Patio is almost there!

Patio_13June2010
Originally uploaded by brad_holt

My patio is finally done (well, mostly)! This has been quite a little process. It started in early-May when I tore off my sorry excuse for a deck. I built it almost five years ago out of left-over fence panels. It was intended to be temporary until I built my real deck, but as these things often are, temporary turned into semi-permanent. I had thought I was going to build a new deck, but decided to go with a patio with concrete slab instead. Funny thing: When I tore out the tile in my kitchen and dining room, I took up some panels in the deck and discarded all that tile under the deck. I presumed it wouldn’t matter because when I built the new deck I could just go over it. But with the slab, I had to move all that tile. It was in hundreds and hundreds of pieces. It was much fun.

Then it rained for a while, so it pushed back my concrete. And then it rained some more. And some more. Finally it had been dry for a couple of weeks but I still hadn’t heard from my concrete guy. So I called him, only to find out he had “forgot about me.” But a few days later he was out there and I got concrete laid. Thank goodness. By the end of May I had the slab poured and cured and got my furniture assembled and on the patio. All that’s missing was everything else. I was lucky to have a “do-it-all” guy around who had just finished repainting my house, and he agreed to help me with the patio as well. By mid-June we were pretty much finished. I added a little “side-deck” on the side of the patio and raised up my fence a little for privacy. I still have two things yet to complete: laying tile and a little bit of landscaping around the patio. I can’t wait until it’s completely done! But it’s been nice so far. I love hanging out there, lounging in the chaise, surfing the web or eating dinner.

If you want to check out the patio, head over to Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brad_holt/sets/72157624553525094/

Welcome Mr. Grant (Starting to catch up on my blog!)

Baby Grant Experience. Bruce Grant Holt born Wed 5-26, 2:07 am, 7 lbs 14 oz, 21" long, Purcell, Okla. Brad and baby Grant (I'm thinking about stealing him a little bit here.)
Originally uploaded by brad_holt

Bad Blogger! Bad, bad blogger! So, I have been MIA for a while but I am going to attempt to catch up a little this evening. Let’s flash back to almost two months ago… when Bruce Grant Holt joined us. Here’s a little play-by-play.

Tues. May 25
AM: Sally is at Purcell MH and labor is induced.
6:00 PM: Mom and I decided to head over to Purcell as things were progressing along. We hoped there would be time to eat before the big event. Ha, ha. Ha ha ha. Ha.
8:00 PM: Got through eating, everything still going well, ETA 9-10 PM.
10:00 PM: Pushing has commenced (my apologizes to Sally if she doesn’t care for these details on my blog. LOL) I start taking a deep interest at these green dots on the floor and follow them around the hospital.
11:30 PM: Still no baby. They decide to do a c-section, but there is another mother in the same situation and she is in more distress, so she gets to go first. But everything is still okay with mom and baby. They tell us how odd this is that there is even another mom giving birth in the small hospital at the same time, even more so that they need to do two c-sections at the same time. Goody.

Wed. May 26
12:30 AM: Still not in surgery. Facebook followers give up and go to bed, except Nora who is in Germany where it is morning.
1:00 AM: I awake from my attempted nap in my truck. It was somewhat successful. I eventually found a position that involved my feet hanging out the window. Shortly after the other mom’s baby is delivered. We momentarily consider just stealing that one.
1:30-ish AM: Sally is taken into surgery. We are told it shouldn’t take long, so clearly it will be like 5 AM.
2:10 AM: Baby Grant is finally born! 7 lbs. 14 oz.
2:30 AM: We get to see him for the first time. He has like 30 pictures taken of him in 30 seconds. Steve comes out shortly after and is really proud and tired.
3:00 AM: We get to go back and see Grant and Sally. We get to hold Grant and take a few pictures with the new little guy.
3:30 AM: Left the hospital and headed to Asher.
4:30 AM: Back home at Asher and instantly to sleep.

This was my first “birth” experience and it was truly amazing! For pictures of Grant on his first day and since then, check out this set on Flickr! http://www.flickr.com/photos/brad_holt/sets/72157624141183926/

Oh, Wal-Mart… how you annoy thee.

Went to Walmart today to get some things for work. Usually, the day is slightly less annoying than the evening. Today, not so much. So... here we go... Top 10 Things That Annoyed me at Walmart Today:

1. Orphaned shopping carts in the parking lot

2. Shopping carts returned to the corral in a haphazard manner rather than in two, nicely organized lines

3. People parking in places that aren’t parking spaces

4. People trying so very hard to find the closest possible parking spot on the warmest day of the year

5. Almost as many people using electric carts as those not (maybe they all need them, I don’t know, but I doubt it)

6. One person blocking one side of the isle, another one blocking the other while eating an apple pie. I stand there for two minutes and give her a dirty look. She states she needs something where the other person is. And, apparently, doesn’t know how to walk backwards.

7. “Walmart People” (Oh, you know.)

8. Walmart employee answering a question using the fewest possible words and without making eye contact or moving in any way (although the second person I asked happily walked me to the item—my hat off to you)

9. Not enough checkers. Too many self-serve lanes.

10. “Please place your item inside the bagging area. Please place your item inside the bagging area. Please wait for assistance.” The item is in the stupid* bagging area, you stupid* machine! You want me to throw it in again? How ‘bout I purchase a hammer and place it in the bagging area after I finish beating your stupid* speaker into oblivion? Not so demanding now, are you?

*Not the words I wanted to use.

Winter Blog Catch-up!

FebSnow_11Feb2010 048
Originally uploaded by brad_holt

Woah. Major blog black-out, huh? Facebook has kept me so busy I forgot about my little blog here. Today, I catch up! Here's what I've been up to this winter, "check it out over at Flickr" style.

11 Feb 2010: I captured the 50th snow of the winter at, appropriately enough, Wintersmith Park. It was probably the prettiest snow I have ever seen. Flickr Set >>>

06 Feb 2010: Ice Storm Aftermath - Asher. The ice tore up the trees and power lines pretty good. I photographed a little of it and help with the cleanup. CHAINSAW! (Multiplicity fans, anyone?) Flickr Set >>>

30 Jan 2010: Winter Storm 2010! The first storm of the new year came early and came big. A few photos, but I didn't venture out much. Flickr Set >>>

31 Dec 2009: Happy New Years! I go to some of the calmest New Years parties on the planet, but we had fun. And, the little dog, too. Flickr Set >>>

25 Dec 2009: Christmas / Is this blizzard going to kill us? Major blizzard time fun (and the closure of I-35) kept some of our guests away, but we made the best of it and had a pretty good Christmas. Flickr Set (Christmas) >>> Flickr Set (the snow) >>>

29 Nov 2009: Steve's 27th Birthday at Ted's in Norman. Flickr Set >>>

That's it! I'm all caught up.

Another Broken Bow Trip?

It had been 11 years since we had been to Broken Bow and this was our second trip of the year. But, for a few different reasons, the trip earlier this year was a partial-bust, so we decided to make an impromptu "make-up" family trip to Broken Bow / Hochatown. We relaxed in a great cabin, visited Broken Bow Lake and the park and ate a couple of good meals at the local steakhouse. The weather cooperated this time and turned out to be a pretty nice and relaxing weekend.

Photos over at Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brad_holt/sets/72157622819603646/

You think you have computer problems?

I post this because, in retrospect, it is vaguely humorous to me. And, to show those of you who think you’re the only ones to ever have computer problems, that this is indeed not the case.

Sunday evening I began work on a video tribute to show at my great-uncles funeral the following day. As these videos usually are, it was rather a last-minute deal. And, in this particular case I had less time than usual because I had started assembling a storage shed kit manufactured by the makers of Hell over the weekend and couldn’t stop it half completed as it would most likely been destroyed by the wind and such.

I was already frustrated to the point that I had no patience left for anything else. I about tore my screen door off the hinges, for instance, as my house had shifted and it no longer worked the way I expect screen doors to work.

Luckily, I had most of the pictures already in digital form and had scanned in the rest. This is usually the most time consuming part. In a decision that would haunt me for the rest of the evening, I chose to use Windows Movie Maker (WMM) to create the video rather than my normal PowerPoint. I dropped the photos in, added captions to each and sat back and thought… wow, that was easy. Ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Ha. My nightmare begins.

Each picture was only showing for 5 seconds- not nearly long enough. No, problem, I though, I’ll just increase the time. Turns out, there is no such option. Seriously. I Googled it. This is, by far, the most ridiculous thing I had ever discovered missing from a program. I was expected to manually increase each slide by dragging a little bar over to 10 seconds. For 70 slides. I found a work around though. WMM has a feature where one can slow all the slides down ½ speed. Which makes each slide 10 seconds. Good. For now.

I then run through it to discover that the captions don’t stay with the photo, but on position in the timeline where I put them. So I had to manually move 70 captions under their respective photos. And also increase the time by dragging the stupid little bar.

Ready for music. WMM won’t accept iTunes music. Which was expected- same way with PowerPoint. So I use this little program to convert the iTunes file to WAV. However, it has decided it can’t find my audio input device, so that’s out. Rather than struggle to figure out that problem, I just whip out my notebook computer to do the conversion there. I don’t have the program, so I go to download it, only to discover my wireless network is down due to my router crapping out the day before. So, I manually connect my computer to my temporary replacement wired router but it will not connect to the Internet. Absolutely refuses. My mind boggles. So, finally I connect it to my neighbor’s wireless internet which drifts into my house occasionally (thanks, neighbor). I get the program downloaded and go back to my desktop to get the music. I burn it to a CD since I can’t access my network to get the files off iTunes. Back to the notebook—the music absolutely refuses to play. New idea… run an audio cord from the desktop to the notebook and record it that way. It records… absolute garbage. I don’t know why—copy protection probably. I finally got the music converted on the desktop by downloading a different program.

Now time to insert the music into the slide show. Works out fine except it’s three minutes longer than the photos. Usually, I would divide the music by the number of photos I have and change the duration of all slides accordingly. But, as I mentioned before, not possible in WMM. So, I had to manually adjust each photo an additional five seconds or so, until I got the length right. This, of course, threw off all the captions again. Got those fixed. Okay… finally done.

Time to burn to DVD. I have an external DVD burner and TV in my office I use. I play the video to the DVD burner and record it. Only, my TV has quit working. Dead as a doornail. So, I get a really long cable and run it to my bedroom TV. Which is on channel 60 for the satellite, but needs to be on channel 3. Which is not a saved channel. So I dig out the remote only to find the batteries dead. I change the batteries and find it still doesn’t work. Turns out the batteries had corroded and damaged the little bouncy spring thingies. So, I got a knife and scratched all that off and finally got it to channel 3.

Only it turns out after all that, WMM did one thing I liked… it lets me burn off a nifty DVD with menu right from my computer. I try to forget the last half-hour I spent connecting a TV.

It’s now 2:00 in the morning. The computer is doing something called encoding that is taking forever. I decide to call it a night with an Advil PM because I’m so wound up yet so tired. I did get it finished up the next morning with little time to spare.

So, if you somehow read this whole thing, think of this experience the next time you have a computer issue and maybe it won’t seem so bad. And, take my advice, if you’re using something that works, by all means, just stick with it. And stay away from WMM.

San Antonio

SanAntonio_27Sept2009_Alamo (13)
Originally uploaded by brad_holt

Thursday through Sunday found me in San Antonio for a little extended weekend getaway. It was rainy and cool on Thursday, but the weather was beautiful for the rest of the trip. Stops included the Alamo and Riverwalk (of course), the Spanish Missions, SeaWorld, and a few other things.

There are some photos on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brad_holt/sets/72157622476607040/