Congratulations, Cubs!

Char's been rooting for you her whole life! (Or at least since she was two.)

Halloween '16

Saturday's Halloween celebration began at the Salisbury House in Des Moines.

 In case you didn't know much about the location (I didn't), here's some info from Wikipedia:

"Salisbury House in Des Moines, Iowa is a Tudor, Gothic and Carolean style manor home. It was built by cosmetic magnate Carl Weeks and his wife, Edith Van Slyke Weeks, between 1923 and 1928. Salisbury House was modeled after the King's House in Salisbury, England, contains 42 rooms and measures just over 22,000 square feet. The property is owned and operated by the Salisbury House Foundation and is open to the public for tours, public events, and private rentals."

The event is called "Mysteries at the Castle." I don't know if the Salisbury House is really a castle, but it is impressive.


The front:

The back:

I don't identify other people's children in my blog, but Char had a friend to play and pose with.

Be careful, Vampire! That sword looks like a cross! (FYI: I hate balloon animals/ swords.)

But I really liked the portico (porch). 

The ceiling beams are cool.

My favorite part was the outside radiator. I'd bet that baby pumps out a lot of heat. That makes this a three-season portico... pretty forward thinking for a house built in the 20's.

The artwork and knight sure give you a castle vibe.

There was story time in the common room.

Once you name your daughter Charlotte, you will see her name everywhere.

Steven King once said, "Nobody likes a clown at midnight." I agree, and I think nobody likes to meet an eight-foot-tall mascot in a narrow hallway. That's where a friendly wave looks sinister.

We darted out of the hallway, and ran into a box of monster ears. "Char, I dare you to touch them!"

She did dare.

We took an ice cream break.

And then it was time to jump in the bounce house.

This year Charlotte wanted to design the pumpkin all by herself. She had a plan...

FYI: If you mess up your permanently marked design, you can erase the lines with Goo Gone.

"Don't forget, Mom, we need to save the pumpkin guts."

So, what was her plan?

It's a puking pumpkin! 

I took Charlotte to the Kids Halloween Concert performed by the Central Iowa Wind Ensemble on Sunday. 

This is why we were there. It's too bad the camera's focus was off. 

Char was excited to see Mom's name in the program.

Here are Charlotte's comments about the concert. A smiley face means "Yea!", a straight mouth is "Okay...", and a ? means "What was that?" Everone's a critic.

The Harry Potter music was her favorite. 

The focus was also off for this picture of Char posing with her candy haul. It was too late for a retake when I noticed. Trick or Treating on a Sunday night is weird, but Des Moines' tradition of Beggar's Night (you trick or treat the night before Halloween) is weird, too.

Oh well, the candy still tastes good!

Fall is Here, and The Farmers' Market is Gone

October 22 was our last visit to the Downtown Farmers' Market, and it was our first time to try the Local Yocals' poutine. We went with a small, traditional poutine. 

If I get chance to order this next season, I'd top it with the fried egg. The meat and fries were great, but the gravy was too thin to warm the cheese curds. I think the egg would have helped with that.

It's hard to beat the fall colors. Even a colorblind guy like me can appreciate them.

That's not a muzzle on Maggie; it's a Gentle Leader. It's a type of leash that prevents Mags from pulling too hard on walks. Every time she pulls, the Gentle Leader turns her around. She can eat and drink with the leader, so it has nothing to do with her mouth or teeth. It's too bad some people mistake the leader for a muzzle and assume Maggie is a dangerous. Even Char can walk our 90 pound dog when she has a leader on.

Okay ladies, it's time to say goodbye to the farmers' market. We'll be back in 2017.

Pinball Update: Switching it Up Edition

Work on the Full House continues.

In the 50s and 60s, many pinball machines were turned off by hitting the bottom board with your palm or your foot. This would lift a pin in the "kick-off" switch, and the game's lights would go out. Pressing a flipper button turned the lights back on, so the machine's power wasn't really off until you unplugged it.

The kick-off switch in my Full House (1966) doesn't work. There's supposed to be a pin that pushes through that plastic base.

But a previous owner drilled a hole in the bottom board and removed the kick-off switch's pin.

I'm guessing they used a pencil or something like that to activate the switch. That's better than beating the bottom of the machine, but you'd have to get on your knees to make it work.

By the 1970's, it was standard practice to have a toggle switch located under the front right corner. This switch is flush with the bottom board. That way it can't be crushed when the cabinet is placed on the ground.

Some collectors won't install a 70's style switch in a 60's cabinet. They want to keep the cabinet as original as possible. I'm not that hard core, and I like knowing the machine is really off when I go to bed. So, I installed a switch.

The first step was to mark the center on a 3" x "5 block of wood and drill a small hole through it. I smeared a thin layer wood glue on both the block and the spot where I wanted the switch. Once the block is in place, I drilled the hole all the way through the cabinet. I used a screw to "clamp" the block of wood in place.

I used a hole saw to drill through the block and the cabinet the following day. To keep the hole neat, I drilled up from the bottom for a bit, and then drill all the way down from the top. Looking at it now, I can see that my plate isn't going to be perfectly centered over the hole. Hindsight is always 20/20.

The toggle switch and switch plate came from Pinball Resource. The four wood screws and wire came from Ace Hardware. I soldered the wires to the switch, and then attached the switch plate with the screws. I'll leave the wood plug for the next owner. They can take the switch out and glue the wood back in if they don't like this modification.

I desoldered the power wire from the fuse block, and soldered it to a switch wire. The other switch wire was soldered to the fuse block. Now the switch can interrupt the flow of electricity to the machine.

Here's the view from the bottom. The plate is a off-centered, but I can fix that if it bothers me. Nah, it doesn't really bother me.

Fixing the weak flippers with this rebuild kit from Pinball Resource was next.  Most of the parts were easy to install.

I was intimidated to tackle the flipper switches. The right flipper switch was okay. I was using a jump wire in place of a broken wire. That was enough to test the machine.

The left flipper switch was a mess. Solder joints were broken. The two left switch blades were bent permanently closed, and the constant current caused them to burn and break. This also made the flipper coil overheat. The contacts on the right switch blades were facing the wrong direction, and one blade was missing the plastic blade lifter. 

I had to buy new blades, contacts, separators, and a lifter to create a new switch from scratch. After that, I had to solder it together. This new switch looks and works much better. Whew.

The right flipper switch is also done.

Hitting the ball to the top of the play field is no longer a problem, but both flippers are a tad "buzzy." That's just an adjustment issue, though. It will get figured out. 

Since I could play my Full House, it was now time to set the points needed to earn free games. All you have to do is decide on the score, and then connect the corresponding colored wire to the right connection slot.

There's a guide inside the backbox to help you.

Setting the scores was a snap once Daphne helped me mark the red, blue, yellow, and green wires.

Hey! I've got functional pinball machine! It's a lot more fun to play than I anticipated, too. 

I could call it good, and go looking for another project, but I don't like the plain cabinet. It needs graphics.

I haven't painted a pinball machine before, so this is uncharted territory. But there's a first time for everything. 

Step one is to take everything apart, again.

Sigh. 

Halloween Begins; a Tradition Ends

I'm a little jealous of Charlotte's Halloween experience. When I was a kid, you got one night of free candy and a rerun of “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.” Now a kid can celebrate Halloween for weeks.

We started Halloween on Saturday at the Blank Park Zoo's "Night Eyes." Char told us last year that she would be a vampire next time. I don't know how she picks the costumes, but she doesn't change her mind.

Charlotte wasn't interested in the photo ops with characters this year; she was too focused on reading the posted jokes and getting candy. Char was having fun, but I could tell she was also going through the motions. This is the sixth time we've attended "Night Eyes," and I suspect that this might be our last.

She wasn't too old to enjoy the inflatables at the Fun Zone, but she couldn't jump on the one that was for children five and younger.

It's a fuzzy action picture, but I like it. She looks spooky jumping around in her makeup.

The only stand-in she wanted to pose by was this car. Char wants to drive? That is scary!

I had to ask her three times, but Charlotte finally endured the embarrassment of sitting with Dad in front of the Night Eyes pumpkin.

I didn't want to miss my chance to see how far we had come from our first "Night Eyes."

 2011:

2012:

That pumpkin isn't the only thing that's changed.

In between dance and karate lessons, we've got Trunk or Treat at church, Mysteries of the Castle, the Central Iowa Wind Ensemble's Kids Halloween Concert, and then there's Beggar's Night on Sunday. There's about 10 other events that we're going to miss, but you can't do everything. link

I am going to try to fit Charlie Brown in there somewhere. It's his special's 50th anniversary this year. Wow, looks like everybody's getting older...