GG's,

I'm just now catching up on my correspondence, I was out the first
three days of this week, staying home with the kids while my wife,
Carol, was at her parents' house.  Carol's father had a heart attack
last Saturday, and is now recovering nicely, after having a very
yecchy sounding angioplasty.  Kind of makes me want to consider early
retirement - only sixteen more years and I'll be eligible.

Anyway, Galootapalooza III was a definite success.  As Jerry wrote,
the flea market was a bust for most of us (except for you-know-who),
but we had a great time anyway.  Mike's hosting ability is matched by
his ability to do some truly fine planemaking, I think that Mike's
replacement tote showed more talent than most of the work that I've
done.  I was pleasantly surprised to see me Mathieson infill and
Stanley Frankenplane do so well.  Here are a few observations I've
made:

1.  Most Galoots are taller than I am.  Where I grew up in Michigan, I
was about average height (5'10").  When I moved out east (Annapolis,
MD), I found I was actually taller than most.  Now that I live in
Indiana, I find I'm shorter than average, and I have to go all the way
to the west coast to become "above average" in height (Paddy's
excluded).  Maybe I need to go back to hanging around with more
Italians and less Germans.
2.  Most of the assembled Galoots also do a lot, if not most, of the
cooking at their house.
3.  Galoots are good hosts.
4.  Gather thirteen galoots around a workbench with some sharp planes,
exotic wood, and a micrometer and you'll soon hear giggling the likes
of which you haven't heard since grade school.
5. Galoots have a good time together.

The M-WTCA meet was also a good time - I ended up with a nice thumb
hole Disston rip saw, a nice No. 3, a couple of bevel gauges, and five
folding rules - definitely a good place to go oldtooling.

Here are some pictures I snapped:
http://www.geocities.com/PicketFence/3212/Galoot-Image01.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/PicketFence/3212/Galoot-Image02.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/PicketFence/3212/Galoot-Image03.jpg

That's all for now,

Joe Palazzolo
Fort Wayne, Indiana