Meccanoid Project

I like to build stuff, especially toys like RC cars, RC boats, and drones. Tanner also likes to build stuff, and Jared suggested that maybe we could build something together. Great idea. Robots. They're popular in Japan, we were planning to go there last fall, and I decided one of those might make a good project. I located a good shop in Tokyo, and we stopped there during our visit.

The Lizardroid looked perfect. We watched an assembled one running around, controlled by a cell phone app. So I bought it for Tanner's birthday in February. However, after giving it to him I discovered that it required an Android rather than an Apple/IOS app. I didn't have an Android phone. So I bought a cheap one on Amazon. Then I went to Google Play to download the Lizardroid app. Guess, what. That app isn't authorized for use outside Japan. So I searched around and found another app that spoofed Google Play into thinking my phone was in Japan. Then I discovered the phone I'd bought wasn't even authorized for Japan. So then I found I could root the phone as a superuser and make it look like some other model. Yeah, it was over my head, too. And the websites I was getting into were more ads and spam than apps. I finally gave up. at least for now. I'm now thinking the next time we're in Japan I'll buy a phone and download the app. But that left Tanner without birthday present.

So I went back to Amazon and found another robot on sale that looked pretty cool, so I bought it.

Last night, Tanner came home with us after his karate advancement ceremony. This morning we had pancakes and fried eggs for breakfast and then started working on the robot. With 497 parts, this robot was going to take us most of the day to assemble.

Here we are with all the unopened parts. 

We made a great team. One would hold the nuts in place while the other twisted in the bolts. 

Many of the parts looked alike, and it was sometimes hard to tell up from down. About four or five times we discovered that we'd installed something incorrectly a few steps earlier and had to undo and redo. But after it was all together, the robot did a self check, and all the parts were working correctly. 

A lot of the assembly required three or four hands. 

We're almost done. Just a few wires to plug in to the Meccabrain.

Oh, and the operating system had to be updated. With Meccanoid assembled, we could ask it questions and request it to tell jokes and stories. However, the response was always the same, "I'd be happy to tell you a joke--after you download and update my firmware." We really had a tough time finding and downloading the firmware, and the dickens of a time with the USB connection. Finally, just minutes before Tanner's parents showed up to head off to Kamas, the firmware download started, the robot was updated, and the installation was complete. We even listened to one "funny" story that Meccanoid told with his hands waving at all the right places. 

Tanner and Meccanoid. 

Ta da.

New Orleans

It's a business trip, but you can't go to New Orleans without enjoying the city, too. How can you not love a place where you walk out of the JW Marriott and jazz is playing live across the street? Then you find jazz, country and rock emanating from restaurants and bars on many of the streets.

Wednesday night we met up with some other Henry Schein folks and customers for dinner. I had seared tuna with sea scallops. 

I was totally surprised by all the art and expensive antique houses in the French Quarter. We'll do a little antique walk on Friday. 

Oh, and bars. Lots of bars. 

You've heard wild stories about Bourbon Street. Wednesday night is pretty calm. 

On Thursday night we go to K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen for dinner. Michelle (posing) is my coworker who manages the marketing for our Dentrix Enterprise product. 

This is the kitchen part of K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen. You can't see him, because he's not in this or any picture I took, but halfway through dinner, Michelle says, "Is that a mouse?" Sure enough, a fat little Ratatouille was strolling across the carpet right in front of the kitchen. 

We started with fried green tomatoes and "buffalo" frog legs with onion rings. 

For entrees, we both picked the blackened drum.

This place came recommended by my brother, Paul, and one of Michelle's friends on Facebook. Great choice. 

A closed-in-the-evening shop on Bourbon Street. 

Spices in a pepper and spice shop. 

You can sample each type of pepper sauce before purchasing.

At lunch on Friday we took a walk through some antique shops. I had no idea New Orleans had so many, and so sophisticated. Much of the jewelry was Victorian or earlier, and the cabinets were mostly European. The least expensive cabinet I saw was $18,000, and the most expensive was $385,000--a Russian cabinet with ornate carvings on all four sides and a bunch of secret compartments, like a post the opens a little door when twisted. 

I love this cabinet. We'll just need to sell our house so I can buy it. 

A bedroom set. 

I don't remember which street this is, but it's in the French Quarter. 

On Friday evening we booked a ghost tour, and with all the great places to eat, we had time only to eat a chili dog at Dreamy Weenies. It was actually a very good cajun chili dog. 

Along the ghost walk. 

This is a classic old hotel that I stayed in when I came here many years ago. The far end sits on Bourbon Street.

We're now on the ghost tour. We stop at several buildings where people have died by murder, yellow fever and other unfortunate circumstances. This is Muriel's Restaurant, which was a grand home owned by Pierre Antoine Lepardi Jourdan. He spent a fortune restoring this home after a fire and loved this place. However, he had a serious gambling problem, lost the home, and committed suicide on the second floor. When the building was turned into a restaurant, Jourdan became annoyed, and he did mischievous things like moving bottles around behind the bar. So now the restaurant owners set a table for him every morning, complete with food and wine, and clean it up at night. That's his table through the door at the end of this hall. 

I don't remember all the stories, but this is our tour group and our guide, Hope. 

I don't remember the story that goes with this haunted house. I'll update this post if I figure it out. 

In the LaLaurie Mansion a woman and her third husband--the first two died--experimented on and tortured slaves in horrible ways. They were discovered (but escaped to Europe) when a slave who was chained to a stove leg in the detached kitchen set the place on fire in a desperate cry for help. Since then, ghosts have haunted this building, and no one has lived here for any length of time. Nicholas Cage owned this place for a while but he's not so good with money and lost it. Some energy company currently owns the building and uses it a few times a year for things like Mardi Gras. 

Some young boys died of yellow fever in the Andrew Jackson Hotel when it was a boarding house, and they now run up and down the halls making lots of noise, and bothering guests. 

Just some buildings in the French Quarter. 

And a couple of pirates. 

More architecture. 

And more. 

And more. 

At one of the stops on the ghost tour, we met up with this wedding procession. 

This is early Friday evening on Bourbon Street. 

Still early evening. 

We asked several people where to hear good music, and they all directed us to Frenchman Street, which was farther than we had time to walk. Then we heard music in this little bar on Bourbon Street, so we stepped in. THIS is the music I had been looking for. 

Enjoy. 

Later in the evening we caught up with Vance and Vin and others and enjoyed this jazz at the Waldorf Astoria.

Everyone in our group but me saw Cuba Gooding Jr sitting close behind me. 

Even the singer saw Gooding and took his picture while she was singing, but I never caught on that there was a celebrity in the room. 

Saturday breakfast at Cafe Soule: Three-egg crawfish omelette. That's what I had. Michelle had fruit and grits. 

Here we're waiting to get into Cafe du Monde for our second breakfast. 

Beignets (French holeless doughnuts draped in powdered sugar) are famous throughout New Orleans, but Cafe du Monde is the place everyone goes to get them. 

Artwork is for sale all around Jackson Square. 

This is Andrew Jackson, who stopped a formidable British army from capturing New Orleans and the whole Louisiana Purchase in the final battle of the War of 1812, in December 1814 and January 1815. 

This is just another French Quarter building. 

Vance wanted to shop for hats, so we wandered into a hat store in the French Quarter. Michelle tried one on and after deciding it wasn't for her she looked at the price: $570. Yikes! So we headed over to Vance's favorite store, Goorin Bros. Good choice. 

I claim partial credit for picking out this hat, which I really like thanks to its '20s feel.

And one for me. The feather was an extra $3.

Street performers are everywhere. They're the reason you can hear jazz everywhere.

A parting view of the street performers on a street with great French Quarter architecture. 

And then we came home to Utah. It's a dry heat. Nice.