Progress

We made some progress today on some of our projects. First we started to cut pvc pipe and put together our planned bike rack, but part way into the assembly, we decided that the design will not hold our bikes securely, so we're back to the drawing board. The progress in this case is figuring out one thing not to do...

I set up the new Wii console. The console itself sits nicely behind the TV on the rack. It has a lightweight slim profile "sensor bar" that sits on top the TV to receive the signals from the remote, so the console itself doesn't have to have a line of sight to the remote. The only small inconvenience is that the Wii has only component audio/video outputs, and the TV has only one set. The yellow video input is currently being used by the TIVO (but the red and white audio inputs are free, since the TIVO outputs sound to the surround sound system). To use the Wii, you have to swap out the yellow video cables, which is pretty simple.

I also set up the Wii balance board. That is used for the Wii Fit Plus, which is the reason we bought the Wii in the first place. We made Mii's for each of us (little people avatars) and signed in as Wii Fit users, with baseline fitness data. The Wii calculates your BMI and suggests that a BMI of 22 is associated with the least vulnerability to illness. Ken's BMI is 21.94, so he's right on target, but the Wii wants me to gain weight, even though my BMI of 18.7 is in the normal range. I'm not sure that the Wii is an expert in this area. One report cited on the Internet suggests that 22 is an upper limit on healthy BMI, so we'll see.

I didn't do very well in the balance assessment or on any of the balance activities. That's why i wanted the Wii Fit in the first place, and I hope that with regular practice, I'll be able to improve my balance and posture.

Ken checked the tire pressures, and we're good to go. We packed up some things preparatory to leaving on Tuesday. It's been a while since we were on the move. We'll be traveling 3 days in a row to get to Lewisville.

I baked an angel food cake tonight, but not in an angel food cake pan, and without a standard mixer, so it was a bit of an experiment. I used a packaged cake mix and only fixed half of it, since it was going in a loaf pan. I followed some suggestions I found online and lined the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. After the cake was done, I balanced the loaf pan on a couple of mugs so the cake could cool upside down. That was tricky, and Ken helped with the mugs. We had slices of the cake with mixed fruit on top for dessert, and both of us pronounced the cake experiment a success.