I've been making my own black bean dip for a few years and finally got around to writing it down. I think it's much tastier than store-bought bean dips, less salty, spicier, and much healthier. It's in the Recipes section and linked below for convenience. Let me know what you think.

Craig's Black Bean Dip Recipe (49KB)

A couple days ago I decided I wanted to run power to my workbench so I got an old 15A extension cord and plugged it into the ceiling outlet (e.g. for garage door opener) and held it against the beam running along the ceiling with RG-6 cable clips. I ran it down to my workbench and mounted the duplex outlet box to the leftmost leg. I then drilled through the back of the leg, ran the wiring in, wired the outlet and mounted everything. Then I went back and cut the power cable where it leaves the wall and goes to the workbench, added a female hospital plug to one end and a male to the other so I could disconnect the workbench to move it without having to go to the ceiling to unplug the cord. Looks nice and works great. I like it.

I built my workbench a couple weeks ago and finally finished my build plans to share with everyone. The workbench cost about $120 to make and is build like a tank (thus the title "M1A1"). Feel free to distribute the plans but please credit or cite me. I have provide the Google Sketchup file but I need to clean it up a bit to make it easier to digest. Enjoy!

Craig's M1A1 Workbench Build Plans (325KB)

I am happy to post that I finished reading the entire Bible today. I finished three days earlier than planned so I could beat Min-Ah who was also reading.

With the non-stop anti Christian barrage we've been enduring the last few years, let's go out of our way to say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Hanukkah" to each other. Our beliefs are what makes America strong and if they take that from us what's next? Show everyone this time of year isn't about gifts but about being kind and appreciating whatever we have. Merry Christmas!

A few days ago we got Tira a "Gigantic Smoked Bone." Here's a picture of her with it...we didn't see her for a few hours as she gobbled it and rolled on it. Check out this and other photos of her in Tira's Photo Gallery.

This year we're finally going to go see The Nutcracker. We got a deal where I get in for free and Min-Ah gets 20% off so we couldn't resist. Plus it's only a few minutes from home. Should be a good time...

Tira caught another bird. Here's the new tally:

Birds	Bugs	Gophers	Lizards	Moles	Squirrels	Skunks
11	Lots	3	1	2	6	1

A month ago I built a squirrel feeder that used a one gallon pickle jar to hold the squirrel food (I use unsalted roasted peanuts). We had no squirrels at all the first month then a couple days ago we had our first squirrel. Tira loves squirrels and she just camps in the backyard, rain or shine, and watches for it to return. She'll be in the yard for hours on end, will forget about dinner, and runs around like a crazy girl. This is the best "diet" plan we've found and hope she likes it...

Squirrel feeder plans (774KB)

Every morning we go through the same routine: we wake up, Tira gets excited, runs downstairs, and waits by the door to go outside. Then she runs out, pees, and runs back in to eat. Recently I noticed she pees really fast so I watched her run fast as she can to the deck stairs, pause, then run back inside. She thought she could fake us out, make us think she peed, then eat her breakfast even sooner. I caught her do that a few mornings in a row so pointed to the yard and told her to go potty, she did, and that fixed that. I wonder what other things she's figured out how she's tricking us...