Sunday, June 29, 2008

Sunday night

The weekend is just about done. I am sitting next to the Deirdre (replete with a pin in her foot), enjoying the gloaming. While I had a busy weekend, I also had a very relaxing one. One annoying habit of our pup Samson is that he tends to wake up between 0515-0530 every morning. Even on Saturday and Sunday. I am known as a morning person, but getting up at zero-dark-thirty unless I absolutely have to is, well, tiring. On Saturday morning he did not disappoint as at precisely 0520, Samson walked out of his crate, sauntered over to my side of the bed and started squeaking at me. I got up, attached a leash to his collar and took him outside to go potty. Samson obliged and I promptly went back to bed. Samson wandered back into his kennel, circled a couple of times and plopped down to go back to sleep, too.

Deirdre and spent some time on Saturday helping our friends at HWC Homeworks sort through some IT issues. The problems were fairly simple:

1) Setting up a secure wireless network
2) Configuring a printer.
3) Conducting some training on a scanner.
4) Conducting more training on uploading and downloading images to and from a camera.

In just a few hours, our work was done and I headed back home to make Dee one of her favorite dishes: Tenderloin DeLuxe. And wine. Lots of red wine. We watched the Tigers blow a 5 run lead, only to come back in the bottom of the ninth inning to win the game. And oh by the way, with Saturday night's victory, the Tigers reached the .500 mark for the first time of the season.

Sunday was a little more laid back than Saturday. Samson did not stir until almost 7AM, which was most welcome. Dee and I enjoyed a quiet morning, Samson chased a few squirrels, and we began a restful day. I did enjoy one extravagance: an are compressor. For the past 6 years or so, I had unfettered access to an air compressor because of my former employer. The Navy used compressed air. Lots of it. Well, today, I tried to add some air to the tires of one of our cars and the compressor at the gas station was unable to produce enough pressure to fill my tires. I had been planning on buying my own air compressor for a while, but today was the last straw. After my unsuccessful attempt to add air to my tires, I went to Lowes and purchased Kobalt 17 gallon 150 psi compressor. In no time, I fired up the compressor, got it up to pressure and filled my tires.

Yes, life agrees with us here in the Enchanted Mitten.

Friday, June 27, 2008

The 61st District Court called me today...

I work in a semi-secure building. You have to wear your employee badge whenever you are inside the building. In order to gain access to the building, you have to swipe your ID badge over a magnetic sensor, which unlocks the door and lets you inside. The walls are pretty thick, too, so my cell coverage is not that great, so I normally leave my cell on my desk (plus I think it rather unprofessional to have my phone in my pocket and ring when I am in a meeting). So, I normally leave my cell phone on my desk during the day.

Well, this afternoon, I just returned to my desk following a production meeting and my cell phone rang. It is perhaps the third time my phone rang since I started working for GE in April. I looked at the number and I did not recognize it. I answered the phone and here is how the conversation went:

Me: Hello, this is Paul.
Caller: Hello Paul. This is Judge X from the 61st District Court.
Me: Hello, your Honor.
Caller: Paul, I am calling to see if your are enjoying your job with GE. We are going to re-open the search for our Court Administrator and I was wondering if you might be interested. After you withdrew, we had two finalists, but neither one was a good personality fit.
Me: Judge, I am flattered by your call, but I am quite happy with my position with General Electric.
Caller: I thought that would be the case, Paul, but I had to call you just to see if you would still be interested in the Administrator position. Thanks for taking my call and I want to wish you the best in your new job.

Yep. Never a dull moment here in the Enchanted Mitten!

Thursday, June 26, 2008

First Post-Op Visit

Dee had her first post-op visit with her surgeon today. I will spare you the details regarding the removal of the original dressing and her first look at the sutures and pin sticking out of her foot, but I am happy to report that Dr. B. was quite happy with her recovery. She is now able to put a little weight on her foot and she no longer needs crutches. On Monday her sutures will be removed. Now that will be an interesting evolution!

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

A busy week...

Some of you who follow Deirdre's blog know that she is recovering from a little work on her right foot. She is not terribly ambulatory right now, so I have been busy looking after my patient. She is recovering, but her foot remains tender. Tomorrow she will have her first post-op visit with her surgeon. Hopefully the stitches in her foot will come out... and she will not lose consciousness. Full report to follow.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Huh. That's one big squirrel...

At the very core of his being, Samson is a predator. We feed him twice a day, with lots of puppy treats in-between feedings, but he still has a tremendous insticnt to hunt. If any creature wanders through our back yard, Samson expresses his displeasure by howling and barking at the door, as if saying to me, "Let me out! There is fresh protein in the yard and I want to kill it and eat it!" This morning was no different.

A little after 7AM, Samson was howling at our back door. He was clearly agitated as there were some squirrels, or so I thought, in the yard. I opened the back door and he took off for a tree in the back of our yard. I saw movement of a couple of small animals,
though one of the animals seemed large. To large to be a squirrel. I followed Samson to the tree, and I was right. That largeer animal was no squirrel. It was a racoon. Samson's hunting instincts kicked in and he circled the tree, barking at this interloper in his yard. While I have seen racoons in the wild before, I had never seen an example of Procyon lotor in our back yard. The racoon jumped from the tree to the top of a fence which rings a tennis court in an adjacent yard. I realized that Samson would be going nowhere so long as that racoon was cornered, and I also knew that the only way I would be able to bring Samson inside was with a leash. I went back inside to grab a camera and his leash, then I returned to where Samson had cornered the racoon.

I managed to capture a few images of the racoon, as well
as a nice shot of Samson proudly looking up at his quarry. I was able to calm Samson down and get him on a leash and bring him back inside. Samson was walking triumphantly next to me, quite happy with his work to chase the racoon out of his yard. Yep, at his core Samson is a predator.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Our Amana fridge: It could not have survived another 8 weeks?

Last weekend we finalized the plans for our new kitchen, signed the contract and made a deposit to our friends at HWC Homeworks. Since I am now a pround employee of General Electric, an integral part of our kitchen will be the GE Profile appliances which I will be able to purchase at the Employee Store. To say that Dee and I are excited to start this project is an understatement.

A few weeks ago, our Amana refrigerator started to buzz. The buzzing was somewhat cyclical, so couple that with what I know of the refrigeration cycle told me that our appliance was failing. It held its best for a week or so, but one day there was nothing but water in the ice tray. We called out friends at Apex Appliance Repair and Jim came to our house a few hours later. He repalced a malfunctioning part and in a few hours the fridge was cold again. Dee and I breathed a sigh of releif and we hoped against hope that this refrigerator we had purchased just 4 1/2 years ago would survive long enough to the end of our kitchen make over.

Well, two days ago I got up a little after 5AM and was ready to start my day as I normally do, taking Samson out for a walk. Before I left, I checked the ice ice tray and much to my disappointment, liquid water was present. I took Samson out for a walk, then I told Dee the bad news about our fridge. We called Apex Appliance Repair again, as they warranted their work for 90 days. Jim the reapir tech showed up a few hours later and he gave us the really bad news: The compressor had failed.

To those of you who are not well acquainted with the refrigeration cycle, the compressor is the engine which drives the entire cycle. The physics behind the cycle is pretty straightforward. The compressor is used
to heat the refrigerant which is then forced into a condenser where it undergoes a change in state from vapor to liquid. From there, the refrigerant heads to the thermal expansion valve where the refrigerant changes state once again. This is where the cooling process occurs. The First and Second Law of Thermodynmics now come into play. The change of state is an endothermic reaction so here is where things get cold when they come in contact with coils filled with refrigerant.

Back to our problem.
To replace the compressor would cost anywhere between $450-550. It made no economic sense to repair this Amana appliance with a new GE machine on the way. We have a new kitchen in the works, but our new appliances, including a lovely refrigerator, will not come into being for at least another 8 weeks. We were between a rock and a hard place. We needed a fridge to get by the next few weeks, but it was silly to purchase a large fridge. We found a happy medium, an fridge large enough to get us through the coming months but small enough to fit down the stairs for use after our new kitchen comes into being. We settled on a fridge made by a Canadian company called Danby. It is larger than a cube (think dorm) fridge, but it is small enough to be a good second fridge we can have down the basement after we get our new GE Profile refrigerator. While our brand spanking new fridge is meeting our immediate needs, it does look a little small in the space where our old fridge used to located. Please note the cooler to the left of the picture. It came in handy to save the beer.

Friday, June 13, 2008

JUNE HAS ALWAYS BEEN A BUSY MONTH...

I have been busy this month. I have been busy at work and busy with life. Dee and I are in the final stages of planning the remodeling of our kitchen. After I dropped Dee off at work yesterday, I started thinking about things that have happened in the month of June in my life. A list follows:

- Three years ago this week, I reported to NRC Chicago.
- Three years ago this month, we sold our house in Metairie.
- Three years ago week, I transferred from COMNAVRESFORCOM.
- Six years ago this month the Wings won the Stanley Cup.
- Five years ago this month I reported to COMNAVRESFORCOM in New Orleans for duty.
- Five years ago this month Dee and I drove to Metairie together. Dee saw our home there for the first time this month.
- Five years ago this month, I had my outgoing change of command in Grand Rapids.
- Eight years ago today I found out that I had been selected for promotion to Commander.
- Eight years ago this month Dee and I spent a week in Australia together.
- Nine years ago this month I reported to USS JOHN C STENNIS (CVN 74) as AUXO.
- Ten years ago this month the Wings won the Cup.
- Eleven years ago this month I reported to the COMTHIRDFLT staff.
- Eleven years ago this month the Wings won the Cup.
- Eleven years ago this month Deirdre flew to Montgomery to meet me at the U.S. Air Force Air Command and Staff College. We drove back to California together from Montgomery.
- Eleven years ago this month I completed Joint Professional Military Education Phase I at the Air Command and Staff College.
- Twelve years ago this month I deployed to the Mediterranean Ocean on the staff of COMDESRON 20.
- Sixteen years ago this month Deirdre and I left Monterey for Newport.
- Eighteen years ago this month we arrived in Monterey.
- Twenty years ago this month we left Guam together for the last time.
- Twenty years ago this month we flew on a KC-135 from Guam to March AFB.

Yep, June has been a busy month for me.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

End of a great weekend

Tonight is either the end of last week or the beginning of next. Last week, we saw our beloved Red Wings come within 34 seconds of winning the Stanley Cup. Two nights later, the aforementioned Wings won the aforementioned Cup. On Friday, an estimate 1.2 million people attended the victory parade in downtown Detroit. We would have gone, but Dee was crazy busy at work, and I was just finishing my sixth week of employment with General Electric. Yesterday, Dee and I worked to reduce the overall entropy in the house. Today, Dee worked as the Laundry Fairie and I toiled outside, cutting the grass and working in the yard. I was doing what Deirdre has called "Hot dirty man-work."

I like to think of Sunday night as the end of the week, with Monday as the
start of the week. Thus, tonight is the end of a great week. Life agrees with us.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

The first hot, lazy Saturday morning of the season

It is fitting. The Red Wings won their 11th Stanley Cup on Wednesday night. They beat he Penguins 4-2 and they did it in Pittsburgh. It was warm in Pittsburgh that night and I could tell that the ice in Mellon Arena was marginal. Freshly resurfaced ice should look like wet glass. However, after the Zamboni did its work, the ice in Pittsburgh had a dull grey hue to it. Both teams had to deal with the poor playing conditions, and our beloved Red Wings came out on top.

You might be wondering how a Zamboni, resurfaced ice and a hot June morning are interrelated. Well, here is my line of reasoning. The Stanley Cup Playoffs take approximately 8 weeks from start to finish. The Playoffs begin in early April. Sixteen of the 32 NHL teams make the playoffs, which consist of four rounds of a best-of-seven series. The first team to win sixteen games wins the claim to the Cup. If your team is talented enough to make it to the final round of the playoffs, it will be late May. The weather in early April here in the Enchanted Mitten can be a little fickle. The average daily temperature on 1 April was 56F. Fast forward eight weeks. The average daily temperature now is 78F. Spring has come and gone and we are fast approaching the Summer Solstice. Our grass is growing so quickly that even a day or two after it is cut, it looks like it needs another mowing.

Now, I need to tie the aforementioned themes together. Samson woke me up at his customary time of 5:30AM. He got out of his bed, walked over to mine and started squeaking. The squeaking meant one of three things: 1) I have to go potty, 2) I am hungry, 3) I want to go outside and play. I begrudgingly got up to take Samson out for a walk. I attached the leash to his collar, threw a couple of poop bags into our walking pouch and opened our side door. I was immediately hit by a blast of warm, moist air (we had the AC running all night). It was as if the air itself was wrapping a warm wet blanket around me. For a few moments it felt like I was back in Guam or the Philippines, two of the most humid places on the planet. I took Samson out to attend to his needs and I had a few moments to think about the weather, the Wings winning the Cup and the possibility of a Game Seven.

Had the Wings lost Game 6 on Wednesday night, there would have been a Game 7 at Joe Louis Arena today. "The Joe," as it is also known as, has a reputation for having some of the best ice in the NHL, regardless of the outside air temperature. I then realized, if it is hot and muggy in early June and the Red Wings are still playing, it is a good thing. The Wings hoisted the Cup at a victory parade in Detroit yesterday (where it was 92F!), and now summer can truly begin. The Summer Solstice this year in the Northern Hemisphere is on 20 June, and now the lazy, hot and long summer days are upon us. Michigan is well known for its fantastic summer days and today we will have our first hot, lazy and hazy day of the season.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Wings win!


Deirdre and I are breathing again. The last few minutes were tough, but the Red Wings have just won their 11th Stanley Cup. Say it with me, "Let's go, Red Wings!"

34.3 Seconds...

I am finally able to talk about Monday night's game. The Wings were 34 seconds way from claiming their 11th Stanley Cup when the Pens scored. The Game went into triple overtime and the Pens got a shot past Chris Osgood during a 4 minute penalty. Tonight the puck drops a little after 8PM EDT. I am hopeful for a win in Game Six tonight. More to follow...

Sunday, June 1, 2008

On deck: The Kitchen

In January 2001, we purchased our home in EGR. It was the first "used" home Deirdre and I had ever purchased. Both of our previous homes were new construction and we were the original occupants. This home had great potential as well as an amazing back yard, and little by little, Deirdre and I put our own touches on the home. Now that we have decided to make this place our death house, we have started to truly customize the house. In the course of the past few months, we have had both of our bathrooms remodeled, replaced every window (save the one one in the kitchen), installed a new front door, and completely rebuilt and replaced the sliding glass doors in our back room. Our next assignment: The Kitchen. The extant kitchen serves its intended purpose, but it is tired and needs to be replaced. It was apparent when we bought the house that the previous owners began a remodeling project on the kitchen, but when they decided to sell the house, the project sort of stopped. The strange thing is that they installed GE Profile appliances, which do not come cheap, but they skimped on the lighting and the cabinets. The current kitchen is shaped like the letter L, and it is a typical design from the 1950s, when this home was built. The kitchen is long and narrow, and it also suffers from a near fatal design flaw: the clearance between the counter tops and the cabinet above is a mere 14 inches. This does not allow for much of anything to fit in the counter top, so the work space is quite cluttered.

Now that the window and front door project is complete, we are in the final staged of
working out the details of the plan to remodel our kitchen. Once again, the professionals from HWC Homeworks have stepped up and created a great plan to better use the existing space. The plan is represented in the images in this posting, but we still need to make some critical decisions about the size and type of appliances we will purchase for the kitchen, as the appliances will drive the overall design. We know that we need a new refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave oven and range. One thing that we want to add is a beverage center, which is essentially a small fridge that will be installed underneath the counter to the left of the range. You can see the beverage center at the left of the image left of this text. We have always had a hard time storing the foods and beverages we want to in the refrigerator we have, as it is a 21-22 cu. ft. model. We would like to replace it with a larger model, perhaps one with a 25 cu. ft. storage capacity, but the current opening for the refrigerator is too small, we believe, to fit a 25 cu. ft. model. Thus, our new fridge will be 21-22 cu. ft., but we think that the beverage center will alleviate the storage problem we have right now with the existing fridge.

With a little work on my part, I will get the dimensions of the appliances together and send them to our planner, Rachel, so we can settle on the detailed drawings, sign the contract and get the ball rolling on our kitchen project.

Painting is done...

Last weekend our good friend Deb helped me paint the interior of the our new front door, as well as the sidelights. The door is a fiberglass composite and it was originally light tan in color, so it took a few coats to completely cover the unfinished surface. I needed to paint the outside of the door and sidelights, so that was the main focus of my many weekend projects. I removed the front door from its hinges so I could better paint it, and with Deirdre's help, I moved the door into the garage, where I set upon a couple of saw horses and went to work. I removed some of the door hardware as I felt that it would be easier to paint the door without the deadbolt. The door seemed to take the paint quite well, but from the start I planned on at least two coats to the door. I applied the first coat to the door and the sidelights Sunday morning. I could not have asked for better weather. It is in the low 70s here in the Enchanted Mitten, and the relative humidity is a mere 52 percent. Perfect weather for exterior painting. After I applied the first coat, I waited about 3 hours before I applied the second coat. Again, the paint went on easily and now I am just waiting for my last application to dry before I will hang the door back in its place and complete this project. From the photo to the left, you can see the color of the glass in the sidelights and I have to be frank and tell you that the photo does not do the justice to how it really looks. Light beams through the colored glass, creating a wonderful glow. The glass is high enough that we have the privacy we desire, but also it lets in lots of light to our front hallway.

One win away

Sixteen wins are needed in hickey's second season to claim Lord Stanley's Cup. The Wings are 15-3 in the playoffs and Game Five they are one victory away from winning their 11th Stanley Cup. Last night, they beat the Penguins on their home ice, something that no team had done during the playoffs. Indeed, no team had beaten the Penguins at home since 24 February. It got a little interesting during the third period as the Wings were clipped with two penalties, sending two of the Winged Warriors to the Sin Bin. For almost 90 seconds, which is an eternity during the playoffs, let along the Cup Finals, the remaining three defenders had to hold off the offensive attack of the Penguins. The Wings held off the Pens, and they even got off a shot while they were shorthanded. With about a minute to go in the game, the Penguins pulled their goalie so they had six attackers. Once again, the Wings stood tall, preventing the Penguins from scoring. The clock ticked down to 0.00, the horn sounded the end of the game and Deirdre started breathing again. Game Five will be Monday night at Joe Louis Arena. Let's hope that the Wings will crush the Penguins and hoist the Cup.

I have a busy day ahead of me. Yesterday, I applied a second coat of paint to the interior side of our new front door, but today I need to start the process of painting the exterior of the door and sidelights. Updates to follow as conditions warrant.