PowerBook G4

A design flaw of the titanium PowerBooks is that the hinges are made of aluminum and not titanium. Therefor they are a bit fragile. The PowerBook is a bit outdated, but it does most of what I want a laptop to do, so I wasn't ready to give up on it yet. Plus it is still stylish and aesthetically pleasing.

I was able to pick up a used hinge mount from ifixit.com for under $20 w/ shipping.

Replacing the broken hinge mount was surprisingly easy. I was lucky that only the brittle hinge mount broke and not the actual hinge itself. That is closer to the $100 and requires complete disassembly of the laptop to reinstall. I think I could have done it, but it would have been much more of a pain in the arse.

It was so easy I let Corwin finish up for me.

Weekend Images

We have bonus images this week, but Dinner is the official photo of the week. Slow cooking the beef ribs wasn't so easy as a hurricane rolled during hour two of the ribs cooking. The patio is located underneath the deck and I put the patio furniture umbrella beside the grill to help keep the water off, and my grill temperature up. And marinated vegetable kabobs is a yummy way of eating my veggies, which Anke says I need to do a better job of in order to set a proper example of Corwin and the soon to arrive Scotty Version III.

Corwin has a ball on his little swing that he got from his Opa.

Finally starting to get some green in the forest.

Corwin is all about learning how to drive. But it won't be in this car.

I'm just buzzed

This is short film of Will Ferrel and his daughter. Very funny.

Nappy Headed Moe

For the record I thought that Imus deserved to be fired, and I'm glad that he was. But this made me laugh.

Weekend

I completed my first home improve- ment project. While Dad was in town on Saturday we mounted the kitchen cabinets that I picked up for $50 and a case of beer. Anke won out and they ended up in the laundry room and not the garage. The look really nice though. Dad and I ended up buying a new hammer drill to mount them into the concrete wall. The difference that the hammer drill made, vs. the old average drill in attacking in the concrete wall was shocking. The right tool for the job.

The cabinets still need to be cleaned up a bit, but they do look nice. Now I have to find a new storage solution for the garage.

For lunch Dad wanted to order food from the Thai Kitchen. A little hole in the wall place in South O. It's a bit odd to me that the best Thai that I've ever had would be found in the Mexican neighborhood of Omaha. But I am so proud of Dad for broadening his culinary horizons. I never thought the day would come when my father would say, "Let's get Thai."

Sunday was a good day too. Anke, Corwin and I took a walk on the Fontenelle Forest board walk Sunday morning. That afternoon I had a couple of beers with Maurice at the Horseshoe casino and we discussed the finer points of IT in the insurance industry. That afternoon Casa de Parker had a winged visitor in the basement. The poor little fellow was scared out of his mind. He found a nice retreat in one of Anke's plants for a while. I eventually shooed Mr. Sparrow into the garage and he was able to find the great outdoors from there.

For dinner I fired up my new Webber grill for the first time. I'm a slut for aesthetics, and that is kind of how I ended up with an expensive charcoal grill instead of a cheep gas grill. All of the cool looking gas grills are north of $300. But I got this groovy retro Webber with the blue enamel coat for much less than that. But still more than a sane person should pay for a charcoal grill. I cooked some chicken breasts that had a Turkish rub on them, along with some onions and potato kebabs. The chicken breasts turned out freaking phenomenal. The best chicken breast that I have ever had in my life! Charcoal does rule. They were so good that I broke out my last bottle of Eibauer (Scotty's favorite beer in the whole wide world, but only available on the other side of the world) to complement my dinner. Sometimes I think that I may lead a charmed life.

Photo of the Week

This is a new series I'm starting. Once a week I'm going to try and post a random photo. Some will be recent and some will be old. Like this one. If I had to guess, I'd say it's 1991 or so. I wish when I had taken this, I had a better idea of what I was doing. The framing on it is off. The front of the Blazer should be in the picture. And the back corner of the Cougar shouldn't be cut off either. Or probably the Cougar should have been moved, taken out of the photo completely. The composition of the old mower and old truck alone would have worked better in hind site.

That old black truck still holds a special place in my heart. Who can say why. It was slow, old, ugly, rusty. And the damn thing burned my leg back in the late 70's when it had side pipes. (It didn't have side pipes the next week, however.) Left a nice little scar on my leg that looked like a goldfish, that has since faded away in the skin cells of time.

But many good times were had with it. It was the first vehicle that I can ever recall riding in. Mom and Dad got it in 1975. My folks were cruising the SUV before the SUV was hip. As a youngster, it was always a special treat to get to ride on the console between the two front seats. That was a concussion waiting to happen. Now I strap Corwin down in the middle back seat of anything he's riding in. Different times.

Later it was my primary mode of transportation a couple of times in my driving career. By this time it wasn't quite as swanky as when I was a child. Rusting like nothing else. The passenger seat and driver seat didn't match. It was beat up, so it could be abused. I recall climbing snowing hills in the old beast with Tony. Getting just a few feet from the top of one, and losing traction. Sliding down the hill, the truck turning sideways and getting sideswiped by a tree. Loading boxes in and helping Maurice move to Ottumwa. Whacking stop signs around the high school that no business trying to stop the natural flow of traffic. Taking the roof off and mudding it with Mo. But that's another picture.

Sokol

The Reverend Horton Heat is playing at Sokol Undergound in Omaha tonight. Unfortunately I'm not going. The whole job, pregnant wife, kid thing strikes again. I think that I should have made an effort to go to more shows before Corwin was born. On the bright side Social Distortion is playing at Sokol on May 1 and I am going to that. If, on the odd chance, anyone else wants to go, me let me know.

Rainy Day Corwin

Sandhill Cranes

We arrived in Kearney Nebraska to try and view the migrating Sandhill Cranes around 3ish on Sunday, March 11. First we checked into a motel and then we had dinner at Whiskey Creek- recommended by Matt who hails from Kearney and absolutely despises Sandhill Cranes with an unhealthy passion- which was very good. I had a Jim Beam marinaded steak which although good, pails in comparison to the average steak that Russ brings camping with him and that generally gets cooked over an open fire. After dinner it was off to the public viewing area at Fort Kearny State Recreation Area.

The Sandhill Cranes are interesting in that they winter and summer in many different locations, but nearly all of them meet in the Sandhills of Nebraska in the spring and fall to stop, have a break, get some food and inevitably party in the middle of their migrations.
The weather on Sunday was wonderful, but as the evening wore on, it got progressively chillier. We were able to bundle Corwin up satisfactorily, but I remained a bit cool. The cranes were supposed to show up at around 6ish, but they didn't arrive until 7:15ish. We nearly gave up on them, but another fellow told us to stick around as there was a large flock in a field just over over a couple of hills. We waited it out and got to see many formations of birds flying above us. Without exaggerating I would guess that there were at least 10 t0 20 thousand birds in the sky. They never did land in the river near enough to us to get any good pictures, unfortunately.
The next morning, it was cold and rather foggy. We got to another public viewing site at around 6:30 but never did see anything other than some light ghostly cranes flying overhead. You'll notice the cool hat I'm wearing. It's an old Mack Trucks stocking cap from my youth that I found in my folks house this year. It was a present from my father from when he must have been close to my age.
Later we went to Rowe Sanctuary and saw many cranes flying over the river. Corwin had a grand time playing on the path to the viewing blind. Rowe gives out guided tours to viewing the Cranes in the evening and morning, but Corwin is still too young to go on one of these.


After leaving Rowe we cruised a couple of gravel roads where we saw a truly impressive flock of cranes hanging out.
We crept up slowly on them and watched for a good minute before they all suddenly took to wing.
At first we thought that these birds have really slow reactions if they are just now running away from us. But then, we too heard the train whistle in the background. The trip was worthwhile, but also a bit disappointing. I really wanted to see the dance that Sandhill Cranes are known for. But we got some good intel for the next trip. I think that our best bet will be to have someone baby sit Corwin and Baby overnight so Anke and I can rent a blind and cabin. We also need to get a telephoto lense for out DSLR.

A special thanks goes out to Maurice for allowing me to borrow his Jeep. That allowed Inga, Andre, Anouk, Corwin, Anke, myself and all our gear to travel to the middle of Nebraska in one vehicle, making the trip much simpler.

Happy Birthday to Me

Normally my birthdays tend to suck. It's my own fault because I generally want something grand to happen and, really, grand things rarely happen. But sometimes they are nice. Last year I got an unexpected card on my birthday that made the whole day brighter. This year it looks like we are going to have some kick ass warm and sunny weather. Internet tells me- and Internet never lies- that it will be sunny and 76 today. I can recall one other birthday where the weather was so nice, I think it would have been '95. The weather was warm that day and I had a birthday party at the old Ottumwa house on Church street. Many of my friends were there. Cold beer was on tap. I made out with a cute girl at the end of the night. Good times.

Times change however, but this is going to be a good birthday too I think. I have, I can say with absolutely no impartiality, the world's coolest little boy. I have a lovely wife, that drives me nuts on occasion but loves me with all her heart, brewing another little boy for us. And if we do nothing else well, we make good kids.

Anke's sister Inga is visiting with Andre and their daughter Anouk. We went to view the sandhill cranes on Sunday and Monday. More on the later, I promise, but it was pretty cool if you're a nature dork like me. It makes me happy that I'm able to share silly things like watching birds with my wife.

There is a cake waiting for me when I get home and lasagna on the menu for dinner. It shall be a good day.

Napping

Little Corwin wasn't feeling so well on Sunday. At one point I picked him up when he was whining and he fell asleep on my shoulder. So I curled up on the couch with him and took a nap too. Somehow he managed to sleep with the sun shining on him through the window.

Truck

Saturday morning I took Mom and Dad's old battered truck (In the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that I did a bit of the battering to it myself. With a boat.) to get some cabinets for the garage. But first I had to shovel snow out of the bed. The cabinets were stored in a barn down a snowy hill in Iowa. But said battered truck climbed up and down the hill in 4 low like a billy goat. I was a bit surprised and impressed how easily it handled the short off-roading trip. Having the truck here has been really helpful the past couple of weeks. Thanks Mom and Dad.

The cabinets that I picked up are rather nice. Anke thinks that they are too nice to put in the garage, and wants to place them in the laundry room instead. I should have gotten the ugly cabinets.

Robin

I saw what must be the first robin of spring yesterday. Or a bird that was simply too stupid to fly south for the winter. It was perched on a branch outside the kitchen window, puffed up like a little gray and orange ball. The robin says it is spring, but the snow on the ground says it isn't.

Pictures from Home

There are deer sleeping in my back yard

I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Anna Nicole

I was besotted with Anna Nicole Smith in my precocious youth. When she was still young and sexy. Back when she was the Guess Jeans girl and Playmate of the Year. The first Playboy I ever purchased was her PMotY issue. I had cut out several of her Guess Jeans adds from Rolling Stone tacked them to the wall of my bedroom. This was when living in that little house in Ottumwa, dating girls that were no good for me or to me. If only they could have been Anna Nicole.

Unfortunately fame didn't agree with Anna Nicole. In the end she looked like a caricature of herself. I don't know if it was too much plastic surgery or too much hard living. But the past 10 or 12 years weren't kind to her. One of the many advantages of not having cable is that I never saw her reality show, which I have heard was horrible and not very flattering. This makes it easier for me to choose to remember her as the buxom Guess Jeans Girl that I had a crush on.

Moving is not a pleasant experience

96.5% of my possessions are now at my house. Hunter's cage and Hunter still have to be moved from the apartment, along with my tool box that I have left there for the dismantling of his cage. I have 8 wheels and tires in Maurice's garage that are to be moved. And also some speakers that I'll take out of his basement. Oh, and my weights are still in his basement too. But everything else is there.

We got most of it moved on Saturday. Special thanks go out to Maurice and Matt for helping load and unload the U-haul. It was bitter, freezing cold and I'm sure there were lots of places they would have rather been. Especially Matt who spent the entire night fixing a cycle problem at work. He only got 2 hours of sleep. Thanks, guys. After moving multiple boxes consisting of my burgeoning book collection, Matt suggested that I invest in a library card. Who knew paper was so freakin' heavy. Thanks to Mom for watching Corwin during the move, that allowed Anke to pack and me to load and unload. I had intended on documenting some of the move with pictures, but I was too busy actually working and at some point the camera got packed into a box somewhere. I'm still not sure where the damn thing is.

On Sunday Anke and I went back to the apartment to finish packing and moving stuff. We did three pickup loads and two Vibe loads. All loading and unloading done by your faithful blogger, due to Anke's delicate health situation. There was more stuff after the U-haul load than I thought. I did get the TV hooked up and found my bunny ears right away, so was able to catch the second half of the Super Bowl. On the plus side TV reception is much better in Bellevue than Dundee.

On Monday there the house was still a wreck and there was still more stuff at the apartment. Two Vibe loads and one pickup load later, everything is nearly moved. Thanks to the guy that lives above the apartment for helping me carry Loki's cage out to the pickup. Thanks Guy Who Used To Live Above Me. Maurice and Bernie stopped by Monday evening to help move Loki's cage into the house. Bernie got there just in time to see the 10 deer in the forest behind the house. I wish I had known which box the camera was in. Bernie had never seen deer before- having grown up in Hawaii and all. She was excited.

All in all, it was pretty exhausting though. Going back to work on Tuesday was a relief. But then I have to go back home and continue unpacking.

But the house is nice and I'm happy being there.

Live from Bellevue, NE

Welcome to the first post from Casa de Parker. I'm sitting in a mostly empty house waiting for the gas and water guy to come and read the meter to show up, typing on my bare bones PC that's only real purpose is for logging into work when necessary. The cable and phone guy clearly came first as I do have Internet access to post this.

So anyway, I am now a 20% homeowner as of yesterday. And that number will start climbing by ever so minute amounts monthly. And I have the joy of paying property taxes. The property taxes in Nebraska are rather high, too. Especially when the redness of this state is taken into consideration. But Corwin and Baby will be going to public schools and I want them to be nice schools so I'll pay with little bitching involved. But getting to this point made it an interesting week.

On Sunday we did the final walk thru on the house, with our buyer's agent Galya Leathers. If you do any real estate transactions in the Omaha area, I cannot recommend her enough. Anke and I couldn't be happier with the job she did for us. So we get to the house and it is COLD inside. Like really cold. We check the thermostat and it is set at 40. I guess the stupid sellers decided to save themselves a couple of dollars and turned the heat down now that the house was sold. We go to the kitchen and there is ice formed on the tap. Damn. We turn the heat up and call the seller's agent. She comes buy to check the house later and sure enough, the damn pipes between the kitchen and the garage broke. They get a plumber in to fix them that day and promise to have the ceiling of the garage, which sustained substantial water damage, fixed by Friday. Gayla has her own plumber come and check out the work done by the buyer's plumber on Tuesday just to make sure. I would have preferred that disaster not have happened, but it's been taken care of.

So the plan is to go ahead and close on Tuesday. My lender phones and tells me that everything looks good. But my documents have to go through some sort of "quality control" by the underwriter before everything can proceed. And that won't happen today. What the hell is going on I think. They've known for 5 weeks that we are closing on the 30th. What do they think I'm a terrorist, needing to check all of my documents? Damn Bush and his Patriot Act. The sellers are now freaked out too, because this is the second time that the house has sold. The first deal fell through at the last minute, too, back in June. Tuesday comes, and they still aren't sure if they will get to my documents today. Well after much hand wringing my Indian lender finally calls at around 3:15 to tell me that the underwriter finally signed off and we can close tomorrow on the 31st. Hooray! Everything finally comes together and I can stop stressing.

nobody knows how cool I am

Sometimes at work- like today for example- I do some really clever code. But no one else knows or appreciates it, because to the end user it really looks pretty simple. Which is the point I suppose, to make everything appear easy and intuitive. I'm not sure everyone knows how not easy that is sometimes, though.

Oh, well. Someone will get really excited by some small simple thing that I'll do later, because it appears difficult when it really isn't and I'll get kudos for that. I suppose it all evens out in the end.

Saturday Pictures

Corwin's first real encounter with snow.

Funny Hat Club. Funny Hats courtesy of Inga.

Daddy's bread pudding is for desert.

The little scamp.

Friar Corwin