Occasional Happiness

[TheSidewinder]

Lesseee...

 

Crazyboy and Richtee: Yep, I raise long-haired skunks. I'll send you both a couple, in a tight cramped box. They'll be in a delightful mood when they arrive. I suggest you open said box away from loved ones, and any structure you plan to inhabit. You might also consider putting a cot in the garage to sleep on.

 

Charlie: You and Richtee need to have a cookoff. Be sure the APC Staff is invited. It's bad form to displease the Staff, you know.

 

Oskarchem: Congratulations! I remember my first solo. Happened about the same way. But our tradition, in the US, is that your instructor cuts your shirt tail off. I still have it.

 

And on a bright note: I started my job today. It's nice to be employed again!!

[mormanman]

Charlie: You and Richtee need to have a cookoff. Be sure the APC Staff is invited. It's bad form to displease the Staff, you know.

I would like to be invited but I'm not APC staff. TS, you should tell them to invite everyone just bring your own food.

[Bonny]

I would like to be invited but I'm not APC staff. TS, you should tell them to invite everyone just bring your own food.

 

 

I'll bring the tomatoes... don't know what we were thinking planting 16 or 17 plants. I've made 4l pots of pasta sauce and salsa, and am still harvesting a bowl full of tomatoes every day when I get home from work.

Anyway, my garden was great this year...tons of beans, beets, celery, carrots, green peppers, did I mention tomatoes(?), and also made 12 jars of dill pickles.

[oskarchem]

I could bring frogs legs or some snails if anybody wishes...

[mormanman]

My grandma has cows. LOL. I could pick off one of the sick ones then gut it and skin it. Leather and meat anyone.

[Mumbles]

Oh no, only strong healthy cows for the APC cookoff.

 

Save me a filet mignon. Wrapped in Bacon if possible.

[FrKoNaLeaSh1010]

Filet mignon wrapped in bacon with a side of roasted garlic mashed potatoes has gotta be one of the best meals i've ever had. I had it once from the emeril's resteraunt in orlando while on vacation and although it cost like 60 bucks it was one of the best tasting meals i ever had.

[mormanman]

Oh no, only strong healthy cows for the APC cookoff.

 

Save me a filet mignon. Wrapped in Bacon if possible.

A cow in that shape is like 2 grand. A 5 minute pro pyro show.

[Richtee]

A cow in that shape is like 2 grand. A 5 minute pro pyro show.

Or a cheap amateur show and good meat. You can't eat an 8" double petal ;{)

[mormanman]

If you bring fireworks maybe shell make a discount.

[OneEyeCharlie]

What a gorgeous day on the West side of the mitten! Spent the afternoon with a pair of Channel Locks and a coffee grinder; kicking the crap out of my homemade MgAl. Ended up with 3 lbs of silvery-grey goodness. Listening to some college football on the radio. Victory for Michigan, but Georgia gave Central a bit o' schooling. Hard to get any better.

 

Ohhhhh, but it can. My pancetta is aging beautifully, and I've got 5 lbs of boneless pork butt all set to grind with some garden fresh sage and some heirloom apples. Tomorrow I play matchmaker. "Fresh ground sausage... meet natural casing..."

 

Forecasting some rain early in the day tomorrow. Good excuse to stay inside and whip up a batch of stars. Might try some of Fredbert's flash cores. I've picked up the Swede-itis. Going micro for the challenge. Bonsai, Bonsai, Bonsai.

Edited September 6, 2008 by OneEyeCharlie

[Swede]

I love eBay. I f****g LOVE it. I have snapped so many incredible bargains I have lost count. My $29 eighty amp power supply was one of the better ones. But... today I got a package in the mail that beats it price-wise, easily.

 

What it was - 280261227190

 

$56 (Buy it now) shipped for "17 pounds of new plastic laboratory plumbing fittings." Somewhere in the description or photos, I saw "PFA" which is a form of teflon. Anyone who has bought stuff like this knows how expensive it is. Total jackpot. A huge assortment of PFA, kynar, PP, nylon fittings and tubing, including Saint Grobain plastics PTFE fittings. Many of these go for $25 to $50 apiece.

 

Four PTFE elbows, $70 each. A BAGFUL of compression fittings, $40 each. The big kill, two bags of PTFE heat shrink tubing, retail $220 each. I'd guess to buy this box of stuff from Cole Palmer would be over $3,000, easy.

 

The bad part - I really don't need a lot of the stuff, right now, at least. You dig through a box of parts like this, pull out 3 or 4 jewels, and the rest goes into storage.

 

Anyway, with patience, there is a lot of lab and pyro-worthy stuff on eBay, not just chems or tubes. Get (and use) a good sniping program, look for guys who broker lab surplus and are too lazy to break it down into smaller lots, and snap them up.

[TheSidewinder]

You could always ship the extra stuff to me......

[jacob]

I hate ebay, I *always* get sniped, the only auctions I've ever won have been "by it now"

[superman1451]

You can always snipe back

[tentacles]

jacob: As long as you start by putting in your max bid, you aren't getting sniped, someone else was simply willing to pay more than you. I've been using ebay for some time now (since... 98 maybe?) and those snipe programs only get people if they underbid. Put in what you're willing to pay, and if someone else bids more, well, isn't that their perogative?

 

I just won some loot on ebay, my wife's always wanted a button maker, I scored one for ~$200 (canadian). These things go for like $400 new, and this brand carries a lifetime warranty.

[Swede]

I have to disagree, with respect; sniping is incredibly effective. What sniping does: it eliminates much of the emotion from a buy, and emotion is what drives prices very high.

 

Let's say there's a sep funnel you want, starting at $1. You are the first person who looks at it, and you want it. To you, it's worth $25, so you place that bid. "Bob" comes along, thinks "nice funnel" and bids $10. But you're the leader at $11. "I'll show that SOB..." He bids $15... $20... then $45 because GD it, he wants the funnel.

 

You see it all the time when you look at bid histories. People jack up their bids in increments, over and over, until they are high bidder.

 

Replay the scenario, except you are the sniper. Bob bids $10, he's high bidder, then goes to bed happy. You load the $25 into your sniping program, and take it with 5 seconds left for $11.

 

I've been on both sides of the war, and it IS a war. I'm one of those a$$holes who'll blow you out of the water with 3 seconds left, and no time to think. If you're going into combat, you want to be well-armed. One of the best and simplest: Auction Sentry. You can see dozens of auctions that you are tracking, and if you want to snipe one, you right-click on it, set the $$ amount, the number of seconds to go, and that's it. The program synchronizes your PC clock with eBay, and if you have broadband, you can reliably snipe with 6 seconds left.

 

If you go with Auction Sentry, get the basic version, it's better/easier than the deluxe, and a one-time payment, it's yours for life. It is automatically updated, and has performed brilliantly for me for years.

 

Just don't bid on stuff I want!

[jacob]

tentacles,

 

Thinking about it more you're right, I don't use ebay much but next time I bid on something I'm seting my max and walking away, to keep from going insane when someone like Swede comes and outbids me with 3 seconds to go, I guess it just feels like getting sniped.

[oskarchem]

So I just had one of those day's, where you just feel a part of a big "family", this morning I went to the aeroclub for a big cleaning day, I thaught that it was gonna be one of those hard labor day's, but no. I arrive a 9:45am, have some coffee with the other members, and then when the rest arrive we start getting the planes out and I start cleaning them, it's amazing that the bottom of the fuselage hasen't been washed for like 10-20years, so it was all black and fu**ing greasy, so I had to wash it with avgas but the problem is that I've got really hard to clean spots of a avgas/oil mixture, I'm gonna try with some ethanol, and maybe acetone if it dosen't work out.

 

But I don't really mind though, I had an exellent day, came back home at 8:15pm, after looooong talks with other fellow pilots and others.. This is the nice thing about being part of a relativlly small aeroclub, thus bringing evrybody closer together...

[PyroMedia]

i found.... a canadian chemical supplier! Overpriced though

[Richtee]

i found.... a canadian chemical supplier! Overpriced though

I found an American gasoline supplier! Overpriced too. But guess what. I bought it.

[flying fish]

^^^ $3.70 with Kroger Plus card (which registered to my mom who buys a shitload of groceries from them). Woot! Would have been like $4.20 without. I think that's what my sister told me anywho (we share a car since we both go to the same college). Edited September 14, 2008 by flying fish

[mormanman]

LOL, try E 85 at the kroger pump. So cheap but only cheap if you have the car for it.

[tentacles]

...I'm gonna try with some ethanol, and maybe acetone if it dosen't work out.

 

Please, try kerosene or diesel fuel first. Those two will cut through grease and oil like a champ and NOT dissolve the paint/finish of the plane! Since I'm not sure how much like north american diesel the stuff across the pond is, try kerosene if you can get some. Always try a tiny test spot in an unnoticeable spot (say, inside the engine cowl) and MAKE SURE it's not going to destroy the finish.. think how bad you'd feel.

[oskarchem]

Please, try kerosene or diesel fuel first. Those two will cut through grease and oil like a champ and NOT dissolve the paint/finish of the plane! Since I'm not sure how much like north american diesel the stuff across the pond is, try kerosene if you can get some. Always try a tiny test spot in an unnoticeable spot (say, inside the engine cowl) and MAKE SURE it's not going to destroy the finish.. think how bad you'd feel.

 

 

No, no, I wasn't talking about using acteone/ethanol on the plane. I used avgas to get the crap off. But I'm having big trouble getting that black greasy stuff of my hands/arms, and I was thinking aboute using acetone, unless sombody hase any better solvent to get it off of my skin.