No meat non-vegetarian cooking

Trying to change my diet and support my wife's mostly vegetarian requirements, so I tried a new French Onion Soup with portabella mushrooms. It was good, but the mushrooms did not add anything new: I also cooked Lentils and Red beans: This is simple tasty and full of protein. I know the beef broth, butter and cheese is not vegan, but it makes the soup taste so good! Now if I could just finish off the Christmas cookies without gaining any weight I will be all set.

Next steps

Had my annual Boy Scout required physical and all is well except my weight. You would think that food poisoning and 5 days of not eating would have helped me lose weight. So what else could I do but start backing Christmas cookies Now that the visiting with family and eating all day thing is over it's time to try and do better what I tried to do last year: Eat better, learn to cook a few more dishes, exercise more, do well at work and spend more time with friends and family. The getting into shape thing is now more important because in August I have major Boy Scout trip planned, carrying a 45 pound pack is extra hard when you are carrying an extra 20 pound belly...

My thoughts on picking a camera. First my constraints: Good point and shoot capability – My 75% use case is not “art” Rugged – Backpacking and hiking are not easy on a camera Always with me – Too big, too costly or too delicate to risk in bad weather hiking is not OK SLR like – Good & easy control over camera features Can produce an acceptable 11x17 print My current camera – Kodak Z1012 Good point and shoot Not very rugged – buttons stick, lens grinds Always with me – Yup it's been dropped on many national parks SLR like – Most of the functions I want Can produce a very good 8x10 print. 11x17 is not acceptable. My test of the Nikon P500 Point and shoot is poorer than my Z1012 Rugged – Looked solid, no field experience Always with me – On the high end of price and size $380 (US dollars) SLR like – Good set of features Photo quality was poorer than my Z1012. Poor color and a soft focus (could be corrected in post processing, but a lot of unnecessary work) My test of the Kodak Max Z990 Point and shoot features a good, easy to use, many more functions than the Nikon (or Z1012) Rugged – Looks solid, no field experience Always with me – $260 I can feel OK about it being ruined on a backpacking trip. Size/weight is my limit SLR like – Good set of features I'm still learning Photo quality – It looks to be better than my Z1012, but not dramatically better.

Kodak Max Z990 vs Kodak Z1012

Kodak Max Z990 vs Kodak Z1012, a set on Flickr.

My first few test shots with a Z990. The first impression is that it's a good solid camera. The automatic mode works well and produces sharp color accurate photos, you can't ask for much more. Still playing with all the wiz bang features, but the 90% use case is automatic and it hands down beats the Nikon P500 for that (but so does my Kodak Z1012).

Republican Presidential Candidates Reaffirm Commitment to Big Brother Government

The Faith and Freedom Coalition is working hard to outlaw many forms of birth control, create new laws about marriage and in general reduce personal rights and our ability to chose. So why are so called Conservatives fighting trying to one up each other in promising to support the goals of the Faith and Freedom Coalition? Could it be that they truly believe in bigger government and limiting personal rights and freedom of choice?

Troop 755 Camp Food

100_8715, a photo by cdrdwd on Flickr.

Potatoes, Carrots, Onion and Hamburger never tested so good. 30lb of dutch oven bread was consumed to the last crumb by 100 scouts and scouters

Food, Friends and Lawn Jobs

Started the day with a trip to Costco to pick up a few last items for company today and Easter company tomorrow (I also manged to pick up three Blue Spruce and two Weeping Cherry trees for the yard). I also picked up another bottle of Marquis Philips 2008 Shiraz (yum). I spent a few hours prepping dinner of: Tabbouleh, a rustic French boule, grilled asparagus, grilled peppers and grilled chicken with goat cheese and dried tomatoes . I was prepping some shrimp for an appetizer when I heard my son yell from the backyard. A White Acura MDX was driving through our backyard! Christopher and some neighbors got the license plate and called the police. Novi Police showed up and toke some information and the plate number. An hour later I got a call from the officer, the plate matched an Acure MDX in Northville, but the parents swore that their son was home with them and the care never moved. More to come when I hear it.

On to dinner; we had the Stones over and had a very nice time, ate shrimp in the back yard with a nice riesling, than moved into the dinning room for the main course. Wrangell was well behaved and happy to see people. Renee fixed Tiramisu for dessert and I had an espresso. The only thing that could have gone better is Dominoes. I did get high score...

Ending Taxes season!

I completed my Taxes on the 4/16 this year, that's one day later than any other year, and two days earlier than required. Glad to be done with them.

C# - The evils of var

Today I was trying to modify a collection of classes and interfaces used across 50 different applications. I wanted to remove some unused interfaces and did a quick grep for one and found that it was not used in any of the applications. I removed it and tried to recompile and found that it was used, just anonymously via "var". I have yet to come up with any reason to use var except for laziness...

Road Rash - Thankfully on my phone (or do I live in a 3rd world country?)

A lot planned for the day, give the dog a bath, complete my taxes, go for a bike ride and go to an Eagle Court of Honor. I blocked out Noon-2PM for a bike ride, figuring I could make the 3PM Eagle COH. The weather was great, Hines Park was busy and I was riding well. Coming home a took a rider going up a hill and hit it hard coming down, try to time a light I knew would turn green. As a got to the light another biker dogged a pot hole and I dogged the biker and took the hole. I flew a foot in the air, my water bottles went flying as I crossed the road. I got to the other side and was amazed that I was still on my bike and OK. I stopped and waited for the light so that I could pick up my water bottles and was ready to be on my way. When I got on my bike I discovered that my rear tire was flat (snake bite - where the tube is pinched by the rim). I did a quick patch and used my CO2 cartridge to blow it up, and I was on my way, 5 minutes lost... not bad. I got home and found my phone was missing (not in my jersey pocket). Now it's 2:15 and I have an Eagle COH at 3PM. Christopher and I drive back to where I got the flat and after 5 minutes find the phone. It's no longer much of a phone, bad case of road rash and it only beeps when powered on. I did make the Eagle COH, just 15minutes late. Now I have to decide how to get Michigan to maintain it's roads or take up a fat tire bike that can survive 3rd world roads.

A new puppy named Wrangell-St. Elias

Well our dog decided that it did not want to be alone in the crate, so from 11:30PM until about 2AM it cried on and off. About 2AM I let him out and than put a hot water bottle in his crate and he was able to sleep until 7AM. Today Christopher decided on a name for him: Wrangell (short for Wrangell-St. Elias). He also received his first bath today, he looks great and smells much better, and seems somewhat comfortable getting a bath. Today I have been running Wrangell around the yard has much as I can because I really need a good nights sleep tonight.

A dog named TBD

Well it's been a good day, Renee and I picked up a Whoodle today (half Poodle, half Wheaton Terrier. We (well mostly Christopher) are working on a name, with Wrangle and Scout being the two top contenders. The dog is currently about 8lbs but will reach about 40lbs when fully grown. He is a bit timed, but loves to lay at my feet and follow me around the yard.

Getting out and about on a bike and a hike

It's been a good week for getting out. Tuesday I went biking with a guy from work I met on an internal social network, the one thing he did not mention is he is half my age and does half iron-mans for fun. I managed to hold my own, but lets just say nothing got done at home Tuesday. Wednesday was a complete waste of time, the only redeeming quality was how easy it was to replace my router which was shot when I got home. Tonight my friends were biking, but I had a better offer; Christopher asked if I wanted to go for a hike at Maybury state park, so we did a two hour hike. We walked past his eagle project and things still look good, so we both felt good about that. Anytime your teenage son want to walk and talk, do it!

Photography - Merit Badge that is

Sunday night in a moment of weakness I volunteered to teach the Photography Merit Badge. So tonight I was working with 9 scouts talking about photography. First thing is 12-16 year olds who sit for hour in school and have finished homework are incapable of sitting quietly and listening. So even thought I'm passionate about Scouting and Photography, I'm not so enthused about trying to get scouts to sit still for 45 minutes. With photography I have found the hook, let them criticize my photographs, and than make them explain what is wrong and than I can explain why it's wrong and how to fix it. I just wish I had fewer photos capable of teaching what not to do.

The way Sundays should be...

Most of the time Sundays are taken up doing all the "stuff" that was not done the rest of the week (and for me still needs to be done).  Today was different, we accomplished nothing and did things more important.  We started by sleeping a little later than normal and went to church.  After church Renee stayed home and cleaned up after our guests from Saturday and I went shopping for dinner.  As usual I had less than a plan for dinner, I normally just look for what looks good and I know we can enjoy for 2 or 3 days.  I finish shopping with the intent of making beef stroganoff, tabbouleh, grilled asparagus, peppers and summer squash , tempeh, chicken and a rustic French bread.  Well as I'm checking out from shopping Renee calls and says my Mom and her Aunt will be stopping buy for an hour.  I got home and talked them into staying for dinner (mostly by the aroma of cooking bread).  So I did not get my bike ride in, but I did get several hours of great company and great food out of the deal.  All Sundays should be so good.  Now off to the Troop 755  Committable meeting.  I may not have gotten a bike ride in, but I sure got my two hours of passion and I will eat well for a few more days.

Two hours of passion a day!

Is it a midlife crises or just starting to truly value what's important, I'm not sure why I want to change, but I'm sure I do want things to change.  To put it simply I want more of what I'm passionate about in my life.  More time with my wife, more time with family & friends,more good food, more biking, more camping, more backpacking, more reading and more writing (If you know me this last item should concern you).  

It's easy to get busy and let days and weeks go by with little or nothing done for pure joy and the passion of doing it.  TV, facebook and the like are little more than mental masturbation; entertaining on the surface, but not fulfilling.  So my plan is to make sure that I spend two hours everyday doing things that are real and that I love to do.

So I started today with a two plus hour bike ride and going out to dinner with my lovely bride, followed by having friends over for drinks.  It may be overkill, but you gota start somewhere.

April 1 - Bike ride and the want for a helmet cam

I'm trying to ride every day of April and I started with a one hour ride around Novi.
The Good:  It was almost warm and sunny and it just felt great to be out.
The Bad:  Many of the streets that have been paved in the last 5 years are a disaster, 2-4 inch crack at every pavement seam.  The contractor should be sued!
The Ugly:  I found a nice stretch of smooth road and was nearly taken out by a middle aged women pulling out of a drive, apparently if your running late it's OK to assault cycles in Northville  (dead-end of Scenic Lane, Northville, MI 48167).

C# Fun and bugs - Multiple interface ambiguities

Error 1 Ambiguity between 'System.Collections.Generic.ICollection<double>.Count' and 'System.Collections.ICollection.Count'


// My interface 
 public interface ITest: IList<double>, ICollection { } 
 // The class public 
class bob : List<double>, ITest { } 
 // Using .Count from the ITest fails 
public class Test 
 { public Test() { ITest iTest = new bob(); int a = iTest.Count; } }

I googled this and check with a few "experts" and found nothing.  Then I looked at the error and found that IList and ICollection both define int Count.  So the compiler does not know which count is used in the interface.  The simple solution is to add:

   new int Count {get;} 

to ITest, this resolves the issue by providing one "Count" to the interface.

Random Thoughts

Work was both good and frustrating, found out about groups trying to build/buy tools that our group already provides.  Communications in a large company are just a pain sometimes.  The good news is that opportunity abounds for the growth in my area.

It's mid spring and the forecast includes a chance of snow:OUCH!  So instead of riding my bike outside I went to the gym...  Tomorrow starts 30 days of biking:  http://30daysofbiking.com/ and I'm ready.

Watching the middle-east and trying to figure out of the democracy revolution is starting or if new dictators are emerging...  As the Zen masters say "We'll see".