White Stuff

Just a little under 2 feet of snow fell on us today. Kind of weird for December. Pretty.

Photo Time

Even though I said I wasn't going to take any photos on this trip we ended up using the little point-and-shoot camera quite a bit. We stayed at the Boardwalk Inn and visited all the major parks at Walt Disney World. Being on the Premium Plan meant that we ate too much and did way too many things for this middle age couple. It was a blast and the tours (we did 5!) taught us a few things as well. You can check out a few of the better photos over at Peg's Flickr site: Pez4Peg

Santa Came Early

So I am down at the mailboxes and there is an unexpected package waiting. "Cool!" I said to myself; I love surprises. I jump back in the car and drive home smiling. I gently squish the large envelope trying to guess its contents. No luck. Okay, open it already! Inside I find that my good friend Cherry has made me an awesome ornament hat. Funny thing is I remember her talking about doing an ornament exchange earlier in the summer but nothing else was said about it. Ha! Never thought I would end up being the ornament. Thank you, Cherry. You rock!

I Need a Vacation from my Vacation

Peg and I are back from our Walt Disney World vacation. I am super tired but happy! Look for more photos and words to follow in the next few days.

Something Pretty for the Table

While Peg was trying her best to sell some of our jewelry at the Berryville Holiday Market over the weekend, I took the time to look over all the other vendors' wares. I became fascinated by some Raku ceramics over in the Windsor Ceramics booth. So I bought one. I had several conversations with the artist, Justin Windsor, over the weekend and he said he would make us similar shaped vases in differing sizes to make a collection of three. He definitely makes some great art pieces. Check out his website for more great ceramics. http://www.windsorceramics.com/

Goodguys Southeastern Nationals

We had a great time once again at the Goodguys Southeastern Nationals down in Charlotte, NC. We could only stay for Friday's events because of other commitments but that was the best day since the Vintage Drag Races were being held at the Zmax Dragway. You can check out some more of my pictures over at MyRideisMe.com.

Homeless

Anyone need a kitten? Friends of ours have adopted some strays and one of the girls had kittens. These cute little boogers need homes. Sadly a few have already become meals for the local raccoons.

Everything is Good

Went to Fall Carlisle to get away from work on Friday. As a bonus I was able to get a good look at the GM Futurliner. Really cool looking vehicle but I thought it was bigger. Picked up some parts catalogs since the boss gave me the okay to do some work on the '48 this winter.

Working in Bubba's Garage

Winter is coming so I thought a good garage clean-up before moving indoors would be a good idea. Plans are to work on the '48's dash and wiring and maybe start on the Hearse over the winter. Sure could use some help figuring out the mechanics on getting that big motor to fit.

Under cover

Wow, it has been almost forever since I posted last. Busy, Busy, Busy. Finally got the mustang back on the road and took it for a shake down run on Sunday. It was a beautiful day and we had the top down. The oil catch can on the PCV line is keeping the supercharger clean so that made me happy. Didn't throw any belts so everything seems to be lined up correctly. No tickets. But in reality, I wasn't driving too hard... this time. Gave her a bath and then put her to bed.

Rocks in the Head

This weekend was all about jewelry once again. We headed out to Lebanon, PA for the Gem Miner's Jubilee on Saturday. It was a good show with lots of great raw materials available and Peg scored a couple of nice pieces to add to her collection including the pictured citrine geode for real cheap. Sunday selling at the Mountain Community Marketplace really was bad; we had no sales. Summertime slow down is kicking our butts. We broke down quickly after closing and ran over to the International Gem and Jewelry Show over in Chantilly, VA to pick up some supplies. The G&J Shows have really gone downhill lately. They are now letting vendors sell all kinds of crap at these shows and I mean crap. There are quite a few vendors selling cheap imported goods which have nothing to do with jewelry. Luckily our few regular vendors were still there so we stocked up on supplies. Christmas is coming. Oh, did I just say that....

Carnage

All my cars need work now. The '06 Saleen Supercharged Mustang GT decided to throw a alternator pulley on Friday taking with it the alternator shaft. Could have been worse if the pulley had hit something fragile on the way out. My shop manager said she was able to order a new one and I ordered a new alternator. Hopefully the Mustang will be back on the road in a week or two.

My daily driver also now has a cracked motor mount. Luckily it's the top mount so it isn't that hard to swap out. I am outsourcing the changing of the front struts so I am just going to let them deal with the mount as well.

Time flies...

I can remember it just like it was yesterday. A poor little Mercury Montego sitting on the lot by herself just hoping for a new home. We brought her home with us a little over 4 years ago and she has been the best car I have ever owned. Other than basic maintenance, we haven't had to do anything to her. She is big and comfortable, gets okay gas mileage, and the AWD does great in the snow. Today she just turned 100,000 miles on the odometer. Teared up just a little. Maybe I'll get her some new floor mats as a present. I think I am a FoMoCo convert...

Hot!

We knew the Summer Thunder Cruise-in on Saturday would be hot (in the 90's) so the decision as to what vehicle to drive basically boiled down to which of the rides had the best AC. And, since the Sonoma hadn't been anywhere this year I thought it would be good to run the old gas out of it. As usual Summer Thunder had a good variety of vehicles to look at but we only lasted a couple of hours before we wimped out and headed down the road for a cruise. I really like driving my cars as opposed to sitting around talking about them.

We're back...

We are just back from Pezamania '09, broke, tired, and with lots of goodies. Peg is a PEZ nut. She has an entire room just crammed with PEZ related stuff. We try to go to at least one PEZ convention a year and this time we went to Pezamania up in Independence, OH. It was a long trip but probably one of the bigger PEZ events we have attended over the years.

It's Great to be Me... Well at least for this morning.

I had to take some time off this week to try and keep myself from exploding. The stress of everything really has me on edge. On several occasion I have flown into a rage over the littlest of things. Not good. So, this morning I decided to drive around looking for some good places to take pictures. The sun was too high for any great shots but this HDR made me smile. Then it was off to Home Depot for a replacement light switch for one that went bad just when I was relaxing reading a book. Grrr. Breath... Calm....

The Name Game

There is a new market in town and it's name is known as the Mountain Community Marketplace. I have been working on a website for the group. It is still not complete but at least the navigation is functional. You can check us out at http://www.mcmarketplace.org/

Mountain Community Marketplace
Every Sunday from 11am - 2pm
58 Mission Rd, Harpers Ferry, WV

It takes orbs...

So among all the millions of other projects we have going on we decided to put in a new water feature this weekend. We have always admired the displays at Through the Garden near Harpers Ferry, WV but they were only open by appointment until recently. Saturday they were having an open house so we stopped in and had to buy something. Well now we have a cool bubbling orb in the backyard!

Changes Are A Comin'

The St. Andrew's Mountain Community Center Project (SAMCCP) has granted the vendors permission to form a committee to create a market at the Mountain Community Center (MCC). The market will be open at the MCC on Sundays between 11-2. SAMCCP has set the booth fee to just $5 for the summer. So if you are a crafter and would like to sell, just show up before 11 and pick your spot.

As we get more organized I' ll post more information. We are hoping to grow this into something GREAT!

The MCC is located on the Blue Ridge Mountains just outside Charles Town, WV. The street location is at the corner of Rt. 9 and Mission Rd.

Whatever you do don't look behind the couch!!!

Monkey Business

We "adopted" a chimpanzee (Melody) from "Save the Chimps" to be our unofficial mascot for the garage. Ain't she cute? Save the Chimps rescues chimps that have been mistreated and allows them to live the rest of their lives living peacefully. If you are looking for an animal rescue organization to donate to then Save the Chimps is a worthy cause.

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The Big Guy Goes to the Little Guy Nationals

So I thought it was about time to run away from house chores and work to just enjoy a day. Peg said I could do anything I wanted to on Saturday since it was "my day." We loaded up her HHR Panel Truck and headed off to the Virginia Motorsports Park outside Petersburg, VA to watch some of the action at the Little Guy Nationals nostalgia drag race. What a blast! There was a great selection of cars 25 years old or older running down the track and a fair number of other cars at the car show to gawk at as well. Check out a few more of my photos over at MyRideisMe.com.

Almost like Christmas

We finally had a real good selling weekend. Since it was Mother's Day weekend Peg decided we needed to sell both days. On Saturday we did the Berryville Main Street Craft Market in Berryville, VA and had great day even though it was a little warm and threatening to shower on us. On Sunday we hit our usual spot at the Jefferson Biz Market and did even better. The total in sales for both days was rapidly approaching Christmas levels. But now we are totally pooped and need to replace inventory. Guess I'll be twisting metal most of the week.

Bun in the oven

More cookin'! Bubba didn't get this size by not being able to cook. I had a hankerin' for some coconut so I whipped up a batch of coconut sweet buns over the weekend. They are made with coconut milk and shredded coconut. Yum. Picture was taken with my iPhone after I just shoved the buns into the oven. I still need to download the smell app.

Lookin' for a Honey

So Saturday turned out to be another one of those "don't wanna do anything" kind of days. We decided to cruise around to a couple of farmers markets. I struck pay gold at the Leesburg, VA farmers market when I found a vendor selling my favorite honey. Buckwheat honey has a distinct taste that is very different from other honeys. Yum. This is the description off of the apiarists' (Bees N' Blossoms) site:

One of the most popular honey nectars! Buckwheat honey is one of the most antioxidant rich honeys produced! Darker in color and with a deep rich flavor, buckwheat honey is an excellent choice for cooking and baking as well as general use.

A lazy Saturday morning

We took some time-out to cruise the Mustang up to Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD. While there I tried my best to make the turtles smile. Check out a few more pictures over on my Flickr site: Bubba's Toybox.

I see dead people....

Well, Peg did. She and her girlfriend took a trip to Paris, France and snapped tons of pictures. Slowly I am going through them all. You can see more of her pictures on her Flickr site Pez4Peg. The trip to the catacombs was my only condition for her travel and she brought me back some neat photos!

Can dead cats kill dogwoods?

Surrounding our little pet cemetery in the backyard and on the trail to Bubba's garage were several dogwood trees. It now seems that they are either dead or dying. I just had a humorous thought while I was pulling up a stump of one of the dead dogwoods that maybe the ghosts of the cats did not like being buried next to the DOGwoods. Dunno. Makes you think.

New Tattoo

For some reason I get the stupid urge to make lots of smoke when pulling the Mustang into our driveway. This time while doing a burnout I probably held the go pedal down a little too long. Everything stunk like burning rubber for a good 30 minutes. There is nothing like tattooing your own driveway.

Going once, twice, SOLD!

We decided to go check out the Atlantic City Car Show and Auction on Saturday. That was a waste of time. The vendors were all of the flea market variety. The car corral had about 25% modern cars and mostly crap. It was expensive at $20 box a person. The only bright spot was that the auction had a over dozen very cool cars. Oh well, at least we weren't sitting around the house. To try and salvage the outing I took Peg over to the outlet mall in Reading, PA. I like driving so the 500+ miles and 6 states put a smile on my face.

If I knew you were coming

In honor of Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras, we baked a King Cake. Yum!

Times are tough

We went to the International Gem & Jewelry Show this weekend in Chantily, VA and had no problem shopping. Normally you are shoulder to shoulder at this show but the crowds were quite manageable. We were in and out in a couple of hours with about 3/4 of the items we had on our purchase list. And we behaved! We only bought off our list for a change.

The ice is gone!

My driveway finally thawed out on Sunday so I was able to take the mustang out for a test drive. I had made some minor modifications last month and just wanted to go for a ride. So, I am driving normally and waiting for the engine to warm up. I get out to the main road and stomp on the gas. This causes a loud squeal but not the good tire type. Dang it. Belt is slipping on the supercharger. Oh well. At least it ran well other than that. I behaved myself the rest of the drive and only barked the tires a couple of times. Another project...

Hooo....Hooo

One of the reasons I endure the long commute is I love where I live. Peg snapped this picture through our backyard window. This little fella hung around the backyard for quite some time.

I've offended the gods!

There cannot be another explanation for all my bad luck. Here is the list, most of which has happened in January:

1. Sick twice in the last 2 months.
2. Mechanic stripped the oil plug on my daily driver causing oil to leak all over my driveway.
3. Smacked my head so hard while working in the garage that everything went gray and I fell to the floor
4. Stuck at home twice because of ice on the roads (I live on the side of a mountain)
5. Everyone of my cars needs work (I currently have eight)
6. While replacing a toilet in the bathroom I dropped a bolt down the drain.
7. A power outage at work fried many of the UPSs and I ended up working on the weekend
8. And the boot to the groin? Jury duty for the next month-and-a-half!

Okay, once you write it down it isn't so bad. Come on February!

Keep Learning

So this week I learned a new chainmaille pattern called "Celtic Visions Star." It's not too hard and by using anodized aluminum we can create all sorts of colors as well as keep the prices down. These pendants, as well as all the other jewelry we make, can be purchased at our booth (BG Customs) most Sundays during the Jefferson Biz Market just off Route 9 near Charles Town, WV in the Mountain Community Center (MCC).