February 27, 2010

The last week of February was warm and sunny. It’s hard to believe it snowed just a few days ago. Ahh…this crazy Texas weather. Since the sun was out, I didn’t want to waste my Saturday cooped up indoors, so I invited Glenn to go geocaching while Ruben was busy being an EMT at the basketball game. Glenn humored me and agreed to tag along. We found a couple of caches that afternoon. It always amazes me how this hobby leads me to unique little secluded spots that are just a couple of miles away from my home. You never know what’s in your own backyard until you go exploring.

February 27, 2010

Ruben’s career goal is to work as a medical professional, specifically a doctor, physician’s assistant, or something similar. Recently, he became active in the student EMT organization. This Saturday he took part in his first event as a medic, during the Texas A&M basketball game against UT. I wanted to attend this game and see Ruben in action, but this event was sold-out.

February 25, 2010

The only hobby/art stores we have in College Station are a Michaels and a Hobby Lobby and that’s really not saying much. I went to one and started buying supplies to do the landscaping portion of the layout but the prices seemed rather high. I pulled out my iPhone and discovered that I could purchase the same stuff at a 3rd the price online. Needless to say, I put everything back on the shelves. While ordering this stuff online, I discovered that the only way to take full advantage of the savings is to order everything you’ll need at one time to minimize shipping costs. One day, Ruben and I came home from work and there were several boxes waiting at the front door. Cool! Soon, Ruben kept asking me when we’re going to start working on the landscape. We? Alright! Ruben might be catching the model railroading bug. We spent the next couple of days experimenting with the Woodland Scenic’s products. We realized we had to apply a thin layer of plaster to the layout before we could get the earthy-look we wanted for the terrain. I think we had the most fun making trees.

Stay Tuned!

February 23, 2010

It snowed in Aggieland! In just a few hours inches of snow blanketed the area. This is a rare meteorological occurrence for this part of the country. Understandably, students were drawn from their computers by the urge to explore the winter wonderland that suddenly developed on campus. They quickly began engaging in snowball fights or building snowmen. Others, like myself, photographed this rare beautiful snow day.

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February 20, 2010

Saturday, Ruben’s Tucker and Glenn’s Milo became one-year-olds. Of course we had to celebrate. That evening, Glenn brought Milo to the house along with an old (mutual) friend of ours, Josiah. He’s a fellow photography geek, so we spent plenty of time talking about cameras.

It was a zoo that night at the house with four dogs running about. *sigh* Those two little pups Glenn and Ruben brought back to College Station grew up fast.

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February 20, 2010

Earlier in the week, I was talking to Bobby (my grad assistant) about the work I’ve been doing on my model railroad. During our conversation he recalled childhood memories of attending the Houston Train show with his dad. Out of simple curiosity, we “googled” the event to see when the next show would be and were surprised to discover it was THIS weekend. Early Saturday morning, Ruben and I drove to the Greater Houston Train Show in Stafford, Texas. We had a good time checking out all the various layouts on display. There were several things I wanted to buy but didn’t. The good thing about taking Ruben with me is that he kept me from spending my money and the bad thing about taking Ruben with me is that he kept me from spending my money. *wink*

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February 19, 2010

This week’s work on the train layout consisted of staining and sealing the wooden supports I built for the Terrain-for-Trains modules. With the right kind of stain, even cheap pine can look good. It reminds me of the phrase “putting lipstick on a pig.” *laugh* For the most part, everything went well, but I was disappointed to discover the modules didn’t line-up very well vertically. I believe the plastic base of the “Rocky Ridge” section was trimmed too short at the factory. Oh well, it just means some modifications will have to be made.

Click any image to enlarge.

February 13, 2010

This week, I started doing some track-work on my new layout. Before I began, I sorted all the old track I had accumulated over the years and thought maybe I’d just buy all new track for this project. It didn’t take me long to rethink that idea once I discovered that prices related to this hobby have almost doubled since 2000 and sad to say in 2010 all of the track components are now made in China. (Maybe my “made in the USA” parts will become collector items?) Considering the cost of buying “new” I decided to use every bit of old track I already had. The first track I installed was on the tunnel section of the High Sierra module. Once I made sure everything was in place, I taped the track down and glued it to the support surface. After the glue had cured, I tested the track by running a little 4-4-0 locomotive across every rail joint…so far, so good.

If you can’t look tough then pose like Charlie’s Angels.

February 12, 2010

On a frigid Friday in February we went to Brad’s birthday bowling bash. Ruben and I had a great time with friends that night celebrating Brad’s birthday while we pretended we knew how to bowl. Towards the end of the evening, we played a round of laser-tag. I had never done it before but really enjoyed it.

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February 1-9, 2010

Nothing says “love” like tropical fish.  Recently, when we’ve made trips to our local Pet Smart, Ruben and I would contemplate the idea of getting an aquarium.  We finally got one and decided to consider it our Valentine’s gift to each other. Yes, I know keeping an aquarium looking good requires regular maintenance, but I also know keeping a fresh water tank is EASY compared to saltwater….and a lot cheaper.