Tag: life

Halloween 2014

November 1, 2014 10:17 am

Heather has been anticipating Halloween ever since her pirate costume arrived a few weeks ago. She would tell us all about how she was going to dress up as a pirate with her pumpkin bucket (which she remembered from last year) and go to houses and get candy.

On a whim I decided to try using off-camera flash for a few of her pictures.  Luckily they came out fantastic.  This is my favorite picture (Jess held the flash on-level with the pumpkin about 10 feet to my left; and this was with that 50mm prime lens that I think is just fantastic):

IMGP2361as
Pentax K-7, Pentax DA 50mm. f/8.0, 1/100s, ISO 100. Off-camera flash ~10 feet to the left.

Heather "helped" design and cut the pumpkin. It came out pretty well. Sorry for the slightly fuzzy picture. We discovered (by looking at these pumpkin-carving pictures) that Heather had smudged Jess' camera lens.

P1010273as IMGP2348as

IMGP2358as

No idea what she's doing in this picture. Possibly trying to match the pumpkins' faces.

IMGP2364as

From house to house she would do this adorable little trot/run thing.  She fell once and some candy fell out of her bucket.  She got a little scraped up and had a minor meltdown (mostly about the candy).  Then she decided to best way to feel better would to get up and go to the next house.

IMGP2373as

IMGP2374as

This is the walkway to our front door.  I had the lights off to get this picture the way I wanted it.

IMGP2378as

After we returned home Heather still had a blast handing out candy.  She may have actually enjoyed handing it out more than getting it.  Often she would refuse to give out any candy until a kid told her what they were dressed up as.

IMGP2381as

New Roof

October 26, 2014 3:30 pm

We knew the house was in need of a new roof when we bought it.  And we had been hoping it would make it through a couple of years before becoming a real problem.  Luckily it did.  In hopes that it will rain again around here sometime we wanted to get it replaced before winter.

Here's the old roof just as work began.  It was installed around the time I was born, so it held up well.

IMGP2273as

Both layers of the old roof are gone (asphalt shingles over cedar shakes) along with the original sheathing:
IMGP2276as

The new radiant-barrier OSB sheathing is going on here.  It's supposed to have some pretty dramatic energy-efficiency properties.

IMGP2289as

Felt paper is starting to go down.  And you can see the hose they used to blow more insulation in to the attic.  We upped it to the current recommendation of R-38.

IMGP2292as

All Done!  We used CertainTeed Landmark Solaris Platinum shingles in the Santa Fe color.  They have a high solar reflectivity and thermal emissivity ratings.  So supposedly they will absorb less heat from the sun allowing the attic space to stay cooler.  When combined with the upgraded insulation, the radiant-barrier OSB, and the new ridge-venting along the entire house these upgrades are supposed to save us over $500 a year in heating and cooling costs.  This was calculated using Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Roof Savings Calculator.

The energy efficiency upgrades cost about an additional $5000, so they should pay for themselves in about 10 years and then be free money for the remainder of the roof's life (it should have at least a 30-year life).

IMGP2308as

The work was done by Sonrise Roofing out of Fremont.  We selected them based on reviews and ratings from Consumer's Checkbook.  We had them and about 5 other companies provide bids.  Then we selected Sonrise based on their reputation and warranty.

Camping

September 13, 2014 12:59 pm

P1010176asHeather has watched a number of TV show episodes that involve camping.  So when, a few months back, we asked her if she wanted to go camping she was ecstatic.  She knew all about it.  She told us about setting up a tent, and sleeping bags, and a fire, and marshmallows, and on and on.  We decided to play it safe for a first-time-camping experience.  We booked a site at Del Valle, which is just on the edge of town, for a Friday night back in August.  If the night turned into a disaster we could just bail and drive home since we'd only be 15 minutes away.

In the future we won't be returning to Del Valle.  Apparently it's kind of a party campground.  There aren't enough bushes and trees to separate camp sites so it's mostly like camping in a huge group with a bunch of people you don't want to interact with.  Regardless, Heather had a blast.  She ate a hot dog in a bun for the first time and she had her first S'more.  She thought the S'more was alright, but wanted the marshmallow and chocolate without the graham crackers (funny, since this morning she ate an entire package of graham crackers).

We survived the night, went home and then everyone took a 3-hour nap.

Last weekend was the Daddy-Daughter Campout with church, for which Heather was also super excited.  It was up in Redwood Regional Park.  The main benefit there is that it's a singular group site.  There are no other camp sites around it so you have much more isolation.  That and there are a lot of trees and bushes.  The camp site is a cleared area within all this growth.  That was a more pleasant experience overall.

Heather was a trooper and didn't even fuss when it was discovered I had not, in fact, packed the hot dog buns and ketchup like I thought I had.  She happily ate her hot dog without either.  My night would have been a little more comfortable had I checked the air mattress before leaving though.  It had a pretty substantial hole in it so I was flat on the ground by midnight.  Heather slept great on a pile of blankets.

She's already asking when we can go camping again.  So I guess we need to start buying useful equipment instead of just making do with whatever we can find.

A Day with Hugh Howey

September 12, 2014 9:11 pm

IMG_20140911_090630asOne of the employee morale groups (for lack of a better description) runs a series where they invite authors to come and speak about their work and meet with employees and then get a tour around the Lab.  Back in April or May they asked if anyone had suggestions for authors to invite out.  I suggested we invite Hugh Howey out.  He's a science fiction author which is always a good match with the Lab population and he has great knowledge of the self-publishing process which would be of interest to aspiring authors lurking about the property.

We were very pleased when he accepted our offer and we arranged for a visit on September 11 while he was already going to be in the Bay Area.

He took a tour of the supercomputer facility in the morning and then gave a presentation and we had a group lunch.  I spent the morning working, but was able introduce him at the talk and have lunch and then tour the National Ignition Facility and the High Explosive Application Facility with him during the afternoon.

It was a lot of fun.  He's a geek at heart which made seeing all the incredible science great fun.  I really enjoy getting to tour other parts of the Lab.  It's easy to stay cooped up in my office and not hear about all the other amazing work being done.

After our tours a small group went down to the Concannon Winery for dinner.  It was a blast to ask him about his work and his experiences in life and hear how those experiences have influenced his writing.  He's an incredibly personable guy and has remained quite humble despite his great success.

I think he enjoyed visiting the Lab as much as we all enjoyed having him.  I highly recommend sitting down with him for a chat if you ever get the chance.  In the meantime, we will all just have to settle for reading his stories.  I can't wait to see what bits and pieces from his visit work their way into his writing.

IMG_20140911_213103as