Here's some stats on my weight:
1 – 6 Jan = 248lbs (single measurement)
7 – 13 Jan = 241.75lbs (avg over 4 measurements)
14 – 20 Jan = 240.8lbs (avg over 5 measurements)
So, the trend is down. My goal is 220lbs by June 1.
Weight — 15 Jan 2007
I currently weigh 243. In the next 4 months, I need to drop 20-25 lbs. This is safe (it works out to a tad over 1 lb per week). As an incentive to me, I plan to post my weekly average weights here.
Thanks for listening.
First Bike Ride of 2007
Well, I rode my bike to work for the first time in 2007 this morning. I couldn't find my bike computer so I can't post stats; however, I felt as if I hadn't been on the bike in 3 months (and I hadn't…I hadn't ridden since The Missions Century in October!). Although I don't like the weather currently (it is supposed to be 65-70 today), it sure does help the riding!
Sandisk Sansa mp3 Player
For Christmas, I recevied a SanDisk Sansa e270 (I specifically got the e270r which has a little different firmware and it only available at Best Buy as it is configured to work with the Best Buy/Rhaposdy music service. Which, by the way, I received a 2 month trial to). I hadn't done any research, but I knew I didn't want a ipod (I had several reasons for this…the biggest was that Apple is too big andhas too much of an attitude). I didn't know it, but the Sansa is the #2 mp3 player on the market (right behind the ipod). It's biggest plus is a 20 hour capacity user replaceable battery!
It has taken me a while to figure some things out (like how I can subscrbe to podcasts, have them downloaded, and transferred to the player automatically). At this point, I have an ok solution and I thought I would write about it so it was available to everyone else. First though, I'll talk about some thing that didn't work.
Best Buy Music Store: As I mentioned above, the e270r came with a 2 month trial to the Best Buy Music Store (you pay $15/month and can download all the music you want to your player). This was my first stop. I signed up and started downloading. It was nice…I could search for music I didn't have CDs for, download it, and listen. I could also import my mp3s and transfer them to my player. I could make play lists, etc…. The only drawbacks were: the music you download is DRM tied to the player and service…once you quit paying the music stops working, there is no way to build non-music store playlists automatically (like for a podcast), and there is no way to subscribe to podcasts.
ITunes: I thought this would only sync if I had an ipod, but I thought I would give it a shot. I could downlad podcasts easily enough, but it wouldn't sync to my player. I found an add-on called idleTunes that claims it would Sync my ITunes playlists to other players. ITunes downloaded the podcasts good enough; however, I had no way to get the music onto my player. idleTunes helped, but it wouldn't create playlists in the playlists menu of my player (this means I was limited to the Sansa relying on id3 tags which don't always exist in podcast files). It also wasn't automatic. I had to manually tell idleTunes to copy the playlists.
Media Monkey: This app was highly rated on theanythingbutipod forums. I downloaded it, but didn't get very far. In the 5 minutes I spent playing with it, I couldn't get it to work. Therefore, I decided not to use it (I expect to get programs up and working fairly fast).
saCaster: I was searching UseNet and found reference to saCaster. I never even installed this because it wasn't free software (free in any sense…free pizza or free speech). Sure, there was a "shareware" version, but it was only a 15 day trial. I knew there had to be free alternatives out there, so I kept looking.
Windows Media Player: When put into PlaysForSure mode, WMP would recognize the player and sync files. I could also get playlists on my sansa (although, I have to sync twice for some reason). The only problem was WMP is a Microsoft app (I don't like Microsoft). It also doesn't have podcast support (if it did, I would probably be ok with this). It would autosync to my player. You can set up auto playlists, but you can only do that based on metadata in the file…you can't say "pull all the files from this directory." That is an aggrivation as some/most podcasts don't have id3 information filled out correctly.
Juice/iPodder: Juice (formerly iPodder…they changed names after a fight with Apple). This app provided a nice way to sbscribe to podcasts and will autodownload them. It's also free software (free as in pizza and free as in speech. It's distributed under the GPL) But, sigh, there is no way to coy the files to my Sansa. Even if it did, I doubt it would generate playlists.
After trying that, I was out of ideas. It had been 2 weeks since Christmas and I wasn't real happy with what I had figured out so far. Something shouldn't be this hard. Well, after trying Juice, I opened WMP up, and noticed playlists for the podcasts I had subscribed to. Interesting. So, I added a few new podcasts to Juice, synched them, opened WMP and they showed up. Once I set them up to sync, everything ended up on my ipod corectly.
So, where I am right now…I have Juice downloading my podcasts. WMP is set up to monitor that directory for new items to add to my library. Juice manages the playlists for me (when it downloads new stuff, it updates a WMP playlist). I can then sync things over to my sansa. I'll give this a few weeks then I'll update again after spending some additional time with this setup.
[Update 6 Jan 2007] Well, it turns out that my WMP playlists aren't being updated when Juice downloads new files. I don't know what the problem is, but I am looking into it. When I find out the problem, I'll post it here (with hopefully a fix too)
[Update 7 Jan 2007] I used sysinternals filemon tool to see what Juice was doing. It was checking some database in the WMP folder. This got me to wonder if it was checking to see if WMP knew of the files or not before adding them to my playlist. So, I fiddled with some settings in WMP and had it NOT monitor the folders where I download my podcasts to. For the time being, that makes a difference.
[Update 27 Jan 2007] Refer to this post for a script I wrote that solved my Juice podcast and playlist problems.
Solid Foods for a Baby
This is something I don't get. I thought I would post about it to see what anyone else thinks, and to try and find out what was done in the past (let's learn from the past). Anyway, on to the subject of this post…..
When did you start giving your kids solid foods? How did you do it? What did you start with? Why?
Why am I asking these questions? Well, because Cyndi and I are expecting, I have been doing some reading online and I'm confused. Why? It doesn't make sense. Let's start with this quote from WholesomeBaby Food:
Your baby may be 3 months old or 4 months old when you start to feel she may need "something more" than formula or breastmilk. Maybe she is beginning to awaken more often at night or eat more often than "usual" and you wonder if introducing solid foods may what she needs.
Ok….if the body is acting like it needs something more, doesn't it? Not according to the article. They say you need to wait until 6 months to give solids. But this is where I can't stretch my mind farther. The body isn't "ready" for life in the outside world when the baby is born either…the lungs haven't taken a breath, the stomach hasn't done anything, the eyes haven't seen anything….the list goes on. If you start solids, won't the body adjust? Of course it isn't ready….it hasn't had to adjust yet.
Then, I read this article on Dr. Sears' website where I learn that in "the past" kids started food at 6 weeks. Well, they all didn't die….we have people around today.
Anyway, I just don't get it.
Baby Countdown
I was reading on the internet and decided it would be neat if I could find one of those counter things to put up. I found one I liked….here it is:
License Plate Count — I-95–SC to VA–Dec 27, 2006
Cyndi and I counted license plates while we drove home yesterday. Here are the rules:
- Count the vehicle if it is on the interstate
- A vehicle in the acceleration or deceleration lane counts as on the interstate
- A vehicle on the get on/get off ramp is not on the interstate
- Count the vehicle if it is disabled along side of the interstate
- Count the vehicle if we pass it
- Count the vehicle if it passes us
- Try not to double count vehicles
- Do not count vehicles on another road or in rest areas
I want to do this again next trip we go on. As time goes on, I'm sure the rules will be refined. Below are the results:
| SC | NC | VA | Totals | |
| AK | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| AL | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| CN | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| DC | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| FL | 26 | 22 | 7 | 55 |
| GA | 2 | 4 | 4 | 10 |
| IA | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| IL | 2 | 4 | 1 | 7 |
| KS | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| LA | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| MD | 12 | 17 | 12 | 41 |
| ME | 5 | 5 | 1 | 11 |
| MI | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| MN | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| MS | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| NC | 8 | 75 | 6 | 89 |
| NE | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| NH | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| NJ | 2 | 17 | 2 | 21 |
| NY | 3 | 9 | 3 | 15 |
| OH | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| OK | 2 | 7 | 0 | 9 |
| PA | 7 | 5 | 2 | 14 |
| SC | 26 | 16 | 0 | 42 |
| TN | 4 | 4 | 1 | 9 |
| TX | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| VA | 28 | 26 | 37 | 91 |
| Ontario | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Qubec | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| No Plate | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Can't Tell | 3 | 5 | 2 | 10 |
| Grand Total | 457 |
Bellini Isabella Crib Assembly Notes
For some history, read this post on the Bellini Isabella Crib that Cyndi and I decided to buy. You’ll find out why we chose it over some others.
I assembled the crib this morning. There were soe differences between the instructions and what I saw. I wanted to post those on the internet just in case they may help someone else.
First off, the pictures in the instructions aren’t very clear. They look like a copy of a copy of a copy (like someone at the factory lost the originals several times).
In any of the pictures below, click the image for a larger version. You’ll also be able to download the full size image, if you need a closer look.
Before I started, I couldn’t tell which way was in or out on the head/footboards. The warning label goes on the inside. The inside has the 10 holes. The outside only has 4. Those 4 are near the bottom.
| The first picture wasn’t clear. The proper orientation is with the roller to the “front”. The front is the side you want out. Here is a clearer picture I took. The front in this picture is to the right. |  |
In step 3, when it says leave the bolts loose, it means loose. You’ll see why later on, but if I had to do it over again, I would only give the bolts 5 or so turns once the threads engage. You’ll need the slack when you go to put the sides on. Speaking of the sides, the picture in diagram 2 of the stabalizer bars isn’t clear. It shows what looks like a groove that will hold the dist cover. I didn’t have that, so I guessed on the part. The part you want is the one with the plastic tabs (there are three per “bar”…actually wodden side rails). Below is a picture:
You’ll notice I took this after mounting the mattress. The tabs go on the bottom. This picture is taken from the front left of the crib looking to the back right corner. By the way, the dust cover is the big single sheet. The picture didn’t say what was what. I originally assumed that the big piece would be used for the drawer…. To see the dust cover, click here. To see the two pieces for the drawer, click here.
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In step 4, it talks about using the H screws and G nuts. I didn’t have any bolts and nuts. What I figured out was I was supposed to use the bolts with the wing nuts. Actually, this may be a place to point this out…there were several fasteners that didn’t look as pictured. The picture to the right shows the ones that were different.
On the left is the plastic disc X^2 (X squared). In the middle is the screw X (the picture in the front of the manual shows it more like a bolt). On the right is the screw H with nut G. |
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In step 6/diagram 5, it isn’t clear what goes where. There is a hole missing in the diagram. Bolt Y goes in the very bottom. Screw X and disk X^2 goes in the very top one (it is just a little pilot hole). The middle hole is empty. You’ll only use it in step 10/diagram 11 when you fix one of the sides.
The picture to the right shows all three holes while the one to the left shows the top hole for screw X and disk X^2 and the middle hole to fix the fixed side later on. |
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When you go to put the sides on, pay attention. The reference marks are simple indentations on the side. When I put the dropside on, I had it backwards and didn’t find this out until I tried it out. Instead of pushing the side in to get it down, I had to pull it out.
| When assembling the drawer, the instructions didn’t mention which was the back and which was the front. It was easy to figure out…the dark one goes up front while the light one goes in the back. The top picture is of the back while the one on the bottom is on the front. | 
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In the end, everything was successfull. Here is the completed crib:
[Update 2012-12-26 14:09:02] Edited picture links to use flickr
Breakfast Strata
Recipe for Breakfast Strata
8-10 Servings
1 tbsp butter
12 slices white bread
8 eggs
3 cups milk
1 cup cheddar cheese
salt/pepper to taste
1/2 to 1 lb browned sausage (optional)
Use butter to grease bottom of 9×13 pan
Scrunch bread to line bottom
Mix eggs, milk, salt/pepper and pour into pan
Add cheese and sausage on top
(or mix 1/2 cheese and sausage into egg mixture and use the rest on top)
Refrigerate overnight
Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes
Mount Everest
Over the past few weeks, I got sucked into a show on the Discovery Channel called Everest: Beyond the Limit. Tonight is the last episode. Before it aired, I wondered if I could find anything out on the internet. I started with the Wikipedia article on Everest. That led me to the Discovery Channel page on the show. Then, I came across this article by climbers on Everest. That caused me to look up POISK's website (they make oxygen equipment that looks like the best stuff on the market). I then thought I would look up the Himex site (they are the company that led the Discovery team up the mountain.) They want $42,000 to lead someone up Everest.
Here are a few other neat links I found:
http://houseofhoncho.blogspot.com/2006/12/everest-revisited.html
http://www.nerve.in/news:25350025525
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/everestbeyond/sherpacam/sherpacam.html
http://everytrail.net/blog/alan/2006/05/11_dead_what_is_going_on_with.php
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2006/s1647727.htm
http://theadventureblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/more-climbers-weigh-in-on-david-sharpe.html
http://www.mounteverest.net/news.php?id=10064
http://www.himex.com/c_pub/en/news/2006/reflections_on_everest.php
In the end, read up on the controversy that Discovery filmed (but won't air). I used to think it would be neat to climb everest, but it looks like anyone with enough money can make an ascent now. Yes, you need to be in shape, but the sherpas do all the hard work.
[Update 19 Dec 2006] I looked up the Wikipedia article on Sherpas when I came across the following statement:
Historically, the most famous Sherpa is Tenzing Norgay, who climbed Mount Everest with Edmund Hillary for the first time in 1953.
Two Sherpas, Pemba Dorjie and Lhakpa Gelu, have recently competed as to who can climb Everest quicker. On May 23, 2003 Dorjie summitted in 12 hours and 46 minutes. Three days later Gelu beat his record by two hours, summitting in 10 hours 46 minutes. On May 21, 2004 Dorjie again improved the record by more than two hours with a total time of 8 hours and 10 minutes. This feat may be considered one of the greatest in mountaineering.
On May 19, 2006, Appa Sherpa successfully climbed Mt. Everest for the 16th time, breaking his own record for most successful ascents.