Using printers with Linux is a hassle. That has been my experience, anyway. Here at home Kathi has an HP printer attached to her Windows PC. It is shared on our local network. I have had some success getting my Ubuntu PCs to print on this device.
If I had to re-create things for some reason the process would go something like this...
Back in May of 2006 Kayleigh had a dance recital...
Lynne, Kristin, and Laura joined us in Haymarket for this big annual event. Afterward we went out for an early dinner. Of course Kayleigh got to choose where we would dine, and she picked a local Japanese restaurant. Japanese? Every time I think I have these kids figured out they find a new way to surprise me. I had no idea even what to order. The kids helped me.
Awhile back I started adding video clips to this site. As a Linux user video can sometimes be a pain, with the many different players, formats, codecs, and whatever. I wanted the video here to be as simple as possible, so I started with linked mpeg files. These should pop up the player of choice on your computer. It works for me, anyway.
Then I started playing with the new MacBook, and posted some clips in the proprietary Apple format, Quicktime. This requires viewers to download and install the Quicktime player.
Early this year I discovered how easy it is to embed Macromedia Flash video, and I am now using this format exclusively. The advantage is simple: due to the popularity of this format (blame it on Youtube) just about every one of you out there has the required browser plugin, regardless of hardware or operating system. Check out each video format by clicking on the thumbnails above.
Last week we kicked off the summer swim meet season. The kids were still wet from swimming when we made our way to Long Park in Haymarket for the finale of the spring soccer season. Kayleigh and Evie each had make up games for an earlier Saturday that was rained out. And the weather was again a factor, this time it was heat. By the time we arrived at the pitch and the kids were started kicking soccer balls the temperature had already soared well into the nineties.
Both played great, and showed no ill effects from the high temperature. I fully expect we will be back for the fall season.
This has been a busy time around the Hansen house. And how? Soccer gets three days a week. Swim team gets five days a week. School still gets one more week. Softball gets every Friday, and occasional Mondays. One flooring project is almost, but not yet finished. And then there is this little baby thing...
Kayleigh and Thomas are on the swim team again. Practice began after the pool opened Memorial Day weekend. We will be there each weekday evening, until school lets out (end of this week) and practice time moves to the morning.
Time trials were held this past Saturday. This is the first of eight early morning swim meets. Last year during June the kids had to deal with cool weather, and cold water. This year we are having a heat wave, and a thick, muggy fog shrouded the pool area.
This year Kayleigh has graduated from of the eight-and-under division. This means she swims two lengths of the pool (50 meters) instead of one. She will be working on her stamina, and her turns. Here she is swimming freestyle:
Back in May of 2006 I made a business trip to Phoenix. While there I hiked Camelback Mountain.
The Canon Digital Elph has been kept busy since the arrival of Numero Cinco last week. For a slideshow of all of the to-date photos of Jeffrey, try clicking here.
We had quite the surprise late, very late Saturday night. Kathi unexpectedly started labor just before midnight, and just a few minutes later we were enroute to Prince William Hospital in nearby Manassas. The official time of birth for Numero Cinco was Sunday at 6:30 AM, May 18, 2008. Yesterday Kathi turned in the Form SS-5 (Application for a Social Security Number Card), meaning Numero Cinco actually has a name: Jeffrey David Hansen.
[click for all of the baby pics]
The original plan was for Kathi to report to the hospital Thursday, May 29. She had an appointment for an induced labor. This was two days before her due date, and fit her previous pregnancy experiences. She had never been early before. Kayleigh and Thomas both arrived overdue. Evelyn and Melanie also waited, and were induced.
During my recent read of the Andrew Jackson book by Brands I encountered a word that I was not familiar with. From the context in which it was used this word was some sort of slur. I looked it up...
poltroon: An ignoble or arrant coward; a dastard; a craven; a mean-spirited wretch.
This word seemed to be a favorite of the characters of that period. I have since read other histories of roughly the same timeframe, and again this word appeared. It seems to lost some popularity over the years. What are we, a bunch of cowards?! Lets bring it back!
Melanie recently celebrated her third birthday. Check out these photos from past birthday celebrations.
Sunday, April 27th was the third anniversary of Melanie's birth. Her birthday celebration filled the entire weekend. The festivities started Friday afternoon with a short party at our house for several of her neighborhood friends.
Saturday evening Lynne hosted a party for Melanie at her beautiful home in Oakton. Lynne treated us all with a delicious meal of grilled ribs and potato salad. Kristin and Laura provided entertainment, with some of Melanie's favorite activities: blowing bubbles, opening gifts, and tossing the ball to the pups.
Then Sunday our neighbors next door joined us for one last birthday party. We grilled fish on the backyard grill and enjoyed what was left of Melanie's big Costco birthday cake.
It's softball season again. Once again I am playing for my familiar Gainesville LDS team, in the Manassas Church Softball League. Be sure to click on that link. That is one beautiful and very classy website design.
The league has six divisions, and it tries to keep each of them competitive. The team that finishes with the best win-loss record is moved to a higher division the following year. The team that finishes with the worst record moves down. Last summer we finished second in the second division. This year there were two openings in division one, and so we were moved up.
This past Friday Kayleigh, Thomas, Evelyn, and I went to the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Richmond International Raceway. The track is about a two-hour drive from our home in northern Virginia. I had memorized the directions before leaving, but this was hardly necessary, as we spotted the Goodyear Blimp cruising high above the track from at least twenty miles away. The iconic airship acted as our compass, guiding us right to the parking lots.
We entered the grandstand during the downtime between the end of the qualifying and the start of the main event, the Lipton 250. But there was plenty going on to keep our attention. Parachuters carried the Stars and Stripes down onto the track. A large military transport plane swooped low over the stands, followed by three large helicopters. A "Nashville recording star" sang God Bless America, an invocation was offered, and we sang the National Anthem. The drivers were introduced to the crowd.
The other day I was asked about the cherry trees that were then blooming in our front yard. One was already there when we purchased the place back in spring of 2000. I thought it was too small for the space, so I planted two similar trees next to it, in the shape of a triangle. That was in 2004. Removing the grass required a lot of work, but I think the results have been worth the effort.
Check out these photos; from 2005, 2007, and 2008.
The tree at the right side of the group is the original. This is obvious in the oldest photo, but has become less so in recent years.
Last week the local youth soccer season got underway. This year Kayleigh, Thomas, and Evelyn are all playing. Each had their first practice last week, and their first games Saturday.
Evelyn was up first, at 9am. Hers was the very first team to play on the new fields at Long Park. These have a fancy new FieldTurf surface. It is longer than that carpet-like stuff they use for putt-putt golf, and it is packed with little rubber pellets (recycled tires?) so it has some give.
We attended church this morning, then drove to Lynne's home in Oakton for an afternoon of fun with family and friends. Donna was also there, with her dog Cagney. The afternoon was filled with typical Easter Sunday activities: dressing up in fancy clothes, hunting for hidden candy, and of course a delicious home-cooked meal.
The pups got plenty of exercise, especially Czar. Thomas and I threw his favorite ball into the backyard, over and over and over. He happily retrieved it, every time. Then we played inside, where Czar would pull Thomas across the smooth kitchen floor, back and forth, over and over and over. Even Tahnee joined in.
The Forgotten Man, by
Amity Shlaes
is an interesting look at government economic policy before and during the
Great Depression. This is very much a revisionist history. The conventional
wisdom is that corporate greed and dishonest speculators caused the stock
market crash in 1927, which resulted in over a decade of high unemployment,
low wages, and a contracting economy. FDR and his
New Deal came to the
rescue of the so-called "forgotten man", and the nation, with a litany of new
Federal agencies and programs. The resulting recovery helped America win World
War II, and led to a new decade of booming economic growth.
That is the conventional wisdom, anyway. The truth? By 1937 FDR had already been president for ten years, when the economy took a turn for the worse. This was a depression, within a depression. A decade of New Deal policy had seemed to have some good results, with unemployment slowly declining, and wages on the rise. However the nation as a whole still had not matched pre-1927 economic numbers, and what improvement had occurred appeared to be slipping away.
This winter has been a disaster in Bristow, Virginia. Only twice have we had measurable snow: once in December, once in January. Total accumulation is probably less than six inches.
Meteorological winter ended March 1, yet the computer models continue to torment. For several days they have been showing a strong storm hitting the Carolinas and Virginia this coming Monday. Here is this morning's forecast discussion from the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center:
Back on January 13th of 2005 Kayleigh skipped school, and I skipped work, for a day of skiing. This was Ski Chalet demo day at Wisp. I don't care much for trying out demo equipment. However thanks to the sponsors lift tickets could be had for the bargain rate of $2.
January is normally the coldest month of the year in western Maryland, but as you can see from the photos this definitely wasn't normal January weather. It felt more like late March on the slopes. The few runs that were actually open were just barely so, and some big puddles were forming in the low spots.
If I had a choice I would take powder snow, of course, measured by the foot. But spring skiing can be almost as much fun. Nice and warm, soft snow, no crowds. Even if it isn't spring.
A couple of years back while working on a flooring project I borrowed an air
compressor and a nail gun from a friend. These tools were so much fun to use I
decided I needed to get my own. The nail gun was specifically a
Bostitch
Angled Finish Nailer.
This past Saturday I used it for the first time, and was very pleased with the results. I loaded it with nails, attached it to the compressor, ran it up to 100 pounds of pressure, and I was ready to go.
I first used it to locate the floor joists. I shot nails into the floor upstairs, then found them in the downstairs, in the ceiling of the unfinished portion of the basement. Before long I had every joist located. Then the real floor work started, along the wall, where a floor nailer won't fit. The Bostitch has a flat tip for the face nails, and a ridged tip for the tongue-and-groove fastening.
This tool can blast a nail through a three-quarter-inch flooring, linoleum, two layers of plywood, and into a floor joist, not even breaking a sweat. The nailing force can be easily adjusted by hand loosening a small screw on the gun.
Get one.
