Drill press chuck key

Back in 93 I moved to Arizona from California.  Some where after that I realized I could not find my chuck key.  Not having time for much woodworking anymore It wasn't a huge priority.  I tried ordering a few that looked right from MSC but even the closest would just barely work.  Those who know me know that I like to keep things organized and keeping the wrenches that fit a tool next to that tool rather than in a toolbox somewhere is part of that organization.  I have been known to buy extra wrenches so each machine has it's own set.  The most logical place I thought I would have put the wrench for moving was the drawer with the drill bits in it like I did for the portable drills.  Recently I had need for the drill press and fought with almost correct one I had.  After that I pondered a bit about where an organized person might have put the chuck key for travel.  It finally dawned on me to open the belt housing at the top and sure enough it was there.  I was lucky it had not caught in the belts and it had stayed there as the cover had gotten damaged in the move and was open part of the trip.

Flashbacks from the past

In the last month or so I have gotten involved with a Facebook page for my high school graduating class. I never really ran with the cool kids in school and do not recognize over half the 600+ kids in my class. It has been really fun connecting with some of my class, those I remember and those I don't. Many of the ones I have connected with have the means to go to meetups and such that I don't but some of the folks I went to school with are no longer alive and able to connect on any level so I consider myself lucky in many ways.

Modern car reliability

Recently I happened upon a report by JD Power that looked at 3 years of non maintenance repair frequency of single owner cars. It did not surprise me that Chrysler vehicles were at the bottom of the list. What I did find remarkable was even the worst brands averaged under 2 repairs during that time period. When I was younger I worked in service stations and auto dealers and most vehicles were back at the dealer more than 2 times in the first 90 days for non maintenance repairs. Combine the current repair numbers with the extended maintenance schedules and cars have really come a long way in the last 40 years that I have been driving.

A Hot week

I don't often talk much about the weather here.  Especially in the summer as, except for a few wonderful thunderstorms, it's just plain hot for most folks.  Those of us who spend most of their day without A/C have a lot less trouble with the heat.  I have gone through several official 120°+ days, but most of those are in June, before the monsoon moisture settles in and the dew point pretty much stays over 55° rendering evaporative coolers almost useless.  Well this last week has brought temperatures that have come close to or set new records every day.  The culmination came on Friday when a new record was set, not only for the day, but for the entire month of August.  And although it has not felt as heavy as many points in the East the moisture has certainly been felt.  As I write this I acknowledge many of the folks on the East coast, especially around New York would trade my damp heat for Hurricane Irene in a second.  The official high temperature on Friday was 117°.  Here is a picture of the thermometer in my car taken about 5PM on Friday.

Beer

In addition to being exposed to several new cuisines my Yelp friends have encouraged me to try several different types of beers.  Generally I have had lagers with my most consistent purchase being MGD.  I already knew I did not care for light beers.  Not surprisingly I found out Heineken and Corona were almost identical chemically.  Getting in to craft beers I had my first taste of Fat Tire about 4 years ago in Las Vegas and still enjoy it.  I find I really like wheat beers with some of my favorites being Widmer Hefeweizen, Shock Top and Mothership Wit.  Most of the time I prefer them without the added or blended fruit.  Generally I like pale ales and summer ales.  Having tried several I still have not developed a liking for IPAs or anything heavy and dark or sweet or heavy in hops.  Bud sucks!  Now that I have a larger selection of beers that I like I can usually find something on tap I like.  And Coors rates right with Bud.  I am on the fence about Pilsners having had some I like liked and some I thought were bitter.

A (cork)screw loose

I have 2 or more of just about every thing small in my kitchen; spoons, spatulas, whisks, knives, etc.. Never thought about the wine bottle opener. As you can see I was presented with a bit of a challenge recently. I managed to get the broken screw out with a pair of pliers and found a multi purpose knife with a corkscrew to open the bottle with. If you have never used a pocket knife corkscrew before I can assure you it is not a pleasant experience.






I now have two corkscrews. Surprisingly I have found I prefer the folding bartender model over the two handled one. Of course a Rabbit would be cool but it costs too much and takes up more space.

My gift to me

This Thanksgiving my part of the food provided was, from left to right, Tapenade, Sriracha Hummus and pinto bean hummus. I got rave reviews but I think it took more effort than was needed. And being a guy and a tool freak I saw this as a reason for a new toy, er tool.



This was my old food processor. 1-1/2 cup capacity, 70 watt motor. It was cute and didn't take up much space. However it would only process one cans worth of olives into Tapenade so a bowl such as I brought took two complete batches. It was also worthless at hummus which prompted me to get an immersion blender a while back which does a wonderful job.



This was my old blender which I picked up a few years back. Amongst the bargain priced blenders I picked this one because it said it would crush ice. It did, in the amount of one margarita's worth at a time. It also didn't do hummus well. It was about $35, 5 cup capacity, 400 watt.



This is the new Cuisinart I picked up at Sur La Table. At $100 it still isn't king of the hill but it will outdo either of the stand alone appliances I had. I decided to get the model exclusive to Sur La Table because of the 600 vs 500 watt motor and the metal vs the plastic base. Interesting how having a heavier duty appliance it only needs 3 speeds vs 12 of the lesser blenders. The food processor is 3 cups, the blender is 7 cups, it has a 600 watt motor. It also has the added capability of slicing and shredding. It is supposed to handle a full batch of ice. After not using it for over a year I relegated my coffee maker to a cabinet and this unit now takes it's place on the counter to make it easier to get to. So far I have made egg nog and shredded a potato.



Couple of items of note. I can already see myself wanting a full fledged 7 or 11 cup food processor. Does anybody want to give my old stuff a new home? :-)

Pink House

7009 N 58th Ave., Glendale, AZ

So what was I doing in a boutique? I was there for a Yelp CMYE (Community Manager Yelp Event). This was the first official Yelp event in the same zip code I have my business so I was not going to miss it. I had a good time chatting with some old and new friends. Bitz-ee Mamas a few doors down provided the appetizers we munched on. Definitely not a place I would normally shop in. Thanks to my friends I was able to appreciate it for what it is. They are celebrating their 5th anniversary and it has over time morphed in to a sort of co-op with several spaces showcasing local designer talent. Roughly half the store is stocked by the owner with the other half stocked by over a half dozen vendors. Most of what they have is clothing and accessories with a few collectibles. Listening to the comments of my friends the majority of the stuff is very reasonably priced and there was even some items in plus sizes. Several Yelpers made purchases during the evening. I also heard several comments during the event that many folks did not realize Glendale had a historic area filled with small shops and eateries with easy parking and they intended to come back and explore the area.

MGD 64

So this past weekend I made I made a trip to Total Wine which I do every 3 or 4 weeks and proceeded to fill my cart with the usual stuff. A box of Franzia Merlot (daily drinking stuff), a couple of bottles of wine(in this case a Nostrada Tempranllo and a ca'Rugate Monte Fiorentine generically recommended by a wine goddess), a couple of six packs of craft beers (in this case Mothership Wit and Fat Tire, both by New Belgium) and tried to pickup a couple of 30 packs of MGD. They were out of MGD in cans. My options were Heineken, original Michelob, and one other beer that is chemically the equivalent of the three but I cannot remember what it is. For daily drinking beer I prefer cans over bottles as I have a way to recycle cans but not bottles so cans leave a smaller footprint. I have always avoided trying the MGD64 as it is a light beer and I have yet to find a light beer I like. 2 years ago Chase Field changed their taps from MGD to MGD64 so I have been buying my beer from the Gordon Biersch counter (Hefeweizen the first year and either Pilsner or Marzen the second). So I finally relented and tried ONE case of the MGD64. I guess it wasn't really a let down as I wasn't expecting much. It is a light beer and really doesn't have much body or flavor. I tried it and will move on.

Statistics

Ok, so I am a little vain and would like to think the whole world might be listening in to my blog. I know better. I currently am using both Sitemeter and Google stats. Sitemeter shows a lot more detail like where the viewer is from, what brought them there and a few other things. However it does not pick up views by readers unless they click through to the original post. It does however pick up folks just hitting the "next blog" button which I myself have used several times to find new blogs to follow. Many have been the times I wondered if anybody was reading my posts. Recently Google stats have come on line and it picks up many more hits, including those through Google reader. But it does not give much detail as to the identity and location of the person reading my posts.

I am pretty sure neither of these counters, either separately or together, give me a true reading of who and why is reading my blog but at least I know some one is. Most of the time when I can see the detail I can pretty much guess by location who it is. Probably the most intriguing is a regular reader in New York. The only person I have known there is a lady I went to school with, J, that I never got to date but I was welcome by her mom to stop by for baked goods any time I wanted. Last I heard, from her mom, she was in New York (many years ago) doing some kind of teaching for under privileged kids. Note this is my blog and I can dream all I want. :-)

I know a lot of folks give up on their blogs after they become active on Facebook but to me they are two separate means of expression, one for the the immediate and one for the permanent, and as long as still I enjoy writing it and folks still read it I intend to keep up both.

Did I lose anybody?

After having having the local phone company since I opened my business and having them as my ISP since I got online about 12 years ago I have switched to Cox cable for business. This is a big switch for me, I am old enough to remember the phone company owning everything including the phone and there were no options. My record for utilizing new technology is mixed. Of 5 living siblings I am the oldest and I was the first to have a home computer and the last to get on the internet.

Changing ISPs was something I fought for a long time. Once I got on the internet I became active in several wood working forums and gained several customers and the online link was my email address which was tied to my ISP which began as @uswest.net. It later changed to qwest.net and eventually to qwestoffice.net. Things went fine until they stopped forwarding the previous versions about a year ago. During the years I was visited by several sales folks that could give me a small cost savings at the expense of losing my email address. After Qwest did that to me anyway I started exploring how to solve the problem for the long term. Over a year ago I got a domain for my business and started posting that. When I first got online a domain was fairly expensive at around $50 month but over the years it has kept coming down and when I finally got a domain through Godaddy it cost me $150, including registration, for 3 full years. Last month Cox came in and stated they were installing cable in my complex and gave me a quote about $50 less than I was paying and the billing is a lot simpler than the 8 pages I have been getting from Qwest. In the interim month until they got it installed I have tried to get everything important changed over to either my personal (shrpscott(at)gmail dot com or business stuff at scott(at)scottssharpening dot com. I hope I haven't lost anybody.

That brings up another point. Back in the day when you moved you filed a change of address with the post office and filled out the change of address section on all of your bills and at Christmas you made a point of getting your cards out early so your friends and relatives had your new address. Now with so many things tied to the internet trying to make sure all the stuff you do on line is updated is a real chore. And there is no forwarding address thingy for the internet. Again I hope I haven't lost anybody but I know I will have. :-(

I think the next step will be to jettison the white and yellow page listings which for years have only gotten me calls for work which doesn't fit the B2B makeup of my business.

Long time, no post

Geez, I went through a whole month with no posts.:-( Problem being I just couldn't seem to find time at work to post. And when I have been done working the last thing I wanted to do was sit at the computer some more. I have also been guilty of spending too much time on Yelp and Facebook when I should have been working. The solution I have come up with is to stop fighting having a computer at home. It has been almost 20 years since I have had access to a home computer that wasn't prioritized to my son or ex wife.

The computer I have is a cheap ($350) laptop that came with a 3 in 1 printer thanks to a Labor Day sale at Best Buy. Every time I have upgraded my computer(s) I am amazed at what the next generation has to offer. To put this in prospective the first computer I bought was a used Tandy model I for $500 around 30 years ago. In 1980 dollars my new computer would have cost about $150. About that same time a friend of mine (who reads this blog) spent thousand of dollars on a Tandy model 2 with 8" floppy discs that didn't have 2% of the computing power I now have.

Another benchmark is the printer Best Buy tossed in to the deal. My first printer (attached to a Tandy model III bought used for $800) was a wide carriage pin feed I bought for $1200 because I wanted the then new 24 pin dot matrix head. My new printer was listed @ $40 and needs ink cartridges that cost $32 a set but it doesn't need a ribbon and I don't have to embed printer controls in my document. This was back before the thought of the internet and updated drivers so when I made the move to an Apple IIe ($2000+) I had to buy another printer which was a standard width 24 pin dot matrix for around $900, this was still a pin feed.

So enough of me proving I am old. :-) If things go as planned I should be able to go back to making entries several times a month.

Downtown Phoenix Journal

Downtown Phoenix Journal (DPJ) is published by Urban Affair.

"Urban Affair (UA) is a modern media network developed to promote Phoenix’s urban lifestyle by elevating urban ideas and related activities. This focus assists the development our urban core, benefiting the people, organizations, and businesses in the community, while making the lifestyle more accessible to Valley residents. UA generates ongoing interest in downtown with assets that include DowntownPhoenixJournal.com, RadiatePHX (monthly networking group), Coe House (historic art gallery office suite), and Urban Affair events. UA was founded in 2006."

One of the items that shows up weekly is a Yelp review of a downtown business. Not sure who selects it and whether or not the business has any say in it. What I do know is I was selected to be DPJ Yelper of the week for my review of the Meat Shop. I thought that was sorta neat. :-)

Vegas, July 2010

Almost hard to call this a Vegas vacation as I only spent one full day there. But I did spend 3 nights there and Vegas is all about the night anyway.



This was the view from my room on the 28th floor of Excalibur.



The bridge over the Colorado is almost complete and is set to open by the end of the year. Couldn't happen too soon as the wait East bound was over 2 hours. I actually go back through Laughlin most of the time to avoid the tie ups. Coupled with all the other road improvements over the last ten years it will be about an hour faster each way when the bridge opens.

On the second day I drove up I15 to have lunch with a friend near Cedar City, Utah. I had never been up that stretch of road before so it was an interesting drive.

Of course I am all about the food so here is a list of where I ate.
Day one
lunch - In and Out. Single cheese animal style with fries. It took almost 30 minutes to get my order and the fries were not that great
Dinner - Hyakumi inside of Caesers Palace. Japanese Teppanyaki. I had beef tenderloin, shrimp, chicken, veggies, miso soup, cucumber salad with crab, Asahi draft and ice cream. Easily the best meal of the trip.

Day two
Breakfast - Pyramid cafe inside of Luxor. Corned beef hash and eggs with potatoes and toast. Toast was cold, all the hot items came from chafing dishes. I had wanted to avoid the buffet, what I got was buffet food at a higher price :-(
Lunch - City Cafe and Deli in Cedar City. Great sandwiches in a family run little restaurant.
Dinner - Nine Fine Irishman inside of New York, New York. Chicken pot pie and a pint of Bass ale. Being acclimated to the heat, it was a very pleasant 95°, dry, with a light breeze, I sat out on the patio and watched the scenery as passers by watched me eat.

Day three
Breakfast - McDonalds. Greasy chicken biscuit, hash brown and orange juice.
Lunch - HK Star in Chinatown. Americanized Cantonese food. Beef with string bean and Shrimp chow fun. Shared with Yelper Angela H. Decent food, really cheap.
Dinner - Baja Fresh inside of Excalibur. Fajita burrito. It was ok.
2nd dinner - Bazic in China town. Mostly a Korean BBQ joint that opens from 7PM to 4AM. I was here for a Yelper party that started at 11PM. Even though it has a full Korean menu the "in" thing to get is 10 pieces of fried chicken and a litre of beer which Angela and I shared. Fun rowdy group!

In addition to eating and driving around I finally managed to see the shark reef exhibit at Mandalay bay. It is a nice aquarium but you get through it really fast. Crystal at City Center has more stuff open than it did when I was there at Christmas so I wandered around there. It was good to get away from the shop and do something different and I found some serious do nothing time in there as well.

Sodas

I rarely drink sodas nor keep them in the fridge. I don't drink caffeine often and I am not a fan of HFCS or Aspartame. And refrigerator space is utilized for beer. :-) I stopped at Sprouts on my way home to get dinner fixins for the weekend (free range rib eye, fresh squash, hand stuffed brats, fresh cauliflower) and wanted some non alcoholic beverages to pack in my cooler for my trip to Vegas tomorrow. I was thinking 7-up or Sprite. Well this being a healthy type store, think Henrys or Sunflower if you are not familiar with Sprouts, they didn't really have a cold soda section. After digging I found in the aisle with the fruit juices a selection of soft drinks from Hansen's and Blue Sky that are actually made with real sugar. I picked up a six pack of Hansen's Key Lime and it is pretty good, a bit sweeter than with HFCS. They also make some diet versions that are made with Sucralose (Splenda) which they claim is better for you than Aspartame. And none of their sodas have caffeine. Even though their sodas cost twice as much, as little as I drink sodas It is not a big deal.

Now what to do?

Several years ago the Costco I frequent near home stopped selling tobacco because the Arizona rules tightened up about access to them by minors. Never mind that Costco has a person checking everybody as they leave. Not a big problem as I drive by the Business center once a week anyway. Well Tuesday I stopped in and the business center has decided tobacco products will no longer be sold for personal use at that location. So now I can buy them at the grocery store, I hate hard box. I can go to the Costco by I17 which is out of my way except for Thursday mornings. Only problem with Thursday mornings is I drive by there about 9-9:30 and they open at 10. I can see if the Sams Club around the corner from my regular Costco sells tobacco at that location and switch my membership over. But I like the selection at Costco and they treat their employees better.

Humpf!! And don't say it. :-)

Lifestyle changes

Yesterday I stopped in at Albertson's to get a lottery ticket and pick up a few things. Other than vegetables I really had nothing special on my list and browsed through the store. Saw some meat that looked good but didn't buy it as now I get free range beef and humanely raised pork from the Meat Shop and free range beef and Buffalo from Sprouts. I saw butter was on sale for $2.50lb but passed because I get it at Costco for $1.60lb. I knew I was low on beer but passed the aisle because it is about $5.00 a case less expensive at Total Wine. Box wine was on sale, for $2.00 a box more than the everyday price at Total wine. Eggs were on the mental list too but the locally grown ones are much cheaper at Sprouts. Frozen veggies are much cheaper at Wal-mart for the same brands. I am getting spoiled living in a big city. With the exception of the Meat Shop all of these places are in my neighborhood. In some cases I buy better stuff for me and in others I buy the same stuff at lower prices. I still like Albertson's but it is no longer my only grocer.

I'm feeling cheated

So yesterday I am having some processed luncheon meat (Spam) fried up for breakfast and I notice there are supposed to be 6 servings per can. Depending on how I slice it I get 3, maybe 4. In this case I think they are getting a bit creative because I always thought a serving of meat is 4 ounces and they were using 2 ounces as serving. And how about a pint of Gelato or ice cream? They all say 4 servings per container. After I finish with the third serving there is none left. I want to know who stole the 4th serving! Or do they intentionally leave that one out of the carton? Another one I get to see quite often is a bag of frozen vegetables. They all say 5 or 6 servings. I only seem to get 2 and when I was married with kid I could squeeze 3 tiny servings out of one. And yes, I manage to squeeze by on a bit more than 3,000 calories a day. :-)

Phone books

Today I just got the Phoenix metro edition for the year. It is only one book. I grew up in Santa Barbara and I can only remember it being one book there. In the 17 years I have lived here I saw it grow to 4 books from I think 3. And the regional edition for the Northwest valley had all the retirement communities personal phone number and address listings in large print. It's been 2 years since the phone book(s) even had personal information. Thinking back on it, I don't think I have used a phone book for anything but a business look up in 10 years or so. A large part of it's usefulness for personal information has changed with people not listing their addresses or getting rid of land lines in favor of cell phones. And even businesses have cut down on the amount of advertising they do in the phone books. I guess seeing that I only got one book with all the yellow pages and business listings mad me wax nostalgic today. Time was when phone books got worn out in a year. Now they may get out of date but certainly not worn out from overuse.

Wine Tasting

Saturday afternoon I attended a wine tasting in North Scottsdale. This was my first ever wine tasting so I had no preconception of what to expect. All twenty wines presented were limited production, in most instances less than 200 cases. That was reflected in both the price of the tasting ($30) and the price of wines ($32-105 per bottle). I felt a little out of place both by disposable income and knowledge of wines and wineries. I think it bothered me more than the presenters or the other attendees. The tasting was presented by Arcadia fine wines and was a very casual afternoon affair. The location was a cooks dream. Multiple functioning kitchens, including an Iron Chef stadium, equipped with the latest in Wolf and Sub Zero (who together own the showroom) appliances. I ended up tasting about a dozen wines and learned a lot about wine and wineries and had several peasant conversations with folks. Seems almost everybody interested in wine has been a frequent visitor to the Central coast.