September 30th

I dropped Mum and Dad at the train station for their trip back to Los Angeles, then spent the rest of the day cutting grass or playing Warcraft.  I got my warrior to level 87 :o)

September 29th

We spent the day pottering around the house and playing Warcraft - I got my warrior to level 86.

I took a look at the fridge from the van, then Dad and I swapped the awful fan on the back with a computer fan I had in my "one day this crap will be useful for something" box.  At some point, I'll figure out how to test if it's working :o)

September 28th

Dad and I took the fridge out of the van, so it can sit upside down for a while - hopefully this'll help get the ammonia flowing better, so it cools better.

In the evening, Dad and I went to the airfield and took the plane out for a jaunt.  An hour later, we'd had no problems, so it would seem that the earth straps we put in fixed everything there :o)

September 27th

I went to Dennis' funeral, and everybody else went shopping.  The Mists of Pandaria Warcraft expansion pack arrived, so we played that for a while in the evening.

September 26th

We went and did various bits of shopping around the place.

September 25th

We had a barbecue, and Gwen, Walter, Jen, Vince and Geri came.  Jen brought her bloody great '67 Cadillac.

September 24th

We went to Folsom.  Eventually.  I haven't been there for at least a year, so managed to turn the wrong way on one road, meaning we got a tour of the business park on the way in.

September 23rd

Dad and I looked at the plane.  Much testing later, it looks like the problem was an earthing issue.  We've dropped in 2 new earths, and if it wasn't early afternoon, we'd have gone up and tested it.  Maybe later.

September 22nd

We piled into the Malibu and headed back to Roseville.  Yay.

September 21st

I got to try and figure out why Sophos wasn't working on Russ' network, and then we watched the Space Shuttle Endeavour get delivered to LAX from the roof of Russ' office building.  Many pictures were taken.  Few were chosen.

September 20th

I picked up a rental car (a Chevy Malibu - I'd reserved a smaller car but they didn't have any, so they upgraded me) and drove down to Russ' in Redondo Beach.  The thing was about half full when I picked it up, so I threw $20 of gas in it and it made it all the way there (almost 400 miles) without stopping :o)

September 19th

I'm off work this week, so I've been pottering around doing things and wasting time playing Warcraft and suchlike.

This afternoon, we went to the airfield and installed a new battery on to the plane.  We took it up for a while, and everything was fine for the first half an hour or so, but later on the electrics started playing up again.  We had a few people tell us the radio sucks when we were back in the circuit, and after we'd landed I managed to get the whole panel to go dark by wiggling the wires around.  That's not good.  As the fuel pump and strobes still work, I'm suspecting the switch.

September 16th

I'd been aiming to run a raid in Warcraft with Dave, but he didn't show up, so I ran Ice Crown Citadel solo - the new patch must have made things easier, as I could never get past the first wing before.

I got up on the roof and washed the solar panels for the first time in ages.

We went and had lunch with Vince, then came home and pottered around the house doing stuff.

We watched the MotoGP race from Misano - it was a bit of a procession, but it was nice to see Rossi on the podium and the poison dwarf on the floor :o)

I used some of Vic's good paint, and airbrushed the Wallance and Gromit model some more - it went a lot better than the crappy paint.

In the evening we walked Tilly down to Starbucks for some whipped cream (we had normal drinks, but Tilly loves the cream there), then watched The Lorax when we got home.

September 15th

Vic was in the Bay Area for a guinea pig function, so Tilly and I just wasted the day playing Warcraft and throwing the ball.

When Vic got home, we went to the opening of a new restaurant in Roseville - they were donating the profits from their first 3 hours' business to the SPCA.

September 10th

Gwen came and picked up her pushbike.  She was riding it around the road, and hearing the rear brake rubbing.  I looked at it, and it was fine.  The problem was the wheel bearing, which deflects sideways :o(  If I adjust the brakes to allow that, they won't bloody work.  Bah.  She's going to carry on beating the thing to death, and when it finally dies, we'll shed no tears.

We put the light up again in the guest bathroom - the base painting's finished, and Vic's working on the rest of the detail stuff.  So, now you can sit on the toilet and pretend you're taking a dump on the beach :o)

September 9th

We tidied up stuff around the house, cut the grass, all that good, fun stuff.

I got a new tube for the rear wheel of Gwen's bike - I took the old one out and it was weeping along one of the seams.  Chinese rubbish.

In the evening we watched the director's cut of The Return of the King.  And spent every charging into battle scene calling out "Leeeroy Jenkins" :o) (For those who don't play Warcraft... this should explain some of that).

September 8th

Dave and I went in to Ahn Quiraj, post the Pandaria patch and the new talent system.  And got our asses handed to us by the twins.  Bugger.

I did a little bit of spraying - the paint was still very thin, so I lost patience and gave up.  I spent a bit of time cleaning everything in the airbrush, as it seems to be a little clogged to me.

Vic was at an SPCA thing, so I took the DRZ for a ride, and dropped in on them on the way back, just to say "hi".

In the evening, we watched the director's cut of The Two Towers.

September 7th

We watched The Fellowship of the Ring - the director's cut.  It came out 11 years ago.  I feel old.

September 3rd

Today was Labo(u)r Day, where Americans celebrate the successes of the unions by going shopping.

We spent the day around the house doing chores, painting in the guest bathroom and taking Tillamook for a walk to Starbucks so she could get some whipped cream.

I managed to get some airbrushing done in the afternoon, but I think I mixed the paint too thin, as it's not coated very well.  Oh well.

September 2nd

I woke up early, so I played some Warcraft until the rest of the house woke up.  We went out to get some supplies, then I changed a couple of sprinkler heads to try and fix some dead spots in the front garden, and down the side in the back.

I did a little painting in the guest bathroom - Vic's starting the walls, so I'm trying to get the door, frame and baseboards painted.

I tinkered with my model for a while, sanding down the filler I applied yesterday.

In the evening we went over to the airfield and took the plane up for an hour.  The sky was full of crap, and we think there's a fire somewhere nearby.  The EIS did alert on voltage a couple of times, when I was transmitting on the radio, so I think it's quite possible that the battery either needs a goodly charge, or is on its way out.

September 1st

It's a new month, so new stats:

Power billed

Power generated

So here's an interesting thing - I keep reading about how it's unseasonably hot, and this month we used more power (generated and paid for) than at any time since January 2009.  The only thing in the house that uses that much power is the air conditioner, and despite the whole house fan (that we didn't get to use as much, as it never cooled down), we seemed to spend a lot on cooling the house.

We went and looked in a new hobby shop, where I got some modelling filler so I can smooth out some awful gaps in the model I'm currently tinkering with.

I did a little tinkering in the van, removing a power supply and a USB GPS unit that was in there for the carputer - I'm using the Dell Streak for that now, and it works just fine, so I'm going to stop there.

I started on the guest bathroom, sealing the baseboards.

I did some work on my Wallace and Gromit model - I've filled the gaps that needed filling, and pulled out all the parts that need to be sprayed red.

In the evening I went to the airfield and installed the ELT with it's new batteries, then took the plane out for an hour and a half.  As it was just me, I did a bunch of practice 30, 45 and 60 degree turns, climbing turns, descending turns, stalls (not that the thing stalls for crap with just me in it) and a few landings.  It's good to blow the cobwebs out from time to time.  The EIS behaved itself, so I'm hoping that was just an earthing problem to the regulator.

August 31st

We watched one of the best cowboy movies ever made, Unforgiven.  It's been years since I've seen it, but can you believe it's 20 years old?  I feel ancient.