soapbox

Esquire says that you can’t send a “shout out” once you’re thirty, so I only have a little while longer.

So I’m sending a shout out to all the members of the blog in the hopes of shaming those of you who haven’t posted into putting up some stuff.

Here’s the list of laggards.
Andrea 2 posts
Brian 0 posts
John 9 posts
Becky 13 posts
Qun 2 posts
Jeremy 2 posts
Leslie 1 post
Paul 0 posts

Just ask Michael or I, it’s really not that hard to post. There is some random tidbit in everyone’s day that’s a worthwhile post.
For example:

Ok, last post for the moment. I suppose I should wait a week, but I’m on a roll.

Last Friday we got a new bed… the job offer came with it.

Anyway, here’s a picture. My next woodworking project is going to be to build a side-table that works with the bed since the little Ikea side-table just isn’t cutting it anymore. I’m currently looking at crazy expensive pieces of walnut to make a really impressive top.

Once we had the new countertops in, it was very clear that the crappy half-table bolted to the wall just wasn’t going to work with the style of the kitchen. It turns out it was only attached with two screws and one of them wasn’t doing anything, so it was really easy to get out.

The first picture is what you get when your finger is partially covering the flash on the camera. The crap table got replaced with a nice kitchen island from Ikea. It’s sturdy enough to knead bread on and weighs a little bit over 100 pounds. Good stuff!

Unfortunately, in the process of putting in the new faucet, I found out that the existing plumbing had been leaking for years and years. It didn’t damage the structure of the house, but the bottom to the cabinet under the sink was shot. I ripped the old crap out, built a new bottom to the cabinent out of tongue and groove pine, and lined the walls with oak plywood to make it look nice.

The first picture shows what six cans of spray foam look like sprayed out. I don’t want the pipes in that area with no circulation to freeze. The second picture shows the nearly finished product with only one more board to be put in place.

Ok, I’m inflicting a bunch of pictures on you all to show what I did weekend before last. Then next week, I’ll show you pictures of last weekend and so on.

I don’t have any good pictures of the whole kitchen yet, but on Friday we got new countertops and with them had to get a new faucet. So here’s a picture of the faucet and you can see the color of the Corian (it’s called Maui). The sink is the white part and it’s molded in so there’s no line that needs to be caulked or grows mold.

This is the last post that I meant to say yesterday…

Kirsten and I were cleaning out the garage on Sunday when we heard a loud BARRRAUNF! noise and the power went out. No big deal other than the fact that you usually don’t hear the power going out. It was only out for 30 seconds though and then the lights came back on.

Another 30 seconds… BARRRAUNF!

Power’s back out.

Another 30 seconds… power’s back on.

Another 30 seconds… BARRRAUNF!

Power’s back out.

By this point, I can tell that the sound is coming from just down the street, so I head out to take a look and get there at almost the same time as the fire truck. A largish branch had fallen across the high-voltage lines and shorted everything out. However, there must have been some diagnostic in the power grid that said “it’s ok to turn the power back on” and that was causing the 1-minute repeat on the cycle.

I got to see two good cycles close up before the fire fighters convinced the power company to completely shut off the electricity… the flash was bright enough to light up the whole neighborhood (at 3:30 pm) and it eventually lit the branch on fire and dropped flaming pieces of wood onto the road.

I have seen very few things as cool in my life.

Here’s the story… last Friday Kirsten and I were getting a new bed delivered and during the course of delivery, the guys had to walk through a number of rooms in the house. We have a bunch of Stickley furniture (a dresser, a chair, and a bookcase) and a faux-Stickley desk. However, they really liked the television stand and said, “Wow, that’s really nice. I didn’t know Stickley made something like that.”

At that point, Kirsten got to tell them that I actually designed and made it and they said I should come work for Pompanusuc Mills. So if this whole “science” thing doesn’t work out, I can make furniture. It’s sort of already been done though.