Mystery Puzzle SPOILER #1

Warning! This post contains spoilers to a mystery puzzle.

For the past several weeks my wife and I have been working on several different mystery puzzles during the evening when our daughters are asleep. Often these have a short story to set the scene. We then solved the puzzle, where the final puzzle image is NOT the image on the box. Finally, we use the clues in the puzzle to solve the crime/mystery/murder from the short story.

We've had a lot of fun reading the stories and finding the clues hidden in the puzzle. I wanted to share some of these fun final solutions on this blog.

The puzzle that I'm going to reveal is titled "Garfield Seek and find jigsaw puzzle - Camp Out." It's made for ages 6 and up and contains 96 pieces. Published by Great American Puzzle Factory. After completing this puzzle, the added challenge of locating 5 bats and 3 flashlights that are hiding in this picture.

The completed image.

The 5 bats in 3 flashlights.

Thanks for reading,

Dr. Alex

Never Shall the TWAIN Meet

Having found the wonders and joys of the Neat Receipt portable scanner, I decided to explore the options of it's full capabilities and stretch my ideas to the digital limit.

Heidi was able to use Image Capture after just a click of the button and scan in COLOR and at 600 dpi!!!!  Her documents looked great!  I, on the other hand, was first limited to B&W and at 300 dpi by using the Neat software package (so far really the best way to keep receipts organized for tax and accounting/business purposes.)

I was NOT to be defeated by a Mac and so tried to use Nitro Pro 8 to scan in color and boost up my dots per inch!

Attempt 1: I received a "Failed to load TWAIN data sources" message and was instructed to re-install the program.  Stupid "technology without an important name" sitting between me and my impressive, but not imperative, dream of being able to scan in old high school awards and news paper clippings:

But which program should I tackle first to correct this fatal error?

Surly my Nitro Pro 8 was not the cause as with all it's wonders, I am able to: 1. open pdf files, 2. combine different pdf documents into one lager pdf, and 3. even save just the pages I wanted within a larger pdf file.

So it must have been my Neat scanner/software.... however everything else with scanning and detecting receipts, documents  and contacts from business cards worked perfectly (but only in B&W and at lower then optimal scan quality.)

Through tireless searching I found the solution!  Don't uninstall or re-install anything. Instead, delete the folders that had "Neat" from "C:\WINDOWS\TWAIN_32" and leave your "C:\WINDOWS\TWAIN_64" files alone.

Attempt 2: SOLVED!  Take that Mr. Samuel L Clemens!

Scans in color and at 600 dpi look great with Nitro Pro 8 and I'm able to save files as I choose, with OCR for better searching.


Thanks for reading,

Dr. Alex

Gardening - The Fruits (Veggies) of Life

The day Heidi and I were first introduced to our P-Patch garden in the Roosevelt P-Patch!

Inherited rainbow chard plants! 

Inherited beets (see Jason's Journal)...

I can't say that Heidi or I have a fondness for beets... yet. :-)

Heidi and I set off to work and meticulously laid our plans for different seeds that we would order and plant within which month and which month we are expecting to harvest them: 

Preplanning how the two gardens are going to be layed out.

Books that we consulted in order to make our decisions:

The Maritime Northwest Garden Guide - Seattle Tilth's
Sunset's Western Garden Book (large book, and often seen at used book stores).

What we ended up with for both the Roosevelt P-Patch and the 12th Ave NE home garden:

Carrot, Parmex (516 - 1 Pkt. ( 2 grams))	516	Super Sweet -- Kids Love 'em! Great for containers and coldframes, and extra useful for cooking.	1	$3.95	$3.95
Radish, Cook's Custom Mix(614 - Pkt. (3 grams))	614	Our favorite colors to add to any dish.	1	$3.95	$3.95
Spinach, Double Choice (026 - 1 Packet (2 grams))	026	Perfect for baby spinach and mature harvest.	1	$3.95	$3.95
Squash, Boston Marrow (963 - 1 Pkt. (15 seeds))	963	An extremely unusual New England heirloom.	2	$3.95	$7.90
Pea, Sugar Snap (480 - 1 Pkt. (2 oz.))	480	Super Vigorous and Super Productive Snap Pea Good fresh and whole, or shucked and steamed!	2	$3.95	$7.90
Squash, Summer, Mix (742 - 1 Pkt. (15 seeds))	742	Unique bush-type Squash for small space gardens	1	$3.95	$3.95
Gourmet Organic Arugula(E027 - 1 Pkt.)	E027	Zesty, peppery flavor. Certified Organic.	1	$4.95	$4.95
Cauliflower, Rainbow Mix (296 - Pkt. (30 seeds))	296	Our own blend of brightly colored cauliflowers.	1	$4.95	$4.95
				Sub Total $41.50

All our seeds came from The Cooks Garden catalog.

(Tomato starts are still yet to be purchased, most likely from Seattle Tilth plant sale. 

Follow along with our actual planting and harvesting schedule (Google Doc)! 

What I've made so far:

Beets from the P-patch boiled and then added to the mixture +

Beet greens diced up and sauteed +

Chard from the P-patch sauteed +

Small peppers +

Butternut squash, cubed +

Chirzo = 

Classes we've taken so far:

Class 1 - “How to get Started – Garden Planning”

                Now is the time to begin preparing your garden for a bountiful spring, summer and beyond. Experienced gardeners know that careful planning now will bring big yields later. This class is geared towards the beginning gardener and will show you how to decide the best crops to grow, select the appropriate seed and design your plot for optimum benefit. You will also learn how to rotate your crops and things you can do now to prepare your soil for planting in the next few weeks. This class will be held indoors.

Location:  Bradner Gardens Park, Tuesday April 3, 2012 6:00 p.m. – 8 p.m.

Some of our snap pea seedlings are starting to come up in early April!

Thanks for reading,

Dr. Alex