Chilly!

It's really feeling like fall, and getting harder to go outside and stay active. Kristen and I had a very slow weekend. We went out on Friday night to see "ZombieLand", which I enjoyed very much. I think I even heard Kristen snickering a few times, so it wasn't a complete waste for her.

I worked a bit on Saturday, Kristen spent some time getting her hair worked on. We met up afterward on the mall for a late lunch. Sunday was laid back as well. We met up with our friend Tracy who was back in town after a summer adventuring in Alaska. She had a lot of stories to tell, and seemed to have fun on her trip.

At some point during the weekend I updated the tree house blog with a few details on the solar setup I'm putting together for the tree house. I'm not planning on taking it to the farm until December, but have been working on it pretty steady for a while. I've certainly thought of some of Jim Covert's charging systems up in Canada while building the control panel.

At one point while trying to attach a ring terminal, I realized I was going to have problems accessing the screw. I thought to myself "I wonder what ever happened to that 90 degree ratcheting screw driver that Aunt Linda gave me for Christmas when I was 9 or 10?" I distinctly remembered it. I always thought it was a cool tool, but could never find many excuses to use it. I looked up from my work bench, and there it was sitting on a shelf with a good layer of dust on it! I was pretty amazed, I remembered that thing sliding around some of my old childhood toolboxes for years. Somehow I'd manage to not lose it over 20 years, and it ended up at just the right place at just the right time. I dusted it off and screwed the ring terminal in with it.

With only two weeks left before we head to the farm, I've been reading up on tree houses. We've joked around in the past about putting a zip line from the hill side to the tree house. I found this video on You Tube that includes a pretty cool zip line into a tree house:




We "officially" finished the first phase of our first project on Friday. Realistically we still have a lot of bugs to find and fix, and a lot more testing to do before the thing goes out the door to be used. But, it was a nice relief to pass the final milestone nonetheless. We're looking to hire 2 or 3 more engineers shortly, as we have three more major projects waiting for us to start on them. Unfortunately it doesn't look like we'll get much of a break before we start on the next one.

Rockies Game

Saturday afternoon Kristen and I headed down to Denver to catch a Rockies game with Katie and Jordan. Luckily the weather has been nice for the last several days, and carried through the game and the rest of the weekend. We had a fun night out, even though the Rockies lost and Katie was sitting next to some passionate Cardinals fans.


We stayed out late (at least for us) that night. Katie and Jordan left early the next morning for Grand Junction. I'm proud to say that after 15 years in the Boulder area, I finally was able to drive to downtown Denver, find the hotel, then make it back to Boulder without a map or asking for directions. In another 10 years I might even be able to determine which direction is West without the help of the mountains.

Kristen and I went for a long run on Sunday. I made 11 miles, Kristen ran 10. Even though we took things pretty slow, we both were hurting pretty badly afterward. We spent the rest of Sunday re-hydrating and sleeping off the pain. We did make it into town for a low key dinner. I had some excellent crispy trout tacos. Way outside of what I'd normally order, but the post run hunger gave me the opportunity to try something new.

We learned last week at work that the entire Wabtec crew at the old office was laid off. Apparently they joked around a bit that the big boss was coming into town to fire them all, and then it actually happened. Maybe years later they will see the humor in that.

Work-free weekend

Finally a weekend without work.

I received an e-mail from Mom on Friday saying Dad was in town for a fraternity reunion, and would drop by on Saturday. Unfortunately several factors worked against us, and we never met up. It sounds like he was one door off. Oh well, next time we'll make it work.

Kristen and I spent a good part of the day in town. A big CU game was going on, making town a little crazier than usual. We stopped by my office, an electronics store, and ended up on Pearl Street for lunch. Kristen had a hair appointment that afternoon, I lazed around the mall and people watched while she got her hair cut. The football game made for some interesting touristy types.

Sunday involved a good 5 mile run around the reservoir. Colder weather is moving in, which made the run a bit windier than usual. We thought we started late enough to avoid the Boulder Marathon race, but we passed a few stragglers on the course. We guessed that they'd been on the course for 7+ hours, and looked like they were in some pain.

I worked on some of the tree house solar stuff, starting the "control panel" for the battery and charging system. I put as many switches on there as I could think up excuses for. What started as a fun project to use up a lot of spare robot-related parts in the garage has kind of spiraled out of control. I still need to box everything in, wire it up, and mount the charge controller internally. I'm having fun puttering around in the garage during the process.


Kristen started a new knitting project. She'd recently finished up her baby shower gift for Becky. Zack seemed to really like it, and thought that perhaps it was a blanket for him.


Less than a month to go before we're at the tree house installing the stove pipe/chimney for the Jotul. We're both looking forward to the trip, and are counting the days.

More slow posting

Not only did I let 3 weeks slip by without posting, I suspect there will be more of the same in the immediate future. We continue to near our deadline at work, working on the weekends is starting to feel pretty normal.

3 week ends ago I headed to Casper to meet up with the guys for our annual camping trip. Nate and I showed up a day later then Vince, Brent and Tony due to Nate just having his baby. By the time we showed up on Friday night everyone was already asleep. We managed to rouse Tony and Brent, we didn't see Vince until the next morning.

We stayed a little more reserved than usual, but still managed to have a lot of fun. It was our 8th or 9th consecutive year camping out together and telling the exact same stories. We did manage to locate a cave Nate had read about on the internet, so that was something new and exciting. It only went back 50 feet or so, but was still pretty cool.

Meanwhile Kristen headed to Nederland to experience Ned-Fest with her sister Allison and cousin Cassie. Unfortunately the weather was a bit cool, which curbed the attendance. It was also a little more granola-y than expected, they expected Phish to show up at any moment and start performing.

The next weekend was Labor Day weekend. We headed over to a barbecue at a friends house, and participated in a horseshoe tournament. Luckily I had three days of practice under my belt, which helped net us second place. I headed into work Sunday and Monday, Kristen got in an 11 mile run.

This weekend involved half a day of work on Saturday, which was followed up by going out for a few beers afterward. I'm seeing so much of my co-workers that it's amazing we're still getting along well. We'll see how the next month works out!

Sunday we got up early and headed to Nederland in order to run in the Neder-Nederland series of races. Kristen and Sharon ran in the 5k race, Morrissey and I ran in the 13k race. I hadn't looked at the map, and didn't realize what I was getting myself into by choosing the longer run. Instead of just tacking on a little addition at the end of the 10k course, we veered off of the normal route almost immediately and headed up the steep road to Eldora ski area. We climbed 1,000 feet in about 3.5 miles, and it was hell. I ended doing a fair amount of walking on the way up, but did really enjoy the downhill on the way back.

Afterward we limped over to Kristen's mothers place to meet up with her uncle Steve who was in town. Her aunt Penny is recovering from chemo, so there have been a lot of family visitors, with more to come. We ate some good barbecue chicken and beens, listened to uncle Steve's stories, then headed home.

Running Behind

Another two weeks have slipped by! I've undoubtedly forgotten all the exciting things, and will only be able to recount the drab boring bits.

A few weeks ago a few friends met us down on Pearl Street for the Pearl Street Mile race. I was yet again a few seconds slower than I was the year before. This seems to be a troubling trend. A friend sprinted by me in the last 100 feet or so with a big smile on his face. Damn you Josh!

Two weekends ago I managed to stay away from the office for the entire weekend. We visited Kristen's Aunt Penny and Uncle Russ and assorted other family members one afternoon. Kids were running everywhere, all hopped up on sugar. All the adults behaved themselves to a large degree.


There was a lot of napping and relaxing for the remainder of the weekend. Things continue to be cool here, it's really starting to feel like fall.

Kristen and I have been running quite a bit more recently. The half marathon isn't too far away, and we want to be ready for that. We survived a two hour run this last Sunday, and didn't feel too bad afterward.

I managed to make it in for half a day on Saturday and got a lot done. We're only a few weeks away from the completion of the first phase of our project. We've spent about a year on it, so we're hoping it will be well received.

The rest of the weekend was relaxing as well. Kristen made a wonderful Eggplant Parmesan, although something went horribly wrong with the salt. I still gorged myself on it.

I've been spending a lot of spare time finishing up a simple game I've written for a hand-held device. I crossed a few hurdles a week or two ago, and it's been hard to stay away from it since then. I'm sure Kristen is eager for me to lose interest in it soon.

Canceled Camping

The original plan was to go on the annual camping trip last weekend with the college friends. However, we were all a bit burnt out from being at the wedding a few weeks ago, and then being at the Bachelor party a month or two earlier. That, along with the fact that Nate wouldn't be able to make it caused us to push the trip back to the end of this month.

Nate and Mary had their baby on Saturday. Violet Marie Murra finally showed her face to the world. Everything went smoothly, and she seems just as concerned as her sister Karissa did when she was born.


Kristen and I took it easy on Saturday. We did go into town to check out the farmer's market and to grab some lunch. Things were as crazy as always at the market, maybe a little too crazy to really make the experience enjoyable. We walked around the mall a bit, taking in the sights.

Sunday was another day of work for me, Kristen did some running and gardening. We've both picked up the running a bit, trying to prepare for a longer race. We're looking at running the Louisville Half-Marathon in mid October. That should be a good excuse to make it back to the farm, get the stove pipe installed in the tree house, and go on a run while we're there.

I've started collecting parts for a simple solar power system for the tree house. We're planning on driving to the farm for Christmas, I hope to have a system ready to haul down there. I'll start simply, and just use it to power a reading light and maybe a light for over the kitchen area. It's fun stuff to read up on!

Work work work

Not much to report from the weekend. The weather was warmer, but still below average. Last year at this point we had had 25 days that hit 95 degrees, this year we've only had 5.

I worked both Saturday and Sunday, Kristen headed off to Grand Junction for a Bachelorette party. Apparently what happens in Junction stays in Junction, I haven't heard many repeatable stories about that trip. I managed to catch up on a bunch of work, so I'm breathing a bit easier about our various deadlines.