My phone went to a watery grave, several months ago, and with it, the record of all of my friends' birthdays.

Fast forward to this morning. I realized that it was Crazy George's birthday today, just two days ago. He's a hard one to gift well to, and I always like to gift well. I was at a complete loss.

Then this morning, I had it- the night before, we had been talking about the strategies used when fighting in full harness. Now I've been a Budo man since I was, well, just a boy; George is one of these "Western Martial Arts" people.

I could kick myself for not taking a picture (I'll have to get George to take one), but I fired up my lathe for the first time in a loooong time, and turned him what I think is a very nice rondel dagger trainer. He was thrilled with it- really thrilled with it, even before he found out that I made it. And he's a difficult one to thrill.

So necessity may have been the mother, but the huge reward of making somebody happy was the important part.