Christmas at the playhouse

Big move for AJ A. Check out Paul Tracy's twitter.

Happy birthday to Doug!

becauseracecar.org

In "The Economist" this week Dad found, in the special Technology Quarterly section, an article about superconductors that mentions Paul's company, SuperPower.

Happy birthday to Chris!

Rachel is making lasagna (Donnie) Brownsey style with mozzarella and ricotta that I made last weekend and homemade noodles. Too bad we had to buy tomatoes, beef, and eggs. We have been using the pasta maker about once week over the last couple months.

Future Christmas tree. Jonathan did the sawing.


Nutcracker's soldier:

Chris

Our newest family member. 8 month old girl named "Paisley".

Canadian Pacific Holiday train. Made a stop at the ALCO heritage society near Maxon Rd. in Schenectady. I also spoke with the new owner of Mohawk Valley RR train shop. Should be open by Christmas at the same location on Hamburg St.

Happy birthday to Patrick!

Happy birthday to Cameron!

New posts at Noah's Motoring Garage.

We have had a busy weekend here in Red Bluff- or at least Philip had. He started building a chicken house in the backyard for the chickens we hope to get in the new year.

Then he made homemade pasta with the new pasta maker. It turned out really well despite a few initial speed bumps!
This morning when I woke up there were sticky buns going into the oven for breakfast (this was a birthday special!).

After our spectacular breakfast of sticky buns and coffee we explored a small wilderness area in the southwest corner of Shasta County called the Chanchelulla Wilderness. It was very scenic although quite cold and windy at the peak. -Rachel

Happy birthday to Rachel!

There is a gallery of photos on www.dirttrackdigest.com . They are from 10-18-11. Albany- Saratoga speedway now under the command of Howie Commander having new clay put down over the new asphalt. There will be dirt racing again in Malta in 2012.

After a squirrel battle that couldn't be beat... well Jon beat it, to death. We did the Christmas drawing as we have reached the maximum members present between now and that thing.

Paul gives to Philip
Cyndy gives to Noah
Joel gives to Rachel
Philip gives to Cyndy
Rachel gives to Paul
Noah gives to Christopher
Kate gives to Christine
Christopher gives to Joel
Christine gives to Kate

If anyone has any issues with that then you are well on your way to ruining another Christmas. Cyndy and I will be eating Christmas meat at our house, if you are listed above you and your family can come to that unless otherwise noted.

Philip and I went to the "first crush" at our local olive orchard this past weekend. There was a big party complete with hay rides, tritip sandwiches, wine tasting, and a live band that I though was karaoke at first. Turns out they are professionals. We didn't last long because it was cold and windy, but we did see all of their fancy Italian olive crushing machinery. -Rachel

Happy birthday to Tracy!

Happy birthday to Grandmother Steates!

Mom and pumpkin head friend

Donnie and Laura at Knitting Conference Hartford, CT

Pumpkin carving during a snowstorm.

Thursday- 1st snow in Stillwater.

Humpy says F1 NJ

Even more Italian trains:

We spent a day in Tempio Pausania, a very neat town in the interior of northern Sardegna. We took a walk down to the train station (because that is what one would do, right?)

The guy with the camera and the yellow shirt turned out to be another train aficianado and Rachel ended up waiting on a bench next to his wife as we both took pictures of trains.

Inside the waiting room were some neat murals.

While we were inside, the Trenino Verde, a summer tourist route pulled in. The engine is an old diesel crocodile style locomotive. The cars on this train are from the 1930s era.

Old Euro-style coupler:


I was taking a picture of the engine entering the shop and one of the workers waved a couple of the people taking pictures, including me, in. I don't think that it is normal practice in the U.S. to allow people you don't know to enter an operating engine shop, particularly people that have no means of verbally communicating with you.


Inside the shop was a restored 1913 railcar that I got to look in.

More Italian trains:

I don't have much information on this steam engine. We found it in a small park dedicated to Guiseppe Garibaldi in a small town in the Appennines.

Trains in Italy.

I realize that I have been remiss in posting anything about Italy and I will try to correct some of that.



One day, we took the train to the Cinque Terra (five small towns along the coast, connected a hiking path). We delayed the trip because there was a day of potential rain showers. This resulted in traveling by rail on a day of a planned national strike. If you want to get somewhere in Italy, do not take the train on a day of national strike. The trains do run, albeit on a very haphazard schedule, and there is no one to ask what is going on.

However, we did make it there and back. It just took a little longer than we had planned: