CaptainOrange

Note to Nobody in Particular Normally, my travel blogging is formatted with each day or two being a post. It has been a great way to help others follow along from home as if you were on the trip, but it can make for pretty punishing late nights. To make a long excuse short, I found myself watching The Witcher on Netflix at Brad's recommendation. So, this vacation is being collated as a single entry during my 6 1/2 hour layover in Minneapolis.  Episode IV: Cold Departure I think I managed to get the timing for this trip nearly perfect. Temperatures in the days before I left had lows of -36C and windchill values hit -52C. Prospects of my trip kept me relatively upbeat for the worst temperatures of the winter... probably, anyway. When the plane rises above the clouds, the added height makes the sunrise come much earlier. A symbol of hope for me. When I landed in San Antonio, TX, it was +18C (woo-hoo!). I Waited for Brad's plane to arrive from Virginia (via Atlanta),...

I've been back for a while. I just didn't have the heart to post this last page because of the Mosque shooting that took place a couple of days after my return. It's hard to tell people about my trip of a lifetime when the place I visited and which brought me so much joy is in anguish. FWIW, here is the final page of my thoughts on the trip. and the link to my trip photos , one last time.

#hobbitonmovieset #newzealandvacation #tolkien #thehobbit #thelordoftherings #jrrtolkien

If you don’t mind spoilers (the photo stream is a day or two ahead of the blog posts), don’t forget that you can find better quality versions of all these photos elsewhere . Except for my awesome drawings, that is. They are one of a kind ;) 

Link to the Google Photos Album for My New Zealand Trip

Fair Warning. This blog post, while it is about life's most delicious beverage, will be handwritten and published as JPEGs. Also, I'm still (and increasingly) angry with Google and Blogger, but I'm still here... for the time being. This Post represents about 3 months of coffee testing--from November 13th, 2018 to February 15th, 2019. The project is only partially completed, but I wanted to be able to share it with you right now. Perhaps you will benefit from our tasting experience.

We recently hosted Tim, Sherry and their boys, Ben and Jonah, for a couple of hours. We just began to become good friends as they left town, but we were excited to hear that they plan to move back to Saskatoon after one more year in Regina. Our kids are close enough in age to enjoy playing together and in so many ways we are kindred spirits (sorry, we just watched Anne of Green Gables last night and it makes me a little more romantic than usual about such things). Their visit was too short, as usual, but I consider it a good warm up for all the company that we have planned. There are a couple of pics of their sword wielding children here . Speaking of warm ups, Tim is one of the valued people in my life who is willing to pick up one of my dueling katana's and try to give me a whooping. I was positively out of breath from our brief, but aggressive, swashbuckling session. My summer is looking to be pretty busy (I can sense your shock as you read this). Our visitor ro...

One of the gifts I got last Christmas (though it may have just been an early birthday present) was a tangle of wires, resistors, LEDs and this thing that looks like a giant Triscuit cracker. It was from Brad and Jodi and at the time, it seemed like more than I could handle. I put it in a drawer and forgot about it. Brad and Jodi were visiting this week. We always like to tackle an interesting project. I'd say that this was good luck. I know Brad would say good planning. Below is the beginnings of everything needed for a great project. Coffee, a schematic or two, parts, tools and (of course) balloons! The ingredients of FUN As it currently rests, the the assembly looks pretty much as below... Let's hope we were being graded on function over form WTF? I know. This looks strange, even for me. It's a flash trigger with breadboard and a few extras thrown in for good measure. It was ordered from this site for anyone intrepid enough to want to make their own. The ...