Stuff

Photography has definitely taken a back seat lately. But I've also focused on other things that are creative.... well, at least somewhat.

I like to make stuff. It's usually not fancy, and it's almost always a home repair project or a quick DIY job.

I recently got a cheap cross slide vise for use on my drill press.



The vise needed a lot of fixing up despite being new. It was cheaply made, but with the right lube, cleaning, and adjusting, it actually works pretty well. I even added roller bearings on the crank stops so they would turn smoothly and easily.



Cooking is something else I enjoy, but I don't do it very often. I don't do fancy or gourmet necessarily. I just spend a lot of time chopping, cutting, and preparing. And it's usually stuff packed with flavor, spice, and stuff that's generally bad for you in large quantities. This was for Thanksgiving sides - stuffed mushrooms and bacon wrapped stuffed jalepenos.



Beer is still a great source of enjoyment. And I'm still trying new brews when I can.

A recent new one was Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA. It's unlike anything I've had before. It's expensive but a nice treat. At 18% alcohol it's not a beer to drink in large quantities. It's sweet and smooth and does not have a crisp hoppy taste. It's just mellow liquid gold that smoothes out any hops that went into it.



And finally, the biggest time consuming activity in the past several weeks has been a total change in lifestyle. I turned 39 last month, and I've vowed to not reach 40 in the current shape that I'm in.



I've been exercising A LOT both biking and running. I've gotten on Weight Watchers, and I'm learning to eat right.

I've set two goals for a 365 day period:
1) Do Weight Watchers every day
2) Travel 1800 miles on foot or bike (combined)

I really don't have any goals for my weight. I know I will lose weight, but I'm more concerned about eating right and getting healthy.

So it's a big change. I can still eat and drink what I want, but I have to learn to do it in moderation. It's occupying a lot more of my non-work time than I thought. However, it is important and I must make time to exercise.

Been busy...

I've been really busy at work lately. What you see below is a really large flange.

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I had to be on hand to witness and somewhat monitor the fabrication of a few things. Playing field engineer is tiring and sometimes difficult. 12 to 15 hour days will wear you out in a hurry.

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Heavy Lifts & Big Trucks

I spent some time in a fabrication yard last week to witness and participate in the testing of some newly built equipment. This stuff is special, custom-built equipment for subsea pipelines. It will be installed thousands of feet deep in the Gulf of Mexico, and we must be sure that it all fits together and operates correctly.

testing in progress

Testing like this always goes about the same: slow. I had some time to check out the other work going on in the fab. yard (work not related to our job).

Jo Ann
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This is a heavy duty Pacific truck/tractor helping move a Goldhöfer hydraulic platform trailer. The load on the trailer is some sort of large steel framework/foundation. I didn't find out what it was for.

This is the first time I've seen a truck like that, and I had to do a little bit of research on it. Turns out, Pacific built large, heavy duty trucks like this for a long while but are now out of business. There's a great write up of Pacific's history here. Apparently, what's left of the company is now part of this place, which should help keep old Pacifics, like Jo Ann, running for a long while.

Jo Ann is operated by Palletized Trucking of Houston.

Below is a different truck and trailer combo being loaded out with a part of a very large pressure vessel (or a piece of some sort of vessel for the refining industry, most likely).

Pressure Vessel Load-Out
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The truck is a Peterbilt. My wife's brother is an engineer and works for them. So, this one's for you, Clint.

Peterbilt Loaded and Ready
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Happy Birthday, Henry

Happy 4th to the monkey-man, my older son, Henry :-)

Photos from a 3-year Old

A while back, we got Henry a little kiddie camera. It's a low-quality web-cam adapted into a "child-proof" camera body. I'll vouch for its robustness, but the picture quality is terrible.

Henry and his cam.

I put together a little gallery of Henry's photos yesterday:
www.texbrick.com/photo/averybros/hja_pic_01

click to see gallery

There were some interesting photos in the bunch. One interesting observation is that he often shoots things from his eye-level, i.e. he does not look upwards. Another problem is that the camera has a terribly long shutter lag, so he's often putting the camera down while it's in the process of actually taking a photo. He likes to shoot the TV a lot. There were several dozen photos of some of his favorite TV shows.

Some photos seem completely random and some are accidents. He'll depress the shutter sometimes when he's holding the camera at his side.

click to see gallery

But some photos seem like he's actually seriously thinking about the composition when he takes them. It doesn't seem possible because he photographs like a madman, running all over the place rarely standing still for more than 3 seconds. Maybe he'll make a good photojournalist someday?

Michael and Henry

The boys are doing fine and getting bigger each day. Although Michael is the one growing amazingly fast.

the boys outside
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I'll punch your lights out
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Here's a link to the latest gallery of their photos:
www.texbrick.com/photo/averybros/2009_01

Happy New Years Eve

Greetings from the backyard. I'm currently sitting outside, watching Henry play and smoking some chickens.

Of course a good backyard cook-out isn't complete without beer :-) I'm sipping on some Trippel from New Belgium Brewing Co. Good stuff!

And the chickens? Well, it's pretty simple: three whole birds (two with sliced and pickled jalepenos stuffed under the skins) with salt, pepper, and a lot of Mesquite smoke :-) We'll also have some pinto beans and potato salad later.

Hope you all have a fantastic and safe New Year's Eve!

Campin'

While we were in Del Rio over the Christmas holiday, Henry and I went camping out at Lake Amistad one night. It was a daddy/son camping trip, our first real one since he and I camped in the backyard last year.

We passed a pretty good time. The weather wasn't ideal - the skies were gray and the temps were pretty chilly (low 40's, but the wind was blowing pretty good).

About 3am we both had enough of the cold (our tent was not blocking out the wind effectively, even with the rain fly on), and I put the air mattress in the back of our RAV4. We climbed inside and enjoyed a wind-less sleep the rest of the night.

Henry hunts for rocks to throw into the lake.

Henry and daddy kick back and enjoy a few cold ones (Capri Suns & Fat Tire)

Henry warms by the campfire and makes a good-night phone call to momma.

Many thanks to the kind rangers at the Amistad NRA headquarters. They were very helpful and friendly to us. They even gave Henry a Jr. Ranger badge, which he proudly wore. And thanks also to the camp host (at the San Pedro campground) and his lab (Montana). They were very kind as well and even checked up on us.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Avery family! We wish you happy holidays and look forward to a great new year in 2009.

The Boys (Henry and Michael)

Updates 1 of 3 - Michael Allen

My main photographic pursuit lately has been our boys, of course. I'm a little behind in posting here, but I updated the boys' page with some new photos last week. Click the link below.

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Michael Allen is Here!

I'm proud to announce the birth of our second son, Michael. I have a photo gallery online here.

Michael was born this morning, and both he and Tanya did very well. Henry is excited about his new baby brother and keeps talking about him. Stay tuned, more pics to come very soon!

added 20-Oct-2008:
Be sure to check this page for updated photos:
www.texbrick.com/photo/averybros

Hurricane Aftermath

I've been busy lately dealing with this recent hurricane (Ike) and the after effects. The greater Houston area got hit pretty hard. The media likes to focus on Galveston, but the rest of us inlanders suffered quite a bit too. Galveston and the Bolivar Peninsula got smacked, and I'm very sorry. But the 4 to 5 million people living nearby are dealing with some bad stuff too.

We were extremely fortunate to get power so soon after the storm. Most of the Houston area is still in the dark. Some places will be without power for several weeks to possibly a month or more given the damage that was done to vital transmission lines.

Aside from many places being without power, the other big issue at hand is the lack of gasoline. The very few stations that are open right now are swamped with people. I've read reports that it takes only a couple of hours for these stations to run out of gas after they're replished by a tanker, and the tankers aren't coming real fast.

A few grocery stores are open and have dry goods only. All schools are closed. Most businesses are still closed too (including my employer). Houston could very well be in a state of anarchy and chaos, but most people are dealing with the lack of vital resources pretty calmly.

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So what have we been up to? Well, it's been non-stop work pretty much since before the hurricane. We prepped our house and yards before the storm came.



We lost some sections of our fence, a load of branches from our trees, and have a new roof leak. We faired pretty well. There are those much less fortunate. Some of the major damage in the area reported is from large trees falling on houses. We also did see some outright wind damage on some roofs.



Sunday morning was the kick in the face. We got 12+ inches of rain in about 2 hours. Our street flooded (as did many other areas) and our neighbors who had parked out on the street got their vehicles flooded.



We've been working every day to clean up the yards and get our house straight again. Thank God for this recent cold front! The temps outside are quite nice, and for the first time since last winter, we have the AC off and the windows open :-)

We're thankful that we faired reasonably well. We're surpised that we didn't get more damage than we did in our area despite seeing winds so high. So, say a prayer for the folks down here in the Houston area.

p.s. I have a ton of photos from our trip to Big Bend last week. I'll be getting them online shortly, so stay tuned! :-)

In Remembrance

Today marks one year since the sudden passing of a young and dear friend, Mike.

I promised myself that I'd perform some "Mike-ism" today in honor and memory of him. Something along the lines of:

- watch a stupid movie and then spend the next 6 hours quoting it and laughing
- get involved in a lively discussion about politics or sports
- fart and pretend that it didn't smell
- drink single malt scotch straight
- create a massive spreadsheet to analyze and plan my next major purchase
- stop for a green light
- laugh and laugh some more at a stupid joke
- not get pissed off, no matter what angered me
- smile all day long

Mike was the kinda guy that you would like only after 30 seconds of knowing him. He always wore a smile. He always had good things to say about things and people, no matter what. Even the jackass that just cut him off in traffic.

His wife and three young children miss him terribly. We all do. Life is just a little less bright and fun without his presence.

32 Week Ultrasound

The baby is 33 weeks along now as I write. Last week we had the final, scheduled ultrasound.

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The weight was estimated at 5 pounds! And it's still a boy :-) No change there. Due date is Oct. 14.

Tanya is exhausted and uncomfortable, but she's hanging in there. I'm real proud of her and thankful. She's a terrific mom.

New Floor, New Beer (Beer Review 7)

Last weekend we installed laminate flooring in Henry's new "big-boy" bedroom. We wanted to help keep his allergies down and also make the floor more "playable". Try rolling your toy cars on carpet! :-)

carpet goes bye-bye

I'll get to the beer in just a sec, but I just had to show you this. Yep, that's the pile of dirt and crap that was living under the carpet in this relatively small and little-used bedroom of ours. Dirt, dust, dust mites, skin flakes, cat hair, pet dander, toe cheese... yep, it's all in there. Yuck.

big pile of dirt

The place where we bought the laminate flooring was located close to downtown Houston. So on our way there, we made the pilgrimage to the Specs warehouse on Smith Street. Let's just say that when my stomach and taste buds die and go to heaven, it will be the Specs warehouse :-)

I got two beers that I've never tried. Tanya bought them for me as sort of payment for installing the floor. (She's 6-months pregnant, so she's very limited in the work she can do; she also got some funny looks at Specs, but I won't go into that.) I also picked up some very nice coffee beans, dark chocolate, and the best pastrami sandwich I've ever had.

beer & LEGO break

Allagash triple reserve Belgian style ale (Portland, Maine). Tanya picked this out for me. Perhaps my deer-in-headlights look suggested I needed help as I stared at the massive beer selection in Specs. It is massive. Did I mention their selection is quite large? :-)

The Allagash was excellent! It had a classic heavy liquid-bread type taste, characterisitc of quality triples. It was fresh tasting too. I think it was just as good as the Maredsous 10 or the St. Bernardus triple. I wouldn't hesitate getting it again.

laying boards

The work spanned most of my long 3-day weekend. Laying this stuff was fairly easy. I didn't have any serious problems, except for once mistaking my finger for the hammer-block thingy and smashing it pretty good with a sound blow. You know it's bad when you don't feel anything outright except numbness. Thankfully Henry wasn't with me, or he would have learned a few new words.

beer break 2

St. Feuillien triple Belgian ale (from Belgium!). This was my pick. It was damn good. It carries all the full flavor of a triple but it has a subtlety... an extra smoothness. When I read the back of the label, I found the term "mellow" used to describe it. That's exactly it - mellow. It's slightly different from what I'm used to with these heavy Belgian ales (doubles, triples, etc.), but it's very, very good. And it's a bit sweeter than the others too. The mellowness and little extra sweetness make it all too easy to drink :-)

I'd say that my two new beers this past weekend were both top-notch. I'd place them up there on that imaginary top shelf of best beers.

done deal

If you look closely at the above photo, you'll notice something on the window sill :-) That was the last of my Sunshine wheat beer (New Belgium Brewing Co.). I had a couple left over from the 4th of July weekend. It's still damn good. Best wheat beer EVER!

New Addition to the Avery Clan

The big news around here is that come mid-October-ish, we'll have a new addition to the Avery clan. Yes, once again we'll be subject to changing daipers and hand-feeding a little one. Oh wait... we're still doing that :-)

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Little Henry is excited, but still doesn't fully realize what's going to happen. Sharing toys is too hard for him right now, so I can't imaging what he'll do when he has to share mommy and daddy.

Looks like it's going to be another boy. We're definitely excited. Although we really didn't care if it was a boy or girl. We just wanted a second child. They only thing we're hoping and praying for is a healthy baby.

Camping, Part II

Earlier this year, Henry and I camped in the backyard. He loved it, of course, and I promised to take him camping for real.

In early April, we all went to Bastrop State Park for two nights of camping. Henry had a blast. He hiked well, somewhat minding us as we walked along, and stuck it out for most of a 2.5 mile hike. Sleeping in the tents was fun for him too. It wasn't Big Bend, but we all had a great time.


   
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Bryce Canyon, Finally!

My latest photo gallery is from our trip to Bryce Canyon National Park last February. This trip came right after my photo workshop in Death Valley (see my Death Valley photos here).

It's taken me a while to sort through and edit my photos, but I've made it. The process has been slowed by misc. family happenings, computer parts going bad, leaky roofs, and just plain laziness.



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The trip was a blast! Tanya and I were a little apprehensive about driving in snowy/icy conditions (being from the South were such white stuff doesn't exist), but things worked out well for us. And driving in the snow (at least a very thin layer of it) isn't bad at all. Here's a separate gallery with behind-the-scenes photos of us at play:

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We enjoyed the snow. It was deep, dry, and powdery. Thankfully some of the hiking trails were packed hard, and hiking them wasn't too difficult. With the aid of ski poles and slip-on traction devices on our boots, we managed to get around and see the Amphitheater quite well.

Venturing off-trail was a different matter :-) Most of the snow was 2 to 3 feet deep. We rented snow shoes and did a very small amount of off-trail hiking before we realized they didn't help much. It was tough going.

I highly recommend visiting Bryce in the winter to enjoy the snow. Seeing the park can be limited (the lower half of the park, below the major viewpoints, was closed when we were there), but it's incredibly beautiful.