Ma, you're tha greatest!

Every valentine's day since, well, forever, my mom has given/sent me a valentine (and usually a gift) and this year is no exception. she's been really into hand making the cards she sends lately and it makes them all the more special. here's this year's card(minus a few sequins that were injured in transit)

i just wanted to formally, and publicly, tell you how much this means to me.

one year, i think i was in the first grade, for valentine's day she got me an alarm clock radio. for reasons i cannot recall this was the most miraculous gift ever at the time. (the radio reception was really bad, but it could wake me up when i wanted-and that was the miracle) that is the one that sticks in my mind these twenty-some years later. i am sure the others were just as thoughtful.

so thank you for your generosity and reliability in valentine matters, but mostly thank you for the love you have shown me throughout my life. happy valentine's day mom. i love you.

In the front row... of the melt show...

last night Rhett Miller (lead singer of the "Old 97's") came to orange county to a small little club and since meg and i are fans we got tickets. unfortunately meg was on call, so i had to go without her. but it was still a great show, the openers were okay, and then poor, but rhett gave an awesome show. and thanks to a liberal recording policy here is some of it:
"Our Love" (as seen on scrubs)



and "Doreen" (my favorite old 97's song)



go see him/them if they come your way, for an evening of witty folk tinged pop rock.

odd and oddly jealous

i assume there is nudity involved...

When quinn the eskimo gets here-everybody's gonna jump for joy

mark came to visit on sunday, actually he had an interview in L.A. so we met up for dinner.

Old Mac Nate on the farm

me and the baby sheep
a boy and a girl navajo-churro sheep
the goat and sheep yard
me and the proud papa "dubay"
me and "anja" the dutch belted cow, she's a sweetheart.

This batch of photos is from the farm part of the zoo where i volunteer. we had baby sheep a week ago, and they are adorable. i'll take some photos on the other side of the zoo later.

mods again-more power edition

for several days now i have been struggling my way through an electrical puzzle that was installing a power inverter into the box. now most of you are wondering why i would bother, you all are very happy in your dc only cars, your world has not come to a screeching halt for want of alternating current on the road. the best answer i can give is that it comes in handy once in a while, plus i had it in the explorer, and i wanted it in the scion.

so the scions all come with ipod ports and aux (non ipod) ports standard. they are in a convenient place on the center console/armrest. however with the nav system came a proprietary cable which meant that the factory ones didn't connect to (or do) anything. so i pulled them out with the intention of putting in ac outlets.

i got the inverter early last week (ordered specifically for its capacity and the additional usb outlet (for computery gadgets). so once i opened the box, i then proceeded to open the case of the inverter and basically tear it apart. i pulled the outlets themselves out of the front of the inverter and cut the wires attaching them to the unit. then i dremeled the outlets to fit into the ipod ports. then wired them out with 6 feet of 18g as they will be separate from the inverter body.

next i had to get 4g cable to go directly from the battery to the inverter, and then work with that monster to get it to go through the grommet in the firewall on the passenger side of the car (as far from the battery as possible). the positive was difficult but the negative presented a greater challenge, as i wanted to add a switch to the circuit as a means of preventing battery drainage when i am not using the inverter. if i was using a smaller wire it would have been a simple matter but even when cable was stripped it wouldn't fit in any of the slot connecters that the switch used. so with some creative taping and crimping, i improvised a solution-it seems pretty good (but it barely fit side-by-side).

then i connected the remotely wired outlets to the body and stowed it away under the dash, and low and behold, everything worked. amazing. however, in order to turn on the inverter you had to push a soft button on the body of the inverter (which is really inconvenient as it is hidden) so i pulled it out and disconnected it from the power and tried to figure out how to make this work. if i had gotten any other inverter it would have had an on/off switch which would stay on constantly if flipped. but this was a button, soldered to a pcb (printed circuit board) so i desoldered it and then soldered some strands of copper wire to bridge the connectors on either side of where the button used to be. this did not work, and i discovered that it was not a "constant on" circuit--one push turns on, one push turns off--the circuit is only complete during the push. at this point i thought i had bricked the whole inverter and considered getting a new one and saving myself the trouble. but i put my minor ability to solder to the test by reattaching the button, and it worked, it ain't pretty but it works.

now i realized that to keep it i had to cut the pcb from the body, and wire it remotely to be able to press the button when i need to. this involved 6 lengths of 6ft 18g wire, all independently spliced and connected to random spots on the board. it was hard to find a place to put the button that was convenient to both seats without being conspicuous (like in the middle of the dash) i found a snug little spot at the front of the center console and set to work, if there was a more difficult place to put the button, i couldn't find it. the button had to come through the console enough to be able to be pressed, but could not be constantly pressed down by a tight attachment. this took a few hours and a bunch of duct tape but eventually it worked out. and it is practically invisible.

now i only have some minor glueing and polishing to do on the outlets and switches and it is complete. the sense of accomplishment is high on this one, i had never taken on a project this complicated before. it was a lot of fun. at the end i was even able to use the dremel in the car to do some of the fitment of the on/off switch. it made it so much easier.

now meg can use her electric blanket in the car. and can put a small refrigerator in the back of the box. (only kidding... but now that i mention it it only sounds half crazy...)

next up glow wire in the glove box and in the under dash cubby.

An end to the bruce blog boycott

where have all the bloggers gone... long time passing.

happy new year! here's a down-n-dirty for the last few weeks of laziness.

so after christmas, i went up to hanford to visit. cory and annie were in town and i hadn't seen them in about a year. it was nice to spend a little time with them, perhaps mom and dad can produce evidence that i was there, as i only managed to snap this picture of my favorite christmas lights in hanford. (they're on 43 between grangeville and fargo) it's just one single star, but it is entirely black around it, so it is particularly bright. (find your own metaphor... now)

the week was uneventful, we did see the movie "juno" which was a darling little film about teenage pregnancy, awkwardness, and the perils of adoption. very good, well written, not for you if your slang dictionary is not up to date (sorry mom, i still love you)

Then saturday we went to LACMA, and the La Brea Tarpits. we had a nice time, but it seems like every museum i go to is being renovated while i'm there. they had a dali exhibit, but it was sold out!!? how can that happen? its a museum! so we saw the rest of it and were satisfied.
(a timely reminder of the dangers of tigers-from 18th century india)

meg had never been to the tarpits and was disappointed that they looked distinctly like small ponds. i think she was anticipating more black tarry goodness. but it was fun. i hadn't been in ages, and remembered very little except the painting of the wolves and the wall of skulls. it was a decent little side trip. this bear looked out over the parking lot.