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While at the depot today I decided to splurge and pick up a new driver. My Porter-Cable has done well it’s it’s nearing the end of it’s life. One battery is dead, the other is on it’s way. Replacing the batteries would cost about $120, and they are nickel-cadmium, not the lithium-ion which is a much better battery. Originally I had planned on buying the Ridgid compact driver, but they had the Makita compact driver/impact driver combo on sale (this is likely due to Maktia releasing a new model this year). I really like Makita as a brand and decided to splurge. Previous tools I’ve bought from them have lasted really well. Over the coming week I hope to put the new tools to good use as I start mounting the riser blocks for the new station forms, which I haven’t finished cutting yet…

(12/07/2008 22:12) EDITED TO ADD: Apparently the kit I bought is the new model, just in blue, not white. The model number on my kit is LCT203, while on the Makita site the white one is LCT203W. Go figure. I found the price from online retailers varies between $189 and $229, YMMV… I paid $199 at the depot.

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Ok, really it was just a nice vacation, but given that we have never been to Australia it was a bit of an adventure. I’ve gotten lots of questions about the trip and what it was like, and I’m hoping to answer most of those questions over the next few posts.

I’m going to break things down into four posts in total, this being the first, with the following three focusing on the various locations we visited….

1. Sydney
2. The Green Island
3. Katoomba and the Blue Mountains

Australia is a huge place, and trying to see it all in one trip seemed a little silly so we picked three locations and focued on them. The first was Sydney where we would be attending my sister in-law’s wedding. This was really the main point of the trip and something I’ll focus on later. Something everyone wanted to see while there was the Great Barrier Reef.  We found a resort on an island that’s park of a nation park and sits right on the reef, and stayed there for 4 nights. The final location was the Blue Mountains in Katoomba. This is a small town north-west of Sydney with some amazing trails and incredible views.

Stay tuned, and enjoy our stories from the land down under…

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Both online and at home. We had a few technical difficulties with the blog, which I’ll be sorting out over the next few days. For now I think I’ll settle for some sleep after a grueling 17.5 hour trip back…

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Let me start by saying that transpacific flights suck. With that out of the way, this is just a short update to let you all know that we made it and things are going great. I’ve started a new gallery here and will be updating it throughout the trip, hopefully with many blog posts to accompany it. But for the time being, I’ll be getting back to my beer at Lyne and Harley’s place in New South Wales…

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