Bengt's 6th Birthday

Last weekend, Bengt turned 6 and in celebration we took him to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. AOP is much bigger than Scripps here in San Diego. They even have some non-aquatic exhibits such as lorikeet feeding aviary. My favorite was the impressive Barents Sea exhibit which had waves crashing on rocks thowing up cloud of mist.
This picture is Bengt at the shark touch tank.

TV

It has been over 2 years since we decided to get rid of our TV. Not completely; we still watch DVD's but don't get cable, broadcast or satellite. The only thing I really miss is the sports. I tried to get some rabbit ears to pick the USC-Texas Rose Bowl but never got it working. It has been long enough that there are now shows that I have never seen but hear being talked about ("Lost", for example). No that I think about it, it is probably best to live in blissful ignorance.

Camping

This past weekend was the annual family campout for the Adventure Princesses. We went up to Lake Perris and had a great time. The main event was a cardboard boat race. Each tribe had to construct a boat (on site, not beforehand) out of cardboard, plastic and duct tape. We ended up third after a rocky start; I had the anchor leg. It was Sophie's first trip with us and she had a great time. It took her a bit of time to get used to all the people. She is still recovering from all the attention.

4 Things

inspired by carlosrull.com...

4 jobs I've had - telemarketer, pizza delivery man, computer guy at a major university medical center, restauranteur

4 movies I can watch over and over - Any James Bond movie, LA Story, any 80's Chevy Chase movie, any Harry Potter movie

4 places I've lived - Santa Ana, CA; Santa Monica, CA; Scottsdale, AZ; Los Angeles, CA

4 shows I watch - none, I don't have TV

4 places I've vacationed - Hawaii, Bonaire, Arizona, Santa Barbara

4 foods I love - California burritos, pasta with Bolognese sauce, burgers, mashed potatoes

4 sites I visit daily - Yahoo, signonsandiego.com, nctimes.com, bimmerboard.com

4 2 places I'd rather be - Hawaii, the beach

4 items in my bag - cellphone, wallet, PDA, pens

Bathroom etiquette

I constantly amazed at the number of people at work that don't wash their hands after using the restroom. I could maybe understand if you were just going to work on a car or dig a ditch, but these are highly skilled, presumably well-educated employees.

New dog

The long dog saga if finally over! We have successfully procured a one and a half year old Maltese/Poodle mix named Sophie.

Chicken pox

First my son got it, now my daughter has it. About a fourth of their school has it now. By the end of the week, Bengt will be the only there.

More car work

Just a couple of weeks ago, I spent the better part of a weekend changing the timing belt on my Honda Passport. Right afterwards, the water pump starts to leak! My brother warned me to change it while I had everything apart but did I listen? Noooo. Off came the fan, belts, timing covers, timing belt and finally the water pump. I am getting quite proficient in this procedure now. The only real difficulty was in removing the gasket from the old pump as it was stock on the block pretty good.

Agua Caliente

Had a great Indian Princess campout at Agua Caliente in Anza-Borrego this past weekend. There was hiking up the stream beds, off-roading to exercise my seldom-used 4WD, swimming in the hot springs and explosions (only one dad had to go to the hospital and he is going to fine).

Snow in San Diego

In San Diego county at least. We took a drive up to Mount Palomar to check out the recent snow fall. The kids griped most of the way but were very excited once they saw the snow on the roads going up the mountain.

Car work

I did some major surgery on my Honda Passport this weekend. It was due for a new timing belt and had a leaky valve cover gasket.
The gasket was fairly straight forward, but time consuming since some of the bolts are hard to reach.
The timing belt was another matter. The job was going good until I got to the crankshaft pulley. The bolt holding it on is quite tight as you can imagine but the hard part is keeping the pulley from turning while you try to get it loose. The Haynes guide says to simply hold the pulley with a big set of channellocks. This is nearly impossible. I first tried putting on a strap wrench with the handle up against the frame to keep it in place. I broke two strap wrenches this way. Plan B. The Passport board had a good suggestion: stick your breaker bar down through the bottom of the car, slip on a long pipe and hit the starter (make sure you pull the ignition so it doesn't start). I had to get a pipe from Home Depot, but it worked like a charm. The second major difficulty was getting the new belt on. I had inadvertenly left the camshaft pulleys inbetween strokes so when I removed the belt, they snapped into a new position, throwing off my timing markings. I had to turn the sprockets with one hand and weave the belt with another; it took about an hour to get it right. Then I realized I couldn't get the hydraulic tensioner back in so off came the belt and I had to repeat the exercise. The last diffuculty involved reattaching the crankshaft pulley bolt. I had to find a way to stop the pully from turning while I torqued the nut. Since I was out of strap wrenches, I jury-rigged a solution. The pulley has a flange on it with two threaded holes. I imagine this is for a tool that the dealers use to keep the pulley from turning. Since I don't possess one of these tools, I screwed in a small machine bolt. I then borrowed a large pipe wrench from my neighbor and gripped the screw with it; the handle of wrench was up against the frame to keep from moving. I then was able to torque the nut a good deal. My breaker bar is 28" long and I was able put full strength into it, so I imagine I want over the specified 123 foot-lbs.
I haven't decided if all this was worth the $600 bucks or so my mechanic would charge.

Dream Car

I want to build one of these before I turn 40.

Bin Laden tape

Is everyone tired of these ridiculous UBL tapes already? He has been turning out these hollow threats for 4 years now and nothing has happened. If this guy has so much money stashed away in Swiss banks or gold bouillon, how about checking out Best Buy or Circuit City for some decent recording equipment. Any middle school a/v club could produce better material than this joker.
You can argue about Iraq, Bush and whether the US really is trying to find Bin Laden, and if Pakistan is covertly hiding them from us, and whatnot all day, but one thing you can't argue with is the ineffectiveness of terrorists in striking US targets. You would think by now that one attack, even a "failed" one (ala the first Trade Center bombing) would have gone down by now. I am not crazy about the Patriot Act, the TSA and HLD, but it is hard to argue with results.

The Great War

My wife recently picked "A Very Long Engagement" to watch. It is a good movie; half love story, half mystery. The subtitles didn't bother me at all. The setting of the movie is early 1920's Paris where a young woman searches for her fiance whom was supposedly killed during World War I.
I had great interest in military history when I was younger (primarily World War II) and this film piqued my desire to re-read some of my old books. I review two of them on my reading page.

California Burritos

I love California Burritos. Ever since I discovered them at Rico's in Encinitas, I won't eat Mexican food at an establishment that does not proffer the delictable bundles of goodness. For the uniformed, a California Burrito is a burrito filled with carne asada, cheese, sour cream and the pièce de résistance: french fries.
They are also easy to make at home:

Ingredients:

• Beef, use the cheapest cut you can find. I usually use chuck steak since it has little fat. Buy alot and freeze it in portion sized baggies.
  
• Cheese, cheddar is perfect
• Sour cream
• Frozen french fries, any brand will do.
• Tortilla

1. Start the fries per the manufacturer's instructions. They usually take 20 minutes in the oven to cook nice and crispy.
2. Fry up the beef until cooked through. This isn't filet mignon so don't keep it rare.
3. Grate the cheese.
4. Warm the tortillas a bit.
5. When the the beef and fries are done, pile everything on the tortilla and enjoy!

Raptor IOC today

The Lockheed F-22 Raptor went operational today. The controversial plane will take over the air superiority mission from the venerable F-15. Critics have questioned the need for the expensive planes since likely adversaries (and especially terrorists) don't field air forces that would need to be shot down. The Air Force even tried tacking on a ground attack role.
The US has been steadily losing ground to advanced Russian designs like the Su-37. The Indian Air Force (in modified Sukhois) has already bested the USAF in exercises. It would be interesting to see how the Raptor fares. I imagine it would win handily.
The US doesn't need 400 of these units, but we do need to show the world (meaning China and Russia) that we are still numero uno.

Yahoo Fantasy Sports Profile

I am a big fantasy sports nut. I used to do every sport but will probably drop hockey and basketball after this season. Yahoo Fantasy just launched a neat feature that displays your stats from 2001 on. There is even a little trophy case with your top 3 finishes.

Swami's

Took advantage of the wonderful weather and went to Swami's. Had a wonderful brunch at Swami's Cafe and then hit the beach.

Battlefield Airborne Communications Node

A co-worker recently reported on our project, BACN.
Quick overview of the project: BACN is, like the name says, an airborne communications node. It allows different radio and data links to be routed to different users. This allows various users, including the warfighter, to access communications they might not otherwise have access to. Our piece is a web-based situational awareness display that shows Link16 data.
I finally made it out to Miramar to view some test flights. Plenty of technical difficulties but pretty neat nonetheless.
Here is some video from a local news cast.
An history of the plane can be found here.

Last weekend

Today, the family and I took a small roadtrip down the 101. I was using Jack Brandais' Weekend Driver San Diego as a guide.
We started at Encinitas and headed to Torrey Pines for a nature walk. If you haven't been there, you must take a trip. We were on a quick quided walk.
We then headed to La Jolla and Mt. Soledad. The Brandais book has some micues in the directions, but that may be attributable to the construction in downtown La Jolla.
With one of the clearest days of the year, the view from the Mt. Soledad was spectatular. I have some pictues but they do the view justice. We only stayed a short while since it was late and the kids where cold.