Construction update...

Construction update...  Last week we had absolutely nothing happen.  This afternoon, our builder showed up to put rebar into the footer for the gasoline and diesel filling station we're building.  A little later, the concrete truck showed up, and they poured and leveled the footer (photos below).  The blue pipe section (filled with gravel in the last two photos) is a drain for any water that happens to leak into the enclosure.  Tomorrow morning the concrete gang is supposed to show up to set up forms for the walls, and to pour them.  Woo hoo!

My builder tells me that the framing guys should show up on Wednesday or Thursday to frame out our mudroom (a couple days work).  On Wednesday the installer from Four Seasons is supposed to show up to start installing our sun room.  He's estimating a week of work on that.  We might actually have some progress this week!

One hell of a meal!

One hell of a meal!  This afternoon I made a treat for Debbie and I: maple sesame salmon.  I used Ora King salmon, which like like so well that we haven't purchased any other kind for months.  The only other change I made to the recipe was to add some sliced green onion to the marinade before the reduction step (and that was a winner), and I cut the garlic in half (Debbie was being nice to me – she loves garlic, and I dislike it in most dishes).

We will most definitely be making this one again!

Collatz Conjecture...

Collatz Conjecture...  A great video about this famous math problem...

Curiosity is exploring...

Curiosity is exploring ... some fairly rugged terrain!

Keyhole nebula...

Keyhole nebula...  Via APOD, of course.  Full res version.

Do you need a backup solution?

Do you need a backup solution?  I've been using BackBlaze for almost two years now, and I just had an experience with them that confirms my appreciation of them.  If you need backup (and even if you think you've already got your backup problem solved), go visit that link.

I had my mom's computer backed up through BackBlaze.  I did this after a couple of failures of the backup hard disks I had originally set up for her some years ago.  After she died earlier this year, I needed to wipe her computer clean in preparation for the next person to receive it.  There was about 100GB of data on that computer that I didn't want to lose, and all of that data was backed up on BackBlaze.  I decided to try their USB thumb drive restore delivery service.  They charge $99 for that, but then refund the entire $99 when you return the thumb drive. 

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I found out about BackBlaze when I ran into their hard disk statistics, which they publish as a free service to the world.  I've used these on several occasions to guide my purchase of hard disks. 

What a great company and great products!