1200 Miles West

Yes, I have a problem.  I am addicted to tools.  I do not discriminate - woodworking, metalworking, heck even yard work.

My frantic “We gots to go to University NOW!” was the result of me spying a nice deal for a MIG welder on Craigslist this afternoon.  A real Lincoln Electric including an Argon/CO gas cylinder.  Apparently my timing and tactic of offering slightly more than asking price was perfect because the seller said he got over 20 emails in the first couple of hours.

The transaction went smoothly other than Erin running extremely late and almost blowing the entire deal.  the seller was a nice kid on his way to grad school. He bought the welder to work on an old car but never really had the time.  The welder was in great shape.

Why do I need a welder one might ask?  Well, I have dreams of building a living, breathing live steam locomotive some day.  Like the kind these grown men play with at the Colorado Live Steamers just outside of Denver.  A welder is but one tool of the list of tools I need to pull that off.  A lathe and a mill among other things are also on that list.  Hopefully, over the next several months (spaced out lest I be sleeping in the garage with my beloved tools), I can spy more good deals on Craigslist.

My steam engine is not a weekend project.  I actually acquired the plans and some castings almost a year ago.  It will take quite a while to gather the tools and materials not too mention 100’s if not 1000’s of hours of turning, milling, welding, silver soldering, riveting, threading, bending, and cutting.  Good thing I have a patient spousal unit.

FAQ:

Does this mean I am not playing with my trains in the basement? - I will continue to work on my basement trains.  They each scratch a different itch.

Does this mean I am not building a garden railroad?  - Well… I can see the possibility of a small loop in the backyard at some point but this year I will be focused on Arbors and Trellis’s.

Will you drive the steam engine in the backyard? - The steam engine I want to build is big enough to ride on - about 4′ long and will weigh about 500 pounds.  It won’t fit in the backyard.  More than likely I will join the Colorado Live Steamers where they will have 2.5 miles of track.

Don’t you have enough hobbies - Woodworking, Model Trains, and now Metalworking? - Well true but you’ll notice that they follow a pattern - I like to build stuff with my hands.  Not sure why the force is strong but I enjoy it and get better with every new project.

When will you have time?  - Good question.  A little here, a little there, over the course of a lifetime it adds up.

Last night we attended the APEX awards at the EXDO Events Center. Indigio was nominated in multiple categories and we were awarded Best Tech Workplace.

Here are some snap shots from the evening…

The curly haired girls of Indigio - Teresa, Heather, me, Sara and Becki. Sara and Heather straightened their hair for the event, however they normally have curls like the rest of us!

During Tim’s acceptance speech, he thanked the CIA instead of CSIA…OOPS!

No, they aren’t the same pair…but their close!  Also, I’m not sure why Mike elected to take the picture at this angle, but it’s kinda cool.

Indigio designed all of the marketing materials for the event…way to go team, they looked awesome!

By adding the Tom Brady video/song to the blog, I have completely mucked up the layout of the site. Stay tuned as Mike won’t let me remove the video as he plans on watching it daily.

UPDATE - I’m by no means an HTML wiz, but I did finally figure out the how to fix the issue.  For those of you who didn’t see anything, just ignore this entry and skip to the next entry so that you can enjoy the Tom Brady song.

Our friend and former co-worker Cristine sent this World Clock link over to me and I thought it was interesting enough to share with everyone. Check it out and let me know what you think.  I was amazed by some of the categories and the numbers.

No mom, I am not going to rehab.

I am talking about Erin’s new found addition to Mario Galaxy. We have had the Wii for about six months now but really hadn’t played it that it much. That all changed for two reasons. One is the kids visit, of course. The other is that we purchased Mario Galaxy. Erin has been playing almost every free moment since. It is quite a riot to watch as she yells things like “Come on Mario!” at the TV. I think the kids think she may have lost it.

In other Wii news, we purchased Mario and Sonic at the Olympics. Our friends Tom and Dale had given it good reviews and we were looking for something with four player at the same time functionality. Some of the events are pretty fun but much of it comes down to shaking wimote and nunchuk as fast as possible. It gets tiring at times but is a good addition to Wii sports. I am unsure anything will supplant bowling as the game of choice. Especially now that Erin has attained ‘Pro’ status.

I really should know better given the business that I am in but it took a subtle kick in the pants in the form of the following blog post:

http://andrewhyde.net/simple-permalink-trick/ to get the links on the blog into a nice SEO friendly format.

The one hurdle I did run into was having to figure out why my .htaccess file was being ignored. Don’t forget about the AllowOverrides Apache directive! Mine was set to None by default which results in my .htaccess file being ignored and 404’s being returned instead of a nice blog post.