Summer of Code Roundup

Google Summer of Code ended a few weeks ago, so I suppose a note here is appropriate. I completed my assigned project, but like most programming projects, it is never really done. By going through it the first time, I now have a better grasp of the issues, and hopefully a better understanding of how to solve them. With luck, I'll be able to implement a more complete solution before we branch for Subversion 1.5.

There are also a couple of articles about my Summer of Code work, as well.

I'm also looking forward to the t-shirt. :)

Super Secret Project

Let me preface this by saying that sewing is generally not considered a "man" activity. Growing up, I observed my Mom working on any number of textile products, from smocking to quilting to making matching shorts for my brothers and I. She even went so far as to teach us to mend buttons and sew our own patches on to our Boy Scout uniforms. When I married Heather, one of the things that impressed me was her ability to create beautiful works of art out of ordinary fabric. It's a talent I admire very much.

With that out of the way, I'd explain one of our family traditions. When we visit places, we generally try to find two types of souvenirs: a fridge magnet and some kind of embroidered patch. The magnet goes on the fridge, where we and others can see it, and the patch goes in an envelope, awaiting some kind of use as part of a project.

Until now.

Over the past few weeks, I've been working on a project to make use of the patches, and the block for 2005 is finished. The end goal is to have a block like this for each year, a sort of pictorial chronicle of our family adventures. Maybe one day they will become part of a quilt or blanket, but for now, it'll be fun to just look at them.

The block for 2005 contains patches from a mountain hiking trip (Mount Whitney), our honeymoon (Grand Teton National Park; Yellowstone National Park; Cooke City, Montana), a day trip (Timpanogos Cave National Monument) and our Christmas road trip (Carlsbad Caverns National Park). 2006 will be forthcoming, and we've already got quite a stash for 2007. Hopefully, we'll continue to have some grand adventures to add to the collection.

Roadtrip report #1

We've almost completed the first part of our summer roadtrip. So far, we've climbed Black Mesa in Oklahoma, been to the family 4th of July celebration, and enjoyed the past 3 days at the Wright family reunion. After a hike tomorrow, it'll be on the road again to New York.

Peppers and Tomatoes

I seem to be posting a fair amount of content relating to our garden. My apologies if that is to the neglect of more weightier topics.

We recently had the first harvest of tomatoes from our garden. This year, I've got to varieties in the ground, Early Girl Bush, and Brandywine. The Early Girl lives up to its name, our bushes are about 3 feet tall, and showing lots of fruit. I haven't done much pruning (partly because I'm new to this whole thing), so the bush has grown large, and is beginning to bear.

The Brandywine has grown up and over the top of the metal cage, and back down the ground, but we're starting to see fruit on it as well. Hopefully the heat won't kill the plants before we get back from our summer vacation.

Our pepper plants, California Wonder variety for those keeping score at home, as also doing well. I've picked a few peppers, probably a little early, but I want to get them before the bugs do. They should survive the hot Texas summer just fine.

We also managed to pick and eat some of the corn left standing after the series of storms that came through. Not as big of a harvest as I would have liked, but we'll try a second planting this fall and see if we can't manage to get a few more ears.

Garden-Variety Tragedy

A couple of nights ago, a decent-sized storm blew through Austin. It dropped a lot of rain, but didn't seem to cause to much damage. Until we went out to the garden last evening. The supports for the 7-foot trellis which holds our bean broke and the entire trellis blew over onto the neighboring plot. To add insult to injury, about two-thirds of our corn also blew down.


Heather picking beans from the defunct trellis.


We ended up spending most of the evening picking what beans we could before taking down the entire trellis, and all the existing bean plants. Tonight, we start again, with new seeds, and a new, lighter and more sturdy trellis design. Chalk another one up to experience.