A Few Links

Posted on by Jordan

Heather and I just wrapped up a HUGE weekend, and I can’t wait to post about it, but I just don’t have the time / energy right now!

Teaser: we drove over 1000 miles

In the mean time, add one of these to my Christmas list: Quadrotor UAV

Also I wanted to share a cool little application I found out about as of late, called Launchy

It pops up a launcher when I press “ALT + Space” that I can start typing the name of the application I want into and then within a few letters I generally have the program I want right there ready to go. It is so much faster than picking through three or four levels of a cascade menu in Windows!

For example, I wanted the calculator,

Using the mouse it is:

Take right hand off keyboard, find mouse, click: Start->All Programs->Accessories->Calculator

Using Launchy:

Press “ALT + Space”, type “cal” hit enter

As far as I know it works fine in Vista and Win7, but I am still living in the XP era here… I guess I could load it on Heather’s laptop… maybe I will update this later.

Stay tuned, hopefully I will have the real weekend post up shortly 🙂

-Jordan

Find A Mechanic

Posted on by Jordan

Not so long ago the front left brakes on my Escape started making a sort of rumble when slowing down. The sound started getting progressively worse, adding an air of anxiety to counteract my normal procrastination when it comes to dealing with the hassle of trying to figure out where to take my car.

Heather and I had gotten by using the local “quick oil change” specialty shops thus far in Des Moines. I don’t really like having them change my oil, but the convenience of being able to get in when it woks for me, without having to call way in advance is nice. It doesn’t hurt that they all happen to be fairly cheap too.

I really didn’t want those guys looking at my breaks though.

So I figured I would just go to a dealership. Not the cheapest option, but you figure they will at least do a top-quality job. I started looking online for Ford dealerships, and wasn’t finding too much that was close. They are in Des Moines, but were all going to be a huge trip out of our way, and not practical on the way to or from work. Did I mention how quickly that rumble was getting worse? So I clicked on the sort of close one in Google Maps, and as often happens, the map pop-up bubble had a customer review on it. It was overwhelmingly negative, not really what I wanted to read right then.

Seeing the review got me thinking though, I had been talking to someone who moved recently, and he mentioned how helpful the “Car Talk” website had been in tracking down a good local mechanic. Going to the Car Talk website then wondering around until I realized the “Actual Car Info” tab had “Mechanic Files” that then lead to “Find A Mechanic.” It turns out they have lots of reviews for the Des Moines area!

After a little reading, it looked like West Side Auto Pros was a good option, and they were not too far from Heather’s office. I called first thing the next morning, and when the guy heard I had break problems he shuffled things so they could for sure get me in that day! I was able to leave my car, drop Heather at her office and make it to work without really even being late. I have to say seeing the big signs for “AAA Certified,” “NAPA <something or other>, and “Voted Best In Iowa” was reassuring, as well as the really sharp looking facility.

They were not cheap… not to say I think I got over-charged, but I didn’t walk away from the transaction saying “wow they came in way lower than I expected.” I have to say though, it’s like driving a new car… you wouldn’t think breaks make that big of a deal, but it feels so smooth now.

I haven’t actually gotten around to adding my review to the Car Talk site, but I wanted to share the fact that it really helped in picking a shop to use. Definitely something to keep in mind if you are trying to find a good local shop.

-Jordan

Spring Cleaning

Posted on by Jordan

It is still spring right?

Because we just got around to the first major cleaning this apartment has ever had.

We weren’t exactly living squalor, but somehow being on the run most of the time had gradually let us get farther and farther behind in general upkeep. Much of the past weekend was spent cleaning, with the additional touch here and there after work, things are starting to look darn good around here!

We have a second bedroom. As much as we tried to avoid it, that room became the “everything room” catching odds and ends from the first day we moved in. It has a bed in it, and I think in prior post I may have implied that it was just minutes from being ready to host a guest. Well, it may have taken a little more than just minutes, and it might not be 100% ready yet….

One of the things we discovered while attacking the remaining tasks in said room: Not only were things un-dealt with since the move in there, the prickly disagreement that contributed to them being dropped in there instead of being dealt with properly somehow was still attached! That isn’t to say we had a horrible weekend full of not getting along, it just means we discovered that many of the tasks were far more complicated than we could have ever imagined. Heather and I can both be rather… insistent when we know how something should be done. Sad to think we can discover that much when just cleaning a room, I am sure we will get to put everything we learn now to use a few times throughout the coming years.

In a less personal note, I cleaned out the freezer and found some frozen shrimp. The first half of the bag I had used to make this salad: Asparagus and Shrimp Salad. I forgot to take any pictures, but mine ended up looking about the same. Sadly neither Heather nor I were particularly taken with it, so I wanted to try something else with the remaining shrimp. We also had a number or cups of Greek Yogurt pushing their expiration date, so I pulled together a remarkably convincing Shrimp Alfredo that was at least close to healthy enough to be eating on our last week of this workout challenge! 🙂

Check back soon for my chance to work through the backlog of recipes that weren’t healthy enough for the challenge 😉

Also, I have no idea how this is turning into a 40/60 split between things we do and things I cook… but I guess it gives me something to talk about.

-Jordan

New Addition… Of Sorts

Posted on by Jordan

Meet aunt Heather! She is giving detailed descriptions of our new nephew to his dad in the picture, so the phone isn’t her somehow being less than attentive 🙂

Over the course of the weekend, Heather and I attended a couples shower for Casey and Carson (as seen in the website I worked up a few months back), and got to spend quite a bit of time with our new, and currently only nephew. (is there a gender neutral term for that? siblings offspring…)

I almost made a post back when Holden was first born, it was kind of exciting news… but I didn’t want to steal anyone’s thunder, and believe me, there are people who are really excited about this! One of them is Heather. She about lost it on the ride to Kansas City, it was just taking too long, and she wanted to meet Holden!

When the actual meeting took place, he wasn’t quite as enthusiastic about the meeting as Heather had been… I really wish I would have had our video camera out and read for it. His face seemed to perfectly express the mental transition from “hmm this seems ok” to “something isn’t quite right” and on to “noooooooo something is very wrong” and then the crying… The funny thing is when your six months old, even crying ends up being kind of cute. I suppose his mom is over that, but we only got part of a weekend, so everything seemed cute! 🙂

The couples shower was probably as painless as I could have hoped for. I don’t want to sound negative… I just don’t know about my participating in wedding showers. Also I didn’t bring our camera, so I can’t just throw up some pictures and avoid having to type much. On a somewhat related note, I thought I should share a color name chart that in a way I think expresses the disconnect: Color Wheel. Actually if you want to get really picky I really only consider there to be five colors… so less than what is expressed on the right hand side of the diagram.

-Jordan

Things From The Internet

Posted on by Jordan

I had a sort of backlog of links I had been meaning to post…

First off, a clever add for a mini-van I don’t know if it will sell a lot of Sinnas, but I thought it was pretty slick.

The second link is actually a collection of links, all galleries from the volcano. I am just amazed at the pictures people were able to get. Just looking at the pictures is enough to be somewhat terifying, never mind the havoc that it caused for most of Europe.

In no particular order:

Enjoy!

-Jordan

Lincoln Half-Marathon

Posted on by Jordan

So there is a missing weekend, but I realize the longer I put off posing the more I feel obligated to do some sort of super-post that I don’t have time for right now. That train of though leads to no updates for two weeks!

Starting off the weekend, Friday night Heather and I had the rare opportunity to see one of my cousins compete in a gymnastics event! She qualified for the Western Nationals, an even that was held this year in Des Moines. My grandparents, sister, and an aunt all came into town as well, so we had a pretty good crew in the stands.

Saturday night we hit the road for Lincoln, planning just enough time to arrive at my sisters house and go straight to sleep. The sleep was important though, as we had to start rather early Sunday morning for the marathon.

Heather’s sister, and a cousin were both planning to run the half marathon! I had toyed with the idea of trying to at least run part of the time. My knee has actually held up pretty well during the cardio-kickboxing program we are wrapping up, but I can’t say as it’s 100% these days. I decided my goal would be to just keep up with Heather!

A few points:

  • Thirteen miles is a long ways!
  • We were not the last people to finish
  • At one point we even broke a sweat… kind of
  • My feet and calves are still sore

Although at the time, I may have felt that we were just out for a rather long and guided stroll… by the time we wrapped up the last few miles I was really feeling it. To put it mildly Heather and I have HUGE respect for anybody able to finish one of these!

-Jordan