pdlnpeabody

I had to get a loan to fix my car. The bill for a new motor and other items damaged by the dealer is going to cost $12,174 to fix. Even if I didn't have an additional year of payments left on the car, a used one will cost around $36,000, so fixing the old one is my only option. The good news is that I was able to get the loan, I should have a tax return arriving soon and my contract gig called me this weekend with some non-legal work to do, so I have a work-around to earn some extra income without violating my employer's non-legal work restrictions. On another note, I'm taking the family to Orlando to see my sister next weekend. She lives in Kentucky, so I haven't seen her in almost 5 years. My wife and I just found out that she has bought tickets for all of us to go to EPCOT. My kids think we're taking them to Disney Springs. They always enjoy going to Disney Springs (we always go at least once while in Orlando). The last time we went to EPCOT as a family was 10 years ago. I only had three kids and they were all too young to remember it. Our trip to the Philippines in 2019 opened them to the much larger world out there and they want to visit more countries, so they should appreciate the opportunity to at least meet people from 10 other countries, even if it's just a Disney-made world's fair of sorts.

I spent most of the day dealing with my car and kitchen sink. The aerator in our kitchen sink broke off several weeks ago and I've been looking everywhere for a new one that fits. After buying several adapters that ultimately didn't fit, I discovered that unlike all sink faucets sold in the U.S., ours is an odd size and isn't even threaded. I'm beginning to think the homebuilder bought everything from China in odd sizes that aren't compatible with anything and paid off the building inspector to get it passed. My 2016 minivan nearly caught on fire while my wife was driving home last week and we found a little surprise from the dealer. When I opened the hood, I discovered that all of the caps to the various reservoirs, coolants, etc., had been deliberately left open last May, they did not change the oil (but charged me for it) and sabotaged the car enough that we blew a head gasket. The shop we had it towed to said we would need a new engine, but they don't have any master mechanics to do the work, so we have to have it towed again. The dealership charged me $1,680 to sabotage my car. I picked up copies of the service records from the dealership and will be calling an attorney on Monday. Vandalism of a conveyance is a felony in Florida. I'll probably have to take out an additional loan just to cover the costs of the repair. I'm wondering if the car's scrap value would be enough to cover the balance I still owe on it. Luckily I still have my Harley to ride to work every day, but it won't be of any use if I need to take the entire family anywhere and the 300 miles of riding to and from work every week will eventually lead to additional repair bills. At least the weather had been good for riding.

I had a bad experience with tape wiring that other house builders warned me about, so I only use wire now. One other mistake I made was overthinking the wire. I wasted too much time researching wire load/diameter before realizing that dollhouse shops sell wire specifically for dollhouses. Soldering the wire takes a little practice (you have to heat up the wire before the solder will bond to it), but it's fairly quick and easy. The tape wire I used on my first house failed within two years of installation. The round wire I replaced it with in 2007 is still working perfectly. One problem you may encounter with a traditionally build dollhouse is finding places to hide it. I know there are some baseboards and crown molding that come with channels already cut out, but I couldn't find any practical use for them. Wood framing is my preferred building method, but that takes a lot more time and work to fabricate. Lights really do make a house "pop".

After my brother's outcome, I'm sure we wouldn't have had a mild experience if we hadn't been vaccinated. My boss has cancer. She was in a car accident last year (rear-ended by a hit & run driver) that required spinal surgery for crushed vertebrae. While she was recovering from that, an uncomfortable lump on her neck grew and became intolerable. In true University of Florida fashion, her "doctor" (either an out of practice professor or inexperienced college kid) kept telling her it was nothing and to just take tylenol for it. After it devoured a salivary gland, she got a second opinion and had it removed. It was definitely cancer and it looks like they got all of it, but they're doing radiation just in case. It was while she was recovering from the 2nd surgery that she asked me to apply for a position at her office. She was the attorney who gave me my first legal assistant position in 2007. Now I'm her branch office Admin for the financial advising company we work for.

We're finally getting back to normal. About three weeks ago my eldest daughter came down with a sore throat and sniffles. child #2 and I started showing the same symptoms a few days later. Turned out that her friends at school who refuse to wear masks had Covid. All six of us caught it within a week. Luckily it was only worse than a cold but not quite as bad as the flu, so we're all ok. The two oldest kids are back at school and the younger two are still in quarantine until Feb. 7. Luckily we were all vaccinated, but it still fries my bacon that we got sick thanks to the foolish, self-absorbed carelessness of others. The other fortunate circumstance was that my boss was working out of town. I had to keep working since I'm the only other employee in the office, but I wasn't exposing anyone else. I did wipe down everything with alcohol every day and I'm still masking. She's getting radiation just in case the surgery missed any of her cancer, but she can not afford any risk of exposure. I had hoped to start a Youtube channel showing the progress and techniques used to repair the Victorian and finish the Tudor before starting my new job, but it didn't work out. My wife always had honey-dos when the kids weren't home and now I'm only home in the evenings. I don't have a quiet place to record, so the videos aren't happening. 😕

Kathie is right - it's ink. It takes so much longer than other mediums, but I like that the results are almost instant as it progresses. This is my third locomotive, but the first for this size. The other two are only 10" by 15". The other two 30" X 40" stipples were the downtown Tampa skyline i drew in college and a picture of a Honda Valkyrie motorcycle I drew in 1998, before I bought my first bike. it's framed and sitting over our fireplace.

So, a few years ago I realized that the kids were breaking all of my 3-D projects, so I started another stipple - my first in almost 20 years. It's of a locomotive. I may have mentioned it in another thread, but it probably belongs in here. It isn't finished by any means, but the bulk of the work is done on it. chat, but

Amazing. I doubt I would have the patience and problem solving skills for a puzzle like that.

I proofread the patent for one of the vaccines. I can't disclose which one since it would violate client confidentiality, but from what I read, the virus is disturbingly adaptive. Due to so many people listening to non-professionals and talking heads, it has mutated enough times to render the vaccines nearly moot, like flu vaccines in the fall. Everyone in my family has been vaccinated as it is far better than nothing, but with each new variant, it will become less effective. We're also still masking in public, avoiding crowds, etc.

sara_lee, I was in Singapore for a few hours in 2019, if you count wondering around the airport as actually being in-country. It was amazing from what we could see, but alas, it wasn't our final destination.

When I was maybe 5 years old we were getting ready to move out of an old house we had been renting in Puryear, Tennessee. My parents called us up into the attic, where I saw at least 6 or 7 little houses parked like cars along both lengths of the attic space. They mostly had cheap, plastic injection molded furnishings, but the idea of small versions of real things caught my imagination. Several decades, many model kits and a few construction trades later, I build a house. I built it the hard way, but I built it.

No major trips since our visit to the Philippines in June of 2019. It was an amazing trip. We mostly stayed at my FIL's summer condo overlooking the Taal volcano about 6 months before it erupted. I took pics of houses and other sights while we were there. Lots of inspiration for a future mini build. We even took home a little house (no interior) my wife's aunt had in her city house in Manila. She has even more mini houses in her county home to the north. We did go to a couple of secluded beaches here in Florida in May of 2020 and March 2021. We also rented a boat to go fishing in the gulf of Mexico in July 2020. Except for our two youngest kids, we're all fully vaccinated, but it looks like that was a temporary fix. It's still bad here in Florida. We'll never know how bad since the governor is doing everything to hide the numbers, including arresting people who try to tell the truth. I know that the hospital my wife works at is still over-run with Covid cases.

No! This is sad news indeed. I'm glad I got to meet him in person at the Chicago show in 2013. I remember him looking at my Tudor house and telling me that I was crazy. Probably one of the best possible compliments from such a master miniature artist. He will be missed.