On the 26th of January, Jessica and I went to the World of Wheels at the St. Paul River Centre. I don’t know my way around St. Paul like I do Minneapolis, so I kind of ‘aimed’ at the river, and figured I’d pick up Kellogg to the River Centre ramp. Well… I didn’t realize they would have all the streets blocked off for the Winter Carnival, and the Grand Day Parade! So, we drove around looking for a landmark I recognized. The third time past Mickey’s diner Jessica was looking worried.

We finally found a spot pretty close to the show for only $10. We walked about three blocks, and got to see the ice sculptures in Rice Park which was pretty cool. Once we got inside, we tried to take tons of photos, but they ended up pretty blurry. I really, really liked the ‘37 Ford four door sedan… and the red with white wall tired F-100. Jessica’s favorite was “Vampyre” the purple bubble-top custom. There were some other stand outs, but it was really busy and hard to get at them all without people in the way, so I mostly just gave up and enjoyed looking around.

We ran into Tuck, who had his ranchero there, and chatted for a while, along with seeing Jim Halverson and Loren Magnison, who I haven’t seen for years. It was a good day even though we only spent a couple hours there… my back had an attention span about as long as Jessica did!

Hope you enjoy the photos.

So since I’ve been building websites for fun and professionally for about fifteen years I tend to pick up side projects from time to time. I just finished up building my first Joomla template for Ramberg Excavating. I have sent it to Don for review, and unless there’s a huge flaw, I expect it to go live in a couple of days at: www.rambergexcavating.com Here’s a sneak peek:

One of the reasons I do website projects is that it’s a fun change from my normal day managing a multi-million dollar ecommerce site, and coding SQL and Java all day. It allows me to flex my design skills, and be creative. The other reason is, it brings in some fun money for my truck project among other things.

However the “fun money” that is coming in right now is going to fun things like formula, diapers and our new stroller. That’s a great segway into the car show next weekend… it’s the O’Reilly World of Wheels at the St. Paul Rivercentre. I haven’t been to the WoWs for many years, so this year, we decided we’re going. Then we realized we need to buy a stroller so Emmett will be going to his first car show next weekend in a stylish blue “Patchwork Cows” stroller.

If you see two tired looking parents pushing a dark blue stroller, it’s probably Michelle and I.

So I was at the junkyard the other day, before Emmett was born, and saw this tudor sedan. I have no idea what make or year it is… any ideas?

Well, on the 7th of January at 5:20pm, Michelle gave birth to Emmett Curtis Carlson at the Wyoming, MN hospital. Mom and him are doing really good! He was 6lbs 10oz, and 19-3/4″ long. We have had about three hours of sleep so far, and are either coming home today or tomorrow. He was almost a month early, and I’m hoping his first car show will be the World of Wheels Extreme show in St. Paul at the RiverCentre at the end of the month.

I’ve been thinking about small things I can do and buy while waiting for our baby to arrive. I’ve been doing quite a few website projects for companies in the area, but I want to keep fanning the fire on the truck too. So, this morning I went Junkyarding on a beautiful, albeit overcast and foggy, Minnesota winter’s morning.

I visited a ‘yard that I’ve been to several times, and while they don’t have the market cornered on vintage cars, they have enough to keep me happy. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for, but knew I would know when I saw it.

I found a 1950 Plymouth Special Deluxe that was pretty badly rusted pushed back into the corner of the yard. I took a peek in the window, and was greeted by one of the coolest wheels I’ve seen! The horn ring makes the wheel. It’s a cast piece, aluminum I think (haven’t tried a magnet on it), and is very art deco. It took me a while to figure out how to take it off (it just snaps off and on!) during which time I called two knowledgeable people… neither could help. So I carefully poked at it, and finally got it off.

The plan right now is to take my time, and work on restoring it as best I can. I’ll have to do some more research, but if memory serves, I can rough up the cracks, and fill them with body filler, then prime and paint it with automotive-type paint. Maybe I’ll enlist Tuck to metalflake it… that would rock!