I find out if my car is totaled

I got a call from Progressive this morning and they think my car is not worth the effort to repair.  My options:
1.  They give me $1600 and let me keep the car
2.  They give me $2600 and they keep it
I went over to their shop to take a look.  (see below)

It doesnt look all the bad to me.  I figure I can pick up a new gate for about $600 and a new bumper for not too much more than that.  the latch should be good as new after a few whacks with a hammer.  So I am going to try and pick it up today and repair it this weekend if I have time.  I may try to give may dad a call to see if he needs another vacation down to TX for some good clean fun.  :)

Met some new people today

I met some new people today. I was on my way to Freescale (customer site) and after exiting E Ben White/71 to N 183, I was rear ended. It was a 3 car accident and the one in the back was at fault. The lady in the middle was in a Jeep Grand Cherokee and her car did not appear to have any damage. The little Chevy S10 that hit her and drove her into me was a bit messed up on the front and my back gate on my Plymouth was mashed in.

I took it to his insurance adjuster to see what the damage was. They game me 3 options:

1. Take $1400 and fix it myself

2. Take it to another garage and have them bill the insurance company

3. Let them fix it and the give me a rental car in the mean time

I took the third option and they are going to get back to me and let me know if there is any additional cost.

They called back later that night and let me know that it was $1000 off the total-the-vehicle estimate and that they would get back to me if they were going to total it or fix it.

Guess we will wait and see.

Chicken Tractor

So the other day Emma is talking about wanting to get some chickens and build a chicken tractor? So my first thought is... chickens driving tractors? She showed me it was just a mobile chicken coop that you can move around your yard as the chickens eat all the grass and bugs in that spot. Sounded pretty straight forward. So I mocked up some plans in Sketchup and away we go.

So here is part of the build process and the final product. I had some left over roofing from when I replaced my shed roof the other day so it looks pretty rough. I figured the chickens wouldnt care. It took about 2 days to build and about 200 gallons of sweat. I worked out on the driveway and the temp was around 98F both days. The first day I stopped because I under estimated the heat and how much water I needed to be drinking. I ended the day with a splitting headache and completely exhausted. The second day I drank about 5 gallons of water and did much better. The heat really saps you strength and if I were to do it again, I would do it in the family room when it is nice and cool. :) I really need to get a better cooling solution for the garage.

Some pics with the kids and their new chickens.

Night Stand Prototype

Finally finished the night stand/dresser prototype.  Glad I made my mistakes on this one.  I learned a lot and am much more confident about starting the ones for the master bedroom.  Since the kids beds are so close together, the prototype will be perfect for their room and I only had to make one! 

Night Stand Sketchup Model

Golf Cart Running

    Last week my parents came down to visit and I spend a good part of the time working on my golf cart with my dad.  We finished the wiring and thanks to Galen, we picked up some good looking skins off of craigslist. We had a little trouble at first getting it moving.  It went down the hill just fine, but was underpowered going back up the hill.  Fortunately I brought my dad for the test drive and he worked just as well as the motor to get us back to the shop.  Discovered that a few of the batteries were a bit under powered and had to use a different charger to get them up to where the cart charger would charge them.  Apparently if the voltage is too low on the batteries, the charger will not charge them back up.  Anyway, here are a few shots of the cart.  Still need to do some work on the interior.  The last guy tried to paint the hood camo so I tried to scrape off as much as I could and sand blast it a little.  I figure that paint will fix the rest.  The floor mat needs a little work as well.  Haven’t decided if a rear seat kit would be worth the expense.  I don't think it will make a difference on the price when I sell it.  I also need to recover the seats so they match.

Dungeons and Dragons Weekend - Postmortem

Interestingly enough, it was awesome.
The Almighty DM has a real treat prepared for us when we arrived. He and some friends had conspired to create a intro to the game that was top notch. The actors painted a picture of intrigue, deception, and betrayal as the game participants contemplated how they came to be in their current predicament. One of the players (Clint) did the sound and editing, creating a seamless and engaging atmosphere. After the rest of the party staggered out the door in the wee hours of the morning, we hit the sack knowing that we have only a few moments of shut-eye before the gaming began.

We started out the day at 8am and finished around 2am. Things started off well on a ship somewhere in the depths that surround Ravenloft. Unfortunately for our DM we made quick work of what should have taken most of the day to process. Instead of sticking together and searching the ship, as was intended, we split up to cover more ground and probably ended up missing the true nature of why we were on the ship in the first place. right from the start most of the players seemed to be very withdrawn and secretive. They have even gone as far as to hide critical information that they gathered on the ship that could prove vital later in the game.

Once we got off the ship, we went our ways to get back home where we found a note instructing us to be at a certain spot at a certain time for further instructions. We met up the the town mayor, picked up a guide, shot up some locals, and found ourselves at the mansion of one of the oldest residents of Ravenloft. On our way to his house, we came across a mansion that appeared deserted with a bleeding statue who vomits flies. He gave us a mission to find several pieces of an artifact and bring them back to him. We set out and soon discovered that many of us were undergoing some changes, both physical and mental.

We stopped in a town and picked up supplies. I bought a horse that was way over priced at $2000 gold and used it for about a day. As we set out to find the first piece of the artifact, we hooked up with a witch that helped direct us to where we needed to go. Strange old coot who sold jewelry. As we headed to the first artifact, we encountered a crumbling tower with a zombie and a willow-wisp in the basement. The zombie was hanging in the middle of the room and pretty quiet until you tried to steal his treasure which was under a stone in the floor. When we pulled the treasure box out, he started to freak out and tried to grab the knife in his belt. I mean come on, since when did zombies start carrying knifes? So I took it away from him and he was pretty harmless after that. We took the treasure upstairs and was fixing to open it when a militia shows up and wants us to surrender. How did they find us? What would they want with us? To the first question, we were betrayed not really sure by who or why, this is where it probably help to have played they type of games before. To the second question, I think they want our autographs. I mean how many people to you know that are actively evolving into some other beings? We said no, so they started trying to bring the place down. Clint and I headed downstairs to get the zombie and send him out as a distraction. I grabbed the feet since I knew that zombies like brains and I did not what it anywhere near mine. Clint on the other hand... So we bring him upstairs and sick him on Adam. Instead of shoving him out the door, Adam goes a couple of rounds with the zombie. I open the treasure box and someone downstairs wants us to search the zombie for the keys. Clint does and I take the keys downstairs where someone has found a trap door that was under the treasure box. Fortunately, I only have 13 keys to try and the trap door is covered in 3 feet of water. It takes me several tries to get the right one and we all start piling through the door. Err, except that is for Adam. Clint graciously booby-traps the stairs and tells everyone upstairs that it is a trap. Probably to that they will know not to come down this way. Too bad Adam is still up there. Somehow we get the treasure box half way down the stairs and Bonnie dumps out her backpack to put all the gold in it. She gives the bag to me and jumps through the trap door. The rest of us follow suit except for Adam who is determined to finish off the zombie and the rest of the militia. Clint covers our tracks be setting off a smoke grenade before going down into the hole. So now the stairs are booby-trapped and the room with the only escape is filled with smoke. Good luck Adam. See you in another life :) The tunnel is pretty cramped. Picture a 3 foot x 2 foot drainage shaft with 6 people swimming down it. This is where we end our game session. I cant wait for the next one!

Fortunately, I was invited back and got the thumbs up from the spouse! We are going to hold it quarterly in an attempt to make it more convenient for all the players to make it.

Darrien Lockwood

Dungeons and Dragons Weekend

  I have a friend that Emma introduced me to through one of Olivia’s friends at school.  His name is Chris Newton and we seem to have a lot in common.  Emma said when she first met him that she was shocked to find out that he was into everything that I was and then some.  Of course I do not make my own home brewed beer or dedicate me free time to preparing for the Renaissance Festival.  After meeting, he got me started in all sorts of hair brained schemes and of course I am more than happy to try anything.  :)

  The fist one was picking up free broken big screen rear projection TVs and fixing them up.  We thought we would be able to sell them for some extra cache… that is until we discovered that you could get a new 54” rear projection TV for around $200 since the technology has made them worthless.  So I did get a new (new to me) 54” Mitsubishi TV out of my efforts.  They are a little difficult to just drop off in a dumpster or have the garbage man pick them up on his way through the neighborhood so they are not exactly free.  I have to pay about $35 for the land fill to take the ones I don't want.

  The next scheme has a bit more merit.  We are building CNC router mills from free printer parts we get off of craigslist.  Again, not completely free since it costs money to dispose of the stuff you don't want, but we are hoping to work out the bugs and make an affordable desktop version that will help up to recoup our expenses.  The project is temporarily on hold until I can get the golf carts out of my garage and find my tables saw and work bench again.  We would like to get the CNC mills going before the next renaissance fair so that we can sell some the the stuff we make.  Chris has a great idea for making one that we can engrave mug blanks with custom designs.  I will post some images on our projects later.

  For Tessa and Tasha’s birthday party, one of Chris’s friends came up from San Antonio.  Johnny was talking about getting together to do a dungeons and dragons gaming weekend.  Having heard about D&D and never experiencing it, I began to ask questions and soon found myself invited to participate.  I had to do a lot of reading on how the create characters and what the basic rules were.  I also had to put together a character and a background for that character.  I came up with a character named Darrien Lockwood who was a blacksmith that found himself in a strange land after falling overboard when the ship encountered a strange mist.  I ended up in a town called Port a-Lucine in Ravenloft.  It took me about a month to come up with that story and I hope it is enough to go on.  I tried to give my character traits that I might have so that it will be easier to portray my character in game.  I am originally from England around the 1500s.  I am not sure how people talked back then so I may do my worst Scottish accent and try to pass that off.  I guess we get extra points for playing with an accent.  When all else fails, go Scottish.

  I don't know how excited Emma is about the whole thing.  She probably figures that it will pass.  I figure it would be fun to see what an actual D&D game is really like.  More of a social experiment you could say.