August 11th

I spent the day pottering around at home... I played with the airbrush a little, and was just throwing a few coats of paint on my model when Fred came over - Vic was at the SPCA teaching a "petting zoo" class, and was trying to call me, but I was in the garage with my compressor running and couldn't hear her :o)  I took the bag she'd forgotten over, and all was well again.

August 10th

After work we went to dinner at the Outback. Vic likes her steak just this side of charcoal, so when it came from the kitchen bleeding, she sent it back.  The manager came and apologised, and it came back still very pink.  At that point, she gave up.  The manager showed up again, and apologised profusely and comped dinner.  Yay.  After that we went to the Automall so I could look at the Chevy Volt again - they've just had 27 delivered, so Vic got to take a test drive.  I'd really like one of these, but have nowhere to put it at the moment, and they only have the drab colours - I wanted to see a blue or red one, as I'm not that grown up just yet.

August 6th

I finished the first coat of paint on the woodwork in the hallway.  Yay.

August 5th

I did a bunch of fiddling around in the garden, cutting the grass and suchlike.  I then painted some of the woodwork in the hallway - just the first coat, and despite what it says on the tin, I think it'll need another.

In the evening, Vic cooked a brisket, and Vince came over to annoy Tilly and eat.

August 4th

I've bought myself a little airbrush, in a series of comical events.  So I started out with the base kit, only to find some parts missing.  I also found it had a single stage trigger, so it'd be like using a spray can.  I took that back and upgraded to the "deluxe kit", that has a 2 stage trigger (air and paint), but when I opened it I found that it had no air hose.  I was starting to knock something up with 1/8" fuel hose that I had left over from working on the plane when I said "screw it" and went back and bought an air hose.

When we got back from that, we rotated the wheels on the Jeep, so that hopefully all 5 wear out together, rather than end up replacing a spare tyre because it's old and cracked, rather than it's run out of tread.  It does, of course, mean that the tyres are (even) noisier for a little while while they wear in going the other way.

I started playing with the airbrush - from what I've read, I should be able to use Windex(tm) to thin out the acrylic paint that Vic uses, and spray that.  That works for me, as I doubt I'll use much paint, and she has every colour known to mankind.  First I needed to clear off the paint I'd brushed on (with a fork, by the look of things), and after a suggestion from Don, I used degreaser - it takes the paint off without destroying the plastic.  Yay.  Anyway, when it came to throwing paint, it doesn't look like the Windex works... all I threw was very watery, and then the brush blocked.  Still, it's nice to have taken it apart to see how it works, and how to clean it all up.  I then spent a happy little time spraying water on myself.

In the evening we went to dinner with Vince - it's been a little while since we've seen him, as he'd either eaten something bad or had beer flu last weekend.

August 3rd

After work, we went to dinner with Jim and Kathy.

August 1st

New month, so the solar statistics:

Power we paid for

Power generated