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