Orb Designs

  • Eeek! It’s Monday!

    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

    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.

  • Change of Plans

    It’s a glorious Spring day out there. But I’m doing none of the things I should be doing on a day like this. I’m not out working in the yard, front or back. I’m not out playing, hiking, or whatevs. Instead, I’m doing quiet inside stuff.

    I’ve been surrounded by people with varying degrees of razor throat (aka strep) for the last couple of weeks. Friday morning, I woke at 0300 with my throat starting to act up. I’ve also been battling a mild right ear infection for a couple of days. So, unusually for me, I bailed on work after a couple of hours yesterday morning, and went to the doctor’s office. They agreed that I needed a bit of help over this particular hump, and gave me a standard five day course of azithromycin. Also I got instructions to take it easy for a few days. Sigh. I’m staying out of the woodshop, and out of the yard.

    So instead, I’m working on an RHCE course book and listening to prog rock. At the moment, the music is the 1991 Union Tour Live 1991 from Yes, and the RHCE topic is Kickstart files. The life of Reilly, this is mine. Heh, not!

  • Still Winter Here

    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

    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.

  • Progress

    Installing the second set of shelves
    Installing the second set of shelves

    Yesterday, I ambitiously decided I’d get the second set of shelves installed after work. So I cleared out that side of the office (and piled crap into the guest bedroom). I carried all the pieces and assorting tools upstairs in three or four trips, assembled the backs to the carcasses, and started setup.

    The floor on this side of the room is considerably less level. Fortunately, on all of these units I’ve been installing screw-adjustable feet, which makes quick work of the problem. You can also see how I bracketed the lower unit to the wall.

    Second shelving unit assembled
    Second shelving unit assembled

    With the lower in place, I added some LED rope lights to the top of the upper section, lifted it into place, and screwed it to the lower unit, from below. I *really* like the dark teal – it’s grown on me further since I picked the color out a few weeks ago.

    Today, I jointed and started laying out the cherry boards for the desk top. Next step for that? Biscuit cutter, biscuits, and glue.

    Preparing the cherry desk top
    Preparing the cherry desk top

     

  • Many Things Accomplished

    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.

  • Terrifying weather…

    Everything is closed … well, lots of things, including the “we’ll not `close` the government ever again” Federal Government. Schools. Etc. Post office is working, and aggressively delivering in case the snow gets worse. Some will have to stick to the roads for it to be worse:

    March 2013 snow
    March 2013 snow

    I shot that just after 8 this morning. As of a few minutes ago (just after noon) … no change. I’d be quaking in my boots … but wait, I don’t need boots, the snow isn’t sticking … and it’s warmed up to 36 degrees F. Yeah. Scary.

  • Quiet Sunday

    After yesterday, all I managed today was the weekly grocery shopping, a bit of furniture painting, and the roasting of the coffee (a Guatamala Huehuetenango Finca Reglaito, from Sweet Maria’s).

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    Further good news, no caualties reported in the last week by DoD. Ciao!

  • Musical … well, everything.

    I’d say “musical chairs”, but a lot more than chairs are involved. Marcia’s got some quilting work coming up that is approximately a billion times easier (using Top Gear maths, there) if she is able to use all the power of her fully operational Death Quilter. Errr, or something like that. But the only place we can do the full build out of her quilting frame is the library, because the other choices are someone’s woodshop, and the living room. So, here’s what the library looked like at 10:30 this morning.

    Library before reorganization
    Library before reorganization

    The blue chairs, the occasional table, and the bookcase move walls, left to right. That table to the right? That’s going into the breakfast nook.  The table that’s in the breakfast nook? That’s going down the stairs, to hold up the embroidery machine, which currently lives on a corner of Marcia’s cutting table. The cutting table? That goes into the fabric room downstairs, once the quilting frame is migrated upstairs. Here’s the quilting frame in it’s original cramped quarters. Marcia and I had already brought the long arm sewing machine  upstairs.

    Quilting machine frame in fabric room.
    Quilting machine frame in fabric room.

    The HandiQuilter frame actually has three 4′ long sections. At the time of initial install, we tried to keep everything confined to Marcia’s half of the basement, which meant only installing it as an 8′ system, and into cramped quarters at that. Marcia headed out to meet friends and I got to work. I prepared the library, then disassembled and migrated the quilting frame upstairs. I also pulled in the boxed parts that I needed to build out to full length. By two in the afternoon, I had the whole thing back together, no left over parts, in the library:

    Quilting Machine in the Library
    Quilting Machine in the Library

    With that done, I did a bit of prep disassembly on the cutting table, and then had a late lunch while I waited for Marcia to get home. She helped me move the cutting table pieces between rooms, then I reassembled that in the fabric room. Then I disassembled the breakfast nook table, hauled it downstairs, and put it back together there. We put the embroidery machine on that. THEN I moved the previously disassembled round table bits into the breakfast nook and reassembled it there.

    It was a long day of work, and a lot of stairs, too. We still have to find homes for a few displaced things, but progress on that tomorrow (I hope). Whew!