Downforce?

The evolution of automotive styling is an interesting study. Many features that are added to race cars for performance reasons trickle down to passenger cars. Unfortunately their original use seems to be forgotten.

Race cars normally have a large diameter exhaust pipes to allow the engine to breath easily. When this feature is done on passenger cars it is frequently only the very end of the exhaust pipe that is enlarged. This makes the car look "cool" but does not add any actual performance.

A rear wing or spoiler is another commonly copied item that is seen on the race track and on many street cars. On the race track it serves the very important purpose of keeping the back end of the car on the ground. At high speed most automotive body shapes produce lift similar to an airplane wing, without the "spoiler" on the back end the vehicle would lose traction and spin out.

I wonder if the driver of this limo is worried about high speed handling?
C.O.

An Alien Murder

One of the Christmas presents from Grandma Mary this year was some roll on body paint. It’s meant to be used at bath time and is great fun for Harold.

The other day, Harold was playing with this apple green body paint that had just arrived in the mail. When I walked in the bathroom, it was quite the scene. There was a green gel-like substance strewn up the shower walls, smeared on the tub and the water had taken on a green tint.

It looked like an alien had been violently murdered in our bathtub.

--AnnMarie

Picture of the Day - USS Torsk

Here is a photo of the USS Torsk, a decommissioned WWII submarine that is docked in the Baltimore Inner Harbor. The Torsk's claim to fame is that it torpedoed the last ship to be sunk by a torpedo in WWII. The ship was a small Japanese frigate, sunk on August 14, 1945.

The few times that I have seen an old sub up close, I am always surprised at how unstreamlined they seem? The surface of the hull has lots of holes, bumps, hatches, and other features that look like they would produce a lot of drag.
C.O.

Good Little Traveler

We are so fortunate that Harold is such a wonderful traveler considering the amount we are on the go. He is great about sleeping whenever and where ever he gets a chance, being woke up at odd times and being crowded in tiny spaces with all three of us in two airplane seats (never again now that he's two, he gets his own seat, which means an entire row for the Rudstroms. Yeah for comfort, boo for having to purchase a third ticket).

Anyway . . . one of Harold's great talents is being able to fall asleep anywhere when it's time for a nap. In the photos below, the airport was relatively quiet and empty but he's also slept in the middle of crowds with announcements blaring next to him over the loud speaker. Our routine is to tell Harold it's nap time, give him his whale, lay him down where there's room, then pound on his back till he's asleep. Pounding sounds harsh, but it relaxes him and he even requests it on occasion.

People say it's hard traveling with kids. Fortunately, it's not the case with Harold. He actually (for the most part) makes it more fun.

--AnnMarie

Happy 2nd Birthday Harold

Today is Harold's birthday. Though we won't be celebrating it today, Harold has had his fair share of fun times revolving around him lately.

Before we left Minnesota, we held an early birthday party so that the four grandparents, two uncles and Great-Grandma Aiti could celebrate with Harold. He had great fun being the center of attention and having all his adoring fans in one place. There was food, a special basketball cake (made by Grandma Cindy), singing, presents and helium filled balloons from Grandma Mary, what more could a two-year-old ask for?

Yesterday we held a party for Harold here in Brevig. We invited a bunch of kids and had a blast playing games and eating cake. The video captures the afternoon well.

Happy Birthday to a very dear two year old!
Love,
Mom and Dad

Kohler Generator

I started on a new project yesterday. I salvaged this old generator that was on it's way to the dump. It is a 8.5 kw Kohler, powered by a 18hp Lister diesel. It has sat outside for a few years and the engine has become stuck with a little bit of rust in one of the cylinders. I am going to try to get it fixed up. So far I have taken the top end off of the engine and most of it looks to be in great shape. I think it will only need a simple honing of the cylinders, a new set of rings, new gaskets, and some general cleaning up and adjusting.

It has been a very interesting engine to work on. I am looking forward to hearing it run.
C.O.

Christmas Sweater

While we were in the process of adopting Harold, I knit him this Christmas sweater. It was my first ever sweater project and I'm very proud of how it turned out. It fit him perfectly this Christmas.

--AnnMarie

Architecture

Why do architects get away with such outrageous and expensive designs when they are making airports (and modern churches)? This photo is from our recent travels through the Seattle airport. We had a wonderful meal at the Anthony's restaurant in the main part of the terminal. While having dinner I snapped this photo of the crazy curving wall of glass that makes up one whole side to the building. This design looks great, but it does not seem to be a cost effective, energy efficient, or easy way to build.




For the engineers out there, I took a close up of one of the fittings that holds the glass. On most large windows the glass is nonstructural and simply supported in a frame, but that would be too simple for here. This wall has a slight concave surface, with the glass under compression on the inside of the curve and the cables in tension on the outer surface. It is an amazing design, but I wonder what it cost to construct?

C.O.

Present Opening

On Christmas Eve, Harold had no idea what opening presents was all about. Within 5 minutes he was a pro and willing to open anyone's gift for them.

Lessons

Practice and Reinforcement

--AnnMarie

Airports

This photo is of a wheel that I saw on a cart in the airport. We spent a lot of time in airports over the last few weeks. Harold has a lot of fun in airports, big wide hallways to run down, surprisingly a lot of dogs to pet, plenty of time with mom and dad, and of coarse airplanes to look at. After this trip Harold has now been on 34 airplane flights.

C.O.

Holiday Travel

We had a great time traveling to Minnesota for the holidays, and now we are back in Brevig Mission. We didn't have a chance to update the blog with our busy holiday schedule (and lack of internet service in some of rural MN), but we should be back to regular posts now. AnnMarie gave me a new camera for Christmas and that will help me get back into posting. Our old camera broke a few months ago and I just can't seem to make a post without a photo to get me started.

More to come soon.
C.O.

A Little Snack

Enjoying Some Christmas Baking

A Year of Blogging

December 11th marked our one year blogiversary, I guess they call it. We started our blog one year ago as a way to share what is happening in our lives with our loved ones far and wide. Sharing our stories every few days gives a far better picture of our lives than say a yearly Christmas letter.

People have often told me I should journal about our adventures and life up north. I’ve tried and failed miserably. I hate journaling. What good is a journal? No one appreciates it until you’re dead and it’s found in your boxes of junk. Even then, who knows if someone would care to read it. Blogging on the other hand motivates me. I am able to share what we are doing with the world and anyone is free to read about it, right now, and make comments. So, I guess it’s our on-line journal with the interactive aspect thrown in.

Starting our own blog has led to following other bloggers. So, on this one year anniversary of blogging I’d like to share some of the blogs that have made an impact on me throughout the past year.

Aaron Brown’s blog keeps me in touch with National and Iron Range politics. He keeps it interesting with his goofy commentaries and his one of a kind sense of humor.

Friends like Erin and Bill remind me of how beautiful and enjoyable it is to be in Northern Minnesota.

Gia’s blog keeps me humble as I am reminded that some people’s lives are SOOOO much cooler than mine.

Christina Brown, The Northern Cheapskate, continually finds ways to save money and challenges me to save on our day to day expenses.

Charity teaches me that eating healthy can be oh so delicious and interesting.

These are just a few. I enjoy hearing about numerous other friends, their families and their day to day lives through their blog posts.

I raise my glass to the blogging community that has help keep me in touch and informed this year. May we continue strong through the following year and years to come.

--AnnMarie

Alaskan Driveway

We have some friends that live in Soldotna AK. The neighborhood that they live in has a community runway. People park their airplanes in front of their houses. When they want to go flying they just taxi the plane down the street to the runway.
C.O.

Wooden Bike

I built this "push bike" for Harold last summer. It was an interesting challenge to figure out how to make this out of wood rather than metal. It turned out ok, Harold was still a little young to use it, but I'm sure he will enjoy it next summer.
C.O.

The Stockings Are Hung

The Rudstroms have decorated the house for Christmas. One of the ways we keep life simple around here is that we own very little decorations. In fact, they all fit in one Rubbermaid tote and it takes us about 25 minutes to put up all the trimmings. Still, they do their job. They put me in the mood for Christmas and makes the house look lovely and cozy.

--AnnMarie

Rental Cars

Rental car companies normally give you two keys when you rent a car. Having two keys for a car is very convenient. Having two keys permanently connected together is not.
C.O.

Uncle John

Harold got to hang out with Uncle John for a while at the craft sale. He had lots of fun wearing Uncle's sunglasses and getting whisker rubs. The next day we were at Bering Air and Harold saw one of the employees from a distance who also happened to have a beard. "Uncle John", he said and pointed. "No, not everyone with a beard is Uncle John," I explained.

--AnnMarie

The Ride

Here's how C.O. looked when he arrived in Nome on Wednesday evening. He drove the 4-wheeler from Brevig to Nome through a blizzard while I managed to score a free airplane ticket.


He looked about the same when he returned to Brevig on Sunday.

--AnnMarie