I never did like the jalousy windows in the house, and I think there were probably 4 different types of windows in the place when I got it, so I signed up with Sears home improvement to replace them all. I got all except one of the windows (8 of them) done, and the dude should be done with them this afternoon. I didn't do the one in the garage since I eventually am going to expand it, and I am planning on replacing the one facing my nearest neighbor's house with glass block or a prefab glass block panel because it looks right into their house, and vice versa.

Got some pictures in the gallery - house section.

Here's a late news flash. Right before I left on the trip I just came back from to Dublin and Venice, one of the 36" tires on the Suburban decided it didn't want to go to the airport with the rest of the truck... Well, the good news is, I now have the correct lug wrench in the truck to fit the metric nuts, and a block to put my short-ass jack on so I can actually get it far enough off the ground to change a tire. My eternal thanks to the Good Samaritan dude who stopped and helped me change it on the side of I-95 on a Sunday afternoon in the sun. Got some pics --->>>Oh, the ugliness! I'm going to be getting a pair of the same tires to replace the one that blew and have a matching spare. Expensive lesson learned - make sure the local hillbilly monster-truck dudes don't overinflate your huge-ass tires. At the end of the day, it's my fault for not checking them sooner - they were a little bouncy with 35+ PSI in them.

Oh yeah, you don't want to be anywhere around the (considerable) reach of a 36" tire tread flapping in the breeze after the sidewall lets go. The tread came loose much like a big-rig recap might and beat the shit out of everything it could reach before it wrapped itself around the axle and locked what was left of the tire. Big-ass tire tread - 1, cool exhaust - 0. Same results for rear quarter panel, wiring for license plate light, and damn near the stainless braided brake line.

Another revelation. I finally remembered how to fix the 'photo gallery' link at the top of this page, so now it's working again. Now, if I can just avoid screwing it up again somehow...

I also added an 'email' feature to the weblog, so if you see something particularly earth-shattering here someday, you can now email it to your friends, your mama, or even your mama's dog - if the dog has an email address.

That's all. Have fun with it!

Well, I'm in Dublin, Ireland right now doing an installation on a ship. The warehouse we're working in isn't open on the weekends, so I decided to do a little exploring around Dublin. Here's the highlight reel, but I suggest you go check it out in the photo album under 'travel photos'. I somehow found the High Street shopping area, without really knowing where the hell it was. Loads of cool stuff I can't afford right now, but I'll get the chance to go back before I leave. I stumbled around for a while, and found Dublin Castle, which was pretty cool. I even lucked into a sand sculpture exhibition in the castle courtyard that all my art buddies at The Dorsch Gallery would probably like. As usual, most of the pictures are of stuff that only interests me, although I did have the presence of mind to change the captions on them this time right away, so you might be able to have some kind of idea what they're supposed to be pictures of. Oh yeah, I almost forgot - I took a stroll through Alcoholic Hell, the temple bar section of Dublin. Probably 90% of the shops there were bars of some sort. And you were wondering how the Irish get a bad rap for being drunks...

A couple of neat 'bonus links' with more information about Dublin:
Softguides.com - Dublin
Lorkin's guide to Dublin

Killer Suburban Good....

Well, I've finally done it now. Due to the availability of a good used set of 36" tires from a friend of mine, I've started the lift on the Suburban. I can honestly say I probably don't want to do this one again. Plan 'A' was always to get the blue truck sorted out and then tackle the Sub with a 6" lift and bigger tires. It turned out that I wrecked the blue truck so that got sidelined, but now with the opportunity to get these tires, I've decided it's time to be a little nicer to the 'burb for a while.



Here's a shot of the rear springs and shackle flip completed. Still have to put the gas tank back in, torque everything down, and install the new shocks.

Just waiting for the van from the mental institution to come around the corner....

Found pictures! I'm so incredibly bored, I'm looking through my laptop and found some pictures from Juneau, Alaska I had never uploaded. Out on the Queen Mary 2 again for a video project for Electrolux. Going to try and win a new kitchen full of appliances - they're having a drawing. Hey, you never know.

The new pictures are in the photo gallery under 'travel pictures'. I was going to add a link here, but as it turns out, I'm an idiot. Can't remember how to get links to work right from the blog anymore. Oh well, looks like entertainment for tomorrow, then, doesn't it?

Okay, big day today. Took the entire front end back off of the truck, to replace the cab mounts. The front bumper hasn't lined up since I rebuilt the truck after the accident, and I noticed while working on the mirrors that the cab wasn't level relative to the bed. It seemed to me that if the driver's rear of the cab was low, it would make the passenger front fender high because it ultimately lines up off of the cab. So, off we go with the cab mounts. It turned out that the cab is actually damaged at the driver's rear, near the cab mount, so I shimmed it with a 3/16 plate and that leveled out the cab. Bolted everything else back up and aligned the hell out of it, and sure enough, the damn bumper still doesn't fit. There was a question about the radiator support mounts when I did that, and I used the later style ones, which are a little taller, so that may account for some of it, but the passenger side is definitely still screwy, which leads me to believe that the frame is tweaked. Oh well, when I get that far, the body shop will deal with it. I'm very close to having my bed cover lift working the way I want it to - took the weekend off of that to do the cab mounts, and I think I know how to build the hinges for the front hood after checking it out the other day. Got the milling machine set up and have been making some small parts, and just got though building a DRO for the mill. Have to buy scales to hook up to it, and then the mill should be pretty spiffy. Other than that, it's the usual circus around here.... Enjoy some pictures in the gallery - had the laptop doing a time-lapse style automatic photo thingy while I wasted my time today.

&. That's the answer. For nearly 3 weeks, my web page has been screwed because of a missing '&'. Good thing I'm not in this to make money, huh? I'd certainly have starved to death by now. Oh well, that being the case, we now return you to your regularly scheduled boredom. I should have some pictures from Hong Kong up in a few days, so at least you'll have that to look forward to.

Well, if you made it this far, you've figured out that I really screwed up somehow with the web page. I recently 'upgraded' some of the software that runs the page, and made some other changes, but it's gotten worse. It's not the absolute highest thing on my priority list right now, but I am waiting for assistance from the software guys to fix it. In the meantime, we'll all just have to click on the 'home' link in the main menu to get in. Frustrating? Yep.

Okay, lots of stuff going on now. I'm not smart enough to leave things alone, so now we have a lame-O banner above this. It stinks, but remember, it'll be your only way back here 'cause the whole web page is having a hard time getting back home. It'll pop up in a new window, but it's all good. Enjoy!

Well, 10 months later, I finally got tired of the missing stuff on the right-hand side of the page. I finally figured out how to fix it, and I've also enabled (and fixed all the other) theme changes. If you're a registered user, you can now change the theme of the site by clicking on the 'my account' link on the left. I wasn't able to change the PostNuke Silver theme, and I don't have all the pictures some of the themes require, so it may be sketchy. That's it for now, have fun with it, kids!

Here's a picture of the milling machine.



I won't exactly be making my own billet wheels anytime soon with it, but it's going to be good for stupid little machining projects, like slotting things and making bolt circles.

Here's a link to the info about the TIG welder: I got the DX Model.

Well, as long as I'm posting something, I should remember - I just added another gallery of 'shop' stuff, too. You can see some of the aluminum welds there.

Okay, I just really got tired of seeing the same crap here. Nothing earth-shattering has happened since I last wrote something here, but I have had a few adventures. I spent much of December 2003 and part of January 2004 in Helsinki, Finland - I don't recommend it, unless you really like cold weather... Still had a fun time, 'cause Helsinki is cool. Went from there and met the Queen Mary II for a transatlantic crossing with ABC's Good Morning America - that was okay. I bought a small milling machine, and intend to eventually convert it to CNC so I can further my fabricating capabilities, and I just got a Miller Dynasty 200 DX TIG welder, so now no metal is safe. :-) Still learning how to work the welder, but I've already been able to weld some aluminum - one of the main reasons I went with the TIG welder. I kept my old MIG welder as well, so I should be able to fabricate nearly anything I can imagine now. Just a matter of the time to do it.