ErkkilaDotOrg

We picked up a speaker to share stuff via bluetooth from the laptops, still working through a few interface rough spots but it works for the most part. One rough spot was the volume..

solution is a script to up/down the volume using an AVRCP bluez(4+) python binding script.

Look here’s one! ;)

http://pee.erkkila.org/btv.py

On Friday I sat for the first of two sessions on another tattoo, this time with Jana at The Iron Quill in Palmyra:
This part wasn’t too terrible…
This part hurt way less than I thought it would…
She said this would be the worst but it was a breeze (possibly because slightly higher up than achilles)
OW OW MAKE IT STOP…made a lot of faces and tried really hard not to whimper like a girl.

I go back for color in about a month. In the meantime I have another thing scheduled with TeeJay at White Tiger. Fortunately NOT on a foot this time.

Squeeeee…an Ameraucana pullet hit puberty

I was delighted to find that our new Kodak digicam (Z1015 IS) has a stitching mode. This was something I remember playing with back when I worked at Kodak. It lets you take 3 pictures (with an assist overlay to let you know how far to pan) and then stitches them together into one panoramic picture. Here are a few:

Sorry it’s a mess :)

OK, could be worse…

Out the back door

Front yard

towards the barn

towards Palmyra

Our new plasma showed up early! The Stereo Shop said it would take a week, but the guy left me an email on Wednesday afternoon so of course we had to go get it. We settled on the Panasonic TH-50PZ850U…decided against the Pioneers since they’re selling off their plasma business to Panasonic, and decided that the tv having ethernet is pretty cool (for firmware updates and such), even if we don’t use the youtube and picasa features. We were a little bit torn about the Pioneers since they support DLNA, but oh well, maybe it’ll be more established next time we upgrade. Since we are switching up to blu-ray and needed everything to be 1080p, that meant a new receiver as well (so that we can switch HDMI)…this time we went up a level to the Denon 4308ci (our last was a 3803). We were going to wait for Black Friday on the blu-ray, but the Stereo Shop offered us their black friday price on the Sony BDP-S350, which we were going to get anyway, for $199 (I think we could’ve gotten it for $179 from Sears or K-Mart on Friday, but figured why not). He tried to sell us Monster HDMI cables too but we came to our senses, there. The TV had to be unboxed to fit in the Subaru and it was like Tetris trying to fit the receiver and blu ray boxes in there too.

OK, I ALMOST came to my senses about HDMI. We had ordered HDMI cables online for like $5 each but they are being shipped ground from California. This was fine when we thought the TV wouldn’t be here until next week. But the sight of a blu-ray player sitting there on the shelf was bugging the hell out of me. In the interests of marital harmony, Paul suggested we go buy 2 cables from Wal-Mart…the minimum we’d need to hook it into the receiver and hook the receiver to the TV. $60 for impatient geekdom. But man, Wall*E and Nightmare Before Christmas looked and sounded great…when we finally figured out how to get the blu ray player to pass through the audio as bitstream (had something to do with the bd live or additional content audio setting; we had it on ‘Mix’ and we needed ‘Direct’).

The other thing was, the TV came with a stand but not bolts for other mounts (we have a low A/V shelf with pole mount)…had to go to Lowe’s to get them.

So now we’re just waiting for HDMI cables so I can eliminate component/optical for the cable box and one DVD jukebox, which frees up enough component connectors on the Denon that I can finally eliminate the manual switchboxes…yay. Next up, new motherboard and/or video card for Mooby so we can hook that up HDMI as well.

This is the first time we bought A/V equipment where everything had an ethernet jack. First thing we did with all three was get firmware updates. Can’t wait to see how the Sony blu-ray jukebox will turn out–will we finally get a complete disc title listing without having to type them all in?

Those Invisible Pink Unicorns. They’re so hard to spot in the wild. That is, unless you happen to have a black light.

Under normal light. With any luck when the scarring heals, the part inside the ring will be nearly invisible, leaving a (slightly broken) pink circle visible.

Partially black-lit

Just black light

My friend Josh got me in with his artist, TeeJay, the owner of White Tiger Tattoo in Rochester. It was her first time with UV inks (Chameleon), but I’m thrilled with how it turned out (glad to be a guinea pig in this case). Thanks Josh and Michelle (and pee, too) for coming along, and to Teejay for working me into her busy schedule. :)

I did a fair amount of looking around at the UV ink before jumping in. I was nervous enough about a first tattoo, but I really wanted the UV ink due to the subject matter. This type of ink has been in use for over 10 years with very few problems–it’s fluorescent, not phosphorescent (EverGlo ink caused problems for many people in the 90’s), and it’s encased in little PMMA microcapsules (a plastic they use for medical uses and has a very low rejection rate). The ink part never actually comes into contact with your skin due to those. The ink itself is FDA approved for use in marking animals that are for human consumption, although not for tattoo use (no tattoo ink is). I feel pretty comfortable with it after having read articles by artists and people who have used this ink for years. And it really, really looks neat. :)

Why IPU? I’d been thinking of tattoos for a long time and although a life-long agnostic, in the past few months, after having listened to The Atheist Experience and The Non Prophets podcast and starting to read more Atheist blogs, I’ve realized I’m really an agnostic atheist. Of the various free thought symbols I’ve seen, the IPU seemed both the most humorous (I wanted something fun) and also aesthetically pleasing. By making the circle part the only visible part in normal light, I actually get two symbols with the same meaning in one (yeah, I know it’s supposed to be unbroken, but close enough :)

-epe

We lost our last silkie rooster, Sumo, on Wednesday. Just like the previous one, we’re not sure what finally did him in but he’d been a bit wobbly for awhile so maybe he was just old. This leaves two silkie hens in with Sr. Modelo…who’s happy not to have to sit on the perch to avoid Sumo anymore, but I hope he doesn’t start bothering those little hens.

State of the pantry:

• 9 pints sweet and sour pickles
• 4 quarts hot dill pickles
• 20 quarts tomato sauce
• 3 quarts + 15 pints corn and tomato soup
• 16 half-pints+ 1 pint salsa
• 2 4-oz of hot peppers (mostly jalapenos, some hot cherry, some habanero)
• 2 pints + 2 quarts tomato vegetable soup
• 12 half-pints + 3 cups cinnamon/nutmeg applesauce
• 10 quarts grape juice (refrigerated but not canned–we’ll drink it all pretty quickly :)

This represents about half the total food we canned–my mom took about the same amounts of the tomato sauce, soups, salsa, peppers, and applesauce as are listed above. We also gave a few cans away. We would have had more pickles, but the crock pickles went bad–probably too many cukes for too little brine.

Now I just have to figure out where to store it (small house, no basement, everywhere else freezes in winter). :) Yay, maybe I can get more computer stuff done; we’ve been canning almost every weekend from the beginning of August until now.

It falls quickly for guinea keets. (meanwhile Blanco/a gets cuter).

The incredible bearded women:

Guess what?

Another canning weekend. My mom and I did 14 quarts of spaghetti sauce. With any luck we’ll get that much more from her garden, then maybe we’ll buy tomatoes locally to do salsa.

This is our new rooster, Negra Modelo (or Sr. Modelo, or Macey). He is an Ameraucana, born earlier this year. We got him from the Klossners. He spends a lot of time stalking hens, grabbing them by the tail and then quickly jumping on them before Red comes over and knocks him off. We have him penned separately until Red stops attacking him on sight. He’s a really pretty boy; sure hope he works out OK.

We’ve been spending a lot of time trying to convince the chickens to go home to the new coop at night. They are conditioned to go to the old coop at nightfall, and it’s hard to break habits. Two nights ago we got all but 3 hens and Negra, then today it was just Negra (who had to be lured into the coop storage area using a hen).

At least two of the baby guineas are ker-plonking (hens). Whew. We’re still not sure if the white Ameraucana baby is a pullet or a cockerel; it acts kinda cock-ish.

Moving has not affected egg production. We have over 7 dozen in the fridge. Phil better get his ass over here or I’m going to have to distribute them at work.

The first tomatoes came in this week which means we started canning (although we did do a couple of batches of pickles already). This time it was Corn and Tomato Soup; soon we will be doing tomato sauce, salsa, peppers, and other tomato and pepper variations. Our crock pickles were a disaster; probably too many cucumbers and too little brine, so they went moldy. Oh well, maybe next year. Our cucumber vines had some kind of blight so we didn’t get many anyway.

The little birds made it into the new coop first. See that triangle at the top? They managed to fly up there and escape to the main coop two nights in a row (8 feet up). Today I put some mesh up there, for their own protection.

We had to transfer them one at a time from the old coop to the new one. We’re keeping them in for a few days, until hopefully they won’t go to the empty coop anymore.

Or not so empty, because later this week we’ll be picking up another rooster (and possibly a couple of hens) from jkk. Which will bring the total to 26-28 birds (depending on hens).

This little dudette didn’t make it. She never really ate properly and petered out on Friday night.

One of the keets isn’t looking so good, either; is eating ok but having a great deal of trouble at the other end. It spends a lot of time under the heat lamp. The other chicks and keets are quickly outgrowing it. Poor thing is all dirty; we keep cleaning it, it keeps pooping itself. It does seem to like blow driers; after one cleanup effort it stood on the palm of my hand while I dried it, and it didn’t even try to run away. Hopefully it will either correct itself or expire on its own; the alternative is no fun.

I say ‘it’ because keets are not vent sexable and thus ‘it’ to us until they start making ‘buck-wheat!’ noises (or not) in about 7 weeks.

The remaining 5 chicks are 90% certain to be pullets (hens), although I’m having my doubts about the little yellow one.

Invisubul corn plant? Or, chick high by the fourth of July.

all arrived OK, although we think one of the Ameraucanas might not make it (she is not digesting food well). Also, it’s really weird going to the post office and picking up live animals. That image link goes to the gallery where there are like a hojilion new pictures, some of which are video.

It’s not enough that the Japanese make great tractors, they have to make them look Japanese, too. :)

The Pixar folks got Frank the Combine SO right.

Finished painting. Now if only we could find someone who does blown-in foam insulation and who would actually call back. None of the interior work can start til we get that done.

Unfortunately, we lost Squeak last Friday to unknown causes. She had been under the weather for a few weeks; tried mite dusting, yogurt, and keeping her in a quite spot, but to no avail. I had been just about to start getting her broody to raise the chicks we have coming in 2 weeks. I’m hoping we can get the silkies to do it instead; otherwise it will be heat lamps and the kiddie pool again.

We ordered a new tractor today, a Kubota L5740, a mid-size one. No cab, because we will be attaching a backhoe. Also ordered a front bucket and a 6′ bush hog (larger won’t fit through the woods). 0% financing, although it’s a bit disconcerting taking on debt again, especially as it cost way more than our car. Rather than paying it off fast, we’ll probably make payments and put extra in a high interest savings account every month.

Yet another sign we are hicks. Rusty pickup truck, riding mower, commercial mower, tractor, chickens, guns, and having gone to the emergency room with a chicken-related injury. And we once used an old toilet as a planter in the yard. Window air conditioners (not our fault–no basement, no duct work). OK, not the Subaru. And the fact that our new chicken coop is nicer than most third-world human housing. Not the servers and vanity domains, or the complicated a/v setup. Tacky lawn kitsch…could go either way. But here’s the thing. My boss has a barky dog and he got an anonymous letter from a neighbor in his mailbox about it. Here, nobody can either hear or see whatever annoying or eccentric thing we chose to do. I can no longer even fathom living somewhere where we’d be in a position to annoy neighbors, nor do I want to.

Dude, I can’t wait to drive that tractor around. Seriously.

Also, check out the Squidbillies art! Deerbait and Moon #1.

-epe

The Spore folks reconsidered after a lot of bad press and complaints. So, our pre-orders are back on!

The new John Williams score for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is out. How can an 80’s kid possibly resist?

Not to mention a Richard Cheese-ified version of the Indiana Jones theme on Itunes (Plus, so no DRM, if I read the fine print properly).

Baby chicks–Ameraucanas– (and keets–pied) should be here by June 27th or 28th. With any luck the coop will be mostly done, if we can find someone who can blow in insulation before then. If we’re super super lucky, we will get Squeak and the silkies to raise them.

Icky’s on chemo. So far so good, but he can’t have any doggie visitors for awhile. We still aren’t exactly sure what’s wrong with Cupcake’s liver and lipomas, but she goes in for more work on Thursday.

-epe

Coop II work continues. I feel queasy thinking about all the inside work that has to be done before we can get chickens in (insulation, wallboard, plastic sheeting, nestboxes, chicken dooors…) We’re hoping for more Ameraucanas and some pied Guineas this year.

Icky starts chemotherapy this week. He’ll be on Chlorambucil and Prednisone.

New coop project is finally of the ground. Had the neighbor from San Diego up to do the foundation and brick work. (Yes he’s a neighbor and yes he lives in San Diego… <(^.^)> )

Pictures so far are here:

http://erkkila.org/gallery2/v/Projects/ChickenCoop2/

Make sure you check out the cement truck :)

-pee

We used to worry that we didn’t have enough space in the chicken coop for 18 chickens. Apparently there isn’t (64 sq feet), and the way they’ve chosen to remedy the situation is by having chicken cage match fights every night.

First one Rhode Island Red turned up with a bare, bleeding rear. We put her in a cage in the barn. Next day we noticed another one, so we set up a little pen in a kiddie pool in the barn. Not a big deal; last year every one of our hens and the rooster ended up with bare spots. At least there are two so they can snuggle together when it’s cold.

Next one of the silkie hens turned up with bloody peck marks and tears all over her back. She was starting to moult anyway, so we moved her into a large guinea pig cage in the house. She is VERY quiet for a chicken and managed not to stink up the house like Squeak’s been known to. We were ready to let her stick it out another month until her feathers came in.

But then, yesterday, Squeak was making weird neck motions as if she’d been injured. We figured the silkie hen was healed at least, so we swapped them.

This afternoon we went out to check and as we opened the coop door, only 4 silkies hopped out. The moulting hen was nowhere to be found. We feared that the others had killed her and covered her with litter (not intentionally; they do a lot of digging and scratching during the day). Then we heard some plaintive ‘buck, buck buck’ing coming from somewhere inside the coop. We have the waterer on 4 hollow cinder blocks set tall-wise…this little chicken had managed to wedge her way INTO one. When we extracted her from the block, we saw why, or perhaps saw a result of her wedging in head-first…her entire tail and back end feathers were picked almost completely off and most of her back end was torn skin! Paul had to make a quick run to Country Max to buy another cage…we now have a chicken duplex in the kitchen. Now get this. While I’m home waiting for the cage, I put the silkie in with Squeak. That ‘poor’ silkie pecked Squeak 2 or 3 times! There is no empathy in avian society.

At this rate we’re going to blow our coop budget on 18 individual cages or pens. WTF?

The cookies keep on coming. My mom made gingerbread men (don’t have the recipe for that, maybe eventually I’ll add it) and I made a bunch of Bonbon Cookies. Mom had to make a bunch more of the Chocolate Marzipan Pinwheels and chocolate-dipped stars (Again, linked recipe is not the actual cookies made, which were from a Mrs. Fields book; but it’s similar. I’ll get around to adding the Mrs. Fields one, I hope).

Yesterday I also prepped Good Eats Beef Stew for today when Scott and Jenna and EJ visit; also am working on a pot of soup in case they wanted lunch (probably not, but it will certainly work for my lunch :).

I love having time off; finally time to cook and bake.

Today:

Walked 1 hour.

Mom started ahead of time with Chocolate Dipped Stars. (Come to think of it, I don’t think she used that recipe, I think she used the Mrs. Fields recipe but I don’t have it in front of me right now).

Then we did the dough for:

• Ribbon Cookies
• Chocolate Marzipan Pinwheels
• Nutmeg Logs

Went home. Fed and walked dogs. Fed chickens. Cooked nutmeg logs and just barely finished in time to take Grep to the vet. While mom stayed at our house and cookied the pinwheels, Paul and I bought chicken feed, a small waterer and feeder for Squeak, peanut hearts for chickens, and rawhide for the dogs, gassed up the truck, and picked up a box from the post office. Went home. Helped mom dip stars and a few pinwheels in chocolate at her house. Went home and baked Ribbon Cookies. Ate leftover lasagna standing up in kitchen. Typed cookie recipes into wiki. Did this blog entry.

Imminent collapse. Putting off the Christmas cards.