Category Archives: Fallen Warriors

Table work

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I’m working on the table/desk now. It’s got the cherry top that you’ve seen in early construction phase here. Now I’m assembling the apron. I bought the table legs from Osborne Wood Products. They’d have sold me the apron, too, but I was already stocked on the materials I needed for this. On Friday I did all the cuts. Today I did some round-over routing of the lower edges, cut a groove for the table top clips, and assembled the apron:

Assembling the desk/table apron

Assembling the desk/table apron

The center stretchers are affixed with pocket screws. The angled pieces in the corners are glued and pinned – They will (eventually) have holes for hanger bolts from the legs for final assembly. Because I’m using the table saw as an assembly surface, I’m protecting small areas with wax paper. For a larger project, I’d drop on a piece of hardboard instead.

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Our condolences to the familes, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

  • Sgt. 1st Class Trenton L. Rhea, 33, of Oakley, Kan., died May 15, in Kandahar, Afghanistan, after drowning while attempting to cross a body of water during combat operations.
  • Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey C. Baker, 29, of Hesperia, California, died May 14, in Sanjaray, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.
  • Spc. Mitchell K. Daehling, 24, of Dalton, Massachusetts, died May 14, in Sanjaray, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.
  • Spc. William J. Gilbert, 24, of Hacienda Heights, California, died May 14, in Sanjaray, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.

Busy Sunday

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When I laid out the doors and shelves and such for finishing, there wasn’t room to leave the cabinet carcass in the woodshop and still have room to setup for roasting coffee. Coffee wins, so I dragged the carcass sections upstairs, assembled and temporarily loaded them up:

Corner cabinet in place

Corner cabinet in place

I ran out of time to get any more finishing done on the remaining pieces, sadly. I did get the main garden up and running today, though…

2013 garden getting started

2013 garden getting started

There’s 24 tomato plants, 12 pepper plants, beans, cucumbers, zucchini, potatoes, etc. I still have to get the herb box cleared and up, as well as do the watering setup. For the next few days, I’ll hand water.

I’m still going to try to get Marcia’s sites migrated over to the new system tonight, before I fall over sideways.

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

  • Staff Sgt. Eric D. Christian, 39, of Warwick, New York, died May 4, while conducting combat operations in Farah province, Afghanistan.
  • Cpl. David M. Sonka, 23, of Parker, Colorado, died May 4, while conducting combat operations in Farah province, Afghanistan.
  • 1st Lt. Brandon J. Landrum, 26, of Lawton, Oklahoma, died May 4, in Maiwand, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when his vehicle was attacked by an enemy improvised explosive device.
  • Staff Sgt. Francis G. Phillips IV, 28, of Meridian, New York, died May 4, in Maiwand, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when his vehicle was attacked by an enemy improvised explosive device.
  • Spc. Kevin Cardoza, 19, of Mercedes, Texas, died May 4, in Maiwand, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when his vehicle was attacked by an enemy improvised explosive device.
  • Spc. Thomas P. Murach, 22, of Meridian, Idaho, died May 4, in Maiwand, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when his vehicle was attacked by an enemy improvised explosive device.
  • Spc. Brandon J. Prescott, 24, of Bend, Oregon, died May 4, in Maiwand, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when his vehicle was attacked by an enemy improvised explosive device.

LOPSA-East #FTW

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I got back this morning at about 11:30 following a fantastic LOPSA-East conference. I entertained such subjects as Tom Limoncelli’s Evil Genius 101, Kyle Fulton’s Automation in the Cloud with Puppet, Shumon Huque’s Using and Migrating to IPv6, and Matt Simmons’s Intro to SSDs. The Friday night keynote was delivered by Marcus Ranum of varied and interesting fame – his talk was funny, accurate, and depressing as hell. Just sayin’.

The New Brunswick Hyatt is venue for the conference, and it was excellent. The food was superb (in general, not just in the context of a tech conference), and the training rooms were well equipped. The LOPSA organizers are all awesome. #HighFives, y’all.

The 325i was a fine place to spend a few hours in driving up on Thursday afternoon, and back this morning. Four hundred miles round trip, and I got over 37 MPG. Wow!

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

  • Staff Sgt. Michael H. Simpson, 30, of San Antonio, Texas, died May 1 in Landstuhl, Germany, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit on April 27, with an improvised explosive device in Arian, Afghanistan.
  • Spc. Trinidad Santiago Jr., 25, of San Diego, California, died May 2, in Camp Buehring, Kuwait, of injuries sustained in a vehicle accident.
  • Pfc. Charles P. McClure, 21, of Stratford, Oklahoma, died May 2, in Camp Buehring, Kuwait, of injuries sustained in a vehicle accident.
  • Capt. Mark T. Voss, 27, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, died May 3, near Chon-Aryk, Kyrgyzstan, in the crash of a KC-135 aircraft.
  • Capt. Victoria A. Pinckney, 27, of Palmdale, California, died May 3, near Chon-Aryk, Kyrgyzstan, in the crash of a KC-135 aircraft.
  • Tech Sgt. Herman Mackey III, 30, of Bakersfield, California, died May 3, near Chon-Aryk, Kyrgyzstan, in the crash of a KC-135 aircraft.

Paint It Black

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Well. not “black” as such, Rolling Stones songs notwithstanding. But I’ve managed to get finish (off-white, some walnut stain bodged onto the white for character, and dark teal) applied to all the bits of the cabinets. I’ve got a bit more “character” to apply to the face frames of the cabinets, then it’s time for polyurethane. Another few days at least…

It was a good five-day stint of woodworking and finishing, fun, really. I did take a break from that to shop, mow, and roast coffee (Nicaragua Finca Santa Helena Caturra, from Sweet Maria’s, of course) today, too.

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

Pfc. Barrett L. Austin, 20, of Easley, South Carolina, died April 21 in Landstuhl, Germany, of injuries sustained when his vehicle was attacked by an enemy improvised explosive device in Wardak Province, Afghanistan, April 17.

Capt. Aaron R. Blanchard, 32, of Selah, Washington, died April 23, in Pul-E-Alam, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered from enemy indirect fire.

1st Lt. Robert J. Hess, 26, of Fairfax, Virginia, died April 23, in Pul-E-Alam, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered from enemy indirect fire.

Capt. Brandon L. Cyr, 28, of Woodbridge, Virginia, died April 27, near Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, in the crash of an MC-12 aircraft.

Capt. Reid K. Nishizuka, 30, of Kailua, Hawaii, died April 27, near Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, in the crash of an MC-12 aircraft.

Staff Sgt. Richard A. Dickson, 24, of Rancho Cordova, California, died April 27, near Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, in the crash of an MC-12 aircraft.

Staff Sgt. Daniel N. Fannin, 30, of Morehead, Kentucky, died April 27, near Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, in the crash of an MC-12 aircraft.

Spring games

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Friday night surrounded by wind and rain, we played Scrabble. Turns out that there is a body part you can use to not just win, but dominate in this game:

Winning at Scrabble takes balls.

Winning at Scrabble takes ______.

Fertilized and rained on, the lawns demand an aggressive mowing schedule. The good news is that following Friday’s storms, the temps were down significantly, making the yardwork a lot less sweaty. I also made progress on the cabinet building in the woodshop, fabricating the perforated screen door for the computer cabinet.

This metal screen cabinet door will aid in ventilation for the computers that will live in this cabinet.

Metal screen cabinet door

All of the components for the lower cabinet are now done. I need to build a couple of intermediate shelves for the upper, and three more doors. Then I can sand and finish that, taking another week or two. Next up, the cherry and maple desk.

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

Chief Warrant Officer Matthew P. Ruffner, 34, of Tafford, Pennsylvania, died April 9, in Pachir Wa Agam District, Nangarhar province, Afghanistan.

Chief Warrant Officer Jarett M. Yoder, 26, of Mohnton, Pennsylvania, died April 9, in Pachir Wa Agam District, Nangarhar province, Afghanistan.

Eeek! It’s Monday!

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The weekend was given over to spring cleaning, and moving bits of furniture about. I was in another world last night –  a world of pain. So sorry to have given the mostly-regular Sunday post a miss.

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Top Tech Tip – You should have on-premise Tier 1 timekeepers – NTP out in the world is a scary place (search on “ntp vulnerabilites” for more information). Used to be, you could either cobble something that worked out of an old bit of Garmin gear, or spent 2-3K$ on a “proper” rack-mounted GPS unit. It’s not good to have single points of failure, though, so either more cobbling, or more likely a second expensive bit of kit.

Now, though, there’s the Time Server, from Time Machines. When I say “now,” I’ve no idea how long these things have been on market. The Internet Archive first noticed this product in late 2011, so it’s been a year and a half, at least. The products are inexpensive, well built, and do precisely what is described. And at $600 for a pair of them, redundancy is a no brainer. Highly recommended.

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

  • Chief Warrant Officer Curtis S. Reagan, 43, of Summerville, South Carolina, died March 29 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, from a non-combat related illness.
  • Capt. James Michael Steel, 29, of Tampa, Florida, died April 3 in the crash of an F-16 near Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan.

Bunny Sunday

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Or, dare I say, hasenpfeffer? No, we didn’t have that for supper – the rabbits aren’t out and about yet as it’s been too bloody cold! I did nothing special in celebration of a mystical fiction. Instead, I continued to work on the RHCE material through the day.

This evening, we watched the new Doctor Who episode via DVR. The writing on that show remains so very sharp and smart.

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Our condolences to the family, friends, and unit of Sgt. Michael C. Cable, 26, of Philpot, Kentucky, who died on March 27 from injuries sustained when his unit was attacked by enemy forces in Shinwar District, Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan.

Still Winter Here

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I think I want my DST hour back now, since Winter has decided to hang about for a while longer. We’ve barely gotten up into the low forty’s for highs this week, and the forecast for tonight? “Periods of snow, rain mixed in.” Just lovely.

I was gluing cabinet carcasses in the woodshop this weekend, and I went over to the Southern Comforters quilt show this afternoon, to see the pieces that Marcia had entered there. She’s a member of that organization, and this is her first showing event. No ribbons this time around, but she had fun, and I think her quilts are great. See some of them at her Marcia’s Makings site.

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

  • Sgt. 1st Class James F. Grissom, 31, of Hayward, Calif., died March 21 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, of wounds suffered from small arms fire March 18 in Paktika Province, Afghanistan.
  • Sgt. Tristan M. Wade, 23, of Indianapolis, Ind., died March 22 in Qarah Bagh District, Ghazni Province, Afghanistan, when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.

 

Springing

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Some leaves and flowers are starting to make a for-real appearance around the neighborhood. Spring is very nearly here. So is yardwork, more’s the pity.

Most of the weekend I spent down in the woodshop. I have pictures, but no time to process them for you  right now. I did get the table top for my office desk assembled, cut and cornered, rounded over all the edges, and sanded to 220 grit on the flats, and 320 grit on the end grains. Today I finish-cut and did the dadoes on the pieces for the new corner cabinet that will hold computers, a printer, and other things. Tonight, I executed a DNS migration at work. A bit tricksy, but ultimately successful.

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

  • Tech. Sgt. Larry D. Bunn, 43, of Bossier City, Loisiana, died March 7 as a result of a non-combat incident at an undisclosed base in Southwest Asia.
  • Capt. Andrew M. Pedersen-Keel, 28, of South Miami, Florida, died March 11, in Jalrez District, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when he was attacked by small arms fire.
  • Staff Sgt. Rex L. Schad, 26, of Edmond, Oklahoma, died March 11, in Jalrez District, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when he was attacked by small arms fire.
  • Chief Petty Officer Christian Michael Pike, 31, of Peoria, Arizona, died March 13 in Landstuhl, Germany, as a result of combat-related injuries sustained on March 10 while conducting stability operations in Maiwand District, Afghanistan.
  • Spc. David T. Proctor, 26, of Greensboro, North Carolina, died March 13, at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, from injuries sustained during a non-combat incident on March 3, in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan.
  • Staff Sgt. Steven P. Blass, 27, of Estherville, Iowa, died March 11, in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
  • Chief Warrant Officer Bryan J. Henderson, 27, of Franklin, Loisiana, died March 11, in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
  • Capt. Sara M. Knutson, 27, of Eldersburg, Maryland, died March 11, in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
  • Staff Sgt. Marc A. Scialdo, 31, of Naples, Florida, died March 11, in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
  • Spc. Zachary L. Shannon, 21, of Dunedin, Florida, died March 11, in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
  • Chief Warrant Officer James E. Groves III, 37, of Kettering, Ohio, died March 16 in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Many Things Accomplished

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Our New Quilt of Many Colours

Our New Quilt of Many Colours

But first, look at the lovely quilt that my lovely Marcia made for our California king. The colors and design are gorgeous (and they pick up some of the colors in the painting over the bed). Awesome!

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I managed to get three coats of finish on the shelves over the two days. I patched some work systems remotely, and tested them once rebooted. I roasted coffee, went shopping, and gave myself a haircut. I walked the dog a few times.

And Congress stole an hour of sleep from me, and the rumour is that I don’t get it back for nearly 8 months … and then without interest. Bastards. And I did the taxes for 2012. Bastards. Balance our checkbook, eh? Bastards.

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Our condolences to the family and friends of  Spc. Cody D. Suggs, 22, of West Alexandria, Ohio. He died March 7 at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, as a result of a non-combat incident.