Jeanne, Meher, Brian and Neil visit the Taj Mahal

This is one of many pictures arrived from India.  Click here to see the rest.

Woodworking 101 ... again

Back in 2003, I constructed the corner cabinet of our HEC. You can read the story of that project on our website (way back pre-blog). The whole HEC design includes side bookcases, I'm calling them speakercases, to hold the L and R front speakers, the subwoofer, and as many books as will fit. I found some real nice Baltic birch 3/4" plywood for the sides, tops, bottoms, and fixed shelves and equivalent 3/16" plywood for the backs. Here's a test strap-up of the bookcases with the speakers and subwoofer moved in place. Want to get this posted so Jeanne can see it from India.

Won the chair!

My fears of hoards of bidders jostling each other to scribble new bids on the silent auction sheets were totally unfounded. I was the lone bidder who walked to a chair at 5:55 to enter a bid, uncontested, thus my bid won.

At 6:00, the art class teacher declared the auction concluded and told the dozen of us waiting to go claim our chairs and pay for them. They all had smiles and congratulations for me when they saw that I was the winner of the psychodelic chair. The student who painted it was present so I met Julianne and jokingly asked her what she'd been drinking or smoking when she painted it.

OK, grandsons (with help from your parents), declare your desire to be gifted the amazing psychodelic chair. The names of those who reply YES will be entered into a drawing to chose the lucky winner at our Christmas family gathering in AA.

Winning a chair at auction ... maybe

Art students in the Clayton NC high school have painted a set of chairs being sold in a silent auction to raise funds. I saw these chairs when I attended "In the Mood" last Saturday eve at the Clayton Center. Most of the chairs are painted with a Triangle university theme, e.g., "Duke University" across the back in blue and white. One chair stands out, painted in psychodelic swirls of color, and I want to buy that chair and gift it to a grandson. Didn't have camera with me so can't post a picture yet. I didn't bid on it when I saw it as another bidder had already bid 2X and would probably bid over my bid so would just run up the price. The auction ends at 6 PM today so I'm traveling to Clayton for the final bidding. Hope that other bidder is not there. More on this tomorrow with a picture, win or lose.

A contradance after a long hiatus

Nov 11 TCD at Carrboro Century Center.

I was sorta a stick-in-the-mud half-1, sat and talked to people I hadn't seen in years, one we calculated 7.5 years, and enjoyed refreshing such contacts. Watched the dancers stumble around, recalled trying to call to these two-left-footed dancer wannabees, don't miss that at all. Listened to Footloose but they were poorly mic-ed or were having a so-so night as I thought they weren't up to their usual standard. Most of my ol' dance partners didn't even know I was there.

Catherine Sisson, my "date", and I scheduled half-2 dance-1 and, while dancing the center set with her, I was (re)discovered on the floor, had to beat the partners off just like the ol' days. Ha, ha! As luck usually doesn't have it, my best "partner" was my shadow in a dance with a long shadow swing. She was a sweet young thing who would never've chosen an old fart like me as a partner but we clicked pretty good on some swing moves, having been thrown together as shadows.

I was repeatedly asked if I were gonna dance every opportunity while the boss is away and I flatly stated, "NO!" I really rediscovered the bicycle when I was ousted from calling dances and get my kicks on the road these days. Rode 67 miles yesterday before the dance and 47 today after the dance. I'd rather suffer in the saddle than on the dance floor.

Skype ID: ohmelovelo

For some time now, Brian has been using Skype to communicate with Meher's parents in India. Minoo and Homai aren't geeks so Brian bought SkypeOut and connects to their telephone at $.17/min.

Brian, Meher, Neil, and Jeanne are traveling to India to visit Minoo and Homai. He convinced me to install Skype to communicate while they're in India. He will install Skype on Minoo's PC, too, with the hope that they can convert from telephone via SkypeOut to VoiP sans telephone.

Tuesday, we tested it and it's sure neat, circuit clear as possible, even very little feedback from notebook speakers to microphone. Disadvantage being tied to PC microphone/headset but Brian has Bluetooth headset, mainly for his cell, and is installing a hack to his PC Bluetooth access point that will make his headset an audio device and enable him to walk around. For now, unless/until I become more Skype centric, I'll use a microphone on a stalk.

They arrive in India today, 2 PM EST and midnight India time. SAC will be first test.

How easy this is, Fred

Less than 5 minutes to set up.