helicopter updates

While completing the helicopter tear down I found the turbo's under the seat.

Whew! I thought they were lost! They were also there with a mighty huge mouse house. Full of dirt and poop and stink. Those boards will need replacing.


Today I spent the morning buying new parts and using my new (craigslist) table saw to make the back, top, and bottom pieces. I had to borrow my neighbors jigsaw to make the round cuts for the sides. I tried using the router for the windows in the back wall and they turned out terrible and I had to recut the back wall. A jigsaw was my only option. The sides don't match perfectly, but neither did the originals.


Tomorrow I plan on assembling the cabin and maybe build the skids.

Oh, and the only thing I was able to keep was the pvc. Plastic lasts forever, plywood doesn't. I thought I might be able to keep the steps, but I realized that even those are rotted out.

And thanks Mandy for the paint theme idea! I'll go with the bumblebee colors. I'm going to try and commission the neighbor lady to paint a tough looking bumblebee on the sides.

the story of a boy and his helicopter

When I was a mere boy, my grandpa built me a helicopter. It was made out of pvc pipes, plywood, 2x4s and had a cb. It didn't fly, but it was really cool. So now, years gone by, the helicopter was passed to my cousins and now it has been passed to Xander and Josie. Being that it is made of plywood and is more than 25 years old it needs some rework.

Here is a picture before I started the rework. That's the plexiglass window in the cockpit. The rod across the front is a support.


Here is an interesting fact about my grandpa, he only bought green and yellow paint. I swear. And my uncle kept with that same theme when he repainted it for my cousins, but just a different shade.

Here is a picture of the propeller, it's going to be replaced. Can't fly rescue missions with a bum whirlybird.




After Xander got up from his nap he helped me take the rear rudder and the roof off.



The rear rudder is broken in the middle and needs to be replaced. The part where it is broken is where the rear roof fastened to the rear tail.


Here are the cockpit controls. No wonder it never flew, no fuel or oil. I'll have to add some more switches and buttons. Another 10 or so just might send Xander into toddler ecstasy. That boy loves switches.



I got all the parts with it except for the turbo pipes. Those were just 5" diameter pvc pipes mounted on the rear roof.

Any suggestions on color?

gross

I was helping my brother in law move last night and boy do I have stories for you!

I was holding one end of a loveseat, we turned it upside down to set it in the back of the truck and as we did a fingernail clipping fell out onto my arm. How disgusting is that?

In his defense this is a hand-me-down couch and who has done what on it. Still, someone chewed on their fingernail and either spit/dropped/threw/lost it in the loveseat.

The fingernail was in addition to all the crumbs other clods of dirt that fell out of it when we turned it over. The fingernail just happened to land on my arm and not bounce off.

Vick

Did Michael Vick commit a crime?
Yes.

Did Micheal Vick go to jail for the crime he committed?
Yes.

Does Micheal Vick deserve to be figuratively nailed to a cross for the rest of his life for the crime he paid for with jail time?
No. Leave him alone.

clarification

Ikkin: A bunch means 2 diaper boxes full of cds. Which when I went downstairs and counted turned out to be 233. This includes full length albums, singles and burned stuff. Plus around 40 in our two vehicles and another 10 or so lullabys and disney things and kid stuff.

Sergey: Yes, I still have the 40 GB one from you and the 80 GB. I'm not sure the 80 GB will work with my computer since it is a SATA and I don't have a sata hard drive. Plus, I'm a goober because I looked on my hard drive and I've got over a 100 GB of space left. I'll probably go to half price books tonight.

Asa: Thanks, I'll give CD-ex a look.

So if I have around 280 cd's with an average of 12 songs per cd that gives me around 3360 tracks. So I guess I don't have as much music as I thought. I probably have 15 versions of evenflow. I can't ever get enough of that!

Thanks guys!

looking for ideas

I've got a bunch of cds that I don't listen to anymore but I don't want to throw out. I'd like to rip them to my pc but it's only 160 GB hard drive and I'm afraid it won't be enough room.

I'm looking to either buy a 2nd computer with a huge internal or external hard drive to rip all the music or find some boombox or home stereo with a hard drive and a cd drive to rip all my cds.

Any ideas or suggestions?

I think I might be leaning towards getting a cheap refurbed computer at microcenter for around 100 bucks, a 500 GB hard drive for another 100 bucks and going with that....

an update

A picture update of what we've been up to lately.

Xander's black eye. It was a little darker than this but now it's starting to fade a bit. Those ornery swingsets.



Our new kitchen sink and faucet. From 6.5" to 8" deep! Whooo hooo! Thanks to Amanda's dad for the help.



We had some whip cream in our fridge. Amanda's biggest concern was the expiration date on the whip cream, not the fact that I was giving our son whip cream directly from the aerosol can. I was hoping his fingers would be strong enough to operate the nozzle and I was going to let him make a big old mess in the backyard. Alas, we'll have to try again next year when his hand strength improves.



Fun at my 30th birthday party with sidewalk chalk! Yes, I wore that shirt to work on my birthday. No, there is no dimmer or off switch on that shirt. Yes, I'm going to keep on wearing it because I am awesome.