So, I managed to get some early Father’s Day gifts from my wife and sons. I guess they just could not wait…

First off is the Tri-Fold Wallet. I’ve been wanting to thin down my Constanza Wallet and one of the first things I need to do is make the dimensions of the wallet fit my jacket… and this fits the bill. PLUS… it’s a classic Father’s Day gift and, unlike a tie, it’s actually useful.

I also received a few books… Empire of the East and Ardneh’s Sword, both by Fred Saberhagen.

Generally speaking you can buy me almost anything by Fred Saberhagen and I’ll enjoy it.

I also received a Mont Blanc pen… sort of. You see, I love a good pen. I don’t really “collect” them, but I have a few that I consider to be very good ones, including a cartridge-based fountain pen. With some good paper (not the crap used in printers) it can be quite enjoyable.

However, I’m too cheap to spend $200 on a pen, even if it is a Mont Blanc. So, if you want a Mont Blanc, what do you do?

The solution is found here – in short, you take a Pilot G-2 Pro pen, along with a Mont Blanc refill and a little filing and… Tada! You have a pen that writes just as well as a Mont Blanc, but only cost you $15.

In my case I used my fantastic, not-plastic Gerber tool to finish the job – the Mont Blanc refill is just a bit too long. You can see the small bit of plastic I trimmed off in the lousy camera-phone pictures below:

So, I will say that the new pen writes like a dream. Thank you one and all.

Also, I received a bonus “Ruby on Rails for Dummies” book. The title is demeaning, but this series of books is very good – and when it comes to Ruby on Rails I’m certainly a beginner.