The Johnson Blog

Ramblings of a geek with a few hobbies…

  • Washington, DC

    Gettysburg was very interesting yesterday. We purchased a 2 hour audio tour and drove around it ourselves rather than hiring a park guide to ride along with us. It turned out to be a gorgeous day and I took quite a few pictures. We got on the road around 2:30 or so.

    We arrived and checked into our hotel here in DC at about 5pm yesterday. The drive from Gettysburg went very fast, even with our accidental detour to Dulles International Airport (the GPS didn’t notify us of our correct turn/exit until the lanes were already divided). The GPS is quite unreliable here, as soon as we got around DC limits it showed us driving all over the map when we were just sitting in traffic.

    Shortly after unloading in the hotel, we figured we would take a quick stroll around some of the monuments before grabbing some dinner. Well, that “quick stroll” turned into quite a long walk – we didn’t eat until 9:30. After eating, we went and re-toured them to get pictures at night. The pictures look awesome, but it was 12:30am before we made it back to the hotel, exhausted and with very sore feet. Ana’s still sleeping.

    Continue reading “Washington, DC”

  • Pennsylvania!

    We got up at 4am and were on the road by 5. 12 1/2 hours later, we’re finally in the hotel in Chambersburg, PA. The drive wasn’t nearly as bad as I was expecting, everything from Ohio on was very beautiful. We made two pit stops for probably a total of 45 minutes, and were held up for another 40 or so on the interstate in Maryland due to an accident a few miles up (it apparently took them several hours to get the accident cleared up, luckily we caught the tail end of it).

    Time to head out for some dinner I think. The hotel has free dsl so I may try and post the 3 or 4 pictures I took from the car. And there’s always the crappy camera pics.

  • Windshield Wipers

    The last thing I need to do to my car before going on vacation is get new windshield wipers because the current ones are in horrible shape and just not doing their job. It sounds like such an easy thing to do, yet every single time I go to replace them it turns into one big pain in the butt. Anyone else just HATE replacing them? I have memories of a cold and icy afternoon at a gas station in Champaign with David trying to get a pair of refills on his car. We both took turns trying to slide the wiper refill into the blade, with numb fingers and no gloves.

    Have you ever seen what they pass as directions for these things? It’s a small sheet of paper with completely useless 3 pictures on it. They always say that a picture is worth a thousand words, but these words may as well have been in Japanese because they offer no help to me whatsoever.

    My latest experience has been just as annoying, though thankfully not in the cold. It started when I forgot I had already bought the replacement “blades” a year ago and really only needed the refills this time. Ok, that’s fine – so back to the store I went. Then I was faced with a question… the replacement blades I purchased, were they plastic or metal? Instead of taking my lazy butt back out to the parking lot, I guessed. Incorrectly. Back to the store again, where I learned Meijer doesn’t carry the refill I need. Damnit! Now to go look at another store. I wonder how long it’s going to take to install once I finally buy the right ones; I’m definitely not looking forward to it.

    Ok, enough ranting about the wipers.

    Last day of work before vacation is tomorrow. I sure can’t wait to have that week off. I’ve been getting in to work around 6:15am this week to make sure I have everything done I need to before leaving; I’m tired but everything’s getting done.

  • Updates

    Oops, a week since the last post…

    The Soft Paws are working out pretty well. Both cats have had a few come off, but that’s probably due to us being new at putting them on. I think our cats are also a bit more active and put a little more stress on the caps than your typical house cat. Regardless, they are doing their job in keeping scratches off our furniture, so we ordered some more today.

    This past week I had a bit of work done on my car so it can make the trip to the east coast for vacation. The work has included (or will include, repairs being finished early next week): oil system inspection, tune-up, two new front tires, and a four wheel alignment. For more than the past year, I’ve noticed excessive oil usage, to the tune of having to put more oil in two months (or 2,000 miles) after an oil change. It was annoying but I never took it in to get it checked out like I really should have. Anyhow, it turned out to be nothing big – the pcv valve had been clogged/stuck in the open position, allowing oil to just flow out at will. It created one hell of a mess (I’ve added a lot of oil in the past year…) but since it was under the engine cover, it was never visible. With all the work, the car is driving great again, probably even better than when I first purchased it.

    Continue reading “Updates”

  • Softpaws

    Softpaws we ordered earlier in the week arrived today. We promptly put the nail caps on all of Dozer’s paws and Neo’s back two (he’s declawed in the front). They were pretty easy to put on, although both cats gave a little fuss. So far we haven’t seen them really pay any attention to them, so we’re happy – hopefully they’ll keep the new furniture from being scratched.

    Not much has been going on lately (hence the lack of blog posts). Went and saw Spiderman 2 tonight and was pleased. We have been busy planning our trip out to North Carolina to visit David and Libby. It looks like the first two stops on the way will be Gettysburg and Washington DC, we’re both really looking forward to it.

  • Edging


    After mowing the lawn today, I got to try out the new edger. Since it was the first time using it, there was a lot of overgrowth so it took 3-4 passes to get it done. The lawn looks pretty sharp now and it should be a lot easier to do subsequent times.

    More pictures can be found here.

  • Shopping

    We went shopping tonight for some more boring, house related stuffs. First was a Shop Vac vacuum for garage/basement cleanups. Second was an electric yard edger. by Weed Eater. That exciting purchase was topped off with a sprinkler hose, faucet splitter, and a few new shirts for work. Like I said, pretty boring, even if they were needed.

    Really looking forward to the long weekend. Ana’s sister is going to be in town and we’ll probably shoot off some fireworks!

  • Useful Utilities

    I thought I’d pass along a couple of very useful utilities I’ve been running for a little while now in Windows. One is the virtual desktop manager Virtual Dimension first brought to my attention by David. There are a few quirks but it works better than a couple other ones I’ve tried (and given up on) in the past. This is the first app I’ve found for which transparency is actually useful.

    The other utility is Post-it Software Notes by 3M which I’ve found to be a fantastic replacement for a half dozen copes of notepad running at any given time filled with some text I don’t want to try and remember. Any notes you have open are saved, so they reopen after reboots; damn handy. I’m currently using the Lite/Free version but will probably purchase Standard $15.

    Both are great apps and definitely worth checking out if you’re on Windows.

  • New Furniture!

    Our new sofa and loveseat were delivered today, they look great in our family room. The fabric is called Microfiber and it looks and feels like suede. Quite comfortable.

    Before the delivery truck arrived, we had to move the current furniture from the family room into our empty living room. That has turned out looking suprisingly good too. Next we’ll need some new tables for the family room, then new furniture for the living room – that $50 couch is looking pretty bad.

    The cats like the new furniture too, but Dozer is currently sleeping in his spot on the old couch.

  • Sigh

    As reported earlier, the sump line was connected incorrectly. Today I took off work and called Construx, expecting a quick conversation followed by them coming out to take care of it. Nope, suprise – they are done. They consider that since it’s functioning, their job is complete. The issue is dead.

    So now we have to make a decision – dig and fix it ourselves or leave it alone. There’s really no advantage to ‘fixing’ it, since it does indeed work and is buried. I guess it’s just anger speaking that wants it done the way they originally said. Not sure what we’ll do yet.