So I decided to go out with the kids today and make snowmen! 

<-My boy and his toy. <- my daughter and her new friend.

<- Father and Son project of DEATH!

What fun!

On my podcast I just interviewed Steve on some ideas.  He is a most articulate and entertaining fellow.  I always learn a ton from him when he talks.  Check it out starting with episode 6.

Bill Tinsley is an amazing character.  I met him at the King County Republican convention in 1992.  Bill was running as a candidate for our congressional representative seat.  When I heard Bill speak I instantly knew that he was different than all the other candidates.  He spoke on principle and humbly but sure about what he intended to do.  No waffling around, no comprimises.  I offered to help him in his campaign that day.

As I got to know Bill better he shared with me the story that this video is about.  Project Perl is little known outside of evangelical circles but years after Bill told me the story, I heard from another friend who had CIA connections that told me that the project was being watched by our government during its implementation and many people were hoping and praying it would be a success.

The changes in China that have made it what it is today were very much affected by this operation.

So here is Bill's story:

David, an old acquaintence from Microsoft, took me for a ride today on this very cool airplane!

They have the sheetrock up!  So here are some pix.

The guy on his knees is our contractor - a humble and efficient worker for sure!

My wife going over details with the cabinet maker in our master bedroom.

A panorama of the garage.

A panorama of island pond in the winter wtih Shelby messing around.

So my son decided to whip up a vido about our ranch and posted it on UTube.  This makes for a great excuse to try and imbed it here.

Catchy title huh?

Good!

So this christmas was a bummer but I decided I should at least put up some house lights.  So up to the attic I went and as I started testing the strings I found out that most of them were bad.

Hmmm....

Wonder if this label on the strings means anything: Not intended for use beyond 90 days.

Yah, that could be a factor - cheap lights.

So I hunted on the internet till I found out about this tool that helps you fix your lights - seemed like a good investment.  Took awhile to hunt it down but $20 later it was mine.

Using this tool I started in on one of my strings.  Within two feet of string I had found nearly a dozen bad bulbs!

This sucks!  I'm not going to spend christmas fixing lights.

So I just put up what I had which looked pretty bad.  As the hollidays went on the lights on my house got worse and worse - I wish I had taken a picture because it was quite comical to look at.

By new years, there were only a few sections left that were lit.

So that's it right?  Wrong!

 

A week into the new year I was running errands and noticed that I had a nearly flat tire!  I took it to the nearest garage to get it fixed.

While waiting I decided to wander around the surrounding stores.  One of those stores was McClenden Hardware.  They happened to have their lights on sale - 75% off.

I asked the customer support table if they had LED lights yet or any reliable ones.  They pointed out that the only brand they had that was worth anything was pretty good, but that all the others were garbage.  Since they admitted they had garbage lights, I figured the lady was being honest.  So, for a fraction of what I paid for lights a year ago, I bought 300 feet of lights!  Pretty good deal I thought.

Of course there is no return on the lights so I had them test each before I would buy them.  Only one set had a problem which was just a lose light and since I bought about a dozen sets, I thought that was pretty good.

So those lights are now in my attic and my old bad ones went into the trash.

 

Next year lets see how well the lights work!