HAWAII

       This is the outside of the Aulani driving up to it from the road.

      This view is from out by the ocean looking back toward the resort.

       Our view of the pool/beach area. 

 Welcome from our t.v. that we got every night.  It was fun to have it all so personalized.

             The lei the girls were presented on check-in.  Very fragrant!!

So, we went to Hawaii.  It was unbelievably fun and so beautiful.  We stayed at the Aulani-A Disney Resort.  I put all that because that is what it was always called.  The first installment of these updates will be pictures taken around the resort.  It was an amazing place.  The lobby was all open air from one side to the other so there was always a breeze going through.  When we arrived there was a bellman there to put our luggage onto a cart.  He handed us a ticket and told us to give it to the person that checked us in and they would see that our luggage made it to our room.  Then we were greeted by another young lady and she presented us girls with VERY fragrant leis and Philip with a nutshell necklace.  We were then given the grand tour of the lobby and taken to the check-in counter.  We were all given room keys with our own names on them-even the kids and proceeded to our room.  About 5 minutes later, the nice young bellhop arrived with our luggage.  He offered to get us ice or water or whatever we needed.  Overall, I think it was one of the easiest check-ins we have ever done.  Once in our room, we checked out the view---WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Of course the kids wanted to get changed and hit the pools.  Considering we had no transportation that day, we decided we might as well.  In our haste, we forgot sunscreen.  Woops.  Oh well, we lived.  Just a few highlights of the resort:  Poolside service--no matter where you are around the pool, you can flag down a wait person and make an order from one of the restaurants there and they will bring the food to your seat.  Plus (which can become a bad thing) you can charge it to your room with the room key so that is all you have to carry.  Another highlight is the flyer they put out every morning so you can plan your day.  It lists all the activities for all the different age groups for the day so you can plan and know where you need to be when.  Also, the hotel has a concierge for planning activities there through the resort, or off property activities.  They even have a place on property that you can rent a car for the day.  It is a bit more expensive than elsewhere, but definitely more convenient.  I have decided that I really like the extra mile that Disney goes to make it special. 

The Weekend--Lincoln

Part of our local "claim to fame" is involving the infamous Billy the Kid. About an hour from our house is the courthouse that held Billy the Kid for a short time. He eventually escaped and fled to another part of New Mexico. Lincoln is not an exciting place, but kind of interesting to walk around because it is reflective of an "old west" town. We kicked off our first weekend with the Deutsch walking around Lincoln. The kids learned the story of Billy the Kid, saw a bullet hole in the wall that is rumored to have been put there by Billy during the great escape, and well, yea--that's about the whole town.

This picture is some of Meganne's posse. L to R: (A)Shelby (A)Meganne (A)Sydney (D) Magdellena (A)Katie.

Here are the leaders of the group. L to R: (D)Frau Pikula (A)Frau Bell (D)Frau Schubert (D)Heir Volkmuth.

This is the whole group standing on the upper deck of the Lincoln Courthouse.

More on the Weekend--stay tuned.

Germany---At Last

Alright, happier times.
As mentioned earlier we had opportunity to hang out with some high school age kids from Germany and their 3 leaders. It was sooo much fun and such a learning experience. The Deutsch (German) group actually stayed in New York City for 3 days before coming to Roswell. I know, how can we compete; but they all seemed to have liked our little town. There were families around the community that offered to host the German kids, mostly the families that have students taking German in high school. They arrived here on Sunday night and met their families. Monday night there was a welcome dinner for them at a local restaurant. There wasn't enough room for extra people so we didn't get to participate in that one. Tuesday night was a picnic at a local park. We attended that one and the kids got a chance to start the mingling process. It was fun. The teachers had arranged an egg toss for them to do. The Ami (what the American kids were called) and the Deutsch (what the German kids are called) each formed a partnership to toss the egg between. It was all fun and games until someone ended up yolked. I think they all had fun though.
Wednesday bright and early we met at the school to make a trek to Carlsbad Caverns. From here it is about a 3 hour drive. There was a tour arranged for them but we arrived too late so we just made the main loop and called it good. This picture was taken outside of the caverns. The gentleman in the red jacket on the left hand side by the sign is Heir Volkmuth. The lady in the red shirt under the "V" is Frau Schubert and the blond lady to her right, under the "N" is Frau Pikula. The Ami and the Deutsch are innermixed.
For lunch the local Calsbad Subway arranged a "good deal" for the kids so that is where we ate. Afterward we went to The Living Desert which is like a nature walk/zoo type place. Unfortunately the camera didn't get pulled out much here, but the picture of the caverns gives you a good idea of how many attended.
Next adventure to follow:

Detour

Hi all.
So in my last post I promised pictures and adventures with German kids. I apologize for not getting that done as soon as I wanted but there is a good reason why. Life, and death got in the way. We got busy with doing a project for a young boy in Idaho..kind of connected to the German kids. While shopping for supplies for that I got the kind of phone call that one just does not want to get.
We have a friend here in Roswell. Her name is Angel Mayes. We actually got acquainted with her when we were in Las Cruces through the BLM. She accepted a position here in Roswell which for her was kind of coming home. At the BLM here there was a GIS position opening up and strongly suggested that Philip put in for it and she would do what she could to get him here. Well, as you know her and Philip were successful at getting us here and we have enjoyed being friends with her and her husband Don through the years.
Back to the phone call. While shopping in Hobby Lobby for the supplies for the project my phone rang and it was my sweetie. He had just received a phone call from his boss, Janell, informing him that Angel's son who is serving in Iraq was the victim of a roadside bomb and he had not survived. He was Angel's only child. So, she had to fly back east to meet his body coming back to the states and then had him flown here to Roswell where he will be laid to rest.
He arrived at our airport last Saturday, April 28th and was met by family and friends. The above picture is his casket being taken to the hearse. Once placed inside, the trip from the tarmack to the funeral home was a sight to behold. Along with about 8 police cars, 2 fire trucks, the BLM fire truck and the family, a group of bikers called "The Patriot Guard" amassed about 400 riders all with American flags displayed proudly on their bikes. They were followed by family and friends and more fire trucks and police bringing up the rear. We participated in the caravan that traveled down main street as a show of support and I must say that I was moved by all the people that came out and lined the streets with their hands over their hearts and some with tears in their eyes.
So our time has been spent helping her and spending time with her. There is a viewing tomorrow night and funeral Thursday with a full military burial. The "Adopt-A-Soldier" group here is then going to host an open house at the convention center for family and friends and the community.
And, that is one of the reasons I love Roswell. For all of its faults it comes together for one of their own.
For German kids visit highlights, stay tuned...promise.

What have we been doing?

Our latest adventure has definitely been a learning experience. As many followers know, both our kids are taking German as thier foreign language. The German teacher, Frau Bell, takes a group of her students to Germany to allow them to experience the culture and the language. In cooperation with contacts she has made there, every other year a group of German students come here. This is the first year that our family has had opportunity to be involved in the welcoming of the Germans here in our home town. Unfortunately we were unable to actually host a student because of our "almost done" remodeling, but, through offering help driving, feeding, and collecting things for the German students we were able to participate in many of thier activities.
Among some of the things done were Carlsbad Caverns and the Living Desert in Carlsbad. We also went to Lincoln (historic place tied to Billy The Kid) and Valley of Fires (similar to Craters of the Moon in Idaho). We introduced them to White Sands National Park. Of course it wouldn't be a trip to Roswell without a visit to the UFO museum and a walk down main street. And, apparently the Germans don't celebrate Thanksgiving so through donations of food there was a traditional turkey dinner given to them. If I were to go into detail about every activity, this post would be a small novella so over the next week(ish) I will try and get information on each avtivity on the blog. Stay tuned---

Capacitor Plague - it could happen to you...

Anybody accuses me of not doing my part to keep the government from spending money on new stuff. I am going to seriously hurt them. Back in the late summer of 2007 when I was working for the Las Cruces BLM one of my last assignments was to research new LCD monitors. So I did this assignment and made my recommendations. Just before I left the monitors showed up but to my surprise not the ones I recommended. No big deal because these were better. I like them so much that when I moved to Roswell to work for the BLM as a full-time GIS specialist - I put in a request to have 2 monitors purchased. What I did not know was how much they were until the Field Manager came and asked me if the price was actually correct. I told him that I didn't know they were that much - about $500 each. When I heard this I informed him that I would find others. But he bought them anyway. Which I did truly appreciate.

These monitors are Samsung 215TW and are indeed very nice. I like them because they are bright and show great detail when the resolution is set very high. So one might asked - as did the current Field Manager - why not just replace them with new ones. Well for personal fundamental reasons - I felt like I have not gotten their worth out of them yet. I also figure that this would be a simple repair and I would be back up and running. True, I could have bought new ones that are comparable that are less money. But I do not like throwing things away if I know it can be fixed for relatively little money.

About three months ago I started to notice a flicker in the screen when I brought the monitors up in the morning. At first this wasn't a big deal because it eventually worked and I went on my happy GIS way. But eventually the monitor just would not work. So I started changing out power cords and video lines from the computer. But these didn't work. I did some research on the Internet and it turns out that my monitor was suffering from

CAPACITOR PLAGUE!!!

Oh the horror! What shall I do and will I get it?? Ok back to reality. Turns out all I needed to do was change out the capacitors on the power circuit board and all will be better. I was lucky enough to find a web page that went through the process of taking the monitor apart and showed which capacitors to remove. Well at least what the bad ones looked like. But it didn't show how to remove the capacitors. I figured that the solder could be removed, then the capacitors, and then replace with the new ones and solder them back in.

But wait I am not an electrically inclined - so I placed an email to my dad. Who is very much electrically inclined. I had the basics correct but they needed refining. At this time I told dad that I had two monitors and if I should replace the capacitors in both. He said not to because the others are probably okay and would work for a long time to come. But he did say to replace them all.

My research showed that the monitor had 5 capacitors and figured they all needed replaced. So I talked to my boss and told her what needed to be done and that I felt like I could do this. She approved the plan and asked for a purchase request. So I research what capacitors I needed and filled out the proper paperwork. The very next morning I turned on my working monitor and guess what. Yep it also suffered a case of CAPACITOR PLAGUE. Must be catching - should I worry about my laptop?? I changed the purchase request to order double the number. Luckily they had not been ordered yet.

Today was surgery day for ridding the monitors of CAPACITOR PLAGUE. Here is the evidence of such tragedy.








The capacitors are the brown cylindrical items in the picture. Notice the buldging at the top. This is the sign that they are coming down with CAPACITOR PLAGUE. Sorry the images aren't better I took them with my phone and I was too close. Here is a picture of the underside where the connections are made.



After removing the solder and then the capacitor a new capacitor and then re-solder it back on. This is what it looked like after the replacement was made.




Here is my relatively decent solder job.




I am very glad to report that both monitors recovered very well from the surgery. They will be promptly put back into service tomorrow morning.

So how much were the parts? Including shipping about $12 - so this little adventure saved the government and the public $988. Most excellent.

Thanks for your help dad - greatly appreciate it.

I did not go into the detail on how to take the monitor apart because this web page does a great job.

http://wcoastsands.blogspot.com/2009/11/samsung-syncmaster-215tw.html

I ordered the capacitors from www.alliedelec.com This project was not that bad to do and a person of normal intelligence should be able to pull it off. Heck I did...

So if your monitor starts to flickering - it could be the dreaded CAPACITOR PLAGUE. It sure is good to know that I won't catch it. I just learned I don't have capacitors.

Have fun...

DONE!! Well for the most part...

We started this project on about Jan 13. I tried to find a match for each the before and after. But on a couple of them I didn't quite get it right. It was hard to remember where I took the pictures - hey I have slept a couple of times since then. So enjoy the show.

Major things we wanted to accomplish and change during this renovation. Put in a shower, double sinks, replace the toilet, and make the bathroom look a bit more up-to-date. The look we were going for is what I call conservative contemporary. We wanted the bathroom to look modern and contemporary but I did not want it to look so modern that it didn't fit with the rest of the plans we have for the house. Personally I think we accomplished the task.

This one we took of the bathroom when we were looking at the house shortly after we closed.


Love that wallpaper.

Now on to the main event!

Vanity/Sink Area


This is the same vanity as before. Joyce and the girls spent quite a bit of time re-finishing it. How great it does look. Nice job ladies.


Linen Cabinet/Mirror




Floor/Bathtub/Wall




Looking back toward the hall




Bathtub




Toilet Area




These cover the major areas that have been highlighted throughout the process. Here are some other images showing extras that we completed.

This image is showing the completed vanity. With all the drawers and doors along with hardware reattached.



This image is showing the tip-out that I made from the false front that was there before.



We thought about cutting the original mirror down and having two mirrors. One for each sink. But after some debate we decided to keep the mirror as is and dress it up a bit with a frame. I also made a small shelf as part of the frame.





You may have noticed that a niche was also built near the toilet. The idea here was to have the paper recessed in to save space. But after it was built and time to place the roll holder in the niche - well it didn't quite work out. So we are still looking for a roll holder that will work that way we envisioned. I also trimmed it out to make it a bit more fancy looking.

Oh one other thing - you can see the switch as well. This switch is for the exhaust fan. Each button is a timer - push the button for the time you want and the fan shuts off automatically. Also check out the switch plate - Meganne's idea. Lucky for her this was the only plate that fit between the tile and the mirror above the sink.



Here is a shot of the new lights and exhaust fan. The fan is fairly quiet - not as quiet as I would have liked but that is okay. It is still better than what we had before - remember the UFO-ish looking thing there before. That was a heat lamp - a major fire hazard in my opinion.



This has been a great project to get us going in the renovation direction. We really didn't have too many problems crop up as expected. We didn't have mold or other major issues. We did have an issue with the water pipe that I tweaked. And believe it or not that was the only time I called someone in to do something.

But I did get a lot of directions from a couple of people. Lorin East helped us with the tub/shower tile by making sure we didn't mess up somewhere. He also gave us help on leveling the concrete slab between the entry way and hallway. We really did appreciate his help. I also had help from Kevin Bussell on the electrical questions. Of course I would like to thank Nikole and Meganne for their help when they were able. School work took priority. And lastly but certainly not least - Joyce. This project pretty much took up the entire office (across the hall from the bathroom) and the bonus room as well as the entry way. The majority of the house was a mess for just about 3 months. But in return she gets new carpet in the living room. Had a little bit of an issue with the self-leveling cement. She was also nice enough to call this project done - for the most part. So I could move onto a project I need to get done in the backyard.

So what is left? The rest of the crown moulding - I ran out of glue with only about 7 feet left. Shelves on the left hand side of the vanity. As well as touch ups here and there. This is just the bathroom. The hallway and entry will have to wait until I get the backyard done. After those two are done then we will start on the bonus room and living room area. It should be a hoot.

Hope you enjoyed watching-by-proxy this renovation. It was sure a fun challenge that taught Joyce and I that we can do these projects and have them turn out pretty well.