gettin us a Christmas tree

On a road not too far away from here is a Christmas tree farm. Seeing as it's getting close to Christmas time, and we're going to be at home this Christmas, we decided a visit to said Christmas tree farm was in order. We set out on Saturday morning at the crack of dawn (well, maybe 10 AM) on our mission and got there around 10:03 and promptly realized we didn't have enough cash and we had forgotten the checkbook. We hung our heads, turned the Tacoma around and made the daunting return trip to secure funding. Fast-forward to 10:07 and we're back at the tree farm with checkbook in pocket, along with our hands since the wind was blowing and it was a full 5 degrees colder up to the hill. We chatted with the dude in the barn and he told us the prime area for the type of tree we were after - a noble.



We waddled back to the truck to pick up the saw, then it was deep in to the forest. Right next to the road we found just the tree we were after -



come to find out, Susie has been stopping to talk to this tree for about the last two months to ensure that it grew up straight and kept good spacing for lights and ornaments. Turns out she'd done too good of a job as that particular tree was a little too tall for the living room. We scoured the hillside and after 10 steps found a tree that was paying better attention to Susie's pep-talks. Susie gave the tree a big hug to let it know it had to endure some sawing before it could come home with us.



For some reason, i am physically unable to cutdown a Christmas tree, so i hacked at the trunk for a while, then had to have Sus finish the job.



Fresh in my mind was a conversation that i should have borrowed Sean's cordless sawzall ... . Oh well, at least i can carry trees 20 steps before having to ask for assistance.





We paid the dues, threw the tree in the back of the truck and headed back home - again, but for the last time for this excursion. We got home and then my wish of using a sawzall came true as i cut a straight bottom for the tree - note to self though, use the correct blade next time.



After some pushing and shoving, we got the tree setup - next comes the decorating ...

Long time no post ...

Well, seeing as it's been almost a month since i've posted anything, i guess i'd better get on it.
The shed is pretty much done - a couple things to finish off here an there, but not much that is picture-worthy.
I took off part of Friday this last week to spend some time working on various projects around the house. Susie was off in Boise spending time with family and friends, so i stayed up way too late working out in the garage. I was able to get a new 'cabinet' made for holding all my tools with cases. I also made a new mobile base for my chopsaw - i should clarify, i bought a mobile base, and added a platform for the saw since the mobile base wasn't quite big enough. Anyhoo, i'm able to roll the chopsaw around the garage as needed now.
I've also been working under the house as some of the insulation has come loose and is hanging down touching the ground. I'm pretty sure this has a direct link to one of the airvents being broken and cats being down there. I think i've blocked off the kitty-portals, now it's on to cleaning up the mess before the rains come and turn the ground to mush under the house. I REALLY don't like crawling around down there - this house is really close to the ground - not sure if it's because the foundation is shorter, or if they didn't take out any dirt - but i can't even sit up straight while under there. I've been taking it a little at a time so i don't have to be down there long.
Alright, i'm out of stuff to say for now ...

Adding the shell

Next came the siding. I don't remember what the deal was, but Sus wasn't around, so i had to put some of the siding up myself. Note to self for next time i put siding on something - make sure there is someone to help. Siding is awkward and has a way of staying in place until the milisecond that you pull the trigger on the nailgun. Once the nail has embedded itself right in a stud, then you're able to see the error of your ways and that the sheet isn't where you were needing it to be. Oh well, it's not too bad, and what is a little off will just get an extra helping of caulk.




I only got two sides up the first night (after the shingling) and it was just in time, cause it rained like there was another flood coming (actually it just sprinkled a little bit). So the next day i did the third side.



Next came the realization that windows go behind the siding, not in front of it ... something that would have been good to know before hand. I must admit though, it was easy to cut the siding from the inside with a sawzall (one of the greatest tools ever invented by man) using the window frame as the guide. There was no measuring, no guess work, just a simple cut and then a tear-down of the siding.



Meaning that once the window was in and the siding back in place, it fit like a glove.



Sus helped me get side 4 in place, but i think we were rushing to beat the fading light, cause we didn't do any better than i had done on my own.



We got the peak part covered, and another 'ah-ha' moment was that when i realized that i don't have much over-hang on the roof. I hope it doesn't turn out to bite me in the future. I think i should have added another sheet of plywood to the roof. But at this point, it's done and i'm not taking the roof off.



The first two corners are in place and the light is fading, time to head inside ...

Shingles anyone?

The weather forcast showed rain for 10 days straight, so i figured it would be prudent to get the roof shingled. Let's see - the last time i actively shingled a roof was when i lived in Auburn, WA and i helped with re-shingling the church roof. I think i was 14 at the time (i might have the age off), but the idea remains that this is not something i do every day. Thankfully i assisted Bruce with putting a roof on Caiden's play structure a few weeks ago, so i had a pretty fresh idea of what was supposed to happen.



In hind sight, i wish i had put the siding on first. I got up on the roof and the whole thing wobbled and creaked. It was like being on a boat, but without the salmon biting -- hmm, that's a mental picture that brings back painful memories.



Thankfully the weather held out - it rained a little bit at the start of festivities, but tapered off and was really nice the rest of the day.



And at the end of the day, the roof was shingled - and with a little sunlight left, it was on to the siding (which i'll cover in the next post).

Getting the roof on the shed

I tried to weasle Vegas-Josh into flying up to help with building the roof for the shed, but that didn't work out, so i recruited Corvallis-Josh and got some pointers and more drawings from Scott. I'm not sure if this was exactly what Scott has in mind, but it's what is in place now and i'm not changing it.

We started out with preparing the ridge beam. Josh and Sus put the truss supports on the ridge beam while i ate lunch (i needed my strength).



Then we attached some support pieces for the ridge beam. In Scott's drawing, he had noted that the roof should be a 12 / 4 pitch. When i first read this, i was thinking that mean that the peak of the roof would be 4 foot above the top of the structure, so i built the support piece that tall. I attached it to the structure and then noticed how high that was - it was ridiculous - so i called him up and decided it should be 2 foot above. This was much better! (In the picture below, the support piece is just above the blue step on the ladder.)



We set the ridge beam in place and started attaching the trusses. Although we don't have pictures, each truss is then attached with a hurricane strap to the building structure.



By the end of the day, we pretty much had the roof structure in place.



Josh had to take off for a hot date, so Sus and i finished up some of the small stuff, then (in Josh's borrowed Tundra) headed back to Home Depot for sheets of siding and other misc stuff ...

Body Worlds 3

Sus and I headed up to OMSI in Portland last night to see the Body Worlds 3 exhibit. It’s an anatomy exhibit of the plastination work of Dr. Gunther von Hagens – a German anatomist who has developed a really cool way of preserving human bodies. “Plastination is the process of extracting all bodily fluids and soluble fats from specimens, replacing them through vacuum forced impregnation with reactive resins and elastomers, and then curing them with light, heat, or certain gasses, which give the specimens rigidity and permanence.” Admittedly, I’m not a big follower of anatomy, but the exhibit was fascinating.

There is a mix of showcase displays and display cases. The display cases are mostly of organs, cross-cut sections, bones, etc. These are interesting, but pale in comparison to the showcase displays. The showcase displays had full-body plastinations in various poses, each designed to highlight a muscle group or to display the alignment and association of our organs. In some cases the bodies are pretty much ‘intact’ but in other cases certain bones, muscles, etc have been moved to the side to show what’s underneath. It is both artistic and informative.

When I first walked into the display hall, I felt a certain amount of apprehension just because I didn’t know how I was going to react to seeing bodies on display. There is also a very faint smell – I’m not sure how to describe it – that I noticed at first that wasn’t very pleasant. But it didn’t take long until the fascination of seeing bodies in such a state of preservation took over and any qualms were long gone.

One of the most interesting sections was of the blood movement through the body. The process they use is to inject a plastic into the specimen, wait for it to harden and then remove all the non-plastic material. What is left is an imprint of all the blood vessels. They had a hand, a foot, and various other body parts. It is incredible to see how many (and how tiny) vessels are in your hands and fingers.

Also interesting was a partial timeline of anatomy that was displayed in drawings and writings. The main contributors they highlighted were Galen (AD 129), a Greek physician who studied the anatomy of dogs and pigs and extrapolated those findings to humans. In some cases, he was pretty close, but in others he was way off. His ideas were challenged by Andreas Vesalius (1514 – 1564) a physician born in Brussels. He wrote the book De humani corporis fabrica (On the Workings of the Human Body) and is considered the father of modern anatomy. They also talked about many of the means used to preserve bodies and how plastination has really been a breakthrough in the preservation of color, mass and shape.

If you have the chance to view any of the Body World’s exhibits, I would highly recommend it. For any further reading – see Body Worlds

Building the shed - days 2-4 (9/23-26/2007)

Day two was a shorter day, so although it doesn't look like we got much done, we kinda did.

We started on the stick frame for the walls with Susie and i alternating between hammerring the studs. I did a pretty good job on the wood, but Susie kept getting confused by which 'stud' to hammer, so i have bruises all over.







At the end of day 2, we had the two back walls up and in place.



Day 3 didn't see too much progress either - we both had to work a little late, so we only had about an hour to work on the shed. We did get another side up. And get this ... i had looked the night before on craigslist and happened to notice a free vinyl window. I emailed and it was still available, so i went a total of 4 blocks to go pick it up. Ka-ching - freebie window!!! Granted one of the glass panes is broken, but it's dual pane, so we'll need to fix it at some point, but for the immediate future, it keeps rain out.





The end of day 3 saw three walls in place and one window placement ready.





Day 4 was actually just my lunch hour today - i was working from home and was getting a little peeved at some people, so i decided a working lunch was best; just not working for HP. I got the last wall up including the door frame. I have one more trip to make to Home Depot tonight, so i'm off to spend some more money.

Building the shed day 1 (9/22/2007)

The next project on the list is a shed - we decided on the back right corner of the yard. Scott (Susie's oldest brother) drew up some plans and although i have tried to follow them as best i could, the last lineitem (DeWalt heavy duty 12" double-bevel sliding compound mitre saw and stand) wasn't approved by procurement. So i did the best i could with the tools available to me.



I started out with getting the 6 concrete pier blocks level and square to one another. This is a task that i would not wish on my worst enemy - it took forever.



But finally with some patience and a lot of time on my knees with a small shovel and level, i believe i got everything done correctly.





Once the pier blocks and outline were in place, it was time to add the supports.





Sus had to demonstrate that everything is actually attached and not ready to fall apart.



Then came the base OSB



And voila, we have the base to the shed



At the end of day one, the base was complete and level ...

San Francisco AVP stop

and now for the exciting finish to the San Francisco blog posting ... the AVP tournament stop.



The tournament was held on pier 32 or 34 - just under the Bay Bridge. It was a little overcast in the morning, but quickly burned off and turned into a wonderful day. It would have been fun being there for each day of the tournament, but we had so much other stuff to do and see that we just went to the final day. I don't recall who was in all the games, but the first was a mens game to determine 3rd and 4th place. The second was the women's equivalent and it was a blow-out. After an hour or so break, it was the men's final followed by the women's final. Toby could probably tell who all played, or i could post a link to the AVP site, but i'll leave that up to anyone who's interested.







So here comes the funniest part of the day. We were being pretty good about drinking water throughout the day and so invariably the time came to run to the restroom. Right as the men's final completed, Sus and i headed down to the porta-potties. We got down there, and there was a huge line already formed, so we hopped in line. I had grabbed the camera just in case we saw any of the players close up and after a little while of standing there, here comes a lady with a Hilton shirt and fake tattoo on her arm (a tattoo for Hilton) - obviously one of the players. She headed through the line and went to the players tent which was in the corner. She looked around for something, then started heading back - so being the paparazzi that i am, i pulled out the camera and was doing my best to sneak a picture of her. No dice, the camera was trying to decide what to focus on, and didn't take the shot. As it turns out, since i was so madly trying to get her picture, a hole opened up in the line in front of me and she walked right through. I don't recall exactly what she said, but i responded with something like "yeah, and i didn't even get the shot off" - so she asked if i wanted to have my picture taken with her. Of course i did, so Sus took the camera and snapped a pic of the two of us. Once we're done, i sheepishly admitted that i had no idea who she was. She comes back with, "i'm a coach". Doh ... after all that, all i get was a picture of me with some coach. After taking care of business, we went back to our seats and i told Toby and Lynne'e about it. They laughed at me and the situation. At first i thought she was the coach for Misty May and Kerri Walsh, but after further review, figured she is the coach for Elaine Youngs and Nicole Branagh. Once i got home, i did some looking online, and found her name is Liz Masakayan - she's a really accomplished volleyball player. So in hind sight, it was really cool to meet her, i just wish i had known who she was in the first place ...

Weekend in San Francisco, part 1

Toby and Lynne'e are pretty big beach volleyball fans, and a while back they invited us to join them in San Francisco for an AVP tournament and just to hang out - either that or we invited ourselves, i don't recall. Anyhoo, we got in touch with Shannon (one of Lynne'e's college roommates) and she graciously allowed us to descend on her place for the weekend. We flew in on Friday morning and spent a while getting from the Oakland Airport to San Francisco on the various means of public transportation. I'll take this as a moment to say that i really like well-organized public transportation. Back to the subject at hand - we beat T&L there, but after chatting with them a couple times on the cell decided to meet them downtown once they got in. In our wanderings around, we saw Coit Tower, and then the Fog City Diner. Once we met up with T&L, we wandered down to pier 39, then drove to the Presido, then headed to Shannon's place. The next day we got up early (ok, not really) and went to the Legion of Honor, then headed down to the Embarcadero and hit the Saturday Market. Inside, T&L were amazed at something i said which doesn't really surprise me. We also stopped in at the South Beach Yacht Club to hang out with Toby's cousin who's a member there and was volunteering at the bar that day. We had a great time hanging out in their beautiful new club house. On the way back to Shannon's we had to stop by the Cheesecake Factory. I'll post next about the volleyball tournament.