APRS Tracking with a UV-3R

I'm embarking on YANP (Yet Another New Project).  My goal is to be able to track my rockets that go out of visual contact.  I bought a 10 watt beacon for the truck.  That was stupid easy.  I bought parts for the rocket but I have an incompatibility in a cable that I need to resolve.  No big deal.

What I need to work out now is the receiver that displays the rocket's position.  I bought a Baofeng UV-3R for receiving the APRS signal.  I need to program it and connect it to a decoder.  Another work in progress.

Mikr

Cold Cream

Upon seeing his Mom apply cold cream 'to make her more beautiful' and then wipe it off, the little boy asked, "What's the matter, are you giving up?"
- Coffee House News, Vol 1 No. 37 June 5, 2012

Fishing in La Paz, Mexico

Soon I'll be fishing in La Paz, Mexico with Baja Pirates of La Paz.  I hope to update this photo album daily during the trip.  It's going to be an adventure and I can hardly wait!

Queen of Life Catholic Church

What a Blessed lunch I had today! I needed to get some labels at Office Depot and Office Depot is on the way to Taco Bell. So I threw a leg over the scoot and headed out. Riding down Jamboree I noticed a road named Dupont and I remembered David talking about a Chapel nearby and I wondered if I could find it. Clearly the Holy Spirit was calling me.
I found the Chapel, Queen of Life Catholic Church, and decided that I needed to spend some time in prayer (Forgive me Lord, I am a sinner.) so I stopped and went in. Oops, I walked in to Mass during the Consecration. Well, the door is open and some people have already seen me so I might as well head on in and pray. (Forgive me Lord, for I am a miserable sinner. And by that, I mean that I'm really good at sinning, in fact, too good for my own good.)
What a cool Church. Daily Mass starts at 11:50 AM so I'll get there early tomorrow.
After Mass I met Fr. Charbel, Rock, and Danny in the parking lot. After a brief conversation where I heard about St. Charbel among other things I excused myself as I still had to get to Office Depot and Taco Bell. I started the bike, pulled on the helmet, and put on the gloves. Just as I was doing that Fr. Charbel came over with a bottle of Holy Water in his hand and asked me if my bike had ever been Blessed. I replied no but that I would welcome a Blessing. As he started praying over me and my bike I killed the motor, folded my hands, and bowed my head. After a brief Blessing the bike and where sprinkled with Holy Water and with a pat on my shoulder Fr. Charbel left. I fired it back up and went on my way - somehow feeling safer as if God himself were driving.
Lunch was uneventful after that and Taco Bell is still the cheapest lunch eats around if you don't mind the potential side effects - a larger waist and flatulence.
I've put Daily Mass on my calendar for 11:50 AM every weekday. Feel free to join me if you like.

Grace before Mass

My first "before Mass" prayer is, "Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts which we are about to receive from thy bounty through Christ our Lord." At first it was a mistake from habit but I decided that it was very appropriate and now say it intentionally.

Daily Prayer

Taken from a LifeTeen book:

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit."
"Lord, I give you permission, to remove anything and anyone from my life that keeps me from sainthood."
Amen.

Advent

We're halfway through Advent and I realize that I'm blowing it again. Advent should be a time of prayer and preparation for the celebration of Christmas. I had great plans at the start of Advent: Daily Prayer, Writing Christmas Cards, Putting up the lights, and cleaning the house. I prayed two days, wrote no cards, hung no lights, and moved some boxes out. Not a very good record against my plans.

So what have I been doing? I got caught up in the commercialization of this time of year. I've been buying presents ... for me. Today is the third Sunday of Advent and the Priest is wearing rose vestments to remind us to be joyful today before we launch in to the home stretch of preparing for the start of Christmas. I'm not looking at today very joyfully. I'm thinking that I need to get started (or finished) preparing or I won't really be ready to start celebrating for real Christmas Eve.

God Bless everyone and have a Blessed Advent!

The annual making of

The annual making of the Christmas Fudge is about to begin. Mmm, mmm!

is wondering why the

is wondering why they're called "belly buttons". Shouldn't they be called "belly holes" oer perhaps "belly dents" for most people?

I got a new phone, a

I got a new phone, a Motorola Droid, and now my Google address book has a use. There were over 1450 contacts in there. I've pared it down to 1385 so far. I would love to update your contact info if you would send it to me privately.

And I'm thinking abo

And I'm thinking about making some salsa, right after a nap. _yawn_ Rainy days make me sleepy.

Yummy rice! Ann show

Yummy rice! Ann showed me where my rice cooker was (telling me where it was failed) and I just cooked some rice. Awesome!

Here's an easy way t

Here's an easy way to say thank you to our military troops. Now mash the link and say thank you with me: http://www.letssaythanks.com/

I just got my first

I just got my first fail whale on Twitter! Cool!

I just put in for my

I just put in for my California Lifetime Fishing License. I'll never have to buy another California Fishing License again! Woo Hoo!

RT @CurtJester (aka

RT @CurtJester (aka Jeff Miller) If you code, you will find this pretty funny http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20091201

I have 07 Google Wav

I have 07 Google Wave invites and 1 Google Voice (there are currently no new numbers in the 949 area code) invite if anyone wants them.