Pie in the Face

GP was the Den 11 popcorn sales leader, so he got to smash a pie in the face of the pack cubmaster. Fun! Fun!

HE Lives!

The FSM is coming to life on the Tempest machine! I think HE will look much better than the original demons.

The side art is going SLOW. As usual, I underestimated the effort. The good news is that I'm making progress. In another week I should have most of one side complete.

RAmen

Mame Cabinet Paint

Today I tore down the Mame cabinet and relocated it into the basement. It's too cold in the garage to play or work. The 22" monitor needs to be remounted more securely. JP doesn't like how it's mounted now. She doesn't like it so much that she offered to buy me a new 22" LCD display. Where was this offer before I jumped into CRT repair? Now that I have the CRT working, there's no way I'm going to abandon it.

I have been searching desparately for som hi-res side art pictures of a Tempest cabinet. The best I found is 500 x 1000 pixels (0.5 megapixels). I tweaked it a bit so that it just shows the lines between different colors and printed it out full-size. It came out 5 sheets wide by 8 sheets tall. I trimmed the sheets and taped them together then used JP's steam iron to transfer the ink onto the side panel. It almost worked as I had hoped. The lines are barely visible, and the paper stuck to the wood in some spots.

I got the orange outlines painted tonight. It's going to be a challenge, but I think I will be able to pull it off. The original design has several mean-looking demons in the middle. I'm going to try to swap them out for the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Webelos Naturalist

Saturday, I took CP out to Pioneers Park to earn his Naturalist pin. The park has several programs tailored to the scout program requirements. We had a guide that showed us all the natural things outside. I was really impressed with his knowledge.

Last weekend, it was nearly 80 with blue skies. This weekend it was in the 30's with a solid 25 mph wind. We dressed for it, but I would still prefer something warmer, sunnier, or less windy for a three hour walk in the woods.

The boys got baclavas this year. They wear them everywhere. I'm surprised that they don't sleep with them.

Windless Rocket Morning

This morning we had blue skies, frost (supposed to hit 75 today), and absolutely no wind. I loaded up all of our rockets and the boys and headed to the outskirts of town (a mile away) to launch our big E-powered rocket.

Hobbytown has all of their Aerotech rocket motors on sale for 50% off. I picked up an E-15. Wow! I'm ready for some more big rockets. This one is about 5 feet tall, and it flies really well. It's so big, you can see it during the entire flight. The E engine makes up for the weight, and it probably goes as high as our little rockets.

The E engine doesn't roar like an H or J, but it does shoot out a nice flame for quite a while. We ended up shooting this one three times. On the last shot, it returned to the pad, and I was able to catch it before it hit. Niiiiice.

We also launched two stages of the Comanche-3. The booster used a D-12, which popped 2 of the three fins off when it staged. For some reason, the rocket curved from vertical when it cleared the pad, and it landed half a mile away, even with a streamer recovery.

What a fun day!

Halloween 2008

This year, the boys didn't do much for Halloween. GP recycled his A. Skywalker costume, and CP put together his army clothes and went as a soldier. We toured the 'hood with our neighbors and their kids. The best house was GT's, where we all got Budweiser products. The best costume was our next door neighbor, who went as that maverick, Sarah Palin.

Gimpy Hairwash

With his cast on, GP cannot wash his own hair, so he gets the same treatment as the dog.