Elliott's Trackside Diner XXIII: Moving on...

[jeffrey-wimberly]

 Good morning. It's 60 and partly cloudy. The high will be in the low 70's with some clouds.

Last night was dominated by a lot of rain and wind with all of west central and north west Louisiana under a severe thunderstorm watch and tornado watch. It brought back memories of my years as an amateur tornado chaser. I would track the storm(s) and report the speed and direction to 911 by radio so they would know where it was headed and issue the proper alerts. Sometimes that meant getting in front of the darned thing and several times having to almost drive through. Not something I would like to repeat which is why I don't do it anymore. I'm getting too old for those kid games. Today I'll see if I can get some more of the layout cleared off, IF something else doesn't get in the way as it has the past few days. I've also got a couple of movies recoded on the DVR that I'd like to watch. One of them is 'Support Your Local Gunfighter'. I've seen it before but it's always worth seeing again.

[Robby P.]

 Good morning.  Its a nice sunny day. 

 Its starting to slow down at work.  Hopefully it will pick back up in Feburary.

 Well it looks like we are already on page 40!!!  Goodness, do I see the switcher warming up?????

 Just thought I would pop in right quick.  Hope everybody has a good morning.

[GMTRacing]

Good Morning All,

  Just a coffee to go please. Dr's appt in an hour and the usual panic in the shop.

Rob - prayers for the wife - hope the treatment works.

PC - good news the progress for the CFO is good.

Der - a 400 year old cell phone is probably what I have usually I get voice mails the day after they're sent and in a couple of cases a week later. Not much use then, eh?

Keith - charging Canadiens indeed. You're loonie enough already - you don't need more!

Catch Y'all later, J.R.

[blownout cylinder]

LSWrr

Track plans are great until first contact with the bench work!

I'm going to have to put that on my signature!! lol!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello---

Nice and sunny here---an apartment building that I see sometimes is glowing a copper/gold colour from the sun hitting it, Beautiful sight when one has geese flying by....

Got a bunch of things to do today. Maybe slip by a LHS today to see what is up....

Chloe, I'll have a coffee and a toasted bagel with cream cheese please---I'll be at the RC for a bit.

[LSWrr]

Good morning all,

  derJohn; They make decoder testers, actually my Digitrax Super Chief came with one.  It’s a pig tail that plugs into the systems jack and you stick the wires from the decoder in the other end.


Ok I’m sold!  I went to a friend’s house to visit his layout and he had a Walther’s roundhouse.  Nice kit.  I currently have a 6 stall Heljan roundhouse, but you can’t open the roof.  The Walther’s is a little smaller than my heljan, but they both have the same storage space for locomotives.  I need to look at the budget and see what I can do; first I’ll have to sell the old roundhouse.



Ulrich, look for used turnouts, mine are brass, used and work fine.  Not to mention I paid $1 each for them.

Track plans are great until first contact with the bench work!

[Anonymous]

 A good morning to all of you!

Well, for TBDanny it is time to have a dinner and most of you folks over the Big Pond are heading for a good  already, if I get my timezones correctly.

Zoe, I´ll have coffee in my LKAB mug and a toasted bagel, filled with strawberry jam, please. I´ll be in the corner booth to watch that switcher outside - no, it´s not the time for a move yet.

Another day at the GULAG - how to spend 8 hours doing nothing? What a waste of precious time!

I have decided to have a break from my layout planning exercise. The more I think about it, the more I get confused. The plan I have is far from being "perfect" for me, although I quite like it. There is a fairly detailed picture of how it shall look in my head, but there are some operations issues I have not yet solved. 

Here are the facts:

It will have to be a switching layout in HO scale, max. 2 feet wide and 15 feet long. The theme is going to be ARR in the 1970´s , just to stay within my motto "Arctic Railroading". I have moved the  place from Seward to Whittier, as there had been a car float facility. The space I have does not allow to model a prototypic track plan, but that´s not a problem for me - modeler´s licence. From Whittier, I can run trains to Seward and Anchorage, allowing for a 2 train operation and local switching. I maybe able to add a cassette staging on the left side of the layout, to simulate Seward, but I do have a problem to find a solution for Anchorage. Just leaving a train on the main is not the way I want it, as I´d like to have incoming and outgoing trains, enabling me to have two people to operate this layout. The only way I see is to have a sharp turn to the right and add a fiddle yard, but this would result in an L-shaped layout, which I will have a hard time to get approval for from SWMBO. Also, the curve would be a sharp one, not more than 18" , making it difficult to run cars longer than 50´ and 6-axle Diesels. I also need to store an outgoing train, but this could be done by leaving it on the main to Seward, i.e. the left hand cassette staging lead. I might even be able to add a switch and a second track there.

One other problem is my very limited budget, putting a limit to the number of switches I can buy. An Atlas code 83 switch is about $ 20, that´s what I can spend in a month.

Sam - thanks for offering me help in my planning - maybe you can use the above as my givens and druthers to come up with THAT idea, which I just don´t have at the moment. Petra will be happy to reimburse you with a load of homemade apple strudel!

Tom - a dry "Stollen" is really awkward to eat - whoever made it probably wanted to have a low calory, low cholesterol version of it, which you just can´t have. The main ingredient of it is butter, lots of it, to give it the right taste and texture. If you economize on that - just forget the "Stollen". 

Petra and I should really move to the US or Canada and open up a German bakery - "Petra´s Pastry Parlor" - how´s that? I guess, it would be a gold mine!

So Miami´s official language is now Spanish? I thought, that it would be German now, with all those elderly German tourists spending the winter months now in Florida. With the cheap flights available now, literally thousands of retired Germans go there to hibernate.  Would not be my choice, I just like mountains, bears, and the seasons.

Rob - my  for a  speedy recovery of the missus!

 Ray - ditto for your BIL!

We should better leave the Chapel car attached to the diner!

John - internal flash evaporation?  Now that´s a very good description for having a big sip of Calvados. Strong stuff, but good!

Have a safe day!

 

[tbdanny]

Well, time for me to wander on out to that NW2 I have tied up on the tracks outside.  See you all tomorrow.

Cheers,

tbdanny

[CNCharlie]

Blazzin

Canadians we charge here at the Diner.

Charge!!!! What the?? Well we'll just stop sending you all that nice cool air or maybe a little extra is in order but only for California.

Excuse my  belated welcome Danny from Oz. Always wanted to visit your country. My neighbour has spent quite a bit of time there working for a state, not sure which one, as he is protocol expert. He said he felt very at home even though the country is very different from Canada,  he said the people aren't.

Oh oh, past my bedtime again.

CN Charlie

[BamaCSX83]

Good late evening all, just a RBF for me.  Its currently storming outside, lots of lightning, rain, thunder, etc, but no huge wind at the moment.  Much of the same for tomorrow.  Nothing happening at the moment, waiting for Amy to call it a night before crashing myself.  Check in with all y'all then, don't have to be at w**k tomorrow till 11:30, so I'll be in in the morning.

[Blazzin]

tbdanny

Thank you all for your warm welcome.  I think I'm going to enjoy it here.

 

  Yes.. Welcome.  Aussie's are free .. Canadians we charge here at the Diner.

[tbdanny]

Der, I like the look of your decoder test bed - especially the way you've knocked it together out of spare parts.  Very resourceful.  I'm afraid I don't really know that much about the Nulabor plain line either, I must admit.  Most of the Australian stuff I know of is Queensland Rail, which is 3'6" narrow gauge - a statewide network.  I think it's the biggest narrow-gauge railway in the world.  It is a small world, though - so is your mother Australian, then?

With regards to the publishing, I'm thinking of maybe self-publishing.  I'm not looking at this as an income stream (at the moment), just as something for me to do.  Find whatever the nearest Australian equivalent to lulu.com is.  Having said that, I have got the domain name for a website registered.  These short stories aren't the first sci-fi I've written - after a couple of unsatisfactory tries when I was in high school, I decided to develop my writing by authoring fan fiction.  Now I feel like I'm ready to try again.

[der5997]

Ulrich: Calvados...the first time I ever experienced "flash evaporation" as an internal process! I couldn't find anything convincing on Google for Cape Breton Apple Cake ...the nearest was an apple and potato concoction, nothing like the delight Petra served you!

CapeJim:

Just remind yourself - "Spring is coming, spring is coming..."

  ...and to prove the point, the Sears Spring Catalogue came today! - No kidding!

DerJohn, hope you were able to drag a bit more wood into the house today. I guess since it's sn*wing there, all you can get done is MRR'ing, eh? Hey, life is tough sometimes.

...Didn't do any wood - the wind = snow was just plain unpleasant...and we have a saying "I'm old and I don't need to be upset!"...So all I got done was indeed mrr!   The decoder test bed  is finished and operational. I found that of three decoders I'd put away as suspect some years ago, one ( a Digitrax Z123) is OK (I did a factory re-set when I was done testing it, and that took, so I'm up one spare limited function decoder. One is totally gone, ( another Z123) and the third is questionable and I'll probably scrap it.  The decoder I wanted to test in the first place?  It behaves just the same way as it did in the loco - that is to say lights only. So it goes back to the LHS, and the VIA train has to continue with its F40PH a while longer!

JR:

Ray - You could fix the problem as I did, just turn the monitor upside down   J.R.

....even that wouldn't work on the latest phones where the image stays upright as you tilt or turn the screen. Those things would get a person into serious trouble in Europe 400 years ago!

Sam:

Der- I had to have my wife help me with the French spelling, I am going to learn that gorgeous language one of these days...

....I was taught French so appallingly badly (beaten for any mistake) at school that later, in my twenties I thought I'd try Italian to see if the jinx had worn off  I did fine until the first corrections came back in the mail. SLAM! It was like a metal plate whammed down on my brain - I was back in that school - and the whole thing ended right there. 

On the latest plan, I like it. I was wondering if the CRC building has to be oriented just square, the way you have it presently. I ask because the spur that curves to it on the left looks like a sharp bend, and if CRC were to be rotated left you could bring that spur up to it through a lazy S  at a much more realistic angle.

and IDK if you guys got to preterite yet

....what's this? Bilingual time travel?

Danny:

And no, for some strange reason, Australian railways have never really interested me. 

I asked because my maternal grandfather was an engineer on the line (whose name escapes me) that runs across the Null Arbor plain before the war. I know next to nothing else about him.

Mostly short stories at the moment, but there are possible plans for a novel.

...way easier to get a short published than a novel. Once you are published it's easier (but no cakewalk) to get published again. That's how Kris started - not that here's much money to be made here for the general run of authors.

Keith: Great kite story!...didn't want to find out

PC: Great news on Mrs.PC - and it sounds as if the by-pass is doing what it should!

BridgeTom: Your rain made it to our 6 o'clock news today!

Early start tomorrow as there's snow to clear before I get off to Diabetes Clinic at 9. Last night I didn't get to bed till 1:00am, so I'll say Goodnight all, and God Bless. Prayers continuing for all in need of Healing, Comfort, Prosperity and Peace.

 

 

 

 

[blownout cylinder]

tbdanny

Flip,

Thanks for the heads up.

**Looks out window of diner**

Is that a reefer of cream pies being spotted on the tracks outside?  And a crate labelled 'Edible Tray Express Dispatcher mk 2'?

mmmmm---good thing this corner table flips up into shield position--

Sam? Did you order that up?

[Cederstrand]

Tall glass of cool lemon & lime water, please. 

***Keith, that's a great kite story. Only airborne things I ever lost site of and  never recovered included the last of a 3 stage rocket and on another occasion a large tissue paper hot air balloon sent skyward with a full can of sterno giving it steady lift.

***Ray, sending healing thoughts your BIL's way. Yikes!

***Philip, that's great news.

Rob

[Packers#1]

ns3010

Sawyer: I don't exactly wanna take Spanish 3, but my Algebra teacher (who also does all the scheduling for the classes) says I really should. So next year, I guess I'll take Sp3, all the required stuff, and Faith and Values in the Media, which should be a REALLY fun class. The teacher is the guy who was my Theology teacher last year, and I absolutely loved his class.

 

True. I forget whether or not I've told y'all, but the teacher for spanish3 on is HARD. which is the main reason I'm worried, lol.

[howmus]

 Hi Tim!

fireman216

Ray you should come up in February to our club show..we also have our division 10 NMRA meeting that day...you can see the layouts and bring some greenbacks for the vendors.

 

Would that be the Syracuse Model Railroad Club Open House and Train Meet on February 21?  If so I am sitting here looking ata stack of flyers I have for the event that need to go down to the LHS.   Were you at the combined Central NY and Lakeshores Division Meet a week and a half ago???

Curious minds want to know!

73

[ns3010]

Evening all. Chloe, a cheesesteak, Wawa style, please?

Sam: It means "The Spanish exam was very easy, not hard!" And BTW I meant to put "fue," not "fuy"...
And good luck with your exams! I hear Morrisvillle Yard alone is hell... But OTOH, the Princeton Branch should be "muy facil!"

Jim: Yes, I will be fine. I asked my teacher, and she said I did pretty well (last I knew, I think I had like an 88).

Danny! We're a bunch of friendly guys here (just watch out for the pie catapult...)

Sawyer: I don't exactly wanna take Spanish 3, but my Algebra teacher (who also does all the scheduling for the classes) says I really should. So next year, I guess I'll take Sp3, all the required stuff, and Faith and Values in the Media, which should be a REALLY fun class. The teacher is the guy who was my Theology teacher last year, and I absolutely loved his class.

Catch ya guys later

[fireman216]

Ray...I will back you up on Empire Northern. Tim is a genius with DCC and he has installed several decoders for me and always has done a great job. We buy many items from him for the club at great prices. Although it is a farther drive for me than you. Coffee please...and maybe a nice slice of apple pie. Ray you should come up in February to our club show..we also have our division 10 NMRA meeting that day...you can see the layouts and bring some greenbacks for the vendors. Tim

[AmanaMedic]

Good Evening from icy, windy Iowa...

SAM: Best of luck to you on the exams, I've got a hunch you'll nail 'em just fine.

I just might be able to finger-out some rough, but plausibal, plausible, potentially close to right...dimensions for THAT elevator. With a maddening case of writer's block going on today...I doodled around a bit and might have an idea or two on the size. I for the life of me can't figure out WHY I didn't shoot more of it, get elevation views, etc. I think the wooden grain bins really "make" the scene...something quite different from the usual "Butler" bins of corregated tin. I think it'd be easy enough to knock together outta styrene.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

JIM: The thought (transplanting "Flush" to CNW country) has crossed my mind. One thought on THAT, was to keep Flush in Kansas...go with the shortline idea and have it using locos and cars bought from the CNW! I don't think I could bring myself to "patch" the mighty Ball and Bar however... Maybe the CNW stuff sits on display on the shelves.

***BRAINSTORM (or mental short-circuiting) ALERT***

Flush is located in Pottawattomie County, or "Pot County" as the locals refer to it... Could be the Pottawattomie County Railway Company (PCRC reporting marks). "The Flush Flyer" comes to mind for the daily Flush to Manhattan (UPRR interchange) transfer run.

Crap.... NOW I'm getting a whole new set of ideers.... I could have a Blaine and Westy (Westmoreland) to Flush run (out of staging) drop off cars for Flush and Manhattan in a small yard at Flush. Likewise, it'd pick up cars for Westy, Blaine, and points north, northeast. The Flush job ("The Flusher?") would work the Co-Op elevator in Flush and assemble "the Flush Flyer."

Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!

I'm really getting ideas here...

At "Manhattan," I'd have a chunk of the UP's "Kansas Pacific" line (mainline between KC and Denver), with a small yard for interchange. The Flush Flyer would drop-off and pick-up. I could easily put the interchange out in the country, near Swamp Angel, for example. Distance would be woefully short of reality between "Flush" and the interchange...but maybe with a suitable fast clock...it wouldn't seem quite so bad.

Chloe? a bucket of coffee please 'n thankyou....also, can I please have a stack of napkins and a pencil???? I've got some cogitating to do now!!!

Chris

***EDIT***

OK, my jaw-flappin' and jibber-jabbin' just cost me the top of the page honors... so, order up gents!

[jeffrey-wimberly]

  Earlier this evening it was one thunderstorm after another with a tornado watch for all of northwest and west central Louisiana. It was getting nasty!

[tbdanny]

Flip,

Thanks for the heads up.

**Looks out window of diner**

Is that a reefer of cream pies being spotted on the tracks outside?  And a crate labelled 'Edible Tray Express Dispatcher mk 2'?

[fec153]

Hi Dan- checkout the thread on higher voltage. Another Aussie has posted, from Brisbane. Maybe someone to get to know.  

Flip

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

twhite

Jeff:  Good to hear about the progress on the foot.  Caught your photo of the Toggle on the DCC thread.  So THAT'S what they look like, LOL!

Yeah, I think that's becoming an endangered item in some parts of the hobby. I still have them on my layout (originally DC) but they almost never get used anymore with the exception of the ones that control the switch machines.

[pcarrell]

Trainman Sam

I cannot take credit for the pie catapult's origins... THAT honor belongs to (name withheld to protect the not-so-innocent)...

HEY!!!!  I resemble that remark!

  I can make 'em by the dozen!

[Trainman Sam]

tbdanny

  I definitely found the pie thing very amusing - vaguely remeniscent of the original Pink Panther movies .  Was that continuing from a previous incarnation of the diner?

I cannot take credit for the pie catapult's origins... THAT honor belongs to (name withheld to protect the not-so-innocent)...  But, to answer your question, it is from a previous incarnation of the Diner!

Chloe, may I have a large coffee and any crumbs left from Petra's pie???  Thanks! Wait!? WHAT???  There isn't even the slightest TRACE of a hint of a crumb from that pie??? HOW?? Garry!?!  How could you man???  Really.

Hey, excuse me guys, I'll be in one of the booths... Have some cramming to do for tomorrows exam,Amtrak NEC County Interlocking to Morris Interlocking.  And also for my exam on friday, NJTransit Morrisville Yard, Barracks Yard, County Yard, and Princeton Line... Yikes...

[twhite]

Afternoon all from GettingSLAMMEDCalifornia. 

We're seeing the third of five storms kinda/sorta breaking up which gives us about an hour and a half of calm before the next wave hits the Coast.  About 4 inches of rain here in the Valley so far, and something like 5-6 feet of new Sierra Cement (snow) in the mountains.  This one was wet and windy, and power-outages all over the place (not here, thank God) and the next one due in is supposed to be wetter and windier.  What's happening is that the Storm Door has dropped down from Oregon all the way to the Mexican border, and we're getting a combination of Pineapple Expresses and Alaskan Cold.

Which means lotsa rain here in the valley, and snow starting about the 3500' level in the mountains.  Uff-Dah and Spooky are beside themselves with joy--nothing like a big storm to gladden the hearts of a Wegie and a Maine Coon. 

And you thought that all we did around here was get buff, surf and work on our tans, right? 

Which also means that my latest project (stripping the paint off of my new Mallet) will have to wait until the weather clears, so that I can have enough ventilation in the garage to DO it.  Meanwhile, it's sitting on the kitchen table looking a little forlorn and grungy.   But first sunny day--whenever--OFF COMES THE PAINT! 

Jeff:  Good to hear about the progress on the foot.  Caught your photo of the Toggle on the DCC thread.  So THAT'S what they look like, LOL!

Ray:  Prayers for your BIL.  That's really bad news.  He's certainly in my prayers. 

Philip:  Glad to hear the good news about your wife.  Prayers for her. 

Danny: Welcome to the Forum!  

Ulrich:  I haven't had a good Apple Cake in ages--that one looks just delicious.  We used to have a GREAT German bakery here in Carmichael, but they retired and it closed.   There's an 'upscale' "European" bakery near the school, but they're overpriced, and not that good.  I got a Stollen from them for Christmas, and it was like eating a dry rock with raisins.  Yuk!  And for what I paid for it, it would almost have been cheaper to fly to Germany and get the Real Deal.  

Well, that's about it from StormyCal.  My co-instructor at the high school is taking the rest of the week off, so I've got the choirs all to myself for the next three days.  We're working on "Carmina Burana" for the Spring Concert (we keep reviving it every three years), and the guys are absolutely nuts about it, so it should be a pretty easy go for me.  Nothing like Rowdy Medieval Latin Drinking Songs to get the attention of teenage boys, by golly! 

Best to all, prayers to those in need. 

Tom

 

[Blazzin]

  I was wondering if you considered leeches.  J/k .. glad to see things are moving along.  Thanks for the pics Jeff.

[pcarrell]

Hey all!  Great news!

They think the wife is doing well enough they're talking about sending her home a little earlier then they thought at first.  They originally said 48-72 hours, but probably closer to 72.  They're going to make the call tomorrow morning, so we'll see.  If we get the green light, it'll be right about the 48 hour mark.

She looked WAY better today.  She even ate a meal.  A medicine cup of cottage cheese, and another that was 2/3 full of custard.  She hadn't eaten anything slod (or semi-sloid) for 36 hours, but that filled her up.  She was full!  FULL!  Thats so wierd.

Thanks for all the prayers everyone!

[Blazzin]

Cederstrand

***Keith, so did you try flying a kite yesterday? Seriously though, that sounded like a heck of a storm coming through there.

 

Rob

  

  I think we needed the rain, the ground was getting very dry.  Not good when earthquake season comes in 2012.  LOL.. but on another note.. as kids we were all pretty much poor.   So making a kite was no biggie,  and quite the fashion.  So one time~  all of us kids.. decided to make a very big kite.  If I had to guess the size .. well.. take some very old  bamboo.. about 12 feet long.. smash it into four pieces by splitting it .. cut two and make a 8'x12' kite.  We all glued newspapers together.. so we could string the kite and paper it.  When it was done,  we got the biggest ball of string.. some of us.. held it.. and swooosh~! ..   The slightest breeze.. wow.. it took right off.. higher.. and faster.. higher.. faster.. now burning our hands.. there was no way to stop it.  I was the last to let go~  It was big.. it was high.. as it was gaing altitude fast!  Needless to say.. at the end of the line... there was no way to stop it..  it blew over the trainyard.. and who knows what it hit .. where it landed.. we didn't want to find out.~

[tbdanny]

G'day all!

GMT, I don't have any preference for any particular type of address - tbdanny, danny or any other abbreviation is fine.

Ulrich, danke for the welcome.  My current layout is set in the mid-1950s (approx. 1954), and is (loosely) based on the AT&SF's yard at Las Vegas, New Mexico - the other Las Vegas.  The main focus is switching and yard operations.  I'm running on a Lenz DCC system, with the decoders a mix of Digitrax and Lenz silver minis.  I think my approach to modelling/prototypical accuracy can be described as 'plausibility' - if it's plausible for a particular loco/car to have been on the AT&SF at that time, I'll run it.

I can sympathise with your planning problems - my current layout is my third such one, and the closest that one has come to completion.  Have you tried stepping away from it for a while?  I find that usually works for me  - the solutions will just come to me, usually when I can't do anything about them (e.g. halfway up the highway to Brisbane).  And that apple cake of Petra's looks delicious.

Chloe, I think I'll have one of those and an RBF, thanks.  Or failing that, four fried chickens and a coke, with some dry white toast.

Der, you're spot on with regards to the timing.  Given the time difference, I'll be coming in usually mid-afternoon for you Americans, then leaving after dinnertime.  And no, for some strange reason, Australian railways have never really interested me.  My first train set was one of those Life-Like HO scale ones with a GP-35 in the red-and-silver warbonnet, so I guess that sort of set the tone for my modelling interests.  That and a Kalmbach/MR publication called 'An Introduction To Model Railroading' that was put out sometime in the early/mid-90s - it was a sort of summary of what the hobby's all about.

I'm not entirely sure how my sci-fi would be classified - it mainly deals with alien activity on Earth, and in particular, the Brisbane-based office of an international organisation set up to police it.  Sort of character-focused as much as action-focused.   So it's sort of crime/sci-fi. But I am a fan of Star Trek, especially TNG, as well as Doctor Who.  It's mainly a way to fill the 1-hour each way commute to and from work - the price for living on the Coast .  Mostly short stories at the moment, but there are possible plans for a novel.

Ray,here's the only real decent photo of my layout at the moment - it's mostly a 'plywood pacific'



I'm currently on a structure binge at the moment, to get the sort of 'edge of town' feel I'm after.  Among them will be the 'W. Mitchell Meat Surgeon', named after my late grandfather - he was a retired butcher, but always referred to himself as a 'meat surgeon'.  This one will have a full interior, complete with cuts of meat in the windows.

Todd, thanks for the welcome.  I think you'll find me in front of the dessert counter, most of the time. 

Jim, looks like it's a small world after all.  I don't have a current plan as yet - there were a couple of minor changes made once I performed a couple of operating sessions on it.  Are you proto-lancing or completely freelancing?

Sam, thanks for the welcome.  I've been reading this particular incarnation of the diner from it's first page (I'm up to 29 now, I think), as well as keeping track of this lot.  Given that work's been pretty slow of late (I'm in a Network Operations Centre), I've got plenty of time on my hands.  I definitely found the pie thing very amusing - vaguely remeniscent of the original Pink Panther movies .  Was that continuing from a previous incarnation of the diner?

Vincent, Flip, thanks for the welcome.

Jeff, hope everything goes well for you, with your foot and all.

Things are going pretty quietly down here at the moment.  My partner's coming down with a nasty head cold, so she's called in sick today.  Mum's birthday as well, so I'll be having luch with her and Dad.  It's convenient that we work within a few blocks of each other.  I haven't really had much of a chance to get into the train room on the last couple of weekends, but that should change this Saturday - I'm going on-call for the first time this weekend, so it's a perfect opportunity to have a quiet weekend in.  And in an example of bureaucracy at it's finest, I've got to pay a telco bill for $1.78 - the credit card charge from the previous bill I paid from them .

To anyone I've missed, thanks for the welcome.

For now, I think I'll just mosey on over to the dessert counter...