Dave Ambrose

Wow! This is simply amazing. Which ship is this?

One of my favorite beverages. I think there will be some mixing and fixing this evening.

The rat chewed the Stearman box, but didn't damage the contents. My cat has gotten too elderly to patrol that area anymore. We have a couple of new ones that are still getting settled in. Hopefully, one of them will take up the mantle. Otherwise, I'll just have to keep building models so I go up there and find them when they move in. They usually chew something toxic long before they get to my model kits.

A few months ago, we discovered a rat making a nest in my model stash. I had to pull a bunch of models out to clean out the nest and delete the rat. Those models found their way inside, and looking at the stack, I reflected on what a cool hobby this is. That pile was stocked with all kinds of neat stuff. Our stashes say a lot about ourselves in a nice positive way. That doesn't happen very often. So, at the risk of revealing my eclectic tastes, I give you the rescue pile.

Chances are that they misread the meter. Although our electric meters get read automagically, the water meters are still read by hand. Sometimes they make mistakes. Last time I encountered that, I just called the water department and asked them for their latest meter readings. They cheerfully provided it, and we got things ironed out.

We wanted to have the possibility of including forum content in the magazine. For that, we need high resolution photos. If we resized the photos down, we wouldn't be able to have Forum Finds in the magazine. In this day and age, storage is pretty cheap, and if we need to go back and compress the photos better, we can.

Once upon a time, we had that recommendation ourselves. Forums get to an awkward size where they don't fit well with any of the "mainstream" hosting platforms. We went through this a long time ago. Had to move our hosting platform several times within a few years. We're fortunate to be able to support a dedicated server. That expenditure gets supported by the ever so obnoxious ads. We have 500GB of content now. That presents a few challenges too, but we can readily meet them.

Very good news! Congratulations.

Got tickets to the San Diego Surf Film Festival. We're going to spend a good chunk of the long weekend binge-watching surf movies. Festivities include two surf contests. My wife's cousin is one of the featured artists. Sometimes life is just good.

I watched the game. I'm a 49'ers fan. Not the outcome I wanted, but it was hard-fought, and from what I could see, a well-officiated game. Nobody needs to leave that game feeling like a failure.

I'll send you a replacement issue.

Issue 223 is at the printer. You have until until midnight Saturday to subscribe or renew.

Issue #223 is getting ready to mail. You have until February 10th to subscribe or renew to ensure this issue gets delivered to your mailbox. https://simplecirc.com/subscribe/model-cars-magazine

My wife supports my hobby. She even helps with working the shows if the magazine is there. Two of my kids build too, so she might have less choice than she'd like. ? I don't have the mega-stashes that some people have, but we're both feeling like it's big enough. She has requested that I build more models than I buy, and this seems like a good idea to me.

We had a problem which I was able to fix. We should be back to normal operation.

Maybe not. Posting seems to be going very slowly. update: now it seems to be working normally.

It was worse than that. I think it's fixed.

Our kit stash is the quintessential example of aspirational clutter. I buy kits intending to build them. Along the way, I realized there were multiple "flavors" of kits for me. "Want to build" kits are the ones where I'll be disappointed with myself if I don't build them. "Like to build" kits are ones I think are cool, but don't trigger that disappointment. This distinction has made kit shopping much easier. I don't actually have a count of the kits in my stash, but I do feel like it's manageable, with relatively few "clinkers". That said, some of my kits have appreciated considerably since I got them. My kids know this, and while I don't plan on cashing in, they'll know how to handle it when I depart.

Oooohhh. This is a hard question. I'll have to give you the short list in no particular order. Weather Report and Joni Mitchell at the Berkeley Jazz Festival John Sebastian, accompanied by bass and piano Martha Graham Dance Company performing Appalachian Spring among other pieces Aaand honorable mention goes to: Tragically Hip at the Belly Up Tavern And yes, I readily admit to have an eclectic taste in music.

I grew up near Santa Cruz, California. That was summertime temps there too. 45 in winter. We used to go in the water without wetsuits during summer. I like to think I'm smarter now, but I may simply be wimpier. I actually feel quite fortunate now.

Winter has moved into my neck of SoCal. Ocean temps are now down to 59F. Time to get out the gloves, booties, and hood. Won't need the hood for another month, but might as well do it now. Just replaced my winter wetsuit. At least I'll be reasonably warm after the initial cold shock.

Shouldn't need to do that. Just get to the login screen, enter your user name or email, and click the forgot password link. You can then reset your password, and be back in business.

I assume we got caught in some kind of holiday crush, but the delivery on this issue was atrocious. We've already sent out a record number of replacement issues. The odd thing was they were doing so well earlier this year. If we send out replacement issues, we send them first class instead of bulk.

Tony, I shipped you a replacement copy right after Christmas. It should be there by now. PM me your address just to make sure it's correct in our system.