The last thing that was wrapped this Christmas

I wrapped up the last part of the artificial Christmas tree in kitchen wrap this morning. That kitchen wrap stuff is excellent - I also wrap my suitcases in it to store in the garage!

The breakfast of champions

Sorry KitchenForager, the Spam Musubi is the Breakfast of Champions. Alternatively, it's the Breakfast of High Cholesterolians, or the Goodie Bag Snack of AYSO Kids, or the Lunch of Kids Whose Parents Gotta Pack Home Lunch Super Fast.

This morning, it was Breakfast of My Kids (and me). And Dad's always a Champion when he makes this for breakfast.

Grand Am, Part II

I did more work on the Cinderella pumpkin carriage today. I started on the base, which has quite a bit of reinforcing.



Then I painted it white.


Finally, here's the pumpkin part on the base. It's still pretty lightweight - I'd say maybe 2 pounds.



Next comes the decorating so that it doesn't look so much like a German tank. Or maybe I should just put a turret on it.

Grand Am, Part I

Every year, the class that my daughter is in has a Grand Am. Parents are supposed to make a car out of a cardboard box. I made one for my son when he was there, and this year I wanted to make something different for my daughter. About a year ago I was thinking about it and wanted to make Cinderella's Carriage, which is shaped like a pumpkin.

The frame is made out of cardboard. It took a LONG time to make it! To get the first curved pieces attached to the circular horizontal pieces was REALLY hard, so I ended up suspending it from my newly installed ceiling storage to attach the pieces.



Next I put some newspaper around the frame, then put poster paper around that. Now it looks like a big ole garlic! I wish it looked smoother, but I don't think I want to make changes at this point. I am debating painting it either pearlescent white or orange like a pumpkin. Originally I was going to do it changing from a carriage back to a pumpkin but I don't think the scale warrants that level of detail and I'm sure it would confuse some kids.




After I paint it I'll need to add the wheels, and put a lid of leaves around the top. I think the wheels might take a while, to fix to make it kid proof. Oh, and also I gotta start thinking about the suspenders for my daughter to wear it.

Kalua pork

My friend Neal at work makes homemade Kalua pork all the time, so I tried doing it last night. It's pretty easy - you cut slits into a pork shoulder, and put Hawaiian salt in the holes. Then you rub liquid smoke all over the outside, and wrap in ti leaves (which I got courtesy of my next door neighbor), wrap in foil, and bake in the oven for 4 1/2 hours. When you take it out, it's fork tender and shreds up easily.

After I installed the ceiling storage I came in and made Kalua Cabbage, which is my son's favorite thing to eat.

Measure twice, cut once

The old adage "measure twice, cut once" doesn't tell you one very important piece of information. And that piece of information is: "READ THE INSTRUCTIONS THRICE, DUMMY".

I was installing a ceiling storage system in my garage this morning, which was the source of that enlightenment. Actually, I had installed one of these before, so I rushed through the instructions and didn't carefully read the following:



I actually had mistaken it to say 69" on center. I spent so much time making sure everything was perfectly centered, everything was perfectly square, and everything was exactly to dimension, and that one measurement was off!! Fortunately it was really easy to move two of the downrods over from this:



And after that it was relatively easy to finish up.



All I need to do now is to patch up the mistake holes, and no one will know the better. Except everyone who has read this post.

Star Wars - the Clone Wars

Speaking of the 70s, E has been getting into Star Wars the Clone Wars on Cartoon Network. I've been getting into it too - it's a great cartoon. In fact, it's time to stop blogging, Clone Wars is beginning soon.

Space Invaders

After the bake sale this morning I took E to Dave and Busters, where he played Space Invaders for the first time. He was loving it!! It's so funny to see a kid in 2009 playing the same game I used to play back in 1979. I guess even after 30 years it's still a classic. Next I gotta get him into Donkey Kong, Centipede, PacMan and Galaxian.

Bake Sale

This morning L, E and I went to S's preschool bake sale. Early this morning. With an emphasis on early (yawn..... stretch). It was fun. The kids all stood in front of the baked goods and handed them out to the eager parents looking for breakfast. Some of the kids would just hold stuff out and make cute faces. Very hard to resist!

It was so early that other kids were having crying meltdowns. But not S! She was in a great mood despite waking up an hour earlier.

Two other projects on the bench

Aside from the Star guitar, I have two other projects - the Sparkly guitar I mentioned earlier (on the left in this picture):


and a project to use up the spare parts I have lying around the music room. I picked up a Strat body for $94 shipped, which included an original Floyd Rose! What a deal!!



I will attach a spare neck that I had sitting around:


And an old pickguard and some old pickups. I may give it an Eddie Van Halen paint job, but at the same time it would be nice to make it my own so I may do something different.

I love working on guitars. Unfortunately, I've never had a parts guitar that I made that was as good as a name brand guitar, but as my luthier skills improve hopefully that'll change. I really want to start learning fretting and nut making next, and these projects are a perfect opportunity since everything was cheap!

Scallops

My dad lent me this really cool tool called a Fein Multimaster. It's an oscillating tool with different attachments. Here I have it shown with one of the sanding attachments.



I used it to scallop the frets on one of my guitars. Scalloping on guitars is something that Yngwie Malmsteen and Ritchie Blackmore do. It's typically done on lutes, not so much on guitars. It's nice because you don't feel the fretboard under your fingers. Notice I went too far on some of the scallops and into the side position markers. It doesn't affect anything, it just looks kinda ugly. But the guitar is all beat up anyway so it doesn't matter much.



I also cut the heel away from the neck joint - it allows me to play the high notes easier. This was so easy to do with the Multimaster.



The other thing I did was to put a back carve in to the upper portion of the back.



Finally, here's the assembled neck and body. When I reattached the neck and the body I used some shorter screws, and the joint is now rock solid whereas there was some shift previously. Holy smokes, it feels like a set neck guitar - it's that tight!



Next I need to do some fretwork and some work on the nut, then shield the cavities with shielding paint, and then wire up the electronics. This could be my number 1 guitar after all the mods!

Lomo Saltado

Years ago (many many years ago) my brother in L.A. turned me on to this place near Hollywood called Mario's Peruvian Restaurant. I love that place - the food is excellent. Because Peru has such a large Japanese population (the president's name is something like Julio Yamamoto), a lot of the dishes have a Japanese element as well as a south American element.

One of the more popular dishes in Lomo Saltado. The one I did last night for dinner was a modified Food Network recipe I found online. First I marinated the thinly sliced flank steak in shoyu, balsamic vinegar, garlic powder (I was too lazy to do fresh garlic), cumin and pepper. I heated up my wok (carefully as to not cause a fire) and stir fried the beef, onions and bell peppers. At the last minute I added the tomatoes, and after I turned it off I mixed in the McDonalds french fries. This turned out so good there were practically no leftovers!

I think next time I'll try adding a squeeze of lime juice and some minced cilantro.

Subdivisions

This is really cool - this guy covers Rush's "Subdivisions" with two guitars, a looper and a little voice recorder.

The Plan

Here's a plan my 4 year old came up with when her grandpa (jiji) was sleeping. She got help spelling these.

A TOUCH-JIJI
B RUNAWAY
C LAUGH
D REPEAT

Started recording yesterday

We all laid down some scratch tracks together yesterday. Next comes the re-recording of each instrument. Danny will start redoing the drums first.

My kids' conversation

S is 4 years old, and E is 7. E was being kinda a wise guy, methinks.

S: Why does the sun come up in the day?
E: Because it wants to.
S: Yup.

S: Why does the rainbow live in the sky?
E: Because that's where it lives.
S: Right.

S: Why do books want you to read them?
E: So you can hear the story.
S: Yup.

S: Why do bracelets get made by other people?
E: Because people wanna make them.
S: Yup.

S: Why do newspapers not walk?
E: Because they're not real.
S: Uh huh.

S: Why do instruments make noise?
E: Because people want them to.
S: Yup.

S: Why you can eat some stuff and why you can't eat some stuff?
E: Because some stuff tastes like gunk.
S: Mmm-hmm.

S: Why is tape very sticky?
E: Because people want them to be sticky.
S: Yeah!!

Poinsettia

Here's a poinsettia that I won at the Department Holiday party. When we walked out this morning it was covered in dew, so I had to take a picture. Note to Santa: I wish I had a better camera!!

Fresh OJ

One of our secretaries gave me some oranges from her mom's yard, and I made fresh orange juice tonight. Yumm!!

Comment on my YouTube video

I love this comment:

You rocks dude. Good player, wish U a good continuation in guitar ;)

I like how the French use "dude" too!

New shirt day

Earth Wind and Fire

Shining Star - one of the greatest songs ever written. Ever.

The Roots

And to round out my whack musical tastes, I also love the Roots. The Roots are a live hip hop band. This particular version of the Roots is my favorite. The lead rapper is Black Thought and the drummer is ?love - those two guys are the foundation of the Roots. Scratch is awesome - he's a guy that does all of the scratching sounds and echoes and stuff - amazing he does it all with his mouth. Very cool, especially given all of the (c)rap that's out today.

Vital Remains

I also LOVE Vital Remains. Dave Suzuki, the guitar player, is one of my heroes. On the studio stuff, he plays incredible drums (he has to be one of the top death metal drummers out today) and his guitar playing is like evil Yngwie Malmsteen.

This live video shows their touring vocalist, but I much prefer their studio guy Glen Benton (from Deicide). I don't think Dave is with the band anymore, according to things I've read. That's too bad.

Immortal

Okay, to get some cred back, I actually have been listening to more black metal lately than death metal. I love Immortal. Those guys are musically awesome, and their promo pics are just over the top funny.

Stellar*

I know I'm supposed to be a scary death metal kinda guy. My favorite band is not death metal. Not even close. My favorite band of all time (as of right now anyway) is Stellar* (the asterisk is part of their name). I love this band. Though they only have three albums, I love em all, start to finish.

I discovered them on a trip to New Zealand in 2000. They had just come out with their first album Mix, which was something like the highest selling domestic record in NZ. A few years later they came out with their second album Magic Line, and about two years ago they came out with their third disc Something Like Strangers.

This song is not real characteristic of their other stuff, but it's one of my favorites that they do. It's "For A While" off of the third disc.