A Crazy Fly and non-Sous-vide Latkes

Your final mystery photo challenge for 2014, some hints scattered below.

As most of you know, I spent 2 weeks in Montana, helping Dad with a very painful E coli spine infection, discitis.   He was 2 days in the Billings ICU, then 8 days in a 3rd floor room:

Mom didn’t have a chance to pack cloths, so after a few days of proper ripening, we took a quick trip to Old Navy:

For reasons only known to underwear Gnomes, Old Navy sells men's but not women's underwear.   So separately, with the dramatic flare of a male buying women’s underwear for the first time, I bought Mom some underwear. 

We had numerous visitors, including good friend Larry C.: 

After 10 days in Billings, we moved to the newly opened swing bed section of the Miles City hospital:

Along with excellent care and staff, it comes with its own Christmas carolers (from church)!

Scott is doing a great job keeping the home fires burning:

Need a hint on that mystery photo?   Not a mouse house … here is a photo of another one I found nearby:

While we were in Billings, our friends Jason and Marie invited Mom and I up for dinner in their recently renovated house, just below the Rims near the hospital.

Built in the ‘60s from a curved airplane hanger, they completely renovated it in a project they called ‘Gut the Hut’ into 1 big room and 1 bedroom:

A few days ago, a large rockslide deposited some huge rocks just feet their nearest neighbor’s house.  They are the curve roof house on the right:

You probably have that mystery photo figured out by now.   If not, you are going to kick yourself if I have to tell you.   One more hint:  I have come close to swearing when looking for one of those and not finding it.  

Helen and pets were glad to get me back home.  We had a family discussion about Snowden’s motives.   Pets didn’t have much to say, but Helen sure did:

Bantik helped me out and re-fashioned a not-so-fashionable hat Helen bought me.   Much better without the tassel:

I did another DYI video on how to wirelessly read your power meter (along with the readings from 300 of your nearest neighbors!):  

  http://misterhouse.blogspot.com/2014/11/monitoring-power-with-20-usb-stick.html

My latest project is this micro quad-copter kit called Crazyflie:

In theory I can program a computer to fly it, but currently I’m  still trying to get the hang of simply flying it with a joystick.    The good thing is that it is so small it can’t do too much damage flying into indoor things … that’s the theory anyway:

Helen new hobby is Sous-vide, low temperature, slow, water bath cooking.   She has some zip-locked bagged beef in this pot.  Those Hanukkah Latkes were NOT done Sous-vide, although she probably considered it:

Finally, for those of you still guessing on that mystery photo, I present this smiling fellow:

Bruce

Plants on the ceiling

Did you know you can buy prescription eyeglasses online now for about 1/4 of the normal price, and you no longer need a current prescription?    When I discovered this, I went a little overboard and bought 4 pair, figuring I might like at least one pair:

My old gasses were 8 years hold (bottom pair), so I did get a new prescription.   I got all 4 of these for $300 total, from $30 –> $100 each, one fixed, one bifocal, and 2 progressives of different strengths.   There are several good online stores you can use, I got these at http://eyebuydirect.com .

Care to guess why is Helen so happy in this photo?

Partly because she is holding Dog, which always brings a smile to her face, but also because we were about to get a visit from Aya:

We did much hiking with Aya, here to the Capital:

And here to one of the local peaks:

We treated Aya to several of our fun Utah treats, including prickly pear cactus in the foot:

And here Dog is instructing here on how to extract a stuck ring from her finger using the dental floss: 

We had a fun visit with a couple who Aya has worked with, who happened to live nearby:

We had a birthday party for one of Helen’s co-workers:

We sent her home with a big Ikea bag full of leftovers:

And Bantik enjoyed a party of his own, as some of the guests brought dogs:

Cat enjoyed the dog visit a little less, but he mostly held his own:

On the hobby front, I’ve been having fun doing more Home Automation videos:

• Cat tracking: http://misterhouse.blogspot.com/2014/10/track-cat.html
• 7 watt PC:   http://misterhouse.blogspot.com/2014/11/a-7-watt-pc.html
• Free TV: http://misterhouse.blogspot.com/2014/11/free-tv.html
• Monitoring Power: http://misterhouse.blogspot.com/2014/11/monitoring-power.html
• Monitoring Solar: http://misterhouse.blogspot.com/2014/11/monitoring-solar.html

On the home renovation front, I swapped our round bed for the more traditionally shaped, and much easier to make and more comfortable, bed that was in our guest room:

Finally, I’ve discovered the joy of making plant shadows on our ceiling with 3 watt, $10 gooseneck LED lights from IKEA:

Bruce

Dead bush, smart watch, and tiny computer

^{Any guesses on this mystery photo?}

^{Hint1:  It is not the doggy’s recently removed testacies.   We replaced his post-surgery plastic head cone after a few days with a variety of diapers to keep him from chewing on his stiches:}

^{Hint 2:  It is also not the big white bear’s testicles.   Doggy verified this:}

^{The bear seemed to enjoy the doggies explorations a little too much:}

^{Hint 3:  It is not insect related  … I needed an excuse for an insect photo.  We have been enjoying a plethora of fall stink bugs:}

^{Hint 4: It IS related to this:}

^{If you are thinking the above is the impression a sea gull makes when if flies into pink play dough, your thinking is flawed.  Play dough does not have hair.}

^{Hint 5:  It is also related to this:}

^{Give up?   These are close ups of various body parts of this guy:}

^{The first photo was from his paw, which he uses in his auto-defense mode whenever doggy comes to play, even when he is sleeping:}

^{The other 2 close-ups are from his hear and nose.}

^{Three of the evergreen bushes didn’t like the patio I put in this summer.   So I deleted them.}

^{I’ve been having a lot of fun with a new toy, a Moto 360 smart watch.   I interfaced it to the house, so I can now easily talk to and monitor house actions:}

^{I also re-connected to the MisterHouse users group and created some how-to web pages and videos.  The video in the first one shows some examples on what I can do with the watch:}

• ^{http://misterhouse.blogspot.com/2014/10/voice-control-with-smart-watch.html}
• ^{http://misterhouse.blogspot.com/2014/10/solar-heated-hot-tub.html}
• ^{http://misterhouse.blogspot.com/2014/10/tracking-phone-location.html}

^{The other toy I got was a small, but powerful, computer:}

^{Intel calls it a NUC, for Next Unit of Computing.   This one has a Haswell I5 quad CPU, 8 gig of ram, 240 gig storage (SSD), and only uses 7 watts of power!   I put Linux on it and use it for MisterHouse, monitoring and controlling it remotely, so it needs no keyboard or display:}

^{The Annoyed Chinese Tea Master from last month took some computer classes and became a Peaceful Chinese Computer Master,  employed to monitor the new computer.  The monster spider that annoyed him last month dried up and did the Humpty Dumpty thing:}

^{I’ve been teaching Doggy how to hike on the nearby trails:} 

^{We have had some beautiful Fall hikes:}

^{This is the top of one of our local peaks.}  

^{When he gets near the top, he goes into sprint mode … gives me a good workout!}

^Bruce