogan turned to one of the other guys that works there and said, "Just a few flurries, they say. This is definitely more than a flurry, that weather man is full of shit."

So there you have it Hulk Hogan thinks the weather man is full of shit.

Ski Accident

You can get some pretty funny stuff when searching You Tube for "ski crash."

Snow blowed

This morning after blizzard conditions (get it blow... snow... snow blowing) yesterday the neighbor came by and let us use her snow blower. It made short work of the 6-8 inches we got.

Good god what's that in your hand?

The evening of my birthday we went to Kings Brewing Co and I brought my Jug - its a Christmas present hand made by my brother Leif. Leif crafted two of these mammary mugs from ceramic, one for me and one for Lisa.

The half inch thick walled knockers are almost tea pot like, they hold about a pint and a half, here is their handle and here is their nipple. Unfortunately the hand sculpted rim is extremely difficult to drink out of.

When Leif fished them he leak tested them for the first time, one at a coffee shop and the other at the Marble Brewery. In my experience (as was Leif's) people are more than happy to fill them up.



Raven heart's boob mug!

Twenty Seven

Hung over and twenty seven is no way to start off a new year.

"DHS raises alert to 'orange' for Cheney hunting trips."

On January 20th Washington DC is going to have a going away party and the poor people of Jackson Hole are getting a new "buddy." Dick Cheney announced that he'll be retiring to Jackson Hole, Wyoming and the locals are pissed. Here's an article from JHUndergroud that's worth a read, especially the comments from the locals at the bottom.

People throw around names like "war criminal" fairly loosely these days, and who am I to stop them. One commenter says, "[...]we could probably make a river of blood for him to fly fish in with all the people who have died from his war that had nothing to do with 9-11 or Osama Bin Laden."

Ironically, that's not at all how Cheney sees him self. "I’m actually a warm, lovable sort," Cheney said during the CBS interview. Bullshit.

This looks dangerous

Half shark - half seagull, this thing unlike the rest of the seagulls and their pipsqueak "mine, mine, mine" would probably sound more like "MINE, om nom nom."

It's Cold

The snow crunches when you drive over it, your car never actually warms up enough to produce heat out of the HVAC vents and you're steaming breath forms ice on the inside of the windscrean. It's cold out side but none of that really matters because, hey at least it's sunny.

This photo was taken looking out the kitchen window into the back yard, the thermometer says -10F.

Maybe -9 if you want to split hairs.

Coffee Table: Step 1

I've started to make a coffee table. I purchased a handful of 1x3x8's and cut them all in half. So thats where it's at right now... stay tuned.

FYI, cause I know you were wondering - the boards I purchased (you know the 1x3x8's) actually measured 3/4in by 2 and 3/4in by 8ft.

Bad News Everyone

Last year, in May I noticed that the automatic urinal sensors would freak out depending on the kind of shirt you were wearing. Some may recall the blog about this, Some Thesis Ideas.

To my disappointment, today the auto flusher has been replaced with a manual flusher. I was surprised they didn't close the bathroom down while the guy worked on it, out of courtesy for the dude I used a different restroom but some other guy was taking a piss right next to the maintenance man.

The last time I stood in front of the urinal with my black wool sweater was Monday and the stupid thing kept flushing, over and over again while I stood in front of it. Sadly the study is over.

Movie Night

Does $10 for two movie tickets seem cheap to anyone else?

Last night Lisa and I went to go see the 7:25pm showing of Gran Torino. I was waiting for Lisa to use the restroom when it got out and couldn't help but notice another movie was just about to start, with not a single member of the theater staff in sight we snuck into the 9:38 showing of Marley and Me. Not having actually purchased tickets for the second movie there's no argument that $10 is a great value.

Gran Torino is the first major Hollywood film entirely made in Michigan. Clint Eastwood is a grumpy old man living in Detroit - the last white guy left in the neighborhood. Eastwood throws down every single racial slur imaginable through out the duration of the movie while coming to the realization that he has more in common with the neighbors than his own family. For me, it was very well done, the name calling hilarious in delivery, and it was cool to see some familiar landscape.

The whole time we're watching the movie we're thinking, Ryan (our roommate) would love this! I never could quite place Ryan's accent but I've got it now - he's trying to be like Clint Eastwood, busted "Cool Breeze."

Marley and Me was also pretty good. I love a good Owen Wilson movie, and its no secret - my love crush on Jennifer Aniston; so I went into the movie expecting great things. Marley's the worlds worst dog, Owen Wilson chases Marley on the beach, Owen Wilson ties Marley to table, Owen Wilson chases Marley and table... ect. They take you through every phase of the dogs life and you can totally relate to it because he is like so many dogs: he's a pain in the ass, with a huge heart and just always wants to play, and no matter how stupid he can be you still have to laugh at him!

I'd been warned that it was actually a really sad movie, but holly smokes I never thought it would be that bad. I never thought I would ever see so many people crying in one movie theatre! Some people were actually blubbering! Blubber blubber, sniff, sniff, screech, they said.

Over all, both movies get a big two thumbs up.

Do you know about backcountry.com?

I love this website. I buy all sorts of gear and clothing from these guys, the sales staff is quick to answer questions, and shipping is usually free and almost always upgraded to next day with out my permission at no charge (bonus). I've even thought of getting their logo (pictured right) tattooed somewhere on my body.

After spending $$$ on Christmas gifts I've been issued two (2) $50 off coupons for use in the month on January and boy am I amped to get something new and exciting. Maybe a set of carbon ski poles, an new soft shell, a cozy fleece, snowshoes for me and Lisa... I don't know yet.

Road Snow Trip

Michigan and the surrounding area got bombed with snow this weekend. It started coming down Friday afternoon just after lunch and never stopped. I saw over 2 ft in places. What better weekend then to drive to Chicago!

Ed and I made the trip together to go visit Micah (see Micah's apartment, pictured top right). I'd thought about calling it off due to the weather forecast but Thursday night when I'd spoke to Micah just to confirm the travel plans, Micah says:

"Jen was asking me (Micah) if you (Me) even knew where we lived, so I told her, 'when Raven says he's going to show up - he's going to show up.' Remember that time when we drove all the way to Ann Arbor just to get a beer?"

Destined to make the trip a success, I left work early on Friday afternoon, trying to beat the snow and make it to Kalamazoo - where Ed would drive the rest of the way. The Rabbit was doing great in the salted road slush until I got to Lansing, at this point the salt trucks couldn't keep up with the snow fall and the roads became super sketch. Traffic slowed to 45mph and anyone that passed our slow moving convoy ended up in the ditch a mile up the road, it was icy!

Once in Kalamazoo Ed took over in his A4 (quatro), the snowfall eased up and we made great time to Chicago. By the time we got into town however it was snowing balls again and parking in the side streets was a 4x4 affair. Here's a picture from Sunday morning, most of it was plowed by this point.


We're home safe now dispite additional snow storming on the return trip with more forecasts of snow and some near zero temps looming in for the rest of the week. Can you say, "Enough already?"

The Perfect Mason

Holy smokes - you can fit two beers in this thing!!!

Go Run in the Snow for Mommy

Today a lady at work asked me if a went running this morning, Normally when asked this question I would say, "no" or "nope", I might even add a little "pffft, running?". Today I said, "yeah". This of course being a lie. I said yes because I thought it would end the conversation sooner, you see this lady at work is into fitness so by me saying yes she would be cool with it, the conversation would be over and I could continue cruising the Internet. If I said no I'd have to get into why I didn't run this morning and when was the last time I ran, and when am I going to run next. Whats more had i said no i would have shattered her confidence in me to have exercised - the world doesn't need this.

Two things stemmed from this conversation. Firstly it didn't go at all as planed, the conversation went on for ever (the problem was it had snowed overnight, the lady at work knew this, i had forgotten), "yes I like running in the snow." I said.

Now she wanted to know why I like to run in the snow. I'm deep into the lie and cant back out now so i make it worse by saying, "oh its better for the knees, you see, less impact stress than hard concrete."

Now she's talking about treadmills and elliptical machines, and how if I have a problem with my knees I should try running on a treadmill. This brings us to the second point: It was about this time that I realized she was referring to herself in the third person as "Mommy."

"Mommy gets off the treadmill and some times feels a little dizzy afterward."
"When it snowing outside Mommy run inside on treadmill."
"It's better for Mommy to run at different speeds on treadmill, Mommy gets bored to run so many miles at same speed."
"Mommy tell my husband that he needs to put TV in basement so Mommy can watch TV while running treadmill in winter time."

I was trying my best to keep it together, but then came another zinger.

"You go running in the snow for Mommy again tomorrow?"

"Probably not, it's supposed to be colder out tomorrow morning - you know - ice - never be to careful when its slippery out." I said, wanting to come back to my desk and write this all down before I forgot.

That reminds me of this old commercial with this mom that keeps talking baby talk to her new born and then ends up going out to dinner with her husband and cant turn it off, "This is such a good dinner, yes it is, yes it is, you're a cute one, yes you are, yes you are." Yes - exactly like that.

New Intercooler Setup

I've been hard at work on a new intercooler setup for the Corrado. An air to water heat exchanger will be incorporated inside the intake manifold. This will make for an extra short intake path for quicker, easier turbo spool. Whats more the higher efficiency of the air to water heat exchanger should allow for a small enough core that will fit with in the space of the old intake plenum.

Here's a rough sketch of where the new core will sit. The remaining section of the intake will effectively become a short runner intake manifold. All of this is aft of the throttle body. So when you're looking at this sketch, the blue bits are the valve cover, the top is where the throttle body goes and the bottom are the runners that curve down into the intake ports of the head. The sections sketched in red will be the custom parts and area where the new intercooler will be.

And here are some pictures of the carnage.

Holiday 2008

My lady friend and I spent two weeks in New Mexico with my family for the 2008 holiday. In stark contrast to metro Detroit it was sunny most days, predictably warm during the day and cold at night. It felt nice to go home, breath in the fresh mountain air and come to find that not only do I now miss New Mexico but I've also come to appreciate its beauties.

These are two taken at Abiquiu Lake (the same place as New Mexico Snowman). I used some mild HDR here to bring out the reflections in the lake and bump the contrast between the reds and blues. This helped to bring out the true color in the rocks. The end result may look like an alien landscape - but such is Northern New Mexico.

New Mexico Snowman

New Mexico Snowman says, "Hello".