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What to do when your small child wants to be Optimus Prime (from Transformers)? Since there were nearly no transformer costumes available, except on ebay, we decided to make one.

Completed project photos:  read more »

Thursday on my way home my engine blew up in my fifteen year old Pontiac Grand Am. It's been a good car for the ten years that I've owned it. Unfortunately, it blew a piston and/or bent a rod Thursday afternoon, on the way home from work. The engine and exhaust started blowing smoke, and I mean a lot of smoke. The faithful old car made it home, before dumping most of it's remaining oil on the driveway.  read more »

Check out the recipes below, or subscribe to the recipe feed.  read more »

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The following is a list of runes with their pronunciations, short definitions, and upright/reversed options. For more in depth descriptions, select upright or reversed.

Wyrd - (wErd) The Unknowable, Divinity of all human endeavors (upright)
Mannaz - (mahn'-nahz) The Self, man, woman, the entire race (upright) (reversed)
Gebo - (ge'-bO) Partnership, A sharing between partners. A gift of oneself to Oneself. (upright)
Ansuz - (ahn'-sooz) Signals, Odin, messages, signals, gifts (upright) (reversed)
Othila - (O-thee'-lah) Heritage, Inheritance, severance, shedding, sloughing off (upright) (reversed)
Uruz - (oo'-rooz) Strength, growth, rebirth (upright) (reversed)
Perth - (perth) Initiation, Hearth, hidden or secret matters (upright) (reversed)
Nauthiz - (now'-theez) Constraint, Need, necessity and obstacles (upright) (reversed)
Inguz - (in'-gooz) Fertility, New beginnings. Sharing. Ing - earth (upright)
Eihwaz - (eIh'-waz) Defense, Yew tree, Strength through endurance (upright)
Algiz - (ahl'-geez) Protection, acceptance and understanding, yield strength, Elk (upright) (reversed)
Fehu - (fA'-hoo) Possessions, wealth, nourishment, fulfillment (upright) (reversed)  read more »

Many places under the heavens are beautiful, protected by the gods.
There under the ash tree by the spring is a splendid hall, and from this hall come forth three maidens
- Urdur, Verdandi, and Skuld - who shape the lives of men.
We call them Norns. There are also other Norns that shape each person's life,
some of the lineage of the gods, others descended from the elves,
but these three are related to the dwarfs….
Then spoke the Wanderer: If the Norns decide the fate of men and women,
then they have accorded them fate in extremely unequal portions,
as some have a good and rich life and some are granted or promised little;
some have a long life, some short.
The High One replied: Good Norns, those who are of good lineage, decree good lives.
But those to whom horrors befall - they were caused by evil Norns.

in Modern English
Wealth is a comfort to all men;
yet must every man bestow it freely,
if he wish to gain honour in the sight of the Lord.
The aurochs is proud and has great horns;
it is a very savage beast and fights with its horns;
a great ranger of the moors, it is a creature of mettle.
The thorn is exceedingly sharp,
an evil thing for any knight to touch,
uncommonly severe on all who sit among them.
The mouth is the source of all language,
a pillar of wisdom and a comfort to wise men,
a blessing and a joy to every knight.
Riding seems easy to every warrior while he is indoors
and very courageous to him who traverses the high-roads
on the back of a stout horse.
The torch is known to every living man by its pale, bright flame;
it always burns where princes sit within.
Generosity brings credit and honour, which support one's dignity;
it furnishes help and subsistence
to all broken men who are devoid of aught else.
Bliss he enjoys who knows not suffering, sorrow nor anxiety,
and has prosperity and happiness and a good enough house.
Hail is the whitest of grain;
it is whirled from the vault of heaven
and is tossed about by gusts of wind
and then it melts into water.
Trouble is oppressive to the heart;
yet often it proves a source of help and salvation
to the children of men, to everyone who heeds it betimes.
Ice is very cold and immeasurably slippery;
it glistens as clear as glass and most like to gems;
it is a floor wrought by the frost, fair to look upon.
Summer is a joy to men, when God, the holy King of Heaven,
suffers the earth to bring forth shining fruits
for rich and poor alike.
The yew is a tree with rough bark,
hard and fast in the earth, supported by its roots,  read more »

Excerpt from

The Fellowship of the Ring
-- JRR Tolkein
Earendil was a mariner
that tarried in Arvernien;
he built a boad of timber felled
in Nimbrethil to journey in;
her sails he wove of silver fair,
of silver were her lanterns made,
her prow was fashioned like a swan,
and light upon her banners laid.
In panoply of ancient kings,
in chained rings he armoured him;
his shining shield was scored with runes
to ward all wounds and harm from him;
his bow was made of dragon-horn,
his arrows shorn of ebony,
of silver was his habergeon,
his scabbard of chalcedony;
his sword of steel was valiant,
of adamant his helmet tall,
an eagle-plume upon his crest,
upon his breast an emerald.
Beneath the Moon and under star
he wandered far from northern strands,
bewildered on enchanted ways
beyond the days of mortal lands.
From gnashing of the Narrow Ice
where shadow lies on frozen hills,
from nether heats and burning waste
he turned in haste, and roving still
on starless waters far astray
at last he came to Night of Naught,
and passed, and never sigh he saw
of shining shore nor light he sought.
The winds of wrath came driving him,
and blindly in the foam he fled
from west to east and errandless,
unheralded he homeward sped.
There flying Elwing came to him,
and flame was in the darkness lit;
more bright than light of diamond
the fire upon her carcanet.
The Silmaril she bound on him
and crowned him with the living light
and dauntless then with burning brow
he turned his prow; and in the night
from Otherworld beyond the Sea
there strong and free a storm arose,
a wind of power in Tarmenel;  read more »