Because I'm me I wanted to figure out a way to visualize the sun's position throughout the day. The graphic is what I came up with. It shows from what direction the sun will be shining, and at what elevation, on the hour for my location on May 5, 2010.

The two really small triangles that just look like lines are the direction the sun will rise and set. They look like lines because the angle is only 0.1 degree. I think it's interesting that the sun rises north of east and sets north of west.

The point of view of the graphic is looking to the southwest.

I created the graphic in SketchUp and got the sun positional data from the U.S. Naval Observatory.

This is what the "range" looked like at the archery class yesterday. It is the highest point in the county and I could see the entire Chicago skyline perfectly.

I was like a kid in a candy shop yesterday and stocked up on some good beer. The letter grades are from beeradvocate.com.

Lagunitas' Maximus Imperial IPA B+

Green Flash Brewing's West Coast IPA A-

Great Divide's Yeti Imperial Stout A

Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout A-

The funny thing is after I got home I only drank my homebrew. I hope to try a couple of them this evening.

Miscellany

I have always wanted to try shooting a bow. A few weeks ago I happened to look in a program guide from the county forest district and saw they had a free introductory class, so I signed up. It is this afternoon and is an hour and a half long. If I like it I might think about looking for a target bow on craigslist.

A few weeks ago I got Google's Android phone the Nexus One and love it. An interesting thing is watching the reaction of iPhone users that try it out. Every one of them was really amazed at the thinness of it, the nice solid feel it has, and how fast and responsive it was when checking out the different apps. I think I will make a post sometime describing the apps I use the most.

At work over the years I've had to occasionally use SQL Server to edit or add a value in a table for an application, export a table to get some statistics on application use, change the value in an existing SQL string, light stuff like that. This week I've had to actually design queries, write stored procedures, and design reports to use in some internal web apps and it's been a lot of fun. Fortunately for me my brewing friend at work is also a SQL developer and has been invaluable in pointing me in the right directions.

So far this year my lawn is looking amazing. I still need to put some work in on my flower beds though. Mostly weeding and recutting the borders. I've decided not to plant tomatoes this year. It's usually more cost and effort than the few tomatoes I get each year are worth. I am going to look for something else to plant that might be a little less temperamental. I have to see if the space I have would work for eggplant. I love eggplant.

The routine used to be once I settled into the family room for the evening to relax and watch TV Mitch would go upstairs to the bedroom and after 10 minutes realize he was lonely and I could hear him whimper at the top of the steps. After 10 minutes of that half the time he would realize the solution would be to come back downstairs, the other half he would fall asleep. To fix that I got a couple baby gates at a church yard sale. I have three paths to get upstairs from my family room. One is sealed off just by closing a set of pocket doors I have from my family room to the living room. I have a baby gate that stays in place by pressing against the door frame from the laundry room hallway to the dining room. The other baby gate is free standing so it is easy just to move around and I keep it in the main hallway leading to the front door.

I bought the 4x4, 2x4's, cement mix and carriage bolts a few weeks ago to make a support for my hop plants but I still have not put it together. I think today is the day I do that. I got the grass cutting out of the way Thursday evening.

When I was visiting the fam a few months ago I tried the FURminator on Mitch that Tim and Lisa got for Cody. It worked so great on Mitch that I ordered one that night from Amazon while I was still visiting. It also works amazingly on Amy's Rottweiler, but a friend at work borrowed it to try on his German Shorthaired Pointer and it did nothing for her coat. They have a list of dogs that it will and will not work for on their website. German Shorthairs were on the will work list but with an asterisk saying the hair within that breed varies from dog to dog and it may or may not work. The list is in the FAQ section of their website. I would link to it but it is a Flash app. Most retail places sell it for about $60, but Amazon has it for $30. Worth every cent.

Probably the biggest thing I missed most about not having a house cleaner come in every other week was scrubbing the kitchen floor. Also thanks to Tim and Lisa I discovered the Hoover FloorMate. There are three modes of operation. First is dry vacuum mode. You do this first to pick up all the dry crumbs, dog hair, etc. You empty out the catch bin and then switch to the wet scrub mode. The brushes lower to contact the floor, and water with cleaning solution is dispensed. Once the floor is scrubbed you switch to squeegee vacuum mode. The brushes stop and lift off the floor and a squeegee lowers to contact the floor and it vacuums up any remaining water. It works really well. For light touch ups I sometimes just use hot water only without cleaning solution. I found the best price ordering from Walmart.com.

Last year I got a new roof. I think this year I am going to get a new furnace and air conditioner. I think there is still a 30% tax credit available from the feds which will be nice. I also want to get an estimate to paint my aluminum siding white, but I don't know if I will do that this year or not. I think it will be about 1/3 of the cost of installing new siding.