It's been a while....

Its been a while since I posted.  My job is making it increasingly difficult to enjoy my downtime
on the Internet.

Anyway, here is a late post from December.  I finally got the Trooper's engine swap completed.
It took about a month of tear down and several weeks of collecting parts and doing my
homework on the forums, but the time finally came.  Tom came out for a long weekend to help
me with the swap as he knows more about tearing apart and reassembling motors than I do.
That said, I know 100% more about this than I did 3 months ago, which is cool.

It's been a cold and snowy winter so far.  We've been here for just over 3 years, and this is the
coldest I have seen Reno get.  As annoying as it is, it's great that we are getting so much weather.
The motor swap took us the better part of 3 days, but by Monday morning we finished things up
as much as possible and took both trucks up to the hills for some fun in the snow.

Tom in the Trooper blasting through the powder.

Some more pics from the RWWE I forgot to post yesterday!

I edited a few more photos and put them in a different folder and totally forgot to post them.
So, here goes.

Linda's feet sticking out of the tent.

L.A.

A KyotoPunk heavy L.A. post...

My favorite photo of the entire trip...

Sleeping Animals.

After freezing our Wasteland Warrior asses off at the RWWE, we high-tailed it to San Diego
for some much needed R&R. Here is Linda and CeCe walking along Pacific Beach.

Vehicles

This entire post will be dedicated to the vehicles.

This is Paul Miller's completed Interceptor replica. The only Aussie Falcon I have seen besides mine. Needless to say, I drooled over the car for quite some time.

It's been a while...

...since I posted. They are locking down more and more at work. Somehow I can still get to my LJ page, but I cannot view friends.lj.com anymore, which is annoying.

Anyway, the following series of posts are how we spent the Thanksgiving holiday. It started in Johnson Valley for the "Road Warrior Weekend Event".

The VX parked outside the hotel in Lone Pine, CA. (Mt. Whitney in the BG)

L through the Kodak Duaflex IV

More Kodak Duaflex IV shots

I've been wanting to photograph this old truck for a while. Now, armed with
the Kodak Duaflex I figured I would stop and shoot it vintage style.

Vintage Photography With No Film

So, here are a few completely random quickie snap-shots using the D80
attached via a cardboard tube to an old Kodak Duaflex IV (72mm lens). I
stole this idea from someone on the Internet who stole this idea from
someone else on the Internet and so on.  The effect is quite nice, and
quite vintage. Hopefully tomorrow I can make some more. (note, if you
see no images, come back later, I am in the process of switching web hosts).

Cold

Yesterday was fall. Today was winter, at least as far as the mountains of Eldorado county were concerned.

This is what the lake looked like in the morning. Amazing.

It's that time of year again!

October/November. The best 2 months of the year are here. So, we pushed the Trooper over the hill to the apple orchards.

Omodaka + 6% DokiDoki Girls

Of the 4 bands playing on Saturday in Peace Plaza, I was most interested in seeing electronic act known as Omodaka. His audio/visual performance was accompanied by the dancing 6% DokiDoki girls. I took so many photos of this awesome event that I decided to give Omodaka and the 6% DokiDoki Girls their own post. It was such a cool show we had to stay late Sunday and watch their "official" concert
at Yoshis.  We ended up lucking out because they went on first and we were able to leave by 9:00pm which got us home by 1:00am.

Omodaka jamming on the Nintendo DS...

Some shots from a cool weekend in SF...

So Erin and Scott came in on Thursday and then on Friday we drove over
to San Fran and stayed the weekend. As per usual, we stayed in Japantown.
This weekend was also the Grand Opening of the new cultural center, which
was awesome.

4:15 is what I was waiting for (see following post)

A few high lights from Hot August Nights

Now, I am not so much into the cars represented at the Hot August Nights events, but there were a few nice one's that stood out from the rest. Hot August Nights events only allow cars from the 50s and 60s. I think maybe up to 1970 or something, which to me, is right before when I really started liking cars. So that kind of makes things a little boring for me, since most of the cars are not really all that "cool" to me. I really don't understand why anyone in their right mind would paint a car powder blue, or pink and purple, or lime green. But I guess that's how it was back then??? Anyway, the following photos are of a few things that caught my eye.

Berlin Icthyosaur State Park - Part 2

The next day we woke up and hiked for a bit around the park.

Berlin Icthyosaur State Park - Part 1

After Jarbidge, we drove home and got cleaned up and replenished our supplies.
We also picked up kyotopunk and headed out into the desert heat towards
Berlin Ichthyosaur State Park which is in the middle of the Nevada Nowhere.
The temps were pretty rough over the last weekend here, soaring over 100° before
sunset. The old Trooper experienced some severe vapor lock while ascending some
tough hills out there in the heat. Yeah, she needs some serious upgrades.
As we got closer, and the sun started to set, the snakes came out.
Here I am with a nice big gopher snake found on the road. (Photo by JASHawk13)

EXPEDITION JARBIDGE: Part 4 - Goodbye Paint Job

Yeah, the trail we took in the morning lead us back north along the Bruneau River. It was
one of the coolest trails I have ever been on but the parts near the river were severerly
overgrown. But, you reach a point were there is no turning back, and since the VX already
had a considerable amount of trail rash, I said to hell with it, and pushed through.

EXPEDITION JARBIDGE: Part 3-B - Holy Trail Rash!

After Bear Creek Summit, we kept driving and exploring. We took an off shoot and
ended up going off the main road and up to one of the most beautiful spots
I have ever been in Nevada.

We parked, ate lunch and then started hiking. Here we are taking it all in.

EXPEDITION JARBIDGE: Part 3-A - A Very Full Day

On Tuesday we woke up and went for another exploritory trail ride. We went to the end of
the road out of the campsite that take you across the Jarbidge River several times. The trail
was very easy and worth it for the nice scenery.

EXPEDITION JARBIDGE: Part 2 - Mormon Cricket Paste

In the morning we woke up, rolled up our dusty tents and pressed onward toward Elko.
We hit Elko pretty early and ate breakfast.  We then stopped at Wally World for some last
minute supplies, topped off the gas tanks and then turned north. About an hour or so
out of Elko we started seeing the swarms of Mormon Crickets (or more accurately,
the Shieldbacked Katydids).  In some spots there were so many on the road the carnage
created a thick paste of bug juice all over the ground.

The drive up from Elko and off onto the dirt trail that would take us all the way up to Jarbidge
was gorgeous. This part of Nevada does not look at all like the rest of the state. Rocky
out-croppings, streams, and lots and lots of green make up this majestic part of the west.

(Photo by JASHawk13)

EXPEDITION JARBIDGE: Part 1 - The Dust Bowl

Last week Jim and Tom came in from the Chi for a week of camping and hanging out. Time
flew by, as usual, and now the fun is over. It was very nice to spend so much time away from
civilization. The following seven or so posts will take you through the week...

Day 1: We left Reno around 4:00pm heading straight into NV via I-80. We wanted to get an
early start on the trip so we didn't have to cram so much driving into one day. We made it all
the way to Winnemucca before we decided we should pull off and camp somewhere for the
night.

We exited east of town and settled on this spot:

HOLY CARP

The bird has landed. We had an awesome day with Phil and Lawrence. They stayed for dinner
and it was a blast to visit with them and talk cars. Great guys.

Now, onto the important stuff...photos of today, thanks to kyotopunk for taking the photos,
making dinner, cleaning up, and just being uber helpfull all day long while I dealt with the
whirlwind of the end of a 7 year ordeal to acquire my dream car....well, what will eventually
become my dream car.

My first glimpse of a real Aussie Falcon with my own eyes...

A few quick pics from last weekend...

San Fran, once again, for the dolly stuff.  Here are 5 things that caught my eye:

Loco Moco On The Bridge.  Japan Town is one of my favorite things about San Fran.

Scorpio

Ft. Churchill through a shitty fisheye adapter...

On Monday, Linda and I decided to take a leisurely ride through Virginia
City, and over to Ft. Churchill State Historic Park. It was a really nice ride
and we enjoyed seeing the ruins of Ft. Churchill and the surrounding area
quite a bit. Here are a few photos from the spot. Someday, I will own a
real ultra wide angle lens...someday....

Oh how I longed for this sign to come true...

Just a few from a day of camping...

While the "plan" I had didn't really pan out, we got to see a lot of new territory and scenery.
We ate lunch here at this park on the river.

Summer is here...

...and Tuna loves it.

The fork again

On Saturday we went back to the spot we went to a few weeks prior.
The gate was open and we drove a lot farther in and hiked for a bit.
I think I found a new favorite camping spot and it is under 2 hours
from home!!

Birds And Fish

I've been behind on my LJ posting for a bit now so I decided to play catch up today. 
My brother and I went back to the carp hole and fished for a bit.  Here are a couple
of pics.  Also, some pics of the various birds that inhabit our back yard...

20 random photos from last weekend

So, for Linda's b-day we did what we usually do, head over to the Bay and spend the
 weekend relaxing.  Friday night we had Blow Fish and met up with Brandy and Scott,
which was uber cool, and I gorged on sushi and Hitochino Nest Beer.

Here are 20 random photos from the weekend...

#1 - A mashed together panoramic view from the 16th floor of our hotel

Good Hike

This morning we got off to a late start but still decided to head out and enjoy the uber nice weather.
The goal was to get some excercise, fresh air, sun, and with any luck, locate a Sierra-Nevada Ensatina
and a Northern Rubber Boa. Well, we struck out on the rubber boa, but did locate a pretty little Sierra-
Nevada Ensatina, my first one ever. XD

We also saw some cool inverts, including these two enormous pedes...

Totally Stuffed...

Australian slang for exhausted or messed up. It fits her perfectly. :|

• stuffed
  adjective:- exhausted

• stuffed up
  adjective:- messed up

Despite her condition, I really feel like I can do this. Affording it is another story
however. Anyone have a spare $10,000 laying around?

S u N d A y

Yes folks...a moustache. :)

More from last weekend...

So Tom, Kris, Ryan and Scotty came out for the weekend to hang out.  As per usual, the weekend was
loaded with high jinx (noisy and mischievous merrymaking), mahem (a state of rowdy disorder), tom
foolery (foolish or silly behavior) and gayness (of, indicating, or supporting homosexual interests
or issues, having or showing a merry, lively mood).

#1 - Clean fun with Photoshop....I'll spare you the not so clean Photoshop fun that is in the works...

I'm not a cam whore...

...but I could be if I was to wear this wicked stache all the time.  And this is exactly why Linda hates it so much.
I however find it extremely fun, and funny, especially when walking around in a public place wearing not just the stache, but a pair of Amber-Vue "Night Vision" glasses as well (thanks Scotty). XD

Patio Problems....

So we FINALLY got a patio poured in the back yard.  But not without problems.  At 9:00am this morning I got a frantic call from the Mrs., screaming that the office was flooding.  Holy. Crap.  I had about three heart attacks as I raced home from work.  Long story short, the patio contractors hit a water line in the base of the house (they have to drill a 3" hole in the side of the foundation for re-bar) which seeped up through the corner of the house and the foundation and into the office.  Luckily, the Mrs. was sitting at her desk like usual and the main line was shut off in time before any SERIOUS damage occured.  Had she not been home or simply in another room, the damage would have been much, much worse.   All in all though, the patio looks great and I can't wait to use it.

The damage. Here we had to chisel away the wall to expose the ruptured pipe so it could be repaired.  Next week it will get properly fixed.

Tom called...

...asking for an update on my facial hair.  So, I figured I would post a quick status photo.  It's getting really annoying actually.  First off, Linda won't even kiss me.  Second, dried snot and food seems to be a growing problem. :)  That aside, it does look pretty rugged and grungy.  It definitely makes me look harder.  It still needs another month to really start filling out though.

~~~ WHIPS ~~~

So the three of us (me, Linda and my brother) all cleaned our whips and decided to do a photo shoot. You can stop laughing now.

Dragons in Florida

From Reno to Vegas to Ft. Lauderdale and back in 4 days. This is what I got (in no particular order)...

Fantastic turkey vulture. I just love their fuzzy, skeletal, pre-historic heads.

Animals live in the extremes...

Today my friend Shawn and I went scouting for deer just over the Cali border north of town. The weather was extremely wet and windy. So much so that the highway was closed on the way up there due to the wind blowing a semi over, blocking the entire road. The trails we took were a sloppy mess, but the VX and the BFG M/Ts tore it all up. I am really quite happy with the performance of the BFG M/Ts, compared to my previous set of BFG A/Ts, which I think would have sucked in a situation like today's.

The deer were out in droves. We spotted quite a few, but didn't get close enough for any real spectacular photos. These are the best shots from what I was able to get given the rain and wind and relatively low light.

2☺☺9

Wow, hard to believe yet another year has passed. 2008 came and went. For the first day of 2009, Linda and I spent a lazy morning on the couch recovering from too much food and too much wine the night before. But, in the late afternoon (too late in fact) we set out for a little wheeling south of Carson City. I had a destination in mind, but the sun didn't let us get there. We did however play in the mud and slush a little, which was exciting. We stopped at the top of this mountain where this weird structure stood. It looks like a huge sign, but given the remote location and the fact that it had nothing on it whatsoever left us wondering if it was some sort of reflecting device. I really don't know. Anyway, the sun started setting while we up there, which was nice for photos.