Archive for June, 2007

Toasted

Published by Helen on June 30, 2007 in Chatter. 3 Comments

The other day I was heating up a frozen tortilla in the toaster oven and got distracted and didn’t think about it again until I smelled a burning flour smell from the kitchen. When I went in there the toaster oven was filled with flames so I called Scott in to help me. We had a surreally calm conversation -

“Do you want the fire extinguisher?”
“No, I don’t think so. I think I’m going to try baking soda first.”

and so on, in normal voices as the kitchen filled with smoke. The baking soda worked right away, and after the smoke cleared I looked at the toaster oven and it had these crazy patterns on it - they look like frost patterns, but were formed by heat - anyone know what the reason for this is?
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Finished!

Published by Helen on June 28, 2007 in Chatter. 0 Comments

Yesterday a friend of mine brought me a bunch of fabric from the goodwill near her house (what a pal!) and among the treasures was the perfect fabric for binding the edge of the quilted cushion I was working on.

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Refurbishing Our NES

Published by Scott on June 27, 2007 in Video Games. 4 Comments

nes_pixel_art.pngWhen I went to play those NES games I bought at Goodwill the other day, I couldn’t get any of them to work. Not only that, but suddenly none of the games we already had would work either. I did some searching around and found an awesome step-by-step DIY article with photos at a site called Good Deal Games. It didn’t look too complicated so I dove right in with a Phillips screwdriver and took the console apart.

The problem was that the connector pins were bent out of place so they couldn’t get a good read on the cartridges. It’s a very common occurrence with the NES system and one Nintendo tried to rectify with a top loading version called NES 2. Basically all I did was remove that part from the console’s guts and bend all the little pins up.

The only tricky part was getting the cartridge tray to sit right when I put it all back together (sans the top.) If the front screws that hold the tray in place were too tight, the spring system wouldn’t work. If they were too loose, the game wouldn’t fit into the connector right unless you physically pushed down lightly on the cartridge. It came down to a lot of testing and little quarter turns of those front screws.

After all that, our new games still wouldn’t work. Following the tips from another article at the same site, I tried cleaning the metal contacts on the cartridges with a 50/50 solution of water and rubbing alcohol. A few dozen filthy Q-tips later and voilá, they all played.

It was a very satisfying little project. I fixed our NES and got five grungy games to work! Helen was less than impressed but I felt pretty cool. I love doing stuff like that, especially with successful results.

See saw

Published by Helen on June 26, 2007 in Chatter. 1 Comment

Two Xmases ago the boys received a rocking thing like this from Ikea:

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We went to Ikea with this purchase in mind, so when the cushion/cover that goes with it was out of stock we bought the rocker anyway. Scott said at the time that I could probably just whip something up myself, and I thought that we’d just get one on a future trip there. We’ve been back a few times since then and still - no cushions in stock. I’ve been itching to do something patchworky and have come across a bunch of blue fabrics recently, so I decided to make a quilted cushion for this rocker.

Here is the top:

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I’ve got velcro on the back and it is quilted together (the top, bottom, and batting) now I just have to find a binding for the edge and it will be done. I’m really happy with it, it is all thrifted fabric, it looks great in their room, and it’s pretty comfy too.

Video Game Bargains

Published by Scott on June 26, 2007 in Video Games. 1 Comment

We picked up a bunch of games while out and about yesterday:

Rampage (Gamecube)
Dashiell and Ray have been dying to get this. We found a used copy at Gamestop for $10, which is the cheapest I’ve seen it. Basically you play as giant monsters and destroy famous cities. Looks repetitious but they’re nuts about it. I like how the campaign mode is multiplayer co-op so they can play at the same time.

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell (Xbox)
Project Gotham Racing (Xbox)
My friend Steve lent me these titles when he first gave us his old XBox, so I’ve played them both extensively. I finished Splinter Cell before but would love to play through it again, especially now that I know what to do for each mission. They’re both really good games and for $2.99 each, again at Gamestop, I couldn’t pass them up.

Balloon Fight (NES)
Blades of Steel (NES)
NES Play Action Football (NES)
T&C Surf Designs: Wood & Water Rage (NES)
Xenophobe (NES)
Helen mentioned in her last post that we actually went back to Goodwill to pick these up. I hesitated on our first visit but later figured that $3 each wasn’t much of a gamble. Even if we only play each a couple of times we pretty much get our money’s worth. Cheap thrills. I really wanted Blades of Steel, which is a hockey game I remember playing back in the day. We already had Balloon Fight through the Gamecube game Animal Crossing. The boys really like it and having the actual cartridge is kind of cool. Football looked okay from the few downs I played. Xenophobe, not so good. Killing aliens is always pretty fun but it turns out the game is laughably basic and dated. The “Wood” part of Wood & Water Rage is an entertaining skateboarding game while the surfing game “Water” is almost unplayable.

Randomness

Published by Helen on June 25, 2007 in Chatter. 2 Comments

I have a bunch of random and unrelated things to post about, so I’m just going to write it out as a list and it hopefully it will come out to about 8 things (and appease Madeline who tagged me for the “8 things” meme :-p) In accordance with my contrary nature, I won’t be passing it on, but I couldn’t think of 8 bloggers even if I was playing along.

1.Today is our 13th anniversary. We got married on our 4th anniversary, so it is also the 17th anniversary of when we met. I was 17 on June 25th in 1990, so that means that sometime in the next couple months I’ll have known Scott for more of my life than I didn’t know him. Ask Scott to tell you about how we met sometime. . .

2. We both forgot about our anniversary until I looked at the calendar this morning. I like to celebrate birthdays (a cake and a few presents) but pretty much any other holiday/event celebration I prefer to do without. Bah humbug!

3. I’ve been making these frogs from this pattern, but the directions say to fill them with lentils or mung beans. Obviously these people don’t live in the South, because all I could think of is grain moths - just imagine a frog with bugs flying out of it - or the beans sprouting in the humidity. So today I got some plastic bean substitutes (poly pellets) and I can start stuffing.

4. I had a frog like the ones above when I was a kid. It was navy blue corduroy with a funky patterned belly. Scott says he had one too - but brown corduroy and it was a lot bigger.

5. We went to goodwill on the way home from the craft store and I scored big time. A container with some crazy trims - those beads are yards of fringe. Two stacks of cotton fabric that turned out to be all of the fabric you see hanging from the deck railing - a quilter’s stash it looks like, 1/4 yards of dozens of prints and some bigger pieces. My favorite is the next picture - embroidered cotton or it might be linen. And the last picture - the yellow is 8 yards of what I suspected to be silk and was right - “100% silk” is woven into the selvage, and the pink/silver I don’t quite know what it is, but it is incredible.

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6. I have a method for dealing with the fabric I get from thrift stores. It has an odor, and it isn’t urine as some people would have you believe (but you can believe that if it keeps you away from my fabric!) I think it is a combination of fabric softeners and cigarette smoke. Some things have a stronger smell, but all things have at least some of the smell. So even if you donate totally non-smelly stuff I think it will pick up some of the funk just being in close proximity to the funk sources.

I usually un-tape and un-tag the fabric on the deck and unfold it into a laundry basket. Because it is folded and taped you can’t tell if it has been cut or has holes or has other fabric hiding inside until this point. Then I sort it according to fabric type and color (which I don’t even do for regular laundry, btw) Then it goes into the washing machine with detergent, a squirt of Dr. Bronner’s lavender, and a shake from the borax box. I hang it to dry on the deck rail, which gets the last remaining funk out and makes it flat and easy to fold. Getting rained on is an anti-funk bonus.

7. We went back to goodwill again because Scott wanted some Nintendo NES games he saw there. He looked them up online after our first visit, and he kept saying, “I should have just gotten them.” Hazel was grouchy because she needed a nap and couldn’t settle down, so it was good excuse to get her in the car seat - she fell asleep instantly.

8. I’m going to the dentist tomorrow and I’m not even freaking out. I’ve had a dentist phobia for a long time and the tooth that I’m getting fixed tomorrow is the one that started it all for me. It is a baby tooth that has no adult tooth underneath. The dentist I’m seeing is really nice and after my cleaning with her I just wasn’t freaked out about having anything done anymore.

Athfest (Candied Pop Plug)

Published by Scott on June 25, 2007 in Chatter. 0 Comments

You may or may not know that I also co-write a music blog called Candied Pop with a couple of guys named James and David. We haven’t exactly been cranking out posts in the last few months but it’s still an active project. Anyway, to top off a busy weekend I went to see Drive-By Truckers at Athfest last night and wrote about it here.

Braves 1, Tigers 2

Published by Scott on June 23, 2007 in Sports. 0 Comments
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I took the boys to the Braves/Tigers game today. It was fun, but extremely hot. Game time temperature was 97 degrees. The Hotlanta nickname is well earned. Next time I’ll remember to get seats on the third base to left field side of the stadium for a day game. Those folks were in the shade the whole time. We slathered on the sunscreen, drank a lot of water, and took a few shade breaks between innings.

The Braves offensive woes continued, managing just one run in their past four games. To their credit today they faced one of the best pitchers in baseball- Justin Verlander. He threw a no-hitter in his last game. I thought we might be in for a repeat of that when he struck out the first three Braves he faced. The first two went down on a total of six pitches! Chipper Jones finally got to him in the fourth with a home run that barely cleared the left field wall. It wasn’t enough though.

We got there in time to see the end of the Tigers’ batting practice. That was pretty cool. It was also free hat day, another bonus there. Chipper is my favorite Atlanta player, so his home run was awesome. And to top it all off, Bobby Cox was tossed in the ninth to match the all-time record of 131 ejections. I suppose that’s not the most glamorous distinction, but we were there to see it happen. I’m sure you’re impressed. Anyway, we had a good time and I’m looking forward to the Braves/Diamondbacks in August.

Sew Cool

Published by Helen on June 19, 2007 in Chatter. 1 Comment

The boys have been asking me to show them how to sew for a while now so last night I told them we’d learn today. I suggested that we make bean bags, and they chose this rainbow stripe fabric from my stash. They drew a pattern and I showed them how seam allowances work - you can see the patterns they cut out on the table there. Then they cut their fabric into squares.
The first beanbag they sewed by hand with a needle I threaded for them. I showed them how tp thread a needle and tie a knot and maybe next time they’ll do it themselves.

Ray with his finished hand sewn beanbag; turned right side out, stuffed, and sewn shut.
For the next one I showed them how to use the sewing machine. (this is Ray) It does not take a whole lot of skill, you get to step on something very much like a gas pedal, and you get almost instant results - they loved it.

Hazel is helping to stuff the bags with beans.
And Dashiell is pretty happy with his results.

Not Tiny Bubbles

Published by Helen on June 19, 2007 in Chatter. 0 Comments

The other day Scott made up a recipe of bubble mixture and the boys made some wands out of pipe cleaners - er- “chenille stems” they are called now . We made some huge (like watermelon-sized) bubbles though the ones in the pictures aren’t quite that big.


The recipe:
4.5 cups water
1/2 cup dish soap (lemon works best for some reason)
1/4-1/2 cup glycerin (from the pharmacy area of the grocery)

Mix together gently without making foam, pour into a shallow pan