The Finished Desk
The before image. You have to imagine all of the stuff piled on top of the desk.
Well, technically the desk is finished, by which I mean it’s been stained and protected with a couple of coats of polyurethane. Nevertheless, I still have to build a file-cabinet drawer to slide into the lower, right-hand recess. I think I’ll go ahead and build a small center drawer for pens and assorted computer cables, too. I wasn’t sure initially if it would seem like there was enough space, but now that I’m sitting at the desk, it’s clear that there are a couple of inches of to spare between the top of my thighs and the underside of the desk.
While there is always room for improvement, I’m pretty happy with the project. It didn’t take too awfully long to put together, and everything is much easier to reach. This is especially true for the audio equipment racked on the left-hand side. I can easily reach all of the controls without having to stand up! I think I could use a couple of stands for the studio monitors to get them off the desk and up to ear level. A slightly longer firewire cable for the audio interface would also be helpful. Happily, this frees up some extra space so that we can put more bookcases into the combined office and guest room. Once we finish rearranging all of the furniture and books, it should be quite comfortable for each purpose.
The new desk with all of the goodies nicely arranged.
Nesting
Jess applying some edge-banding to one of the shelves in our new custom desk.
As you likely know, Jess and I are expecting our first child around the end of March. Part of the tradition of having children seems to be the preparation—often called nesting. While we’re not going overboard in this activity, we do have a few fun projects. One of them centers around creating a space for baby Gribble. We’re converting our guest room (sorry visitors!) into a cozy baby room. In order to continue accommodating guests (we do want you to visit) we’ll be consolidating our office a bit, and we’ve added a lovely futon. It’s a little smaller than the old guest bed, but it might be more comfortable than the old mattress and box springs. Single visitors especially should be quite comfy.
One of the issues with the office/guest room consolidation is the absurdly large particle-board monstrosity we’ve been using as a desk. I swear it must have over 30 ft2 of surface area, and because of its design, almost none of the surface is usable. We have a massive stack of audio gear, my Korg keyboard, some pretty good sized studio monitors, a big widescreen monitor, a printer, a flat-bed scanner, and a Nikon slide scanner (see my last post). All told, there isn’t much room for the keyboard and mouse!
Well, in order to better fit our stuff, we’d been looking for a new desk. Unfortunately, we must be a little unique in what we need, because nothing on the market quite fits the bill. Instead, we decided to build a new desk. It’s way more time consuming, and a bit more frustrating, but you do get exactly what you want. The design I came up with incorporates a series of shelves on the left-hand side for the home-studio equipment and the laser printer. Another shelf on the right-hand side will hold the computer and film scanner with a single large file-cabinet drawer below. I may also add a skinny center drawer for pens and various computer cables, but that’ll strictly be an upgrade if it happens.
Dave using the router to cut rabbets into the sides of the desk. Wow, what a crazy amount of dust!
The desktop, and the balance of the design, is centered around a nice drafting table top I found a few years back when picking up some used bookshelves with our friend Ben. I managed to talk the former owner down to $1.00, so I considered it a good deal. It’s taken me several years to finally put it to good use. Of course, that constrains the dimensions, so I had to really try hard to cram as much into the space available as possible.
Jess and I got started on the project a couple of weeks ago by picking up some nice hardwood plywood from Home Depot. You really have to rummage through the stacks of wood to find a couple of pieces in good enough shape for furniture building, but eventually we managed to get a couple. After getting them home, we had to rip them down to the necessary size. It’s a bit unwieldy handling full sheets of plywood on our table saw, but we managed just fine. After getting everything down to size, Jess masterfully applied some edge banding to the shelves, while I cut rabbets into the sides with our router. In general the assembly is pretty straightforward, but a few of the shelves were a bit warped. (I told you it was hard to find good sheets at Home Depot). Eventually we got everything glued and screwed.
The "finished" product sitting in the garage. The drawer will be added to the lower right-hand opening when it's complete.
My least favorite part of these projects is the finishing and it really shows. I always get anxious to finish, and that, combined with my lack of space, leads to hasty sanding and ultimately mediocre finishing. Nevertheless, I had just enough of the “Red Oak” stain I used for a bookcase I put together a couple of years ago to finish the new desk. The stain is currently drying (and stinking up the house), so it should be ready for a coat of polyurethane tonight.
It’s coming together pretty nicely, and Jess and I are both excited to get it up into the office and into use. It should really open up the room and provide a better workspace. One project down and several more to go. Thank goodness we still have 2 months.
Ouray Ice Festival 2010
Jess showing why she can't fit into a harness.
As you all know by now, we start every year by attending the Ouray Ice Festival with our friends Andy and Gretchen. We’ve often climbed a bit of ice around town before the festival, but this November and December were just crazy with other trips, and I can’t climb because I can’t wear my harness (or afford to fall). So this was our first ice of the season.
Andy and Gretchen came over for dinner on Friday—one of my favorite crock pot recipes, three sisters corn chowder. It’s both spicy and creamy, full of vegetables. We loaded up the car, ate dinner, and got on the road around 6:15 p.m. Dave and I got to sit in the back and nap, which is always nice for a change (especially after several long road trips!). The only thing that slowed us down was being pulled over by a police officer because one of Andy’s headlights was out: sort of a theme, since our running taillights were out on the way to Ouray last year! We got into town around 12:30 p.m. and hauled all of our stuff into our suite at the Alpenglow. We learned several years ago that it’s worth the extra money to get a room with a kitchen and two bedrooms; it’s yummy and thrifty to cook breakfast and at least one dinner at “home,” and a true vacation includes sleeping well without hearing each other turn over and breathe in the middle of the night.
Gretchen climbing some ice in Ouray.
We got up kind of late on Saturday and Gretchen made eggs for breakfast. By the time we had put on all our gear, it was late morning. Gretchen wanted to go buy some new gaiters, and Dave and I wanted a cup of coffee. So we decided to leave our heavy packs in the room and skip the climbing on Saturday. We always wish we could see more of the climbing competition, which only occurs on that one day. We spent some time looking around at the tools and clothes at the exhibitor tents and then watched several climbers attempt the competition route. It was such a beautiful day! Blue sky and warm sun. We didn’t see anyone complete the route, and in fact only two people ended up getting to the top. But we did get to watch Will Mayo, who came in third among the men, and my heroine Ines Papert, who came in first among the women. She missed the top by just a couple of placements, and was clearly frustrated! She had plenty of time. (It’s a very difficult mixed route that has to be completed in twenty minutes.)
The upper belay stand and all important ice axe retriever on the comp route.
Dave was going to enter the ice axe throwing competition, but they had run out of prizes, so we clomped down the hill back to the hotel and I cooked dinner (coconut shrimp) while the others watched TV. After dinner we went to the live auction, where we were surprised to have to pay $20 apiece to get in! (All the events cost money, which goes to the ice park, but that seemed a little steep. It turned out that you got a lasagna dinner for that fee, so everyone else ate dinner #2. I don’t have enough room in my stomach these days! We did get souvenir/reusable cups for beer, which helped with the environmental impact of the festival, as they could be used at later events.) We watched a box jump competition—how many times could a competitor jump up onto a tall box, get down, do a pushup, stand up, and jump back up, in sixty seconds. We watched the whole auction, which had some great gear and a few pieces of original artwork. Then we watched a hilarious slideshow by Timmy O’Neill—five trips to five continents in five minutes. On the way back to our room, I stopped at Mouse’s for a Magic bar. (I’m a sucker for bar cookies.) Then we went to the premiere of a German movie called Nordwand. Before the main feature, they showed a short of images from the previous fifteen years of ice festivals. We had actually seen a couple of the competition climbs, which was cool. It was fun to see the old video of people climbing with leashes on their tools and double-walled boots (which I still wear, but they don’t!). We read about the movie online and it sounded kind of dumb, but it turned out to be pretty engaging as long as you weren’t too concerned with the historicity of the Nazi connection to climbing the north face of the Eiger.
Dave rigging up a top rope anchor for some ice climbing.
Back to sleep and up kind of late again on Sunday. More eggs for breakfast. Pulled on our gear and picked up our backpacks. Another beautiful day. We hiked up the hill all the way to South Park, where it was really quiet. Attendance was certainly down; I don’t know if it’s the economy or just that the festival isn’t really a novelty anymore, but it was nice for us. We found a great climb right away and roped it up. I headed down into the canyon, kind of bummed that I couldn’t rappel. Everyone else followed and climbed for a while while I took photos and bouldered around the bottom of the climbs. Luckily, it was a beautiful day again, so I wasn’t too cold. The climb next to us, Cartmen Gets an Anal Probe, was open, so I climbed out with Dave (he went over the top; I hiked up the roped
Dave looking up at some ice tools after slipping. He managed to climb back up bare-handed to retrieve the tools
downclimb) to drop Andy’s rope. They did some great mixed climbing while I took photos and video. It was a good day in the canyon! We got back to the hotel thinking that we had plenty of time to get ready for a 9:00 p.m. show. After showering, I looked at the program and discovered that the awards show was actually at 5:30 p.m.—fifteen minutes away! We dashed over to the theater, but the ice festival keeps Latin American hours, so we didn’t miss a thing. The awards ceremony was followed by a really interesting slideshow by Dave Nettle, who brought actual slides! He had several really interesting exhibitions in Alaska to show us. Everyone but Dave agreed that mountaineering and its perils is not for us.
Jess doing some ice "bouldering" in the gorge.
On Monday we got up and packed our stuff for climbing. We also packed the car and checked out of the hotel. Back up the hill, but this time we climbed in the schoolroom. The downclimb was a bit on the sketchy side, and Andy bailed halfway down. It was a cool climb, nice and steep with a couple of interesting variations near the bottom. Andy finally rapped down and everybody did some nice climbing. I took more photos and practiced my footwork and tool switchovers. We left town around 3:30 p.m. after a stop at Mouse’s for coffee and toffee. On the way home, we stopped at the Glenwood Springs Brew Pub for dinner, and Dave and I got home at 10:30 p.m. or so. What a nice way to start the year! Great weather, great ice climbing, great food, and the combination of interesting scheduled events with sleeping flexibility—my favorite kind of vacation.
Windows® 7 + SCSI = Pain
For those of you who have been regular readers of the Gribblog, it’ll come as no surprise that we’ve been running the final release candidate of Windows® 7 (the 64-bit version) on our “new” computer since its birth early in 2009. I still haven’t gotten around to re-installing the now-available RTM version. That will happen after I get through the massive archive of digital images and make a backup of all of the data files. So, pretty much any day now!
In general I’ve found Windows® 7 to be just fine. I can’t point to any significant improvement over Windows® XP, and I have no real experience with Windows® Vista, but I’ve run into few issues directly related to the operating system. The biggest challenges have been device support (a major complaint with Vista as well). At first, drivers for my M-Audio Firewire Solo audio interface and the little Brother laser printer we have were unavailable. In both cases, I was able to get things running using the 64-bit Windows® Vista drivers. The total time invested in those technical hurdles was probably under an hour.
All of the other software and hardware has been working just fine. I’ve even been able to run some really old software intended for older versions of Windows® like Oblivion and an old copy of Maple. The version of Maple I have from grad school (almost 10 years ago) didn’t even run properly under XP!
The slightly archaic Nikon Coolscan III with SCSI interface.
Recently, a friend “gave” us an older Nikon Coolscan III film scanner in exchange for a 6-pack of IPA—he’s a serious hop-head. It’s a very nice scanner for 35mm slides and film, but the catch is the SCSI interface. I was able to get it up and running on the old Windows® XP machine without too much trouble using a random Adaptec SCSI card, but try as I might, there appeared to be no way to get Windows® 7 to recognize the SCSI card.
Part of the problem is a complete lack of support for Windows® 7 (and Vista-64) for most of Adaptec’s legacy cards. On one hand, it’s hard to blame them, considering the age of the cards. Nevertheless, it’s amazingly frustrating to have functional hardware that you cannot use! The rest of this blog post is intended for any other unfortunate souls attempting to get something similar working. Even if that doesn’t apply to you, you may read on, but you were warned.
To add insult to injury, I slapped the card back into the old XP machine (now running Ubuntu Linux) and connected the scanner. After rebooting the machine, the hardware immediately functioned! Apparently it’s not Windows (as Redmond would have you believe) but Ubuntu that just works. There’s even aftermarket software for Linux available in the form of VueScan. I was just about to give up on Windows® and dual-boot the new computer in order to utilize the scanner when I got inspired to give it one more try.
Salvation in a PCI slot? The Adaptec ASC-29160 SCSI host adapter.
Knowing that the RTM version was now available, I decided to see if the expanded user base had netted any new useful ideas. After a few different Google searches, I finally chanced on a SCSI card (again from Adaptec) that others claimed they were able to operate in Windows® 7 using the Vista-64 drivers. After locating a used Apadtec 29160 SCSI host adapter on Amazon.com for $24.99, I decided it was worth another try.
When the card arrived, I discovered that it was for an extra-long (or wide) PCI slot. My immediate thought was that it wouldn’t fit into the machine. It was originally designed for a ’90s vintage server architecture. Much to my delight, the cutouts fit, so I was able to use it with the newer PCI slot in the Shuttle PC. Of course, there was another issue that was immediately obvious. I still needed a driver.
For reasons unknowable, Adaptec doesn’t offer the drivers packaged with an official operating system release for download from their website. I needed the Vista-64 driver for the SCSI adapter, but it’s included in the official Windows® Vista driver pack. Therefore I couldn’t download it directly from Adaptec. Since I don’t run Windows Vista (64-bit or otherwise) I didn’t have access to the drivers, and without a single copy of Vista-64 on my shelf, I couldn’t just get it off a CD either. So, once again I turned to the Internet. I was able to find someone who had the driver files in a zip archive, so I downloaded them. After scanning the archive for viruses, I felt it was safe to install.
After installing the drivers, I needed to reboot the machine. I fired it up, and the Adaptec EZ-SCSI utility popped up during the boot. I knew the card was functioning and recognized by the system, but since the scanner is pinned for SCSI II (50-pin) and the card for ultra-wide SCSI (68-pin); there was just no way to connect the two!
It exists, a 68-pin to 50-pin SCSI adapter with high-byte termination.
Since I’m no SCSI expert, I turned again to the Internet for help. I quickly identified a 68-pin to 50-pin SCSI cable that appeared to be just what I would need; however, before I could order one, I discovered that it would only work to connect an ultra-wide SCSI device to a SCSI host. It turns out, you need to use an ultra-wide SCSI to SCSI adapter with high-byte termination. Although it makes sense (SCSI requires termination, and 18 pins would be unused in my configuration), I didn’t even know such a thing existed!
Fortunately, these too were available on the Internet, but I wanted to pick one up locally, if possible, just in case a return was ultimately necessary. I called over to J.B. Saunders, the local electronics superstore, and inquired. The guy on the phone said they were discontinuing SCSI-anything as a product line, but that they had one such adapter. I asked them to set it aside and rushed over.
When I retrieved the adapter from the counter I was saddened to see that it was for an internal ribbon connection (I never asked), but he directed me to the SCSI odd-lots still hanging on the wall. After a few nervous minutes, I found the right connector. A 68-pin male ultra-wide SCSI to 50-pin female SCSI adapter with high-byte termination. I had to pinch myself as I walked to the check-out.
Later that night, I added the adapter and connected the scanner. During the first boot, the SCSI utility correctly identified the Nikon Coolscan III, so I figured I was home free. Wrong! Back in Windows® nothing recognized the Nikon scanner, not even VueScan. I installed the VueScan drivers (Nikon doesn’t support the scanner in any modern version of Windows), but the software couldn’t locate a scanner.
I figured something was wrong, so I rooted around in the EZ-SCSI configuration utility. First I tried setting the card not to attempt to negotiate a wide connection, but that made no difference. Then I tried manually adjusting the communication bit-rate, but that too had no impact. I was just about out of settings when I tried forcing it to connect asynchronously. Desperate, I booted up the machine 1 more time. I re-installed VueScan and waited with my fingers crossed. This time it found the scanner! Amazing, only a case of beer, a “new” old SCSI card, a weird adapter, and a month of evenings were required to yield a fully functional SCSI Nikon Coolscan III LS-30 running perfectly under Windows® 7.
Baby Shower 2 and More Christmas
We had two relaxing days at my parents’ house after the baby shower. Everybody went home Sunday evening, and Dave and I were left with Mom and Dad. It was just lovely! We slept in each morning and stayed up late watching TV each night. Mom had to work on Monday, so we went to the mall and the bookstore with Dad. We ate beef stew for dinner and played Scrabble (Dad won). On Tuesday, we went downtown to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland, Ohio
It was much cooler than Dave and I expected! There are all sorts of rock artifacts, including hundreds of guitars and lots of outfits worn on stage by famous people. We saw letters to Elvis, Janis Joplin’s Porche, some interesting video of people protesting the moral turpitude of rock, a pair of Freddy Mercury’s pants (with underpants built in—on the outside), ZZ Top’s furry drums, Jimi Hendrix’s capes, and much, much more. We could’ve spent another few hours there, since we didn’t even get a chance to see the movies. We parked underneath the science center, and I would’ve loved to go there, too. We’ll have to head back to Cleveland one of these days!
On Wednesday morning, we went to the coffee shop with Dad and then headed east on the Ohio Turnpike toward Pittsburgh. Some city traffic slowed us down a bit once we got to PA, so we were a little bit late to meet Dad Gribble for lunch at Penn State Greater Allegheny (he had to work that day). We went to Luciano’s and then got a tour of some of the computer labs. Looks like they have a pretty nice setup for a branch campus, and we know they have a good director of IT!
Erika, Genevieve, and Heidi
After lunch we headed over to Erika and Heidi’s. Genevieve was napping, so we had a few minutes to get settled and say hi to Rowan (the dog) before she woke up. Valerie and Don arrived just half an hour or so after we did, so we carted luggage and gifts into the house and snacked and visited for a while.
Grammie and Genevieve
Pappy and Genevieve
We got to open a few baby gifts, too, which was fun. Baby Gribble is sure to love the rings Aunt Erika and Heidi bought! And we’ll love the useful stuff, including a nail clipper for tiny nails and a cool caddy for diapers and creams. We played a game of Parcheesi, which Dave won. Then we ate dinner: Erika and Heidi had prepared a delicious meal of ham, au gratin potatoes, green beans, and green stuff (otherwise known as pistachio fluff, or, the Internet tells me, pistachio pudding or pistachio and fruit delight). We were all kind of tired that evening, so we went to bed fairly early.
The next morning Dave and I went out for a long walk—he was eager to have a mocha and we were both looking forward to getting some exercise after all that time in the car during the past week. We walked along Brownsville Road from Erika and Heidi’s house in Carrick to the Brentwood Town Center, where we knew there was a Caribou Coffee. It took an hour, so we figure that it was a three-mile walk or so. We speculated that in certain parts of Boulder, we would’ve passed five or more coffee shops! We got out some cash so that we could take the bus back. It’s always a pleasure to ride the bus; it makes me feel like a grownup to navigate the city. We were lucky to be on a bus route that had a bus going by every 10 minutes. We got back to the house before Valerie and Don got there (they were staying at a hotel), so we played with Genevieve a bit and then had some lunch. Genevieve had Christmas a bit early so that she wouldn’t be overstimulated and we could all get a good view of her opening her gifts.
Genevieve and her new stacking cups.
Genevieve chewing on her new photo album.
We played a game of Carcassone (which Dave won) and then Don and I went out for a walk. We headed the other way on Brownsville and went about a mile or so and back. The streets were a bit snowy and icy, and my awkward gait led to a few sore muscles by the end of the day! We had some dinner and then Dave and I got ready for church, since it was Christmas Eve. We said goodnight to everyone and drove downtown, where we had time to look at the manger scene in front of the old U.S. Steel building (now the UPMC building). Then we found a seat at First Lutheran Church and were joined shortly by Dad, Sandy, and Aaron for the 10:15 p.m. pre-service music. The church is just gorgeous, especially the ceiling, and the music was very nice (flute, harpsichord, violin, and choir). I really enjoyed the service, which included all the standard liturgy and a very good sermon, but I was really tired by the time we got back to Erika’s around 12:30 a.m.!
Christmas morning we had some breakfast and played with Genevieve until Valerie and Don arrived, when the grownups got to open presents. Thoughtful gifts all around, but I got the food processor I’d been wanting, so I think I made out the best.
New food processor!
We left Erika and Heidi’s around 2:00 p.m. to drive over to Dad and Sandy’s for Christmas dinner. A nice full house included Megan, Jeff, Darren, Grace, and baby sister, Aaron, Dad, Sandy, Erika, Heidi, Genevieve, and the two of us. We had ham, potato salad (yum!), baked beans, green salad, and rolls. And plenty of cookies, everywhere we went! We ate a lot of cookies for breakfast that week.
After dinner we opened gifts (lots of fun toys for Genevieve, including a mock blender that played many different little songs, some of them very strange, and mixed up fruit drinks out of plastic shapes with fruit stickers on them). Then we played a game of Scattergories, which I won handedly. (It helps when Dave isn’t playing; he and his dad were discussing some computer stuff no one else was interested in.) I was so tired by that evening; I’m not sleeping particularly well (thanks, small Gribble!), and lots of driving and strange beds didn’t help. Dave and I sacked out on the pull-out sofa (a very comfortable one) in the chilly basement, and I slept like a rock. It was so nice to sleep well—and so crummy to have to get up at 7:00 a.m. to eat some breakfast and hit the road.
The whole gang at Dad and Sandy's.
We planned to leave at 8:00 a.m., and made it out the door at 8:45. Grandpa and Grandma Hoot were visiting Uncle Brian and Kassie in Anderson, IN (near Indianapolis), so we wanted to stop by and see them. We hadn’t seen Brian and Kassie for years. We had a nice, albeit brief, visit, exchanging some gifts (a gorgeous hand-crocheted outfit for the baby, wine, and chocolate…yum) and eating dinner (ham, green bean casserole, cheese, olives, potato soup, and rolls). We played a long game of Aggravation, made decades earlier by Grandpa, and again Dave won. Around 10:00 p.m. we heaved deep sighs and headed out to the totally packed car to drive back to Colorado. The journey loomed long, but we were both eager to get home and back to our own house, bed, and routines.
At 4:30 p.m. Colorado time, after a snowy delay in Missouri that I slept through, we arrived at home to unload the car and watch some TV before bed. It was wonderful to spend time with everyone, and we can’t wait to see many of you this summer when we’ve become a family of three!