Leaderboard

Anniversary dinner at Barbacana in Houston. Our first time and we were very impressed with the service, food and drink. Wagyu carpaccio, a vegetarian dish that was a riff on ramen, pork collar and a few desserts. The Korn, which was sweet and savory was a culinary gem IMHO (brittle on top one). HS

Followed up the "facon" with some real "pancetta"/pork belly Not shown various other cooked meats that were very good. We will need to back and work through the menu. Nice al fresco location.

Made in Japan (Steven Wilson Remix) by Deep Purple (1972/2025) https://album.link/0b4crwz0vbhdt Thanks to Steven for making this album come 'alive'. And it is worthy of the remix. Rock on.

It was so hot out yesterday that I started running top up to keep my helmet from getting cooked by the sun. Not my greatest performance. I blame heat-soaked brain. Someone driving the big track even started a grass fire when their car threw off some sparks!

I kept meaning to say, Ms. Chloe could give Grumpy Cat a run for the money 😊 Still sounds like a sweetheart though! For me, some good things happened and coming up: Andrew & Amy moved in fully, and have started working with the designer that Karen and I worked with for our bathrooms. Lots of good ideas coming out, and everyone (myself included) is excited to see what comes from this Went out last night with some family to celebrate my mom's 86th BDay. Was a nice time, not everyone could come but the smaller group made it very nice. She had a wonderful time, until I was on my way home and she calls me all frustrated about her TV having issues (I am Tech Support). I told her she needs to chill - I can ONLY say that to my mom 🤣 - and walked her through a shut-off and turn-on of power to reboot cable box, modem, etc. Worked for the night at least, we'll see if it gives more trouble. In a couple weeks, we celebrate my dad's 90th! He has a tough time getting around physically, and has hearing issues. But mentally he is there, and he enjoys (for short enough duration) the company of family. Work situation will get a bit better. Had a chat with our new CIO and she seems great. We were so in synch with a lot of things it was scary....but good. I also heard they will open the REQ to hire another role like mine, very much needed. Short-term will fill in with another off-shore developer; but we need the Business Analysis piece as well

Club Sandwich and enough fries to share. (They all went). Not shown: Greek Salad

These were posted in the audiophile subreddit and there was much cluck-clucking over room acoustics.

Thanks Doug! Decided to run instead of ride today because a) one of the bikes is still giving me fits are partially broken, 2) the other bike is on the trainer and it was way to nice to be indoors today, and 3) a chunk of the day was spent installing a drip irrigation system for the 35 shrubs that we had planted along the property line with our asshole neighbors. Fun times.

+1 007s user here also if anyone knows where to buy something similar - please let me know somehting like this

Done

Greek Yogurt and Dubai Ice cream

I was hopping that the latest version will be a lot better than the old I still have ... and not using. Now my hope was killed by Spritzer, thanks!

Said À bientôt To Ms. Chloe (Bananas for scale)

Time for a necro bump but this arrived a couple of weeks ago: Naturally I bought them used as I always wanted to try these and well... they are some of the worst headphones ever made. Seriously... this is so fucking bad it isn't even funny. Now they barely fit my head so that might be a factor but they are somehow very peaky and dull sounding at the same time. Open baffle and all that but the sound is just all over the place. I'm sure these would benefit greatly from an adjustable arc setup and some earpads to close them up. Maybe something like the PMB units, an L-shaped pads at the back of the ears. At the same time I got these, I refurbished what might be the most disgusting SR-Sigma I've ever seen (though the drivers were fine), and they are much better in ever way. Super soundstage, nice extension at both ends of the spectrum and they just sound lovely off a SRM-313. Now I naturally had to rip the Transdyn box apart and well... It doesn't start well, this is the power switch. Yeah... one trace of something conductive and all hell would break loose. Bia Bias supply and why they have it half populated for 230V and then add more parts for 115V is beyond me. Just throw a transformer on it (also for safety). Speaking of which... Gotta love it seeing this trash in there. Rifa caps known for going bad and blowing up right on the mains. This set is fitted with a motorized RK27 but I didn't get a remote control with it. The sensor underneath the front panel. This is actual Transdyn module and I can't say it made much of a difference to me. Another angle. The actual power amp driving the transformer: Not sure what Icepower model that is, haven't looked into it yet. This is certainly a way of doing this... It's hard to tell but no insulation on the mains wiring here either. I don't know what to think about this setup but it does work but looks very silly indeed. I'm tempted to design something long the lines of a 4070 arc setup which would carry the weight and be adjustable as this is not comfy for me. The space between the arcs just isn't wide enough for me. This cable is super thin, roughly 5mm in diameter and to think of the voltage in there... I hope it is made out of something very insulated. Genuine Fischer plugs though these are not the special HV ones used on the HE90 Just normal pins and 12mm across so a S104 plug if I remember correctly.

More cat, sitting, cat-sitting.

(Wednesday) helped my son and GF move into their new condo (movers did the heaviest stuff). They're working with the same designer who helped Karen and me with our bathroom remodels. Very nice, and she sent me a wonderful note about Andrew. Made a parent's heart swell, it did!

I wasn't sure where to put this either but this should be rare enough, the Sony ECR-800 energizer or the ECA-80 to be precise. Now there is a bit of a backstory to this one, I've never found a ECR-800 but I found this one for a song in China so I had to snap it up. It was in a bad way when it arrived, damage all over and the back sockets all a bit crooked but the worst was inside. See, Sony in their infinite wisdom, used a mercury switch for the input switching and that had broken in shipping. There was mercury all over the inside so I had to clean everything and dispose of it properly. It's a shame as its a very early unit with the custom Sony sockets, they later moved onto using Stax 6 pin sockets with these. I let it sit for probably a year before I decided what to do with it as so a full rebuild was in order. These are 100V only so for my use I need a new transformer, I fitted an IEC on the back, new binding posts with the switch function bypassed and all caps replaced. I also fitted a 6 pin Stax socket to the front as I don't have an ECR-800 and if I ever find one, odds are it will have that plug. Plus this works nicely with Stax normal bias sets. For the circuitry as it is a bit odd for 1978 or so. Most of the what's there is a protection circuit and output relay but the gray brick on the bottom is the bias supply, a DC/DC converter. It has clearly seen some use as there should be paint on there but it seems to work fine and there is clearly a ballast resistor in there too. It's also odd that the transformers have two sets of wires so each socket is fed from its own set of wires. See the 4 purple bias wires too, they are all common on the bias supply.

Brother came up this morning on his way to his place in NH. Dropped off 2 bottles of Ardbeg 25, plus additional surprises! The Ardbeg 25's come in a lovely Russian Doll type box set, the inner box has a nice metal design on it. The top of that inner box looks to click open and close on a hinged cover. The Smokiverse is another limited edition, this was an open bottle from a sampling day that one of his clients had. Looking forward to trying it, there's only a tiny bit left.

Next up on "doing good shit for family" agenda: just gifted Karen's car (2018 Toyota RAV4) to my nephew and niece. Came up in a conversation last night that my brother was helping the kids look for a car. I asked what they were interested in, and based on his reply offered it up. Filled out the title paperwork and tax exemption for gift (though depending on blue book value I may have to pay a bit for being over the gift threshold). Kids came by and grabbed it today. The payback is "future considerations," but after chatting a bit my brother will get me a pair of Ardbeg 25 bottles he recently scrounged up at work. Yum!

Congrat, Todd. You’re a heck of a dad for doing this for your kid.

Paid a lot of money for a condo. Final closing paperwork tomorrow. Son and his GF will do some painting and maybe minor work, then move in ~mid-August. Thinking/hoping a ring is next!!