Lil Irv

So, once again with the Pokemons!!! One of the daily things to do with your buddy Pokemon to keep your level up is take a picture with it, so I've got several pictures on my camera roll!!!

First up is from back when I had a Bulbasaur as my buddy. Back when we'd vacationed in Encinitas and had gone to Legoland, I'd won a stuffed Bulbasaur, so I posed them together. Back when the firstborn was a youngster, he had a Pokemon VHS tape that, of course, he would play fairly constantly. It had a scene of them stumbling upon an evolution ceremony of bulbasaurs, so that is permanently etched in my brain.

Then I've switched to Lil Irv, my buddy Flareon. Here he is, outside, after I've given him some berries.

And again, at my work.

Then, when I tried to see if I could get a shot of him from behind.

And there he is, just this week, you'll notice he has a best buddy badge now!!!

While we were out shopping, and he had found some goodies. My wife in the background, reminiscent of when she didn't approve of my Baja Blast!!!

One of my favorite pictures of 'em!!!

Then, I tried to get a shot of him with the cat, and was photobombed by a Smeargle!!!

This week I also came upon my first Flareons in the wild. Caught one, and it turned out to have a higher level than Lil Irv!!! There was, of course, some debate as to what would become of them, and I finally decided to re-name it!!! Meet Big Irv!!! This is now my top six, the Virizion (from the raid we had done at Universal Studios) had for quite a while held the top spot.

I'm generally not in the habit of re-naming my catches, but here's the only other one I've re-named!!! See why??? Do not vote for the socialist!!!

And, just today, caught myself a Snorlax!!! Went up to my younger boy and asked him, "You Jealous???" He asks why, and I show him and say, "You Jealous."

Done with Mirrors

You will recall my bumper mod, and how I was dissatisfied with the results of the illumination. Here's what I've done to improve it some.

I drilled several holes through the plastic bumper core, in the areas that weren't getting good light transmission, both vertically and horizontally.

On the original installation, I'd thought it would diffuse enough light to illuminate the opening with the light strips facing up vertically on the metal bumper core, but I was mistaken.

So, after drilling the holes to allow the light to pass through, I mounted a strip of highly polished stainless steel on a 45° angle over the LED strips. The result looked promising...

Then, above the vertical series of holes, I added another strip, again on a 45° angle, for a periscope effect.

The blue light seems considerably more visible, and across a wider area. I'm pleased with the results!!! My goal from the beginning was to have the light diffused and subtle, yet across the openings.

The red light, however, is still a bit light. It's visible, but just barely. The picture actually has quite a bit of light scatter from the tail lights. I may be opening up the area one more time!!!

Yule Do Over

Remember two years back when the company had the Christmas Party at Universal Studios??? Apparently, it was so well received that it was deemed worthy of doing it again!!! Two years back, I took the day off so we could spend some time at the park before the party started. This year, when they were distributing the tickets, they tell me, "Oh, you do the Saturday shift, right??? This year, for your crew, we're giving out the wristbands, and instead of passes for that day, here's a pair that are good until the end of the year!!!" Cool!!!

So, after I got off work that day, came home and got changed, then my wife and I headed over there. It was a good time again, tasty English style foods, and all the butterbeer you can drink!!! Two years back, when we were on the way out, I grabbed a bottle of the pumpkin juice drink they had there, and brought it home for the younger. He liked it, and asked us to try and get some more. Got two!!!

So, most of the year since the announcement, the younger has been bemoaning that he's never even been to Harry Potter land. Since I had separate wristbands and passes, a plan forms...

I took the Thursday before Christmas off, and the boy and I went!!! It was a good time, and while we were there, we both played Pokemon Go a good amount!!! At the time I had a Bulbasaur as my buddy, and there he is!!! He caught a shiny Charmander, so that was cool. We, and several others, did a 5-star raid, and got a Virizion, my highest one.

The first thing we did was hit the Harry Potter ride. We used the single rider line, and the wait wasn't too bad at all. Got some butterbeer afterwards, and found out that all the butterbeer I'd gotten for free was pretty expensive if you were to pay for it!!!

Went to the Simpson's area, and got a shot of Homer and Marge from behind from inside the shop we were in. Surprise, they were out of "Bort" license plates!!!

We headed down to the lower lot, the only area with anything approximating a proper roller coaster, the mummy coaster. Just as we got to the entrance, out of it comes the mummy himself, flanked by two very tall acolytes or priests-priestesses!!! The female one stopped by my boy and was petting his head!!! Then we posed for a picture with them all.

Also down in that area are the Jurassic Park ride, and the Transformers ride. They have recently redone the Jurassic Park ride, but it's one of those where you will likely get wet, and being on the chilly side, we had no interest in doing that!!!

We had never been on the Transformers ride, though, so we went over to check that out. Single rider line again, with a very short wait time. and it's a pretty good ride. However, close to the end of the ride, it broke down. It wasn't that long of a break down, but I did get a chance to take a couple of pictures!!!

On the way out, they gave us a couple of passes to go on the ride again in compensation. We went over and went through the Jurassic Park gift shop, then doubled back and went on the Transformers ride again, before heading back up.

The plan was to go on the tram tour, but we had just missed the last one for the day, so we went on the Simpsons ride, which had the longest wait of any of the rides we went on!!!

We'd gone to the Waterworld stunt show earlier on in the day, always entertaining.

I like the way the arch lines up with my head in this shot!!!

Headed back to Harry Potter land, where they were now restricting people going into the area. Not long after they had their Holiday display light show, projected on Hogwart's.

We had noticed the flare of fire coming out of the chimney before, and finally figured out that there's a spot where you can use your fancy new wand to cause it to do so. Went on the Harry Potter ride one more time, and the boy bought himself a good looking Hufflepuff watch.

Back in the Simpson's area, there's Luigi's Pizzeria, and the boy was interested in getting a slice. They have good sized slices, but they were almost $10 for a slice!!! I averred that for less than that, we could get a whole pizza. He made mention of that garlic knots pizza, so we ordered that on the way home to cap off the day. Here I am in the shirt I'd worn all day, one of my recent acquisitions, that depicts an alien eating pizza!!!

Wild Snorlax Hunt

A great many things have happened. There were a couple of trips to Universal Studios, Christmas, Gravy day, and a radiator. I'm going to go with this, though.

In the middle of November, my younger boy wanted me to sign up for Pokemon Go, so he could friend me for one of his achievements. OK, I can do that. I don't know how much I'll do beyond that.

Well, I did, and I've taken to it some!!! Here I am, after I'd taken over my first local gym, and my Tauros was shown over it.

And there I am, after I'd defeated a Team Rocket Grunt. Yes, digital blackface. I like the look. Oh yeah, I've swapped out my original hat for a winter time beanie.

And there the boy and I are, getting ready to do a raid.

Last Friday, we were down at my parents house to celebrate Christmas with the extended family. My nephew was there, and he was asking my son if he was going to call his companion Pokemon "Little Catnip", so I renamed mine "Lil Irv"!!! There he is!!! I looked around, and saw there was going to be a raid going on at the park near there, and asked my son if he wanted to go. Just before we left, he looked around and saw there was a Snorlax at the Pokestop along the San Gabriel River bike path behind my parents' house. He really wants to get a Snorlax, as well as a shiny Evee.

OK, we'll try and get over there and get us some Snorlax action!!! We drove over to a far corner of the park, then walked past the golf course, across the river to the bike path, down to where another river joins, and across a bridge and down some from there.

It was quite a bit farther than I'd remembered!!! I'd guess we probably went at least a mile and a half one way. As a youngster, I'd used to ride my bike down there with my friends, and I related some of the stories as we made our way.

It was really getting to be the Golden Hour as we were working our way down, and we got some great pictures!!!

Of course, by the time we got there, there was no Snorlax to be seen. Oh well, we got to spend some time together, take some pictures, and do some father-son bonding!!!

Never got to do the raid, either. Ah well. Good times!!!

Bump it Up

Here's a mod I've had in the works for for a while. Still needs some tweaks, but so far, it's coming together!!!

I've had the idea of doing this for a while. There's a threefold impetus for it. First, the shape of a rear bumper is something of a parachute effect, in theory creating excess drag and probably underbody turbulence. Second, it will eliminate the Saturn script from the bumper, a look I've never much cared for, and adding a bit of the "what is it?" factor. Thirdly, and mostly, back when she was my wife's primary driver, she'd gotten tapped on the rear bumper, and it left a couple of license plate screw imprints, a minor one on the downstroke of the R, the other a few inches past. This handles all three!!!

I had the though originally that I could get it with a two foot cut out, but it turned out not to be the case. I was also originally thinking of doing one opening, but had the concern that it might mouth open if it were cut all the way across. Additionally, the expanded metal I'd gotten was only 2 feet across.

I used a hole saw for the ends, and a circular saw for the straights. A little file clean up, and it came out pretty good!!! Also got to put some satin black on it while it was off, and it came out some of the best I've done!!! It was pretty warm out, with low humidity, and I think that helped quite a bit!!!

Before I added in the expanded metal, I rigged up a couple of LED light strips. I did a strip of blue that goes with the running lights, and a red strip wired into the brakes, with a relay cutting the power to the blue strip when the brakes are applied.

As you can see, it only shines through in a couple of spots, so I'll be modifying it some more. The red doesn't show up too well, so I'm going to rig up a reflector for it.

Happy Thanksgiving

A couple of food and beverage related pictures of my wife for Thanksgiving!!!

The first is from our anniversary, at a very nice Italian restaurant: "It's the best steak I've ever had!!!"

The second is from a very authentic Mexican restaurant on the Big Island (where we ended up after we couldn't find the barbecue place)

She does not approve of your Mountain Dew Baja Blast.

Season-Spanner

Here's my latest card artwork progression!!!

For the Halloween season, I'd had a card with an eyeball flying across the board, trailing the severed optic nerve with a few droplets of blood, which I've used for two or three seasons so far. It was time for something new. I've also got one I've used for several years of Jack Skellington in his Santa suit holding up a present, with the caption "This year, Christmas will be OURS!!!" that I've used for Christmas. Thought I'd do another one, this time with Jack and Sally.

It came out pretty good!!! I added in the brambles along the bottom of the moon, and more landscape detail, as well as a few clouds. Of course, I'd been searching web images to try and get it right, and I'd come across one that was the moon, with a couple clouds forming Jack's face. That was my original plan, emulate that style, only with Jack and Sally in the foreground.

I stopped short of doing that, but of course, it's always an option to update it later!!!

I figure I can use it from Halloween to Christmas!!!

Hiccup

I had previously made mention that on our vacation we had run into some difficulties while travelling. This is the story of one of them.

On our flight from Oahu to the Big Island we had gone through the security screening most of the way. My wife, with all her titanium, doesn't get around too well for long distances found at most airports, so she gets wheelchair service, and we usually have a pretty quick go through. At the bag X Ray machine a TSA agent pulls my son aside and begins searching one of his bags. he locates the jar of Suavecito that he had in his carry on bag and pulls it out. "Can't take THAT on in your carry on bag, son!!!" You have two choices, go back to the airline counter and check your bag, or place your pomade in the trash can right there!!! Well, here's a quandary!!! Suavecito comes out with seasonal scented pomades, and this I believe was the Spring edition, with hints of dark rum. I'm pretty sure it was under $15 originally, and it's $25 to check a bag, so pretty easy math. However, being a seasonal thing, might not be able to get a replacement, and he really likes the scent. We start heading back to ticketing, and I'm looking up on my phone to see if it's still available, and nope, it's not. OK, it's looking like it's going to be a nearly $40 jar of pomade. Got back to the ticketing desk and tell them our tale of woe, and they say, don't worry, we've got this!!! Ended up not being out the extra $25 or the jar of Suavecito!!! So, it took a little longer and more legwork, but all's well that ends well!!! Funny thing, our first flight from the mainland they didn't catch it. To be sure, it was in our checked bag on the flight back!!!

Oh, and I've got to gush a little bit about the airline we took, Hawaiian. Not only did they waive the bag fee, but so far as I know, they are the last carrier to provide an in-flight meal. Something else cool they have, instead of having an in flight movie as previous flights I've taken, they have an app you can download to your device, and there's a veritable smorgasbord of shows and movies you can stream in flight!!! I got to watch "Isn't it Romantic" on the flight out because Rebel Wilson is awesome, and "The Lego Movie: The Second Part" on the flight back, but I think I fell asleep a little during that one.

Wrenchin' Weekend+

This was a couple of weekends ago.

Actually started out the Wednesday before, they had one of the hooey red flag days. I fired up the Falcon and drove it to the bottom of the hill and parked it there. Took a lot of cranking, and I flooded it and had to let it sit for a minute on the initial starting. Have I made mention that I bought a deep cycle battery for her a couple years ago??? Some of the best money I've spent on her!!! On my way home on Thursday, I took 3 to the you-scrub car wash, then drove the Falcon over and washed it off, too. Ran flawlessly.

On Friday, I finally did the rear brakes on Jade. As always, the worst part is getting the drums off. Saturday, after I got home from work, went down to drive the Falcon back up, and it wouldn't crank from the key. Huh. Popped the hood, and jumpered the start relay, and it spun with no problem. OK, maybe now it will crank. Got back in, and tried again, and it didn't crank. Had my wife make sure the gearshift didn't pop into reverse, and went back under the hood to fire it up under there, and realized I hadn't put the crank wire back on the relay!!! That fixed it!!! On Sunday I had my mechanic friend pull several bits of metal out of the rear driver's side tire on Scruffy, and plug the hole of the one that made it through. That was one of those things I've been wanting to do for a while, ever since I noticed it. Never seemed to leak any air, anyway.

Sunday afternoon, we were out in Jade, and stopped into AM/PM for some soda. Came back out, and it wouldn't crank!!! Called up my roadside assistance, and told dispatch I need a tow truck. MIGHT be able to put jumpers on it and have enough juice to get it to crank, but the battery is almost new, so I didn't think that would be the case. MIGHT be able to give the starter a few whacks and get it to crank, but probably going to need a tow. Took them an hour and a half and three calls to get someone dispatched, and about that again before they got there. In a pickup truck, with a jump-starter. He knew it probably wouldn't work, and it didn't. Called up again, and the rat bastards told me I've used up all my service calls for the year!!! Still haven't gotten any satisfaction from them yet. Called another tow service, and it was another three hours!!!

I had the driver set it down on jack stands, so it was ready to go to work on. Ended up with a middle shift on Tuesday, so I pulled the starter out after work. Exchanged it after work on Wednesday, and put it in on Friday. That went fairly easy, but the fun came afterwards. I was jacking it up to drop it off the stands, and the jack tipped over!!! The jack stand on the passengers' side was completely clear of the car, and the driver's side ended up in the exhaust tunnel. The back tire rolled up onto the wheel block. Used a scissor jack to get enough room to pull the floor jack out, and got it lifted up enough that the jack stand was... hanging from the O2 sensor wire!!!

After that, I got the rod ends I'd bought for 3 installed. I'd gotten a look at the ones on Jade while I had her up on the jack stands, and I think those were in worse shape. Today, after work, I did a bit of sanding on the rear bumper of Scruffy, and did some primer on the areas I'd done a little filling and sanding on a while back. That rear bumper and hatch are my next targets to finish up!!!