Off Topic

Damir’s birthday was a couple of weeks ago, and I gave him a gift that I felt reflected the gravity of turning 46: a remote-controlled helicopter. Thanks to some advice from the swarm (thanks, Jeff!), I found Hobby Hobby, a store that specializes in remote-controlled everything: planes, helis, cars, and parts for anything that you want to build for yourself.

I gave it to him last Monday, then I left Tuesday afternoon for 6 days on the east coast, leaving him to presumably get some work done for his customers and maybe play with the heli a bit. Yeah, right.

Tuesday evening’s update arrived by email:

Here is what I’ve learned so far.

1. The heli can be expected to hover in spot without controls for up to a minute.

2. Blade balancing is very important. Will need set of micro-tools for that.

3. Temperature drift will influence gyro electronics so the heli will drift differently over time - several solutions for that. Also the thickness of tape used to glue gyro to the body is important - it should filter out the vibration.

So far I have managed to land on the island - few crashes along the way, nothing serious. Will try to land on bed in bedroom.

Hmmm. So he’s starting to do some tuning, and has found a reason to buy new tools. No big surprise so far.

Then, Wednesday evening’s update:

We had a crash. The ceiling got in the way, actually the top bedroom door rail.

Lower main blades cracked, left landing skid broken, rear body right stabilizer cracked.

Fortunately they have all the parts in hobbyhobby. Waiting for the shipment.

This is fun.

Apparently, he’d already been on some newsgroups that day and figured out how to hack the controller, then ordered a book about it from Hobby Hobby in the morning. By midday, the blades had been cracked and he ordered a couple of those. By the end of the day, the landing skid bit it and he was placing his third order of the day.

With the holiday weekend in the way, the shipment hasn’t arrived yet, so the heli’s been grounded since Wednesday, and I haven’t seen it fly higher than the 6″ that I captured in the video above. Since I’m leaving again tomorrow for a conference in Las Vegas, I may hide the package if it arrives today, so that I get at least a quick look at it before the next crash.

After last week’s mousecapades, we figured that the entry hole was blocked from our side and we were free of mice, although there were still some odd scramblings inside walls at times. For good measure, we picked up a couple of traps, and set out two of the glue type and one of the old-fashioned snap type baited with almond butter.

Yesterday, Damir and I both worked from home, and in the afternoon (as is his habit when working at home), he went for a little nap. A while later, the bedroom door slides open and he emerges holding the mousetrap, without a mouse but also licked clean of almond butter. He had watched while the mouse visited the trap several times, licking away and even standing on the trap — I have a visual of the mouse spread-eagled over the spring mechanism like a Cirque du Soleil acrobat — but not setting the trap off. Personally, I was amazed that he lay in bed watching not one, but several visits of the mouse to the trap before he arose. Then, when he moved, the mouse scooted away (at lightspeed) down the hallway towards the bathroom and laundry.

We started investigating where it went, and I went into the closet and picked up a duffel bag off the floor, and a brown blur zipped out of the closet at my feet and sped further down the hall. I actually shrieked. Now, I’m not a really girly screamer type, but I’ll make an exception when something surprises me like that. We checked the bathroom — no mouse — and concluded that he was in the laundry closet hiding under the washer. We baited several traps and put them outside the door: a couple of snap traps with carrot (Damir had by now determined that we had to use something that the little guy had to gnaw in order to trip the spring), and a couple of glue traps with bits of carrot and goat cheese added to the centre, looking like little mouse sushi trays. We also put a snap trap with carrot over near the windowsill where Damir had originally seen it, and where we knew the point of entry had to be.

We closed the bedroom door, and because it was Valentine’s Day, were making preparations for a nice dinner at home when we heard a trap snap in the bedroom. An exchange of glances. A raised eyebrow. I hand him a plastic bag, and he heads to the bedroom. He checks the traps by the laundry — no mouse — but finds our little friend dead in the one by the window. At this point, because he’s a guy, he picks it up and starts waving it around, as if he had caught the damned thing with his bare hands. No, I don’t really want to see it, thanks. No, I don’t want to take a picture of it. Finally, he gets the point, it goes into the bag and the bag goes down the garbage chute. I postpone dinner while I get the dead mouse visual out of my head.

Later, I re-raise the issue of cats; specifically, the two kittens that my neighbour’s sister is giving away. Damir, who has been resisting this idea although he really likes cats, says “I saw Tom and Jerry, I know that the cat never catches the mouse!”

That’s when it finally strikes me why he named the first mouse Jerry.

With the rearranging of the furniture caused by Damir moving in and having to have a bit of office space, my dining table and chairs have gone into storage and we’re currently eating our meals off the coffee table — not my favourite arrangement since it leads to a lot of crumbs on the carpet. There’s a great little island counter in the kitchen with an extended overhang on two sides to accommodate a couple of stools, and I haven’t found anything that I like downtown so yesterday morning we trekked out to the Chair Source, a great place for chairs but a hell of a long way out of downtown. I had been there with a friend a few years ago when he bought a counter stool for his kitchen, and I think that it’s even bigger now, amazing selection.

Damir’s not much for shopping (which is quite an understatement), and I thought that I did well to get him around the store and pick out a few stools that we liked. Funnily enough, we settled on the first one that we tried out — small footprint, modern design, comfy back and seat. His patience started to run out when we got to the finish and fabric swatches: he’s never bought furniture that wasn’t at Ikea, and had no idea that you pick the furniture, then pick the fabric, then they go off and make it for you. He was itching to head for the car and quite willing to just let me pick what I wanted, and we settled on the black matte finish for the legs and a caramel-coloured textured faux leather for the upholstery. Should match the black appliances and blond maple floors and cabinets well.

Unfortunately, because it’s all custom made, there’s a 4-6 week wait while they make the damned things, which means at least another month of crumbs on the rug.