Make a note:

Sometimes, after 2 glasses of wine, it's important to spend 5 minutes dancing in the kitchen with your wife.

Don't ever let the moment pass, gentlemen. That particular moment will never be here again.

Reach out and grab it.

Pub Glasses

Apparently you can buy cool-ass, heavy duty pub glasses for 59 cents each at goodwill.

I'm digging it.

Half-a-mind

For 2k, I have Half-a-mind to just buy a transmission from J.C. Whitney or Jegs or Auto-Zone for about $1500 bucks. Install that bad boy myself, and save $500. The only problem with that is that I have no idea how to swap a transmission. So the Half-a-mind plan may come out the half-assed plan...

Hazard of buying used

Apparently my truck's Transmission has proverbially crapped the bed. Mechanic says best case, $2k to fix.

Just damn!

Nebo Redline

My gentle readers may remember my buying a Nebo Flashlight about 2 years ago. It was bright, and I liked it's lighting output. I carried it regularly at work for about 4 months, until I finally got issued a streamlight.

This is a follow-up. The Nebo is a piece of garbage. Especially for the 50ish dollar price tag. The light still works, but it is bulky in the pocket. It uses 3 AAA batteries in a circular battery configuration. You could almost get a single C-cell battery in the same diameter. Not great for a light with a pocket clip.

Also, the output switch (10%, 50%, 100%, strobe, and s.o.s.) adds lots of bulk. Also, I have grown accustomed to the "multiple press" system streamlight uses. It's not better or worse, per-se, but I like it better.

The worst thing about this light, though is its shitty tail-cap. It is overly large. And the rubber covering the activation switch is chintzy, and rips. And when you try to fix it, it rips more. And eventually, the magnet breaks, making it un-fucking-useable.

To hell with Nebo. I have used this light a grand total of maybe 6 months over the last two years, and it just doesn't meet expectations. Save 10 more bucks and buy a streamlight.

Leather tooling

So one aspect of leatherwork that I have had no exposure to is tooling, or carving. Sure, I have used some basic stamps, but just for some basic border work.  Today, I tried my hand at some true tooling. These are some very basic floral patterns, basically what everyone starts with. The bottom piece got too busy, I think. I like the way the top one turned out.

I'm digging the tooling. I have a basic stamp set, of like 6 stamps. I think I'm going to keep playing with it. Maybe one day I can do one of those really cool oak-leaf belt-and-holster sets.

Belted

Neighbor Mike asked me the other day to make him a belt.

I like a lot about this belt, but I wish it was lighter. I need to get a medium brown dye. I think the tooling turned out great. And the belt loop has a pocket for a guitar pick built in. Mike is a mandolin player, and is always looking for a pick, so I figured I would make it easy for him to find one. He has a buckle he wants to use, so all that is left is attaching it.