Devin's Visit

For the second straight year, Devin, Bode's cousin on the McGuirk side from Albuquerque, came and stayed with us over Memorial Day weekend, and for the second straight year, we spent the weekend up at the mountain estate.  The Albuquerque clan arrived on Thursday night, and we all met up for dinner at a Japanese restaurant (I forgot the camera).  We had a wonderful meal, and were even more thrilled when Grammy picked up the check :-)  The four kiddos spent the night at Grammy's house.  First thing Friday morning, Ashley headed up to Blue River with the dogs.  She left early because we actually went and bought a THIRD piano--we have two in our house in Colorado Springs, and figured the mountain estate needed one.  She found one online in Hartsel, and has spent the last month figuring out how to get it delivered, which she managed to schedule for Friday morning.  The piano cost a whole $75...moving it was a bit more expensive :-)  It is a nice looking piano, although it does need some love, but it is playable and doesn't hurt one's ears any worse than when I sing.

I apologize for the quality of the above picture--for some reason, the only piano picture I took was with my phone.  The movers got it into the house with no trouble, which is amazing seeing that the piano weighs close to 700 pounds.  Bode, Devin, and I arrived around 1:45, having left Colorado Springs around 11:00 and stopping in Florissant at the Subway.  We relaxed for a bit, and then we went to dinner at Downstairs at Eric's, which has decent food, but more importantly, an arcade.  Bode's favorite game is Skeetball, which is awesome since it's only $0.25 per game.  Here's a movie of Bode and Devin playing what was probably once considered an advanced technology game.

My favorite game is the basketball shooting contest.  Ashley was kind enough to take a quick movie--watching me shoot reminds me a lot of Stephen Curry, and I'm sure you all can see the resemblance. 

After some good old-fashioned fun, we went to the Breckenridge Escape Room, which was pretty cool.  It's basically a room, in which you have to find various clues and solve puzzles in order to solve the crime that was committed before you arrived.  No pictures were allowed in the room, but I did take these two before we went inside.

Fortunately, we were able to solve all the puzzles and get out in 58:20.  Afterwards, we went home and relaxed.  The two kids queued up a movie and watched it as they fell asleep.

Saturday, I woke up early and took Joey for a run.  It's always best to try to wear him out because the mountain estate has no dog-door, and leaving an excited energetic Joey indoors for an extended period of time is asking for trouble.  The kids slept in, and then Mommy made up pancakes and bacon.  We then headed over to Frisco where we rented some bikes and went on a bike ride around the lake.  The temperatures were almost warm enough--great when the sun was out, but when it wasn't, our hands got a little chilly.  Still, the scenery was great.  Below are some pictures of the team.  First up are some pictures as we headed across the street to the bike path.

Next, some photos along the trail.  Some of the hills were steep, and Bode and Devin, tried as they might, had to get off and walk on some of them, which just meant it was time to stop for some Gatorade and some pictures.

At one point, Bode wanted to see how warm the water was.  He didn't believe us when we said it was ice-cold.  Even after he felt it, he still believed he could swim in it.  We told him to have at it, but he declined.

The bike was great, but I think we were all tiring out towards the end.  We grabbed a bite at a Mexican place, and then headed home.  Not being ones to relax, the kids wanted to take a walk out to the Blue River and throw rocks into the water.  We happily obliged them.

We saw lots of moose droppings near the river, and figured there must be moose nearby.  When we got back to the house, our neighbor told us a moose had just bedded down behind his house.  We carefully checked him out.  The moose had recently dropped their antlers, but this one still looked pretty big--his head is huge!

Sunday was another activity filled day.  Ashley took the kids (and Joey) hiking in the morning (no pictures).  We had lunch at home, and then we headed out to the ice rink for some ice-skating.  None of us are great skaters, but we had a great time...

until I fell.  Nothing serious, but it hurts so much more falling as a middle-aged man than as a young person :-)  After skating, we went to the rec-center for some indoor swimming, which included some keep-away, some water-ball activities, and then mini-rock wall that you could try to climb from the water (again, no pictures).  And then we finished our time in Breckenridge with a trip back to the arcade for more Skeetball, basketball, and Pac-Man.  This morning, we woke up early and made it back to Colorado Springs by 9:30.  We headed up to Villa and swam for a couple hours before the crowd got too crazy.  We then came home for lunch, during which I asked the kids about the weekend.  I expected a more enthusiastic response, but I guess that's kids.

We anxiously awaited the arrival of Uncle Pat, Sean, and Brenna, who were returning from a weekend of soccer in Denver.  As I write this, Bode is now riding down to Albuquerque to spend the week with the New Mexicans :-)  I'm not sure what Ashley and I will do--I think we already miss the kids, but I think we will also enjoy a week with NO responsibilities.  Happy Memorial Day to all.

The Garden

I have started another growing season.  I was excited because back in March, I got my bird-net all situated.  It was a thing of beauty...until we had a real heavy snow.  The snow stuck to and ultimately collapsed my bird net.  I was able to salvage some of it, but it's no where near as neat and orderly as it once was.  Still, as long as it keeps the birds away, I'm happy.

I started a lot of plants indoors towards the end of March to the beginning of April.  Corn will grow just about anywhere.  I'm hoping to have about a 30-day head-start compared to last year.  Recall, I only got a few good ears of corn.  With this early planting, I'm hopeful to get some good ears.  I put some corn in the garden over the weekend...

but it was fairly windy, and some of the stalks broke.  Apparently, there isn't much wind inside our home to get them acclimated such that they are wind-proof.  Thus, I kept the remaining corn inside until the winds die down.

I'm also keeping some honeydew and watermelon inside until 1 June.  You just can't trust the weather here.  I started these the beginning of April.  When I planted starting outside, the largest watermelon I got was the size of a grape.  Here's hoping the extra 45 days results in real-sized melons.

I planted lettuce, carrots, broccoli, onions, and some peas in early April.  All survived the winter and are growing strong.

The box on the left has some potatoes.  I figured if The Martian could grow potatoes on Mars, I should be able to grow them in my garden.  I also started pumpkins and cucumbers inside, and have since transplanted them to the outdoors.  I think one cucumber died in the process, but the rest seem to have survived.

The two raspberry plants we planted last year have survived and are taking over.  I look forward to a good fruitful harvest (maybe next year).

I also have some store-bought tomato plants that I will put in the garden in the next couple of days.  I also planted beans, lima beans, more peas, and some sunflowers.  I'm excited to see what grows :-)  I'm also very excited that my three fruit trees survived the winter.  It will be a number of years before they provide any fruit, but I think they are now established.  The top one is a pear tree while the two on the left are apple trees.

I will keep you all posted (I know you can't wait) as the various fruits and veggies come to harvest.  Pleasant day to all.

Little Pele

Bode is playing on a soccer team.  But perhaps team is too strong.  The age group is 6-8 years old.  Bode is by far the oldest boy on the team.  In this league, it's really about fun--not a whole lot of competition or anything like that.  Bode had a game on Saturday, and he scored three (3!!) goals.   But he's not really an offensive minded player.  He's really into defense (probably because you don't have to run as far).  I took some pictures--didn't get any great shots, but some turned out ok.  First up is Bode getting ready to attack the ball.

Obviously not a successful attack, as this next picture shows (he's a bit winded).

Next is a sequence of pictures where Bode is running up to kick the ball.

Finally, I almost got a picture of Bode scoring a goal.  I was getting ready to start filming when he scored.  Sadly, all I got was the ball in the back of the net.

Today was Bode's last day of 2nd grade--summer vacation!  He'll lounge around the house for the next few day while Ashley and I take turns "working" from home.  It he really an almost-3rd grader?

Pleasant week to all.

Electromagnetic Railgun

I was the project mentor for an electromagnetic railgun project.  The purpose of the project was to design and build an electromagnetic railgun capable of firing a 10-gram projectile over 200 meters per second.  I'm happy to say our team was very successful in getting this accomplished.  I won't bore you with the technical details, but I will show some cool photos.  First, we have some frame grabs from a cell-phone we used to film our high-energy shots.  The "fireball" you see is not from any type of gaseous explosion.  Rather, the projectile is a small (size of a thumb-nail) aluminum disk.  As the disk is accelerated, there is some ablation that occurs.  The sparks are the little pieces of alumina catching fire and burning up.  The whole sequence below occurs in the blink of an eye.

 

 

 

We were fortunate enough to have a high-speed camera in our Department of Physics.  We took a picture of the event at 10,000 frames per second.  Below are some of these pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

The project was really fun.  The students did a fantastic job.  We took some more data at an extremely high frame-rate.  I think we have one picture where the projectile is perfectly visible--if and when this data is finalized, I'll post an update.  Pleasant week to all.

End of USAFA School Year

The Air Force Academy school year came to an end this past week.  As part of the celebration, we have an annual picnic.  Ashley and Bode came up, and one of my colleagues usually takes pictures.  Here are some nice pictures of the event.  First up is Bode watching Ben make some ice-cream.  Ben does it with liquid nitrogen--it's pretty cool (and not bad tasting if you ask Bode).

There was also a nice big field.  Bode and I kicked the soccer ball around--so nice to have grass compared to the trampled dirt we have in our backyard.

The end of the school year almost was a milestone for me, because it marked the end of my teaching career at USAFA.  In case I haven't told you, I have decided to retire from the military and have been fortunate enough to land a teaching job at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department.  Yes, I know Ashley is the mechanical engineer in our family, but there are many EE-related courses taught by this department.  In fact, the guy I am replacing was an EE, so it's a pretty good fit.  I start in mid-August, and am in the process of retiring from the USAF.  My boss was kind enough to carry forward a long tradition from the pilot community when a flier is hosed down following his or her final flight.  During my last class, Col Butler was kind enough to dump a bottle of water on me :-)

Summer is fast approaching.  I guess I should get that garden started :-)  Not to worry--it's been going for a couple months now...stay tuned for a future post showing the progress.  Pleasant day to all.