Lego F1 car complete

Lego Technic 42000

I decided the Man Cave needed some better car décor. So I got a Lego F1 set to put together to hang on the wall. The Lego set number is 42000. And the set is $20 cheaper buying it direct from Lego than it was at Toys R Us. And that was even while Toys R Us was having a Lego sale. And Lego’s price was the normal price.

Lego Technic 42000

The set has 1141 pieces and includes 3 instruction books. All 3 books are for the F1 car even though the kit can also be built as a race truck of some sort. It took me probably 6 hours to put it together. Maybe a bit less. The final car is huge. It’s 22” long and 10” wide. It has push-rod suspension, rack-and-pinion steering connected to both the steering wheel and a little gear on the top of the car. It has a little lever that moves a synchro to lock in either the linear actuator to adjust the rear wing or the two linear actuators that raise the engine cover. It also has a differential on the rear axle. And the crankshaft is tied to the axle. So when the car moves, the pistons move up and down in the engine.

Engine cover raised

I only had 2 issue putting it together. One was the exhaust. One of the pipes on both sides does not show to use the little double sided black connector on one end, just the other. So there is nothing to hold the pipe in place. However, at the end I had a few spares of those, so I used two of them to connect the exhaust. Problem solved. The other issue came near the end. One step calls for two short grey axles and two slightly longer black axles. What I had left was 4 short grey axles. Luckily, the length was not really important, therefore I was able to use the ones I had. Overall, I am very pleased with the kit and think it will make great decoration in my man cave.

From the rear

And I personally think this is my favorite picture of it. In fact, it is my new laptop wallpaper.

Engine wallpaper

Odie Project 52 week too high :(

Yes, it has been over a month since I updated. Much has been happening, and unfortunately, I keep forgetting to have my camera with me.

Odie my sweet Great Dane mix is sweeter than ever. He is up to 48 weeks old. He is right under 100 lbs still. Poor guy still has all his ribs showing. Seems like no matter how much we feed him, he doesn’t fill out. I guess he has time. Both puppies have been to the vet and were given high praise for health (even with a recurrence of Giardia). Heidi is a plumper. She is only 18 weeks now, but up to about 30 lbs. We have been taking them to the dog park again. We held off for a while while Heidi was still young and without shots.

Here they are at Tanner Park:

I think Odie likes his backpack

Hurry up Heidi

 

Photos from the Formula Drift After Dark event in Las Vegas 2012

I got a call a few days before the event from my friend Erik asking me if I wanted to head to Vegas for the Formula D event. Usually short notice is a no-go thanks to kids, but now that the kids are staying with their mom during school, it gives me a bit more freedom to do fun stuff like this. And man was it fun. I highly recommend attending a Formula D event. I have watched it on TV and even watched demos at places like SEMA. But none of it was near as cool as being there. The noise, the smoke, the carnage, the atmosphere…

I drove down to Vegas with Erik Seo. He is an awesome photographer with a bunch of magazine shoots under his belt. I brought my D3100 with the crappy 18-55 lens, and due to the thick safety fence around the entire course, I was unable to get any good pictures. So really I didn’t even try after a few. Instead I spent my time enjoying the show or being body guard to Erik’s equipment bag. So rather than post pics here I will just send you to Erik’s blog http://www.erikseo.com/blog/2012/10/formula-drift-las-vegas-motor-speedway-after-dark/

BTW, I also picked up an awesome souvenir while there. It’s an HPI E10 Falken Ford Mustang Drift car. And it was signed at the event by Justin Pawlak who is the guy that drives the real one and is currently sitting in 4th place going into the final event of the year.

Odie project 52 week 36

This weekend we took Odie and Heidi with us to the track pretty much all weekend. Saturday we had garage owner appreciation day along with the American Rock Sports Challenge race. Sunday was karting test & tune. The Porsche shop a few garages down had their dog with them. IIRC, his name is Jax. And I believe they said he is about a year and a half old is all. So about twice Odie’s age, but not an old dog at all. We all gave them some time to get to know each other and play around without any adult intervention. I got a few cool pictures of them playing

Odie and Jax at Miller Motorsports

Odie and Jax at Miller Motorsports

Odie and Jax at Miller Motorsports

Odie at Miller Motorsports

Heidi (I just noticed she doesn’t have her own tag on here yet) was sleeping while Odie and Jax were having their fun. She was all tuckered out from watching the ARSC earlier. Here she is trying to come down those big ‘ol bleachers on her own:

Heidi on the bleachers

Heidi is up to 23 lbs. Odie is the same height and weight as he has been the last few weeks. Heidi is now 12 weeks old, and Odie is 42 weeks.

They are super sweet together. I am so glad we got Heidi. They both love each other so much. They eat together, sleep together, play together. They even pee together. #2 is still on separate schedules though 🙂 One perfect example of how sweet Odie is to Heidi: I was playing frisbee with Odie. He could see Heidi watching and wanting to be part of it, but not having the courage to get in his lane of traffic. So Odie catches the frisbee, carries it over to Heidi bends down and hold it by her mouth so she can hold on. Then he brought it over to me like a good boy. And did the same thing on the next few throws. It’s like he was not only trying to let her participate, but also trying to teach her how to play. It was soooo cute.

Odie and Heidi sleeping

Every now and then I have to lock Odie up in the house just so I can get pictures of her playing by herself. Otherwise she won’t leave his side long enough to get good pictures.

Heidi on the prowl

That innocent face

Heidi has no idea Timber is mad

Datsun 510 at Miller Motorsports

Just a quick photo post here. This is my friend’s Datsun 510. He is one of the guys I share a garage with out at Miller Motorsports. He wanted me to take a couple quick shots of it on cantilevered slicks. Silly car with silly tires 🙂

Datsun 510 at Miller Motorsports

Odie project 52 week 35 with more Heidi

Odie is now 41 weeks old. He is up to 94 lbs. So not much change there. Heidi is a different story. She is up to 19.5 lbs. So in 2 weeks she has gone from 12.8 lbs to 19.5 lbs. She is 11 weeks old. Our little Heidi had the runs for longer than I thought made sense. So I took her to the vet last week. He did a stool sample and found she had a couple bad butt bugs. Giardia was one, I don’t remember the other. And I guess she had none of the good butt bugs they like to see. So she got some shots and he sent us home with some meds for her. I swear after just 1 dose of the meds she was acting happier. It was great to see. She was still cuddly, but now much more playful when not cuddling. She has now gone all the way through one of her meds. And only has 2 more days of the other one. She is already doing great on house training. Little camel makes quite a large puddle when she forgets what to do.

I got a new lens for the camera I have been playing with. Nothing fancy, just another kit lens. Stupid Nikon on their “consumer level” DSLR’s kind of screw the customer over. The lens selection for them is very weak and expensive. Kind of funny that if I had the high end DSLR I could get used lenses that are awesome for as low as $50. Yet because mine is an entry level type DSLR, I get to spend $150 on used crap lenses. And it seems not many companies make high end lenses at all for this camera. If I would have known this going in, I would have gone with a Canon. Oh well. I still love my camera way more than anything else I have ever had. I just find my self wanting more. Like always.

Enough bitching, back to the puppies. These two love to play. They seem to love each other so much. It’s pretty cool to watch. Now on to the pictures…

Heidi Hiding

Play fights are the best fights

I love the way they are looking at each other

Odie is such a big goofball

Heidi watching Odie play

 

 

 

 

Odie project 52 week 34 now with Heidi…

Odie turned 40 weeks old today. He is still at the same weight and height. His growth has slowed significantly. Heidi turned 10 weeks old yesterday, and weighs a whopping 15 lbs. They are getting along great.

He is such a goofball

Getting to know Heidi

Odie loves that knuckle bone

Chillin’ in the back yard

We have an announcement.

We have been leaving Odie out while at work. He has been doing well, but not great. And when I get home he always acts like he did something wrong. Even when he didn’t. I think he is getting bored or lonely. So I got reading about dogs in pairs and it appears Great Danes do very well in pairs. It sounded like most breeds do better with playmates. But Danes seemed to be one of them that respond exceptionally well to it. So after a couple weeks of searching and visiting multiple litters, we found one we liked. She is a full Great Dane, not a mix like Odie. She is super sweet, and  only 9 weeks old. She weighs 12.8 lbs. Her mom is a very pretty light brindle and her dad is a large dark brindle. She gets her coloring from her dad. She was born on Sunday July 1st. She is AKC registered. A couple of her litter-mates were a cool blue brindle. But she is the one we liked even though we prefer the blue color. She just seemed like the sweetest of the bunch.

So, without further delay: World, meet Heidi…

Heidi at 9 weeks old. Her first night at home.

Heidi at 9 weeks old. First night at home.

BTW, Heidi got her name because so far, her entire existence at our house has been either sleeping or hiding from Odie. He loves her and is so curious about her. But he is a big clumsy puppy still and that tail has caught her across the face, so she tries to stay clear of it. Odie allows her to eat from his dish, sleep in his kennel, and love on his owners without ever acting poorly. He’s so sweet. I can’t wait until she is big enough for us to leave them both out all day.

Odie project 52 week 33

Odie turned 39 weeks old Monday. He is up to 29″ tall and weighs 92 lbs.

Tuesday, Odie graduated from obedience school. He passed all the tests for the good canine citizen certificate. However, since he is not a purebred AKC registered dog, he doesn’t get the real certificate. That’s OK, we know he earned it. And it was tough for him. It involved a lot of sitting around waiting for other puppies to take their turns. And he gets nervous sitting for too long. So I had to pace around with him a bit before his tests. But he passed them all on the first try. He’s such a great puppy. And so gorgeous.

And here is a few pictures from his class last week.

Me and Odie at obedience class

Oh Odie… That tongue!

BTW, our class was a group class given by Western States K-9 College. I enjoyed the class and I think Odie did too. I am considering the more advanced class, but kind of want to wait until he outgrows some of his puppy…

Odie project 52 week 32

And now, to finally get close to up-to-date, here is a picture of Odie at 38 weeks old. The picture looks great on my computer at home, but others I have seen it on make it much darker. Oh well. Guess I need a monitor calibration.

Anyway, 38 weeks old, 29″ tall, 92lbs, just caught a Frisbee (which he is getting better and better at). Look at those muscles…

Getting good at the Frisbee action.