Hawk Eyed

Posted on August 11, 2010 by cac

We were over at the Clayton’s Sunday for a little barbecue.
All of a sudden there was a hawk perched on a branch right behind the pool. One of Kristen’s friends tried throwing hot dog pieces at her. The good news is the hawk did not attack her.
It sat for a while and then flew to a branch between our house and theirs and then after about 5 minutes flew out front and then over to the Duchi’s.
Click on the pic for a short video of it flying towards me.

More low res pictures here

Pooch gets groomed

Posted on July 31, 2010 by cac

Here is the cat pretending to ignore me because I subjected her to a grooming Friday.
Of course she followed me into the bedroom to lie down and face the other way from me.

Valves and falling trees

Posted on July 25, 2010 by cac

Good ending to a good day

Got the new multi-port valve installed on the pool. Took under an hour and I was able to use the existing piping.
While we were chilling (basking in the success of installing the valve) we heard a big crack and a dead tree between us and the Claytons came crashing down. It was completely calm and there were no other forces (unless a fat bird or squirrel was the unseen cause) but down it came. It is hung up on another dead tree that I had planned to take down.
Interesting day.

Link to pics

Fun in San Diego

Posted on July 5, 2010 by cac

We are halfway through our visit to the WestCoast Cornells. Mariel is off on Thursday so we went down to Shell Beach. Dex tried out his scooter on the hill and Chase tried his trike.
Some short videos from YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNKdD03jc-0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G18LnZZy5PY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoVzS-oq3ec
Saturday morning, Matt, Dex, Chase and I went to The Home Depot. Dex and Chase built periscopes, and we got the materials for the soda bottle rocket launcher.
In the afternoon we went to the pool for a while:

link to pics
Betsy and I took Dexter and Chase (or the other way around) to see Toy Story 3 on Saturday night.
Sunday mid-day Dex and Matt and I built the launcher and did a few proof of concept launches out on the street. Concept has been proved!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGWjU6dctQI
Turned out the bottle was not fully mounted on the launch tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0al_20Nfw5s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH9duYc1-4I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-igxea1EBM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd1BOR_NnP8
And later that night we went to the Aquarium and watched two sets of fireworks.

Here are some pics from Saturday.
link to pics

The Good, the Bad, and the Dribbly

Posted on June 8, 2010 by cac

The pool was losing 1.5 to 2 inches a day while the pump was on. I finally had eliminated the side drain and the two skimmers. Even though I had done a water column test on the main return line and it did not show any loss, I didn’t see what else it could be. So I started digging it up:

Got down to the pipes and connections and it was bone dry.
So that is the good. None of the elbows were leaking.
The bad was that I had gone against the evidence and dug up the main return connections for nothing.
I just went back into the pump room to turn the pump again when it suddenly hit me that I had heard a cracking noise several weeks ago when turning the multi-port valve from filter to backwash or vice-versa.

SOOO, I turned the pump back on and went back down to the waste pipe, and sure enough, water was dribbling out. The valve was leaking water from the main return into the waste pipe.
Took it apart and sure enough, the gasket was all kerfluggalled (the one on the left is the bad one)
and the gasket channel was broken.

Broken piece is just about at 12 noon.

The even better good news is that Feeley’s had a replacement gasket which solved the leak. I have to order a new valve and replace it at some later point.

Summer has started – Woody enjoys the pool scene

Posted on May 21, 2010 by cac

Woody likes the open pool

This was definitely the best pool opening ever. Even though it has been pretty warm since April, the water was clean. The rains had filled the pool so I was able to vacuum the silt on waste, and Mom and I opened it in under 3 hours. Water temp is 56F but the sun is hot and they are predicting high 80’s, maybe even 90 next week.

Nun Better and 2010 Springfest

Posted on May 15, 2010 by cac

Sr. Doretta and the nuns at Good Counsel were challenged to a softball game by the Good Counsel Academy All Stars (grammar school kids). They had heard about a softball team the nuns had many years ago which was named Nun Better.
http://picasaweb.google.com/dorettacornell/NunBetterVsGCAStarrs51410
Doretta is in the 6th picture. She also got a hit both times she got up to bat.

I had to go up to St. Isidore’s to drop off the Prayers of Faithful for the weekend masses and turn on the baptismal font for Nancy Dome’s grandson’s baptism. I had not been around town for the last few years of Spring Fest. It had died out for a few years and then started coming back about 2000. This is the first year in a while that the weather has cooperated. It is bigger than ever. I had a scrambled egg and sausage breakfast with Fr. Dave and Fr. Luke at St. I’s, then walked down to center.
Link to pics

Woody checks out the new monitor on Zeus

Posted on May 11, 2010 by cac

Wow – The new monitor is even more spectacular because I spent 2 days using the old 21″ Hitachi CRT. It was so fuzzy I could hardly “bear” it.

Woody likes the new monitor

Summer starts at Camp Cornell

Posted on May 5, 2010 by cac

No it is not that the pool is opened. That should happen in the next few weeks. The first official sign is that the entertainment center location moves up to the back porch.

The porch media center is open for business

We moved the TV, STB, dvd player and Hermes up to the porch last Saturday night so we could watch the Celtics/Cavaliers game. Woody was not impressed with the Celtic’s fade in the second half but he was happy to be watching it on the porch.

Woody checks out the display from Hermes on the Akai

It took a little work and help from Matt but over Sunday and Monday morning, Hermes was upgraded to Lucid Lynx (Ubuntu 10.04), the alsa drivers to 1.0.23 and Voila! we finally have HDMI sound. So all is good.
Well almost. Late Sunday night we found out that the entertainment stuff is on the same circuit as the microwave and when Betsy tried heating up some supper for Kait, the breaker tripped. I hadn’t heard the microwave so I thought we lost half of the power coming in to the house. I was in the middle of a call to Hudson Power and Light when Betsy asked if it could be the breaker. I checked and sure enough. I had to call HP&L back and sheepishly say, “never mind!”.
Now we have to figure out how to get that on a different circuit while not violating anyone’s aversion to actual wires being visible.

Woody’s first fire and water experience (updated pics)

Posted on April 26, 2010 by cac

Woody looked on with mixed feelings as the Brooklyn bunch helped out with the 2010 burning. And then he had his first washing machine experience when I left him in my jeans pocket.

link to pics

Also, this spring was so wet and so early that these tulips bloomed for the first time since we I planted them (probably upside down) some 15-20 years ago.

Tulips finally bloom