Georgia on my mind

In a few days we will be leaving for our 10 year anniversary trip. Originally we had grand plans of possibly going to Hawaii for the occasion. However after trying to work out the logistics, costs and dog care options, we scuttled that idea.  We poured through the time share book looking at various locations throughout the country.  We wound up deciding to stay somewhere you wouldn’t expect, northern Georgia.

We picked this spot for a couple reasons. First it was within reasonable driving range (approx 10 hours) and second the place accepted pets.  Yes, Nicki will be accompanying us on this trip.  The resort is located in the mountains and supposedly offers lots of outdoor sightseeing and hiking. It should be very scenic and peaceful.  The temperatures should be just about perfect with low’s in the 50’s and highs in the low to mid 70’s. 

No it doesn’t offer all the glitz and glamour of a Hawaii vacation but Ali is really looking forward to it all the same.  She loves to have Nicki along on trips.   I am looking forward to relaxing, reading, going on long walks with Nicki and just taking it easy for a few days, something I’m normally not very good at doing. Although I did ask Ali if the place had a gym.  Hey, exercising is relaxing to me in a way too. 🙂

Tonight is the VP debate.  It is all set up on the Tivo.  This should be some good fun.  Yesterday I saw yet another clip of the Katie Couric interview where Sarah is questioned about a joke she made about Biden being old while she was the “young, new energy” (a phrase she rolls out constantly).  Katie pointed out that her running mate is a decade older than Biden.  Sarah stumbled over her words as she tried to back track from her original joke, poorly.  They really need to have someone editing her every word at all times.

Last weekend Ali planted a bunch of seeds that I bought for the garden.  She was surprised when I called her out last night to look at them.  A ton of them had already germinated.  The corn and beets had sprouted the most followed by the lettuce and broccoli. We also have a tomato plant , eggplant and snow pea plants started in the garden already.  I really hope we can successfully grow them all the way to a bountiful harvest.  Our garden track record has been poor so far.  Typically the plants start off like gang busters and then insects move in and destroy them.  I need to try to stay on top of the crop with regular spraying of insecticidal oil and BT.

I’m almost through Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica.  I’m not sure if season four is out on DVD yet but if it is I won’t rent it yet.  I need a bit of a break.  In the last few weeks I probably have watched upwards of 30 episodes.

My one Roomba has developed a problem with charging the battery.  This is a common problem with the 400 series and is caused by the failure of two MOSFETS on the PCB.  I bought replacement MOSFETS and yesterday I worked on disassembling the robot.  I followed the “Discovery Breakdown” instructions illustrated here. It is a 29 step process.  It is a rather complicated disassembly and as part after part was yanked out and set on my desk my confidence in my ability to get it all back together correctly diminished.  Well I finally get to the point where I can pull out the board.  I see one more connector on the base of it so I yank on it quickly to disconnect it.  By this point in the process I had already disconnected  a dozen or so other similar connectors.  It seems resistant to my effort so I pull a bit harder.  I manage to rip three of the seven wires in the connector.  I swear out loud as I take a closer look at the connector to see what the F was up.  If I would have looked at the illustrations closer, I would have noticed that the “connector” is actually permanently affixed to the board.  I was so pissed that I was at the last step of the disassembly process and NOW I f’d it up.

So I did some quick research as to what that connector was for.  It turns out it is for the external serial interface which is not essential for the robot to operate.  So I simply cut the cable off.  John is going to attempt the actual MOSFET replacement on the PCB.  He has more soldering experience than me as well as having better soldering tools.  Even if he would screw it up it doesn’t really matter.  I can get a replacement board for about $40-45 bucks if need be.  I just thought it would be cool to fix it for $6 instead.  I’m not looking forward to trying to put it all back together.