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So my little Mrs. and I were heading out to dinner the other night when her ’02 Bravada started idling pretty rough at the stop lights. At one point it actually stalled. Since it was used when she bought it and has well over 100,000 miles I kind of suspected it was due for an air filter replacement. So, today after I had the oil changed I picked up a new K&N air filter since I have heard nothing but good things about them. Also, as a result of the improved airflow to the engine horsepower and fuel efficiency are supposed to improve significantly as a result of more oxygen and therefor a better air to fuel mix ratio.
The replacement was pretty straight forward other than one screw that was kind of in a tough to see place. Bottom left just above the radiator.

 
Pictured, the three screws necessary to remove the filter cover.  Top left, bottom left and center right.
The bottom left screw is shown on the right photo.

Once the large plastic filter cover is removed it is just matter of lifting the filter and hose up out of the compartment and twisting off the old filter.  It is only held on by friction to the air intake hose.

The new K&N filter fits over the intake hose and is clamped on with an included hose clamp.

I’m very impressed with how much of an improvement the filter makes.  Immediately the Bravada starts better, idles smoother and has even better acceleration.  Hopefully we’ll see a slight fuel efficiency improvement as well.

Well. It has certainly been a while since Ive bothered to post anything around here. So I guess no better time than now. I have to attribute my blog getting pushed aside largely as a result of Facebook. Everyone on the planet seems to use it and therefor it has replaced a good portion of other forms of communication like email, phone calls, talking. You get the idea.
So, heres the previous 12 month run down for anyone that cares. (Im not including dates because frankly, it all kind of runs together into a large blur anyway.)
Went to Dallas for a work conference.

Got a job promotion. Yay!
Now the pharmaceutical companies healthcare providers will get their money from me a little faster.

Did the usual garden thing.
Planted tomatoes, beans, peas, cucumbers, peppers and apparently weeds. Had a decent amount of tomatoes including a few in my upside down soda bottle planters along with a healthy crop of weeds.

Grew hops for the first time.
4 varieties: Hallertau, Chinook, Centennial Cascade. I mostly harvested Chinook in the Fall. Hoping for a better crop this year.

Brewed several batches of beer.
A couple ales including two Sam Adams noble pils clones along with a Red IPA. The noble pils turned out best.
For those that also brew, I highly recommend the following sites:
DME Mart – Excellent prices on dried malt extract. Price includes shipping.
ATonofHops -Hops wholesalers that sell in small quantities. Very good prices.
Hopville -Beer recipe community. Has a web app called calculus that allows you to select ingredients to easily calculate batches before brewing.

Made a 5 gallon batch of pumpkin wine and 6 gallons of dandelion. The pumpkin is great! Havent tried the dandy yet.

Started a conversion of my bicycle to electric. This is a work in progress. I need to clean my garage.

Upgraded to the new iPhone 4S.
The speed improvement and camera from my 3GS is amazing.

Went deer hunting with my friend Erik during regular season. Shot two young bucks and had them processed into venison hotsticks. Jalapeño, cheddar hotsticks to be exact. They are delicious.

Took apart my wifes iPhone 4 after our dog Poochie bumped it into a large cup of water. Two days in a bag of rice with the battery removed and then a new battery installed did the trick. It did take a couple more days for water to evaporate that had gotten in between the glass the LCD.

Major website projects at work. Lots lots of projects.

Check back for more frequent updates this year, I hope.

Things are still going crash….

While I write this I am sitting in a treestand rather, a stand on wood stilts surrounded by trees. The reason for this is that I am deer hunting. I want to state outright that I hunt for one reason only. I like venison hotsticks. I’m not pounding back beer or hard liqour nor going to strip clubs. These are some things that lots of people unfortunately associate with hunting because there are some hunters that do those things. Chances are, that they are the same hunters you read about in the paper or hear on the news that have either shot a member of their hunting party or have fallen out of their stand.
This brings me to the other part of this post title. While it’s very peaceful sitting in the woods and seeing the changing leaves, after a while it’s nice to be able do things like catch up on news, email or text my little Mrs and take pictures.

Via Gizmag:
Professors at the University of Missouri are developing a nuclear battery the size and thickness of a penny.  This is great since in it will provide a very clean form of power for small devices like cell phones.
Now if they can just determine the difference in size/thickness between a penny and a dime.

My little Mrs. (hot geek) bought me a PogoPlug for my birthday.  No, get your mind out of the gutter; it’s a home network attached storage device.  Even more than that, it is essentially a small Linux server which allows you to access your files from any computer or even iPhone via the internet!  Here’s how it works:  Connect the device to your home router, connect a usb hard drive to the plug, register it on the PogoPlug site and your set.  You can upload files to it via any web browser along with viewing, renaming, deleting etc.  Or you can download a small installer which maps your Pogoplug as a network drive on your pc or Mac.  I had intended to connect a couple old 120Gb ide drives to it but quickly discovered that the cable I planned on using was USB 1.0 instead of 2.0 so I need to get new cables to use those.  In the meantime I was anxious to try this bad boy out.  So, I connected an old 30GB iPod video to it.  It instantly connects and is available via my browser or network drive.  The really big selling point for me on this is that a usb hub can be attached so that multiple drives can be mounted.  The company also offers a free iPhone app which allows you to upload pictures to it as well as stream music, view pictures etc. right on your phone from anywhere in the world.  That was one of the first features I tried and must say it works great.  The device is managed using the My Pogoplug site which really just acts as the mediation server for connecting to the device.  Your data is as secure as it would be on your home computer.
Here’s a shot of the mypogoplug management site:

If you’ve been looking for a good backup that is easy to use and is extremely accessible I can’t recommend the PogoPlug enough.

So we were watching Last House on the Left tonight when the Little Mrs. asked if I had put Petey (our cockatiel) back in his cage after dinner. I had, yet there was Raja trying to catch something flying circles near the ceiling in our foyer. It turned out to be a small brown Wisconsin bat. After a dozen or two rounds in the foyer it finally landed near the top of the kitchen entrance door frame. I promptly caught it using a large plastic container & lid then released it from the front porch. That made for an exciting night.

I just hopped on the old scale to see if there’s been any change since last week. Yep, wow 174.2#

As you know, I have an iPhone. As I am certain you also know, I like wine and cooking. What do these have in common? Well, the bottom line is my waistline. Stay with me here. A like, ok love of wine and home cooked meals combined with an over 30 sluggish metabolism certainly don’t equate to abs of steel, rock or any other solid adjective. So in an attempt to shed a few and maybe even tack on a few more years in the process I installed an iPhone app called LoseIt. I really like the app because it makes calorie & carb counting easy. So far in the month since I really starting faithfully tracking food intake I have lost 7 pounds. Keeping track of what I eat is something I have always done anyway (being type 1 diabetic) however with this app it doesn’t leave it to guesswork and often times poor memory.
I started at 185 and my goal is to get down to 150 which is about what I weighed when my wife and I were dating. I have found it really amazing how much I was eating before. 2000 calories a day, hell probably more like 2400.
This was what we had for dinner last night and usually have at least 1-2 times a month. It’s basically an adaptation of a few recipes I’ve seen. Peppered lemon tilapia with green beans.
2 tilapia filets
1 lemon with 2 thin slices cut and set aside to place on top of the fried filets and the rest juiced.
1 can of French sliced green beans. Ground black pepper
3 tablespoons of butter.
An individual serving for this meal with a 10 ounce glass of chianti is only 503 calories. Hence the title.
Even if you aren’t a fan of fish you will probably like this as tilapia takes on the flavor of whatever it is fried or seasoned with.

The green beans just get heated up in a small pot.
For the tilapia place 1-1/2 tablespoons in the frying pan. The other 1-1/2 should be heated (microwave 15-20 seconds) in two small containers for pouring over the green beans and fish when done.
On medium to med-high heat place the two frozen tilapia filets in the frying pan with the butter. Generously season the top if the filets with ground pepper.
Fry for about 3-4 minutes* on the one side the flip. Again season the current side with pepper and allow to fry for another 3-4 minutes.* Pour the lemon juice into the pan and allow it to cook until it has reduced to a slight paste consistency. Flip once more. Season with more pepper if desired. After another 3-4 minutes* it should be thouroughly fried to an almost blackened appearance.

Place the fried filets and cooked, drained, greenbeans on plates. Place 1 lemon slice on top of each filet until you are ready to eat. Place the small dishes of melted butter on each plate. This can be poured over both the fish and beans or the fish can be dipped in it. (My wifes preference)

*Depending on the size and thickness of the filets you may need to add or reduce frying times. The filets cool rather quickly so I reccommend placing them on the plates immediately before serving.
Here are pictures of the entire process:

A recent speech by President Obama I feel applies to many children in the current generation:

“Our kids can’t all aspire to be the next LeBron or Lil Wayne. I want them aspiring to be scientists and engineers, doctors and teachers, not just ballers and rappers. I want them aspiring to be a Supreme Court justice. I want them aspiring to be president of the United States.”

Indeed.