A Queer Mobile

And the train comes in

John delivered lots of new work to a gallery in Des Moines - From Our Hands - that's been representing him. When he got back he brought this: a cool locomotive engine built from a kitchen mixer body and other found things. Click on the image for a better view.

The fish swims in

John did a show at the Waterloo Festival for the Arts in early November. We got to know Hans and Judy Gill. Hans is an artist who exhibited at the show - and John fell in love with this fish. It's hammered aluminum - and is just fantastic. Hans retired from a career of developing museum exhibits. Now he's pursuing his art full-time.

Growing hydroponically in the kitchen

The worst thing about winter for me is not having an herb garden. I read about the Aerogarden, a self-contained counter-top hydroponic growing system. It's about $150 and they claim you can grow stuff for six months on a single planting.

The computer industry could take a lesson from these folks. I unpacked the unit and set it up in less than five minutes. The detailed manuals - including plant harvesting and growing information - are paragons of technical writing. And starting the garden is just a snap. Plant seeds come pre-planted in foam plugs - like little pods. You snap the pods in place, fill the reservoir with water, and add nutrient tablets. When you plug it in the self-contained water pump pumps the nutrient solution over the foam plugs constantly. The self-contained lighting system provides high intensity light - on a timer that's preprogrammed to match the growing needs of the plants. Just top up the water every week or so when the reservoir empty light goes on and add nutrient tablets every two weeks. It's that simple.

The company guarantees germination, and I now understand why. Everything sprouted precisely on time. Here's a shot of the purple basil coming up from the foam plug.

The supplied seed kit provides Italian and purple basil, Italian parsley, mint, dill, cilantro, and chives. You can buy other seed kits, including salad greens and specialty herbs. I'm tempted to buy another one and grow some salad greens...

Cleaning the floors robotically

The iRobot folks re-engineered their floor vacuuming robot and produced a real winner. I've bought two Roomba robots previously, but each of them has had real problems with pet hair. The hair tended to wrap itself around rotating parts in the robot and clog the unit. Cleaning up the robot was more work than it was worth.

The new Roomba for Pets modifies all the old hair-prone components. The brushes now have extra protection from hair accumulating around the axles, and a new tool that makes extracting pet hair a breeze. The old unit had a front roller that detected rotation: when it clogged up the robot started behaving strangely because it got incorrect information about its location. The new front roller design is almost completely trouble-free.

My verdict: buy this model. I've used it in high dog hair environments with excellent results so far. It's been a real boon for me keeping the bedroom clean. Because the vacuum in a Roomba is much lower power than in a conventional vacuum, it doesn't stir up dust on the floor as it works. That's great for me, because airborne dust is a disaster for my head. Typically I'll have a full dust mask on when I use a manual vacuum; I can let a Roomba run in the room with me with no problem at all.

Winning the war on snot, Part II

I found new firepower in the snot wars. In my web searches I found many references to sinus irrigation - and I found an appliance that does the job very effectively indeed. It's the Grossan Hydro-pulse nasal/sinus irrigator, and it looks like a WaterPik for the nose:

You prepare an irrigation solution (basically a sodium chloride/sodium bicarbonate buffer), fill the reservoir, and spritz your head. This unit solves a real problem I've had using Neti pots and similar low-tech nasal irrigation methods. Because the unit applies pressure you don't have to tilt your head to one side. The problem with tilting your head when you're irrigating the nose is that water can get into the Eustachian tubes, making ear problems much worse. (Trust me, it's a problem.) With this unit you keep the head vertical, which keeps water out of the ears.

The manual suggests that things tend to get better over the first six weeks of use. My experience was that I had immediate relief - and that my head did, in fact, get better over the last month or so. I use the unit twice a day, and follow the irrigation with a steroid nasal spray. The result: almost perfect. I'm incredibly happy.

Small notes: you need to follow the cleaning instructions included with the machine. That means rinsing salt solutions out of the machine, washing it with vinegar weekly to remove any salt precipitate from the unit, and disinfecting it with hydrogen peroxide weekly. Small price to pay for incredibly effective drug-free relief.

Winning the war on snot, Part I

I'm the original snotty-nosed kid: always have been, probably always will be. My well-intentioned internist thought a round of steroids might alleviate my misery: one shot last August gave me more misery than it relieved. (I don't do well on systemic steroids - they upset my balance.) But I realized that he was right. I needed to do something.

Figuring that no one is more interested in my health than I am, I went back over all my old allergy tests and hit the web for help. I'm wildly allergic to two things: the house dust mite and the mold Alternaria sp. Alternaria isn't too much of a problem. It's a soil-borne fungus, so I make sure I don't have plants in my bedroom. The house dust mite, on the other hand, is misery to handle. I thought I'd been doing a good job containing it, but I discovered otherwise.

The short of it is that I stepped up cleaning the bedroom. The Febreze folks make an allergen reducer spray. It binds with house dust mite protein and ties it up. Every week I strip the bed and spritz everything with it. (I wish they made a fragrance-free version of the stuff, but it still helps.) All the bedding goes into the wash - hot. Warm water won't kill house dust mites. I've been doing this for years. I added a new mite-proof pillow encasement that also goes in the wash every week.

You'll see a related story about our new Roomba. It's been wonderful for me in the bedroom: I set it loose every other day to vacuum the place. Once a week I mop the floors (they're hardwood).

Net result: much better. I can't throw out my meds yet, but my head's dramatically improved. But there's another part of the story...

John's show in Waterloo

We headed to Waterloo last weekend for the Winter Arts Festival hosted by the Waterloo Center for the Arts. Here's a shot of John's booth, complete with several very cool new pieces using new materials. He's been incredibly productive since he moved to the new shop space.

Waterloo is by far the easiest show we do - not that we do all that many. The staff at the Center are incredibly supportive and helpful.  I can't quite put my finger on it: the vibes are good there. While John held forth in the booth I snuck around back to work on some projects I've been nursing along.

We headed up on Saturday morning, unloaded and set up in record time, and made our way to the Hearst Center for the Arts, which hosted John's one-man show earlier this year. We walked around Waterloo a bit, grabbed a bite at a restaurant close to our hotel, and we spent the evening at the patron's reception. Sunday was an all-day affair, but we were packed and heading home by 5:30PM.