Making Macho Candles

OK, not sure how to write this one. I guess let me start out with some semi truths and work my way to lies.

Well, I was doing some Xmas shopping as I am likely to do sometimes. Looking through some boutique soap and foo foo candle shop, I was shocked by how much they charge for this crap. Yes I wanted some of it but damn if I was gonna pay $4 for a crappy candle that burns up in an afternoon. It can't be that hard to make this stuff, right? I remember that my Uncle had some candle making things that I messed with as a kid. I would heat up the double boiler with the wax in it and then turn it off and watch it cool. As the top turned a fuzzy white from the clear melted wax I would dunk my fingers in it. Ouch! Then again and again until I had a little mold of my hand. Then, carefully, I pulled my fingers out. Wonder if I still have any of those around?



Anyway, refusing to pay the $4, I looked up how to make candles on the internet. Dead easy. OK, now I just needed supplies. A quick search on Craigslist under "free stuff", and I had a classic candle making setup with all the supplies needed. Now the only hard part is how to admit to my friends that I spent the weekend making smelly candles cause I'm so cheap. But I guess I just did.


So here I am melting the wax in my stove top double boiler and then below is the finished product. About 20 votive candles scented with 'clean cotton'. The odd thing is trying to pick the color to match the scent. I guess it is what those marketing types do when making the fake banana or orange flavor. Everyone knows it isn't like the real thing. But what should it look like. Is 'clean cotton' blue? or yellow? Confused I looked it up on the manufactures website where they actually list a suggested color: white or pastel. Interesting. I also used two different types of molds. The pour from the top and then the upside down pour from the bottom. How exciting. Guess I know what everyone is getting for Xmas next year.

New Years 2008

Another year older and all that... decided to head over to Jesse's for another of his New Year parties. Always seems to be a good time and you can't beat the 6 block walk especially on the stumbly way back. Jesse made a great Chocolate Porter and had a lighter beer on tap so we had black and tans for most of the night. It was his usual group of misfits but a bit more debauchery this year. Oh and his two brothers showed up. Poor young Ari, scared of that nice tattooed girl looking at him like a little furry Jewish pork chop.

New Years 2008 Photo Gallery

The Reinforcements Have Arrived

So instead of renting an engine puller for $50 a day I've been looking around for a used one to do the job and then sell it for what I paid. This beauty showed up today on Craig's List and then in my garage tonight. It's a Summit 8 ton hoist. I could life both damn Mustangs with the thing. Then there's the 1250 lb. capacity engine stand where I'll be bolting up the small block to sort out the water pump, headers and detailing things. The whole mess cost me a couple of hours in the company truck (using their gas) and $125. Merry Christmas to me!

Happy Chanukah

Damn, I feel so ethnic. Jesse invited me over last Friday for a Chanukah dinner with his friends. Can't say that my diverse Sacramento upbringing prepared me in anyway for this so it was a real treat. Homemade Latkas and Jelly Filled donuts (I'm sure there must be a Hebrew name for donut). Jesse broke out his latest batch of "Chanukah Ale" and we had some kind of drinking game with Dradles. ...and then there was the 10 pounds of brisket. Nice going you guys. Keep it up.

SOOO Much Gin

What could be better than drinking the night away at "the best new bar in America", Bourbon and Branch, located in my little hometown of San Francisco. I managed to find the place and get in, even though there is no sign out front and I forgot the Speakeasy style password for them to let me in. My good friend (he hates when I call him old) Ed Rose and I went to one of their Beverage Academy sessions tonight and it was really amazing. Tonights class was on Gin. I've really never been fond of the spirits but I tell you, I have a whole new appreciation. The class was help in the "secret library" room. Really done up well with a shinny tin ceiling, vintage books on rustic shelves with the whole place wrapped in red velvety walls and brick. Well done

We started the night with a little warm up drink, a Pimm's Cup. Never had one but really tasty with a little slice of English Cucumber. The dozen of us chatted a bit and got to know each other before our blind tasting of 3 Gins. I was amazed at the variation of the flavours (but again I really have no idea what I'm talking about). My notes read:

#1 lots of organics on the initial taste; juniper and citrus (can I use wine tasting terms here?), mellow, nice. My favorite. Turned out to be a local Gin made just near the ballpark here in town, Distillery 209.

#2 Kind of mild at first but with a hot finish. Mostly Juniper berry flavours. OK. Turns out to be Tanqueray 10.

#3 Rubbing alcohol? Did someone slip battery acid in my glass? Beefeater. You guys can keep this one over on your tiny little island. Yuck. This is the rot gut I'm used to drinking.



Next up was the mixing. We used the B and B recipes for our drinks and started with a classic Gin and Tonic while we heard about the history of the drink and Gin. Then to a 30s era Rolls Royce, Aviation and then samples of the house specialty, Afternoon Tea and Cucumber Gin (some recipes on their blog). In addition to the London Dry style Gins we tasted 2 other styles: Dutch / Genever and Plymouth. The Dutch style was unusual cause it was aged and had a much sweeter, flavorful taste if you can imagine that. The Plymouth Gin was supposed to be more sweet and fruity but I honestly couldn't tell. Plus by that time I was getting pretty loaded and had lost my finely honed tasting skills.

We ended the night with some perfectly acceptable Chinese food and a Bart ride home for me. Ah, life in the big city is grand.

How to Get Fired

How many times do you think of the perfect comeback line too late? For me, all the time but not this day. I was driving to work and some total jackhole was weaving in and out of rush hour traffic in a flatbed and caused one guy to go off on to the shoulder and another to slam on his brakes (not to mention cutting me off as well). So what do you do? Thinking fast, I pulled out my cell phone to take a photo of the ID number on the truck, you know one of those "how am I driving" things. I trailed him for a bit and he seemed to get REALLY annoyed. Then as I pulled along side him and took the photo, this was so perfect, he flipped me off! You should have seen his face as I waved my cell phone at him as he sped away.

So when I got to work, it was easy enough to look up the company that he was driving for and email the photo to their custom service department. Hopefully he's out of a job by now or at least not driving for hem anymore.

You mess with the bull, you get the horns baby

Mustang Project: It's So On!

What was once a modern day phenomenon when it was first launched back in the 60s is now a rusty piece of garbage in my garage. Many of you know I love old junk and tend to stuff alot of it into my tiny-ish house. Well, as it turns out, I finally got sick of looking at all this crap and decided to do something about it. With some inspiration from a friend, I've dug into dismantling the old 1965 Mustang parts car that I picked up not long after moving into the Folsom Street Shagpad 5 years ago.



I've stripped off most of the useful ornamental pieces and am just about ready to do the heavy lifting. The next step is to get a engine hoist and pull the T5 manual transmission, 302 V8 (with Edelbrock 650cfm carb, mid rise intake, electronic fuel pump and deep sump Molino oil pan), disk brakes and suspension and 9" Ford rear end. PS - Check out the photo above and see my badass 1966 Fastback in the background that is soon to be the recipient of all this bolt in love.



As you can tell the rest of the car is a rusty mess. I was hoping to salvage something from it but honestly the more stuff I try to take off, the more the thing crumbles. I hope to sell off the husk to some poor shlub but we'll see. The rear window and quarter windows are still good along with most of the body above the rusting floor pan. What was the guy thinking when he was pouring money into the awesome drive train of this hopeless P.O.S.?