Why I Oughta...

Yesterday, I posted a photo of an operating log dump car that I picked up for a Christmas present this year and mentioned that I scored a few operating accessories for the boys.  Above, you see one of those accessories in the Old St. Nick Operating Billboard.  This is the first time I've bought an operating billboard from Lionel but I know the basics:  there are two scenes that alternate in between by the rotating of the slats on the billboard.  The official product listing on Lionel.com show the two scenes and you can see them on the back of the box below.  For each of the boys that I've bought one of these for, I've been buying them boxcars/operating cars and/or track pieces/bridges/switches every year since they were born, so I figure they have enough rolling stock.  To keep their attention, they need operating accessories, right? And, like me, they only haul out their layout for the holidays and keep a holiday train so the St. Nick piece seems ...

One of my nephews gave this to me for Christmas and it has been sitting on my desk ever since.  It is a 'pen rest', but that's not the cool part.  First, he made it!  Yeah...like he made it in shop class in school.  I'm thinking it was some sort of computer-driven machining tool?  He programmed in my name and (most importantly) the Illini shield - which I'm over the moon for - and then stained it all by himself. Kinda awesome, right?  Especially because he's just a 12 year old.

In the Venn Diagram that includes Lionel O-Gauge train stuff and Disney stuff, the overlap has been small but consistent over the years.  You can go to any train show (and...yes those things exist!) and find some vintage Mickey the Mouse cabooses and box cars from over the years. And if we were to map people who would have an interest in that intersection, I'd gladly raise my hand.  As we've talked about before, I grew up with a Christmas Train.  My Dad would break out his vintage post-war Lionel train some time after Thanksgiving and we'd set it up.  Sometimes, around the tree, but at some point, my Mom relegated it to the basement.  That tradition - of breaking out the Lionel train set - has been one that I've tried to bring to my own kids.  And, my Dad fed the beast by giving the oldest girl - The Babe - her own set when she was 1. So, beside last year - when we were transient during the holidays - we've set up our Holiday Train.  And we're...

Here's the final version of the DIY Rocket Launch Pad that I made for my nephew yesterday .  The pad is made from a 1X8 with the bottom and back cut into 7.5" squares.  The front lip is 7.5" X 2" tall.  The sides are 7" tall and fill in the gaps between front and back.  I used decking screws because this thing involves water and pre-drilled the holes to avoid splitting. From there, I painted it white then painted on an orange and blue rocket, added the VASA '12 logo (a space organization named after my nephew, of course!) and even a motto on the back.    I wrapped it up in the typical wrapping paper:  the days newsprint. Also included in the Rocket package was this custom modified bike pump needle.  All you need to do is grab your needle, lay it next to a cork and then chop it down so the air holes just poke through. Here's the launch vehicle.  I used a Diet Orange Crush bottle.  But any 2 litre bottle will work fine. Just ...

I put this cryptic white box together using some decking screws and a treated 1X8.  I have to do a little bit of detailing with paint, but after those designs go on, this thing should be good to go.  I tested the other part of it this morning and the test vehicle landed all the way in our neighbor's yard.  This *is* going to be fun to play with!

That's my nephew in the Marlins uniform (and my dad in the Blogger hoodie!) right before he took the field for the first game of his little league season in Elmhurst.  They live down the block from us and while he plays hoops, football and soccer, he told me over the weekend that baseball was - by far - his favorite sport.  He's pretty good at it, too! He was the opening day starter on the mound and (from what I heard) while he didn't get a decision (left after giving up 2 runs mostly on walks), he did get two K's.  Pree-tay, pree-tay, pree-tay great.

For Christmas this year, we've decided to change gears and only give gifts to our family that we've "made" or crafted in some way.   I have 3 nephews that I've decided to make a board game for that was one of my favorites when I was growing up:  penny hockey.  I'm thinking of updating it a bit to make it more competitive with the Wii (who are we kidding!  These things will collect dust!).  I had a bit of help from Nat's dad and future-brother-in-law-law (my sister in law's future husband) in coming up with the prototype.  I think that some of their moms (my sisters!) read this here blog, so I will only show a little sneak peak of the board pre-sanding/staining/finishing.   I stained in this weekend and have put a coat of polyurethane on it to make it slick.  It isn't as slick of a surface as I remember, but the angles are just about right.   I'm going to have it around the house for a few months to figure out how we can make it better.  ...