Looks like I skipped a whole year.

Just revisited my page and realized that I skipped a whole year of posts. Although a lot happened in that year, I guess I just forgot to talk about it. Maybe I'll be more present this year...

My favorite after workout recovery drink.

Something I've been making for a couple of years now and thought it might be time to share. I believe it to be mostly good for you and good for an after workout recovery. Here's what you'll need.

Ingredients
1 Banana
1 Scoop Peanut Butter
2-3 Tbsp. Chocolate Syrup
1 1/2 cups Milk
8-10 Ice Cubes
Equipment
Blender
Big Spoon
Tall Cup

Start by peeling and breaking the banana into small pieces, putting it in the blender. I like bananas that are a little ripe, more banana taste. Grab that big spoon and get a big scoop of peanut butter, add it in with the banana. squeeze in the chocolate, as much or as little as you like. Pour in the milk. I use 2%, but whole or skim will work I guess. Ice cubes are last in the mix. Put the top on the blender, turn it on and let it run until the ice is nice and smooth. Pour it into the tall cup and enjoy

Sometimes I'll add some other frozen fruits in as well, just to change it up. Strawberries are my favorite.

Cable Spool Table

OK, who hasn't wanted one one of those cable spools that are always lying around construction sites? Turned on their sides, they make a perfect back yard table. Next to the grill, a great place to stand and have a few cold beers. I, like you, wanted the same thing. Only I want mine to be in the dining room and not to be a spider fill, rotting piece of crap. So I took this project to the next level. I found your standard large everyday cable spool, less the cable, transported it back to the garage, and visualized the final result.

I dismantled the entire thing, then tore into working on the top. I took apart the top board by board, driving every nail out with a hammer and punch. As I reassembled it I added 1/4 inch red oak slats between each board to fill the gaps. Next I hand planed the joints where the boards and red oak met. I really liked the stenciling that was on the top so I traced and made my own stencil to reapply later. Once the whole top was back together I needed to true up the edge. I decided to use a jig saw with a long blade and took off about 1/2 inch all the way around. This was the wrong decision all together, it made it much worse. To fix this bought an extra long plunge bit for the router and built a circle cutting jig to mount it on. This made the edge perfect and I only had to take off about another 1/4 inch. I still wasn't totally happy with the finish of the edge, even after sanding. Adding an edge trim was the only way to resolve this.

How did I do this you ask? Of course I built an overly elaborate mold to laminate slats of red oak into I giant hoop. Crazy, Crazy process, please leave to the pros. I glued and nailed to hoop little by little working my way around and brought the two ends together. I filled the empty nail holes and small gaps. Then followed it all with a belt sander to bring it all flat. Using the stencil that I made earlier, I re-spray painted the graphic back one and distressed it with an orbital sander. Sanded the entire thing; top, underside, sides, everything.

Then added a dark Jacobean stain and three coats of satin urethane. Done with the top, only took about 2 months, working after work and on weekends. Now it's time to move on the the center section and bottom. The overall plan at this point is to integrate a cabinet into the center "barrel" section and reduce the diameter of the bottom disk. then raise the entire table up 10 inches to 42" bar height. The legs are going to be poured cement, I'll get into that more later in the process.

UPDATE:

After a long pause and then lots of work I've finished this project and am ready to fill you in on the process. The cabinet section posed to be the most difficult to get done. It had several difficult pieces to fit together just right. I used my circle cutting router jig to make two disks the same size as the inside diameter of the cabinet. I used these disks to affix all the outside slats to and double as the shelf and top of the cabinet. I cut three of the slats to make the door of the cabinet and fastened them together with two steel straps, screwed in place horizontally. After it was all together and everything of lined up I stained and urethaned the whole piece.

I again used the router jig to cut the bottom section so that it would allow for stools to be pulled in closer to the table. I left about 8 inches extending past the cabinet and sanded it, taking off all the rough edges. Then I stained and urethaned it like the cabinet and top. Initially I planned to raise the entire table up to 42" bar height, but after getting it all together it stands right at 38" and is just a little above counter top height. Its very comfortable at this height and I decided not to raise it any higher. I just added 4 rubber door stoppers to the bottom to protect the floor and help is sit level.

I bolted the whole messed together using 12 7" carriage bolts and nuts, from the inside of the cabinet to the top and bottom. The original bolts extended all the way from top to bottom and would have been a pain to align through the cabinet. Plus they would have been inside the cabinet and wouldn't have looked very pleasant. The whole project came together much better than I ever expected and is going to last me a very long time. Now it's time to construct stools...6 of them. See all the pictures here

Hanging wall.

At the new house, I have a vaulted ceiling in the living room and huge exposed walls. I was looking for something large to fill the space and was coming up empty. Everything that I found, that I liked, was much too expensive for my liking. So I thought, how about a bunch of small pieces here and there. I finally settled on putting up some wire cable, stretched between some eye bolts, and hanging miscellaneous items with binder clips. This way, I can switch out pieces as I find new ones and get rid of stuff that I'm tired of looking at. I completed the bottom row today and will put up a second, up higher once I get a ladder. I've only hung a few pieces I had lying around.

Breakfast Nachos!!

My new favorite breakfast, Breakfast Nachos. Here's where you start, cook 3 slices of bacon until nice and crispy. At the same time, cook a racket ball sized bit of breakfast sausage. While all of this is going on layer the bottom of a tin pie pan with tortilla chips. Once all your meat is done, drain the bacon grease from the skillet leaving the crispy goodies. Scramble 3 eggs and cook in this skillet. As the eggs are cooking go ahead and turn the oven to broil 500°. Take the now beautifully cooked eggs and layer half of them on top of the chips, sprinkle half the sausage and crumble half the bacon on top. Add some nice shredded cheese on top of all this and slide into the oven. Wait until the cheese is nice and melty, remove from the oven and layer some more chips, eggs, sausage, bacon and cheese. Then back into the oven to melt the cheese. Right now your taste buds should be giddy with excitement. When ready, slide out of the pan and onto a plate. Add a little salsa, maybe some sour cream on top. You can add an almost endless variety of flavor to this meal, use your imagination. Get a fresh cup of coffee, sit back and enjoy your new found breakfast love. You're Welcome.

Ingredients:
3 slices bacon
Breakfast sausage
3 eggs
Tortilla chips
Shredded cheese
Salsa

Preparing for agony

This week I registered myself for my first mountain bike endurance race. It will be a 13 hour race, dubbed the Baker's Dozen and will be held near Edgefield, SC. So my first hurdle is figuring out how exactly one should prepare for such torture. The course is going to be an eight mile loop and the goal is to complete as many laps as possible in the 13 hours. Starting at 9am and extending into the dark hours of the evening. I suppose that a good start will be to ride the bike a lot and try to be faster over the next 30 days. Cardio, cardio and more cardio. Trying to come up with a mileage goal is something else I'm thinking about. I've could only find the results from the 2004 race and the solo leader completed 152 miles (19 laps). I shat my pants a little after seeing that.

Stay Tuned.

I just want to mountain bike!!

Alright, I'm in Atlanta on a work trip, about 185 miles from home. I do the right thing and take my mountain bike and gear with me so that I can utilize the trip for my own personal gain. There were two trails within reasonable distance that I wanted to hit, one Friday and one Saturday morning. I finished up with the class I was attending on Friday and headed out to the first trail only about 12 miles away. Located in Roswell, GA this trail is named Big Creek and turned out to be an excellent choice. Other than in being a little hot at 2pm, the trail was tight and technical, had a lot of different options to ride. I peddled around for a couple of hours and talked with a few locals, then headed to a nearby friends house to chat and have a bite to eat. My overall plan starting out was to camp Friday night, near or at the trail head of Yellow River trail near Stone Mountain, GA. So, just before dark I left the friends house and drove the 38 miles east to the trail. On the way I stopped for gas and picked up some food and drink. I got some pop tarts for breakfast, a Gatorade, and a some beer to have at camp. As I entered I saw that it was in a county park, so I observed all the signage looking for the "No Camping" sign. I didn't see one and found the trail head with no problem. I found a nice grassy spot on the edge of a gravel parking lot and set up a quick camp. At this point it's about 10:30 and I'm sitting in the jeep checking out some Facebook, tipping back some beer. I notice a vehicle roll into the paved parking area across the street with it's headlight turned off. Soon I see that it's a police car and know whats about to take place. I had placed my 9mm pistol on the dash, so that when I went to the tent I could take it with me. You never know what could happen when your camping on the side of a road in the middle of nowhere, I like to be safe. So, I reach up ever so gently and place the pistol back in the console of the Jeep and turn the key lock. Soon the cop spots my encampment and turns the lights on me. He drives over and gets out of his car and I hop out of the jeep to greet him. He doesn't like this maneuver and asks me to stop where I am. I do, because I notice his hand poised to snatch out his taser Clint Eastwood style. He approached me and asks what I was doing there. As I describe my plans of biking in the morning after camping for the night, he looked bewildered...confused. His primitive cop brain just couldn't grasp the thought. It's about 10:50pm at this point and he asked for my ID, which I produced quickly. I handed him my military ID first, then my drivers license. He proceeded to inform me that I shouldn't lead off with my military ID, that it says "somethings up". I told him that after two deployments to Iraq, I've earned the right to present it whenever I see fit. He didn't seem quite happy with my rebut and scoffed in return. The officer asked me to sit on the bumper of the Jeep while he ran my record and I only assume call for extensive backup. Because almost immediately two other police cruisers pulled up and a couple young lads popped out to investigate my wrongdoings. They all inspected my site with there standard issue flashlights and felt the need to shine the lights in my eyes at least twice each. The first responded returned with my IDs and inquired about my tattoos. He said that my record stated that I have one tattoo and he could clearly see the two on my legs. Standing there amazed for a sec, not over the fact that he was asking me about tattoos, but the fact I had a record. Cool. I satisfied his interests by showing him the ink on my shoulder. OK, here I am standing with my three new friends wondering if I'm going to jail, packing my junk up and leaving or what. My first infraction was camping in a no camping park, even though this wasn't clearly mark. Problem two, I had and open container in a alcohol free park. Easy enough to fix, I pour it out, it was hot anyway it this point. And the biggest issue, I was parked on the grass. Even though I was breaking almost every park rule these guys could make up, I was still given the go ahead to stay the night. Peachy, this made me happy. They all three got back in their cars and sped off. I only assume to go be first in line at krispy kreme when the "HOT" light comes on. The time in the Jeep now reads 11:30pm.

Deciding that is a quality event, I do the right thing and post it on Facebook. As I'm getting ready to crawl in my tent I notice another set of headlights pulling up behind the Jeep. Great, what now. Is Dudley coming back to tell me that his bosses said I had to go? Nope, a completely new guy extracts himself from the car and approaches me. My hands are in clear view this time, no tasing for me please. Then he asks the question "What are you doing?". Well sir, I plan to sleep in that tent [pointing] and then go ride that trail [waving finger at tree line] in the morning. His reply, "you know there isn't any camping here?". I now fill him in on the earlier events and he isn't happy with the other officers decisions. At this point I'm getting ready to start packing my shit up and hit the road back home. He asks "what do you do for work?". "Military" I reply and he asked which branch of service. "Army" I sigh outward. "Oh, never mind, you're good". Wow, more than a decade of service is paying off. Turns out this good ol' boy is a 'former Marine' and also a local mountain biker. We traded war stories and mountain lore for about half an hour, then duty called and he was off on his way.

At this particular moment I'm so ready to lay down and get some sleep that I almost fall asleep sitting in the drivers seat. I find the strength to pull myself out of the Jeep and stuff my body into my very small tent. I was out in seconds, which is rather rare for me when it comes to sleeping on the ground on a hot night. I awake in the morning to the sound of tires rolling through gravel and a door slam. A quick glance at my watch tells me that it's 6:30am. I move my eyes from the watch to the approaching figure and what do ya know, it's an officer of the law coming by to say hello. Rubbing my tired eyes as he walks to the side of my net dwelling, I ask "How can I help YOU?". He's replies with the scripted county police question, "What are you doing?". Cooking meth you stupid backwoods shit bird, is what I wanted to say, but kept it to myself. "Well I intend on riding this mountain bike trail this morning", [waving finger at tree line again] I shot back. "You know there isn't any camping in the park?" he informs me. Still laying on my back in the tent I reply back, "You don't say, you're the fifth guy to come by and tell me that. Four of your brothers in arms were here at different points throughout the night to inform of such". Now I'm starting to sit up, unzip the tent and pull myself out, when he launches himself into a lecture on the park rules. "Well it would really be great if you guys had the rules posted so people knew what they were" I interrupted. "OK I'm packing up now and I'll be out of here in 10 minutes." I interrupted again as he continued reciting the park rules and regulations. "Well that's good," he added. "because the parks guys will definitely write you a citation for being out here". I began packing away my camp into the back of the Jeep as officer number five drove away. Once I was packed I drove over the small little restroom/changing area to relieve myself of stored fluids and noticed a board with the trail map posted largely on the front. I gave it a quick once over and proceeded to the toilet. On my way back to the Jeep I noticed that on the side of the trail map was a list of text. On closer review I realized that what I was looking at was the elusive park rules. They did exist and I was looking at them, but why were they posted on the side of the board...almost hidden. Right at the top; Park hour: sunrise to sunset, Alcohol Prohibited, All Weapons Prohibited. Looks like I broke the top three and then down towards the bottom, No Individual Camping. I was on a roll; if I had a pet, I'd have it off a leash and pooping everywhere possible.

I drove the short distance to the trail head, geared up and hit the trail. It's always worth it, no matter the amount of bullshit.

A tale of mishap and misfortune.

So I'll start with a little back story to bring you up to speed. A few months ago I found myself in a situation where I didn't have a place to reside. Luckily I had a couple of friends willing to put me up, while I got on my feet. The gist of this is I've been sleeping on an air mattress for about two and a half months and the bulk of my belonging were in a storage unit. Fast forward a little. I got the line on a bed that someone was going to let go of for an unbeatable price. Great, I want it. I just need to wait until I get a house to put it in. The deal sounded solid, however I was going through a proxy and never got the confirmation from the source direct. OK, up to the present.

Sunday I was required to work a 24 duty. Not all in all bad, except for the fact that it's 24 hours of boredom, toiling behind a desk with no real purpose. Just the Friday before I got word that the bed deal had fallen through and was sold to someone else. Minor hiccup, the next day (Saturday) I went to a local furniture retailer and purchased a new queen mattress and box spring. The soonest it could be delivered was Monday, just 2 days away. Also on Saturday I would be signing for my new rental house in the afternoon and be able to start moving in right away. Being that I had to work all day Sunday and got off 9am Monday morning. This meant that I would have to move everything on Saturday, work Sunday, and be at the house Monday to receive the bed. The bed would be delivered between 8am and 5pm. Perfect, I could do some unpacking throughout the day and maybe nap on the air mattress while waiting for the bed. Alright, back to Saturday.

I hooked up a trailer to my jeep and loaded both to capacity prior to signing for the rental. This way I could start moving in the first load moments after getting the keys. Five loads later I was complete and only needed help with the last. I slept that night on the air mattress, in the new house and woke the next morning to begin my long work shift. Skipping over the work shift because nothing transpired relevant to this story, we are now at 8am Monday morning. I was at the house unpacking, moving from room to room making a good deal of progress. I had new sheets in the wash and was folding some laundry, when darkness fell throughout the house. What the hell is going on? I walked to the front door to see a power company truck sitting on the street and a worker walking across my lawn.

"Hey" I proclaimed, "What's going on, why are you turning off my power?".

The worker replied "I have an order to disconnect".

I returned "What? I just moved in yesterday and was getting ready to call and transfer the service today. Can you hold on for a couple of minutes and I'll call right now, then we can turn it back on".

"Sorry, we don't do same day connections"

"Horse shit", I shot back. "You sure are doing same day disconnects". and then he left.

Back in the already heating up house, I sat in a tired dismay. I picked up the phone and called all of the utility companies and began the transfer of billing. I was beyond unhappy at this point. Not only would I not be able to sleep at the new house, on my new bed. I would also have to pack up all the food I just bought and take it back to my friends house to store until the power was restored. And still the bed hadn't been delivered yet. In case you're reading this passage sometime in the future, it's taking place in August in Georgia. Heat is a major factor in all the happenings taking place. So, the delivery finally happens at about 4pm and takes only minutes to unpack and setup. Keep in mind that I haven't slept or showered since 7am the morning prior. I was tired and smelly and still pretty pissed off at the whole situation.

I moved all the things that I needed to survive a night back on the air mattress, food from the fridge included. I took it all back to my friends house, unpacked it, showered, and laid down to sleep. Remembering that I haven't eaten since around 4:30am that morning. I got back up, cooked some ramen and a vegetable. Sat for a second to digest the food and days events. Then drug myself to that god damn air mattress and put my head on the pillow, it was 9:30pm. In the morning, I will find that I forgot my belt and toothbrush at my house and will have to go to get them before work; of which I already was late because I had over slept.

Guess what? Chicken Sandwich.

Shocking Revelation.

In a hurry to finish cleaning this house before I go on vacation, I was outside cleaning mini blinds. I have them hung on the outside of the garage door so that I can spray them with the hose and scrub with a small brush. Well I was interrupted by a thunderstorm right in the middle of scrubbing one. So I retreated into the garage and started on another small project until the rain subsided. When it did I continued with the scrub down. Only now there was a lot more lightning and it was pretty close. They always say not to play in the water during a lighting storm, but what do "they" know. I was crouched down listening to pandora on my phone with headphones, the running hose a few feet away, and a light sprinkle of rain. Then BAM, right behind the house about 100 yards from me, the charge hit my left foot and out my right hand touching the garage door. Although not a direct hit, it still made my entire body ache and the headache that I had go away. So today's lesson, "don't play with the hose during a lightning storm." It sucks.

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UPDATE: Head Lamp Found

I've found my head lamp after months of worry. I took the girls camping this weekend and while packing my sleeping bag in the stuff sack it fell out on the floor. I've been camping at least twice since it went missing, but I used different sleeping bags on those trips. This is probably one of the most important pieces of my gear and I almost bought a new one before this trip. I'm just relieved that it's back with me.


Original Post Sunday, January 23, 2011


"I lost my head lamp. I need my head lamp. I isn't like me to misplace such items, but I have. So if you happen to come across my head lamp or maybe even someone else's (assume they stole it from me), send it my way. I'll be the one wandering around it the darkness with no head lamp. 


Petzl head lamp if you're out there listening, please come home. I didn't mean the things I said. I know now that it wasn't you, but the batteries that left me in the dark woods while dropping a deuce. I'm sorry."

Charcoal Basket

For Easter I wanted to smoke a brisket on my Weber kettle grill. To do this I needed a basket to hold the coals away from said meat. Weber makes a charcoal basket just for this purpose and the cost is about $15, but look at how crappy they're made (shown left). So I embarked on yet another DIY project in order to improve a mass produced peice of junk. I started looking at Lowes at the junk from Weber, they weren't big enough and very shallow. So I looked to the shelf just below and found the replacement grates that go in the bottom of the grill to support the charcoal for normal grilling. I picked up one of these for $10 and it's made from very heavy steel. I then strolled across the store to the hardware section where they keep the steel for small projects. Here I found a peice of expanded sheet metal 12"x24"...Perfect $10. At this point I'm leaving Lowes after only spending 19 bucks...don't worry your math is correct, I used my 10% military discount. Back at the house I measured the grill a couple of times and decided on the dimenisons I was looking for. My idea was to use the replacement grate as the bottom of the basket and the expanded sheet as the walls. After measuring I knew that I wanted it to be a little smaller than half the size of the grill bottom and wanted the sides right up to the bottom of the cooking grill. I used a pair of metal shears and cut the expanded sheet in half long ways, two 6"x24" strips now. I clamped one of the strips on the outside curved edge of the replacement grate with small vise-grips and started tack welding it in place. I started welding on one side and worked my way around the curve moving the clamp as I went. This one strip worked out to be the perfect length to span a little less than half the way around. Then I marked the points on the replacement grate where I wanted to cut and made the cuts with an angle grinder w/ cut-off wheel. Now all I needed to do was weld on the other strip to complete the flat wall. At this point I have a complete basket with 6" tall walls, this is too tall. So I put it in the grill and measure up to the bottom of the cooking grate, then marked the side of the basket. I again used the metal shears and trimmed down the sides to the new height. Now all I needed was to wait for Easter the next day.


I started early Easter morning and filled the basket about 2/3 with charcoal out of the bag and the smoking wood which I'd been soaking in water since the day before. I used my charcoal chimney and started enough coals to fill the basket to the top. When they were white hot I poured them right on top of the wood and fresh charcoal mix, added the cooking grate and brisket. I used a themometer stuck through the air port in the lid to monitor the temp. I was looking for a temp around 225-250 degrees for 7-8 hours. Now I was very surprised with the performance of my handy work, it maintained 250 degrees to entire day with little effort. I added new smoking wood to the basket throughout the day and about a dozen fresh started coals from the chimney after about five hours. With saying that I probably didn't even need to add more coals because they cooked down very little over the 7 hour period and was still maintaining the heat well into the evening after the meat was done.

BTW, the brisket was delicous.

Hotel Sniper

I was on the road this week for a conference and stayed in a hotel. My stay was quite pleasant overall, nice room, great staff, good location. Just one thing I'd like to note, and this covers all hotels. The TV remotes. Where in the hell do they get these things? It has to be precisely aimed at the TV sensor. Not aimed in the direction of the TV or even at the screen. You must have pinpoint accuracy and hit the TV sensor dead on. I couldn't lie in bed and lazily flip the channel, I had to make conscience effort to find simple entertainment. I find this to be unacceptable. I can only wait for the world to correct this. 

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My new definition of hell.

Let my just say this right up front, I love spending time with my girls. However, tonight was pretty excruciating given the circumstances. Being a member of the armed forces we get many opportunities to see concerts for free. I had the pleasure most recently seeing Five Finger Death Punch and it was amazing. So this evening there was a free admission concert, right here on the installation, of Allstar Weekend. Now I thought this was an event headlining various Disney cast members and such. Nope, this was much worse. Allow me a second to bing you up to speed on this "Allstar Weekend", they are a pop/rock teen boy band with a pure Disney message. You know the positive message that they're impressing on our youth, that of Brittany Spears, Miley Cyrus, Lindsay Lohan, and Christina Aguilera, to name a few. Anywho, There I was sitting amongst about 200-250 girls ranging in age from 3-17, a smattering of awkward  boys, and many distraught parents. When the Allstar Weekend took the stage, the screaming commenced and didn't stop for an hour. The pitch of the scream is indescribable, but could be used to disperse rioting crowds when small arms fail. So these boys sang, swished their hair around, and wooed the young girls (from a Disney approved distance). I must add that the lad playing lead guitar had very respectable talent (pictured 2nd from left). This was my two girls first "concert" experience and both seem to take it in a little differently.  The oldest seemed mesmerized by the lights and the sounds; she sat the whole show and barley spoke a word. The youngest looked pissed the entire time, but says she enjoyed it. She had hands over her ears, sometimes her face buried in her hands, but the entire time she looked really pissed off. She contends that it was a good time and enjoyed the show. They're happy, so I'm happy. I think we should look into weaponizing some of this crazy screaming girl energy and using it against foe.

Allstar Weekend

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