Bedtime Stories

I was on my way to the computer to get caught up on some client projects that I needed to finish, when I made a slight detour and stopped to say goodnight to Steve and Jake, who were already in bed quieting down before lights out time. The image below is what I found when I walked into the room!



They were so proud of themselves for picking on of the best bedtime stories ever.

Band Project

Shortly after the beginning of this year we purchased the game Rock Band 2 for the Wii. We love it. We recently had the opportunity to play Guitar Hero World Tour while visiting with family, and we decided that between the two games we enjoy Rock Band more. However the one thing we did like about Guitar Hero was the configuration of the drum set. It has three drum pads and two cymbal pads which gives you a more realistic feeling of drumming during game play. Despite the lacking cymbal pads in our Rock Band set we still like the game better for multiple different reason. However, the real reason for this post was not to compare the two games. The reason was to share with you our little project that made our Rock Band system even better.

When striking the rubber drum pads with drum sticks there was a distinct thwacking noise. Which at times could get very loud, especially when the drummer really gets into the excitement of playing a song. There are many different techniques the other have used to help deaden the thwack. We decided to go with the addition of thick foam placed on the drum pads. This is to turn the hard thwack sound of the wood stick hitting pad into more of a soft low thud sound.

Here is what we did.

Supplies Needed:

4 - 6mm thick by 8.5x11in pieces of Craft Foam (black)
4 - 2mm thick by 8.5x11in pieces of Craft Foam (red, yellow, green, blue) w/peel-n- stick back.
1 - Compass, the one used for making circles, not the one used for finding true north.
1 - Cutting board
1 - Exacto knife
1 - 1-2mm thick piece of chip board, we used the back of a scrapbook paper package. Sturdy cardboard would work also.
1 - Spray Adhesive, make sure it is safe for use on rubber and foam. Elmers has one.
1 - Large trash bag



Each pad of the drum set has a specific color that corresponds with a note in the game. We chose to add the colored foam for two reasons, 1) we just think it looks cool, and 2) it actually helps beginners and children to recognize faster which pad needs to be struck when the notes are on screen. We placed the four different colored peel-n-stick foam pieces onto the four black pieces of foam.

We measured our drum pad and set our Compass to make a circle slightly smaller than our drum pad,less than a centimeter. We created a template for the circles we needed to cut using the chipboard, to ensure that all the foam circles would be the same.

When we cut the chipboard we made sure to cut the circle out of the middle of the 12in x 12in board. This way we could use the piece with the big hole in it as a stencil/shield. We cut bot sides of the large trash bag to create a long flat sheet of plastic. We then cut a circle out of the middle of the trash bag. Using the spray adhesive we lined up the hole in the trash bag with the hole in the 12x12 chipboard, and stuck the two together. This created a drape that could be placed over the drum set and protect the electronic parts from the spray as we attached the foam to the rubber pads. We then used the circle template to cut our four colored circles from the foam pieces.

We placed the trash bag drape over the drum set, aligning the hole with the colored pad that corresponded with the correct colored foam piece. We sprayed the adhesive on the black side of the foam circle and then sprayed the drum pad. We removed the trash bag and place the colored foam circle with the adhesive side down onto the drum pad, making sure that it was centered. We did that four times,and presto we now have four new sound-muffling fully colored drum pads!!


We of course have already tested the improvements that we made to the drum set and they work great. There is no loss of function, meaning the pad sensors are still just as quick to respond when the pad is stuck. The thwacking sound is now a low thud and does not interfere nearly as much with the enjoyment of playing the game. We are very pleased with ourselves!!

Chicago

Missey, Sephie and I took a trip to Chicago in April of this year.

IT WAS AWESOME!!

Our hotel was great, it was an 8 minute drive to the nearest train station, and we did have to pay to park the van, but overall it was great. We had breakfast in the lobby every morning and the room was the perfect size. Missey chose an executive suite and I will try to make that my room style choice from now on whenever I travel. When you enter the room it is like walking into a living room, not like a traditional hotel room which opens into a small hallway. Executive suites give you lots of room to move around in.

Thursday night we made it into the heart of Chicago just in time to visit the Art Institute for about an hour before they closed. Such an amazing display of art. I am excited to go back and see the whole place.

This was one of my favorite pieces. The family of three reminded me of my own small family.


In China Town we had sum good dim sum.


I have always loved going to aquariums. The Shedd Aquarium was amazing even though the large ocean area was closed for upgrades. Sephie and her husband Jared are planning a trip with Steve and I to go back sometime in 2010. I am so excited! We found Nemo and some of his friends!


We stood in line at Gino's Pizza for an hour and 15minutes to get some authentic chicago style deep dish pizza. That wait was just to get in the door. After another 20 minutes or so we were seated. Then it takes another 45 minutes to prepare and bake the pie!


Holly Moley it was so worth the wait!


We visited the 95th floor of the Hancock building at night and looked out over the city! So beautiful. The image on the left is a view looking north up the shore of Lake Michigan, highway 41 is filled with the headlights of late night travelers. This image of the right is a view southwest into the city. This town is just as beautiful during the day from the ground as it is during the night from 95 stories up.


This may sound cheesy, but sometimes we all get visions of what a place is going to be like based on stories we have heard or movies we have seen. Well I had an idea in my head of what Chicago was going to be like ... full of activity, noisy from the trains passing by at regular intervals, heavy traffic and loud car horns, great food, beautiful architecture, amazing views, and great attractions. I love this picture, which I took as we crossed the street under the train line. It reminds me of all the movies I've watched that helped me to develop my expectations of how great this city would be. It also reminds me of how this city lived up to all of those expectations and even surpassed a few!!


We had a great time. I cannot wait to go back and visit many, many more times!

A little birdie told me

Our backyard family has grown by three! This picture of Mama bird feeding her little ones was taken on 5-2-09. We believe they hatched some time that early morning. Happy Birthday!



In just a few days they have changed alot. They now have feathers and look more like real birds instead of strange featherless creatures with beaks. One of them likes to sleep on its back with it's beak open.



I think Mama bird is getting used to me being around and taking pictures of her babies. She sat quietly and patiently in a nearby tree as I visited the nest today. She no longer tries to attack me.

We recently tilled our garden so she and her little ones have lots of fresh big healthy worms to eat! Enjoy!

Spring is here!

Nana found a Robins nest in one of our trees in the back yard. The nest is in a small pine tree that stands only about 6 feet tall. We have had a wonderful view of the mother Robin tending to her nest over the past few days. Today I decided to investigate the nest a little closer with my camera and zoom lens.

This is what I found.

And she has been busy!

If you look closely we think there might be four eggs. We are excited to keep watching as this not so little family grows. Our hope is to catch a few photos of the young ones after they hatch!

There is so much to see and so much fun to have right in your own backyard if you just look for it!

Jacob is 5 years old!

Jacob's  birthday celebration lasted about a week. It began on Saturday March 21st and ended Thursday, March 26Th.

On Saturday his Grandma and Grandpa Lewis, Aunt Elaine and Cousin Jessica, Nana, and Mom and Dad had a small party to celebrate as a family. This year we all pitched in to buy him a Nintendo DS. Steve and I love electronics and video games so we decided to share that joy with Jacob early in life. :)

I love the emotion captured in these pictures. When he realized that the machine was his and that he had gotten the same games that his friend Benjamin has, Oh he was happy!

He also received a new set of bases and a tee-ball stand from Aunt Elaine and Cousin Jessica. He loves to play sports. This will make it much easier to run the bases then stepping on sticks and using the trees in the yard. Oh course we had to try them out right away.


The cake decorating was a group effort. Jacob specifically asked for a mountain race track themed cake. So using all natural ingredients, no chemicals or colored dyes, this is what Nana come up with. Jake loved it! It tasted amazing. Way to go Nana!

On Thursday, March 26Th, Jacob's actual birthday we had a great day. We slept in ... which is not different from any other day ... then I allowed him to have a granola bar with chocolate chips and an oatmeal flax seed cookie for breakfast. He was in heaven. He loves chocolate. We had Wendy's for lunch ... yuck, but it was his birthday. We went to Party America and purchased a very large #5 balloon bouquet. He got a haircut, we took his 5 year old picture with his balloons, and he was allowed to play his DS and watch cartoons while I made the pizza doughs for his party later that night.

At 5:30pm The Robertson Family arrived all 7.5 of them. Anaise is expecting baby #6 in a few months. I had invited another family that had 4 boys in order to make it an even gender mix but they had to cancel due to illness. Jacob and the girls still had a great time. I'm sure Jake didn't mind being the only boy, he is such a ladies man. ;)

Nana made a second cake for this party with the same ingredients as the first. It was just as delicious as the first one. 

There was plenty of squealing, laughter, running around, and general goofing off. They played ping pong, sang happy birthday and presented Jake with his gift. It was a great art set with markers, crayons, scissors, glue and a large sketch pad. It came in a nice hard carrying case.Each of the girls had created a handwritten birthday card for him and Steve had a all kids giggling as he tried to read each one.  Jake loved it.

We all had a great week. Happy 5th Birthday Jacob!

Fun With Fire Trucks!

There was an odd electrical smell coming from our computer room. You know, that kind of hot sickeningly sweet smell that comes from electronics when they overheat. After about 20 minutes of sniffing and feeling all the walls we decided that we needed some expert advice. I called the non-emergency number for our local fire department and asked a few questions about what we should do. I was concerned that there might be a fee for non-emergency house calls. The nice operator informed me that there was no fee for sending a company out to check the house. So at 10:30pm we decided to invite 10 fully equipped firemen, driving two very large firetrucks over for a visit.

I'm still not sure why so many fireman were needed for the very simple task of scanning one small room. However, if there had been even the tiniest little spark they would have been ready to pounce. For those of you that have been to my house, try to imagine 10 fully geared firemen in my living room, hallway and office. It was a very funny and cramped site to see.

The very well prepared men did a thermal scan of the office, Jacob's room and the hallway ... they found nothing.

Hmmmmmmmmm?

While Jacob was entertaining several of the firemen in the living room with his wonderful WII skills, I was informed to plug everything back in and continue with life as normal. In the event that the smell returned I was supposed to call the fire department again and they would come back out to try to figure out the cause. So ... after testing all the fire alarms in the house, we plugged everything back in and resumed normal activities. Jacob was with Nana and Steve and I began playing one of our network PC games. He uses the laptop and I use the desktop PC ... it is totally dorky and it makes us happy.

The smell seemed to be lingering in the air very heavily. I thought that it was just residual from earlier so I went to open the office window. As I leaned over the desk reaching for the window I heard Steve say "Woh your screen just went jiggy." Yes he did say jiggy. Just as he said that, a very loud electrical buzzing noise started coming from our center CRT monitor (tube monitor not a flat screen). It sounded just like when a transformer is about to blow and it was getting louder. Steve immediately started yelling "shut it off" as he dove under the desk to unplug everything again. Thankfully we managed to get everything shut down before the monitor exploded. I was really not in the mood to have monitor pieces embedded in my mid section. I was grateful to Steve for acting so quickly.

After we took the dead monitor outback Steve began to test all the other components checking for damage. For a split second when we tried to restart the tower I almost went crazy with fear. It was not responding. No lights, no beeps -- NOTHING. The fear that I had just lost all of my work was almost to much to bear. I did my best to keep calm. I have been married to Steve long enough to know that I need to wait about 10 minutes before I start to freak out. That usually gives him enough time to determine if a full fledged freak out by me is necessary. Being the great computer guy that he is - he started with the first obvious test, if there is no power then check the power supply. There were two casualties - the monitor and the power supply on the PC. The power surge caused by the monitor fried the power supply inside our tower. Luckily that was the only thing it damaged, all of our files where intact. YAY!!!

We shut everything down and let the computer rest. It had gone through a lot, the lose of a component and a horrible scare of being totally fried. We knew it needed some down time to recover.

We have replaced the monitor and power supply and are back in full working order. We have also added a battery backup with surge protector to help prevent things like this in the future. Personally I have begun the task of making backup discs of everything. Steve is going to install an external hard drive for me that will update itself every night as a safety measure. That will be very nice. Jacob was not as impressed with the fire trucks as I thought he would be. He was more interested in telling all the firemen about his WII games. He is definitely our child.

Well that was our fun with firetrucks! By the way, just an observation ... I think it is mandatory that all firemen were first GQ models before getting the job. I'm just sayin ... it probably helps them sell calendars. :)