2

One

Spammers

The spammer scum sub-species has found my blog. So I've turned on "word verification" for those wanting to comment.

:P

tonight
..
Brady
...
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suspicions by Eddie Rabbitt
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Brady
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Past week

I haven't blogged all week the way it looks....

Hope I can remember something.
Nothing worth mentioning at work...it went fairly well and that's good. No major malfunctions.

So...Monday:
Nothing too exciting as I recall. Got my ECI13 completion card though!
My new HT1000 UHF decided to start doing 16 channels as it should. Went from 4 to 8 to 16 gradually...very scary.
Tuesday:
CIPTUG chapter meeting...went pretty well. Next one in a month!
CAP night. Col. Uhlig did the program on aviation charts.
Stopped by the ERC on the way home. Pretty warm out there and a few mosquitoes!

Weds: Jerrie was off to So. Dak to visit the people. I think I worked on the truck...cleaning up the interior. and wASHING it.
Thursday...must have been boring...I can't remember. But Jerrie came home.
Friday night and Saturday we had a baby delivery prep class in Shakopee.
Saturday night...went out for late night pancakes. It's pretty much been hot all week. Saturday was the worst at about 99.
Sunday: Church. Went to Hudson Wisc. to the St. Croix model railroad for a picnic and train rides with guys from the lodge...should post a pic or 2.
Came home tonight and found I had to reboot the Unity nodes....multiple weird issues...glad I took a look!

No big or cool projects this week and not much bike riding. Just trying to stay cool!

Have a busy week ahead and need to get some time on setting up accommodations for visitors for Jerrie's shower at the end of the month.

hello?

Does anyone read this blog?

Go ahead an post comments.....this is one of the few times in life when I'm actually requesting commentary.

My kids know the story behind that. "When I need commentary, I'll ask for it"

Right Ross, Crystal and Doug??

:)

Sunday and Saturday recap

ending miles 92261 : trip odo 135

Took the burb to church today...and it worked...so that is GOOD.

Ran into Bill at church today, which was pretty cool...went to the courtyard service and the day was perfect for it.

Went back home, got on the bike and headed to Lindstrom for the pancake feed at lodge there.
Made it there by 11:30, which was good, since it was done at noon!
It was Karl Oskar days in Lindstrom...didn't know THAT. Makes for a mighty busy town!
Breakfast was excellent and they were doing a brisk business to be sure.

Headed down hwy 8 somewhat aimlessly and ended up in Taylors Falls, where I stopped to call Jerrie and tell her that I failed to bring my phone.
Had a nature call and picked up a huge diet Pepsi and headed back west on 8 to 95.
Went south on 95 to the Square lake park exit (sq. lake trail) and went to the park, found out you needed a sticker (been there before when they weren't carding) and u-turned out and kept heading west on sq. lake trl till I hit Manning.
Took manning south to Hwy 36 and stopped at Fleet Farm to get off the bike and do a little shopping. Picked up some 2" chicken wire for antenna project ground planes.
Got back on and went down 36 to 35W stopped off at General Nanosystems to pick up a wireless card for Jerrie's laptop and then took 94 back to 35w and went home.
About 130 miles today. Good ride...was tired when I got home and fell asleep. By the time I woke up Jerrie was home and we headed over Szechuan Star to eat too many calories for my diet. We came back home and Jerrie wasn't feeling all that great, so we just took it easy.

What did I do yesterday, besides finish the suburban? I don't remember...let's see....
Oh yeah, we went to Kimmy's wedding reception. She's my baby sister. Got married in January in Florida. Waited till now for a little party! Good food, but kinda hot I must say.

So yeah...kind of a busy weekend, but not bad at all!

yesterday end 92128

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Jeep

They finally got Jerrie's Jeep back on the road. It had been acting like there was a loose connection in the control system.
Displays were showing weird codes and stuff occasionally.

They replaced a module, but I think the real problem was a loose connection they found under the passenger seat. Whatever, it was all on Chrysler's dime. Seems to be OK now.

Austin

Austin was REALLY moving around a lot the other night. It was almost like he was fighting to get out! At least he seems to be a strong little guy! He's been quite active lately. Someone even commented to Jerrie that they saw the baby move while she was waiting at the pharmacy.

His nursery is substantiall ready to go. Awaiting the Sept. arrival of new little Mr. Palmquist.

oops

Forgot to renew the valleycomm.net domain.
It sure cut down on spam for a while till the domain came back up when I renewed it. Sorry to anyone that sent email durning that time....palmquist.us still worked at least.

Fourth

Fourth of July was definitely a day of rest and fun. Hung around home and then headed down to Mom and Dad's in the afternoon for a BBQ.
Dad makes good brats and burgers. Thought I had some fireworks to bring...so I did. Come to find out it was mostly garbage from last year's fireworks.
DOH!

Headed back home and saw a number of fireworks displays on the way home.

Back to work for the rest of the week and survived that.

SUBURBAN has been resurrected (raised?)

I replaced the starter in the burb last weekend, but it still didn't start...just a clunk. It was so hot and I was such a mess that I just let it sit for the week.
BTW, the old one tested bad at Checker...I think it's been crapping out for a while...near death.

Today I started by checking the engine block ground....found it to be torqued to maybe 10 foot pounds. Not good...I expected it to put up a little fight, but it came right out. Took out the bolt and found the cable, the block and the bolt all to be quite dirty...a poor connection for sure. Cleaned that up, popped the starter back in and it started right up. The new starter sounds much better than the old one did. Of course part of that could be the better ground connection.
Anyway, I now have a lifetime warranty - 2 year roadside tow- starter in there. A good thing in MN winter.

Starter is a piece of cake in the Suburban...2 bolts and 3 cables. All easy access.
A parking lot replacement would be quite feasible. Helps to jack up the front end a little..for those of us a little rotund. :P

Work PC

See that error screen below? One of our workstation analysts took a look and found the hard drive to be one step from total death. He was able to recover all my data off of it and put in a new hard drive. The machine was not quite 4 months old! Oh well, at least it works.
I have enough other machines at work to take care of. I let our workstation guys and gals take care of my actual "WORK" PC. They keep things "corporate" and maintainable.
They follow our network rules, we follow their PC rules. :)

happy to report that I'm done with ECI 13!

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fuel 92125
2.979 per
3,186g
101.7 mi
1005pm 7/6
holiday on 50th

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start 92122

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Friday

ending 92083 - I think I only rode to work and back today. About 90 degrees and PLENTY warm on the bike.

Had dinner with Jason and his wife tonight. Nice evening!

GOOD day to be in A/C

not good! My work pc!

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Pix

I need to get some pix posted. I'm way behind on that.

Friday/Saturday plans...busy with Masonic stuff:

BBQ on Friday night and I'm working at burger day on Saturday at the lodge. Last month I went there as a member of the public eating burgers.
This month I go as a fellow brother of the lodge (working AND eating).
:)
Sunday...wide open...I need to get the starter out of the Suburban and see if it's bad. A little time on the old GoldWing too? Maybe work on the screwdriver antenna?

Monday is July 3 (happy birthday Grandpa Orville! - he'd be 94 - wow time flies)

Tuesday is the day we celebrate Independence from (and now alliance with!) those wonderful Brits....no work!

Weds....back to the grindstone.... :(

Thursday

Thursday starts after a long Weds. night working with the TAC on a Unity problem. Jerrie calls me Thursday morning and says her truck is acting weird again...
We decide it needs to go to the dealer for a brain scan. So she drops it off in Burnsville at Park Jeep on the way home from a meeting in Prior Lake. It made it that far and that's good!

I went down to pick her up and bring her downtown to work. I had Punkin along, so I went back home to work for the afternoon and took the bike down later to bring Jerrie back home. Nice bike ride home and we stopped at Krumarczuk's (sp?) for dinner. Their Warsaw Ham is SO good.

Tonight I met with mentor from the lodge to go over some material for my exam there later this month. Had a great time doing that and it was a perfect night to study outside in his back porch. Headed home (on the bike), had a little snack with Jerrie and now I'm laying here catching up on the blog!

Weds.

Weds. I worked a little late to get a head start on some stuff.
Jerrie made pork chops and in spite of a carbonizing of part of them { :) } they were DARN good.
The apple raisin stuffing was most excellent and she made me brussels sprouts...I love em! AND her.

Then we started clearing out the room that's to become Austin's nursery/bedroom. VERY DISAPPOINTING to find
the the Queen guest bed we bought about a year ago won't go upstairs or downstairs!
This little old 1953 Cape Cod will only allow a double bed to go on either set of stairs. :(
We have a king bed upstairs in the master Suite, but it's a "sleep number" bed, so it can go anywhere.
The box spring of the Queen guest bed would not go up or down the stairs NO HOW>

So it sits in the living room!

I was able to get the mattress downstairs to get IT out of the way at least.

ECI 13

OK...so Tuesday I wake up knowing that I have a big test to take Tuesday evening for CAP. I working on getting promoted to Captain in CAP (Civil Air Patrol.)

http://www.mncap.org/viking

It's kind of a busy day at work, but I wrap it up, put on my uniform and head over to Eden Prairie to take the test. It's a nice evening and I get to take the motorcycle.

I get over there and Capt. Collins is all ready to go with the test. It's the "ECI 13" test. A test of knowledge about a BUNCH of things for Civil Air Patrol officers.
Stuff about history, the Air Force, Aviation, Uniforms, US Flag history, Commuincations (writing and speaking), and Leadership and stuff I'm probably forgetting.
It's a LOT of material. I start taking the test. Some questions...very easy...I remembered the info easily... Others...I'm thinking "What book is this from?!"

Anyway, I got through thing in about an hour. I left there wondering if I was going to pass! I'll have to wait till the Air Force grades the test and sends out the results in a couple of weeks.

When I got back from the test I looked through the material and found that most of my "guesses" were probably right. The material WAS in the book and I apparently didn't recall it conciously, but it was back in the old brain.

So we'll see how it goes. I sure hope I pass, but I won't be the first to fail it. I have to say it's a tough test. Just a lot of material to cover.
I've gained new respect for all those Captains and above who have passed good old ECI 13!

Hope I'm done with it. Then I'll need to order up some captain's bars I guess!

I've been 1st. Lt. long enough.
:)

I'm an Entered Apprentice

I have so many things going on this week and I'm way behind on Blogging!

It's been a very exciting week and prior weekend.
Saturday was mostly dedicated to ham radio and Field Day.
Sunday was a day of relaxation for the most part.

Monday was kind of normal day that turned into an extraordinary evening.
It was the evening I became a Freemason and member of the Lake Harriet Lodge #277 AF & AM

Somtime I'll have to post all the history behind why I pursued the Masons. I have a lot of it written.

Monday evening I put on my best suit (and the only one that fits presently!) and headed over to the lodge at 5pm.
Met with some of the brothers for paperwork and other discussions and we sat down for a delicious ribs dinner at 6pm.
A lodge meeting was then held at 7pm while the 3 other candidates and I were prepped for the evening.
In the meeting I was voted in as an acceptable candidate for the degrees of Masonry! That alone was very good news indeed and
it just got better as the night went on. Myself and the other 3 candidates were made the newest Entered Apprentices of the lodge.
After we were initiated, there was much handshaking and congratulating going on. They were truly glad we were there and we were
made very welcome.

After a short meeting of the new brothers (us!) with our mentor, we broke and went to have refreshments.

I had a great time after meeting talking with the other brothers in the lodge. Time flew by and next thing it was after midnight!

I know after Monday that I have chosen the right lodge.

I had a bit of a headache from all the excitement...one of those "good" headaches I get occasionally from big events, like new jobs, weddings and
big moments in life. :)

All this week I keep thinking about it. It almost doesn't seem real. I'm really looking forward to progressing through the degrees, meeting more brothers and participating in the lodge.

On the way home from lodge I had a great chat on 2 meters after midnight as you see in another post! It was a great way to cap the evening.

I'm proud to be one of the newest members of Lake Harriet Lodge!

92064 ending

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fire drill!

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fuel
92023
116mi
3.287g
2.939per
xerxes
1158am

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92022 ending mi yest.

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Brady's Sub-Optimal Blog

Worked KA6TMQ - Rich - tonight on the .85 machine on the way home from Lodge. Nice contact!

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
test keyboard test
1234567890($#)!?@:,"'/&
dropped the fone!

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FM Modulator

I need to take a pic of the FM modulator I use on the bike. It's one of the best Christmas presents ever.

I bought the FT-7800 to put on the bike. But the FT-50 works so well, I may never put it on the bike! Plus, I love the 7800 in the car!

Masons

Tomorrow I hope to become a member of Lake Harriet Lodge #277 A.F. & A.M.
(Ancient Free and Accepted Masons) http://www.lhl277.org/

They'll be voting on accepting me and if all goes well, I'll become an entered apprentice into the craft.

I'm very much looking forward to it.

I hope to go through the "first degree" which will make me an entered apprentice. From all I hear and all I read, it should be a very interesting evening indeed.

It's fascinating to become a part of an organization with their ideals and history.

All the men I've met at the lodge have been good, helpful, friendly men. Becoming part of fraternity with them and learning and improving myself are very intriguing. I guess you get to a point in your life where you feel you can do more and be more. I'm there.

If you are reading this and unfamiliar with Freemasonry, go to google and check out the "grand lodge" sites. There is generally one grand lodge site for each state.

Up until the last year I was so ignorant of Masonry that I didn't even know that all Shriners are masons. (Not all Masons are Shriners, though!)
My mom knew that! I guess Masonry needs a boost in publicity. Yes, part of it are "secret." There are many parts of all of our lives that are secret or private.
Fortunately, with the Internet there is a lot of good information available on Masonry. Of course, like everything else on the Internet, there is a lot of mis-information.
Use your brain and sort it out. That is necessary with any Intnernet information.

So, as I find out more firsthand, I'll post my experiences...within the prescribed limits. I expect all of those experiences to be positive!
:)

Pix from Field Day and radio install on GoldWing

Got the pix up from Field Day and of the "quick" radio installon the bike.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradypalmquist/sets/72157594176412361

Field day 2006

Ending miles today 91978 - which means about 83 miles today...a guess since I don't know the starting miles, but I do know I drove to Burnsville and bought gas. 12.9 from Home to the SA at CR42 and CR11 according to mapquest.

After buying gas I headed down to the Field Day site for TCRC (Burnsville group). Their site is just north of Farmington on Hwy 3. Looked around there and talked to a few folks and decided to head out and get ahead of the weather over to Hastings (SEMARC group). Not too long after I got to Hastings it did start to rain and was able to put the bike under the shelter there. It rained a fair amount, but not a downpour and no hail...and just a few wind gusts.

Talked with KC0FMI, N0UC, KX0N, W0FH, WB0OND and a few others I've forgotten calls and names for.

Had a delicious bar-b-cue dinner, cake and coffee too. Got out of there when the rain stopped and headed home to find the skies clearing nicely! Took a few pics with the phone and need to get those posted.

No operating, but did listen in while some of the guys worked some phone anyway.

Oh yeah! Almost forgot ....put the HT on the bike today with a mag mount on a sheet of metal I fastened to the luggage rack on the bike's trunk. Worked great! Very little ignition noise. I once tried using the HT on my belt, but ignition noise was terrible and made it useless.

On the Larsen NMO-MM mount, I put a little quarter wave sort of dual-bander thing. I was able to fasten the holster for the FT-50 to the bike in a great spot that allowed me to view the display.

I ran the coax under the seat up to the radio. Initially, I tried listening with the speaker mic, but need more full audio response and more level without distortion at highway speed.
So I popped into radio shack and bought a cable so I could take the audio out of the speaker/mics headphone jack and pump it into my FM Broadcast modulator. I ususally use that modulator to play mp3s off memory sticks. It has a line level input and I used the new cable to connect from the headphone jack on the speaker mike to the modulator. It worked great! The audio over the bike's FM radio system was very easy to hear (though I need a mono to stereo adapter so it comes out of both speakers instead of just one!). I didn't use the radio to transmit, but did listen to 2m and 440 all day. Lots of weather stuff going on, so it was nice to be able to stay up to date with the weather nets.

Al...thanks for the antenna mount from the "GLV" goodie box! It worked great.

Only a minor issue..the stupid modulator puts out some garbage in the 2meter band (kind of all over), but was able to minimize that by picking the right frequency for the FM band and positioning the modulator properly.

gas 91906
133 mi
3.99g
2.769per
sa bville
232pm

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start 91783

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flower of the day!

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ending 91790
edina
mpls
hopkins

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fill

91773
xerxes
4.062 g
2.899 per
$11.67
910 pm
6/13

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Saturday...Burger Day

I stopped in for Burger Day at the Lake Harriet Masonic Lodge on Saturday...
Great burgers! And I got to meet quite a number of officers at the lodge. I had a very enjoyable time and spent the better part of 2 hours there.

I'm very interested in their organization. It seems they have a lot to offer men and their communities.

GPS abuse

Here's a pic of Sunday's ride..click on it for a larger version.

This is from my Garmin Etrex Legend GPS and MetroGuide Software.

Never really looked much at the "track" files the GPS creates, but they are quite detailed.

Here's a slice of todays ride:

Almost scary how much it records!

NICE day for riding...and a little sunburn..

Look at this ...the highest level of detail....note the 39 foot section in blue.

I drove into a Cub Foods parking lot to grab a soda..

You can see I stopped from for like 18 minutes there...

I need APRS to send this stuff up to the computer in semi-real-time! :)

(click any of the pictures for a bigger version).

ending 91724

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starting today 91662 approx

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Gizmo!

I took this pic on the way home from First Thursday...a cool little electric powered pizza delivery car. At the moment, the driver was delivering a pizza to a house.

I need to get some pics from First Thursday posted!

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punkin playing with the dog across the street!

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Maxtrac

Put the 440 Mhz/UHF maxtrac in the Suburban last night. Nice night for working outside, but did have a few mosquitoes already!

Yeah, the maxtrac worked fine after sitting for years, but the stuff I have programmed in there is not TOO useful.
So I get to drag out the old computer and re-program a few channels. Will be nice to have radio back in the 'burb'.

Using just a quarter wave fender mount...I should put something on the roof.

fuel
91633
3.912 g
$10.95
2.799 per- 89octane
1 june 06 @1320h

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start miles tonight 91569

end miles 91596

to burnsville and back

a little rain! Very little luckily...

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gas fill

91508
$10.10
3.649 g
2.769 per
xeexes 58th

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Old days

Here's Jerrie and I from about 2002. I was on the 83 Venture and she's on the 82 Silver Wing.
The old Venture found a new home in Missouri with a gentlemen that had the time and talent she needed!
The Silver Wing is still with us.

This picture is taken in the front yard of the house we had in Savage.
:)

milage check!

ending miles 91508

a few trips to work over the past few days in that amt

keep forgetting to log it.

Rode around richfield and bloomington tonight after 'baling' the lawn.

rode to the dentist on monday!

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Nice

Another nice day today. Just doing some stuff around the house. Jerrie and I went over to Panera and had coffee outside this afternoon. Perfect day for that. Still can't believe all the tree blossoms and lilacs. Must be a good year for it.
We went out on a little pedal-power ride this afternoon. That was pretty cool. We haven't ridden bike together in a long time. Punkin ran along with us and was exhausted when we got home. Didn't go far or fast...none of us were up for TOO much riding.

Another project...install outlet for compressor in garage. Filling the bike tires today reminded me of that. I'm tired of hauling out the extension cord.

Off to work in the shop...what a glorious mess. Need to get that done so I can re-do the rest of the basement and get the guest "area" set up and the office stuff moved....and then clear out the baby room.

ending miles 91434

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maybe

MAYBE I stopped for a donut.

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starting miles about 91402 today

lots of blooming trees!

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DK3

Got the control circuit wiring done and the up/down switch mounted on a bracket. Not a fancy bracket, but a tough one! It looks OK and will be good for testing and maybe mobile.

I can see moving the DK3 from home to portable stand or to car. So I may have to make up a few control circuits of that type.

Tried it out and it works..though I found my gel cell was practically dead. Need to make up something to put that in...so I have a place to mount a power distribution panel with some cigar sockets and powerpoles. And then keep it charged!

Thursday

BUSY day at work, but I think I have MOH and the related error messages under control and almost understood! Worked on that late today and made good progress. Very cool day...barely above 50. First Thursday was tonight and I missed it. At least it wasn't raining like last month.

Had a chat with K0IK on the 444.300 tonight. Hope to run into him again.

Picture

Finally an ultrasound posting.
More on the baby blog.

pdf files

One of the biggest disappointments when searching Google or any search engine, is clicking on a link and then seeing that you clicked on a PDF file. VERY disappointing.
You sit and wait as Adobe Acrobat takes over your CPU and memory to display a document you probably didn't want anyway!
Acrobat is a great tool for documents, but I wish people would post text versions or summaries on their website. I know google offers HTML versions of PDF docs and that's the way to go, but ARGH! I forget to use it!

PDF files

One of the biggest disappointments when browsing the web (searching google for example), is when you click a link and then realize it was a PDF file. Adobe then takes over your machine's CPU and memory while you sit and wait for some document to display that you probably didn't even really want anyway..argh!

soggy

My daughter and mom were here all day today and tomorrow, so I'm chauffeur this weekend. And Jerrie's had to work this weekend, so
we have to move her birthday stuff to next weekend the way it looks.

Someday I need to get serious about riding gear...I just don't do that much long distance riding in poor weather. Call me a wimp!

I don't have a leather jacket or riding jacket anymore. Gave my son my leather jacket and never replaced it.

Never have had leathers at all. I should use them both for safety reasons if nothing else, but I get plenty warm easy and hate wearing more than
I need to. I even only wear a half helmet. I do have riding boots but rarely wear them.
Now that I have a decent bike I may have to rethink some of these things!

I've been eyeing new helmets. Would like to get a full coverage for the saftey and (frankly) for radio audio purposes! Less TX wind noise.
Like the ones that have built in headset that will plug right in to my bike. Would be nice to have intercom to Jerrie too. She's done riding for this
year, though. Too uncomfortable with the baby.

I might very well be able to make it Thursday for First Thursday bike night at Dulono's...maybe on the bike! I have ridden to work a few days last week...cheap parking!

Got the new freezer down in the basement and hacked in a new outlet for that ...added GFCI on the circuit while I was at it since it is in the basement and this is the circuit with the wash machine on it.

The DK3 is still up in the backyard...not hooked to anything! Still need to get that wired up. It really is small compared to the Hustler vertical I had up. Even with the CB fiberglass whip on it. It should be nice to have the DK3 for portable ops and mobile in the Suburban (which is still down with a leaky radiator).
Could be a very versatile antenna. Curious to see how it plays on 80/75m. I've worked guys on 75 with screwdriver antennas and the sigs were quite amazing!

Ending miles

Home now at 91404!

Prolly around 50 miles in the city tonight.
St. Paul, Maplewood, Woodbury, Newport, inver grove, bloomington, richfield....

Re: Blogger post failed

trying again!

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-----Original Message-----
From: postgateway@blogger.com
Date: Thursday, Apr 27, 2006 6:06 pm
Subject: Blogger post failed

Blogger could not process your message at this time.

Error code: 6.4FF28B

Original message:
From: brady@palmquist.us
Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 19:04:00 -0600
Subject: miles
lost some miles in the log

but now at mac's it is 91369

I'm outta here

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Gas stop!

Versa

fuel

91382
maplewood sa
$9.08
3.375 gal
2.689 per gal
century and upper afton

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Thursday fish

tonight~s delicious dinner and bike ride! Mac's Fish.

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Thursday night

Ran downtown for lunch with a vendor and do a crazy bunch of stuff at the office. Punkin feeling better. HUGE appetite!

Pretty dull night I must say. Jerrie and I had leftovers for supper under a grey sky. I was really tired and fell asleep for a couple of hours after dinner. Woke up and had to do some work on a CallManager...which took FAR longer than expected.
Got that under control and working nicely by 2am!

Punkin tonight

Feeling better and lounging comfortably!

miles and BABY NEWS

sad to report ending miles as 91312 today. Even though I was off work.
More miles on he buick than the bike today.

Punkin apparently has a clostridium issue and the vet gave her meds and special food. So that was the big trip of the day (in the car)...to Prior Lake.

Got back and headed over to the other doc to find out more about the baby! Level 2 ultrasound and blood scans...

All looks very normal. No concerns.

And it's a boy! He was really moving around and the ultrasound shows amazing detail in many views!

This day was a BIG milestone we've been waiting for day by day and it couldn't have gone better.
Thank the Lord.

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One more thing...

VERY DISAPPOINTING....

I drove the Burb till it was hot the other day..and she started leaking coolant....

Seems like it's from the radiator and on the drivers side.....

Guess I'll have to pull it....


I think I already posted this sad news, but I'll post it again since it SUCKS.

Tuesday wrap-up.

Well, the storm tonight didn't amount to much. A light and sound show, but little precip.

Got the hardware to put the DK3 screwdriver antenna on my ground mast to start testing. Found my 102" fiberglass whip. I'll start with that, though I know it's too long really.
Certainly too long for 10 Meter usage. I can use another antenna on 10m if the long whip works better on 80 and 40. Maybe I'll do some field strength measurements for the heck of it. It would be cool to use remote control over the internet and listen to your own signal a few hundred miles away, wouldn't it? Could play all kinds of games with 2 stations...one local control (mobile) in, say, Colorado and your base rig in MN. "OK..do I sound better on A ...... or B .....A or B..." A is MN and B is in CO. Where do send the QSL card from?

ANYWAY.
I noticed the Shakespeare 10M stick in the garage...forgot about that. I think that will have to go back up sometime if 10m ever becomes worth a darn again.

I guess I should get the DK3 working at ground level and then consider moving it up on the garage. The main reason I'd like it up there is for theft/damage control and to get it away from the houses in an effort to keep RFI to a minimum and keep the neighbors happy.
Either way, I need to figure out how to control the antenna remotely..probably with a relay...either thata or I'll have to run heavy gauge wire. Neither is too fun or cheap.
If I use a remote relay, I'll need a power source near the antenna...another reason for garage mounting...the power supply could be inside the garage.
Groundplane/counterpoise in the garage could be interesting. My first thoughts are to put up some sort of hardware cloth or chicken wire on the inside of the roof. It would be protected and not visible. And maybe some radials in there as well? Well, it should a lot of fun to experiment with even if I never make a contact! I like the idea of doing some field strength testing.

And then after it actually works (with any luck), I'd like to get on some CW and digital on HF.

Be interesting to see if I can get the DK3 to behave on 6 meters. At least there I could work some local repeaters and ops for testing.

After all that if I find that 80m and 40m are working poorly, I'll consider and 80/40 dipole of some sort. I find the HyPower 80/40 dipole interesting since it would fit pretty well on our lot.

Jerrie says we need antennas for contesting....and I want to get on HF more, esp. CW, so......

Speaking of CW, I'm doing 15 wpm pretty easily now. And doing pretty well with 18.

I want to get to at least 20 and get a test or W1AW qualifying run and keep going!

Time for bed. Have to take Punkin to the vet tomorrow and Jerrie goes in for a detailed ultrasound on the baby tomorrow! It's a day we've been looking forward to!

K0UC OUT

Tuesday night --a little storm

Here's a view looking south down France Ave sitting at 66th.
On the bike and was getting a little rain, but the clouds were cool and 3Dish!

at home now and there's some lightning and thunder.

Just went over to Settys for some hardware to start testing the DK3 antenna.

Lightning close now and I moved to the garage!

Ending mialage 91300
just a few short trips today over to Richfield RS and to Settys and the Edina PO.

Punkin-dog is still sick today.
Doing better though. She got into something not agreeing with her stomach AT ALL.

Took the day off today and I'm outside enjoying the wx again.
And no bugs!

A little nap in the back yard in the lawn chair!

Though a little rain would be good!
Might br some tonight and tomorrow.

bike fill

91271 odo
$11.97
4.5 g
162m last tank

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Easter weekend update

Thursday ...an early close day for our office. And a day for me to spend some time at the dentist...OW! Yes, I did hurt this time. A first in many years. Something very sensitive about a tooth that I recently had a filling on....which is why I went in. She touched the tooth with instruments that normally don't hurt, BUT this time they did...
3 times! Felt like tin foil was touching the filling and I nearly flew out of the chair! Ended up using plastic instruments for the rest of the time and fine tuning the filling.
It's been a lot better now. Been taking some antibiotics that the dentist gave me...either a sinus infection or dental infection may have been the main culprit.

As you may have read in an earlier post, Friday was the first SERIOUS bike day of the year! And a beautiful one it was! 130 Miles and about 5 hours.
Got home Friday night and did some yard work while it was very temperate and a nice breeze was coming through. Got the spring raking done.

Saturday was a busy day...more yard work and serious garage cleaning. Also got the back lock solenoid working on the Suburban and discovered that the old Burb does INDEED have some radiator leak when it gets warm. VERY disappointing. Probably have to pull the radiator and get it checked/repaired/replaced... FUN!

Jerrie put down spray-on lawn fertilizer Saturday with the hopes that it would rain on Sunday, but no such luck...only a little rain.

Assembled some yard seat/storage boxes. One had a wrong part in it! But Suncast (the mfr) answered the phone on Saturday afternoon, knew what I wanted and got it on order for me with no problems! Today (Monday) I got an email follow-up from them stating that the order was in the works! I'm VERY impressed with them. I also found out i can get spare parts for Jerrie's hose reel. The Hose connection is cracked and I can get a replacement for around $10. Better than more plastic going in the landfill and $40 going out my pocket.

SUNCAST yard products RULE.
Thanks guys!

It's sad that I have to make a big deal out of a company doing their job, but when a company does do a good job, I like acknowledging it!

Sunday...Easter! The Lord has risen!

Went to Kim's (my baby sister) house for a huge ham dinner. Nice day for a ride down there, but a little brisk and a little rain.
Nice wx on the way home. Went home on MN19 through Lonsdale. Haven't been on the stretch of 19 from New Prague to I35 for a long time.

Next thing you know it's Monday and today is awfully darn nice again! Sun and 70s again. Work is normal today...no major malfunctions or bitching, so I'm happy!

Punkin is kinda sick today. All sorts of tummy issues and bad things coming from her little body. Glad it's nice, because I've left her outside most of the day...between Jerrie and I we've cleaned up enough messes today. I've washed punkin twice so far and a third time will be necessary!

Hey! I sent some pics from Flickr.com to Target to be printed and it worked EXTREMELY well...and they were free! I got 8 prints made of some easter pictures and I have to say... they look nearly as good as 35mm pix from a decent camera! 20 cents per print is the normal price which would be $4.80 for 24 exposures and no film cost.
Furthermore, you print only what turns out.

These pics were printed from a 1280 x 960 file I think. It all happens "under the covers" at Flickr, so I don't know for certain.
I don't think more resolution would help or be necessary for 4x6 prints.
The old HP 720 camera did a FINE job...and nowhere near it's best resolution was used. Medium (2 of 3 "stars") was used.

Guess this may be the way to do things photographically when the baby comes!

More pix

A few night pix near our house from the Treo 650 via email to Blogger.

Pic test directly from Treo to Blogger via email.

tesat test
<sppcs>

Friday cycle ride

Did some cycle riding today... took these pics at Swan Lake Park in McCleod county (MN).

Rode out on Hwy 7 to Hutchinson and took the Hwy 22/212 path back through Glencoe and NYA.

About 130 miles today...lots of sun and a little burn tonight!

friday!

friday!
Date: 14 Apr 2006 15:51:00 -0500
To: <go@blogger.com>
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I'm out by Swan Lake in McLeod county!

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OK..that was an attempt at posting a pic directly...FAILURE.

Came across as the raw text.

Delicious Monday

Work was fairly quiet today..for that I'm glad.

Ran down to Bloomington and got tabs for the 'Wing tonight and did a little riding around town.

Today was really perfect wx....70s, breeze and sun. I can't see how it could get better!

Worked KC0DGY on the 443.3 tonight for a nice QSO on the way back from Bloomington.

Suburban Status

The real problem was that the batteries in the remote were dead...heh heh. For the Suburban, I mean.

Also, the brAKes are not grindaged to the damage point...so it just needs a regular brake job...
Which is is good! I took it apart and looked today.

So now if the radiator just stays not leaking I'll be happy. Then all I need is a new set of tahrs.
You know MEATS.
Skins
Tires.

Man it was NICE out today. Great day to dig in to the burb.

Ran over and had coffee with Tim (ABØTS) and his cousin today at Bob's Java Hut. Talked bikes and ham radio...can't beat that!


Jerrie and I had a little dinner at Red Lobster tonight....then went down to shakopee tonight to WalMart and spend $50 on almost nothing somehow.
Stopped by Caribou for coffee and cribbage, headed home and rebooted the CallManager cluster and IPCC tonight!
Now it's 11:15pm and I'm kinda wired....even though I had DECAF at caribou!

Yesterday...well, as you can see I got the bike from St. Peter yesterday...what else did we do with the day? Again..this weekend slipped by quickly with it being so nice.

Friday...had dinner at Prima on Lyndale. Very nice italian! Glad we got there early...it filled up! Huge portions I gotta say.
(just what I need.. :p


Oh yeah...yesterday...major malfunctions at the office...a router/switch decided to die...one of the most critical in the core network....up, down, up, down...if it would have just stayed down it would have been much better and the backup would have taken over...so that wasted a good chunk of afternoon and part of the evening.

Kinda slipped by...the old weekend did.....

More Bohemian Pix

Sitting room...very comfy

Hallway...bedroom to left and sitting room and "big" bathroom to the right.

Here's a pic of Mark and Bobbi (the owners) in the kitchen and Jerrie looking in.
Jerrie and I just after a huge breakfast...
Another pic in the room...you can see the whirlpool, the vanity and the entry to the "little" bathroom. The room has another bath with a shower. An all new install, tile, plumbing and fixtures. Really nice.

Here are a few more pix from The Bohemian...

First day on the bike for 2006.

Got to do a little more riding today. The picture here was taken just before I took off late this afternoon for a little ride around Lake Harriet and then into "uptown"

Woohoo! Uptown. ...yeah, whatever. It was just a place to ride to and it was busy down there so I got the heck out and headed home taking the sidestreets.
Still not TOO warm today. Lots of sun though!

doppler

Been hearing the baby a lot lately on the doppler!
Jerrie has gotten to the point that she can find it in less than a minute.
Of course the baby is getting bigger and it therefore should become easier to find.
Heartbeat is good and strong and we often hear the baby moving on the doppler!

:)

Wow. Last weekend.

I'm way behind on posting here...

I'm not even sure where to start...

But I'll mention that Jerrie and I spent last weekend in New Ulm.

We were at the "Bohemian" which is a "bed and breakfast" there.
You can see a couple of pictures above. One shows a part of the suite we stayed in and the other shows the property. Our room was in the carriage house in back of the house which has been remodeled completely into a suite, a large room and a smaller room.


The Bohemian

Very nice! Best breakfast I've ever had at a B&B. Very hearty!
Awesome inn too with excellent rooms. We're going back this summer on the bike.


OK...more to come...

Major malfunctions at work at the moment.

biking season has started at

90974 miles!

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let's do another mobile blog here

out walking punkin now

had to go to the cpap clinic today for an equipment check. Got some new filters and tubing and a mask.

Worked a goofy split shift today but it woked out well

more snow tonight?

That sucks

maybe I can get some time in on the shop project!

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The baby!

We just heard the baby on the doppler tonight VERY clearly for the first time. Once we had it a few days back, but this time was CLEAR and loud and steady! It was TOO cool!

Heart rate was about 150-155 or so and so clear!

It's amazing what a $120 doppler can do.

Here I go endorsing another product: The Bistos Hi-Bebe BT-200

But I'll tell ya...it works and we heard it plain as day...

This time and the time we heard at the doctor we thought afterwards we should have recorded it...
But when you hear it, you are so entrhalled with the sound that recording it is the last thing on your mind.
Maybe next time we can catch it.

We're in week 14!

The shop...what the ?

What ever happened to the computer shuffle/ new shop area?
No updates?

Why?

Cuz I haven't done a damn thing.

Oh...I guess I did move the one computer work area from the office to the shop...
And the resulting even bigger mess.

Maybe tomorrow night?

Gotta run out to the hangar tomorrow night and see what's up with one of the radios out there too.

What's the highlight of the day?

Not so much....traffic sucked this morning, so I turned around and worked from home.
It was sunny and that did some serious melting at least.

I got a whole lot of nothing done tonight.

And more snow coming this week on Thursday? :(

Chinese

Here's the place for good Chinese...


Szechuan Star Restaurant
3655 Hazelton Rd
Edina, MN 55435-4210
(952) 835-7610

How I ended up with a new laptop

OK...so I'm trying to remember Saturday a little more....
Spent some time at CompUSA, OfficeDepot, Microcenter...where else?

Came home and did some research and read some ads.
Was looking at some ACER models at MicroCenter. They had one laptop for $499 I considered.
They had the Compaq V2552US at CompUSA for $579 after rebates...most of them instant rebates..so that was really mytop contender. Best Buy in AppleValley had Toshiba for like $529 I think...only saw that one at Apple Valley.

Richfield didn't have it. Didn't look at the Best Buy ad till I was at the Richfield one...and then saw theCompaq V4310NR for $699 (reg. 949). OK...I had set kind of a limit at $700. I don't need big performance and I don't wanta notebook that's so expensive I'm afraid to take it anywhere for fear of loss, theft or damage.So the $699 was at about the limit. So we're down to the $579 vs. $699 choice.

Better processor/Centrino set
More RAM
Bigger screen!
Built in card reader
more USB ports
Bigger hard drive
Better built optical drive
All instant rebate...no mail in at all.

All that stuff worth $120 more?

Sat at home thinking about that most of the afternoon.

I knew they had at least 2 in stock at Richfield. Saw 'em there in the cage below the laptops.
They didn't close till 10, so I had some time. But the sale was over Saturday on both machines...I hadto make a move if I wanted either.

I read and researched while Jerrie was napping....the pregnancy really has her tired. Not much "morning sickness,"but she's been really tired in this first trimester...which is now officially over! The trimester anyway...we'll seeabout the tiredness. :)

It's crackin me up that I need the battery tonight (Sunday night). We have NO power! I'm editing this on the new laptop.In the dark.



Back at the ranch...After she woke up, talked to Jerrie and decided to go with the V4000 series.So we headed over there around 8pm and with little fuss, I shelled out $750 (ouch, tax!) and had a new laptop.Wow..they gave me a free blank DVD and 2 CD roms..with cases! Pretty exciting. I can't burn DVDs in this thing, but anyway....



I tossed the 4000 in the trunk and we headed over to eat at the Chinese place I can never remember the name of.I'll have to post it when I remember...it's a great place...and they are very friendly and helpful.This one is in Edina. We also go to First Wok in Bloomington a lot...they are just as good, but a little farther.

Ya see..by the time we were done eating...I was nearly deleriously tired. I got to sleep at 2am Saturday and woke up at 8am. It was so nice and sunny! I then went out and found it was over 40 degrees! Sat. morning was very springlike....it got cooler througout the day though... ;(
I was tired and almost decided to just leave the laptop till Sunday...but Jerrie wanted to take a look at it, soI got it out and fired it up. And then proceeded to monkey with it for till midnight. Was impressed with everything. The size is a bit hard to get used to. It's a lot bigger than my old 13" Dell.A bit heaver too I think.

Here ends Saturday!

Sunday...

Jerrie had to get up and go to work right away to get a jumpstart on her busy week.
I got up and headed over to Panera for breakfast and brought the 4000 along to try out their wireless.
Installed the VpN client and futzed the machine.
came home and fixed that.
Took a nap!Monkeyed with Tmobile plan.
tried new uniden add-on phone.
Ate at mcdonalds

Snowing out!
Power went out!

Now it's Tuesday and I've forgotten the rest of the day
!!

I'm posting this Tuesday. Finally!

We got hammered.

Snow Alert!

I took this pic today.... we got close to a foot of heavy snow.
What a mess. About 26 degrees now at 3pm. Snow has stopped.

Saturday...an expensive day

Saturday we got up and went way the heck down to the IHOP in Apple Valley. I figured the one at MOA would be too busy. The one down there wasn't bad at all. Jerrie was wantin' banana/walnut pancakes..and I always want pancakes. I also had an omelette. Then I did aimless crusing for a while and ended up at Best Buy and Office Max....dangerously looking at a new laptop. The last battery in my old 400MHz Dell bit it. Close to $100 for a new one...and you don't want to buy a used one..the circuitry inside the battery decides when it's dead..not the cells.
So one day it works and PING..the next day it's dead. Li-Ion batteries are pretty funky I guess..so you don't want to charge them as they get old apparently...whatever!

So after that...I'm wantin' a new laptop. I've been watching the ads and looking on the net...

No laptop at this point....but I was still too full from pancakes.

The pet store.



Pumpkin was along and she loves going in there...good place for a little controlled socialization for her with pets and people (esp in the winter).

Headed home after that as I recall?

The picture is from my Treo 650. Not much of a camera I'm afraid...it's one step better than nothing. I do like having it though...
More on page 2!

Friday.

Sooooooooooo....
Whassup this weekend? Or should I say...what WAS up this weekend.

Friday night we went over to IKEA to look at baby furniture and other household goodies. Gotta love those Swedes and their minimally packaged goods. Such good deals there! The stuff varies in quality, but is generally a good bargain.
Had some Svedish Meatballs and Walleye for dinner there and delcious Daim cake for dessert...and of course, coffee (it's a Swedish place and I'm a lot of Swede)...or is it that I'm a lot Swedish? Skipping coffee is not an option.

Anyway...we pretty much bought nothing....except food. Got lots of ideas. I guess Jerrie and I were in browsing mode more than buying...and I was glad of that when I saw how long the checkout lines were.

Was glad the cafeteria line was short!

cool site

OK...I finally figured out my user-id/password and subsequently the email addy I used to create this thing...

Here's a cool site....

H Very cool. Look at the Tick Tock Toys section


Lots of pics of product packaging from the old days!

how damn dumb do you have to be to forget the user id password and email for ur blog site

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ukfiruk

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standing here waiting for the bus and bored

not a bad day at work.
Got stuff accomplished.

Wx now is about 35 and cloudy

does nor feel like spring TOO much

ordered a back door (barn door) handle for the suburban on ebay.
Now If Doug can only find the lock cylinder!

Still need a front seat and a new set of tires and need to check the brakes....but it's quite drivable!

Wow...it's Monday, but it doesn't feel like it!
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