Topic: In case you're interested...

[Commander_Kurgan]

Damn, I finally caught a cold.
Thought I would end the year without a running nose and coughs.

Well, another meeting to sit through this morning, before we can officially start the weekend. I'll spend most of it trying to recover, I guess.

We'll have the last Troopnight of 2009 today, pick up the Light of Peace tomorrow evening so we can march it into our parish curch on the 24th at the beginning of the family service so every family can light their own peace candle on the flame. That's going to be the final Scouting activity for the year.

I've already planned the Scouting contests "Ranger of the Year" and "Guide of the Year" for 2010. It's going to be pretty hard for the kids as more is expected of them than this year. But if they are really into it, they will learn a lot and by the end of 2010 they will not only win a prize, but won enormous pride.

[Commander_Kurgan]

Today is Christmas.
No, I'm not starting early, in Germany Christmas starts in the evening of the 24th.
Usually people attend church service (Even those who don't go to church often show up on the 24th. We call the U-Boat Christians: under water most of the time, surfacing on 24th Dec. only.) then go home and celebrate with presents, good dinner, etc.

It is, in effect, a real family event. On the 25th and 26th people go to see relatives where more presents are to be collected and more good food is to be eaten.
It is not a good time to think about dieting, to be honest.

Anyway: In about two hours the Troop will assemble at the parish house and form up to march the Light of Peace into our church where it will be made available to every member of our parish during the family service. It is supposed to be kept alive untill Easter.

While I'm away with the kids, the good wife will prepare dinner and arrange the presents for the kids.

Oh, here's a pic of our Christmas tree taken the minute the wife finished decorating it.

[Tamer]

Sounds like a good time to me. I would love to try all that good food! Very pretty tree too. We will see many U-boats are our church tonight too. LOL. I will make use of that term.

[Clonehead]

That's a nice looking tree, Volker. Merry Christmas to you, my friend!

[Commander_Kurgan]

Merry Christmas to all of you.

[Commander_Kurgan]

As you can see some presents under our Christmas tree, I'll let you in on what Santa brought us.
Sean got a pretty Star Warsish Christmas this year: the old PC game Lego Star Wars he was after for so long, a Fi Skirata figure he always had wanted and the Lego Echo Base. Magdalena got a sweater, a pair of earrings and the complete Narnia chronicles.
The good wife got a pretty decent Netbook computer and yours truly two Scouting books.
Very cool for everybody, I should think.

[UnitedStatesDemocrat]

Great gifts, Volker!  Merry Christmas.

[Commander_Kurgan]

The last hours of 2009 are on in my neck of the woods.
I wish all of you a great, prosperous and most of all, healthy, new year!
See you again in 2010.

[Tamer]

Have a good end of year Volker. We are about 10 hours away yet here. Happy New Year!

[Commander_Kurgan]

Hi everyone!
2009 is over and gone, 2010 is on.
Looking back, 2009 seems to having zoomed by.
Jobwise, the bad economy created a lot of work for me, but taking into consideration that a lot of jobs are still on the line, having a full plate of work doesn't seem too bad, after all.
Still, money is in short repair so that means putting in more hours, flea market sales Sundays and trying to get by.

Let's knock on wood that my health will remain good. Besides a bit of a cold around Christmas, 2009 has been free of any major drama.

The family is fine, the kids are doing okay at school, no major dramas here neither.

Sean and I spent some time today painting up some figures and I started working on my contest project.
I also filled up the hollow back on a GI Joe backpack as I want to put it onto an external frame and it would just look stupid if the hollow side of the pack would show. The putty also adds some weight to the construction. I'll show you the finished figure when the pack is done and painted.

[UnitedStatesDemocrat]

I look forward to seeing that then, Volker!

[Commander_Kurgan]

Here he is:



And a variation in Reactive Impact Armor:



As you can tell, I love the Chuck Norris-type headsculpt...

[Commander_Kurgan]

I've touched base with a Germany-based troop of the Boy Scouts of America and if all goes as planned, we will camp out together in August on one of their High Adventure-campgrounds near Austria.
We agreed that my leatherstockings will take the test for the BSA's Wilderness Survival Merit Badge and we've now started to prepare for the moment of Truth.
The BSA scoutmaster gave us copies of the requirements so we know what we need to work on.
Of course, I want my kids to be well-prepared (hopefully not über-prepared), because they shouldn't just pass so-so, but well. Top of the food chain, not lower dregs.
Let's see what we can do.

[Commander_Kurgan]

This was supposed to be a quiet, low-key weekend, but no plan survives the first few hours of the Saturday.

Sean got himself a very nasty and deep but in the back of his right hand today while drying off a drinking glass. He put his hand with the towel into the glass and the vessel burst, cutting him where the center sinew runs.
I put on a pressure-gauze pack and we drove over to the emergency room of the hospital.
Of course, it being Saturday, the lounge was crammed with kids waiting to be looked over by a doctor so we had to wait for an hour and a half before it was our turn.
The doc was a pretty cool guy, sent us downstairs to get the hand x-rayed if there were splinters left in the wound.
There were none so he patched Sean's hand up with two stitches.

On the way home we detoured by the TRU and found a price-reduced 1:18 scale True Elite playset containing some kind of roadblock/outpost with oil drums and an M-60 machine gun and a Jeep. Just the right scale for his GI Joes. Unfortunately, they had only one of these sets left, I would have liked one for myself, too.
Well, they have another set with a dirtbike and a Little Bird helo so maybe I'll settle for that one. Or the larger Blackhawk.
Well, we'll see.

[Commander_Kurgan]

I couldn't do a lot of painting in the last few days so I busied myself with kitbashing:

My interpretation of Sgt. Stone




Team Delta: Codename Buster




Team Delta: Codename Ridgeback





I admit, Ridgeback sort of looks like myself when I've grown a beard and have a fresh haircut.