Lanterns

Made a little progress on the lanterns this week. As you can see in the photo, they started out a little rough. The one on the right has been sandblasted and I've since finished blasting the other one. I've got the clamps for the lenses about done as well. The roller gizmo didn't work quite like I planned but the inner piece worked real nice for a hammer form. They came out looking pretty good. I'm hoping to finish the whole project up next week.

If you checked out the Boxing Club post you'll know that I'm heading to Virginia in March to work Jimmy's corner. I need to fill out the paper work to get a Virginia Second license but nothing to that. This will be the first time I've worked outside the local area on a pro fight - might be able to do a little sightseeing while I'm there. I'm hoping the weather will be good. Virginia in March should be sweet but not as sweet as Italy. After I get home from Virginia I'm heading to Italy about 4-5 days later on Spring Break. Sweet, indeed.

Going to try and get a little machine work done on the steam engine this weekend. I don't have anything much cooking at school for outside customers, so now's a good time to get some progress made on that project. I've got some jobs lined up for the shop and the best time to get anything done with the students is now until Spring Break. After that they all pretty much go to seed. The seniors all start counting the days until they're done and the juniors just turn stupid like they're in rut. Happens every year just like the swallows returning to Capistrano. I've learned not to fight it but rather, embrace it. Don't take any big jobs I'm going to be stuck finishing and just keep the boys from clustering together for any length of time. Can't stand in one spot for too long. It kills the grass.

Enjoy the weekend.