Homemade fun!

December 3, 2008Family, FunFamily, Funwarren

The kids were helping their grandparents decorate their tree last weekend when we all noticed the old ornaments Emily and her brother had made in school. Several were hand-painted and had pictures of them through the years. I don’t know if all schools stopped doing that or just the ones we have been in but we don’t have any homemade ornaments and even fewer than none with pictures of the kids. We couldn’t let that continue so we had project night at our house this weekend.

Emily’s folks found some wooden ornaments that just happened to have a space in the middle to accommodate wallet sized pictures. We had just finished having Christmas pictures taken at a local department store and we had the disc with the copies. I printed out a bunch of copies and we had some good old fashioned fun painting and otherwise decorating the ornaments.

I wear a black leather jacket typically. I had hung it over the chair in the dining room this weekend (well, truth be told, I hang it there every day). The kids were dancing around and painting, having fun, etc. I didn’t notice until the paint was dry, but someone did battle with my coat using a green paintbrush. Take a moment to find a zen place, Warren…the paint is water based and washable and came right off luckily!

So, all is well. We now have some homemade ornaments with current pictures hot-glued in place. We had a good time messing around with family and I have a significantly scrubbed, much cleaner coat. It was certainly good homemade fun!

We hot glued ribbons to the top to hang them on the tree. It’s sort of funny but we decided that the kids don’t really look like either of us when we were kids. Of course, my kids are much cuter than we were!

No hair…hair…no hair…ear hair

December 2, 2008Audio, Family, FunAudio, Family, Funwarren

Warren - age 1 or so!

A long time ago in a state not so far away…yeah, well that’s it for the Star Wars bit. I was born a number of years ago but you’ll have to do some research to figure out how old I am…

The number of holes in the mouthpiece of a telephone is <my age>
In a “3-4-5” right triangle, the small angle is approximately <my age> degrees
“Les Miserables” has a cast of <my age>
There are <my age> U.S. Federal Reserve Banks
William Shakespeare wrote <my age> plays
Hannibal brought <my age> elephants with him on his conquest of Rome

So, I have no idea if I was born with or without hair, but I know I had it for some period of my younger years. I had hair for about 25 or so years and then I decided to shave it all off. Warren - with HAIR!

For awhile, that was pretty cool because I shaved it before other people were shaving their heads. At that time, I was too young to be “old man bald” but my kind of bald was cool. About a year or 3 ago, my follicular karma caught up with me and I started sprouting hair in my ears. It isn’t fair!

Anyhow, it’s my birthday today so I will tell you a few odd things about myself. Apparently I was to be named Jedidiah (hey, that’s almost Jedi!) but when I was “out”, my parents though I looked like my Dad so they named me Warren instead.

Warren - and little brother - Easter best!

I was almost continually sick as a child. I had pneumonia many times and rheumatic fever once before I got through 3rd grade. My illness made me exceptionally handsome…I am still plagued by it!

I remember my absolute favorite pair of shoes…it was in first grade. May parents got me a pair of green gum boots. I wore them to school…all day long…every day. I also loved western shirts more than any other style.

Seriously, though, time has surely flown but I can’t imagine being any other place or with any other people!

Oh yeah, here’s my source for the strange ways to get my age.

By the way, here is a family tradition we enjoy. We call it happy birthday – loud and proud!

[audio:https://myhomeamongthehills.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/dadbday1.mp3]

Some of my favorite turkeys

December 1, 2008Family, Food, FunFamily, Food, Funwarren

Like most of the country, our family overate on Thanksgiving. We always go to Emily’s grandparents house in a small town outside the city. But before the actual feed, we have a tradition. We usually start checking in early on Thanksgiving morning as soon as we get up. Emily’s grandmother typically gets up at dawn’s crack and does the magic that she does to get everything ready. By the time we wake, the turkey is sure to be well along in the oven. We always call and ask how things are looking at their place.

“Smells like things are getting along pretty well.” We check in a few times in the morning to make sure everything is under control. Of course, she’s been cooking for 70 or so years but I want to make sure she doesn’t need my expert advice! We try to get the kids to dress in some Thanksgiving-appropriate attire. Typically the kids dress as Native Americans. We couldn’t talk Isaac into it this year. Abigail wanted to be a pilgrim so Emily’s mom sewed her a pilgrim hat. I wanted to give her a blunderbuss to carry but Emily nixed that idea sighting the fact that my shotguns were all far too long for Abigail to carry. Darn practicality!

Anyhow, we headed to their place around 11:30 or so and start to nibble…and by nibble I mean I eat as much as I can sneak away with in my pockets. So, I nibble a turkey leg or a pumpkin pie waiting for everything to get finished up. Eighteen of us gathered for a huge feed and subsequent nap this year. Most of us were able to eat our meal and get away from the table before falling into the tryptophan-trance. We did lose a few in their mashed potatoes this year though. I guess we eat for an hour and a half. There must be a little hobbit in our family though as we always eat a second lunch as well.

Some of us took a walk around the neighborhood this year as we always do. Emily’s Mom and Dad grew up a few blocks from each other and have known each other since before they were in school. We walked through their old stomping grounds and had a great chance to chat and reminisce. I bounce a little as I walk to ensure that my food gets packed in pretty well so I can hit the dessert table again. Unfortunately, Emily had to carry me part way home from our walk this year. Too much nibbling I guess!

After dessert, we played a few games of Tripoli and Uno and goofed around with the kids. The kids enjoy playing on the playground of the elementary school next door. We continued to eating and playing until first supper sometime around 6. The dark is our cue to start to pack up and head home as we sober up from our turkey-induced hang-overs.

I think Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays (Groundhog day is right up there too…more on that another day). It is pretty low-key (easy for me to say since I just show up and eat) and is all about hanging out with family and having fun. It is still a simple holiday and an absolute joy!

Look at my new hardware!

November 28, 2008Fun, TechnologyFun, Technologywarren

Just yesterday I was commenting on how machines do not define me…but I have to admit, I do sort of dig technology too. Just to be clear, I plan to use a lot of buzz-words and mumbo jumbo to astound you with my computer savvy…isn’t that what computer people do? Anyhow, I think there may be some interesting bits for computer neophytes as well.

I had been running this blog on an old 1.4 ghz desktop machine with 512 mb of ram and a 20 gb harddrive. This machine was pieced together from parts we had laying around the office and was never supposed to be exposed to the public. But, as with most computer projects, the prototype became the product and sure enough, this blog was turned on with the power and support of “ole Bessie”.

By trade, I am a software engineer…I write computer software for a living. I don’t know a lot about computer hardware. I just assume the hardware works. Asking me to choose computer hardware is like asking your autobody guy to rebuild your engine…it might be successful, but it is probably not ideal. So, a few weeks ago, Dell had a sale on Poweredge SC440 small business servers. A hardware friend/coworker of mine mentioned that it was a good deal and might serve as a good replacement for “Bessie”. The sale price of the machine was $199. I upped the memory a little and got the whole thing delivered for $252.! It has 2 gb of ram, a dual core 2 ghz pentium processor and an 80 gb harddrive. Ahh, much better! So I migrated the blog from “Bessie” to “Vader” (more about that later).

Now, let me tell you, 8 servers in a 10×10 room put off a powerful lot of heat. Yup, I have 8 servers in my office. My current project needs 4 servers to function. I have a couple of extras for testing, etc. Adding this new server raised my heat by one machine. I am somewhat worried about going through a Bruce Banner change. I don’t think these machines put off gamma rays, but I’d also rather not turn into the incredible hulk either.

Anyhow, migrating a wordpress blog from one machine to another is really pretty simple also. I spent about 4 days making it complicated but it need not be. Basically, I installed WAMP which is the webserver and database programs that run the website. I just installed it with all of the default settings. I did not install wordpress on the new machine. Instead, I copied the entire WAMP directory (c:\wamp\…it includes the web server, database and wordpress files) from my original machine to the same directory on my new machine. Restart the webserver and we’re in business. I read all sorts of opinions on how to do backups and migration plans and how to properly sacrifice a chicken over the old and/or new servers. I tried some of those things (well, not the chicken part) and none of those options really worked. WordPress and WAMP will run on windows but are not really Windows-based so I figured that they probably didn’t have the invasive installation mess that most Windows programs have (i.e. I figured I would just copy stuff over and hope it works). Sure enough, I was right! So, after fooling around for 4 days with no success, I punted and in 8 minutes, my blog was migrated! I don’t know if you can tell the increase in speed, but please humor me and say you can! Wahoo!

Who needs girlie mags?

November 27, 2008Garden, ThoughtsGarden, Thoughtswarren

I have a secret stash of magazines hidden under the mattress on my side of the bed. I know I am not the only one with this problem, but yesterday, I added to my collection…the Gurney’s catalog came in the mail! I have a problem and I am willing to admit it. I just love to look at seed catalogs. I pour over each page and read every description of every seed. I make lists of what I want and more lists of who sells at the best price. I have a problem!

If my problem was uni-dimensional, there may be hope…but I have another addiction also. My wife calls it bee-porn. I admit it – I love to read beekeeping magazines and catalogs and websites too. I love to read Beesource.

In one way, it makes no sense why I read the seed catalogs over and over again. The descriptions never change. How many ways can you say a bean is green or a cabbage will make the best kraut ever? Still, as winter looms, I take part in the process. I really hate winter. It depresses me. I have a serious need to be outside but I don’t care for the cold anymore. So I am stuck with a contempt for winter. But the catalogs give me something to look forward to. It’s how I get through the winter. That sounds overly dramatic, but it makes my outlook so much brighter. I love fooling with the garden and it’s sort of what I am all about. Messing around in the garden makes me feel alive. I work on computers all day and they take me so out of touch from other people (don’t get me wrong, I don’t really like people : ) ) and from what makes me feel human. Machines pay the bills, but they are not who I am.

So, I am thankful for Gurneys, and especially their catalog. I am thankful for bee-porn. I am thankful for my crazy wife and kids who support me with my problem! Happy Thanksgiving!

My boy

November 26, 2008Family, ThoughtsFamily, Thoughtswarren

I was messing around in the family room the last night when Isaac brought a metal plane over to me to play with. He has a collection of metal planes, equivalent in size to matchbox cars. Anyhow, he said, “Here Dad, you can play with this one.” He didn’t really care much about playing with me. He just wanted to make sure I had something to play with. We each sat in our chairs flying our jets around in our own make-believe worlds. I loved playing with matchbox cars as a kid and I still can get pretty well lost in play with them. Isaac knows that and he wanted me to have something to do. We played with our planes and watched “Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” together. It all took me back. I loved being a kid (well, not junior high, junior high should be illegal). I still love being a kid…I am not so sure I like being trapped in this strange body with hair growing out of my ears and on my back…but I still feel like a kid and my boy knows it. He can look into my eyes and he knows I need a plane to fly!

Cure for the common cold

November 25, 2008Fun, ThoughtsFun, Thoughtswarren

Like almost everyone else in the United States, I seem to have gotten some sort of cold. Upon recommendation of my Dad, I tried some Theraflu and it is really pretty amazing stuff. It soothed my throat and dried up my snot-maker. I still feel pretty miserable though so I decided to amp it up a bit.

I remember my Grandpa sipping on ginger brandy when he had a cold. He wasn’t a drinker at all so for him to hit the brandy, it must have been effective. I headed to the local drug store tonight. After slinking through the liquor aisle, I found a bottle of the exact brand of ginger brandy Grandpa used to drink. Like Grandpa, I am not much of a drinker. I had no idea how to drink brandy so I figured I would start with a straw. It worked but it didn’t seem too tough drinking hooch through a straw. I considered how they drink on tv so I decided to do brandy shots. I can report that after 11 shots, I am not feeling any pain at all. I have developed a red nose though.

Anyhow, I am definitely feeling no pain, but I don’t know that I truly knocked out the cold. With a bit of scientific Google research, I found a few more home remedies to try out. I read that zinc can shorten the life of a cold. I didn’t have any zinc laying around but I know that pennies are made partly of zinc. The above study said 15 mg of zinc is the recommended dose for men. Pennies are 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper. An individual penny weighs 2.5 grams. Though I am in an altered state, I believe that means that each penny has 2437.5 mg of zinc. As always, if some is good, more is better so I swallowed 2 pennies and another shot of brandy. I also discovered that increased copper will help reduce LDL cholesterol and lower blood pressure…awesome! And another shot of brandy for health!

I found a listing of all sorts of home remedies as well. Some were easy to try. One suggestion is that lemon and some honey mixed in water would reduce the length of a cold. I have honey from my bees but I am a little short on lemons. The kids still had some Halloween candy so I swiped a packet of lemonheads from their stash and chased them with a tablespoon of honey. Now, I expect that some of this stuff will help my cold. By the way, is a headache part of the recovery from a cold? I am starting to get a bit of a headache and a cottony mouth…we’ll see how that turns out. Anyhow, does anyone else have any home remedies that work? I am in need!

Solar Furnace – Results

November 24, 2008Green, House, TinkeringGreen, House, Tinkeringwarren

We finally had a sunny day yesterday and I was able to get some real results from my solar furnace . I had to make a few changes for success though…

First of all, I discovered that the mercury switch was not sensitive enough to really work. The cold air outside was messing up the way it functioned. I could not insulate the part of the air box where the switch was since the switch has to be able to move (if you’ve never seen the setup, a mercury switch is placed on a temperature sensitive metal coil which moves and allows the mercury to open or close the switch). I decided to experiment with wiring the solar panel straight to the fan which actually worked very well. The fan only came on when the sun was out and shining pretty brightly which was precisely when the best heat was being made.

The pipes that run from the furnace to the house were white originally but it seems that enough cooling took place in the pipes to make the system not work as well as I had hoped. I painted them flat black like the rest of the system and it worked like a charm. The pipes absorbed heat from the sun while transferring the heat through the system, thus helping with the whole “hot air rises” thing.

I also discovered that I had a few air leaks around the pipes and in the holes for the air pipes in the furnace. I used silicone caulking (which will actually cure in about any temp regardless of what the instructions say) to patch all of the holes/gaps/leaks.

Once I made those three changes, I took temperature measurements of the cool air pipe from my family room floor and the warm air pipe from the furnace. My floor air was 63 deg F and my warmed air was 84 deg F! Hee-haw! Eureka! Ding Dang, y’all!

Ok, so I was pretty happy with the results. The fan kicks on and off with the sun which manages the heat pretty well. I still need to boost the power to the fan to get a little more air flow. I did some experimenting and was able to get a better temperature rise with a bit more air flow. I will probably add another cheap-o solar panel to run the fan better. I also need to find a better way to prevent backflow. I really don’t like hanging a piece of plastic in front of the vent. For now, it is working but I don’t like it as a long term solution. I have glass to build one more furnace so I will probably build it out then figure out some way to deal with both systems. Anyhow, for now, I am pleased with the solar furnace!

6 Random Things

November 21, 2008ThoughtsThoughtswarren

Children in the Corn tagged me for the 6 random things quest. Here is my go at it:

I am learning to play violin – though a friend says he’s never seen anyone smile playing violin…he assures me I should play fiddle because everyone smiles while playing fiddle!
I don’t like hot chocolate but I drank many cups of it while wooing my wife in college.
I have three degrees: B.A., M.A., M.S. for which I am still paying.
I am an Eagle Scout
I love Big Band music more than any other type
I grew up in a small town of around 500 people…not a single stop light in the entire county.

I don’t know a lot of folks who would likely complete this so I will tag “Anonymous”. If you want to participate, please do. I think it is pretty fun to read random stuff about other people. Let me know if you do a post…

Now, since I am onto random, here are some more random things:

I am home with Abigail today as she is sick.
By profession, I am a software engineer but I would love to live a more simple life. I think I could easily be a full-time farmer…if it would pay the bills.
I love hot weather.
My favorite cake is red velvet
I have been stung hundreds of times by bees. It barely even hurts any more.
My favorite movie is probably Unforgiven with Clint Eastwood. I also like the BBC version of Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice.
M*A*S*H is the all time best tv program ever followed by Dukes of Hazzard and Airwolf

That’s all for now!

Something for your truffles

November 20, 2008Food, WVFood, WVwarren

Chocolate truffles are God’s gift to humankind I think. I am sort of picky about the chocolate I like. For instance, I do not like any chocolate ice cream (really, I don’t like any ice cream), chocolate milk, or hot chocolate. When I see truffles, though, I am willing to pass through fire (except that it would melt the chocolate) to get to them.

We have a local chocolatier family in Charleston, the Holls. They own Holl’s Chocolates and make some really great truffles and chocolate goodness. As much as I love their confections, I can’t really afford to eat their stuff as much as I would like.

Of course, that means it is time to improvise. I have found a few recipes for homemade truffles that are really pretty amazing and simple to make. I doubt I will be putting Holl’s out of business, but it surely satisfies my need to be cheap and well-chocolated. Here is a recipe that we discovered in a flier sent out by Kroger.

Peanut Butter Truffles

1 cup heavy cream

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

24 oz. melted chocolate chips (we used semi-sweet though milk chocolate would be good too)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup powdered sugar (optional – for rolling)

1/4 cup cocoa (optional – for rolling)

1/2 cup ground peanuts (optional – for rolling)

Heat Cream with peanut butter in a saucepan. Whisk together as peanut butter melts. Meanwhile, melt chocolate in a double boiler (or microwave as I did). Combine peanut butter mixture with melted chocolate. Add vanilla and place in refrigerator to set (recipe says 10 minutes, I say 3 hours). Once set, scoop truffles with a melon baller (or use a spoon and ball them in your hand) and roll in powdered sugar, cocoa, peanuts (or nothing as we did). Return to refrigerator and let them set again. Keep chilled until you serve them.

I don’t really know how many truffles this recipe makes because I ate a ton of the mixture as it was setting. I also made Shrek-sized truffles, much larger than a typical candy. One is basically a meal in itself!

I only make truffles in November and December for some reason but we’ll make a bunch of them and add to our hibernation weight! There are lots of other recipes out there and all are similar and simple. This is the time of year for experimenting!

My Home Among The Hills

Life in WV!