Aimee Mullins talks about her legs...

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/482

For you tool geeks, the PATINA old tool sale and auction is happening again this year on Saturday, March 14th in Damascus, MD.  Not sure if I'm going this year; don't really have anything on my shopping list, but it's a good place to pick up cheap usable hand tools.

For you woodworking types out there, Peter Follansbee has the most amazing blog for his joinery and furniture projects:

http://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/

Finally some winter weather to warrant firing up the wood stove.  Of course, getting the draft going up a 3-story cold, metal-lined chimney was a little slow, resulting in a distinct smokiness throughout the house.  Stringmonkey charitably offered that it reminded her of Jamestown.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Yippie Yule, and Have a Krazy Kwanza!

I complain a lot.  More than I should.  So today I'll just shut up and thank all our friends for being such a smart, talented, interesting, challenging, and supportive bunch.  You guys totally rock.

Next year, less complaining.

I don't know if its the short days or the frightening unemployment numbers that are dragging on me.  1.3 million jobs in 3 months?  Makes me think we're in for a long cold recession as both families and businesses cut back on spending and hunker down to wait for better days.  I've been through a couple of these before, but this one feels like it's gonna be particularly ugly given how over-extended so many people got in the last decade. 

But on the bright side, I filled my truck for less than $40 yesterday. 

Good luck y'all. 

It was down to Jamestown on Thanksgiving morning for a couple of days of volunteering at the fort.  On the whole things were good: the weather was pleasant, we had good crowds, and got to spend time with old friends and new.  There ended up being less actual food processing this year, so when not making sausage I did relief in the Governor's house, military demonstrations, and general Q&A with the visitors.  The bummer is that the state budget cuts are hitting them hard, which I guess is good inspiration to make an effort to get down there more next year and help out.  I understand that a museum isn't as high a priority as health and public safety, but I still hate to see them have to make such hard choices and lose good experienced people.

In the shop, the tent frame is just about ready for paint and finish. 

Ah, vacation.  Yesterday I worked from home, but today I did not crack open the laptop and did my best to ignore work.  Spent the morning getting new tires and brakes for the Herkimer Battle Jitney and a quick grocery run.  And despite my amazing talent for sloth, I have even managed to get a few things done in the shop...

( Project pictures... )

Thursday we're off to Jamestown to cut up some piggies and eat good food with friends.  I really like the Foods and Feasts event; and no, we're NOT pilgrims.  We good little Anglicans out to make a buck, eh, pound.

That is all.

Okay, no high excitement to report, but a quiet weekend around the house doesn't exactly suck either.  We wimped out on Halloween; I did a semi-lame Men-in-Black costume for our work party, but otherwise we stayed in and hide while the ghouls and goblins roamed.  I've gotten to where if I can't invest the proper time and energy, I'd rather just skip it.  My 12-year-old self would be appalled. Saturday was mulching the beds, sweeping, and researching some possible projects.  I've been playing at some relief and chip carving lately, something small to keep the hands busy when not working on bigger things.  Today I spent most of the day on web site maintenance.  I've neglected it mightily over the past year, but I intend to get better with updates.  First was to update the Recommended Reading page with some new acquisitions (by the way for those of you who haven't heard, Roy Underhill has a new book out).  I'm also going to start transitioning from the Google Ads.  The ad pool has gotten really lame, and the payments are getting pretty thin.  Not that it really matters much, but I do like having a hobby site that basically pays for our net access and web sites. 

And now just two more days....

Friday was a fine lazy day to celebrate our anniversary.  Friday's anniversary dinner was outstanding.  It makes me sad that fresh oysters now have to come from across the continent, but sucking down Kepone just doesn't appeal to me these days. The braised rabbit was excellent, neither fussy nor gamey.  Sometimes it does not suck to be us.

Saturday was a day to play catch-up on domestic chores.  The shrubbery and ivy got a haircut. we got our flu shots, and I worked on getting our wireless network sorted out, reinstalling software on the new Mini, and getting set up so I can do updates on my web site.  I've been horribly remiss on doing any updates, need to find the time to spend on it.  Unfortunately the shop reorg is also about done, so I can either go play, or write about playing.  Gee, which?

Sunday we went out to Bull Run Park for a family picnic with various family and extended family.  It was a nice day to sit outside, even with the mosquitos and pop-pop from the shooting center.  But now it's back to work.  At least it will be a short week; we're off Friday to go down to Mousehole.  Should be fun.

Had a good time yesterday at the "MTA" in Charlottesville. This year was a little different from the last time I went a couple of years ago; fewer participants, no admission, and and inclusion for non-military and non-American presenters. Demonstrations went from Roman to modern, with Gardner's company fielding pike and shot for the demos and weaving, cooking, woodworking, and barber-surgeon for civilian activities.

I learned that spoon-carving is a great draw for kids. For some reason they were riveted by the making of great quantities of shavings, despite the frequent asking of "Are you almost done yet?" I'm finding spoon-carving good handwork for events, and considerably less effort than packing up and hauling the lathe.

( Pictures behind the cut... )

Okay, this is kinda funny...

The Photo meme that some others have done:
1. Take a picture of yourself right now.
2. Don't change your clothes, don't fix your hair...just take a picture.
3. Post that picture with NO editing.
4. Post these instructions with your picture.



Hey, it didn't say it had to be your face.

While waiting for the shuttle bus at the airport, I ran into Alison Janney's identical twin sister.

baskervylle has a clone who works as a desk clerk at a Paris hotel.

Prince Charming works on our customer's project team.

Jack Lalanne's somewhat younger French cousin works on our project team.

Marc works as a United Airlines flight attendant.

Managed to make appropriate holes and get the dust collector hooked up to the lathe bench.  It does move some air. Next steps: build carts for the table saw and drill press, hang some more pegboard, put up a lumber rack (design TBD), build a dust hood for the lathe, do some more painting, move around the shelving units, etc. etc. ad nauseum.

Someday I will get back to real projects; the domed arming tent still has much work to be done and there's a long list of things I want to build after that. 

The web site is long overdue for some serious updates.

Damn, how long until retirement? Making a living sure gets in the way of having fun.