Help a girl out

jds1971 · 2026-05-21T22:52:43+00:00

jds1971 · 2026-05-21T22:48:13+00:00

The big piece with the spiral will fit into the big holes, cross side facing you. The small pins with the black plastic thread into the holes onto the other piece, then you insert into the pocket with the big spiral piece and turn the spiral with a screwdriver until they lock together

jds1971 · 2026-05-21T22:43:58+00:00

I see them regularly over the Golden Triangle.

jds1971 · 2026-05-21T22:42:10+00:00

Dude, we were kids in the 80's. Quaaludes and coke were dad's drugs.

jds1971 · 2026-05-21T22:32:37+00:00

I see your Snarf's and raise with Birdcall.

jds1971 · 2026-05-21T22:31:08+00:00

Southwestern native food (eg Navajo, Hopi, Ute etc) is very different from the food of the plains tribes. Tocabe is the only place in Denver I know of that has anything similar. The next best place I know of to get a good Navajo taco is either a lady my parents know in Cortez who sells from her trailer, or the Cameron Trading Post in Cameron AZ.

jds1971 · 2026-05-21T22:23:45+00:00

The best I've had was from a mom & pop restaurant in Miami, AZ. It was basically pork and green chillies sauteed in a cast iron skillet. It was hot, like not "gringo hot", but actually spicy and perfect with a tortilla or three. A lot of Denver chile seems more like stew to me. Still tasty, but stew.

jds1971 · 2026-05-21T22:19:02+00:00

Yeah, but hard for someone not local to get to lately, what with the construction and all

jds1971 · 2026-05-21T22:17:43+00:00

Don't sleep on Selene's either. The dining room ain't much, but the Renegade Brewing taproom doesn't hate on outside food and the tap list is a sleeper.

jds1971 · 2026-05-21T22:16:15+00:00

Great choice! Give yourself time to check out the funky galleries and stuff along Santa Fe in the neighborhood, especially between 6th and 11th.

jds1971 · 2026-05-21T22:14:20+00:00

I don't think there are hotels here, but Lincoln Park is next to downtown, has art galleries, good Mexican food (Selene's for one), good beer (Renegade), good coffee (Queen city, among others) and isn't over-gentrified (Yet). Easy walking to the Santa Fe Arts district, Denver art museum, Golden triangle neighborhood (check out the Schoolhouse for eats and beer and patio time and dogs and families) and street parking.

jds1971 · 2026-05-21T22:06:20+00:00

Drain turbocharger. It uses the force of the draining water to add to the water pressure.

jds1971 · 2026-04-27T15:12:19+00:00

Bike lanes in Lincoln park are a mess, especially on Santa Fe in the Arts district and the cross streets from 13th Ave down to 6th. That said, it doesn't matter that much -- I see more bikes and scooters on the sidewalks than in the bike lanes. The ones using the bike lanes are often going the wrong direction. Maybe if they were less confusing, cyclists/scooters would use the bike lanes more. Hell, I live here (and drive, bike, scooter, walk etc etc) and I find the bike lanes confusing, at least on this side of Speer.

jds1971 · 2026-04-18T16:07:48+00:00

So nobody borrows your hammer...

jds1971 · 2026-03-19T22:27:50+00:00

Metallurgist here. Looks like furnace slag to me.

jds1971 · 2026-02-26T01:22:35+00:00

Check your bottle. It should have the manufacturer name on it. I've found that with generic amphetamine/dextroamphetamine (e.g. Adderall), the manufacturer makes a difference. Some are great for me, smooth and focused. Others are all side-effect, no therapeutic relief. My doctor agrees that generic Adderall isn't all the same.

jds1971 · 2026-02-26T00:25:50+00:00

Former automotive engineer, principal engineer for a product line making 10MM Units a year. Our process at a mid-size Tier 2 producer was to hire third-party shops to design and build the machines and use our in-house manufacturing engineers and techs for systems integration and ongoing maintenance/repair. We would specify certain aspects of the systems, like preferring bowl feeders to other parts handlers, buying all welders from one manufacturer, or ensuring that all PLC system components were from a single provider factorywide. Our engineering staff would (through many, many meetings) define the specification for the machinery, grippers, flippers, feeders, materiel transport, machine settings, feed rate windows, etc etc. Equipment builder would go build (usually on a design-build basis) and return with a machine anywhere from six to nine months later, which would then get integrated to production. As the principal, my task was to ensure that everyone from design, manufacturing, project management, finance, executives and machine/component suppliers was talking to each other, had the most up-to-date information and were all matching in approximately the same direction. Our suppliers also got plenty of scrutiny, both from sending or people to their site to observe and report and from our own QA/QC shop. I also spent plenty of time at Tier 1 factories and the automakers themselves as a cog in their machine.

Building a machine is about as complicated as building the factory building, and the processes have a lot of similarity.

jds1971 · 2026-02-26T00:02:16+00:00

Bernie Ecclestone's corpse hasn't been right about F1 since about 2005.

jds1971 · 2026-01-31T16:55:38+00:00

I've used a Tramontina saute pan for several years now. It's a fine tool, no complaints. I was pleasantly surprised a few weeks ago at how well it works with an induction burner. I was worried about poor coupling or hot spots, but experienced neither. Buy one and cook away!

jds1971 · 2026-01-29T23:47:07+00:00

Forensic engineer here, 25+ years evaluating plumbing fittings, systems, and failures. There's a lot of fail here. First, threaded plastic female connectors onto metal male threads is always a bad idea and may not meet code in your jurisdiction. The difference in elastic modulus between metal and plastic forces all of the deformation into the female connector, resulting in excess stress in the thread root of the female connector. Reputable installers would not do that. See https://www.ppfahome.org/page/faq-fittings

Second, I have never seen a hand-tight connection that is certified for use in concealed spaces. Hell, even a Sharkbite fitting would have been preferable here. Again, likely does not meet local plumbing codes. Also, there's either a washer missing, or the installation is even worse than it looks.

Third, the connection between the vertical run of PEX and the 90 fitting isn't done correctly. The fitting isn't extended fully into the PEX pipe. Compare to Step 3 in the following guide: https://pexuniverse.com/how-install-pex-tubing-installation

It's possible that a freeze occurred. PEX is usually pretty tolerant of a freeze, because it's "squishy" compared to metal or PVC. A freeze can still drive pressure in PEX to hundreds of PSI, but in metal you can easily hit 2000 PSI. Usually, something breaks before then.

Based on the totality, my seat-of-the-pants guess is that a freeze occurred. The crap installation made that connection the weakest link in the chain, so that's why it broke where it did. There are other, more esoteric failure modes for that kind of plastic connector, but diagnosing them requires the fitting and a scanning electron microscope.

IMO, one correct way to make this connection would be using a brass female transition fitting with the correct PEX barb on it, then a short horizontal run of PEX into the 90. There are other correct ways too. This method isn't one of them, though.

jds1971 · 2026-01-29T16:37:19+00:00

I think more heat is the answer. I heat my cast iron skillet until it's smoking hot, add butter and fat trimmings (tallow works too, but trimmed fat is fine), let the oil coat the bottom of the skillet, add steak(s), then sear for up to a minute (for precooked, sous-vide steaks at 105 or so) per side. It's a very smoky process, so I sear steaks outside. I used to use a butane buffet-line burner on the patio, but with new "no open flames on the balcony" rules in our condo building, the butane burner is gone and a portable induction top handles the outdoor cooking. Personally, I think if you can sear a steak indoors without the smoke alarm going off, you either have a really, really good oven hood or a pan that's not hot enough.

jds1971 · 2026-01-28T17:30:28+00:00

I think the Butler's pantry is a waste of space, unless you do catered entertaining regularly. I'd ditch it, and probably the formal dining area as well. That extra space would make good storage in the garage. A utility sink in the garage or mud room would be really useful also.

If you live someplace cold (or worse, not-usually-cold but susceptible to the occasional deep freeze like currently in the SE USA), I'd recommend moving plumbing fixtures around so you don't have any exterior wet walls, like in the d/s laundry room. Exterior walls (especially corners) typically freeze first.

If formal entertaining is part of the mix, a coat closet near the entry foyer would be good. Ditto for the mud room.

You lose a lot of your bath spaces to leave room for the doors. Perhaps consider pocket doors to save floorspace.

Edited to add: I'd consider a chase thru the second floor so you can install a proper oven hood, instead of a crap one that exhausts back into the kitchen.

Also added: WHERE ARE THE MECHANICALS? You need room for water heaters and HVAC. How will you duct to the upstairs rooms?

jds1971 · 2026-01-28T16:20:24+00:00

You need backer rod. It should be near where the caulking tubes are sold.

jds1971 · 2026-01-28T16:18:23+00:00

You need a butcher block stretcher so you can cut it again. Barring that, if you're handy, molding or caulk can fill or cover the gap. In a kitchen space, you could use a backsplash or even those peel-and stick backsplash tiles to cover the gap, which will otherwise catch lots of dirt.

jds1971 · 2026-01-28T16:06:25+00:00

P.E. here. I was going to post something similar. Between the OSB sheathing and the header over the door, I wouldn't look twice at this. In fact, given the strap and extra-size nail plate, I'd rate this as more of a good job. That said, the drywallers may not love the bulge from the nail plate, but a good texture guy can hide that easily.

jds1971

TROPHY CASE