I have been making a conscious effort lately to really enjoy my various hobbies at least a little bit each week. Of course, as a person with a regular weekday job, this usually means either on the evenings or weekends. This past weekend, I seem to have had a number of interesting diversions:
I have been getting into the idea of high-power rocketry as a way to hang out and do stuff with my uncle. While I did not get the chance to hang out with him this weekend, I did do some thinking and web-based research on various ways to set up the electronics in the rocket, particularly in the area of radio direction finding. I have been looking into several ways to do this that did not require a ham radio license, but it is developing that the ham frequencies are best for this and many of the best direction-finding solutions therefore require a license. Therefore, I signed up to take the class and exam, and downloaded the study materials.
Then, because I am a giant nerd, I spent a bunch of time researching various makes and models of handheld ham radios and directional antennae for them. It seems like hobbies spawn other hobbies - at this point, my intent is to get a decent-but inexpensive radio and build and tune a loop antenna for it so I can find my rocket after flight. Then again, there are some very nice radios that include GPS-based direction finding, and complementary transmitters for the rocket’s avionics bay. Clearly, more research is needed.
On Sunday, I changed things up a bit and focused on my homebrewing hobby. I brewed a ten-gallon, all-grain batch of pale ale of moderate strength. Brewday was really smooth and quick - one of my best ever. I had a friend over and we just shot the breeze and had a glass while things progressed. This is the first in a series of three batches that I will be brewing over the next several weeks. Next up is a brown ale and the last will be something stronger, perhaps a double IPA. The intent here is to restock the beer fridge for the summer BBQ season. And heck, just to avoid running out of homebrew - this last term, I was pretty busy with classwork and did not get much chance to brew, so supplies are at critical levels.
So… What did you all get up to this weekend (or otherwise recently) in relation to your hobbies? Alternatively, how did you relax and get away from it all?
Well, I like to cook for fun… so Saturday we went down to the strawberry patch and hunted us up some berries, which resulted in:
strawberry pie
strawberry ice cream (work in progress. berries cut and custard made, will get frozen tonight)
homemade angel food cake
I got some herbs, and planted them. Rosemary, Greek oregano, Italian oregano, and Russian tarragon. This time, I planted them in plastic pots, so I can bring them inside when the winter weather gets too bitter. Hopefully, this way they will survive next winter, unlike my previous attempts at planting these herbs.
I make and sell jewelry as a hobby. Had the first show of the year on Saturday in my little hometown. Got a lot of compliments but sales were so-so. Not surprised. The area where I’m from is still a long way from economic recovery. I had fun though, so that’s what mattered.
Messing around with black-and-white digital photography.
Just received my copy of Nik Software’s “Complete” collection for Aperture.
There are six useful plugins in this pack, but the one that stands head and shoulders above the rest is Silver Efex Pro 2.
This product is perhaps the best color-to-B&W conversion tool out there.
I still had a couple of days left on the demo (happy my license arrived), so I spent the past few days messing around with creating B&W photos from my color photos.
I took my eldest daughter to Northwest cutlery to pick out her first knife and a cut resistant glove. We then stopped at JP Graziano for a couple of the worlds best sandwiches to bring home and then went to the original Al’s beef on Taylor before crossing the street to Mario’s for and Italian ice (I had the watermelon, she had strawberry). We walked over to Fontano’s for a big container of olive salad and a lb. of coppa. Then we went home crashed for a few hours and made dinner.
Won an eBay auction for a beautiful little pinto yearling model horse (great price too!)
Got Zoo Tycoon 2-The Ultimate Collection, and spent about 4 hours yesterday getting a start on a zoo. That game is addictive! And I am in love with my meerkats & fennec foxes in it.
Didn’t happen. I tried the key again, and it just *barely *starts. So a smart guy would drive back to the truck right? Not me. I decided I just wouldn’t turn it off again. And I didn’t. I stalled it out trying to back up away from the washout. :smack:
At least someone left some firewood in the road that I could use as a wheel chock.
I spent my weekend alternating between working in the yard, rescreening windows, and actually working on my hobby - bead weaving. I’ve been making wrist lanyards for holding clickers for training purposes. My dog trainer is selling them for me at her training center and one of her clients wants to sell them at dog camp in June. Only problem is that school started today and I don’t know how much time I’ll have to make them now. School has to take priority but it’s a chance to make money doing something I actually enjoy (while in my pjs).
went down to Belle Isle (Detroit) and puttered around w/my R/C hydroplanes. even with SPF 50 got my ass torched. Well, not bad, but a few spots of reddish-ness. and a nice burn on my forearm from a scorching tuned pipe.
I took these last summer, but here are some on-board videos of a couple of the boats:
I grow ivy, and just started the tree lawn, the front yard half covered. Grass a pain in the a$$, back yard 1/3 done.
Chocolate Lab the fertilizer tech.
Took some pictures on the trip to the Academy of Natural Sciences with Ryobserver and Little Nemo.
Did some knitting. Was hoping to work on a sweater, but the new wooden needles I decided to treat myself to for the project arrived, broken, so kept going on the current sock instead.
Started my training for my first marathon this fall with my first official group training run.
It was supposed to be 6 miles, but my knee has been acting up and I was under a time crunch (see below), so I did only 5 miles, in intervals (first 3:30 run, :30 walk, and then when the knee started warning me, 2:00 run, 1:00 walk).
That took me an hour. In the next 45 minutes, I changed into my biking clothes and hauled ass (in the van) over to the park where hubby was just finishing a 5K run. Then we did the 10-mile bike ride that was held after the 5K.
After that my knee was done for. (Good news: Today I heard back from the ortho doc that there’s nothing physically wrong with my knee, probably just stress/overworking it, so I’m going it for a PT/running assessment tomorrow. Hopefully they can keep me on the road and on track for that marathon.)
I ran three Dungeons & Dragons games at a convention on Saturday.
The primary focus of the convention was anime, so I also got much entertainment out of all the yoots wearing various funky costumes (including some very cute young ladies who were, alas, probably young enough to be my daughters ).
).
