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Amy
Erin
Kirstin
Leanne
Moneypenny
Narf
Ruppert
Ryan
Shannon
Stearns
recent photos:
Day 15: July 6
Ahrndt Xmas, December 23, 2006
01-27-06
UP Trip 2005
July 2005
all photos
Forums DOT lukpac.org
The Leper Network
political links:
This Modern World
Atrios
Daily Kos
Media Matters
Crooks and Liars
Atom feed
Archives links
7.28.2006
Yesterday we got back from our trip to the South (i.e., Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and West Virginia; I won't count the five minutes of Georgia). I had planned on blogging along the way, but I just never got around to it. I started to upload photos, but didn't continue. Anyway, here are the photos for the whole trip.
No, Amy didn't die rafting. She didn't even fall out.
It was certainly nice to get away, although there was a lot of driving - I wish we had settled down a little more in a few places and done some shorter day trips. I guess that's what happens when you pretty much do everything off the cuff, though. As you can see, we did get back a bit early - it feels great to have 3 full days off before having to go back to work.
In other news, the floors in the bedrooms were refinished while we were gone. Other than a few spots where there were gouges from the installation of the carpet that was there before, they turned out really nice. The new wood in the hallway where the vent was before sticks out a bit more than I would have liked, but I guess we can live with it. So that just leaves the upstairs - at some point in the future.
[6:39 PM] post a comment
7.13.2006
Inspired by my last post, I pulled out my old Sega Master System. One of my favorite games back in the day was "Miracle Warriors: Seal of The Dark Lord". A big plus to the game was it had a battery backup, so you could save games (up to 5).
My games are still there, 15 years later.
Wow.
[5:50 PM] post a comment
7.12.2006
How pathetic is it that when playing Snail Maze for the first time in probably 15 years I found myself going "oh, yeah, I have to go *that* way"?
[8:35 PM] post a comment
Oh, and I forgot to mention, we got a new stove. The burners light right away, the oven door closes, and one can actually set the time and temperature without pulling one's hair out. Plus it just looks darn nice.
Following up on my last post, I stuck a fan in front of the return vent upstairs to at least push the warm air down to the basement. Not perfect, but it seems to help. Until I re-connect the duct, anyway.
[2:02 PM] post a comment
7.10.2006
Ahh, the joys of home ownership. In a few weeks we're getting the wood floors refinished in the bedrooms downstairs, which means (obviously) everything has to be out of those rooms. Thus, this weekend, we moved our bed and dressers to the upstairs bedroom. This posed a bit of a problem: the upstairs simply doesn't get as cool in the summer (or warm in the winter) as the rest of the house. I've noticed this since we moved in, but with us sleeping up there, it became a larger problem.
The first problem is the supply duct. There are two registers, one in the bedroom and one in the open area, but only a single duct feeding both. Even with the damper set to fully open, there just isn't a whole lot of air going up there. Closing the register in the open area does force a bit more air into the bedroom, but obviously that just makes the situation there worse. I might have to run another duct upstairs, but I don't look forward to that.
The next problem is - the supply duct. When I was downstairs trying to adjust the damper, I noticed a lot of cold air flowing above the drop ceiling. It turns out where the duct turns to go up into the wall there were all kinds of poor fittings and holes. This seems to be fairly common in the house, despite the fact most of the ducts are only a couple of years old. Foil tape (lots of it) to the rescue...
The final problem is the return duct. The other day, when the A/C was on, I put a piece of paper in front of it to see how much suction it was producing. The answer - not much. A look downstairs revealed that - lo and behold - the duct wasn't connected to anything. The wall cavity is open up to the duct in the attic, but in the basement there's no connection to the furnace. After some swearing and head scratching, I figured it out. When they put the drop ceiling in a few years ago, they wanted recessed lighting. Apparently they wanted two lights between the very two joists that were closed off for the return duct. Rather than put the lights elsewhere, they just terminated the duct at another return register and left the one for upstairs disconnected. So it looks like I get to take out lights, move them over, and reconnect the duct.
Hopefully all of this will not be for naught.
[8:38 AM] post a comment
Yesterday we got back from our trip to the South (i.e., Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and West Virginia; I won't count the five minutes of Georgia). I had planned on blogging along the way, but I just never got around to it. I started to upload photos, but didn't continue. Anyway, here are the photos for the whole trip.
No, Amy didn't die rafting. She didn't even fall out.
It was certainly nice to get away, although there was a lot of driving - I wish we had settled down a little more in a few places and done some shorter day trips. I guess that's what happens when you pretty much do everything off the cuff, though. As you can see, we did get back a bit early - it feels great to have 3 full days off before having to go back to work.
In other news, the floors in the bedrooms were refinished while we were gone. Other than a few spots where there were gouges from the installation of the carpet that was there before, they turned out really nice. The new wood in the hallway where the vent was before sticks out a bit more than I would have liked, but I guess we can live with it. So that just leaves the upstairs - at some point in the future.
[6:39 PM] post a comment
7.13.2006
Inspired by my last post, I pulled out my old Sega Master System. One of my favorite games back in the day was "Miracle Warriors: Seal of The Dark Lord". A big plus to the game was it had a battery backup, so you could save games (up to 5).
My games are still there, 15 years later.
Wow.
[5:50 PM] post a comment
7.12.2006
How pathetic is it that when playing Snail Maze for the first time in probably 15 years I found myself going "oh, yeah, I have to go *that* way"?
[8:35 PM] post a comment
Oh, and I forgot to mention, we got a new stove. The burners light right away, the oven door closes, and one can actually set the time and temperature without pulling one's hair out. Plus it just looks darn nice.
Following up on my last post, I stuck a fan in front of the return vent upstairs to at least push the warm air down to the basement. Not perfect, but it seems to help. Until I re-connect the duct, anyway.
[2:02 PM] post a comment
7.10.2006
Ahh, the joys of home ownership. In a few weeks we're getting the wood floors refinished in the bedrooms downstairs, which means (obviously) everything has to be out of those rooms. Thus, this weekend, we moved our bed and dressers to the upstairs bedroom. This posed a bit of a problem: the upstairs simply doesn't get as cool in the summer (or warm in the winter) as the rest of the house. I've noticed this since we moved in, but with us sleeping up there, it became a larger problem.
The first problem is the supply duct. There are two registers, one in the bedroom and one in the open area, but only a single duct feeding both. Even with the damper set to fully open, there just isn't a whole lot of air going up there. Closing the register in the open area does force a bit more air into the bedroom, but obviously that just makes the situation there worse. I might have to run another duct upstairs, but I don't look forward to that.
The next problem is - the supply duct. When I was downstairs trying to adjust the damper, I noticed a lot of cold air flowing above the drop ceiling. It turns out where the duct turns to go up into the wall there were all kinds of poor fittings and holes. This seems to be fairly common in the house, despite the fact most of the ducts are only a couple of years old. Foil tape (lots of it) to the rescue...
The final problem is the return duct. The other day, when the A/C was on, I put a piece of paper in front of it to see how much suction it was producing. The answer - not much. A look downstairs revealed that - lo and behold - the duct wasn't connected to anything. The wall cavity is open up to the duct in the attic, but in the basement there's no connection to the furnace. After some swearing and head scratching, I figured it out. When they put the drop ceiling in a few years ago, they wanted recessed lighting. Apparently they wanted two lights between the very two joists that were closed off for the return duct. Rather than put the lights elsewhere, they just terminated the duct at another return register and left the one for upstairs disconnected. So it looks like I get to take out lights, move them over, and reconnect the duct.
Hopefully all of this will not be for naught.
[8:38 AM] post a comment
Vital stats:
DOB 2/16/79. I'm a web developer at the Wisconsin Department of Corrections. I like lots of old music, including The Who. I spend a lot of time working with computers. And my favorite TV show (when I actually decide to watch TV, that is), obviously, is The Simpsons. Education:
In May 2002 I officially graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a BS in computer science. In 1997 (man that seems like a long time ago) I graduated from Washington Park HS. Yes, I know, that site isn't very impressive, and no, I haven't touched it for several years.
WFS:
One of the best experiences I have ever had was on a trip called Western Field Studies. This is a 33 day adventure throughout the western United States. Students travel on a school bus to national parks, monuments, forests, and places of historical interest and camp out (in tents or under the stars). I was a part of trip 25, which took place in the summer of 1996. A first for WFS was we took along a laptop computer and kept up a web site. That link will take you to the 1996 site, where there is a link to the current site.