Uncle JASE

Eden Grace Nagle - born 04/24/08
I'm an Uncle!
Congrats Tim & Michelle!

Home grown Fennel

One thing I thought would be interesting to try and grow is fennel. I was surprised at how well it grew in this lousy soil. Here's a picture of me with one of the larger bulbs. The best part is - I leave the stump in the ground after cutting the bulb off and 6 or 8 more fennel bulbs spring up around it. Crazy! I don't have to replant it! Hopefully it will live through the summer - it's quite sensitive to the heat. It grew like mad through the cool winter.

Maddi's checking out the birds from "shotgun position".

Dragon SUV

Some people choose their car as their means of personal expression.
Do you know someone with a Beemer?
Know anyone over 40 with a corvette?
I drive a VW bus by choice.

Some people choose to express themselves on their car as if it were a canvas.
I have seen many painted vehicles out here in the Bay Area. I haven't painted the bus though. The lime green paint job was done too well and it hasn't started rusting.

I spotted this SUV near the ATM and snapped a couple pics. The color combo and hood ornament are... classy.

Car Dreams

The other day I had this really weird vivid dream.

I was driving around in a rusted out old white Camaro. All the rims were different with some from other cars altogether. I parked the car in front of someone's driveway accidentally and they came out to tell me to move. It had a couple flat tires and I couldn't move it. A bus load of migrant workers unloaded nearby came over; kind of admiring the car. I took out an air propellant can to fill up the tires, but it was empty. So I walked over to a gas station and filled the can with air. Then I walked back and filled the tires. I quickly left the area to go to the gas station to make sure the tires were fixed but had to go the long way around the block (of apartment complexes) because of one-way streets. Finally I got there and the tires were indeed flat again. At the gas station there was a couple who thought the car was in bad enough shape that they could buy it off me cheap. They started getting in and out of the car and actually tried making out in the back seat to see if it was "roomy enough". I just went across the street to the tire store and bought two new tires. (I got them extra big to put on the back and jack it up a bit.)

Then the next night I had a shorter dream.

We drove to a hilly town in the Prius and parked up on a hill and then walked down to ...somewhere. I don't remember. Later I went back to get the car and there was a ticket on it because we had left it for a couple nights and one of the nights was a street cleaning night. There was also some mail left on the car near the ticket for one of the nearby houses. I dropped the mail off to them and then went back to the car. The hood was now open - something that I noticed being closed before - and the entire engine was missing.

Bizarre - AJ says Freud would say I'm having "manhood" issues.

hmmmm

SONY CyberShot Operation

In 2004 we bought a Sony CyberShot Prosumer type camera. It was pretty awesome. Not an SLR, but as close as you can get without the size. In November of 2005 I took a trip back to NY and dropped it in the airport. (And by dropped I mean flung it a few meters across the baggage claim area.) The LCD shattered, but we were still able to use it... we just couldn't see the pictures we had taken. It went from a "prosumer" camera to a "point-and-shoot" camera. SONY wanted $300 to fix it.
Here's a close up of the cracked LCD and the good one in back:

We got another lame little camera to tide us over until we felt like we wanted a new "good" camera. (Nikon Coolpix - don't go there.) Recently we decided we ought to buy a new camera but still didn't want to spend the $$ for an SLR or have to deal with the size and weight increase. AJ had this great idea that we ought to try and fix the Sony camera. I bought an "as-is" camera on eBay and took it apart. I figured out what piece I needed to replace and removed it from the camera and replaced them in mine. KAZAM! We had our old camera back! It cost me $30 for the as-is camera and $15 for the special tweezers to use on tiny electrical equipment.

Take it SONY!
JASE + tweezers for the win!

Doctor Frank and Fruit Bouquets

A couple weeks ago on a Friday after work I went to a book store opening event. I don't usually do that kind of junk, except that this bookstore was having a special guest for signing. The book is "King Dork" and the author is the singer of one of my favorite bands (The Mr. T Experience) Mister Frank Portman, or Dr. Frank.

Dr. Frank sang a couple songs and read a couple excerpts (which was nice since I haven't actually read my book yet...) and signed things for people. I brought in my "Love is Dead" CD and he graciously signed it for me. It was nice to meet and talk to Frank and see that he's just another regular guy. I hate the "stars" who've let it go to their heads. Frank was easy to talk to, seemed a bit nervous and in general a nice guy. Like maybe someday I could be in his shoes having people want to meet and talk to me. Or at least be recognized for decent work. Yeah, right; If not by now then probably never, huh?

The other thing that happened a couple weeks ago was I complained to the neighbor about all the construction noise. He's been having his house rebuilt from the inside out for the last few months. Mostly on evenings and weekends. Times when one would think they could relax in peace and quiet in their own home. Well, table-saws and sanders and tile-cutters make a lot of noise that carries pretty well. He's a pretty nice guy though and promised to try and keep it down and within reasonable hours. (This, after I told him about Menlo Park noise ordinances concerning construction.)

One night it was 11:30pm and we were still hearing the saw. AJ gets up at 6:30 and we were already in bed so I just grabbed my cell-phone and text-messaged him. "It's after 11. Please make the noise stop. Thanks." The noise stopped and the next day there was a fruit bouquet on our doorstep. It was awesome. Dark chocolate (no milk) on fruit is TASTY! That Friday I went over to thank him for the basket and 3 hours later (boy, was AJ peeved) I stumbled home with a newly acquired knowledge of many local wines and new wine types. "Icewine" I had never heard of - but boy can it rock an empty stomach. Is it customary to get complainers drunk to ease their pain? Seems like a good strategy to me. Maybe that's why prohibition never worked out too well.

Can o' Worms

A couple weeks ago I went to Common Ground and picked up a worm composting thing. Can o' Worms. I also ordered one pound of worms to be delivered to my door. Can you guess how many worms are in one pound? Let me tell you. - 1000! It's awesome. I put the coir in the bottom of the 3 layers and put the worms on top. They immediately dove down into the dirt and I couldn't see them at all after about 10 minutes. Then I put some food scraps on the next layer up. They have been climbing up and eating it regularly. In a few months they will have filled layer two and I will put food on layer three. After a while they will all have migrated away from layer one and I can use it in the garden as fertilizer. Then that empty layer will become layer three and the cycle will continue. In a few years, I will have about 15,000 worms eating my scraps. Awesome!

Here are some pics:This is the box and bag the worms came in. There was a little bit of dirt in there too. I held it in my hand and although I couldn't feel any distinct movement, I could feel the bag pulsing as they squirmed around - it was like I could feel their energy. Very weird.


This is the worms just after putting them in the can. They dove out of sight immediately.

I was wondering to myself - is having a worm composting bin going against the morals and ethics of being a vegan? I'm not abusing them, but I am using them to my own ends. I'm not eating or selling their byproduct, but I am using it in my garden. I assume they're pretty happy to have food to eat all the time, but they are trapped in my can. I'm thinking it's not going against my personal beliefs or way of life, but I could see how people might argue against it.