Team-Building at the DIY Workshop

"Finished Collar" Austin, 2019
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2, 1/100 sec, ISO640
“Finished Collar” Austin, 2019

こんにちは。How’s it going?

The team I am part of at work went out for a team-building afternoon at a place called Upstairs Circus. It’s a DIY workshop and bar, where you choose a craft project to work on, then spend a few hours making it, enjoying drinks from the bar, and hanging out with friends and co-workers. It was a lot of fun, and the dog collar project I worked on turned out great!

We’ve done a few team-building outings in the past, but I think this one might have been my favorite. And Lani likes her new collar. 😀🐶

I hope you had a good day!

またね~

"Tools and Instructions" Austin, 2019
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2, 1/100 sec, ISO250
“Tools and Instructions” Austin, 2019
"Leather Lettering Embossers" Austin, 2019
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2, 1/140 sec, ISO200
“Leather Lettering Embossers” Austin, 2019
"Nametag" Austin, 2019
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2, 1/100 sec, ISO400
“Nametag” Austin, 2019

"Lani's New Leash" Austin, 2019Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2, 1/55 sec, ISO3200

Bread Fail

"Bread Fail" Cedar Park, 2019
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/90 sec, ISO3200
“Bread Fail” Cedar Park, 2019

Mariko bakes some beautiful bread, but every once in a while something goes wrong. Today, for instance, a large loaf of sandwich bread didn’t bake correctly on the bottom, so it was saggy. The top half was perfect but the bottom half was dough-ey and not done. Oh well, you can’t win ’em all! 😆

"Bread Fail" Cedar Park, 2019
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/100 sec, ISO2500
“Bread Fail” Cedar Park, 2019

またね~

Funny Cat Poses

"Feet" Cedar Park, 2019
Photo info: FUJIFILM X-T10, 18mm, f/2.8, 1/40 sec, ISO640
“Feet” Cedar Park, 2019

I thought that our cat Anko would stop lying with this post when she grew up, but I guess that’s not going to happen. Which is great because she looks so funny when she has this lounging pose. Speaking of lounging poses, here’s another of her signature looks:

"Relax Mode" Cedar Park, 2019
Photo info: motorola moto g(6), 3.95mm, f/1.8, 1/20 sec, ISO914
“Relax Mode” Cedar Park, 2019

I hope you had a fun day!

またね~

Renewing the Chuck Taylor All-Stars

"Old vs. New" Cedar Park, 2019
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/100 sec, ISO200
“Old vs. New” Cedar Park, 2019

After a few years of use, it’s time to finally replace my black Chuck Taylor All-Stars. I’m a little sad since I’ve worn these shoes on my travels to New York City, Morocco, Spain, and China. I bet they still have a few grains of sand from the Sahara inside! Lots of great memories were made while wearing these shoes. 😊

But it’s great to have a nice, new pair of high-tops, and there is a nice little design improvement over the old ones: the tongue has a loop to put the laces through so that the tongue stays better aligned straight. Almost every time I wore my old ones, the tongue would drift to the side and I would think to myself that I need to cut slits in the tongue to feed the laces through. I guess the designers at Converse thought the same thing! 👍

"New Tongue" Cedar Park, 2019
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/20 sec, ISO3200
“New Tongue” Cedar Park, 2019

Anyways, I bought a half-size larger than usual because I really enjoy wearing my semi-thick Darn Tough socks. This combo of sock and shoe is just about perfect now.

While doing a little research on All-Stars, I found some really cool info about them. Did you know that the basic design has been in production since 1922? Coming up on the century mark! Amazing.

By the way, I bought the shoes from Shoes.com, using Rakuten cashback. It’s a really good cash back program, and if you want to sign up using my referral link, we’ll both make out like bandits ($25 for me, $10 for you). 🤑 It’s a nice and easy way to save money… in fact when I bought my barbecue grill at Walmart.com the other day, it earned me a $14.85 check. Pretty nice, right?

I hope you had a great day!

またね~