Kitchen Accent Lights.

I am finally getting around to explaining my kitchen accent lighting for the house.

Christmas Train

About a year ago I started building a train for my Christmas Display. This blog details the process and some of the things I learned along the way.

Travel Log : Waco Tx

Recently my wife, Ashley, and I made our way up to Waco TX for a weekend get a away.  

Quail Crossing RV Park. 

We took our travel trailer and stayed at Quail Crossing RV Park. To get to the part you have to make your way through a little neighborhood on the very outskirts of town. I am glad I had the GPS telling me how to get there.

Quail Crossing RV Park. 

It was super quiet. I think the only sounds we heard where cows in the pasture next to the camp ground. There are some of trailers that look like they have been there a long time. It was clean, well established and the grounds looked to be kept up relatively well. The bathrooms and laundry room where clean as well.

It did have quite an older feel to it, but for $30 a night with full hook ups the price was right. Our only complaint was that the free WiFi, was non-existent. We couldn't get our cell phones or laptop to stay connected. The gentlemen in the trailer next to me pointed out the WiFi antenna that was less than 30 ft from our trailer, so we really shouldn't have had any problems with signal strength.

You can just see the WiFi antenna above the top of our trailer.

Not sure if we will stay here again just because of the lack of WiFi. I will call them before heading there next time and see if it has improved any. All in all I would recommend it if  your traveling trough Waco and WiFi is isn't an issue for you.


One of our favorite TV shows on HGTV is Fixer Upper.  The show is based in Waco and was part of the reason for our trip. The hosts, Chip and Joanna Gains, own a small decorating store in town called Magnolia Homes.  When we stopped by the store our first morning in town and it was super busy. I am sure it is due to the notoriety that they have been getting from the HGTV series. The store had a great feel and was warm and inviting. It had a lot of cool decorating stuff that they use to stage there homes at the end of every show.  We picked up a couple of t-shirts. That way I can say we have been there and got the t-shirt. The store was really clean and everyone was very nice, although, it was very crowded. Ashley didn't really see any decorating pieces that she wanted and the crowd was somewhat of a turn off, so we decided to check out there online store and make our way to our text stop in town. 

Magnolia Homes Store Front. 

The next stop is town was the future home of Magnolia Homes. They are in the process or renovating these old grain silos. You can read more about it here. 

*Pictures from Magnolia Silos 

I really love the idea of re-purposing the old to give it a new function with out loosing the charm and character of the old building. For this reason I think industrial style lofts are neat or re-purposing an old quonset hut, military buildings, aircraft hangers or silos like they are doing would be a fun place to live or have a business. Something that is industrial meets farm house. 

Just around the corner from the Silos is the Dr. Pepper Museum. I like Dr. Pepper, so we had to stop here and tour the museum.  It was fun to walk around and see all the old advertising and the old bottling machines.

Dr. Pepper Museum

All in all we had a fun weekend trip. 

To Endeavor

For the first post I figured I should introduce myself.

I am an engineer by trade to many that means I have a very analytic mind set.

I am also an observer. I like to be able to just sit and watch the world around me. I like to take things apart and study them to see how they work. I have been told by many that I move around too much from one hobby to another. Really as I see it I learn as much as I can until my interest shifts to something else and then I will learn as much as I can about that thing. Often I will revisit old hobbies once I have discovered something new or different about them that I did not know before. My mind will focus in on one thing and I will pour my attention into learning or discovering as much as I can about that one thing as I can before my attention moves to something else. The perfect word to describe this is to endeavor.

Endeavor as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary means: a serious effort or attempt. 

This is the reason I have chosen to name my blog The Endeavoring Engineer. It seems to fit my personality perfectly.

Brian.

This blog is just a place for me to share my thoughts, feelings and general ramblings. It by no means is meant to represent anything, or anyone other than my own personal perceptions of the world.