If you've got tools, I'd highly recommend NIMBY in the east bay. They rent you storage space (to keep your stuff securely) and access to quite a bit of workshop space to build anything from stuff you can hold in your hand to steampunk treehouses, trojan horses, and maybe even an anubis. There may also be common tools on-hand, I haven't been over there in a while. I think The Crucible also has some kind of workshop/build-stuff setup.
In other cities, get with Uncle Google and look for things like maker and workshop and community. TechShop (the place I go to) has places in Menlo Park, San Jose, Portland, Detroit, and North Carolina (plus they're working on getting one set up in NY), but there are other companies with similar operations. It's a great idea - like a gym membership, but instead of stairclimbers and rowing machines and stuff they've got all those delicious tools and people to show you how to use them.
We had another fun trip to the fabric store yesterday. Just picking up a few yards here and there, plus some buttons, zippers, and stuff. It was nice to see that this year they're fully prepped for the season and have plenty of fun fur for people to use. This pic shows just one of the 4-5 racks, lots of colors, thicknesses, and styles out there it seems the faux fur gnomes have been hard at work.
In the actual work in progress department, we got a great shipment this morning, the electric assist motor kits for our port-o-trikes. Man, I'm glad we thought to get that order in early. Apparently there's been a huge demand in motor kits for months, and their component suppliers had been backordered. After 7 weeks, they're finally here. Hopefully in the next couple days I'll be able to get them installed on the trikes and we'll get some city usage before the playa.
