Sometimes you build a Dalek...

So for gift day Martha and Gustavo got me a Metal Earth 3D model kit of a Dalek(probably picked by Mari) . It looks simple, it just looks like a foil sheet with cutouts. But it's more involved than that. It's way more stiff than foil and you have to shape some of it into cones or cylinders and what not. So like most things, it is not as simple as it looks.

It probably took me like an hour and a half total. Although it spanned like 3-4 hours. But I kept having to do work stuff or make lunch, and other interruptions haha

Shaping the flat parts into round things is probably the hardest part. I really enjoyed building it. Now, of course, I will probably want the other cool things they make. I think I saw they make an R2-D2, Millennium Falcon, TARDIS, etc, so we'll see if I end up getting more of these.

I really only needed to use Geli's tweezers, the exacto knife, and the needle nose pliers to build this one.

I like how it came out. And now it joined some of my other things on my shelves. I've already run out of space on them, so I will need to add more shelves soon haha

Sometimes you travel for work...

So I had to travel to southern California last week for work. There was some ongoing issues with a clinical application that one of our clients uses and we had not been able to get to the bottom of it. So the software vendor was sending 2 of their people onsite and my company sent me to investigate and what not. They rented me a car, got me a hotel, and flew me in to LAX. I visited 3 facilities in 3 days. One in Anaheim, another in North Hollywood, and the last one in Alhambra. All within about a 40 mile radius. I knew LA traffic was bad. But actually being in it, is still horrible. I was not prepared, not sure that you can prepare. I spent like 8-9 hours in traffic over the 3 days/2 nights I was there. Brutal.

Welcome to LA.

In my head, I was going to have the energy to maybe visit family, take some touristy pictures, maybe check out some of the things LA has to offer. My hotel was across the street from Knott's Berry Farm, wax museums, all sorts of things. But reality was another thing. Between having to leave 2 hours early to get to the facilities on time, to getting to the hotel 1-2 hours after get out because of traffic, so I was exhausted and nothing happened once I was back at the hotel. I took the dSLR camera, didn't take it out once. One day, an hour into commuting back to my hotel, I gave up on traffic and just went to the nearest vegan restaurant to wait out until traffic chilled out.

So I hit up a couple vegan spots for dinner. The Chinese place was good. I ate chinese at random spots for lunch a couple times. On the last day, I stopped by Doomie's on the way to return the rental car at LAX. I heard about Doomie's because they came to the Portland Vegan Beer and Food Fest making vegan "Big Macs" and they were great. So I went a little out of my way to eat there on the last day. It was worth it: 

Seriously, this place. So damn good. The "Fried Chicken Basket" was ridiculously good. I got some takeout for Geli and Sophie and took it on the plane for them haha. But that was it really. I worked, I was in traffic, and I ate. No time or energy for much else. Glad to be back home.

Also, you could see the mountains on fire from the plane :(