Hello Everyone,
I realize it has been over a year since my last post, but i thought i should give a quick update. This post has the potential to be fairly long, but i'll keep the blurbs short.
House! - We bought a house last fall and have settled in quite nicely. I have spent some time during the recent past weeks getting ready for winter. I bought and stored about 6 tons of wood pellets and also cleaned our pellet stove. I also bought a battery backup for it so if we loose power when it is on, the exhaust fan can continue to run until the stove shuts down properly. The "smoke" pipe is a very short horizontal pipe that is only 3 inches in diameter and does not have a draft. Even though the installation meets code, it is safer to have this battery backup for the power exhaust.
VAN! - We recently purchased a Dodge Grand Caravan. It is a white, southern, used vehicle. I thought it would be nice to treat it to new snow tires for it's debut in Western New York where we got 7 feet of snow in one single event last year!!! (well, not We as in the Hennings, but We as in "just south of Buffalo")
Conner - That brings me to our SON, Conner. He turned 2 on August 12th. And 12 days before that, he became a HENNING! We even got a new birth certificate in the mail. He and Elsa get a long pretty well and i think they love each other. They spent quite a lot of time outside on our porch this summer. It is wonderful to live in a place where they can walk out the back door without them walking into a parking lot where lots of cars come and go.
Elsa - This little girl is walking and jabbering and just being all sorts of cute. She is starting to make a panting noise when you ask her what sound a dog makes and also every time she looks out our front window across the road at the pasture of our neighbor-farmer, she makes an "mmmm" noise.....for the Cows. She is also quite the eater and has somewhat of an attitude. We have also recently caught her in the garage playing with my tools....maybe she needs to get another doll baby to take care of.
Okie Dokie. I guess that's all for now.
Have a great week.
Sunday, September 13, 2015
Sunday, August 4, 2013
My Fitness Pal (proof that there's an app for everything)
I've been told i need to write a blog about my exercise routine as of late so, here goes.
Melissa and I have had a membership to a local gym for over a year now. We have gone through spurts of exercising and spurts of NOT exercising. But since April, I have been trying to make a concerted effort to eat less and exercise more. I never used to worry about what I ate when i was growing up. I worked on the farm and for the most part, I burnt enough calories that I could basically eat anything I wanted. Then I went to college and gained about 20 pounds. I came home and found that when I reduced my portions(by packing a lunch for my summer job away from the farm), I lost the weight pretty easily. I observed this same pattern every year in college and every summer. THEN, I got a job got thrust out into real life. When Melissa and I got a gym membership, I thought that I could eat anything i wanted since I was working out. The main problem is that I didn't work out consistently enough. I still gained weight.
In March of this year, after a particularly heavy meal, I weighed myself and I was nearly 250 pounds. I had never weighed that much. I decided to do two things: Eat Less and Exercise MORE. As some of you may know, I do like using apps on my iPod touch. I have a Gas Cubby app for tracking my gas mileage on my vehicles. I have a budget app that Melissa and I use to keep track of our spending. I have a Bible app. I have a calendar app. I have a grocery app. The list goes on. I decided to dust off an app that I had downloaded a while ago, My Fitness Pal. This app is a calorie counter app. I realize that calorie counting alone is not the answer to healthy weight loss, but for me, it is a good way to encourage portion control. Another thing that really helps is that Melissa usually tries to cook healthy things like quinoa, wheat pasta, salads, lots of vegetable dishes and other stuff. Anyway, this app gives you a goal of calories for the day, based on your weight, your lifestyle, and your weight loss goals. You input the food you eat into the app and it will automatically keep track of the calories and other nutrition information as well. You can also track your weight. If you exercise, you actually get a calorie credit and you can eat more. The app also allows you to have friends who also use the app like Facebook. You can see each other's progress and encourage each other if you want.
I also tried to implement part two of my plan to lose weight, Working Out. As I look back, I think my main goal in exercising over the last few months is to continue to be acive. I have learned that keeping things switched up is good. If you get settled into a routine, your body gets used to it. By using a variety of routines, you can be more effective. I still get sore muscles because when I change something, I discover new muscles that have been lazy. Also, I try to give my body a little time to rest too. At minimum, I take Sunday off. I usually end up taking one more day off during the week because of our schedule. It varies and sometimes I only take one day off.
Anyway, on with the whole exercising thing. I started working out more in the evenings, after work. That took time away from our evenings. Then, Melissa got really busy at work and started having to go in at 6am. Normally, when that happens, I just go in to work too. However, I started going to the gym instead. I would get a good 35 to 45 minutes of exercise in and then shower and get ready for work. It worked out pretty well. I was settled into a routine of Stairmaster cardio and weight machine training. I have been focusing on cardio more then weight training because I wanted to lose weight. I also was trying the occasional bout with the treadmill. I hate running. I never felt like I could run, and I always used the excuse of being heavy. "Running is too hard on my joints" i would say. Anyway, I started running on the treadmill some, and it was getting easier. I could run farther and farther. We went running outside some too. (Well jogging)
Then, we went on vacation up in Maine with Melissa's family. Brad, my brother-in-law, had been running quite a bit and he recently got a really cool GPS watch for running. It actually tracks your route (if you are outside) and will also track your heartrate, pace, distance, and elevation. After your run, you can upload the information onto the web and view your route and many other things. As an Engineer, I really liked that idea, so when we got home, I decided to get one too. It wasn't very cheap, but if I use it 3 to 4 times per week, i feel that it will be a good expenditure. (I often think about how often I will use something, or how long it will last when I am thinking about buying something new) Here is a screenshot of a run I did a while back. The pace is in minutes per mile, so the higher it shows on the graph, the slower I am going.
I have lost about 25 pounds since march and my shirts now fit much better. I think my doctor will be happy since he tells me to lose weight everytime I see him. :) Here is a picture of my weight over the past few months. This graph is generated by My Fitness Pal. It's an encouraging tool, when the trend is in the right direction. As you can see, they fed us too much in Maine in July. Even though I exercised several times during our week up there, my weight jumped!
Well, I would like to be an encouragement to anyone who is trying to lose weight or eat healthier or exercise more. I never thought I could jog even a mile, and now I can jog THREE miles. I still love to eat and sometimes, I still eat too much, but portion control is the Winning Strategy :)
In a subsequent blog, I may go into the things I am learning about running and everything. I am really excited and I hope to be able to keep running/jogging for a while.
Until Next Time....
Melissa and I have had a membership to a local gym for over a year now. We have gone through spurts of exercising and spurts of NOT exercising. But since April, I have been trying to make a concerted effort to eat less and exercise more. I never used to worry about what I ate when i was growing up. I worked on the farm and for the most part, I burnt enough calories that I could basically eat anything I wanted. Then I went to college and gained about 20 pounds. I came home and found that when I reduced my portions(by packing a lunch for my summer job away from the farm), I lost the weight pretty easily. I observed this same pattern every year in college and every summer. THEN, I got a job got thrust out into real life. When Melissa and I got a gym membership, I thought that I could eat anything i wanted since I was working out. The main problem is that I didn't work out consistently enough. I still gained weight.
In March of this year, after a particularly heavy meal, I weighed myself and I was nearly 250 pounds. I had never weighed that much. I decided to do two things: Eat Less and Exercise MORE. As some of you may know, I do like using apps on my iPod touch. I have a Gas Cubby app for tracking my gas mileage on my vehicles. I have a budget app that Melissa and I use to keep track of our spending. I have a Bible app. I have a calendar app. I have a grocery app. The list goes on. I decided to dust off an app that I had downloaded a while ago, My Fitness Pal. This app is a calorie counter app. I realize that calorie counting alone is not the answer to healthy weight loss, but for me, it is a good way to encourage portion control. Another thing that really helps is that Melissa usually tries to cook healthy things like quinoa, wheat pasta, salads, lots of vegetable dishes and other stuff. Anyway, this app gives you a goal of calories for the day, based on your weight, your lifestyle, and your weight loss goals. You input the food you eat into the app and it will automatically keep track of the calories and other nutrition information as well. You can also track your weight. If you exercise, you actually get a calorie credit and you can eat more. The app also allows you to have friends who also use the app like Facebook. You can see each other's progress and encourage each other if you want.
I also tried to implement part two of my plan to lose weight, Working Out. As I look back, I think my main goal in exercising over the last few months is to continue to be acive. I have learned that keeping things switched up is good. If you get settled into a routine, your body gets used to it. By using a variety of routines, you can be more effective. I still get sore muscles because when I change something, I discover new muscles that have been lazy. Also, I try to give my body a little time to rest too. At minimum, I take Sunday off. I usually end up taking one more day off during the week because of our schedule. It varies and sometimes I only take one day off.
Anyway, on with the whole exercising thing. I started working out more in the evenings, after work. That took time away from our evenings. Then, Melissa got really busy at work and started having to go in at 6am. Normally, when that happens, I just go in to work too. However, I started going to the gym instead. I would get a good 35 to 45 minutes of exercise in and then shower and get ready for work. It worked out pretty well. I was settled into a routine of Stairmaster cardio and weight machine training. I have been focusing on cardio more then weight training because I wanted to lose weight. I also was trying the occasional bout with the treadmill. I hate running. I never felt like I could run, and I always used the excuse of being heavy. "Running is too hard on my joints" i would say. Anyway, I started running on the treadmill some, and it was getting easier. I could run farther and farther. We went running outside some too. (Well jogging)
Then, we went on vacation up in Maine with Melissa's family. Brad, my brother-in-law, had been running quite a bit and he recently got a really cool GPS watch for running. It actually tracks your route (if you are outside) and will also track your heartrate, pace, distance, and elevation. After your run, you can upload the information onto the web and view your route and many other things. As an Engineer, I really liked that idea, so when we got home, I decided to get one too. It wasn't very cheap, but if I use it 3 to 4 times per week, i feel that it will be a good expenditure. (I often think about how often I will use something, or how long it will last when I am thinking about buying something new) Here is a screenshot of a run I did a while back. The pace is in minutes per mile, so the higher it shows on the graph, the slower I am going.
I have lost about 25 pounds since march and my shirts now fit much better. I think my doctor will be happy since he tells me to lose weight everytime I see him. :) Here is a picture of my weight over the past few months. This graph is generated by My Fitness Pal. It's an encouraging tool, when the trend is in the right direction. As you can see, they fed us too much in Maine in July. Even though I exercised several times during our week up there, my weight jumped!
Well, I would like to be an encouragement to anyone who is trying to lose weight or eat healthier or exercise more. I never thought I could jog even a mile, and now I can jog THREE miles. I still love to eat and sometimes, I still eat too much, but portion control is the Winning Strategy :)
In a subsequent blog, I may go into the things I am learning about running and everything. I am really excited and I hope to be able to keep running/jogging for a while.
Until Next Time....
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Freezer Meals and Meatballs
From the cupboard to the freezer. That's what we have done to a lot of our canned goods recently. I read another blog about someone who took a day to prepare many crockpot meals and freeze them in gallon bags to make meals easier when she had limited time to prepare meals for whatever reason. I also remember hearing that some of our relatives do/did this also. I started talking to Jake about it and he informed me that there are stores down south where people come in and assemble many meals to take home and put in the freezer. Families where both of the adults work may benefit from these types of stores. It seems like they would be able to eat healthier while saving time. I found a website for one such establishment. They have locations in over a dozen states. Here is their website: http://dreamdinners.com/main.php?static=take_back_dinner
This particular website has a section where they state statistics about the benefits of eating family dinners together. Interesting.
Well, i thought it would be good to try these freezer meals. I figured it would benefit us in many ways. Here are a few of them:
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This particular website has a section where they state statistics about the benefits of eating family dinners together. Interesting.
Well, i thought it would be good to try these freezer meals. I figured it would benefit us in many ways. Here are a few of them:
- Encourage us to be productive on a Saturday.
- Allow us to take advantage of Efficiency in preparing multiple meals at once.
- Save us money because we would have a meal ready at home when we might otherwise not have time to make one.
- Keep us healthier because we would be able to eat at home instead of eating out.
- Finally, allow us to more spontaneously give a meal to someone else if we find a need.
SO, we decided to try it. Some recipes we found consisted of meat and sauce. Others seemed to have a lot more vegetables in them. I liked the ones from a particular site because of all the vegetables. We selected some recipes at this blog site and assembled a shopping list of sorts:
After a trip to two stores, we had a bunch of fresh veggies, canned beans and meat. We basically followed the instructions. Prepared each of the ingredients "en masse". Our Cuisinart food processor was also quite helpful for chopping onions and slicing carrots, zucchini, and celery. Once we got the ingredients all prepared we assembled them in 1 gallon freezer bags. It went pretty fast.
We put together 11 meals in about 3 hours (including most of the cleanup) I think it cost us about $100. That works out to about $9 per meal, each of which is supposed to feed 6-8 people. We haven't actually cooked any of them, so i will have to let you know how they taste. lol.
Here's a picture of the final product.
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Also, we made a batch of meatballs from 2 pounds of ground beef. We froze 3/4 of them too. When we were all done, our cupboards were almost void of tomato products. But we had lots of canned beans leftover. The vegetables and meat worked out just right.
Until Next Time....
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Pies, Quiches, and Tarts
Last weekend I was having a conversation with Uncle Jonathan about Quiche pans, and I just recently realized I may have been mistaken. I figured I could do a short investigation into the difference between Pies, Quiches, and Tarts along with the pans in which they are traditionally prepared. First, a few definitions(according to Google) :
It is in an old manufacturing facility that has been re-purposed into office space. It is on the first floor. It is been newly renovated and it seems like it will be a nice office space for quite a while. It seems conducive to team projects, but will still allow people to focus on individual projects as well. There is a newspaper, a personal trainer, a barber, and a hair dresser in the same building. Also, just around the corner, in a separate part of the building is a pizza shop and a bowling alley that just opened. So, good food and recreation are closer than they have ever been. lol. The best part of the new place is that there is dedicated and adequate parking for everyone. It's great to be able to leave at lunch and come back and still have a place to park.
Well,
I will stop here. Don't want to write so much that it becomes a chore to read.
Until Next Time....
Pie: A baked dish of fruit, or meat and vegetables, typically with a top and base of pastry
Quiche: A baked flan or tart with a savory filling thickened with eggs.
Tart: An open pastry case containing a filling.
Souffle: A light, fluffy baked dish made with egg yolks and beaten egg whites combined with various other ingredients and served as a main dish or sweetened as a dessert
(the video below is from the Muppet Show. It shows what a Souffle dish looks like :) And adds a little humor that I grew up hearing second hand from my dad and my uncle)
(the video below is from the Muppet Show. It shows what a Souffle dish looks like :) And adds a little humor that I grew up hearing second hand from my dad and my uncle)
So, after a cursory review, it appears that Pies and Tarts are similar, and that the distinguishing feature of a Tart is that it is "Open Faced" whereas Pies can be either. Also, Quiches are considered to be a kind of Tart. Pie dishes are pretty easily identified. They come in glass, ceramic, and metal and the depth can vary somewhat.Quiche Dishes and Souffle Dishes look similar, but a Souffle dish is much deeper, and smaller in diameter.Tart dishes/pans seem to be marketed also as Quiche pans sometimes. These are very interesting because they have a bottom that comes out, like a spring form pan. I have shown some pictures below to show the similarities and differences between these kinds of dishes.
 |
| Pie Plates |
 |
| Quiche/Tart Pan |
 |
| Quiche Dish (ceramic) |
 |
| Souffle Dish |
 |
| Ramekins (little personal size Souffle dishes) |
So, there is a brief exhibit of some different types of pans and dishes that some people get mixed up. I like looking into these types of things but when it comes to pie, I really don't care what it comes in. I just love to eat it and anyone who brings pie is more than welcome in my house, even if it's in a Souffle Dish. lol
So, things have been pretty busy here lately. Not much is different from what We wrote in our Christmas letter, but we are doing pretty good. We have been casually looking at houses here and there. We would like to find a place to call our own where we can move into and spread out a little, but right now, we do not need more room. I think this is the best place for us right now financially. However, if we find a nice place and the price is right, we will probably pursue it.
Things at work have been pretty busy. We moved to a new office location:
3 Bristol Lane, Ellicottville NY 14731
3 Bristol Lane, Ellicottville NY 14731
It is in an old manufacturing facility that has been re-purposed into office space. It is on the first floor. It is been newly renovated and it seems like it will be a nice office space for quite a while. It seems conducive to team projects, but will still allow people to focus on individual projects as well. There is a newspaper, a personal trainer, a barber, and a hair dresser in the same building. Also, just around the corner, in a separate part of the building is a pizza shop and a bowling alley that just opened. So, good food and recreation are closer than they have ever been. lol. The best part of the new place is that there is dedicated and adequate parking for everyone. It's great to be able to leave at lunch and come back and still have a place to park.
Well,
I will stop here. Don't want to write so much that it becomes a chore to read.
Until Next Time....
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Garage Sales, Ice Cream, and Camping
So. Two days of work and then a day off. Then two more days of work and two days off. I could get into the habit of this pretty easily. We are chilling at home today. It's actually rare that we get to spend a holiday at home. We are usually traveling to visit family and such. I mean it's great to visit family. We love all of our family very much. It is also nice to relax and not travel. We woke up this morning and fixed breakfast and then went to about 4 garage sales. Garage sales are great. I used to think they were just places to get cool junk, but i have come to realize that they are great places to get practical stuff for a fraction of the cost. Sometimes people will get a new patio furniture set when they really don't need a new set, they just want one. They don't know what to do with the old one so they put it in their garage sale and say "make offer - paid $500 for this set new" I mean, the set was in great shape. it had two corner benches and two chairs and two foot rest things. They were all painted aluminum frames with cushions that were in great shape. Seems like if you could pick up that set for $150 or $200, it would be a good deal. There are also other things that you can get for only a dollar or two when it is just as functional as the new item that would cost 10 or 15.
Today, we used a hand crank ice cream maker that Melissa's sister bought for us at a garage sale. It's a 5 quart ice cream maker with a wooden bucket, a metal ice cream can, and a plastic lid and dasher. The crank has plastic gears in it. I was a bit skeptical of how it might work, but we bought ice and salt and cream for the endeavor and found a simple ice cream recipe that took cream, sugar, and vanilla. We cranked and cranked and it seemed like nothing was happening, but by and by the crank was getting harder to crank. And my arm was actually getting tired. We grilled some bratwursts while we cranked and finally, i thought it was time to open it up and look inside There was ice cream! Up to the top! It was pretty good, and i must say that the ice cream maker worked amazingly well. We will be using it again. And again. We may need a better recipe though. This one called for 4 cups of heavy whipping cream and 4 cups of half and half (about 7 dollars worth of dairy). I would like to try one with less expensive dairy ingredients and maybe a custard base too. Anyway, i'm excited to make more ice cream. And next time, we may have to get someone over to help us eat it too.
I guess i still owe a narrative on the camping trip the other weekend. We packed up three cars and put three canoes on them and drove about an hour just into PA. Here's where we put in:
View Larger Map
We paddled about 3 miles to Hook's Brook campground. I guess it's really only accessible by boat. Here's where the campground is and about where we stayed:
View Larger Map
We stayed from friday evening through Sunday noon time. we had a great time. Jake and Laura and Sam and Leyenda came. Sam and Leyenda had hammocks that they slept in and the rest of us had tents. we had tons of food and went swimming and cooked food and burnt food and went fishing and all kinds of great stuff. It was really relaxing and we are pretty excited to try to do it again soon. All the pictures i have are not here at the moment so you will have to wait a little longer for those.
Until Next Time....
Today, we used a hand crank ice cream maker that Melissa's sister bought for us at a garage sale. It's a 5 quart ice cream maker with a wooden bucket, a metal ice cream can, and a plastic lid and dasher. The crank has plastic gears in it. I was a bit skeptical of how it might work, but we bought ice and salt and cream for the endeavor and found a simple ice cream recipe that took cream, sugar, and vanilla. We cranked and cranked and it seemed like nothing was happening, but by and by the crank was getting harder to crank. And my arm was actually getting tired. We grilled some bratwursts while we cranked and finally, i thought it was time to open it up and look inside There was ice cream! Up to the top! It was pretty good, and i must say that the ice cream maker worked amazingly well. We will be using it again. And again. We may need a better recipe though. This one called for 4 cups of heavy whipping cream and 4 cups of half and half (about 7 dollars worth of dairy). I would like to try one with less expensive dairy ingredients and maybe a custard base too. Anyway, i'm excited to make more ice cream. And next time, we may have to get someone over to help us eat it too.
I guess i still owe a narrative on the camping trip the other weekend. We packed up three cars and put three canoes on them and drove about an hour just into PA. Here's where we put in:
View Larger Map
We paddled about 3 miles to Hook's Brook campground. I guess it's really only accessible by boat. Here's where the campground is and about where we stayed:
View Larger Map
We stayed from friday evening through Sunday noon time. we had a great time. Jake and Laura and Sam and Leyenda came. Sam and Leyenda had hammocks that they slept in and the rest of us had tents. we had tons of food and went swimming and cooked food and burnt food and went fishing and all kinds of great stuff. It was really relaxing and we are pretty excited to try to do it again soon. All the pictures i have are not here at the moment so you will have to wait a little longer for those.
Until Next Time....
Sunday, July 1, 2012
PE (Professional Engineer)
OK. SO. A. Long. Time. Has. Past.
In February, I got a notice that my PE application had been reviewed and I had been deemed qualified to take the spring exam! I quickly had to decide whether I had enough time to study and take it. I had pretty much already decided that I wanted to take an online review course.....you know, study hard the first time and pass the test the first time so i didn't have to go through that again. I decided to do it. I payed the registration fee and decided on a review course right away. Then I waited a week for my materials to come in the mail. I had to take the review course at a faster pace than most people because it was supposed to start in January. Anyway, to make a long story short, I studied like crazy, went out to Rochester, NY with Melissa and took the exam. We stayed in the hotel that the exam was being held in. It was pretty much the worst night of sleep I have ever had. I got up early and had a granola bar and a cup of coffee, lugged my crate of reference books down to the exam room and waited about an hour with about 70 other testees. I felt pretty good abouut the exam (except for the fire alarm going off in the middle of it). Melissa prayed for me while she was waiting :) SO, the exam was in April. Now I have found out that I passed and that I have been issued a License Number and am registered with the State of New York as a Professional Engineer.
There's a website you can go and search Henning, under engineer and my name will pop up with about 6 or so other hennings of some sort or another in New York. http://www.op.nysed.gov/opsearches.htm
In other news at work, we underwent some pretty major network upgrades. We have a much better server that is more reliable than our old one. We also have a good reliable backup solution implemented. In addition to those things, we have switched to Time Warner Cable Digital Phone for our three business lines. Sometimes it seems like the phones are ringing off the hook. I have seen all three lines tied up at work fairly often these past few months. I have also been working some on our website. http://mdaengineers.com/home.html We don't get a ton of traffic on our website, but it is a good thing to have these days. It seems like people are much more likely to search for something on Google than look it up in the yellow pages. Well, at least I am :)
Melissa went garage garage saling on Saturday and found a 2 gallon air compressor for me for $25. It is small enough to fit in our apartment and will work very well for filling tires and such. It reminds me of the "spare air" can we had back home that we would fill up and take to a flat tire to give it enough air to get back to the shop. I could let this little guy pump up to 100psi and then unplug it and carry it out to the car or bicycle without having to stretch an extension cord. Oh. And I picked up a nice air chuck for it that has a pressure gauge built into it for another $2. I think it will work great.
Ok, well i better get going.
Until Next Time...
In February, I got a notice that my PE application had been reviewed and I had been deemed qualified to take the spring exam! I quickly had to decide whether I had enough time to study and take it. I had pretty much already decided that I wanted to take an online review course.....you know, study hard the first time and pass the test the first time so i didn't have to go through that again. I decided to do it. I payed the registration fee and decided on a review course right away. Then I waited a week for my materials to come in the mail. I had to take the review course at a faster pace than most people because it was supposed to start in January. Anyway, to make a long story short, I studied like crazy, went out to Rochester, NY with Melissa and took the exam. We stayed in the hotel that the exam was being held in. It was pretty much the worst night of sleep I have ever had. I got up early and had a granola bar and a cup of coffee, lugged my crate of reference books down to the exam room and waited about an hour with about 70 other testees. I felt pretty good abouut the exam (except for the fire alarm going off in the middle of it). Melissa prayed for me while she was waiting :) SO, the exam was in April. Now I have found out that I passed and that I have been issued a License Number and am registered with the State of New York as a Professional Engineer.
There's a website you can go and search Henning, under engineer and my name will pop up with about 6 or so other hennings of some sort or another in New York. http://www.op.nysed.gov/opsearches.htm
In other news at work, we underwent some pretty major network upgrades. We have a much better server that is more reliable than our old one. We also have a good reliable backup solution implemented. In addition to those things, we have switched to Time Warner Cable Digital Phone for our three business lines. Sometimes it seems like the phones are ringing off the hook. I have seen all three lines tied up at work fairly often these past few months. I have also been working some on our website. http://mdaengineers.com/home.html We don't get a ton of traffic on our website, but it is a good thing to have these days. It seems like people are much more likely to search for something on Google than look it up in the yellow pages. Well, at least I am :)
Melissa went garage garage saling on Saturday and found a 2 gallon air compressor for me for $25. It is small enough to fit in our apartment and will work very well for filling tires and such. It reminds me of the "spare air" can we had back home that we would fill up and take to a flat tire to give it enough air to get back to the shop. I could let this little guy pump up to 100psi and then unplug it and carry it out to the car or bicycle without having to stretch an extension cord. Oh. And I picked up a nice air chuck for it that has a pressure gauge built into it for another $2. I think it will work great.
Ok, well i better get going.
Until Next Time...
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Third snow and still the ground is brown.
The leaves have fallen, the time has changed, it is now dark when i leave work, shotgun season for deer has opened, our apartment is generally cold, and still, the ground is not white. We have had three snows so far this season and during each snow, we have experienced accumulation. However, the temperature can't seem to convince itself to stay below 32. lol. I guess we are not complaining. I just would have expected snow and winter temperatures by now. The first winter i moved up here, we got a heavy snow the last week of October and we didn't see the ground until the January thaw.
I would say that we are fairly prepared for winter. I'll admit that we don't have that much to do to prepare since we rent an apartment and have only one car. Our preparations include putting the snow tires on the car and getting the snow brush out of the closet and putting it in the car. Oh, and putting our bicycles and motorcycle away. Yep that's about it. I mean we do shuffle cloths around a little and I check the antifreeze in our car, but in general, we don't have that much to do to get ready. So, we are ready.
I/we have done a few things worthy of noting this fall:
1. Fill out and submit my Pistol Permit Application.
I live in Erie county and early this spring, i took my pistol safety course with some friends. It is my understanding from the course that in NYS, it is a felony to even handle a handgun that is not listed on your pistol permit. In Erie county, it is much harder to get your permit than it would be in Cattaraugus county. It takes 6-8 months minimum to get your permit after you submit your application. In Cattaraugus county, it takes only 6-8 weeks. Anyway, i wanted to get this out of the way while i have some time to do these things. The fee for the application isn't too bad, but it cost $105 just for the fingerprinting process. And I didn't even end up with a copy of my finger prints. Also, the fingerprinting was by appointment only... it only took 10 minutes.
2. Fill out and submit my Professional Engineers(PE) Application.
This application is very involved and it took me quite a while to finish. There are many parts: One to send to your college to verify your education, One to send to the state of Pennsylvania to verify that i passed the FE (Fundamentals of Engineering) exam, One to each of the Engineers that I worked under for verification that I did the work. I also had to summarize all of the work experience that I had working under an engineer. All of this filling out of application forms is to get qualified to take the PE exam with the ultimate goal of getting my PE license in NYS. That would allow me to practice engineering on my own if I so chose. Oh. Did I mention the $377 application fee to NYS? NYS seems to get alot of our money up here!
3. Buy winter boots to be used for hunting, shoveling snow, and for general use in the winter time. We got Muck boots. They are very cozy and waterproof.
4. Take our hunter's safety course in order to get our hunting licenses.
5. Get our hunter's licenses for deer season.
We both got some clothing that would keep us warm and dry when we went hunting. We tried them out Saturday (opening day for gun season up here) when we went hunting with Jake and Laura and Mark. It was a bit warm for our jackets to be fully appreciated, but they were nice. We both saw a deer, but we didn't get a shot. We did however enjoy it so we hope to be out hunting again soon. I particularly enjoyed being outside and seeing the beauty of God's creation.
I should mention that the night before opening day, we went as leaders with our Youth Group to an all night event in Rochester, NY. We met the kids and other leaders at the church at 5pm and got back to the church the following morning at 7am. I think the kids had fun. It involved a Hockey Game, an evangelistic message, a few hours for bowling and eating pizza and pop, and then going to a sports complex to play all kinds of indoor games. The sports complex had two soccer fields, a basketball court, three volleyball courts, a bunch of other areas for smaller games, and a dodge ball 'field'. It was pretty fun. We got home from that and slept for about 4 hours before we went out hunting.
I think one of the oxygen sensors is going bad on our vehicle. The check engine light has come on two different times in the last 12 months. I took it to AutoZone and both times it was the "catalyst system efficiency below threshold - bank 1" message. Both times, the light has gone out on its own after a little while. I read online some and my research has lead me to believe that it is the O2 sensor before the Catalytic converter. I have experienced a small drop in fuel efficiency over the last 12 months which is one of the indicators that seems to support this hypothesis. At any rate, i think i will take the car into a shop next month to try to get the situation remedied.
We are going to Ohio to Dad's house for Thanksgiving from this Wednesday PM to next Monday PMish. We are looking forward to it and to the plumbing project he has lined up. We are spending the weekend of Christmas with Brad and Michelle and their family and then journeying on up to Maine for some time with Melissa's family. Then it will be back to NY for New Year's eve with friends in Springville. This time of year is very enjoyable with all the food and festivities and family and fun. Wow, lots of f's.
Until Next Time....
I would say that we are fairly prepared for winter. I'll admit that we don't have that much to do to prepare since we rent an apartment and have only one car. Our preparations include putting the snow tires on the car and getting the snow brush out of the closet and putting it in the car. Oh, and putting our bicycles and motorcycle away. Yep that's about it. I mean we do shuffle cloths around a little and I check the antifreeze in our car, but in general, we don't have that much to do to get ready. So, we are ready.
I/we have done a few things worthy of noting this fall:
1. Fill out and submit my Pistol Permit Application.
I live in Erie county and early this spring, i took my pistol safety course with some friends. It is my understanding from the course that in NYS, it is a felony to even handle a handgun that is not listed on your pistol permit. In Erie county, it is much harder to get your permit than it would be in Cattaraugus county. It takes 6-8 months minimum to get your permit after you submit your application. In Cattaraugus county, it takes only 6-8 weeks. Anyway, i wanted to get this out of the way while i have some time to do these things. The fee for the application isn't too bad, but it cost $105 just for the fingerprinting process. And I didn't even end up with a copy of my finger prints. Also, the fingerprinting was by appointment only... it only took 10 minutes.
2. Fill out and submit my Professional Engineers(PE) Application.
This application is very involved and it took me quite a while to finish. There are many parts: One to send to your college to verify your education, One to send to the state of Pennsylvania to verify that i passed the FE (Fundamentals of Engineering) exam, One to each of the Engineers that I worked under for verification that I did the work. I also had to summarize all of the work experience that I had working under an engineer. All of this filling out of application forms is to get qualified to take the PE exam with the ultimate goal of getting my PE license in NYS. That would allow me to practice engineering on my own if I so chose. Oh. Did I mention the $377 application fee to NYS? NYS seems to get alot of our money up here!
3. Buy winter boots to be used for hunting, shoveling snow, and for general use in the winter time. We got Muck boots. They are very cozy and waterproof.
4. Take our hunter's safety course in order to get our hunting licenses.
5. Get our hunter's licenses for deer season.
We both got some clothing that would keep us warm and dry when we went hunting. We tried them out Saturday (opening day for gun season up here) when we went hunting with Jake and Laura and Mark. It was a bit warm for our jackets to be fully appreciated, but they were nice. We both saw a deer, but we didn't get a shot. We did however enjoy it so we hope to be out hunting again soon. I particularly enjoyed being outside and seeing the beauty of God's creation.
I should mention that the night before opening day, we went as leaders with our Youth Group to an all night event in Rochester, NY. We met the kids and other leaders at the church at 5pm and got back to the church the following morning at 7am. I think the kids had fun. It involved a Hockey Game, an evangelistic message, a few hours for bowling and eating pizza and pop, and then going to a sports complex to play all kinds of indoor games. The sports complex had two soccer fields, a basketball court, three volleyball courts, a bunch of other areas for smaller games, and a dodge ball 'field'. It was pretty fun. We got home from that and slept for about 4 hours before we went out hunting.
I think one of the oxygen sensors is going bad on our vehicle. The check engine light has come on two different times in the last 12 months. I took it to AutoZone and both times it was the "catalyst system efficiency below threshold - bank 1" message. Both times, the light has gone out on its own after a little while. I read online some and my research has lead me to believe that it is the O2 sensor before the Catalytic converter. I have experienced a small drop in fuel efficiency over the last 12 months which is one of the indicators that seems to support this hypothesis. At any rate, i think i will take the car into a shop next month to try to get the situation remedied.
We are going to Ohio to Dad's house for Thanksgiving from this Wednesday PM to next Monday PMish. We are looking forward to it and to the plumbing project he has lined up. We are spending the weekend of Christmas with Brad and Michelle and their family and then journeying on up to Maine for some time with Melissa's family. Then it will be back to NY for New Year's eve with friends in Springville. This time of year is very enjoyable with all the food and festivities and family and fun. Wow, lots of f's.
Until Next Time....
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