I hope you are all enjoying your weekend. It has been mild in temperatures here, with a bit of overcast. It's better than the mid 80s we were getting last week. I'm just not ready to wear shorts around St. Patrick's Day--but had to do it.

Speaking of St. Patty's--I hope you all had a fun one! I usually make corned beef and cabbage on that day, but given that I was so sick at the time, I had to postpone. So today I am making it, with lots of hand-washing going on.

Yes, I am still on the mend from this chest cold or flu, or whatever it was. About midweek I finally had to break down and go to the doctor for it. I was fighting a losing battle of fluids accumulating in my lungs, and as a result of it I couldn't sleep through the night. So it just kept getting worse. I went, and they diagnosed me with an acute bronchitis, and wrote me a prescription for antibiotics and cough syrup with codeine. That seems to have done the trick. Today is my last day of the Zithro pack, and I am mostly back to normal. But it sure was nasty for a while. I felt I was going to cough myself inside-out there for a while.

Now to give an update on the whole 3D printing and second XYZprinting contest situation. Technically, my loaner period for this printer ended on March 16. I had looked into the possibility of buying this loaner unit, and they were checking on that. Then came this second contest, and I thought I had a good idea of how to win the contest, so I just had them hold off until the outcome of the contest was known. There had also been talk of them sending a film crew here to shoot promotional footage of me "at work" with their printer. So I am holding onto the printer until they either arrange that, or they ask for it back. I can always claim "well, I wasn't going to send it back if there was still this filming yet to be done." So it is sitting here printing as I write this. I have been doing a ridiculous amount of printing in the last week or so. It's a great way to pass the time while waiting for health to return to your body.

As for the contest, well--that could have gone better. Once again, the rules they posted in the beginning were poorly written and ambiguous. I made an interpretation based on what was said, and it turned out that they had something different in mind. So they have awarded the printer to someone who used the shotgun approach (he entered 18 models, mostly of small objects that can be downloaded from other sites). Also, they only announced the main winner--the person who gets a printer for keeps. They had also said they were going to award two runner-ups with a month loan (so I was hoping to get a new month with a different printer), and they haven't announced the runners-up yet. So I'm still keeping my fingers crossed.

That's two contests I have entered with this company, and both times I have barely lost because they didn't explain the rules adequately. That's frustrating.

Oh well--on to Space news. There was a great solar eclipse up north, though one of the two main ground-based viewing sites got completely clouded over. I'm still holding out for the big even in 2017--path of totality sweeping right across the US midwest!

And a happy birthday to Max! It was five years ago yesterday that Max hatched--starting us all down the path on this wonderful adventure.

Well, today is another day of 3D printing and woodworking. I'm building an acetone vapor chamber to help in the production of 3D models. To make it, I'm having to experiment with magnetic gears. Fun stuff! It is an interesting experiment for me to work with wood and plastic at the same time. One being subtractive and one being additive--I am pleased to see that my mind can easily jump from one paradigm to the other with no problem!

I hope everyone has a great week!