February Snow

We didn't get anything close to the blizzards that hit the East Coast, but it was still a pretty respectable dump of cold white stuff. It's been a mild winter, for the most part. I only had to use my one year old snowblower four times this season. This is the path that leads up to the front door.  I'd say about 20cm of snow.

A before/after sequence of the pathway around the side of the house and to the back door. It's not really neccessary to clear this, but I wanted to check out the roof line after the heavy snow. If the outermost patch of snow on the roof melts and refreezes, it forms an "ice dam" which stops any more snow-melt from running off. This water can seep under the roof top and make a wading pool in the attic. Definitely a no-no.  Icicles (like below) are fine though. :-)

Happy (Chinese) New Year!

Last year, I forgot to take a photo of the spread we had for the traditional New Year's Eve steamboat dinner until after the dinner was nearly over.

With reminders from both Jia Nin and Lee Kiang, I managed to not let hunger get the better of me and let Jia Nin shoot a few photos first. (Larger version with ingredients list here)

Happy New Year!  Let the Tiger roar!

End-of-Year-Holiday Projects

Happy New Year!
        Usually, the week between the Christmas and New Year holidays is for pigging out and sleeping in.  But there's only so much eating and sleeping one can do.  Yah, I know. Can't believe what I'm typing either.
        As warm-up, I installed a small desk for Jia Nin in the master bedroom (check out the pictures on her flikr site) late November.  The standard tables that they sell in stores were too big for her purposes and we wanted something off the floor.  We found a really nice cabinet door in Ikea's as-is section for $5 and a pair of shelving support brackets at the local home-improvement store. 
Project 1: Swift 
        Jia Nin does alot of knitting.  One of the things to do is to wind yarn from a loop into a tight ball.  Something about not stretching the yarn until just before it's needed.  So instead of buying a "swift" online for over a hundred dollars, I figured that this is the perfect excuse to make her happy while letting me buy lots of tools at the same time.
        The cost of raw materials (wood, nuts and bolts, etc) is about $35.  Buying the tools... is a one time thing that'll spread itself among future projects.  Setting up a basement workshop will be a post for later in the year.  Total time spent was around 20 hours.  Finished product wasn't too bad.  I may do a bit of rounding-off of the corners.

Project 2: Add lighting for the living room 
        Actually, the lighting was added in November.  A few pieces of Ikea's Ribba picture ledge and Grundtal halogen spot lights added soft illumination for the living room.  Perfect for watching movies, playing Nintendo Wii, etc.
        However, we didn't want the lighting wires hanging  down the wall, and especially not in ugly plastic channels.  So the solution was to run the wires in the wall.  U.S. homes are framed in wood supports and then clad in drywall (a kind of plaster panel).  After drilling a few small holes to check what's behind the drywall, figuring out which circuit breaker shuts off electricity to the living room, and buying the parts, time to get it done.

        Replaced the single switches in the original living room switch panel (above left) with doubles (above right).  
        Ran wires behind the walls up to where the lights are, terminating in a power socket (left).  Each socket is controlled by a switch which gives me the option of adding more lighting in the future.
        Finally, screw all the parts in place with the covers and we're left with the cleanup.
        Time elapsed: 4 hours.

(Note: using a flashlight to for the photos because the breakers are still off, and phone's camera's flash is really weak.)

Golden Leaves of Fall

With the more abrupt change from summer to fall this year, the trees are showing more varied, and prettier colors.  My usual drive to and from work has been nicely scenic.  On the left is one of the trees in front of the house.  Gold, red, purple, brown, and yes, some trees are still green.

The temperature has fallen low enough that I have to wear my warmer coats on cloudy days.  Time to get used to the cold again.

I'm enjoying the scenery while it lasts.  At this point, all it takes is a strong rain shower and there goes the leaves.

Food Photo

Not a good photo, but enough to make me want to go back. ;-)

2009 Movies

Now that the summer blockbusters are done, time to do a movie roundup for 2009. I'll probably need to do another roundup for the later-in-the-year movies. They tend to be horror or serious drama though, which doesn't appeal to me as much. Favorites are: Star Trek This "reboot" of the Star Trek franchise is superb! Strong storyline, cast, effects. It manages to avoid the usual time-travel cliches that make sci-fi movies such a drag. Leonard Nimoy is, as usual, a treat as old-Spock and all the new guys stepped into their roles admirably. The update to the Enterprise is excellent. It keeps all the classic lines. As with most sci-fi movies, I did have to turn off part of my brain that cringed from the science, but definitely a most enjoyable movie. Angels and Demons Another well-executed adaptation of Dan Brown's novel. Luckily, I read the book years ago and the plot was only vaguely remembered. The Vatican is a grand setting and they managed to keep the suspense up for most of the movie. GI Joe - Rise of Cobra Good solid action movie. The transfer from comic to big screen was done well, though the "accelerator suits" were an obvious attempt to up the special effects quota to attract Transformers/Halo/etc enthusiasts. Watchmen I only vaguely recalled the original comic mini-series plotline when I watched this movie. That turned out to be a good thing since I didn't have too many expectations to shatter. The pace could have been faster, but it has a good balance of action and exploration of cold-war themes. Up Another great Pixar product. A bit on the kiddy side for me but still quite entertaining. I never was a fan of the prehistoric-lost-world type of setting, so maybe that's why it doesn't score that high for me. And then there are those that fall a tad (or more) short: Monster vs. Aliens Very entertaining movie. Again very kiddy, but quite fun to watch. Underworld - Rise of the Lycans Good addition to the Underworld franchise, but as a prequel, it suffers from the usual "I know what is going to happen already". Push The problem with trying to use precognition (predicting the future) is the ease with which to make it different for the good guys and the bad guys. The good guys should suffer from the same plot detriments of "if I change the present, the future changes". Not a bad movie, but could have been better. Gamer Another movie that could have been much better, though it is still good. I can really imagine the technology in-use and abused in the way described if it becomes available. However, other than that one tid-bit, the plot was average with elements similar to all sorts of one-man-against-the-world/government/corporation/evil-dude. District 9 I liked the plot, special effects and ending of this movie. But the main human character was just such a wimp for most of the movie that I couldn't stand watching him. Night at the Museum 2 Fun but not very exciting. For most of the movie, it seem like someone flipped through a few history books and decided to add historical figures to the story without integrating them. Fast and Furious 4 Yawn. What is this, a video game? Oh yah. It is. Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen Oh bad. Very bad. So very very bad. Explosions galore but suffers even more than the first movie from the glaring plot holes, inconsistencies, lack of character development (yes, the robots are characters and not props!). Finally, the "need to watch, but don't feel like it right now" list. Most of these are from series where I have had disappointing experiences: Terminator 4 X-Men Origins - Wolverine Land of the Lost Harry Potter 6 - Half Blood Prince All in all, a pretty good year of movies.