Christmas

The Brown family had a wonderful Christmas! We wish everyone a happy new year for 2011!

July stuff

We travel to the Deschutes river in Oregon to meet up with family and do a little camping and rock hounding at Bigg's Junction.

Boy was it hot! It was all worth it though, I met mom, dad, brother and sister-in-law and we finally get to meet my little niece!

I finally start building a 16-12 shed. After we had the concrete foundation poured, I start getting the frame up.

June Stuff

School's out! Jordan is getting really good on the trombone and plays for the "graduation" ceremony.

Jacob gets an award for walking miles and miles at recess.

Jordan gets an award for being a smart kid.

We take a road trip to Seattle...

...to go to the Benaroya Research facility. Jordan is at the end of a medical study so we mixed business with a little pleasure and took a mini family vacation.




Also in June we had the famous Grace church Summer Bible Safari!

May stuff

I'm way behind on bloggin so I'm keeping it short 'n sweet. Here are the top items in May.

My daughter Tara got a big French award and made it into the honor society.

Here she is again going to prom... she is very happy because she went with a ton of her friends and they had a really good time.

Also in May, I scored a pretty good deal from Craig's list. I got a working T2 arcade game and a semi-working original Donkey Kong in decent shape for $500.

Easter Sunrise

For us, Easter morning started at 5:30. The boys were up very early getting into their baskets. We all scrambled to wake up and get out the door to attend a sunrise service among our friends.

We arrived on top of "the mountain" at 7:05.

It was cold. Really cold. A strong, icy wind was blowing hard and the outside temperature was a frigid 27 degrees.

We all huddled together inside the garage. Our hosts had generously prepared refreshements and heaters...the heaters were a very popular item.

We had a wonderful service as the sun rose up over the hills.


The singing was beautiful and it was nice to commune with good friends in such a lovely setting.

A Teardrop of Queenstone

Saturday called for the first rockhound field trip in 2010 for the Idaho Rock and Gem club.

The club met in Nampa at 7:30, but my boys and I decided to go at the last minute (7:45 Saturday). We ended up finding the club out in the field at the Queenstone claim - a jasper site just off highway 95 south. A lot of people showed up.




It was a beautiful day in Boise, but an icy wind was blowing at the site. A little bit of a tough start - not too bad though.

The first thing we did was march right on up past all the rock hunters and checked out the nearest, largest rock formation. There were veins of jasper throughout the old rock stacks, but most were thin and not worth the effort of picking out. Much of the jasper at this spot was brownish in color - sometimes green. Most of the good stuff must have been stuck in rock that had long since eroded away and deposited on (or under) the ground - but where?


We climbed back down, which was a bit harrowing at times, and then meandered about the hills checking out the rocks on the ground. We kind of swept back and forth across the small hills, looking for clues. The place had been picked over really good, but I ended up developing a theory that panned out pretty good for us.


I ended up finding a line pattern of the little stuff, the stuff people would leave on the ground. Jordan and I followed this pattern over the hill and hit a pretty darn good trail, once we got away from the crowd. We found blue, green, and auburn colored jasper, some of it mixed together. Very pretty stuff. Jordan found a small piece on the ground that will make an amazing cabochon - it has two strands of gold flowing through a blue medium. Most of the good stuff we found was seriously embedded in rock - a softer volcanic matrix, but still far more tougher than bare hands. We had not come prepared. We still managed to retrieve some of the nicer jasper by smashing the rocks with larger rocks - neanderthal-style!

After a few hours, the party packed up and went down the road a ways to one of very few fire opal claim called Wang Doodle. This opal was teany tiny stuff coming out of the bubbles in red volcanic rock - you know... the really rough rock that has lots of larger air bubbles in it. Well, sometimes these bubbles are not filled with air or gas, they are filled with chalcedony - usually agate, sometimes opal, and much more rarely - fire opal. Again, we were not prepared. We had shovels and a rake and turned up more than a few rocks, but we did not have a pick to break the opals out of the rock. Still, we had some fun and even found a few small opals that had some really nice fire to them!

eventually, we picked up and headed for home. Here is the rather small pile of jasper in the rough. Most of it is the brownish-green stuff that we pick up from the ground. But if you look close you can see some of the good stuff in there too.




When Sunday rolled around, I couldn't help myself, I just had to see what it would like polished. I took one of the smaller shard of the blue stuff that had broken off from my caveman smashes and turned out this rather nice teardrop...



If my sister is reading this, I'm still waiting to get at my Christmas rocks - I need to buy a new saw blade for the rock saw - about $175.

Also, just so everyone out there doesn't think that I'm a total slacker, I did install a new storm door. It wasn't all fun and games over the weekend ;)

Cool Kid

So... I've got this really cool kid.

Yeh, I know what you're thinking.., "Everyone thinks their kid is cool. Well, yeh, I get that. And yes, I do think all my kids are very cool - I have 4. They are all very cool indeed. However, every once in a while you run into a kid that makes you think.., "Man, that's a cool kid." Anyway, I'm here to tell you that this kid is one of those kids.

Get this...

His name is Jordan.
He is currently 11.
He builds things out of Legos. Not just any old types of things... really cool stuff. And not the kinds of Lego stuff where you follow the directions. He makes a lot of his unique creations totally from scratch.

He built this spaceship thing with 3 booster rockets that pivot like the spaceshuttle.


He also built this wicked looking motorcycle thing that looks like it would eat GhostRider for breakfast.

He does crazy cool stuff all the time... and he is super duper smart. I just learned yesterday that he won his 6th grade class spelling bee - he didn't even study. I'm not kidding.

Most kids his age are like... " I wanna be a race car driver when I grow up"... and then next week it's an astronaut or professional football player. That's all fine.. you know. It's good for kids to aspire. But... Jordan, he wants to be a Geologist. He wants to understand how the rocks underneath the ground work and play together -- cool.

We both love rocks and gems and fossils and stuff like that. In fact this last Sunday the weather was nice and Jordan and I couldn't take it any more. We had to get out and look for cool rocks. We threw Henry (our dog) in the back of the van and took off North of Eagle, Idaho.

Didn't really find much in way of rocks, but Jordan found a cool frog - he loves frogs.

A little later on, I found a frog, This time it was a green one.

Jordan already knows how to tell the difference between normal rocks and those that will polish or are worth something. He even has made his own cabachons from star garnets, agates, and jaspers.

Like I said, cool kid.

Sweet Sweet Sunshine

It seems like forever since the sun hit my face. This weekend, we here in Boise got a good 'ol dose of the stuff. It is soooo nice to see people come outside and working in their yards again.

All in all we had a great weekend. No major agenda. I love not having any plans.

Friday I worked really late again but we ended up having a movie night - something I look forward to. We watched the movie "Where the Wild Things Are". It received mixed reviews.

Saturday morning I took my son Jordan to a young writers conference where he got to see the author Roland Smith. He had a fun time and was able to meet with other kids that shared his same interest.

While he was doing that, the weather was so nice, I went back home and planted some rasberries in the back corner of the yard. It felt good to get dirty again - although I also tilled the compost and that job is a little too dirty (and stinky).



Another cool, fun thing we did was create a few cabs from some of the rock slabs I had found at last week's Gem show. One of the smaller slabs was a piece of blue tiger's eye. I've done a few pieces of tiger's eye, but never blue. Jordan was a little bit infatuated with the Tiger's eye, so I gave him a better piece of a rough cabochon for him to form and I took a larger rectangle. I think Jordan's piece turned out better but they are both nice. [insert pix]

I had also found a slab of brown jasper that looked like a picture of scrubland with a volcano going off in the distance. I think it turned out ok... [Insert pix]

I spent the better part of Saturday night studying for church. I was to lead communion Sunday morning and I wanted to do something a little bit different to help prepare everyone's thoughts. I wanted to provide a quick collage of Jesus' life that painted a reverant picture of power and truth - the kind that fits us in with His plan. Anyway, my church makes it a little easier because they know the Bible inside and out. I ended up reading selected short passages of the Bible at the beginning to focus our thoughts on the incarnation. I then gave quick commentary on the many, many things that Jesus did throughout his ministry. I followed this with passages that told the power of his death, resurrection, and then the revelation of His actions. Pretty awesome stuff and I think it went over really well apart from me getting all choked up. I always do that when I get up in front of people and talk about something I care deeply about. I put my notes for communion at the end of this post.

Sunday was most excellent. After Church we played in the sun, threw balls for the dogs, ate sandwiches. The temperature got all the way up to 56 degrees. Spring is almost here!

Sunday night was very good too. Jordan has been saving his money for a few months now. He had received some money in the mail for doing his part in a diabetis study. With the money he had saved and the money he received he was able to go to Toys R Us and purchase a new bike!

After grabbing some burgers we took it home and put it together together. Here he is - looking happy.


To top off our weekend, we watched the original version of "Rocky" in honor of the Academy Awards... although Jordan kept sneaking off to fidget with his new bike.

Good weekend - good stuff. Thanks for reading.

Here are MY notes and scriptures from the communion service:

This is He who we remember

{Passages are from NSRV}

Psalm 50: 1-2
The mighty one, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.

Revelation 19: 11-13 (John's testimony)
Then I saw heaven opened, and there was a white horse! Its rider is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems; and he has a name inscribed that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called The Word of God.

John 1: 1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Exodus 12: 21
Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, ‘Go, select lambs for your families, and slaughter the passover lamb.
{We know this was done at that time to save Israelites from the Death that God inflicted upon Egypt.}

Luke 2: 6-7 [Bethlehem],
While they were there the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

Luke 3: 21-22
Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’

{ Much of Jesus' teaching were through parables such as this one. There are at least 30 parables from our Lord... The Prodigal Son, The Foolish Builder, The Rich Fool, The Lost Sheep, Sheep and the Goats. Many of these we knew well in childhood. And they still continue to sharpen our minds today.

{He taught us the greatest commandment: "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.”}

{ There are many, at least 32, recorded instances where the Bible mentions Jesus' healing. Compassion was and still is an important part of His ministry. }

{ He changed water to wine, appointed apostles to spread the good news, walked on water, calmed the sea, drove out demons, Fed 1000s with a few loaves and fishes, gave a sermon from a mountain, was transfigured. He was tempted by the devil for 40 days in the desert, was accused of being in league with Beezelbul, was rejected in his own home town, His friends betrayed Him, His people rejected Him, and He saved our souls. }

Matthew 26: 48-50
Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, ‘The one I will kiss is the man; arrest him.’ At once he came up to Jesus and said, ‘Greetings, Rabbi!’ and kissed him. Jesus said to him, ‘Friend, do what you are here to do.’ Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and arrested him.

Luke 23: 3-4
Then Pilate asked him, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ He answered, ‘You say so.’ Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, ‘I find no basis for an accusation against this man.’

Luke 23: 23-24
But they kept urgently demanding with loud shouts that he should be crucified; and their voices prevailed. So Pilate gave his verdict that their demand should be granted.

Luke 23: 33-34a
When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.’

Luke 23: 44-46
It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, while the sun’s light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.’ Having said this, he breathed his last.

Luke 24: 2-6a (Two women find the tomb empty)
They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.

Isaiah 52: 9-10
Break forth together into singing, you ruins of Jerusalem;for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations;and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

Revelation 5: 6-7 (John's testimony)
Then I saw between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. He went and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who was seated on the throne.

Revelation 22: 5
And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign for ever and ever.

{Before the prayers...}

Luke 22: 19 (on the day of Celebration of Passover)
Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’

Luke 23: 20
And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

Happy Birthday and Garage Door Springs

First, I'd like to thank everyone for wishing me a Happy Birthday.

Thanks to my wife and kids - we enjoyed a lovely day together at the Idaho Gem and Fossil show.
Thank to my Mom and Dad for the cards and gift.
Thanks to Tammy's Mom and Dad for the cards and gift.
Thanks to my brother for calling me up and chatting.
Thanks to the Cash family for the nice home-made card.
Thanks to Kevin for taking me out for lunch - a very nice suprise!
Thanks to Christine for the funny e-card.
Thanks to Mindy and Bailey for the home-made card.
Thanks to Teen group at church for the card.
Thanks to the following people for sending me a facebook message:
Corey, Jason, Sunny and Steve, Mario, Alexa, Enid, Kathy and Nick, Kevin and Shannon, and Kelly.

So... after a most pleasant day at the Idaho Gem and Fossil show I spent Saturday night reading about garage door springs. Exciting huh? We have a rental home and it has a large torsion spring over the garage door that broke. I knew that if I could change it out myself, it'd save me about $100. So I had to attempt it.

In all my readings about changing the springs one thing had become very apparent - they are dangerous! And replacing them is a dangerous job. If you look on the Internet you will find lots of warnings and stories of people getting stitches, losing a finger, etc... I did it anyway and it went well, but I did learn a few things. If anyone attempts to install a torsion-style garage door spring here are a few pointers.

• Take it slow and think about every action you do - twice.


• Safety glasses or face shield for safety.


• Get winding bars - they are simply 1/2 inch round steel bars used for winding and unwinding the spring. You need two - about 18inches long each. Do not use a screwdriver as you can break the winding cone when it is under pressure and really bad things will happen.


• Do not unlock the wheels at the end of the main shaft when a torsion spring is under pressure as the main shaft will slide left and right on you (the spring gets longer as you unwind the spring).


• Take your old broken spring into a local shop to get a new one. I wouldn't try measuring and all that jazz - just take in the old one when you buy the new one.


• It helped me to position myself directly under the end of the spring so that I could apply pressure directly up on the winding bars. My head was just right of the winding cone away from the spring - this was the best leverage point and I could tell that it was very important to safely insert the rods fully into the cone each time. If your standing away from the cone and have to reach it becomes exponentially more difficult to get the next bar in the further you are away from the cone.


• If you have all your ducks in a row and you take your time, the job should take about an hour.


• This site is probably the best read for the job... http://ddmgaragedoors.com/diy-instructions/replace-garage-door-torsion-springs.php

Valentine's weekend

Well, I sorta screwed up this year. I had about $100 to spend this weekend and I told my lovely wife that I would use some it for Valentine's dinner. Well, on Saturday, the day before Valentines my father-in-law and I went to this auction that was happening in a nearby town. A company that builds fifth-wheels and trailers went out of business and they were auctioning off a LOT of crap.. they were selling everything. I thought I'd be smart and try to grab a few doors and windows because I am planning on building a shed this year. RV doors and windows work really great in sheds - very easy to install, have built-in screens, smoked glass, etc... But the auction did not go as I had planned (you really can't plan for an auction). There was so much junk that you had to buy large quantities of items for most things. By the time it was over, I ended up buying 40 windows. 40 windows!!! I needed... like... 3, maybe 4. Cost me $110 after tax. I tried to do some horse trading for a door afterwards - no go. Long story short... I am happy that I am going to save a lot of money when it comes time to build the shed this year, but I sure felt guilty about valentine's dinner.

Every year at Valentine's I stay up late the night before creating home-made valentine cards for my wife and kids. I like to get each of them a small treat. This year I got Jacob, my youngest, a bunch of silly gummy treats in the shapes of hamburgers, hot dogs, fries and stuff - he likes that kind of thing. Jordan got paper airplanes made from foam - he's the type of kid that loves to put things together - science type of stuff. For my daughter, I got her a silly little plush monkey that screams at you when you squeeze it. Jesse received a bunch of those nasty sour soda straws that makes your face implode when you try to eat them - Yuch! But he loved them.

Anyway, I call these treats "Sweet Nothings", because they are simple inexpensive things that are fun but don't really matter. I call my written valentines "Sweet Somethings". For these, I pour out my heart to tell them how much I love them and why - these are really something. Something you can't buy at a store.

When Sunday came, the kids woke up and saw their treats, they were very happy. Tara screamed when the plush monkey went off - she loved it. Later the younger boys were outside throwing the foam planes all over the yard and getting them stuck on the roof. I think Tammy partially forgave me for spending the money on windows, although she was really looking forward to dinner on Valentine's day.

At church it was my turn to deliver the lesson from the lectionary.. it was a really good one. the lectionary readings were from Ex 35, Psalm 99, 2 Cor 3:12 and the gospel reading Luke 9:28 - the transfiguration. I think it went really well. I spoke about how Moses' face became all shiny when God walked by him on Mt. Sinai. How Moses could not look at God's face or else he would die.. so God hid him in a crack in a rock and protected him. Then Moses came down and people were all scared when he tried to teach them about what God told him. It all worked together really nice. The tie to all the passages was how awesome God is, so awesome, in fact, that nobody can approach his throne without the help of his son Jesus. Pretty cool stuff. Several people commented afterwards that they liked the message. I liked it to.

After Church my father-in-law called and invited us out to dinner. We had a wonderful time. Afterwards we went back to their place to watch a movie and socialize. Good times. I even left a couple of kids with them so that they could spend the night.

It all worked out and we had a lovely holiday weekend. I hope your valentines was as nice as ours.

A trip to the Arcade

Update (1-24-10)
Controls are in and the panel is installed. Need to wire it up.

Update (1-18-10)
A vinyl overlay for the control panel...

Update (1-10-10)

Making some progress. Time to work on a new control panel. Switching it to 2 players with 8 buttons each and the new trac ball in the center.

After making the cuts...

My son Jordan helping me out and pre-installing some of the controls. We're just making sure everything fits. I have created a graphic design for the vinyl control panel overlay that will go over the top.

Update (12-10-09)

It's sitting there... looking at me all the time. Not really working :)

Original Post (9-22-09)

My good buddy Mario was in the process of moving over the summer. Mario happened to have a ginormous arcade cabinet that he didn't want to move and he asked me if I wanted it. Of course, being the 80s arcade freak that I am I obliged... not only do I get a an arcade machine, but I get to see Mario as well. Only hitch is that I have to drive from Boise to Mountain View (San Jose area), across the desert, in two days!

So... I threw a kid in the car with me - Jacob - and we headed out Friday morning.

Our first stop was at a garage sale in Nampa... I don't know why I stopped. Was in the mood I guess. Nothing interesting so we moved on.

Turned south on 95 just past Marsing - a frequent road for us as it is the crossroads to many rock hounding places.

Shortly after we crossed into Oregon we ran across some vultures at Jordan Valley. I took this as a good omen :)

After an eternity, we eventually arrived in the most fabulous place in the world - Winnemucca! Who knew that people could exist in the middle of an arid desert. But not only do they exist... they have fun and gamble too! Not really my cup of tea, but we stop and eat pizza at the local Pizza Hut and get gas.

Driving though Nevada was... well... boring. Very long straight road - I-80. Things didn't start getting interesting until we drove through Reno. The area around the Lake Tahoe and the Sierra's is simply beautiful. Lots of white granite and pine trees.

We had planned to stop at a Motel 6 if we had too, but times are tough so we drove on through all the way Mario's. It took us all day!

We crashed at Mario's apartment (which was really sparse. He had moved a lot of stuff out already and lots of things were boxed up.

When I eventually woke up the next morning, I was feeling a little out of it. Serious bed head and droggy. But I was enjoying myself - even if I didn't look it.

Jacob really enjoyed Mario. Mario is like a kid magnet.. kids love this guy. Kids just know good people when they see them... and Mario is certainly a good person.

Mario and I played around with the arcade cabinet before disassembling it. It was not working, nor could we get it working.

The official hand-off. This was bittersweet for me. In order for this deal to go down, my friend Kevin already had dibs and I agreed to let him have the arcade machine I built from the ground up for the rights to Mario's cabinet... good will, manly sort of code stuff you know. But I don't really want 2 cabinets at my house anyway and Mario's cabinet would give me something to do. In a lot of ways it is a better cabinet... or at least it has more potential.

After we loaded the arcade cabinet into the minivan we headed out for Clarke's Burgers. Mario wanted to try it out and they cook the burgers over a bed of charcoal. The burgers are really good. The place has one all kinds of awards. Good stuff.

We ended up leaving Mario and Mountain View around noon. We gained an hour when we arrived... I knew we were going to lose an hour going back... and I wanted to go to church on Sunday.

Jacob and I drove most of the way back in the dark so we don't have any good pictures. We ended up pulling off the side of the road near Jordan Valley at 3 A.M. I just couldn't make it. I'm not the young pup I once was.

In the morning, we did a little rock hounding before heading back home. Once home I discovered that the motherboard for the cabinet had died (I was going to upgrade anyway), but the big old Dell monitor was good (which I thought was going to be bad after it had bumped around in the car).

I plan on posting another blog post showing the progress of the cabinet. I plan on making a new control panel layout and installing the new trac-ball that came with it. It came with a 4 person control panel layout, but I would have to purchase another i-pac controller that would support that many controls and we would almost never use it. I could change my mind later though. Right now I've installed a much newer PC and a new front end interface (software) called Hyperspin.