Bookstores are dangerous places...

....at least they are for me.

Last week I went into Barnes and Noble for the specific reason of using up a store credit I'd had. I used it to buy a Christmas present for my daughter. (I'm trying to get ahead of the game this year, for once...) I ended up spending more on myself than I did for her. While there I saw a book on the discount rack that I had read about a year ago which was really good. I thought to myself that my dad might like to read it someday but I didn't buy it.

This past weekend when I went to my parent's house, I discovered that my dad had just bought the newest book from that same author.

So tonight I went back to the scene of the crime to see if they had any of that book left that I had seen last week.

They did.

So I bought it for him as a Christmas present. I also picked up something for one of my sisters. Plus more books for me. More to add to my already large reading list.

Problem is that I'm trying to adhere to a budget, and don't really have extra cash kicking around.

Oh well, now I've to figure out what programs to cut from the budget to pay for hurricane damage. Or maybe I could spend less on the war in Iraq.

Or maybe I'll just adjust my own budget.... or avoid going to bookstores for awhile.

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Just as we were finishing today's production run at work, a core pin got crunched in the mold. This is bad, but not entirely unexpected. The last time this happened was a little more than a year ago.

This particular part we make is molded with the machine in a vertical position. The parts are hollow on the inside, so two thin core pins must be set carefully inside the mold to make this happen. For this part, the two halves of the mold clamp together using 171 kiloNewtons of pressure, or 17.2 tons. So not only did the core pin break, but also the two halves of the mold cavity now need to be sent out for repair. A bit pf perspective on these parts: Each time the mold closes and opens, one shot is produced. One shot contains two parts and weighs 3.6 grams. Each individual part weighs about 1.2 grams.

The good news is this: Today was the last day we were scheduled to make this part for a while. Considering the volume of this part we make each year for our customer, our success rate of not crunching these tiny core pins is remarkable.