The blog that's gotten one comment ever! Thanks mom!

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Vi in a yukata

Our friends Batty and Sonoko sent Vi this awesome yukata, which is
still too big for her. But it's so awesome, we couldn't resist, and
she's been sporting it around town today. Thanks so much guys!

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Meeting AB & C's little bean

Janie and I took Violette to meet Gram, our friend AB & C's one week old. Vi's still too little to be much interested in other kids, but we had to set them next to each other for pics. I had forgotten already just how little newborns are. Vi was more than a pound lighter than Gram at birth, and after eleven weeks, she seems positively giant next to him.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

And I also fixed the Prius

No pictures, because it was dark, and I was frustrated, but I modified the Prius to use a Mazda Miata 12 volt battery. It was not easy. I'm fairly certain that the Toyota factory that makes these things starts with the 12 volt battery and builds the rest of the car around it. I had to run to the store twice, first for vice grips, and then looking to replace a lock washer I dropped and lost. Much thanks to John, my sister-in-law's beau, for helping me with parts of it. But once it was all back together, the Prius fired up first time, all of the electrical gremlins that had been plaguing it forgotten. Of course, since I didn't have a spare 12 volt power source to plug it into while I was doing the swap, it also forgot that I had disabled the annoying 'beep at the driver when in reverse' thing. I mean, I would be ok if it played a sound on backing up externally, it's a quiet car and all. But beeping at me doesn't seem to do much but grate on my nerves. Maybe backing up is considered rude in Japan.

Hacked my 360's hard drive


With the help of my friend Jer last week, I swapped out the 20 gig hard drive in my Xbox 360 for a 120 gig model. At a dollar a gig, buying the drive from MS just doesn't seem to make much sense. Luckily, with the help of some instructions found at PC World, we were able to buy a bare 2.5 inch SATA drive which could be flashed to match the firmware found in the official product. Then just swap out the drive, re-download all your purchased content (minus the Grateful Dead track pack for Rock Band that I always regretted purchasing), and you're all set. With the 360 now offering full titles as downloads, the extra space will definitely help. The old 20 gig drive was more than half full of Rock Band downloads.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

All we ever talk about...

...is how amazingly cute she is.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Jambalaya

And my Mama's potato salad.

Driving the Jeep today

Apparently, if the 12v battery on the 2nd gen Prius (which is in the trunk, by the way) gives up the ghost, your whole fancy car will pretty much stop working. The 12v battery, as opposed to the much higher powered drive battery, boots the computer than starts up the hybrid drive. So no computer means no drive. And because Toyota used a Japanese-style battery, you can't buy replacements except through the dealer, who'll happily sell you one for upwards of $150. So I've spent the same amount on a battery and conversion kit that will let me use Mazda Miata batteries instead. Easier to replace in the future, and last longer than the Toyota battery in any case. In addition to changing out the leads that plug into the battery, the conversion kit also includes a special hood, as the battery is hooked up to a cooling system.

I know all of this because I was stranded in the grocery store parking lot last night. Thankfully, I've got plenty of awesome friends, and one of them (thanks Tim!) was kind enough to come out and let me borrow some juice from his car's battery to boot my car's computer to allow me drive home. Thank goodness I had a fifty year old Jeep in the garage. Now, to all of you people who get stuck behind me on the drive home, I promise you, I'm going as fast as I safely can. Please be patient!

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Monday, August 3, 2009

And now for my folks


MVI_2611
Originally uploaded by solarvvind
Makes you think my mom had about given up on me.

A little late, but...


MVI_2610
Originally uploaded by solarvvind
For those of you who haven't seen this yet, this is the video we recorded when we told Janie's folks that they would be grandparents. I'll post the video from my folks shortly.

Have you read my blog?