This Space For Rent

I forget what I was gonna write about, so check out this very cool steampunk keyboard mod. How cool is that?

I'm currently reading A Treasury of Southern Folklore: Stories, Ballads, Traditions, and Folkways of the People of the South, by B. A. Botkin. It quite a wieldy tome, running to 700-some pages. I'm giving it a rest today, and taking up another "withdrawn" title. This one is a World War II action story by John Clagett, titled Typhoon 1944. It's pretty good for a teen book. It was published in 1970, so the author is showing some awareness of the racial discrimination in the services back in WWII. the author drops the N-word, I guess to emphasize one charactor's prejudice, but the "hero" is bothered by it, and I think is going to call the guy on it. This volume is on 190 pages, so I should finish it soon. I've a pile of other "weeded" title to read, too. The Treasury may have to wait.

Pie

Every time someone mentions rhubarb to me, I salivate. It's truly disgusting. I LOVE rhubarb pie, and you can't really get just plain rhubarb. It's always that wierd strawberry-rhubarb combination. Which is all right, in its place. But IT'S NOT THE SAME!!

It's all about the tartness.

Here's a link to a blog entry at Pie Day Friday showing how to make pie crust, and a rhubarb pie recipe, with some lovely pictures.

Sadly, the picture I use at work for a desktop picture (Not the rolled tacos machine, the OTHER one), Lurid Rhubarb, can no longer be found on the web. Use your imagination. Picture my surgery. The first one.

Lucky Day

Today is Thomas Jefferson's birthday. Also, Al Green, Ricky "Rick" Schroder, and Caroline Rhea. Among others...

A piece of chocolate cake!

And an Oreo cake from D.Z. Akins!

Do not be afraid to click on the images to visit my zooomr page and see the even yummier big images!

First, the news:

Burglar gets away by driving against traffic (scroll down)

Performance Bicycle in La Mesa is burglarized. Ebay soon to be flooded with cheap junk bicycle parts! Just kidding, I do all my shopping there. It's my forte'!!

I was going to link to a very cute photo in today's Onion Tribunal, but the lame SignOnSanDiego site doesn't seem to have it. It was cute. A doggy in a front pannier on a bicycle.

Why would anyone cate what television shows I'm currently watching this month? I don't know but here they are:

Simpsons
California's Gold
Desperate Housewives
House
The New Adventures Of Old Christine
Two And Half Men
Monk
How I Met Your Mother
King Of Queens
Are You Being Served
As Time Goes By
Keeping Up Appearances
Waiting For God
My Name Is Earl
The Office
Scrubs

Stopped watching: Grey's Anatomy

And I had bran flakes for breakfast...

Fat Saturday

I am finding that Triscuit, in all its assorted, sordid, flavors, is extremely addictive. I am particularly fond of chedder. Uuummmm, cheeessseee...

I like to let them melt in my mouth!

Sodium? Carbohydrates?

Pif paf!

Is It Saturday Yet?

Walked up to the library and the train store. Purchased some MORE instant super glue, as the last bottle had solidified, as it will.

Glued the smoke stack on the station. I had Gooed the lights on before (with Walthers Goo), but super glued them again, just to be sure.

Almost glued my fingers together, AGAIN!

Another pic, and bigger ones, at my zooomr page. Just click on the image!

Stuck it on the layout in place of the OTHER Fallberg station, for the photo. Looks right at home!

How come I haven't ballasted that piece of track yet?

Working On The Railroad

Been working on the train station all afternoon.

There are three more pics at zooomr, and they're BIG! Well, BIGish...
Just click the image...

That roof is printed paper, it looks pretty good. It certainly is easier than trying to weather the old Sydam corrogated metal roofing!

I got a little heavy-handed with the epoxy and used it to glue the windows in. Bad idea, too much epoxy. The excess oozed out and so the window glass doens't sit quite flat in some of the windows.

I still can't get more variation in the stone color. When I hit the structure with a blast of Flat Clear to seal the colors it kind of blended together... I'm going to try to touch up some of the rocks with an acrylic wash.

I still have the smokestack and lights to attach.

I'm not even sure what I'm going to DO with this station, I've alreay got one! I guess I'll have to start another layout..

Thursday

Did my 39th radiation treatment today, the last one. They gave me a nice "diploma". I have to go back in a month and see if it "took". I don't know what I will do with all my free time...

Went over to Michael's to get a shadowbox. They are 40% off, woot! I wandered around and looked at stuff. For some reason I wish I was in elementary school so I could make a California mission model out of the supplies they have. I'm not even interested in missions, what's up with that?

You probably aren't interested much in guns, but I like guns. I like stuff that is utilitarian and mechanical, like motorcycles, knives, guns. I don't HAVE any of those (Well, I have a knife) . but I like them. Even though a friend was accidently killed by her son with a gun, in a tragic handgun accident a few years ago. Anyway, the Bike Riding Donut Guy has this story (scroll down to "How Not To Clean A Gun" buried in one of his posts. He says it's from another site, but I can't find it to give credit. I thought it was pretty funny. And instructive.

A Rose By Any Other...

OK, inquiring minds have asked about the flower press.

We will get to that.

First of all, I must admit that, due to my incompetence, I was only able to press one flower, my lapel rose. All the other roses spoiled. My fault. I accept total blame in this matter.

Please remember you can clicky on the images to zip to my zooomr page and view the images in larger sizes. The last two images are especially better, bigger.

Here's the press, all its flower-crushing glory:

The wingnuts hold the whole thing together nicely, with tension being infinitely adjustable.


Let us observe the various layers inside:

Plywood for crushing flatness, cardboard for cushioning, blotting paper to soak up the juices.


Let's open it up:

It certainly is flat!


Let us take a closer look at the crushed flower:

Yes, I would said it is totally crushed flat!


Here is an interesting shot using that flash setting I always use by misteak:

Psychedelica!!

And here is pretty much what we end up with:

Not too bad, I'm thinking! I've heard roses are hard to press. I believe it!

Now I need a shadow box to mount it in, with a bit of the bride's veil.

Rest Day

Layed around the house all day today, reading A Better Part Of Valor, by Tanya Huff. This is the second book in A Confederation Of Valor. Military Science Fiction, pretty good stuff.

A Quote I liked (Paraphrased, from memory): He looked pretty depressed, for a species that invented flavored massage oil before the wheel.

Got the roof on the Fallberg Station over the last week. Getting short of Tenax plastic glue, so had some adventures getting enough glue on the rafters to secure them. Also, had a MAJOR PANIC when I thought I had used the wrong material for the rafters. Thankfully, it turned out I was mistaken.

There's another angle of the station on my zooomr page, somewhere.

I also oiled the chain on the Schwinn.

Flower Power

We visited the Birmingham Botanical Gardens on the trip to Alabama.

The pics are posted at zooomr, just click on the picture below to go there.

This is probably the best pic of the lot. My pics don't do it justice, it's really a beautiful place.
I also made a SmartSet of the pics, but it may or may not work, according to the vageries of zooomr.

Odometer Reading

I just turned of 3,000 miles on the vehicle the other day, that's in a year and an half of driving.

And it already had 500 on it when I bought it.

I need a serious discount on my insurance, I'm thinking!

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The ten pictures of our visit to Oak Mountain State Park a couple weeks ago are up.

Please click on the image to visit my zooomr page, wander around, try the SmartSets and see if they work for you.

More pictures

As I mentioned before, we visited Vulcan Park in Birmingham on a Sunday a couple weeks ago. I finally posted the pictures! Visit my zooomr page, if you dare, wander around and see the pics in all their glory!

I made a "set" for them, but Zooomr sets don't seem to work too well, so often other people's pics get in there, even though I limited the set to my own pics. And sometimes MY pics don't get in there!! Wierdness! I hope they can fix it, or explain to me what I'm doing wrong.

Stationary

Not much going on with the station, but before the trip I glued on the roof.

20007Mar25station Hosted on Zooomr

I got some grey pastels, I'm going to try to "individualize" the rocks a little. We shall see...

Motorbikes!

We visited the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum in Alabama last Sunday.

Tons of bikes! Really an amazing place, if you like motorcycles, I highly recommend it!

Click on the picture to visit my zooomr photos. Wander around, there are 17 more pictures from the museum.

Dining Out

CAUTION, THIS POST IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AS MY COMPANIONS CORRECT MY INDCREDIBLY HIDEOUS MEMORY!!

So, where did we eat on the trip? Let us see:

Thursday

T.G.I Fridays in the Dallas/Fort Worth airport -- I had a Caesar salad, and we shared an order of potato skins. Very good!

Taqueria Valencia in Pelham -- I had a "Quesadilla Chica", which for some reason I thought meant "Chicken Quesadilla", so when the guy asked me what kind of meat I wanted I kept saying "Chica", so I'm sure he thought I was California Wierd!

Friday

Moe's Southwest Grill in Alabaster -- I enjoyed a Sherman Klump quesadilla. Very messy! A fun place, check out their website.

Cracker Barrel in Calera -- After the wedding rehersal we all went here for a late dinner. I've heard about this restaurant, but never been here, as they don't have any locations in California. I ordered a Half Pound Bacon Cheeseburger, low-carb style, with a side of sweet whole baby carrots. Afterwards we decided to have separate checks, so it took longer to pay than to eat, almost! The cashier was overjoyed, I'm sure, as she had to call for assistance to figure out the bills.

Saturday

I had a granola bar for brunch. Yikes!

At the wedding reception we had a marinated meat that was really good, with some homemade salsa. Really good stuff! I also had a piece of wedding cake.

Sunday

Ruby Tuesday in Pelham -- We were too late for the breakfast menu, so I had a Smokehouse Burger with cheese, bacon and barbeque sauce. Pretty good stuff.

Ted's Montana Grill on the Riverchase Galleria perimeter road in Hoover-- We wandered around the town trying to find a place we all could live with, and ended up here. I'm glad we did! Our server, Krystal, was very attentive and the manager checked several times to see how we were doing. The food was really good, and the price was very reasonable, I thought, and I'm pretty cheap! We were offered a free appetizer, pickled cucumber. It was very tasty. I had my usual diet cola to drink, and ordered a New Mexico Chicken Grill with a side of onion rings.

Monday

Waffle House in Pelham -- I had an omelet, hash browns, and grits. The omelet was not as good as here, but the hash browns and grits were pretty good.

Villa Fresh Italian Kitchen in the Atlanta airport
I had a slice of pizza. It was big and bready, not bad for airport pizza!

Delta Airlines snacks -- I had some cheese and crackers, shortbread cookies, and trail mix, washed down with Diet Coke. I don't want to think about my glucose level!

We're Back!

As you know, I traveled to Alabama this last weekend. My primary concern was to avoid unpleasant accidents, so I didn't drink any coffee for five days. It was tough. Here is what I discovered during the trip:

Bathroom Report:

Aircraft: Didn't have to use. Wow!
Dallas/Fort Worth airport: Semi-nasty!
Travelodge--Pelham: OK, odd flushing, no spare roll of paper first day.
Peavine Falls porta-potty: Very nasty!
Moe's Southwest Grill--Alabaster: Very clean.
Walmart-Pelham: Very clean.
Birmingham airport--Ok, but those automatic flushers scare me!

We stayed at the Travelodge in Pelham, Alabama. There was a big window looking out the back towards the trees, which in turn concealed a river my scout reported.

One odd feature of the room were the pictures on the wall. Two of the same picture!

On Friday we went shopping at the Wall Mart. I noticed that front license plates are not required in Alabama.

I also noted that women call you "hon" and "baby" a lot, and that men say "ma'am".

Later we drove to the site of the reception to help set up. We stopped at Moe's Southwest Grill for lunch. It was a pretty fun place. Along the way we saw some trains.

There are a lot of train tracks going every which-a-way, probably hauling the products of the many quarries in the area. I learned that "Calera" means limestone in Spanish.

After the wedding on Saturday we headed to the reception, going through said town of Calera. More train tracks!

I saw this old drug store. I remember when we had Rexall in San Diego, but haven't seen one in years.

The traffic lights are strung on wires across the streets and their positioning seems odd to me. I noticed they don't have a traffic light at the side of the street like we do in San Diego. Several times I didn't even notice there was a light at an intersection! Good thing I wasn't driving!

On Monday we had breakfast at the Waffle House in Pelham.

I had an omelet and hash browns, and of course GRITS! The omelet was rather different than ones out here, not that wonderful, but the hash browns were excellent. I enjoyed the grits, too, haven't had those in a long time. My companions had pecan waffles. Those looked pretty good. I wish I could have had some coffee, but sadly I've been avoiding it for the last week. Did I mention that already?

After that we visited the Vulcan statue in Birmingham, then turned in the car and flew away.

I've lots of pictures of the statue area, views of Birmingham from up high, and of Sunday when we went to the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum, the Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark (bought a miniature bar of pig iron!), and the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. But we shall save that for another day, when I get around to posting the pics.

Leavin', On A Jet Plane

Kinda hate that song. MY song is more "Sister Ray".

Went to radiation, per usual, today. Parked in the parking garage (LOVE the free parking pass!!). Ran down the hill after treatment to pick up a prescription. Observed guy running the stop sign. Ran (well, walked briskly) back up the hill, including the stairs. My Stairmaster! JUST missed seeing a guy coming in the "In" gate in a truck, not clearing the gate and BREAKING IT OFF! How cool that would have been! After watching and waiting for the attendant to pick up the pieces, made a right turn out the "Out" gate and stopped. Watched a guy back up about a hundred feet on the road, in what seemed to me to an unsafe manner. I mean, some people run stop signs!

That's about the high points of today! If I think of anything else, I'll add it later!

Can't Think Of A Title!

Not too much going on. Buying clothes, shoes, going to radiation, getting ready for the BIG TRIP. No, not THAT big trip, the one to Alabama! You kidder, you!!

The Fallberg Station project is coming along slowly but shirley.

It getting pert near roof time. Before that I need to install the door and windows frames, which have been painted an odd shade of green that I mixed.

That's all for this week!

What's Up

Instead of using my spare time in some useful manner increasing my wealth, or bicycling, I'm spending a few moment here and there building yet-another-building for the model railroad. This one is the Fallberg Station from Downtown Deco. I bought it last year. It took me a year to work up the gumption to put it together. Step one is to glue the four Hydrocal castings together. I already messed THAT up!

Apparently, according the directions, there are not only left and right sides, there are front and back sides.

Huh.

Apparently, also, I can't read, because I missed that little bit of information.

I don't think it will make a lot of difference to the untrained eyes that will view my finished product, but it's kind of an insult to the craftsman who meticulously designed the kit, don't yah think?

I just ran spell check on this, there were seven errors. Can you guess which seven words were wrong? Hint: three of them were the same word.

I just finished spraying the castings with flat white paint, prior to putting some color on them. (By the way, as I type, my fingers are sticking to the keyboard because, also apparently, I have white paint on them. Huh.)

Well, other than that, things are going ok. The radiation doctor said she was cool with the trip, that I was experiencing side effects in accord with expectations, so everything is good. In case you wanted to know, my "nether regions" are feeling much better today, thank you very much!