With scarce little to do this weekend, I found myself looking for another project to start. As I mentioned yesterday, I found a few of my replica movie props and put them on display. This quickly led me back to the Replica Prop Forum that I used to frequent (I’ve been a member since 1999!) and that has left me with a flare up of Prop Fever.

I’ve found that my hobbies and interests tend to go in cycles like this. Replica Props is very much a “buying stuff” hobby instead of a “doing stuff” hobby. Karate, Woodworking, and Guitar are all “doing stuff” hobbies (although they can easily become “buying stuff” hobbies, but that discussion is best left for later). I think I’m going to do my best to limit any resurgence in prop interest toward finishing partial projects that have been laying around for years. I have several kits in various stages of completion and it would be nice to have those things get done. That will also limit the amount of cash I will spend by only having to buy odds and ends, paint, and finishing supplies. I might need the occasional part but I’m hoping that won’t be so bad.

I’ve got another spending month coming up in August, and I think I might try an acoustic guitar kit depending on if I have enough for the tools required to do that job. That would be quite fun, but time will tell.

Today was a fairly dreary day in CO, providing some much needed rain.  Tasha and I had brunch at Denny’s, followed by some shopping (with store credit, woot!) at Black & Read.  I got some D&D miniatures and Hotel California on 180 gram LP, so I’m pretty happy.

The rest of the afternoon was taken up with household chores, then we decided to watch The Princess Bride.  What a great movie!  While the movie was on, I was surfing the Internet and ended up at the Replica Prop Forum which got me wondering about some of my replica props that I hadn’t seen since we moved.  A quick look through the basement located them, and now I have a Thermal Detonator from Return of the Jedi and the Golden Snitch from Harry Potter on my mantle.

The Golden Snitch was acquired from the Replica Props Forum and is a casting directly from the screen-used one.  It’s one of few props that I can be sure is as accurate as possible, and one of the favorites in my collection.

Today was a much better day at the office.  I had a long discussion with our IT director and we smoothed over the momentary differences that have cropped up over the last few days and things appear to be OK now.  The sinus infection/cold/cough that I had is starting to abate and I actually got a good night’s sleep last night.  It was only interrupted at 7:20 am when Teddy had a seizure.  We got up and took care of him, he snapped out of it fairly quickly.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow night.  Tasha and I are going to see Iron Man 2 at the local IMAX and we’re pretty excited.  That reminds me, I saw this really excellent Instructable on how to build your own Iron Man arc reactor prop… seems like it would be a really fun summer project.

Not much else to report at the moment!

Happy Easter everyone!  We had a good day, went to church and then to the Ballew’s house for Easter dinner with a few of their friends.  They bought a Honeybaked Ham and it was oh-so good.  After that huge meal, Tasha and I both came home and had an Easter nap and rounded out the night with some guitar playing for me and some video gaming for her.  A good holiday by anyone’s measure!

This is going to be a short week for me, I am taking a few vacation days at the end of this week to relax and get some work around the house done.  I think I’m going to start with cleaning out the garage and then cleaning up the winter debris from the yard.  I might not end up that ambitious, but time will tell.

Today is my birthday party!  Soon, my friends and coworkers will descend on the house and help me get my 30’s off to a good start.  We went out to finish picking up food and beverages and I noticed an imported bottle of French absinthe (called Absinthe Ordinaire) on the shelf.  I’ve wanted to try this stuff since they re-legalized it in the early 2000’s and now I’ll get the chance.

I’m sure this post is going to reinforce the baffling assertion that I’m turning into an alcoholic by my family, but oh well.  Find out more about Absinthe Ordinaire from this FAQ page.

Tonight is jam night at Walton Manor!  I’m off to pack up my gear and get over there to rock out!

Today was a pretty productive workday, we had a pre-Valentine’s day potluck at the office so we all ate ourselves stupid. I saw this via Gizmodo earlier today, it seems that today and tomorrow Amazon is celebrating Valentine’s Day by giving away Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” on MP3. If you’re a fan of cliche’ mood music, have at it.

In other news, I came across this article (again, via Gizmodo) about Mythbusters’ Adam Savage and his fascination with replicating things like dodo skeletons and replica movie props. If you watch the video, you will see that he is/was utterly obsessed with the Maltese Falcon. Toward the end of the slide deck, he mentions that he belongs to a group of like minded prop folks on the Internet, and up flashes a screenshot of the prop forum that I frequent.

I was so impressed by his replica I logged on and sent him an email telling him so, and he replied! He answered a few questions about where he collected his reference material from and his sculpting process, and it was pretty cool. I’ve always wanted a replica of that prop, however the only commonly available replicas are crappy recasts from a 1975 parody called “The Black Bird“. You can tell by the fat head, improperly large base, and overly defined feathers. The real Maltese Falcon prop looks like this. There are some passable versions around, but they tend to be $300-$500 and that’s a bit more than I am happy spending at the moment. Maybe someday!