In My Travels

Laser Pistol for Kiwi

My cat Kiwi absolutely loves chasing laser pointer beams. The only problem is that the tiny little watch batteries in the pointers run down and dim after only a few minutes. I decided to build a better pointer.

I started by taking apart the laser pointer, where I found that it was powered by three little watch cells with a nominal voltage of 4.5v. After taking a quick look at the circuitry, it was pretty clear that the the diode was actually just a 5v part being under-driven slightly. I the laser up to a 5v bench supply for a few hours to make sure that nothing overheated and it was fine. To provide a nice stable 5v to the laser, I used a 9v battery connected to a 5 volt regulator in a TO220 package.

The larger battery required a larger case, so I chose the most natural format for a laser… a pistol! I went to one of the local big chain discount stores expecting to find dozens of toy guns with convenient battery compartments to choose from. Unfortunately, I was sadly disappointed… I guess gun toys are a lot less tolerated/popular/PC these days compared to when I was growing up. Determined to not leave empty handed, I settled on an assortment of 5 water guns for $5.

Anyway, I cut up the water gun a bit, mounted a switch behind the water gun’s original trigger, and secured the laser at the tip. The results are a laser pointer which will last virtually forever before having to change batteries mounted in a way cooler container! And Kiwi thinks that it is just great.

Turns out they were mulberries

Turns out that this guy was eating Mulberries off of the Mulberry trees in the park. I tried some and they are delicious.

What is this guy eating?

I looked outside and saw that there was a random man pulling berries off of the trees in the little slice of parkland between my house and the Garden State Parkway. Weird.

Saw Sheryl off on her cruise

Sheryl’s aunt took her, her sister, and one of her cousins on a cruise to the Caribbean for a week or so. The ship is the Carnival Miracle and today I went down to Hoboken to see it leaving New York’s west side cruise port. There was quite a bit of traffic on the Hudson this afternoon, with several barges, ferries, yachts and other vessels all making their way around the cruise ship.

Twin Willows Par 3 Shootout

Today was the Twin Willows Par 3 Shootout. I was in a foursome with Adam and two other people. It was a nice day for golf, but my scores were nothing to be too proud of. Still, two rounds of golf, a visor, and a BBQ are a pretty good deal for the money. Also, I won the “closest to the hole” challenge on one of the holes which netted me a pack of sweet Srixon balls, so that was pretty cool.

Went to the range with Adam and Goose

Goose wanted to shoot some guns while he was in town, and we were happy to oblige. Adam and I are members of the Cherry Ridge Range, so we headed up there for the afternoon. Both Adam and I shoot Ruger 10/22 rifles. Mine is the scoped one with the 28″ barrel and Adam’s is one with iron sights. We’re on the silhouette range in these pics.

$Me taking aim with Adam\'s rifle$

$Me looking down Adam\'s 10/22\'s sights$

$Goose showing off his \"operator\" beard$

Played a round at Twin Willows with Adam and Goose

My old buddy Goose is taking a break from L.A. for a while to come back to Jersey, so I got to play a round of golf with him and Adam at our favorite par 3, Twin Willows this afternoon.

Nice out today… played 10 at Twin Willows

It was a really nice day out today, so Sheryl and I played some Golf over at Twin Willows.

Uncovered the Z today

My 1987 300ZX has been sitting since I moved into this apartment back in August of 2006… sad I know. But, today I pulled the car cover off to see how it has been faring in the weather, and was pleasantly surprised that everything looks good! Except for an expected amount of dust, the Z does not seem to have aged. I gave it a good wash and secured it back in its cover for another day (hopefully soon) when I have the time to devote to getting it back on the road.

Bringing Kiwi Home

Our apartment felt very empty now that Sebastian is gone, so Sheryl and I decided that we wanted to adopt a cat of our own, so today we brought home the new addition to our household, Kiwi. He is an about 3 months old Domestic Shorthair. He is very playful and cute, and seems to be taking to his new home quite well.

We chose to adopt him from the Ramapo Bergen Animal Refuge because they are the only “no-kill” animal shelter in the area, and we wanted to support them.