everQuest design

Several years ago, I saw an article on collectSPACE about a company that was making messenger bags that incorporated a piece of a parachute that had been used to land a Soyuz space capsule. The company was everQuest design and they were located in Montreal. The bags looked very sharp and weren’t too expensive, so I ordered one right away.

It took a couple of weeks to get my bag, mostly because they were absolutely swamped by questions and orders because of the publicity. When they shipped it, I got a very nice email that included a tracking number and all.

The bag was very cool. As an added bonus, I discovered it was big enough to carry my copy of “The Home Planet”, so now it wouldn’t get (even more) beat up when I took it to get autographs. As everQuest suggested, I also used it every day as my briefcase. It’s quite durable.

After a couple of months of use, I began to notice that a piece of Velcro in a back pocket was beginning to separate from the bag. A closer look revealed that the stitching had actually missed that edge of the Velcro during the construction of the bag and it was now beginning to unravel. I sent an email off to everQuest and asked about it. Their response was quick. They said my bag was unconditionally guaranteed against all defects/normal wear and tear, and all I had to do was send it back and they would fix or replace it. So, I sent it back.

Sending the bag back to everQuest was interesting all by itself. Since they’re located in Canada, you can’t just send it to them; you have to fill out customs forms and all that happy stuff. The Post Office knew exactly what to do, however, and in just a few minutes it was on it’s way. I promptly forgot about it.

A few weeks later I got a very apologetic message from everQuest. They had just received the bag because it had been held up in customs. I’m sure it was because I had forgotten to mark some checkbox or other on the customs form. Anyway, they had taken a look at the bag and decided to offer me a replacement. I could have had the old bag back, but it would have taken a while and they could ship a new bag immediately. They made sure I knew it was a slightly different bag and the parachute piece was from a different mission, which was fine with me.

The new bag showed up just a few days later. I think I actually like it better than the old bag. The important thing, though, is it still fits my “Home Planet”.

I have to say I’m very happy with both the product and the service provide by everQuest. I’d recommend them to anyone.

New black & white play!

I previously talked about the black & white plays at the Pegasus Theater. These are some of the most amazing things that I’ve ever seen. Anyway, I just got an email that says they will be doing another one this year! You can always find out the latest information at the Pegasus home page, but here’s the email for those of you who just can’t wait:

Dear Pegasus Theater Friend:

We’ll have more information on this soon but I wanted to let you know that Pegasus Theater will be returning to the Eisemann Center this season with another “Living Black & White” Harry Hunsacker adventure! Preview performances will begin December 29, 2009 and we’ll have performances through January 17, 2010.

Two new things this year–we’ll add Saturday matinees to our performance schedule and the performance on New Year’s Eve will start at 8pm (rather than 9pm as in the past.) This earlier curtain time will allow our patrons, who wish, to easily attend the New Year’s party of their choosing and still be able to attend our production. Tickets will go on sale in the very near future!

Kurt Kleinmann
Artistic Director

I can’t wait!

Does anybody really know what time it is

Benjamin is a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. That’s not a popular thing here in Dallas, but that’s not the point. He’s more a fan of the current Steelers quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger. Why? I think I’ve mentioned once or twice just how big Benjamin is getting. Well, Roethlisberger’s nickname is “Big Ben”.

Benjamin really likes that nickname. A lot.

The best science fair project ever

Jennifer had no idea what she wanted to do for her seventh grade science fair project, so Iris did some searching around on the net and found a few projects that might be of interest. The one that Jennifer ultimately chose was measuring the relationship between sugar and the amount of alcohol produced during fermentation. It was a great project, mostly because it incorporated elements of the scientific method, but also because she had recently studied the fermentation process in one of her classes.

The actual project was simple. We made apple wine.

Our first stop was Homebrew Headquarters. This place has been in Dallas for a long time. We explained what we were trying to do and they told us everything we needed to know, helped us pick out the equipment we needed, and were generally a great help. We walked out of there with fermenters, airlocks, yeast, and a hydrometer for measuring alcohol content.

The last ingredient was apple juice and that proved to be a bit of a problem. We needed raw, unprocessed apple juice with no preservatives that would interfere with the fermentation process. Central Market came to the rescue. They were able to make a bunch of fresh apple juice for us. All we had to do was pick the type of apple to use.

We made up five separate batches of wine. The first was a control that had no added sugar. The other four ranged from a half pound to two pounds of added sugar. All of them had yeast added to them. We slapped the lids and airlocks on the buckets and put them in the bathtub in Jennifer’s bathroom.

All there was to do now was wait. Fermentation doesn’t take lots of time, but it takes more than a day. Total time was a couple of weeks. It might have been a bit longer. Once the wine was done, Jennifer made all of her observations and wrote up her conclusions and such. She took first place in her grade for the project. It was all very cool.

But, here’s the really good part. The wine was great! The plain apple juice made a wine that consumed all the sugar in the fermentation process, making it very dry. It was okay. The rest of the samples made more of a hard cider, reasonably sweet and alcoholic. One of the samples appeared to have undergone a secondary fermenation and produced some carbonation, which was pleasant. I ended up mixing three of the samples together, creating my own “blended” apple wine that was just awesome. I was sure sorry to drink the last of it several weeks later.

I really have no idea what my upper lip looks like

I first grew my mustache back about 1980. I just wanted to look a few years older and the mustache did the trick.

My mother never did like it. I would usually go to Florida to visit around holiday time and she’d tell me I should shave it. I finally did sometime in late 1983. She took one look and said “I liked you better with the mustache.” Sheesh. So, I grew it back and haven’t shaved it since then. In fact, Iris and I have been married over twenty years now and she’s never seen me without it. It’s just as well.

I’ve periodically grown the beard and shaved it over the years. It’s not that great looking. I used to think that if I could ever grow one like Raymond Burr had late in his career, you know, the silver sides with the dark mustache and patch below his lip, I’d never shave it off. Well, I can grow one exactly like that now.

And it makes me look too old. Sigh.

I guess I’ll stick with the mustache.

Marking time

As part of my Great Pacific Rim Trip back in 1986, I spent a couple of weeks in Hong Kong. This was, of course, while it was still owned by the British. I couldn’t have gone otherwise; I’d had a security clearance as recently as 1982 and the government wouldn’t have allowed it if Hong Kong had been owned by the Chinese like it is today.

Anyway, I had to walk a couple of blocks from my hotel to the building where I was teaching every day and it took me past a lot of different shops and stores. One store had a lot of watches in the front window. I have a real thing for watches and it totally fascinated me.

One watch, in particular, was almost irresistable. It was a Seiko Sports 100 Chronograph. I had never seen anything like it before. The price was crazy, though. I don’t remember what it was in Hong Kong dollars, but it translated to almost $300 US. Way too much.

That didn’t stop me from stopping by the window every day and drooling over it.

Eventually, I got up enough nerve to go inside and ask about it. One thing you need to know about Hong Kong is that everything is negotiable. You are expected to haggle over the price. You can get an even better price if you’re willing to pay in cash, since none of the shop owners want to pay the credit card companies their fee for the transaction. It cuts into their profit. I don’t need to go into the gory details, but the shop owner acted like there was something wrong with the watch, selling it to me with very little argument for maybe $75. He later told me it was an older model watch and he had several that he just couldn’t sell and did I want to buy a couple more of them?

Uh, no.

I think I wore that watch every day after that for the next 25 years or so. I still have it and it still works great. I just can’t read the numbers on it anymore.

As a side note, I’ve only seen one other watch like it. It was a few years after I purchased it and a sales person in a shop was wearing the exact watch except the face and band were black instead of my silver and white. I asked him about it and he said his mom had purchased it for him while on a business trip in Hong Kong.

Cannons?

Fort Worth has put on an event called Mayfest every year for as long as I can remember. It occupies most of Trinity Park, which is sandwiched between the Botanical Gardens and the Trinity River, just north of I-30 near downtown. There’s all sorts of things to do and see and eat, with much of it catered toward kids. I used to take Andrea there every year when she was little.

One year, when Andrea was maybe three or four years old, the Fort Worth Symphony was scheduled to perform after the sun went down. The highlight of their show was the 1812 Overture and I thought Andrea would enjoy the music. She did, too.

So, I’m standing there, in the dark, holding Andrea up so she can see everything that’s going on. Remember that the orchestra is playing 1812? Did you know that 1812 features cannons? I didn’t. I also didn’t know that a local National Guard unit had brought in a couple of artillery units to provide the cannons. And, more importantly, I didn’t know we were standing maybe thirty feet away from the cannons.

It was quite the event when they fired. I still have the scars.

Happy birthday, Jennifer!

As of about 12:30AM, Jennifer is 17 years old. Oh my goodness!

She’s a counselor at a summer camp and they’re having their first overnight campout tonight, so I won’t even see her until her birthday is over…

Delta flight 191

Back in 1985, I was doing a lot of traveling for my company. I had spent several days in (I think) Seattle and was flying back home to Dallas on a Friday afternoon. I remember looking out the window and seeing these huge thunderstorms around the airport during our approach and feeling the aircraft dodge it’s way around the biggest of the storms. But, we landed with no problems and I was back in my car and on the highway in short order.

When I got home, I checked my answering machine for messages and the last one was from my mother. She sounded totally frantic as she said “Andy, this is Mom. We just heard about the crash and are very worried. Call us if you’re dead!”

Say what?

I turned on the television and was greeted by news coverage of the crash of Delta flight 191 at the DFW Airport. My flight had landed about thirty minutes before 191 did, enough time for me to get to my car and get on the road before the crash. My parents knew I was flying into Dallas that afternoon, but they didn’t know what flight I was on. They just heard the news about the crash and freaked.

And yes, I did call my mom and let her know I wasn’t dead.

There’s a new Harry Dresden book out

Turn Coat. I’m about half way through it. If you’re a Dresden fan, you’re gonna love it.

Of course, knowing Jim Butcher for as long as I have, it’s still amazing to me that he can write such great stuff.