I came home from a weekend trip to Atlanta to find my apartment swarming with fruit flies. Luckily, I’ve done battle with these little bastards before… (I keep fresh fruit and don’t spend much time at home) By the next morning all the fruit flies were gone. Here’s how I did it.

1. Build the trap
2. Hide the prize

1. Build the trap

The trap alone is SUPER effective at eliminating flies (the trap pictured above had been on my counter for about an hour – those are flies inside).

You’ll need:

• red wine and/or apple-cider vinegar
• a tall glass
• paper
• tape

Pour about 1/2 an inch of bait into the glass. I find 50% apple cider vinegar 50% red wine works the best, but flies will go for either one alone, too. Next, roll a sheet of paper into a funnel with a hole slightly larger than a fruit fly and use tape to secure it. Finally, put the funnel into the glass pointy-side-down and use tape to ensure a tight seal around the rim of the glass.

The top of the funnel should be an inch or two from the liquid in the bottom of the glass. The flies smell the bait, fly in through the funnel and can’t find their way out… stupid flies!

I release the flies outside if they opt for the trap; otherwise I clap them to death with great relish… A first in this particular battle was when killed 2 flies with 1 clap! I rule!

2. Hide the prize

While it’s nice to have bananas, avocados, and kiwis out to ripen you have to make sacrifices in war…

Take out the trash, wipe down counters and the stove/range to remove any crumbs or oil remnants, and put all the fruit in the fridge overnight – cold kills any eggs and hiding other food drives flies toward the trap.

Finally, pour a little bleach to make key areas especially inhospitable:

• In sink drains
• In toilet bowls
• In bottoms of trash cans

Epilogue

Getting rid of other food and setting up “the trap” should leave you fruit-fly-free in 6-12 hours. I use this trick a few times every year!

A proactive habit I get into in the summer is having a “peels” trash bag and a “trash” trash bag. The “peels” go out every morning while “trash” goes out when it’s full… this helps keep the fruit flies from coming back.

On a side note, people interested in creating screen-casts of presentations on a Mac, should consider the program ScreenFlow, which worked great for me! This was also my first presentation created with Apple’s Keynote software, but I’m sure it won’t be the last.

The gear involved in ice climbing is fantastic. Serious mountaineering boots with a dozen three inch spikes attached to each foot make for a menacing pair of shoes. The crampons give terrific grip while trekking over the ice, and allow you to walk right up verticle faces when needed!

Then you have the “hammers:” long sharp picks that hack into the ice giving you a hand-hold wherever you need it. Combine this with a length of good rope and all the climbing harnesses common to rock-climbing and you’ve got an ice-cold vertical adventure.

We trekked about a half mile onto the glacier before we started making our way up sheer ice walls. Our guide would free-climb the faces and set up safety rigging before we made our way up. The first climb was a real challenge, but once I got an understanding of the technique, and the rhythm: pick, hook, toe-toe-toe. pick, hook, toe-toe-toe… climbing up verticle ice and slight overhangs became a smooth, and exhilarating process.

All said and done… I want more. However, the way things are going there won’t be any glaciers in Atlanta any time soon!

Fun Fact: If you converted all the ice in the Matanuska glacier into margaritas, it would be enough for everyone on the planet to drink a 32oz. margarita every day for the next 20 years!

I must say that I’m addicted to riding it! Since Jon and I got it working, I haven’t started my car : )

I plan to do a bit more engine work and make some cosmetic upgrades too. If there are any other new GS owners out there, make sure to check out these sites for lots of good info:

• GS Twin (The guys on the forum here helped me out a lot)
• GS500 Wiki
• GS Resource

Any other riders in ATL who want to meet up? Let me know!

We practiced everything from fast turns to hard stops to the basics of shifting and driving. All that’s left to do is ride (on my bicycle) down to the DMV, get a little ‘M’ on my license, and of course… buy a motorcycle! Anybody have a nice one for sale?

Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

I	—————|—-	E
N	——-|————	S
T	——–|———–	F
P	———-|———-	J

This means that I’m Extroverted, INtuitive, Thinking, and a perfect split between Perceiving and Judging. They usually group these in terms of certain complementary groups. I’m in the NT group. Therefore, my personality is split between ENTP, “The Visionary,” and ENTJ, “The Executive.” I’m pretty psyched about that! Here’s an online version of the test (although not the same one I took) if you’re interested to find out what you are.

In fact, after a quick internet search, its hard to find a good version of this test online… maybe I’ll put one up!

I found out that I got a TI:GER fellowship that will let me work on cool entrepreneurial projects with MBAs and law students from Emory. (*AND* give me a $7,000 per year raise!)

Ok, I took that in stride, and played it cool. Then I got to work on that off-frame tracker I’ve been talking about… I added a non-hacked version of on-line motion model learning, and got some stellar results! That did it. I started dancing. Too bad no one was here to see : )

Its days like this when I really, really, *really* love my job.

Point is, I did it! And, as a treat my roomies decided that that was an accomplishment worthy of a free dinner… so I get taken out tonight! Hurrah! Hmm… maybe that will make up for the throbbing pain in my legs.