April 2015May 2015 June 2015

05/31 - Russian Easter

We had such a great time at our Russian Easter party - yes, we know it's awfully late - that we forgot to take pictures. What with the blini, shashlik, pelmeni and home made sausage, we had a serious Russian feast. There was butter and more butter, and then came the Defense of Moscow from the Monster Napoleon. Moscow was played by a giant baked Alaska with brownie domes. Napoleon never made it to Moscow in our version. He was stopped in his tracks by the scorched earth policy, fueled - ironically enough - by the fumes of French brandy.

Moscow - The domes have gone 3D this year.

Champagne resting in a simulated Russian winter as played by our sink.

Blini, pelmeni and salmon roe

Keywords: russian easter, alaska


05/24 - Late Spring on the Spruce Railroad Trail

Spring is really moving along the Spruce Railroad Trail. The trilliums have already peaked, and the vegetation is getting lush. Summer is less than a month away.

Lush vegetation

Mock Solomon's seal or is it false mock Solomon's seal?

We aren't sure about this. Maybe we missed the "Don't drink and kayak." sign.

Keywords: spring, spruce railroad, summer, trillium


05/21 - Hurricane Ridge

We had to get out of the house, so we made a lightning trip up to Hurricane Ridge. It looks just as pretty as the webcam pictures.

Pretty picture

Keywords: hurricane ridge


05/16 - Replacement Stove Knobs

We have an old Jenn Air electric cooktop which is basically in pretty good shape. The only problem is that the old stove knobs have become illegible. We tried to find new ones, but Jenn Air changed the knob design and has run out of its stock of old replacement knobs.

Luckily, we live in the age of 3D printing, so we fired up the old 3D modeling program - we use Cheetah3D - and designed a new stove knob. This meant measuring the old ones with calipers and designing some new ones which would be easier to read and work with our old cooktop.

We uploaded the 3D model to the Shapeways web site, did a little tweaking, and two weeks later we'd get a stove knob in the mail. The first two really didn't work, but on our third try, the knob worked. We submitted an order to print three more, and two weeks later we had a new set of stove knobs. We first heard of 3D printing technology back in 1979. Maybe the future is coming after all.

If you want your own print out of a stove knob for an ancient (pre-D post) Jenn Air stove knob, check out the product site at Shapeways.


Our replacement Jenn Air electric range control knobs

Keywords: science, art


05/10 - West of Morse Creek

We often walk that stretch of the Olympic Discovery Trail that runs west from Morse Creek. It's a twenty minute walk down to the Strait of San Juan de Fuca. We had a great walk recently. The first wild rose was out in bloom and we saw one of the river otters out on a rock.

First rose

A song sparrow

A river otter

Keywords: morse creek, otters


05/08 - Sunny Day on the Spruce Railroad Trail

While we are fervently hoping for rain, we are enjoying the sunshine. We were out on the Spruce Railroad Trail enjoying the sparkling views of the lake and all the flowers coming into bloom. So far, it looks like a great summer, albeit an early one.

A classic shot or the bridge at the Devil's Punchbowl

Mount Storm King

Towards the west horn of Lake Crescent

One of the sedums

Lots of paintbrush

One of many trilliums

Another trillium

Keywords: flowers, spring, spruce railroad


05/04 - A Computer Programming Joke

A lot of training programs start by asking the students to "Look to your left. Look to your right." and warn them "One of you three is going to fail."

Software is a bit different. The admonition is, "Look to your left. Look to your right. You guys on the ends, you had better fix your code." If you've ever done any image or array processing, this will seem funny to you.

Keywords: software


April 2015May 2015 June 2015