Cubelets

Here is a cool video of an engineering feat called the "Cubelet" which just may be the future of robotics. The distance sensor I found fun to watch.

Cubelets Engineering Prototypes from eric schweikardt on Vimeo.

Saturday Enui

Today is Saturday. I am blogging early because I haven't had the energy the last few evenings. I am especially upbeat today because I am actually able to dry my laundry from home again. Erika paid Anthony, the electrician who got our A/C going again, to replace the breaker to our dryer and now we are up and running. I have posted to this blog several times in the past from the public laundromat, but this post will signify the first home laundry session. The thing that was the hardest about public drying, besides waiting for clothes to finish tumbling, was having to gather up all the household's dirty skivvies and do them in one mass batch. It was always a major event. No more 'Laundry Day' around here.
I am also going to work on selling off some more junk to continue saving up for a car. Some Beatles figures and a re-post of my acoustic Ibanez. Perhaps later on I will take up a bike ride. The day is still young.

Texture Before Meatloaf

During the sale over the weekend I met a lady who needed a couple of walls re-textured in her guest bedroom. She and her husband removed some wallpaper from these two walls several days before. The walls were fairly smooth and I only needed to mix up three pans of hot mud to level out the tears and gouges. This was also enough mud to patch a light box hole over the master bathroom mirror. I completed the entire project, including knockdown texture and cleanup, in under three and a half hours.
I meant to take some before and after pictures but I forgot until I came home. This is why I never have enough photographs of my work. I always jump right in and start working without thinking about preservation of the moment. In all the jobs I have done in three years, I have only documented four projects. From now on I will take more pictures as a rule.
Now it is time for meatloaf. The room smells of Erika's home cooking, and the dogs are getting all lathered up. Time to go, as dinner is calling.

Isabella and the Macarena

I had to take a couple of days off from the blog because the real world was beginning to creep into my cyber-realm and I had no choice but to deal with it. There was a small affair on Friday which involved texturing a wall in Stan and Gina's home. This evolved into a trip down to the 420 Evaluation clinic which was something I had been nudging Stan to do for two years. We got that taken care of and then moseyed on down to the Reserve, a fine cannabis dispensing establishment on Fulton Avenue across from the Target.
I was glad to have had a good time that night because the next two days were Super Sale madness at the SW. I have learned not to stress too much about the Super Sales. Rarely do any managers from any of the stores schedule themselves in to work on those days because they know it is madness; so I figure why should I worry about it if they don't. If the stores are only staffed with two people when they know they won't have the capacity to help everyone, then it's not my concern if people leave pissed off because they have to wait an hour for help. It doesn't affect my bottom line.
On another note, I really enjoyed hanging with my niece, Isabella, on Saturday night. We had a sleep over and she stayed up till 3 a.m. Hey, even I can come into work on no sleep if I want to. It's not just for college kids anymore. She really wanted to play with my phone's camera and clown around. I told her I would post this clip on You Tube for her to watch from home.

A/C is Fixed

Erika found a guy who does electrical work on the side with his buddy. He is the son of the lady who runs the rescue where we picked up Rudy. Today his partner drove up from Stockton and popped out the old breaker and replaced it with one is more up to date. It worked and now the A/C is blowing cool freon. I just hope it doesn't send the SMUD out of control.

Beef Enchiladas Verde

I slow cooked a beef pot roast in the crock all day. About three hours in I bought some fresh peppers of all sorts to dice in, from the local La Superior market on Northgate Blvd. I got a great deal on some Oaxaca cheese which must have been expired or something because it was about 99 cents a brick. Cheese is always best a few days past it's prime. The stinkier the better too. I don't mean for this to become a food blog, but right now that is where my thrills lie so I must see it through.
Anyway, I wrapped the beef into little enchi-blankies (flour tortillas), after braising it into a pan to evaporate some moisture out of the beef while infusing the flavor of the peppers. Then I smothered them in green Las Palmas enchilada sauce and expired Mexican cheese. Bake for forty minutes at 350 and boom. The best enchiladas so far according to Erika.