YT-1300 Corellian light freighter

My phone died last week, so I was looking for a way to keep occupied in the evenings. I came across the metal earth model kits the in-laws got me last Christmas that for whatever reason I just hadn't found time to work on yet. This seemed like as good a time as any.

So no phone meant no build shots, but I have plenty of finished shots once I finally got my new phone and had a camera to play with.

Some of these pieces were crazy small! I wish I had build shots just to document how insane some of these were.

I've build major pieces of furniture, and parts of this were driving me crazy. I guess my beefy hands are better suited for rougher work.

But in the end it doesn't look too bad.

Here's a butt shot. The struts those landing feet are on were insanely tiny. That was probably the hardest part of the build.

With this one done, I also have a batmobile and Iron Man set to maybe build. We'll see. And in bigger news, I'd like to build the girl a desk at some point. I better get crackin' while I have some time before my next classes start.

Holy god it's too early for this

Yeah I'd like it to be June please.

Travel cocktails for the holiday

Whew!

Between writing a strategy document/presentation at work and the first chapter of a dissertation for school, November really got away from me this year. So I haven't had much time to work on anything, but I did make sure to grab a travel cocktail kit to make sure I had something to drink over Thanksgiving.

There's no shame in needing an extra drink or two over the holidays, and I've traveled enough to know that I want to have a specific kind of drink at the end of a long day. So I was optimistic a travel old fashioned kit would help alleviate that feeling. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't as good as home either.

I ended up cramming two kits worth of supplies into one tin, just in case. I was glad I did b/c I got a little more mileage out of them this way. Re-using a glass that somehow found its way to the room after the bar helped too.

For some reason, they came with cane sugar vs regular or super fine. Cane is good for coffee, not so much for cocktails.

But the bitters were fine, and the spoon is handy, so my happiness at using the kit outweighed being annoyed by the kind of sugar. And besides, it's easy enough to grab some of the coffee supplies to supplement the drink.

I would recommend them, if only to make traveling a little more pleasant.

Final costume updates, just in time!

October really got away from me this year. Between the wife out for her annual conference and a couple of long papers, I was hard pressed to find the time to finish everyone's costumes this year. But I got them done, just in time.

All the boy needed was an extra snap on his wings to make them fit a little tighter. I sewed a set onto this chest strap and viola, wings are ready.

The girl went back and forth on a couple of ideas this year, but once she realized she could dress up as Poppy her mind was made up. And with the right clothes already purchased there really wasn't much left for me to do for her.

Some white adhesive felt and viola, one Poppy dress.

It looks like it will at least stay dry for trick or treating if not warm, we'll see how everyone likes their costumes when they're squeezed on over more layers.

Costume updates

I had a day off coming, so not only was I able to get some more tape, I also had a flash of inspiration on how to add a tail to the wings. There was plenty of scrap (hooray) foam board after cutting the wing out, and two of them looked vaguely tail-like.

So why not put them together and tack on a tail?

This tail ended up changing shape slightly; I added a dorsal fin to tape over and give it some shape, but I also trimmed the sides down so it was less of a bee sting and more of a flight stabilizer.

Of course, once this was covered in tape it was less useful. 

Cut out a little notch to put it on and once I had more tape, it was ready to go on.

All it needs now is some elastic straps as arm bands, a bit of flame on the end and viola, one charizard costume.

Did this cost more than a store bought? Probably. But I have to say these wings look a lot better than the store bought ones. If the kids are into it, might as well give them something that wows 'em and makes it hard to walk through doors.

Forget energy drinks. Halloween gives you wings

The trouble with taking classes in October is that despite having some rather lengthy assignments due, I'd much rather sit down and work out how to make the boy his Charizard costume this month. So after cranking out some truly dreadful papers, I sat down to watch football and put some wings together.

With last week's plan, I figured if I found the right colored duct tape I could build some wings out of whatever and just cover them to make them match. So viola, two foam board zip-tied together to make wings.

Before I got too far into those, I wanted to put eyes, horns, and fangs on the hat I had picked up. Don't ask me why, but I got foam this year instead of felt, so things are a little stiffer to work with.

The horns are just paper covered in the duct tape, but they're staying on alright so far. The eyes could be a problem though.

Is this identifiable as a charizard? I'm not saying. 

The boy was happy though, so I moved onto the wings. I had a couple of different patterns in mind, but ultimately thought a simple one was better, and easier to keep symmetrical. I traced it on paper and then onto the board on both sides to cut out. Then it was time to duct tape. Thankfully I had some good football to watch this weekend.

The wife brought up a good point right about then, suggesting that a 6-year old walking with a 4-foot wingspan might be frowned upon at an elementary school. So I came up with the idea of bending the wings back and using a wire hanger to keep them in the same shape. Makes it look a little more natural but also lets him fit through doors. This is the kind of troubleshooting I love at halloween.

Couple of snips and we're in business. 

As much fun as I was having at this point, one roll of orange was not enough, so I'm in a holding pattern until I can find time to go hunting for a second one. But I need to get some elastic too to actually put the wings on anyway, so I will probably be going shopping soon.

All the girl needs at this point is white felt added to her pink and blue clothes we bought for her Poppy costume, so that might not get any photos until actually trick or treating. But I can't wait to finish these wings and see if we built an honest to goodness pokemon.

costume time

The boy is SUPER into pokemon at the moment, and wants to be something called a charizard for halloween. Oh joy.

So here's the plan:

Buy orange clothes, including a hat.

Add felt/foam eyes, horns, and fangs to the hat.

Build wings somehow. Make them orange and blue.

Let him enjoy whatever weird Japanese thing he's into at the moment. He's six for god's sake.

The girl is another story. She keeps going back and forth between Mike Wazoski and Poppy, and just needs to make up her mind in time for me to figure something out. I like to give her space to figure it out herself, but time is money here kid.

Eh, what do I care. As long as they actually wear what I make, as opposed to refusing to like they have in the past, I'm good to go.

Hello fall

Troll hunting, apple picking, that was a fall-ish weekend.

That's quite orange, even if it's not quite jack-o-latern size.

Looking out for fall at the arboretum. 

There might be some costume making in my future, is somehow I find extra hours in the day.

Back to the grindstone

Woof. It was a little more difficult than I expected to get to work today after two long garage sale days. Of course that bed-wetting of a Bears game last night is not helping.

A much nicer day didn't seem to help with our selling as the day went on. Most of the leftover big stuff was still there when we wrapped up yesterday, but there is some online interest in the bike trailer thanks to craigslist. We took the smaller stuff we could pack up straight to good will last night, now we just need to get the big stuff out of the way.

Kind of gross to sell a mattress but the frame has lots of life left. 

sad Harbor Freight bike rack needs a new home. 

But the trains sold, and more clothes and small goods, so all in all we made almost $500 for the weekend. Not bad. And despite the mess the third garage is in right now, there's lots of room in the main garage again, which means I can start looking for a leaf blower to take up more space. Ah, suburban life. Next thing I know I'll be cleaning the garage again.

But I can get the bike in and out, so it's all good.

Maybe the crappy signs actually worked

Whew. Garage sale, day one, in the books.

The night before

And it was a success in that both bikes sold, and enough other stuff that we've built a small profit that makes me glad I did this. Despite a cloudy day that felt like it could turn into a rainy one at any point, we stayed dry and sold some good stuff. All the ND jerseys, both Bears jackets. The snow blower and the old corded mower.

The rush hour was already gone at this point, and the beater went soon after. 

Now I just have to unload the elliptical. The toddler bed. The wine butler. The bike trailer. Yikes, that feels like a long list.

But the bikes went to a good home. The same home, actually, a few hours apart. An older guy took the Raleigh down but his wife told him not to. So he came back later and bought it in his own. And then he came back and bought the beater a few hours later. My kind of guy. What does it say about me that most of my stuff sold to older suburban guys who were very excited to buy my clothes and gear? I don't know. I guess I'm an old man. 

OMG someone PLEASE buy these trains!

Lots of trains to sell too, but it'll give me and the boy more time to throw the football around so it's all good. One more early coffee run and we'll be ready to go.

DIY sign posts

If we're having a garage sale, one thing we need is garage sale signs. So I picked up some cheap ones, and spent a few minutes making some stakes with all the scrap I've got around.

I was tempted for about a millisecond to just buy a handful of the thin stakes in a bucket right next to these signs, but then I realized the whole point of a sale is making some extra cash getting rid of stuff, not buying more things I could easily do myself.

Six signs are perhaps a few too many, but I can double up on them and have them somewhere people can see them from both sides. Viola!

Between a few pieces of plywood and some split 2x4 chunks, I have plenty of stuff already looking vaguely stake-like. All I had to do was trim it and put a point on it.

With these in hand and most of our prep work done, I think we're nearly ready to host a sale. Fingers crossed we don't have to postpone a week b/c of rain!

Labor Day weekend project: put our bedroom tv up

Ah, Labor Day. One last gasp of summery goodness without the hassle of getting to soccer games, work, school, or anything else. So of course I'm cramming the weekend full of garage sale prep. And it just wouldn't be labor day without sneaking in one more side project. So why don't we put the bedroom tv up on the wall?

This actually came about thanks to the garage sale, in that the in-laws had an un-used mount they were going to contribute to the sale, but we thought we'd grab it and use it ourselves. So I picked up another cable management kit during the week and viola, one labor day weekend project.

The tv is a sony bravia from about 7 years ago at this point, and beside occasionally dropping picture for what seems to be no reason it's been solid. I like our cheap TCL in the basement better but this works. With a new roku on it I love it these days, Ventures Bros marathon every night! It was up on the wall in our condo but has been on a dresser since we moved. There are minimal components to connect but if the tv is going on the wall why not go all the way and hide the wires properly.

Properly means a power bridge and sneaking the hdmi cords down the wall. Easy.

Breaking the drywall saw while trying to cut the hole out? Less easy. 

Finding studs and marking the bracket. Not so easy! Of course the studs are apparently randomly spaced.

Getting everything back on and powered up. Again, not so easy. Accidentally bent the pins on a cord, so we're down to just the Roku for now. Dammit.

Well, I was pretty close to not screwing this one up. Got the bracket on easy, power bridge in fine, even remembered to tie the cables together to get them through. At least we can still use it as I wait for new hdmi cords to show up.

Clear out the garage

August has really gotten away from me. I have another project on the agenda, but before I get started I wanted to clear out the garage. Time for a garage sale!

We've spent the 2 1/2 years in the new house dropping off a truly copious number bags at goodwill. They make it so easy with the drive up window. But I have some larger items I want to get rid of, including the wine butler I just copied the t-racks from and a few bikes I no longer see myself riding. The wife has her doubts, but she's given me the go-ahead to throw a sale the weekend after Labor Day. Woo hoo!

Cleaned and lubed. Time to find her a good home. 

Goodbye, artifact of our 20's. 

Name your price!

So between now and then I have to clean up some of the other stuff we're going to put out, like getting all the stickers off the kids' old toddler bed. Then I get to scour the house for other stuff to round out the sale, and the boy is even thinking of putting his Thomas trains in. We'll have to negotiate on who gets those funds, it's never too early to talk about the value of a dollar.

Doing this on top of wrapping up two more classes, including two 10+ page papers and a narrated presentation, it feels like we have a lot going on right now. But I don't see much harm in adding one more thing. Especially if it gives me an excuse to drink outside while we have it.

Pumpkin update

Turns out they make those garden tags for a reason.

Yes, those are apparently heirloom jack-o-latern pumpkins, and should be getting much bigger. I have my doubts but they're already sugar pumpkin size and should not be that shade of green if they are, so we'll see.

It's fun seeing them get bigger though! Now they just need to get some sun and turn orange. Based on how quickly this summer went it'll be October before we know it so hopefully we have some home grown pumpkins to carve after all our other fall stuff.

We've got pumpkins?

I haven't posted any gardening updates this summer, in part b/c we haven't had much success. Our pumpkin vines kind of took over the entirety of the garden box, to the point of the carrots didn't get enough sun, only two cucumbers made it to the trellis, and even the tomatoes and peppers seemed to struggle in their racks. But it might all be worth it based on what I noticed out grilling last night and checked out this morning...

Everything is out of control in our yard this summer. 

 Yup, I believe that's a pumpkin.

That should be one too.

Woo hoo!

The wife is taking credit for that one at the top, having tried to hand pollinate that vine herself. I didn't really track who was pollinating what, and at this point I don't really care. But there were a bunch of bees out when I took these this morning, so they probably get some of the credit. I'm just hoping these last the next few months and I can make a pie out of them. I think we planted sugar pumpkins, fingers crossed.

This might make more work for me next summer; it's clear that pumpkins are a little much for our single gardening box. There were even some more cucumbers out that we had missed, under all the pumpkin leaves.

Gives "hide the cucumber" a whole new meaning. 

It might be time to make more boxes and space them out a little bit. Good, I'll add it to my list for next year.