"What I Did On My Summer Vacation"

Sorry for the delay in posting my vacation work updates, but I was pretty much toast each night, and too busy back at work this week. I'll do my best to give the week in review...

Saturday, August 25
The calm before the storm...

I spent Saturday hanging with Boomper, and working on some of the work plans for the coming week.

Sunday, August 26
"I want my @#$%^&* doors!"

After our traditional Sunday Morning breakfast of Dad's Special Waffles, I called Home Depot to let them know that I wanted to pick up the new side door so that I could start the project. Thinking that it would be a simple case of driving up there, picking up a few supplies and the door, and then coming home and getting down to work.... nuh-uh.

"Sorry sir, but your doors are on order, and won't be in for a few days."

That's the answer I got. I then explained to them that I had already purchased the doors, that I had actually put my hands on them, and was told they would be moved to a "on-call" area for me to pick up at a later date.

Silence.

"Um, sir? I'm going to have to call you back."

So after waiting an hour or so, I call them back. It seems that the message never got back to the millwork department to investigate and call me. I finally talk with someone in millwork who could possibly help. He can't find the side door, and then starts pushing the blame onto the salesperson who sold me the doors. "I need to talk with my manager. I'll call you back in 20 minutes."

An hour later, I call them back again. The salesperson "got busy". "My manager says that you can come in and pick out a better door, and we'll give it to for the same price."

At this point, I'd had enough.

"Listen, I purchased both doors the other night. I had my hands on them, and after I purchased them, I was told they would be moved to an on-call area. If someone there did not move the doors, and then RESOLD them to another customer, that could be construed as theft of stolen goods. Here's what you are going to do: You're going to call the other local stores and find the same door, then you are going to go pick it up, and deliver BOTH doors (side door and French Door unit) to my house FREE-OF-CHARGE. You have until 6PM to make the delivery."

The doors were delivered about 2-1/2 hours later.

The work day was shot, so I puttered around and tried to prep things for the next day.

As I was closing up the garage for the day, I looked over at my "door-locked" generator, and made the following remark... "that's okay, we won't be needing it any time soon...."

Monday, August 27
"Sill? What sill?"

Remember the last remark? About not needing the generator? Guess what was out when we woke this morning? You got it... the power. We decided to change plans slightly, and run our shopping errands in the morning, but first, we were off to the North Chili Dinner for breakfast. As we were getting ready to go, the power came back on. See, no need for the generator.

By the time we got back from our errands, and ate lunch, it was time to tackle the side door. But first, I remembered to go apply for my building permit.

I was pretty sure that I'd be okay without having to get a permit to replace the side door, but I wanted to be sure.

I went and dropped off my permit application for both doors and was told that since it was just a replacement, that I didn't need a permit for the side door. Better safe than sorry.

Time to demo the old door and get the opening ready for the new door unit. Demo went well, until I realized that there was no sill to new door unit on. Back to HD for supplies.

I got back late, but since I had a hole in the side of the house, I had to finish the job. As I was grumbling outside, my beautiful wife called in a little help.

Thanks for our friends, Valerie and Keith, and their daughters (kept Boomper occupied as we finished up the project), for helping us get things buttoned up before it got too late.

Tuesday, August 28
"My brain hurts."

Yesterday late work left me with a whopper of a headache this morning, so I pretty much did more puttering around (awful lot of puttering goes on around here).

The one thing I did do was go and meet with the building inspector, Tom. I met Tom back when I replaced the kitchen windows, and I thing he appreciate that I knew what I was talking about when it came to building/renovation terms and practices. We talked about opening the back wall for the French doors, and my concern about adequate framing to support it. He advised me to go ahead and open the wall, and then call him to swing by and look at it.

Wednesday, August 29
"The Pope, The Virgin Mary, and the Ace of Spades"

Today was dining room wall demolition day. I spent the bulk of the morning prepping the room by taping up plastic to minimize dust in the rest of the house, taping down contractor paper to protect the floors, and taking down the remaining trimwork to be refinished and put back up later.

While removing the gumwood baseboard in the corner, I found three cards behind it: an early portrait of Pope John Paul II, a Mass card for a gentleman who died in 1973, and the Ace of Spades. I just found the collection amusing.

The three-yard dumpster arrived mid-morning (our village rents these for $20/week - SCHWEET!), and so, after lunch, I grabbed the buckets, my hammer and flatbar, and a dust mask, and started demolition. After five hours of tearing down old wallboard and paster, and trucking it out to the dumpster in five-gallon buckets, and after the dust cleared from vacuuming and sweeping up the debris, and was very happy to find that I had enough room under the header to install the new doors. Of course, I still needed to install a pair of double-jackstud posts under each end of the header because IT WAS ONLY BEING HELD BY BIG HONKIN' NAILS NAILED INTO THE ENDS OF IT!!!

By the end of the day, I was pooped, and didn't feel like cooking, so we went to our nearby Applebee's for dinner.

Thursday, August 30
Decking Material Gathering
Today, I pretty much spent the day picking up the materials for the temporary deck. I was back at HD with the plan of renting their Load&Go truck to haul the stuff back to the house. It's pretty affordable ($20 for an hour and a half), and since HD is only 11 miles down the road, it was going to be a quick run.

Of course, I had to pick the day that EVERYONE needed to rent the truck. The lucky part was that I was second on the list.

I finally got the truck, loaded it, drove it home and unloaded, took it back, picked up the van, and headed home again. It started sprinkling, so I decided to hold of until tomorrow to get to the deck.

Soon after, I get the visit from Tom, the building inspector. What I thought would be a quick 5-10 minute visit to look at the wall, turned into a one hour discussion about the neighboorhood, and the problems with the "5-family" slum a few doors down. Tom gave me the thumbs up on my plan with the wall and door installation.

Friday, August 31
Deck Build - Part 1

Today, the weather was perfect for working outside. Low-to-mid 70's, clear and sunny. Perfect.

I got right into building the deck. For the uprights, I reused 4x4's from the black walnut stack. Some were a bit twisted, or bowed, but I was still able to use them. I'll admit that my goal of having the decking all down by the end of the day was a bit ambitious, but I knew it was going down in flames when I second-guessed myself, and decided on a different joist layout.

Then I got slowed up by a bee that decided that I hadn't been stung in a while. I'm glad I'm not allergic to bee stings, because he hit me at the base of my neck. He just pissed me off for the next few hours.

My punishment for changing my plan midstream, was that I ended up one joist short. So, it was back to HD for the joist, and the remaining supplies to finish my projects.

Saturday, September 1
Deck Build - Part 2

Remember the bee from yesterday? Well, I think he's family was trying to avenge his death. All day long, I had about 3-4 bees constantly buzzing me.

I finished building the deck late this evening, and I must say, "not too bad for a first-time deck builder."

We celebrated the new deck with a moonlit dinner, and beer, out on it.

Sunday, September 2
"There's a big hole in the house!"

With the inside wall demoed, and the the deck in place, it was time to tear out the remaining window jamb, and open the wall up.

It took pretty much all day to cut the opening. I was trying to minimize damage to the fragile siding, and to the underlying sheathing. I also had to be care that I didn't remove too much before I got the new jackstuds in place.

I confess... at one point today, I stood up, looked out through the big hole in the back of the dining room, and said to myself, "What the hell am I doing?!?" My father had a similar moment many years ago as he stood on the second floor of their Cape Code, looking out over the neighborhood, with the back roof suspended by crane.... okay, so mine wasn't THAT bad.

I finally got to a stopping point, stapled the plastic back up on the inside and drapped the tarp over the opening on the outside, and Regina and I, again, sat out on the deck and had dinner by candle light.

Monday, September 3
Nice Doors

So, which "big day" is this? That's right: Door Installation Day.

Just a few things to finish up on prepping the door opening, and then I can call Brother Mark to come over and help me move the door unit.

Mark arrived, and we immediately moved the door unit up onto the deck... er, "temporary work platform". Yeah, that's it. We got it humped into place, and started the time-consuming, and rather mindtwisting task of shimming and securing the door in place. Thanks Mark!

Finally.... it was in, and there was much rejoicing.

Here I am with the doors. The doors weren't "completely secured", and then, Mom called:








Here's the deck with the doors:








Here are the doors from the inside:

Of course, we still need to do all the interior finish work (electrical, insulation, drywall, paint, etc, etc, etc), but that's another weekend.

I have to go back to work tomorrow. yeah.

going on vacation... well, it is to me

It's vacation time... which means "time to work on the house."

I'm taking the week off to replace our old "can-see-light-all-the-way-around" wooden side entry door, with a brand-spankin' new steel door unit. I'm also looking to install our new French (we're passed the whole "Freedom" thing, right?!?) in the dining room.

The side door should be quick n' easy, but the Frenchies are going to take more work, planning and sweat. First, I need to open up the dining room wall to see what structural support I have to work with. Currently, we have to side-by-side double-hung windows, and I'm hoping that once I remove the window units, I'll have the needed 72"x80" rough opening.

The real work takes place if the opening is too small. See, the wall is a load-bearing wall (the house is balloon construction), and so I would need to shore up the second floor and wall, and install a monster 2x10 header to distribute the load from above. Keep your fingers crossed.

I'll also be installing two outdoor lights (either side of the Frenchies), as well as two duplex receptacles in weathertight boxes.

I'll post updates as I can.

Okay, it doesn't seem like all that fun of a vacation... but it gets me out of the office for a week.

afternoon commute with Boomper

zero motivation day

It's one of those day.

I get this way every once in a while, but today is just feels worse. I actually feel guilty because I accomplished nothing, nada, zippo, nill, ziltch, bubkus... of course, does posting this contradict the way I feel today?!?

crap.

Well, so much for that thought.

Father's Day 2007

A year? A whole year since I started this thing? Gee, I guess time does fly.

A lot has happened of the past year, with some of the highlights listed here. Boomper, the Boy Wonder, the Boy Wonder is now 28 months, and growing up too fast. It's an adventure to see what he'll come up with each day.

The day, as every Sunday does, started with Dad's Special Waffles... still a big hit.

This year, I had one "desire": to stay home and send the day with my family. Okay, so I spent the day with the family, but the "stay home" part was broken.

See, I've been trying to work on a bunch of little, unfinished projects.... like, um, say.... the kitchen (most folks take four years to remodel their kitchen, don't they?!?). I also have some other easy projects to take care of, like trimming room doors, and sanding/priming/painting the kitchen cabinet doors (did I mention that I'm working on the kitchen?).

So, in order to do some projects, I needed....wait for it....that's right.... MORE power tools! This time around, it was time to dig deep and buy the only belt sander I'm ever planning on purchasing: The Porter-Cable 325VS 3"x21" Variable Speed Belt Sander. Great for sanding large surfaces, large curves, and of course, racing.

Go on, and bring that Craftsman over here, and I'll show you how we do things downtown..

All-in-all, I had a great day with Regina and Boomper. I love you two!

Let the Grilling Season BEGIN!

Boomper (Boy Wonder) and I just returned from HD (that's Home Depot for you noobs out there) with 20 lbs. of sweet propane.

Yes, I know that the grilling season is 12-months long, but there is something about THIS portion of it. Standing outside, in front of the grill, beer in one hand, tongs in the other, and nothing but the smell of cooking meat. Ah.... heaven.

Still got a tank from last season? Want to get every drop out, but don't know how much grilling time you'll have? Have no fear. Just check it out here: Propane Estimator Thingy. It's not perfect, but it'll help.

Mmmmm... I can already smell the goodness...

Bah-ston bound.

Time to load up the van for our annual Easter Weekend trip to my brother-in-law's house near Boston. Of course, we skipped last year because we were in South Carolina for Easter, and so were they. So, can we still count it as "annual"?
Anywho... we're leaving in the morning, and taking our time. Here's hoping our decision NOT to get a portable DVD player for Boomper was a good one. Lots of books, and other activities, have been secured for his delight, and ours. Fingers-crossed.

It should be a nice, relaxing weekend with Bill, Miwa and the boys. Lots of cooking, a bit of wine, some shopping (Lego Store and REI), and just plain-old fun. I know we need this mini-vacation.

Of course, first, I need to escape the office. I'm waiting on some creative files from one of the local ad agencies... I just hope I'm not waiting all afternoon (I was hoping to squeak out at 3, but it's not looking good. Sorry, Sweetie.)

fingers-still-crossed.

I'm back

Crap.

Okay, so I've been busy. I've been working on a number of projects, none of which has given me any free time to post. I'm hoping that'll change soon.

Aside from the numerous projects at work, I've been writing a bunch of code for the side biz, especially for the Boy Scout council website. I just finished a major upgrade on the events calendar (it now can be displayed in either grid or list views), and I'm just getting rolling on a major project that will really set the website apart from other councils. More on that shortly...

I'll be right back. The weather is looking pretty good, and so we're going on a "family walk". Be right back.

Mmm... canoey goodness... mmm

Dang.

Okay, so my "post-a-day" thought got left by the roadside. I'll work on it. Really.

A few weeks back, I was chatting with my friend Jim. Our phone conversations tend to fly all over the place, and somehow we went from codework to the canoe in his backyard. Canoe?!?

He told me he was wondering what to do with this 12' foot Grumman aluminum canoe that's been sitting in his backyard for 10 years. He got it from his brother, and used it to teach Canoeing merit badge to his troop. For the past several years, it's been sitting on sawhorses.

Ever since I took Canoeing MB my first year at Massawepie (the ULTIMATE Boy Scout Camp), I have always wanted a canoe.

I was thinking that a 12-footer solo would be a great starter boat, so I asked the only question I could think of... "How much you want for it?"

This, of course, was met by a brief pause.

"Well, I know it'll have a good home, so why don't you come over and pick it up."

schweet.

The next day, I jumped in the Caravan, and headed for Jim's. When I got there, he took me to the backyard. The first words out of my mouth were, "Jim, this is a 17-footer." Jim answers "Okay."
Needless to say, it is now referred to as "the canoe in MY backyard."

It needs some clean up, and a coat or two of auto wax, and check of the rivets, but it's in great shape. And then I need to get some PFDs (that's Personal flotation Devices, for those of you playing the home version) and paddles, and she'll be in the water in no time.

I also need to teach my Sweetie how to canoe, and then when Boomper is old enough (he's only 18-months old), he'll learn as well. I'm looking forward to taking afternoon floats, exploring the local waterways, and maybe an extended canoe trip in the Adirondacks, or maybe even Algonquin Provincial Park.

Thanks Jim, "she" has found a good, and loving home.

schweet.

Old Skool

Now get off my lawn!

Matt's Culinary Tip of the Day: Soy Sauce Packets

Yesterday, I was starting to jones for my brother-in-law Bill's "Peanut Butter Pasta". It's spicy pseudo-Thai peanut butter sauce served with, you guessed it, pasta. It's very tasty, and extremely easy to make. I'd love to share the recipe, but Bill retains the rights for a possible future cookbook.

Anywho, so last night I did my ingredient recon, just to make sure we had enough natural chunky peanut butter. Check. Then I realized that I used the last of the soy sauce in my marinade recipe the night before. THAT recipe will be shared at a later date. Sorry for the tease.

The grocery shopping for the week has already been done, so we scrounged to find any Chinese take-out soy sauce packets. Schweet! We found three! But was it enough to fulfill our need for two tablespoons of brewed bean squeezin' goodness?

Now the science (you knew this was coming): Your typical take-out soy sauce packet contains approximately .25 ounces of soy sauce, which is equal to 1/2 tablespoon. Store that little bit of information for future use.

Okay, so we're one packet short. I couldn't find any at work, which is bizarre because there is ALWAYS someone eating Chinese food here. Good thing, my Sweetie works at a local college (RIT). Can you say "dining hall?" I'm sure she'll be able to score the needed packet.

Why, you ask? Well, it'll come in handy when planning your menu for that upcoming camping trip. Need a tablespoon of soy sauce for your fish stew? Grab a coupla packets, and leave the messy bottles at home.

Just remember to carry out your empties.

Independence Day 2006

Well, today's the big day... our Annual Fourth of July Bash/Drive-in Movie Night. So far, everything is on track, and we only have a few things left on the list to take care of.

Grilling Tip: Want to know how much propane is left in that 20# tank?
I banged my head against the wall trying to find an easy way of determining how much propane I've got in tank. My frustration is now your gain: Matt the Webguy's Propane Estimator Thingy

Enjoy your Fourth. For those of you in legal fireworks states, end the day with the same number of fingers you started with. For those of you where fireworks are illegal, I'm telling Mom.

Game On!

Okay, drive-in movie equipment checklist:

Laptop...check
Projector...check
Movie...check (to be announced on Tuesday)
Back-up screen...check
40' custom audio signal cable...check
Nice weather...fingers crossed

Just a few "environmental issues" to handle (aka bugs), tweaking the movie prelude, securing the Tyvek for the screen, and picking up the popcorn popper, and we can greenlight this puppy.

BOO-YA!!!

Fourth of July Drive-In

Okay, it's been over a week since my last post. I've either been too busy, or just haven't had much to report.

I'm starting to prep for our annual Fourth of July Bash. This year, we're having a late afternoon cook-out, and then a good 'ol fashioned drive-in movie. Well, not really a "drive-in", but it'll be outside and projected onto the back of the house.

GEEK ALERT: I'm using a laptop and LCD projector to show the movie. I'm running the audio signal inside to receiver/amp and then out to speakers placed in the dining room windows...strategically placed right behind the screen. I'm also running the audio into a small FM transmitter designed for playing portable devices over car radios. Those who want to bring FM radios can enjoy that "drive-in sound experience". I'm still trying to track down a 12'x9' piece of Tyvek house wrap to use as a screen, but I'm still considering other options.

So far, we are still undecided on the feature presentation, but I've got one cartoon (I still need to find a Popeye), some classic movie theatre clips, and one patriotic clip.

We are also setting up a concession stand complete with a movie-style popcorn popper. It should be a lot of fun. I'll follow up after with how it went.

Blog Template

Okay, you're reading "Matt the Webguy", and probably wondering:

"If he's a webguy, then what's up with the canned template?!?"

I'm working on it, okay?!? Geesh....

Gettin' My Code Jones On

I've been in a bit of a rut lately. I've had the itch to write some serious code, but it just wasn't flowing right. Well, yesterday... I got my Code Jones rolling.

One of the things I've been working on at the day job (I'm the web developer at 13WHAM.com) is trying to make posting content to the website as easy as possible for our content editors and producers. One issue has been including images with the stories we post.

While the content management system our parent company provides is fairly decent, the image functions are strictly "upload only". I wanted to create a few apps to handle some simple image manipulation, without having to put graphics software on every machine in the newsroom.

(Yes, I know there are really cheap, or even free, graphics software out there, but I'm thinking about our IT Guy, Tom... more about "The Dalai Tommy" in a future post)

Anywho, I set out to create three distinct apps: a resizing tool for video screen caps, a Chyron-style slide creator to mimic what is used on-air, and a photo cropping tool. Of the three, the cropping tool was the most difficult... but nothing a recent post (Image Crop) to DHTMLGoodies.com, and some code tweaking couldn't fix.

One major tweak I made was to change the crop processing to use the GD library instead. I didn't want the script to have to rely on Imagemagick to work, and since GD is pretty much on every Apache installation out there, I thought it would be best.

It took a little wrestling, but it is working great now.

Now, to keep the Jones rolling...

One very popular guy in our house

Enough said.

Father's Day

Father's Day. It's a good day.

I was awakened this morning with a slobbery kiss from our "so-to-be" 16 month old, "NtG"...of course it was around 5:30AM. NtG and Mommy then let me sleep a bit longer before it was time to start the Sunday Morning Ritual.

Yup... you guessed it.... Dad's Special Waffles and Bob the Builder (more on Bob in a later post).

Last year was my first Father's Day, but NtG was only a few months old, so rolling over and smiling was all he was pretty much doing. He's grown a lot in the past year... sometimes a little TOO fast. Now, he's digging my waffles, drooling like a faucet, climbing on the couch, toddling around the back yard, and still smiling.

I was going to call my Dad today, but he and Mom are "somewhere in Alaska" with a local seniors tour group. I'll catch him later this week when they get back. Hey Rocco! Happy Father's Day!

It's a good day.