Pillar project, phase 1

Pictures are up for the first phase of the pillar project here.

The plan has evolved slightly since my initial idea. I changed the layout of the PVC skeleton to save a bit on money and add some structural support in the middle of the frame. I've decided to put the skulls on top of the pillars rather than split them and set them into the face of the pillars. This should save me some headaches later. I've also decided to install a light, preferably black light, somewhere in the pillar to react with the glow-in-the-dark skulls which should be a neat effect at night.

I feel pretty good about the progress so far. I built the basic frames of 5 pillars in one night. I'm in the process of gluing the foam on the frames now. That is not going as well as I had hoped however. Liquid nails doesn't seem to be doing the job, but if I get something stronger it will melt the foam. Jeff Fields gave me a good suggestion to use duct tape on the PVC and then glue the foam to the duct tape. I've got the pillars drying today and I'll check back tonight and see if I have to take more drastic measures.

I'll need to go to the hardware store again tonight and look for lighting supplies for the skull toppers.

Halloween preparations

I have a bunch of new projects to keep me busy from now until Halloween. I'll track my progress here and upload pictures to my flickr account.

This year I'm going to expand my graveyard fence by adding fake stone pillars to place between each section. I've seen various plans online that I will borrow ideas from. The basic skeleton will be plywood and PVC piping, covered in pink insulation foam, painted and carved. I have some translucent skulls that I can cut in half and mount on the pillars for light to shine through.

My most ambitious project to date will be a pneumatic coffin effect. I'm taking my plywood coffin from last year and upgrading it. I ordered a pneumatic kit and some other electronic toys online and will borrow or buy an air compressor. I've added hinges to the coffin and when I get the kit I'll install it. Combined with a pressure trigger, the air compressor, and an effects control box I'll have a professional looking haunt this year. I'm excited.

Next I'll use the air compressor along with a glue gun to make a cobweb shooter for the yard and possibly the garage.

Lastly, I have to find a configuration of monitors, TVs, and speakers that will work for the "Rock Band" stage.

So much to do.

Halloween Party is Back

The Halloween party is back from vacation and scheduled for Saturday Oct. 31st. My plan is to have "Rock Band" set up in the garage for folks to play with instead of having a live band. I need to either rent a system, borrow one, or go buy a Wii, but I'll figure it out. I'm going to try to keep it small this time around, but the invitation list is already pretty big.

To Florence and Back

I rode my bike to Florence and back over the weekend with Kat's dad, Gary. The total mileage was about 136 miles in two days. This is something I've been wanting to accomplish for about a year since the last time Kat and I drove out to the coast. It's hard to believe that I actually did it. Gary was a big catalyst for getting it done, with his infectious enthusiasm, experience, and detailed planning.

My biggest concern with the trip was having the stamina and endurance to do the trip one day and then turn around the next day and do it again. We started doing shorter rides over the months leading up to this one. We did 30, 40, and 50 mile rides in preparation. Saturday we rode 62 miles there and then Sunday we did 74 miles back. It was intense, but I survived with minimal injury. My knees and ass are still a bit sore, but not as bad as some of the previous rides.

We had a great time together, chatting during the ride, talking to random locals in the small towns we passed through, and wandering around old town Florence. I'd love to do something like that again, but not right away. I'll need some time to rest up.

Comcastic Rate Hikes

Looks like Comcast is at it again. It seems like only yesterday that they raised their rates for high speed cable internet $2 and now their going to raise their rental fees as well. Read more here.

I'm glad I decided to purchase my own D-Link router and modem a couple months ago, so I won't be feeling the sting this time. I just hope they don't change their service so much that I'll need to "upgrade" again.

Crazy Lady Sez...

Had a weird experience this morning I had to share. There's this crazy lady that comes into our office building sometimes and wanders around. I don't know if she talks to the lawyers or the property managers or what, but she always looks pissed off at someone. She wears several layers of clothes: a puffy jacket over a dress over some jeans with a baseball cap. She has stringy white hair and big thick glasses. I see her around town sometimes, yelling at people and writing their names down in a book and threatening to sue them. Well I was just finishing up my breakfast at the 'Wich House downtown and getting on my bike to ride into work when she passed by and said "You should get a job". I was stunned for a minute and called back to her in a puzzled voice "I'm going to my job right now" to which she simply retorted without missing a beat "You should go earlier". I just laughed. She had a point.

Still, I wonder what it was about my appearance that made me a target for her scorn. My hair is getting a little long, but the quality of my biking gear should have been a tip off that I'm not exactly destitute. I was tempted to get into a deeper discussion about how long I've had a job, that I own my house, how much I make a year and that I'm not a damn dirty hippie, but I came to my senses and realized that this woman was a lost cause. My ego is not so fragile that I needed to defend it against her meager attacks. Instead I choose to share her wise advice to all "You should get a job, and if you have one go earlier".

Cheers

2008 wrap-up

There isn't a good way to start one of these year-end letters so I'm just going to jump right in. I apologize for not staying in touch with everyone. I tend to forget about the rest of the world when I get wrapped up in my daily routine and then suddenly another year has gone by without a single word leaving my own fortress of solitude. 2008 was no different and came and went in a flash for me, but I'll try to summarize the highlights. In general you can peek in on recent events on my flickr photostream here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/deviouspics

January - February 2008: Kat took me to see her childhood stomping grounds (Bend, OR) while there was still snow on the ground. We stomped around town and then in snowshoes on Mt. Bachelor. We had a couple snow days in Eugene during February and we got outside to play in it a little bit. Kat and I always enjoy playing hooky together. At some point during this time we upgraded our old CRT to a new 42” Plasma TV. It's really the only way to go for playing old-school console video games on. Oh, and lesson learned: don't put the TV on the same circuit as your dimmer switch for the outside lights, the buzzing can be quite maddening.

March - April 2008: Kat and I headed up to Washington to see everyone for Easter. It was great seeing everyone out at Grapeview before we had to run and catch the last ferry over to Seattle. We had a great time just exploring the city and getting more familiar with it for the next couple days. We did a fun little underground tour, laughed at some silly roadsigns, and ate some really amazing food. After we got home it was almost time for the kitties' 4th birthday. Kat planned and threw a fantastic sushi party for Gryphon & Phoenix and our friends, which went over very well. In April my folks took us to see “Sweeny Todd” in Portland which was the first time I had seen it on stage. It was very impressive. Also in April, Kat and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary together and I turned 32. I have to say, being in my 30s has turned out to be very excellent.

May - June 2008: Not satisfied with just replacing all the ceilings, floors, outlets, light-fixtures, and wall colors in the house the year before I decided to take on another home improvement project. I upgraded my hot water heater to a solar assisted water heater system, complete with two large collector panels on the roof of the garage. After tax rebates I plan to get back this year the system will have run me about $4K. Over the last 6-months I've seen a consistent 33% savings on my electric bill. I'm pretty happy about it. We went down to see “The further adventures of Hedda Gabbler” in Ashland and spent some time with Kat's folks, and then again later in Bandon, Oregon, they took us to pet the really big kitties as a gift to Kat. In June Eugene became a sports mecca as the Olympic trials were held at Hayward field.

July - August 2008: Our friends from board-game night started a cover band called “Rockness Monster” which eventually morphed into the original band “Half-shark Half-Jesus”. By this time HSHJ was doing very well and getting gigs in town. They've continued to play very well and add to their playlist and add venues to their gig list. We've been loyal groupies all this year. During the Summer Chris, Toni & the kids came back to Oregon for a long visit and they finally got a chance to come down to Eugene and check out all the work we put into the house. We only got out camping once last year, which is a shame because we generally have a great time doing it with friends. We did get out hiking a few times, including a hike at Silver Falls where we had a very frank but hypothetical discussion about getting engaged. Kat's 10 year high-school reunion was in Bend so we headed back down there again. I enjoyed being a tag-along and chatted up the other non-Bendite significant others while Kat caught up with her old schoolmates. A good friend of ours, Austin, had moved away to Portland during this time so a bunch of us went up for a visit and called it “Austinpalooza”. Once again my folks were kind enough to send Kat and I to see “Phantom” in Portland the next weekend. We'd both seen it before, but it's always good to see again. I finished up the Summer by taking the train up to Seattle with my old buddy Sunny and spending the weekend at a geek-fest called “Penny Arcade Expo”. It was great, but we were both exhausted by the time the train got back to Eugene on Sunday.

September - October 2008: Kat and I started making plans and saving money to go to Mexico in October instead of spending all that time and money on another huge Halloween party. That didn't stop us from splurging and buying a new mattress together though. We also started shopping for swimsuits. Lesson learned: retail stores don't carry many swimsuits in the “off-season”. Apparently people don't swim in the Fall. We also started sun-tanning in preparation for our trip. I got a bad burn from the beds the second time we went. They don't give refunds. I felt like Tim Allen from “Christmas with the Kranks”. Kat's sister, Molly, came to town for a visit over her birthday during this time. She also turned 32 last year. Then it was time to go to Mexico. We flew to Cancun and then were bussed to our four star resort on the Mayan Riviera. It was the wet season there, but that didn't stop us, we just glad it was warm rain. The musty smell of our rooms reminded my faintly of my time in India. We were very busy while we were there and had an outing planned for just about every day. I found a decent time during one of the day-trips to get down on one knee to fetch a mood ring cleverly stored in a locker and ask Kat to marry me. She was pleasantly surprised and said “yes” before she could come up with a clever retort. When we got back it was time to make our costumes for Halloween. Kat had been working on her Link from the Zelda games costume for about a year now and it was finally complete. I learned to sew in a few days and made myself a Cardboard Tube Samurai costume, which confused just about everyone who had not gone to PAX with me. We got dressed up and went to a HSHJ show and enjoyed the efforts of others and attended their parties.

November - December 2008: Kat and I celebrated our engagement with friends by shooting each other with laser guns at the local pizza and laser-tag joint. Then we excitedly watched the election with friends the next night. Kat's folks rented a place for us in Yachats, Oregon, so we went out there for a nice romantic weekend. The next weekend we celebrated Kat's 29th birthday by invited friends over and playing party games on our N64. Then it was time to get ready for turkey-day. I'd invited both Kat's folks and my own to our house this time around. We had a nice visit with everyone and ate a ton of food. Kat's friends Kara & Aaron visited us briefly that next weekend. In December, Kat finished up her school preparations and had her last day working for Planned Parenthood. She got to have almost an entire month of break before the beginning of her Masters of Education program at Pacific University here in town. During that time we had a mock holiday party with our game night friends, a week of snow days, and Kat found a real engagement ring that she really liked. Then she was off to Mexico again, this time with her parents and sister to spend the holidays together. Mom & Dad drove down to Eugene to pick me up and take me with them back to South Carolina to visit Chris, Toni & the kids. We had a hard time getting out of Portland with the icy weather and ended up spending an extra night in Houston on the way over. I spent a week with everyone in South Carolina away from the first white Christmas in Oregon for years. I was glad to get back to Eugene and see Kat again before the new year, but I soon fell ill and spent the first week of 2009 with a fever.

That pretty much gets us caught up to today. I hope you all had a great 2008 and here's hoping I get to catch up with you in person before another year goes by.

Cheers,
Jeff, Kat, Gryphon & Phoenix

We're Engaged!

Kat and I are finally engaged. I proposed during our Mexican vacation (details to follow soon) and she accepted. I gave her a placeholder ring until we go shopping for permanent rings after the holiday season is over.

Kat is an amazing, funny, sexy, beautiful, smart, and wonderful woman. I love her immensely. She is so very good to me and lets me know all the time how much she loves me in return. The last two and a half years with Kat have been very healthy and deeply satisfying. I couldn't imagine a better partner to spend the rest of my life with.

We are both looking forward to getting married someday, but not any time soon. I'm thinking it will be some time after she's finished grad school and found a job she likes and we're otherwise not distracted with other grand plans. For now we're both very happy to be where we are in our relationship, and everyone we've told seems very happy for us as well. My heartfelt thanks goes out to everyone who loves us and has given us support.

Halloween Party 2008 - Hiatus

I'm not going to throw a Halloween party this year. I've lived in Eugene, off-campus for 12 years now and I've only skipped the party one of those years. My elbow was broken and in a sling in 2003 and I didn't feel very up to it then. This year Kat and I will be spending a good chunk of October in Mexico and I probably won't feel like doing much when I get back. My garage is full of unused furniture, building materials, bikes, and other junk that I haven't gotten around to dealing with since we remodeled in November of 2007. I don't plan on having that figured out in time for October 31st. I'd much prefer to attend other parties this year. Lastly, we did a lot of remodeling in November and December 2007 and the house looks really good for once. I don't want to have another party like last year, I can't afford to do the same cleanup/repairs. If I bring it back in 2009 I'll probably try to keep the guest list manageable.

Halloween Party Round-up

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