New pads and rotors for the ol' girl

Daughter says "it sounds bad"...

Look, it's "spring" in northern Michigan!

No heat (or water) last night!

Turns out that it's possible that 12ga copper wires can just spontaneously break!

Networking multiple XBMCs (pi hosted MySQL)

Here I am setting up a newer copy of XBMC (Kodi 14.0 Git:2014-12-24-e044d5a-dirty) and at the same time I'm moving my library to a 2TB NAS (used to have a 400 GB USB HDD connected directly to the pi). I figured this would be a good time to re-do things so I can have multiple XBMC clients pull from that same source (a pi that is on all the time) and keep track of the "watched" information.

I like my pi at a static IP making it easy to find (and use my 'droid as a remote!):
  - XMBC -> Program -> XBMC Settings -> Static IP

Set up SSH:
  - Change the default password (raspberry): sudo passwd

Set up MySQL:
 - sudo apt-get update
 - sudo apt-get install mysql-server-5.5
    # Installs 10 packages
    # Choose a sql root password
 - sudo nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf
    # comment out Bind-Address 127.0.0.1 to allow external connections.
  - mysql -u root -p # set up xbmc as a user
    mysql> CREATE USER 'xbmc'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'xbmc';
    mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'xbmc'@'%';
    mysql> quit

Then, the following needs to be done for each XBMC installation that is to connect to this server (including the one just set up with MySQL!):
  - cd ~/.kodi/userdata
  - put the following into a newly created file advancedsettings.xml:
<advancedsettings>
<videodatabase>
<type>mysql</type>
<host>192.168.1.33</host>
<name>xbmc_video</name>
<user>xbmc</user>
<pass>xbmc</pass>
</videodatabase>
<musicdatabase>
<type>mysql</type>
<host>192.168.1.33</host>
<name>xbmc_music</name>
<user>xbmc</user>
<pass>xbmc</pass>
</musicdatabase>
</advancedsettings>

Miscellaneous notes:

• "Sources" are stored in ~/.kodi/userdata/sources.xml
• Source format for a SMB file share: "smb://servername/ShareName/[Folders]"
• List remote SMB shares: smbclient -L servername -Uusername
• Logging can be enabled via Settings → System → Debugging # filename given onscreen
• If you find the need, the MySQL database can be deleted: 
• mysql -u xbmc -p xbmc
• mysql> DROP DATABASE xbmc_video90; # 'show databases;' if your version is different

Shoulder deep snow at work...

On its way out the door...

Montana thermostat replacement complete

This is the tool (available from Amazon) to have to get around the exhaust manifold that stands in the way of getting access to the bottom bolt of the thermostat housing.

Instead of making my own video, I simply refer you to the video that helped me figure out I *could* tackle this myself.  The link starts you where he describes using an S-wrench - similar idea but this one leaves the handle out and accessible.  He doesn't advertise this one as a solution, but I found it in the comments to his video and certainly does the job!

Some of the comments say you should be able to leave the bottom bolt in, as the housing has a slot instead of a hole.  However, I couldn't get enough clearance with it in place to get over the protrusion of the thermostat itself, so the bolt had to come out, then get started (one finger from the bottom plus 1 screwdriver from the top had access for that job!)

All told, with the purchase of 13mm wrenches, a gallon of Prestone, the thermostat and cabin filters I dropped $75.59 on this project that my mechanic wanted $275 for.  Then probably after he got into it and attempted to remove the exhaust crossover pipe and broke something off the price would have gone up from there.

Which filter would you rather breath thru?

Hey, look, there's evidence that a mouse was living in this house!

Back in the wind business again

Well there it is

First sticky snow of the season - on Halloween morning!

Carrots, radish and onion from the garden

Even this late in the year!

Wind exceeds tower's ability

It has become apparent that this tower won't handle 88mph winds (as measured at the nearby airport).

Back to the shop!

Who'd think?

That you'd ever hear that "I had to Thompson's water seal my VW"?

This is a cross between auto repair and woodworking, to get rid of the non functioning 3rd brake light and install a generic.

First bean harvest of the year

3.5lbs of green goodness!

Check out my 5.7 mi Ride

Check out my 5.7 mi Ride on Strava: http://app.strava.com/activities/173544571

First harvest

Garden replant

Carrots and lettuce didn't seem to come up. Planted too deep?

Put in another row of radish.

Hot tub leak repair

Using silicone again, this time GE gray. They aren't made for submersible applications, but a couple years at a time isn't so bad.

Carrots in

Both rows of onions, bean spot worked up