APOD #1

January 1, 2008. Pan's sister was in town for the holiday, so we all met halfway between the respective homes. We had eaten at East Bay before when the Scamp was in town so had a fairly good idea of what they served. They don't open until 5 for dinner and, once again, we got there about 30 minutes too early. Still they let us in, which was a good thing, as it was starting to get really cold outside. The food was delicious, the staff friendly and the company delightful. It was nice to see K and her son D again.

January 2, 2008. I love Indian River naval oranges. But you just can't find them anymore, so I have to make due with California naval oranges, which are good, just not the same. One time recently when Pan and I were in south Florida we managed to hit the back roads and it was such a shame to to see all the orchards I remember from decades ago being replaced with housing and commercial property. Guess it won't be long before Indian River naval oranges will no longer be available and that is a sad thought.

January 3, 2008. It got into the teens last night. Will probably be the coldest day of the year for us. And as I was headed to work, I noticed that a neighbor's sprinkler system was on creating icicles and ice on the lawn and trees. The icicles and ice were still there after I left work and had picked up the Princess. So we ran home, got the camera and headed back. The owner was out watching all the children who came over to look at it. I asked him if it was accidental or deliberate. He said he did it for the kids who may never actually see icicles or hear ice crunch beneath their feet.

January 4, 2008. Faraday Motors. You thought I was kidding about what goes on around this house. Well guess again, LOL. Today Pan put together a Faraday motor. It is one of the most basic motors and he wanted to get it working just right so that when he helped the Princess build one there would be no errors. And I must admit I was so intrigued by it that the first thing I did was look it up on the Internet. What I found sent me into peals of laughter as well as being taught several things I did not know before. In my journey through the information highway, I found out how to make a semi-automatic Lego gun (this actually could be dangerous), a snapping pumpkin (which would be great at Halloween), a wave-motion coffee table (I'm not paying $500+ for instructions, Pan will just have to figure it out), bubbles floating on carbon-monoxide gas and my all time favorite, a bristlebot.


January 5, 2008. Today's POD is serving a dual purpose. One, of course, as the APOD. The other as a reminder of how these darn little ornaments go into their proper place in the box. Today was the day to take down all the Christmas decorations and start on a fresh new year. But these little buggers were about to be the death of me trying to remember which slot they went into. And I guess our poor tree will have to last at least one more year as we did not find one which will do. The largest we could find after Christmas was 7 1/2 foot and that is just not tall enough for the ornaments we have. But we did foray into Home Depot to pick up some new plastic storage boxes for the tree (the others were so brittle they were breaking if you touched them). Aha, I had sent Nuke the links I found on the Faraday motor and Bristlebot and he just called to say he was building them. ROFL.... I now know how to get him to call.