Rorschach’s House O’ Spyders

The Window Manager has offered up a send-off by way of an excellent party and blog entry, reminding me of the things I will miss about the Golden State.

It’s true: the House O’ Spyders is moving to another house in another state. A bigger house. More on that later. But now, with some fine Napa Cabernet in the system, let me share some of my favorite Cali pics.

Real snow in California this year. That’s Saddleback.

Somewhere near the trestles.

Flowers in my yard.

Could be Newport or Dana Point.

Saddleback again, near home.

My Neighborhood. Walked this path hundreds of times.

Big Bear in the summer.

Pacific Crossing.

And finally: silicon valley, the way I saw it most, from the commuter flight back to Orange County.

*sigh*

Now that my family has made peace with my freakish collection habits, I can ask for some more fringe pieces. This year Santa brought me a Streamlight TwinTask 2L and a new beauty from Case.

Behold the Rattlesnake-skin Texas Toothpick. Case makes the toothpick in a staggering array of finishes, but this one seemed to be a perfect blend.

I’ve always been intrigued by the Texas Toothpick pattern: an ideal letter opener, good for apples, fairly wicked looking for such a small pen knife.

This lady won’t be an EDC, but it might be good for deep ellum.

OK, back home (?) for now. My heartfelt appreciation goes out to the fine folks at John F Jensen and Spyderco for hosting a contest to give away a new Dodo. I was the lucky winner. Its no secret that the Dodo is one of my favorites, it feels like a cricket on steroids. The reversible wire clip is a welcome feature for lefties like me.

My very first Dodo had a bit of a ball-lock problem in that I could push very hard on the spine to disengage the blade. I sent it in to warranty and it came back perfect. I’m happy to say that this new version locks tight as a drum with no issues whatsoever. I’ll keep this one as a backup, I have already beaten up my current Dodo and I expect it to be my perfect moving-box-unpacking knife. Or perhaps I’ll just give it to Mrs. Rorschach and we’ll be a matched pair on moving day.

Here’s a shot of a frequent EDC day for me, my G10 team.