schon

IF YOU COMMENT ON THIS JOURNAL, I SHALL...

1. Respond with something random about you.
2. Tell you which colour you remind me of.
3. Tell you my first memory of you.
4. Tell you what animal you remind me of.
5. Ask you something I've always wondered about you.
6. Tell you my favorite thing about you.
7. Tell you my least favorite thing about you.
8. Challenge you to post this on your journal

Offer expires 2010-10-10

So, after a very long riding hiatus, I finally purchased another motorcycle.. been wanting to get one for a very long time, but other things kept cropping up.

In June I bought a Yamaha 1979 XS11 Special - I wasn't really looking for a project bike, but I fell in love when I saw it.  I initially thought it just needed some TLC, but after I got it home, I realized the previous owner had sabotaged one of the cylinders to make the bike look better than it was (once I got it firing, the cylinder was burning a *TON* of oil - think "James Bond smokescreen", and you won't be far off.)

Lacking tools, excess free time, or a place to work, I took it to a local mechanic, who sait it was definitely the rings or the cylinder, and wanted lots-o-dough (but not more than I expected) but wanted it all up-front.  The money-up-front set off my warning bells, and I wasn't convinced it was rings - so I took it home and decided to try myself.

After I took the engine apart, it became clear that the cylinder and pistons looked almost brand new - I figure they were replaced 1-2 years ago... the head on the other hand, looked like what I expected (tons of carbon deposits, very nasty).

Someone has definitely had the engine apart recently - I suspect trying to fix the blue smoke   Turns out that it was the valve oil seals - replaced them (after trying to find the appropriate tools for almost a month) and all looks good!

I'm so happy!

Well, this was a good weekend for photography.  After waiting (and wanting) for a long time, I'm finally the proud owner of a DSLR!

I picked up a shiny new Pentax K100D this afternoon, and I absolutely love it.  Also (from the "inspiration" department) this weekend was the library book sale, and I picked up "The New Joy of Photography" and "More Joy of Photography" for a whopping two-bits each    So maybe you'll see some new shots from me in the near future.  (I sure hope-so )

So, life for the past 5 months has been.... interesting.  Kira smiles whenever she sees me, and cries when I leave (which fortunately isn't too often.)

She's picked up an interest in the computer - whenever she's with me and I'm working (or rather, trying to work) all she wants to do is type on the keyboard - I've tried playing animations, but she doesn't want to have anything to do with the screen... or so I thought.

Today I was working on my wife's computer, and I had it booted into the Linux console.  Kira was fascinated at the rows of text!  She would "type" things, and look at the screen, and laugh!

When I mentioned this to my wife, she told me "oh yeah - whenever Linux is booting, she can't get enough of the text on the screen."

Heh.  My baby is a Unix-head!

Today at 2:07PM, after 18 hours of labour, my wife delivered a 6 pound 12 oz baby girl via c-section!

We've chosen the name Kira Aurora (Light of Dawn.)