Safe to post?

Ok, I'll just pretend nothing ever happened.

How much sleep did I get last night? Not enough. Why the heck don't babies get born with all their teeth? Having them burst through one at a time really seems to be a design error. We had Nome and Darrell over in the afternoon yesterday. Darrell brought Henry two toy motorcycles. Whenever Henry sees a motorcycle he says "Darrell" because Darrell has given Henry about 6 motorcycles over the past two years.

Later that evening Cassie, Jim, Michelle and Alexi brought dinner, which was lovely. I showed the women my St. Marks yearbook and they noticed that Storm Large went to school with me. They told me she is now up in Portland and has a band. Yet another old friend who leads a more exciting life than I do.

I'm probably going to go out tonight to hang with my shop buddies, which will be a nice break from the constant baby wrangling. I just hope I don't fall asleep driving over there and crash into a ditch.

Do you know enough about pumps?
What about planar machines and topology?

The Easy Off people sent me a $3.00 and a $1.50 coupon for any of their fine family of products to make up for my disappointment with the Stovetop Cleanser. I think I probably do qualify as a crank.

Tired of plain old square holes, how about some odd shaped cutouts?

Let's start again

I had to disable comments for a while. Some people have taken umbrage at the last few posts I wrote and rather than subject my friends to both my histrionic anger and the obscenity laden comments that followed I decided I would just erase the whole thing.
The internet is a wild beast, you never know when something you say will get transported around the world, raising ire. Ah well. I'll have to think first and post after counting to 10.

Yesterday was a great day. I was able to effectively parent both boys in spite of the onset of Max's teething. Lifting weights has helped prepare for the inevitable need to hold both boys in my arms at the same time. Eric came over with Marcel in the morning which was a great help until the ensuing meltdown. I did let Henry nap, which meant that he was up late again. Oh well.
Today is just a lazy day at home.

Not too tired...

To post a short entry...
Last night wasn't that bad - Max had one long screaming wakeup but the rest of the night was just some very short sleep interruptions. Henry didn't go to sleep until late and at one point I almost broke my collarbone when I had to intercept him en route to takling Max. Today was fine too, Henry is a tad jealous and a bit needy, but I can't say as I blame him. Max sleeps, eats and spends time being cute and awake. So far each episode of crying is solved with either food or a diaper change. I was surprised at how much I had forgotten of Henry's baby behaviour, but it is all coming back to me, especially how moist you get when holding a 4 month old. I'll probably go to sleep a bit early (like in 15 minutes) than I normally do. Work was light today which certainly helped. Last evening Ann and Eric brought food and today Ann and Siri (a different Ann, pretty common name in that generation) brought some dinner for us. We have been eating a diet high in carbohydrates. I put a small amount of pictures of max up. Although I know it can all go sideways any minute (like one of the kids gets a cold, or I do), so far it seems easier than when we were parental novices. I bet I get a colossal cosmic smackdown for my hubris.

Here is the best blog ever (via Althouse/Instapundit)

This gives you a sense of perspective when you think work is hard.

How to make a rope knurling tool, and a rope knurl. This blog is, if anything, all about knurling.

That New Baby Smell

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, here is Maxwell Aaron Yang Carter in all his glory:

Spam Filtering, redux

Peak has finally figured out how to completely eliminate spam. Their new Barracuda spam filter is filtering all email on their system. I'm all for clever names for products, and "Barracuda" sounds really efficient in killing spam. Let's face it though, no one has domesticated a real barracuda completely: "Hand-feeding of barracuda at this wreck has domesticated and emboldened the fish significantly. Never dive with flashy jewelry. Keep your hands clenched and close to your body, as the barracuda are known to snap at fingers (thinking they're being fed again)."

I called tech support and asked the guy if I would ever have email again, to which he replied "no, probably not" in the weary voice of a boy who has had his finger in a dike for several years, the city fathers having decided it's cheaper to employ a small boy's finger than repair a leak.

All of this reminds me that I wanted to provide a useful link for all who deal with situations that loosen the bowels, the Toilet Paper Encyclopedia.

Two days until we have our new son amongst us, many preparations going on, I have to reassemble the crib without the benefit of instructions. The camcorder batteries are charged. Henry is largely clueless in spite of our constant prattling about his new baby brother. Felice and I hope to avoid having aneurisms from the stress, at least until we get back from the airport.
The lack of email is certainly compounding the stress as I do need email to make money, and money to raise a family. I'm lucky in that I'm an optomist and confident that ill will all work out.

I was going to talk about "The Machinist" and "Steamboy" which we watched today, but I won't except to say that both are good movies with some flaws. Maybe I'll write more tomorrow about them as they marinate in my brain.

And here is a paper cut steam engine (via Make blog)

Baby coming! Stovetop cleaning and paper folding.

We received the call that our new child will be flying into Eugene on tuesday afternoon. I'm trying not to become panicked, although I have completely forgotten how to care for a baby. I'm sure it will all come back to me.

In an attempt to defer lunacy I spent come time cleaning our stovetop. I tried using "EASY-OFF® ONE STEP™ Stovetop Cleaner", which is described thusly:

"EASY-OFF® ONE STEP™ Stovetop Cleaner is specially formulated to clean tough cooked-on food spills and splatters, yet is gentle to your stovetop surface. It's ideal for use on glass-ceramic, enamel, and stainless steel surfaces. Plus, when used regularly, EASY-OFF® ONE STEP™ Stovetop Cleaner helps prevent stains from setting, making future cleaning easier."

In reality is is a smelly blue goop that had absolutely no effect on the burnt on stains on our cooktop. The directions state:

"Shake well before using. For food spill and splatters apply EASY-OFF® ONE STEP™ Stovetop Cleaner directly to the stovetop surface. With a clean damp cloth or paper towel, wipe the stovetop surface until clean"

I wiped it off, got a razor blade and scraped the burnt-on grime off, it took about a half hour. So razor blade good, easy-off bad.

Other than that I'm pretty much boring today.
Here is a cool article on unfolding paper polyhedra
And here is some paper folding software.
There are tons of Japanese sies that have downloadable paper projects, like this site from Yamaha. Good projects when the kids get older, and cheap!

Finally, for those unwillimg to get me either the BB machine gun or the Emmert vise for my birthday, is another perfect present: the Curta calculator.

Earthworm Tractors

On Friday I caught the movie "Earthworm Tractors" on
TCM. You can search the TCM site (do a "library search") for it and see some (or all?) of it online. It's a comedy:
Earthworm Tractors (1936)
CAST: Joe E. Brown, June Travis, Guy Kibbee.
Director: Ray Enright.
At the urging of his ambitious girlfriend, a salesman starts hawking tractors.BW-69m

It's based on the Alexander Botts stories by William Hazlett Upson that appeared in the Saturday Evening Post back in the 20's-50's

Anyway it primed the pump for us to head out to the Brooks Steam up. Here's Henry and Me, sweating in the heat (Eric and Marcel to the right) That big flywheel is whizzing around behind us:


It was a fun day and Henry had a meltdown when we left all the trains, tractors and engines. We didn't take a lot of pics as it took all of our energy to manhandle Henry in the (high 90's) heat.

At the flea market I found a Whitworth thread gage, which I'll never use but love to have just in case. Joseph Whitworth is one of those men who had an incredible impact on human history yet remain largely unknown (outside of their field) due people's ignorance of engineering history.

There was a cool woodworking multimachine there, lathe, tablesaw, bandsaw and? all powered by a big old engine:



Later on when we got home Henry discovered some boxes:


So it was another fun weekend for all.

I've been communicating with a long lost relative, related through my Great-great-grandfather Aaron Carter (click link for larger)


So I had my dad send me a picture of him. I threaten Felice that I'm going to grow sideburns like that someday...

Now it's Monday and I have to work....