Car Air Compressor

I've been worried about my car tires being under inflated. About a week ago I stopped by a gas station to fill up my front right tire. I had a terrible time trying to use the machine. Their nozzle was messed up and I couldn't get it to seal. It kept leaking air. It was a total waste of time. I'll never go back to that station. So this weekend I've been investigating 12-volt portable air compressors. I don't want something cheap or junky. I've already got one of those. I'd like something solid and well made. I thought that an auto parts store would be the best place to look. Yesterday I decided to shop for one by stopping at the local Auto Zone. However, I wasn't impressed. So I kept looking. I went to O'Reilly's, Pep Boys, NAPA, even WalMart and another AutoZone. I still didn't find what I wanted, although I saw two possible ones - one at Pep Boys and another at the second Auto Zone. Still I didn't buy one. Arriving back home I went on the internet to search for one. After a few searches I started to get hits on the one I saw at Pep Boys with good reviews, but I found out that it had to be attached directly to the battery. I was looking for one that used the lighter socket. It was then that I found another one from the same vendor that used the lighter socket. I also remembered that Pep Boys had one. So today I went out and got it. It's a Master Flow Cyclone and it was on sale too.
Photo courtesy of amazon.comSo when I got home I checked and inflated all my tires and Matthew's car's too [he was here for Mother's Day dinner]. Wouldn't you know that my tires weren't that low, but now I've got a great little relatively-quiet pumper. Woohoo. Hey this is my life and this is what makes me tick - it's the little things.

Robofest 2008

I spent the better part of the day volunteering at the local Robofest 2008 competition at the Hill Country Middle School. I was the scorekeeper as I had last year. Again it was great to see the students competing. I am always impressed with their creativity.

Lego re-kitting is done

I have finished re-kitting all the old Lego kits. Yup all the kits that I'm going to re-kit have been checked and double checked. Here is what I did (I'm probably repeating myself from an earlier post). I sorted the kit's parts from the mass of miscellaneous parts. I printed out each kit's instruction and inventories from Peeron.com, and put each in a separate binder. I ordered any missing parts from BrickLink.com. I built each kits following the instructions to check if I had everything. After assembly I broke the kit down, again inventoried it and ordered any missing parts. When the parts arrived I put them in the correct kit which I put in a box with its binder with the other kits.

Here are a few pictures of the last few kits:8820 Mountain Rambler
8054 Universal Building Set
7720 Battery Train Set


This all started because of this last kit and a few others which I remembered we had purchased over twenty years ago. Then as I sorted and inventoried the parts I kept finding other unique parts which caused me to re-kit even more kits. The Train was the inspiration and it was also the last kit I re-kitted. Finally a month or so ago I stopped searching the mass of parts to figure out what kits to re-kit. I thought it was fitting that the Train was the last kit that I re-kitted and the last kit I verified by building it. Best wishes ol' Legos and especially best wishes ol' Train. I don't know what I'll be doing with you, but whatever happens to you now you are all organized in plastic bags. Ready anytime for someone to again have the enjoyment of putting you together and making you move and go.

Robofest 2008 Game "RoboSavers" Randomizer

I wrote a program to help at the local 2008 Robofest Game "RoboSavers" which is a Randomizer program to setup the play area. You can ask it to randomize for either the junior division (balls stay on the line) or senior division (balls up to 6" from the line). I plan on volunteering in about a month as the scorekeeper.


Update: Randomizer V2

I have to do this

I am being spammed by my daughter because I haven't updated this blog in forever, but she doesn't realize that my focus for the past two months has been preparing and running the AT&T Austin Marathon last weekend which I've blogged about constantly at Watt's Running

Past Year 2007

Here is my summary of my blogging over the past year. Two themes that happen day-to-day without any specific posts are my work and my running.

• January - Quiet house so I need to find things to do. Hmmm, what to do, what to do...
  
• February - Repaired hot-water heater and house fence w/ Matthew, and completed my 5th marathon.
  
• March - Had colonoscopy and volunteered at Robofest tournament.
  
• April - Got PS3 and monitor at work which was a nice improvement.
  
• May - Found that PS3 game Resistance: The Fall of Man was a bore for me. Hmmm, am I too old for this?
  
• June - My father's birthday party in Buffalo with my family staying at a great Bed and Breakfast in East Aurora was wonderful. A true highlight.
  
• July - nothing much to report, stopped blogging for a while.
  
• August - ditto
  
• September - Started sorting Lego blocks back into kits, also starting building life-size rubberband car for Austin Maker Faire. Started running class for February 2008 marathon.
  
• October - Showed rubberband car at Austin Maker Faire w/ Annelle and Mike. Another true highlight.
  
• November - Continued sorting Lego blocks back into kits.
  
• December - On a month long vacation, helped Matthew clean, paint, and improve his new home, finished sorting Lego blocks back into kits, volunteered at First Lego League (FLL) tournament, had Christmas fun with family and friends. My final true highlight.

Bottom line is that I feel that I'm a person who does very little over an entire year's timeframe - or I just don't post about it. I think the latter is more true.

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

So far Stephanie and Justin have flown away. Beth and Matthew have driven home. Marylib flew out today. All we have left is Katie who flies out next Saturday. Then it will be back down to the two of us - the nuclear couple. The house is getting quieter and quieter.