Preface

If you've been to this page before, you probably remember that is was originally a car page that just had stuff added to it once in a while that was related to my other interests. Looking at the access logs, it's easy to see that the car pages are hugely popular, particularly the performance engine rebuild page, but lately quite a few people have been hitting the home improvement pages and all the other pages as well.

I recently closed the racing chapter of my life. The car hadn't been racing in a long time. It's last pass was at Cordova Dragways at Fun Ford weekend on September 7th, 2003. It was parked and sat for over three years while I struggled with selling it. One day it dawned on me that the car deserved better than to sit in the garage and collect dust, so it was put up for sale at The Corral and in a couple of weeks it sold to a local gentleman who has been racing mostly stock Mustangs for a while and wanted to step up to something faster. I wish him all the best and hope he gets as much enjoyment from the car as it provided me the many years I owned it.

All the web pages that were created for the car over the years will remain intact as a small token of appreciation to the racing community that embraced my dream of going fast. Hopefully the technical details, while getting a little dated, will help many others enjoy drag racing and wrenching on cars in general. In the mean time, please enjoy some of the new pages that have been added for the other things in life I enjoy!

Aquarium

We recently got into freshwater fish keeping. We have always wanted a tank. I conceived the idea of having a fish tank behind a drop down front projection home theater setup some years ago. Last year, our home theater setup became reality. The projector screen was mounted forward of the wall in our living room "just in case". This year, I finally broke down and crafted an idea for a 125 gallon tank in the spot created for it. As of November 13th, 2007, the tank has been filled. I started keeping a blog on it's own page about the tank, and here are the pictures and a couple movies of the stand construction and the first fish.

Home Improvement Projects

We moved into our current home in 1999. A modest 1974 built split entry, it was still "decorated" with quite a few styling ques that would have best been left in the 70s. I thoroughly enjoy doing home improvement projects, which is a good thing because there are plenty of opportunities for improvement. We have recently finished our final part of the upstairs remodel, the bathroom. Read about all the various projects including a complete kitchen tear out, the joys of removing 20 year old wallpaper, window replacement including a large bay window in our living room, and several other updates including a changeover from the dark walnut color stained trim to honey oak coloring.

Boating

Growing up in the Netherlands near lots of lakes, boating started when I was very young. Once you're addicted to being on water, it's very hard to let go. To this day one of my favorite things is sailing. Later came a 1969 Chrysler Lone Star, then a 1987 Thundercraft, a 2004 Glastron SX195, and finally, our brand new Correct Craft Air Nautique SV-211.

Home Theater

As a youngster a healthy fascination with electronics prepped me for an eventual education as an Electrical and Computer Engineer. Along the way there were several incarnations of entertainment systems, starting with a basic 19" RCA television which also served as a heater, because it had tubes, to our current home theater which features a 106" motorized screen and an Optoma HD-72 projector.

I also tinker with using a home theater PC (HTPC) to record HDTV programming, and do some open source software development for LCD Smartie, a software package that displays information on the integrated VFD display on my HTPC.

Our Vacations

World travellers we are not, but there are some beautiful locations we've enjoyed in the last several years, including our honeymoon to the North Shore, Hawaii, my birth country of The Netherlands, and recently a trip into Rocky Mountain National Park when we were in town for Greta's brothers' wedding.

Weather

I bought a LaCrosse WS-2308 weather station recently, to track conditions at the house. It is connected to a computer, and uploads it's data to the internet. Here is our weather page that maintains current and historical weather for the Dayton, Minnesota area, as well as some useful data from other weather sites around the web.

Other Stuff

Speaking of weddings, I'm an amateur photographer, and enjoy taking pictures at the weddings we attend. You can find some of them here, in addition to pictures from our wedding.

Finally, I'm a sport shooter and firearms collector. You can find some of the info about sport shooting here. I participate in IDPA matches at our local clubs, namely Twin Cities IDPA Club and the Minnetonka Game & Fish Club IDPA Club.