Bonjour Paris!

The flight out of Newark left about an hour late. They actually held the plane to wait for other flights that had been delayed by the storms we were having in the Northeast. By the time we pushed back from the gate we had gone from a mostly empty to plane to a nearly full one.

The flight was not bad at all. No turbulence and I was able to sleep for about 4 hours. Lucia did a little bit better than me in the sleep department. She slept most of the time.

We pulled in at Charles De Gaulle in the late morning. Some of the other passengers wanted to know what gate we were arriving to so they could figure out where they needed to go to make their next connection. Well, like many European airports CDG has an area where the planes park and offload the passengers onto buses. There is no direct connection with the terminal. That's what our plane did to a few people's chagrin.

Customs and immigration was incredibly easy to get through. The police staffing immigration barely glanced at our passports and there was only one young man sitting in the doorway through customs and he was happily joking around with two lovely young women. We cruised right through with our mountain of bags. It was kind of surprising given all of the news about heightened security these days.

We took a cab into the Paris to our hotel. The cab ride was about an hour. The driver seemed somewhat unfamiliar with the address when we got in the cab, but he had no problem figuring out where to go. The fare was expensive - about 50 Euro (at a .667 exchange rate that's about $75). I am glad I can get reimbursed for it.

We checked in to the hotel, got settled, and decided to walk around and to stay awake as long as possible. We had lunch at a sidewalk cafe about a block away from the hotel. The staff was very pleasant and the food was good. We didn't have anything exotic, just sandwiches and a few beers.

After lunch we walked toward the city center and went to the Eiffel Tower! Lu wasn't exactly keen about going to the top, but I insisted - especially since we were there and had no other plans for the day. We had to wait on long lines to take an elevator to the top. The view from the elevators was probably one of the best, but the observation platform at the top was great too. We were lucky to have beaten out some storms coming in and managed to get a few pictures before it started to rain.

On our way back to hotel we stopped at another sidewalk cafe for dinner. We both selected "formule" dishes from the menu. Formule translates to a fixed price with some selection for all the courses in the meal. In our case Lu got roasted chicken, salad, and french fries (no, I am not joking about the french fries) and I ordered beef sirloin with Bernaise sauce, salad, and fries. The last course was dessert. I had a chocolate mousse and we ordered raisson cake for Lu which was similar to a rice pudding.

We did well on staying awake for the day. By the time we got back to the hotel it was nearly 10PM! Lu turned on the TV and found CSI in french! The dubbing was pretty good and it was kind of fun watching an American TV show in a foreign language.

How to Move Your Freshwater Aquarium Fish

About two and a half years ago I moved from Pennsylvania to South Carolina. I have had a freshwater fish tank since 1997 and still have one of the original fish. I didn't really want to give the fish away and wouldn't think of flushing them so I needed to find a way to keep them alive for about 12 hours in the car plus the time it took to set up their tank at the new location.

After some investigating this is the plan I followed –

Supplies:
One 3 - 5 gallon bucket (or more if you have more fish) with a lid.
One aquarium air pump.
An air supply line and air stone for each bucket.
A gang valve to provide air lines for more than one bucket – if needed.
One DC to AC converter that you can plug into the car cigarette lighter to provide AC electrical outlets for the air pump(s).

I bought my DC to AC converter from a camping supply site online, but these devices have become popular for powering all kinds of AC electronics in cars such as computers and PDA's. Here's a DC to AC converter from Belkin available through Amazon.com. These are available with more than one outlet if needed.

http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-F5C400-Anywhere-Portable-Converter/dp/B00000J1TP

Drill a hole in the lid of the bucket that is just large enough to pass the air tubing through. Connect an air stone to the tubing inside the bucket. Drill another small hole in the lid to allow excess air to escape.

For the last 24- 48 hours preceding the move don't feed the fish. This will help keep the water clean while on the road. Further, keep their tank cool and dark. I had my tank temperature down to the low 70's. This will slow down the metabolic rates of the fish and may actually induce a hibernation-like state.

On the day of the move make transferring the fish one of the last thing that you do. Take a tank vacuum and use it to fill the bucket with water from the tank. Catch the fish and put them in the bucket. Seal the lid, attach the air tubing to the air pump, and plug the pump into the DC to AC converter in the car. You're ready to roll!

It should be a no-brainer but don't forget the fish are in the car! In the summer keep the air cooled to the low 70's - in the winter keep the car warmed to the low 70's. Avoid putting the fish bucket near vents - you don't want very hot or very cold air blowing on the container. If you have to stop for any length of time try to maintain the environment in the car as close as possible to the low 70's.

My fish have survived about 24 hours in their moving bucket with no problems whatsoever. Once you have this set-up you now have any easy way of transferring the fish to new tanks or to take them out of their current tank for major changes.

Other alternatives I have read about for larger tanks and fish or longer moves - follow the directions above, but use a cooler instead of a bucket to carry the fish. The cooler provides more room and will do a better job of maintaining the water temperature for healthy fish.

I have used this process for moving my fish on 12+ hour moves several times now and am happy to report I have had no losses.

Happy travels!

Bathroom Update

I am guessing new construction is easier to work with than what I have going on in my house. The beams upstairs have sagged over the year and literally nothing is straight or even. There are old shims to keep my new shims company and pieces of plywood jammed in here and there to get things level and stable. It bothers the fussy part of me. I want to take it all apart and fix it so it's nice and straight and less complicated, but I guess that's probably me being ridiculous.

As you do home remodeling you slowly get more comfortable with the tools you are using and how to do things - like cutting plywood with a circular saw. As long as the wood is supported the blade is less likely to bind. I used a set of 2x4's across my saw horses to give me a platform where the plywood is well supported and can't bend. Cutting it has been very easy. I am also getting used to using the sawzall and have no problem starting on unbroked surfaces and controlling cutting depth.

It's early April and I think I started my bathroom in late November. Some houses take less time to build than my bathroom. Of course they have crews working 8 hour days and it's just me on the weekends fussing and learning as I go. It's getting to the point where we will be doing finish work soon though. I will have to post some before and after pictures.

Back to the Bathroom

Egads...

I haven't written in a long time. I would say I have been busy, but that's not true really. I haven't been focused or maybe blogging just hasn't been a high priority.

The bathroom is coming along.. slowly. I think I had a mental block about doing wiring. The attic is dirty and dusty. The first time I went up there I ended up sneezing for hours. A dust mask helps, but it's a pain in the butt to work in. I need a portable shop vac so I can do other things like take out some of the multitude of recessed lighting that are found throughout the second floor.

ANYWAY... I ran a line for a GFI outlet next to the where the sink will be. That was no problem at all. The most difficult part was the fact that the cable used is underground something something and it's a pain in the butt to get the outter insulation off. I was happy the GFI trip worked correctly. Not that I was very worried about wiring it wrong, but it's always nice when things come out right. (A GFI outlet won't work at all if you wire it wrong.)

I put in a new, smaller vent fan. I mounted the fan case in the cutout for the previous vent fan and ran the wire to a switch. The biggest challenge here was that I couldn't decide where I want the on/off switch. I was putting in a double switch set that fits inside a single, instead of double gang outlet box. The second switch will run the light over the sink. Well, I wired it once with the run to the sink light capped with wire nut for now. I did this is the old two gang box which gave me plenty of room to tuck in the wire. But then how do I close that up? Crud. I didn't want a blank wall plate. SO, I took the two gang box out and put a single gang in. I couldn't get in the wall far enough to mount a hammer in style box so I put up a cheaper box that mount on the front of the stud. That was ok, but after looking at it some more the switches landed more toward the center of the wall than at the edge. That bothered me.

SO, I mounted a new single gang on a different wall, pulled the runs out and re-ran them to the new box, then put in a new power cable from the j-box in the attic. I had to do this b/c be this time after twisting, untwisting, stripping the power supply cable a bunch of time I had shortened up my run too much.

The j-box was a bit challenging. It took me a few minutes to figure out that there were two cables bringing power into the box, not just one. Let me say - thank goodness I didn't assume the power was cut to all the cables in the box and I checked with the multimeter before handling anything. I didn't think anything in the box was hot, but I Was totally wrong.

Anyway, so I pulled the one power line out of the box and put it in a box of it's very own. The box was originally missing a grounding screw so I had to add that later. Then I put the other power cable in a separate box and ran a new power line to my switch set. That's now done.

I put in a new light over the toilet area too. I cut a hole in the ceiling, mounted a new box, then ran a circuit in parallel from the light over the door. Now when you hit that light switch you get light at the door and over toilet. Hooray!

Wiring has been fun and I have learned a lot. Some good things to have - long-handled, high-leverage wire cutters, lineman's pliers, a couple of screwdrivers, a sharp utiliy knife or tool for removing out insulation, a good pair of wire strippers, and a multimeter or circuit tester.

Wiring isn't hard, but a good working knowledge of circuits is helpful and it's good to at least read a little in how-to books so you have a clue when you crack open a j-box and see a bunch of wires. I probably would have made due with a small pair of needle nose pliers and general duty wire cutters if I hadn't read about specialty tools in one of my books. The high-leverage wire cutters (you can find them in the electrical department) really came in handy and a larger pair of pliers for twisting wires was also very helpful. The other tool that is a MUST have is the multimeter or circuit tester. Better safe than electrocuted!

It takes running a few circuits and opening a few j-boxs to feel comfortable with electrical work, but it's worth it. I understand how my home wiring works much better now and am not afraid to check it out if there is something wrong or something I want to change.

Regardless, if ever in doubt, call an electrician. Not only do they have to pass a test in order to get licensed, they also have to spend several years apprenticing - it's not called a skilled trade for nothing!

Renovations.. Moving Ahead...

Well, I took out the work that had already been done on the plumbing and started re-routing everything last night. Then, like ADD girl, got distracted by shoring up the floor beams.

The floor in the bathroom is a pain in the butt. For one thing - it isn't level. Leveling it would require finding the high point in the room and matching everything up to that point. I am talking probably two inches from one side of the room to the other. This is not insignificant.

On top of that the joists have been hacked and notched over the year to install the original bathroom and lighting. So they are full of cracks and holes. Some end out in space - meaning they don't rest on the structural beams at the end walls. Grrr.. It's probably not as bad as it sounds.

So, last night I cut a chunk of one beam out and replaced it. I have a 2x8 to shore up another beam close to the toilet. I think once this is done I can finish up the piping. I hope to do that on Saturday.

More pics soon...

News Roundup No More.. Plus Other Things..

OK, so the news roundup experiment was a bust. While it was fun to post the first few days and include some cool pics like that Russian rocket burning up over Colorado I just don't have the time some days to keep up with it.

The renovation of the bathroom needed some renovating too. The location of the sink was giving me a headache. The drain would have been run through the side of the vanity instead of the bottom which meant the vanity location was very much set, the electrical would have been a pain since there is a pocket door where no receptacles can be mounted, and it just didn't give me the opportunity to do the lighting that I wanted. As is the case with me sometimes it took a little while to make this decision then take out the work that had already been done. I am chomping at the bit to move forward and I will - it's just been a delay. Argh.

OJ Simpson is back in the news again. The chapter of his cancelled book, "If I Did It," that deals with the murders of his (ex?)wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman was leaked in Newsweek. It turns out that his "hypothetical scenario" closely mirrors the actual facts of the case.

Here is an excerpt from that article -

After the murders... "Simpson writes that when he regains control of himself, he realizes he is drenched in blood and holding a bloody knife. Both Nicole and Goldman are dead. Simpson heads back to the alley but before getting into the Bronco to flee, strips down to his socks. He rolls his bloody clothes and the knife into a small pile. (That's an important detail. The police never recovered those clothes or the murder weapon, but they did find Simpson's socks—with Nicole's blood on them—at the foot of his bed at his Rockingham estate.) As he nears his house, Simpson sees the limo that will take him to the airport for his Chicago trip. He steals onto his estate via a darkened, hidden path that takes him directly behind the guesthouse where Kato Kaelin is living. Simpson describes how he stumbles into an air conditioner for Kaelin's room, making a terrific racket—just as Kaelin told police he had heard."

I always thought that OJ did it and because of the police screw ups in the case the jury ended up doubting his guilt instead of believing his innocence. These details, especially things that line up with the case like the socks, make me believe he's guilty even more. Too bad he can't be retried.

Here's a link to the Newsweek article -
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16610772/site/newsweek/

Plus another piece from Slate -
http://www.slate.com/id/2157652/

Renaissance in a modern world...

"Jack of all trades, master of none, though ofttimes better than master of one".

When you read the whole phrase it's a lot more positive than, "Jack of all trades, master of none!"

My dad was a jack of all trades. His official profession was a draftsman, but he was an inventor, engineer, he liked to write, he was a musician, a woodworker, an artist, a mechanic, a renovator, a gardener, sometimes a cook...

He held 14 US and 16 foreign patents. These were for mostly electro-mechnical devices such as a microfiche sorting and card retrieval machine.

I can remember the frequent jokes about how he would start projects and not finish them. Or about how he would get excited about bowling and get a bowling ball because he was going to get really good at it and then lose interest a few months later... or fishing gear... or...

I don't know if it is scientifically proven that innate curiosity and a propensity to become bored with things once you know you can do them is hereditary, but I guess they might be. Right now I have my bathroom torn apart, I am reading the biography of Joseph Smith, "No Man Knows My History,"I have at least 5 other books either started or waiting in line, I am taking a class in Advanced Materials, I work 40 hours a week, I have a girlfriend, I've got my mom around too, plus cats, and fish... the house projects seem endless... set up my shop, put away my stuff, get the upstairs organized and livable, re-do my mom's shower, fix up my bedroom, and little things - put up the smoke alarms, finish touch-ups on the hallway, and so on... Hrrrmmmmpphhh....

Lots of people throughout my life have become frustrated with me because they think I don't care about them. In a way I feel really good about my relationships right now because they aren't heavy - I don't feel heavy about them. I feel like I do have room to move around and be me and do my thing. I don't understand it when people get frustrated with me for being inattentive. When I say that I mean - I really don't understand it. I feel like I am doing my best to maintain balance in my life and to keep the important things important, but maybe my sense of taking care of things and other people's sense of taking care of things is different.

I related the story about my dad because I tend to do the same things. I check things out that interest me - might spend some time studying them intensely - then I'll move on to something new. I used to think that this was a bad thing because of the way people talked about my dad - how he could never stick to one thing. This is why I have a degree in Aviation Technology - I wanted to follow through with something. I was afraid of spending my life hopping from one thing to the next.

More recently I have started to embrace this part of me that has a relatively short attention span. I am looking for ways to take advantage of wanting to learn a little about everything. For example, what kinds of jobs need these kinds of people? And if I am curious about something I let myself be interested in it. I have decided hopping around is great, not bad.

Doing my bathroom - working with my hands - that has been fun. It's like Legos for adults. I loved Legos when I was kid. I think I could build things all the time. It's neat to figure out and cool when the things you put together work.

Anyway, so when you are interested in everything what happens? Your schedule ends up jam packed. My schedule has always been jam-packed. If it's not one thing it's another. It used to be choir, school, and sports. Now it's renovations, school, taking care of mom, friends, and stuff. I stretch out my days and stay up late and do as much as I can with each day. Then I get cranky when I there is no time left and I am tired every day and feel crappy. Then people get mad at me because I seem inattentive and aloof. So, there are downsides to being a Jack of All Trades.

I know I need to prioritize better. I am guessing that if I were less busy and did more quality things I would probably be happier. I just don't know how to let go of tinkering constantly. It makes me late in the morning and pulls at my attention throughout the day. I'm not sure how to balance my life, but I will work on it, because the way I am relating to my life isn't working so well. I am tired all the time and I realize now too that I am giving people the impression that I don't care about them. I am not sure what to do, but I'll post it when I figure it out.