I did some reading and found that the wire that came with the cheap Harbor Freight welder was pure garbage. I’d have much better luck with Lincoln Electric flux-core instead of the HF stuff. I picked up a one pound spool for about $10. I also picked up 40 feet of 1/2 inch square steel tube. It’s a 1/16inch side wall.

Add to that a 4inch angle grinder and a 6inch cut-off saw and we’re in business. I’d be cutting and grinding metal like a pro pretty soon. Sure as hell beats a vice, a hack saw, and a couple of hand files.

So I got to work. The cargo box dimensions would be 36x22x12. Cut up some metal. Mitred the ends, and did a bit of welding. Before I knew it, I’d have the top and bottom rectangles done. My welds weren’t gorgeous, but they were certainly better than my last attempt:

A little grinding to smooth out the welds produced this:

The top and bottom rectangles came together in about an hour.

Next day, I moved on to getting all of my metal cut. It didn’t take me long. The worst part was having to get out an allen wrench to reset the stop on the cut-off saw a few times. 45, no 90, no 45, no 90… ARGH! Got all of the metal cut, burrs removed, and ready for welding:

Spent a couple of hours this weekend making the wheels’ drop-outs, welding, and then grinding everything down. As it sits, the trailer is ready to have the mount made and attached (not sure about the design, yet). And I still need to find a bottom and sides for the thing. Here is how she sits, now:

It’s not pretty. Hell, it’s downright UGLY! It’s part of why I scrapped the design.

I decided to make something that would be welded together. The welds should be strong and by welding, I wouldn’t really be limited to the design. I set out to make one of these: .

Oreo Snow Men

I hand-dipped my Oreos because I didn’t know that you could BUY white-chocolate covered Oreo cookies. What a pain in the neck that was!

I used some orange coating chocolate and dark chocolate I picked up from the local specialty shop, Heinrich’s Decorating Nook. That place is awesome!

Anyway… I melted the chocolate and used cake decorating tips and bags and such to draw the faces onto the Oreos. I suppose any normal chocolate-making tools would’ve been appropriate. I just don’t happen to have any!

So, anyway… They’re cute. Family loved them. And they weren’t too difficult, really. If you’ve got pre-covered cookies, it’s even easier.

“Daddy, look.” … There’s a big ol crack in the front bezel of the TV. But it’s the day before Thanksgiving. And it’s 9pm. I can’t do anything now. Fast forward to Black Friday. I call Datavision. They’re going to have their claims department “call back in a few minutes.” Eight hours later, i call them. They’re dispatching UPS on Tuesday or Wednesday with a waybill to pick the TV up. I send them the TV and then they’ll figure out if they’re doing a return or an exchange. I ask “can I just BUY another one of these to essentially do a cross ship?”

That’s when they dropped the bomb on me… They don’t have any more. Don’t expect any for WEEKS. So if I wait for them, I’ll be without a TV for my wii, htpc, etc for a few weeks. Not acceptable.

So… Monkey and I climb into the car and go check out some deals at Costco. There’s a nice lookin TV there. Nice price. Great specs. It’s a 42″ Visio 1080P 120Hz. This pleases me. Get a tape measure… damn thing won’t fit in my car.

I come home. Maria and I hop in her car and drive back to Costco. An hour later, the TV’s home. It’s plugged in. It’s working and looks great. I’m having some issues with h.264 playback off the computer. And BD is a little jumpy at times. I suspect it’s the HTPC and not the TV. I’ve got 90 days to determine this.

For now… I’m going to stick with what I’ve got and try to fix the little issues that creep up. Frankly, I’m sick to death of messing with all of this. I just want it to work!

I decided on Lasagna with garlic bread for dinner. I want carrot cake for dessert. Some will say they don’t go together. Carrot cake goes with everything when it’s this good.

I make my spaghetti sauce the old-fashioned way. I add a bit of this, some of that, mix in more of that, and then let it simmer all day. I’ll be estimating measurements for the “recipe” so those that want to follow along can.

First off, I need ingredients. This usually means a trip to Antonio’s for some italian sausage without fennel. The batch of sauce for lasagna needs about a pound of sausage. I picked up more because I need extra sauce for my brother (who hates lasagna. there will be pasta for his sauce). And, of course, I need sausage for the lasagna. GET GOOD SAUSAGE.

I’ll get the rest of my ingredients either at Antonio’s, Meijer, or wherever I can get good, fresh ingredients. We’ll need roma tomatoes (or whole canned tomatoes), ground chuck, onion, garlic, oregano, thyme, marjoram, sage, basil, olive oil, salt, black pepper, red pepper, brown sugar, chianti, and some water.

If you’re using fresh tomatoes, you’ll need to peel the tomatoes, first. Blanche those babies and set them aside. If you’re using canned tomatoes, keep reading.

Saute the beef, sausage and an onion in some olive oil. Don’t forget to slice the casing on the sausage and JUST cook the meat. We don’t want the casing in the sauce. Half-way through the sautee, add about 5 cloves of FINELY-minced (or pressed) garlic. You could also do the Goodfella’s thing and slice the garlic paper thin so it pretty much dissolves into the sauce. I figure a really fine garlic will do this, anyway. We add it later in the saute because garlic burns easily and we don’t want to burn it. Now just cook the fat right out of all that meat. Drain the fat and put the pot back on the stove.

Look at that meat!

Add some wine. I always use chianti. And I never use a $5 bottle. I usually add about 1/4C for each pound of meat in the pot. Add the tomatoes one at a time. I peel them then cut them over the pot and just let the juice run in. After all the tomatoes are in, let that sit for a little while to cook the tomatoes. If you’re going to add tomato paste (I did), add it now. Add about 1C of water. Let this simmer for about a half-hour to cook the tomatoes.

Added tomatoes

Now attack that sauce with a potato masher. You want to pulverize them tomatoes. Mmmmm. Add a dash of red pepper, about 1/2t of freshly-ground black pepper, and your italian seasoning. I add about 1/2T each of parsley, oregano, thyme, marjoram, rosemary, sage. I add about 1T (or a little more) of basil. You’re also going to add about 1/4C of brown sugar, a few bay leaves, and about 1/2t of salt.

spices

ready to stir in

Half-cover the pot (so it doesn’t splatter all over your stove) and let it simmer all day. 4-6 hours minimum. Stir it every hour, or so, to make sure you don’t get anything burnt on the bottom of your pot.

And now: INGREDIENTS (as close as I can come to real numbers, anyway)

• 1# ground chuck
• 1# italian sausage, no fennel
• 1 small onion
• 5 cloves garlic
• 4T olive oil
• 8 roma tomatoes (or 1 big can, no herbs)
• 2cans CONTADINA tomato paste (no herbs)
• 1/4C brown sugar
• 1/2T oregano
• 1/2T thyme
• 1/2T marjoram
• 1/2T sage
• 1/2T rosemary
• 1/2T parsley
• 1T basil
• 1/2t freshly ground black pepper
• 1/8 t cayenne
• 1/2C chianti
• water
• time

First, you need to get a big bowl/pot full of ice water. Not cool… LOTS of ice! Then, cut out the stem portions of the tomatoes. Then make a smallish X-cut across the bud end. This is the end opposite the stem.

Ready to blanch

Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil. Throw your tomatoes into the pot and let them cook for about 60-90 seconds. You’ll know they’re done when the skin starts to split. When it splits pretty good, wait another ten seconds then pull the tomato out and put it into ice water to stop the cooking. When cold, peel the tomatoes.

Ready to peel

Ok… but what just happened? You quickly cooked the outer portion of the tomato. That’s why the skin has that thin layer of soft tomato pulp on it. The tomato, inside, is still very raw. It didn’t cook. It’s still firm. The skin just slides right off. Neat, eh?

This is also how you peel peaches and other similar fruits.