So, I finished the ventilation fan for Candice's glasswork studio. Turns out the intake and outtake were reversed, so that the large hole I thought was outtake was in fact intake. The intake is the most important part as it needs to take the toxic fumes away from the torch area and siphon them to the outtake. So, having it wide open is in effect, bad, since it can pull air from basically all over. So, I changed the design a little and it now is a better design overall because instead of taking it outside to use, it can be left in and has duct work to go through the doggy door and duct work that goes over to her workbench (though the latter needs to be trimmed down in length and fastened better to the fan. We also used some spray foam
I used my router for the first time this weekend and used it successfully. Now I feel confident for building the box shelves to hang in Donna's room, and for that matter, to build bookshelves and a better designed glass rod holder for Candice's art studio. Once I figured out the direction to use the router and the speed control, the only thing I need to do better is to get a more low profile piece of wood to use as a guide, and to measure more precisely (though the latter was a given since I was only practicing and therefore wasn't concerned with precise measurements.
I set up the invisible dog fence this weekend, though I still have to bury the wire in places. The dogs became terrified to go out in the back yard, so I lowered the intensity several notches and we put them outside agin. Eventually they ventured out, and we discovered that the intensity was too low as they crossed over the boundary at some point, so we raised it again. Now Bailey is terrified to go outside again, even when he really needs/wants to. He'll be spending a good deal of time outside this week, so hopefully he learns where he can and can't go and becomes more comfortable with it. One thing's for sure, though, they definietely won't be chewing the trampoline or jumping the fences anytime soon.
One side effect of the invisible fence was that they ran back up the stairs on the deck and forced their way through the gate that keeps them out in the yard and not chewing the deck furniture cushions as well as protecting Megi from falling down the stairs. The gate had a latch on it that we use to lock it. But because of the gap between the gate and where the latch was mounted, the latch only had two screws holding it in place so that the latch could connect with the side on the gate. Their forcing their way through bent (yes bent) the slide latch because there were only two screws holding it. So, I replaced the latch (and drilled two more holes through so it won't bend again) and also added a chain latch to the bottom part which is were they forced their way through, so the deck gate's functionality is restored again.
Candice and I got some exercise yesterday, only our second long walk of the year together. Walks in warm weather are sort of a tradition for us, and a nice one. It also has the added benefit of keeping us healthier than we would otherwise be. She has a desire to runa 5K this summer, so we'll probably add some sprints into the walk soon.
We initially tried to take the dogs with us because we felt bad for them about the invisible fence thing, but they were absolutely AWFUL, so we turned around and took them home and went on a walk just the two of us.
So, I've knocked a few more items off my ToDo list. The remaining list (minus those things I never wrote down, and thus promptly forgot) is as follows:
- Build, paint, and mount the box shelves for Donna's room.
- Fix the screen door
- Fix the trampoline screen
- Install sprinklers into the flower beds and make them more efficient in the garden.
- Turn on the sprinklers (once I get a good feel for when cold weather is over - we're forecasted for more snow Wednesday)
- Install bumpers on the walls where the closet doors bump into them so that they don't damage the walls
- Finish painting Megi's bedroom
- Level out the ground where we plan to put the pool
- Put up the pool after we get the ground leveled out
- Install security on our wireless router
- Sift through the sand under the deck to remove yet more goat head stickers
- Build Candice an actual workbench for her glasswork
- Build some bookshelves (because we need more)
- Design/build some corner shelves
- Get new curtain rods for our bedroom and for Megi's bedroom
- Get/install a new ceiling fan for Donna's room. Hopefully, get it wired better than the old one where we can control the fan with one switch and the lights with another.
- Use the scrollsaw to make nameplates for the kids' bedroom doors.
That's all for this non-writing blog entry. Thanks for reading.
Monday, April 29, 2013
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Enough Already
Just how many words are there in the Eskimo languages for snow? Regardless of your definition of a "word", the answer is "too much for us in the foothills of Colorado!" I have no problem with it falling high in the mountains. In fact, I hope it does, that will help the runoff and consequently the drought conditions. But enough here in the lower elevations. Let it just be rain. And warm.
So this past weekend I didn't play around with my router like I had planned so I can learn how to use it (this becomes important when I start building shelves, etc). But I did knock off one of the tasks from two blogs ago (I posted one I didn't broadly advertise where I presented knowledge about the word "lalochezia" and talked about the development of my writing projects - spoiler alert if you go read them: I'm still in the idea phases only) I raised Gabe's curtain rod so that it isn't in danger of falling down. I also hung a new medicine cabinet in Grandma's bathroom. This wasn't on the original list of things to do, but she wanted to go buy a new one, so I also put it up, too.
Hopefully, this weekend will warm up and I can do some more projects, but if it keeps freaking snowing, that isn't very likely.
That's all for this blog, thanks for reading.
So this past weekend I didn't play around with my router like I had planned so I can learn how to use it (this becomes important when I start building shelves, etc). But I did knock off one of the tasks from two blogs ago (I posted one I didn't broadly advertise where I presented knowledge about the word "lalochezia" and talked about the development of my writing projects - spoiler alert if you go read them: I'm still in the idea phases only) I raised Gabe's curtain rod so that it isn't in danger of falling down. I also hung a new medicine cabinet in Grandma's bathroom. This wasn't on the original list of things to do, but she wanted to go buy a new one, so I also put it up, too.
Hopefully, this weekend will warm up and I can do some more projects, but if it keeps freaking snowing, that isn't very likely.
That's all for this blog, thanks for reading.
Friday, April 19, 2013
Lalochezia
Lalochezia is the use of vulgar or foul language to relieve stress or pain. What do you utter when you stub your toe or smash a finger? For me it's S.O.B. (not just the letters, but the whole phrase).
There's your bit of knowledge for the day.
My vampire story is fleshing itself out in my head. The protagonist will be Josef Mengele. The challenge for me will be to make him sympathetic while still making him a deplorable human being. I think I know how I plan to do it, but I've been playing out the different ideas in my head along with the basics of the plot before I write any more on the issue. This is also the same story where I break most of the rules of vampire lore, but with a logical explanation as to why/how.
I'm also kicking around a zombie story where the protagonist is a zombie. Still working through the concept of how that can happen in my mind. I do know that it will start from the same beginning as the story Darkness that I'm writing where Itzpopalotl attacks a group of cmapers in the jungles of Mexico. My zombie epidemic will stem from the dead of the attack that opens the other story. Their bodies aren't found in the other story, and this gives the explanation as to why. My zombie outbreak will not be a global one quite yet, at least I don't think so.
Anyway, I promised an update to my blog on what is happening in my writing world when I posted the link to my last blog post on Facebook, so here it is. Thanks for reading.
There's your bit of knowledge for the day.
My vampire story is fleshing itself out in my head. The protagonist will be Josef Mengele. The challenge for me will be to make him sympathetic while still making him a deplorable human being. I think I know how I plan to do it, but I've been playing out the different ideas in my head along with the basics of the plot before I write any more on the issue. This is also the same story where I break most of the rules of vampire lore, but with a logical explanation as to why/how.
I'm also kicking around a zombie story where the protagonist is a zombie. Still working through the concept of how that can happen in my mind. I do know that it will start from the same beginning as the story Darkness that I'm writing where Itzpopalotl attacks a group of cmapers in the jungles of Mexico. My zombie epidemic will stem from the dead of the attack that opens the other story. Their bodies aren't found in the other story, and this gives the explanation as to why. My zombie outbreak will not be a global one quite yet, at least I don't think so.
Anyway, I promised an update to my blog on what is happening in my writing world when I posted the link to my last blog post on Facebook, so here it is. Thanks for reading.
Monday, April 15, 2013
Objects In Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear
I bought the wood yesterday to complete Candice's ventilation fan and to build some square shelves to hang on the walls of Donna's bedroom. Once I get the fan assembled, I then need to but the rest of the ducting to connect from her desk to where the fan will sit. As for the shelves, I guess I'll be learning to use my router one of the next few weekends.
Also on my agenda is raising Gabe's curtain rod. The current one was placed in-line with where the old one was shabbily put up and the compound to fill the spot didn't hold up too well and it wants to fall off. So I need to move it higher. And re-patch the holes. And paint over the patching.
We also need to get off our arse and tape and paint Megi's room. I finished the ceilings there over a month ago and taped around the trim, but we haven't done anything since. We need to finish taping it and then paint the walls. We've also decided to do the trim in green rather than white, so her room will be purple, teal, and green.
We bought an invisible fence with two collars for stubborn dogs. I'm not sure if I need that much persuasion, but it's adjustable up to a higher level than most in case I need it. Hopefully Bailey doesn't completely disregard it. I plan to put it up on a nice weekend, but I also have to dig in the yard to bury part of it. but once i get this done, I can start leveling the yard for the swimming pool and start clearing out the garden for this year's crops.
Also on the agenda is to connect some more hose to the sprinkler system to included the flower garden (and garden better than last year).
We bought some nylon screen to replace the metal one in the screen door that we replaced last year. Not that we necessarily think it'll hold up better, but it'll be less dangerous for kids if it does get holes in it. We also plan to "sew" some of it onto the trampoline netting where the dogs caused a large hole and we have to sit in front of it to ensure Megi doesn't fall out of it. The other two are so far smart enough to not run up against it.
I'm sure there are about 6 or 7 other projects I have to do, but I haven't been my usual self and made out a list of them, so they're likely going to be forgotten for a long time.
Anyway, that's all for this week's blog. Thanks for reading.
Also on my agenda is raising Gabe's curtain rod. The current one was placed in-line with where the old one was shabbily put up and the compound to fill the spot didn't hold up too well and it wants to fall off. So I need to move it higher. And re-patch the holes. And paint over the patching.
We also need to get off our arse and tape and paint Megi's room. I finished the ceilings there over a month ago and taped around the trim, but we haven't done anything since. We need to finish taping it and then paint the walls. We've also decided to do the trim in green rather than white, so her room will be purple, teal, and green.
We bought an invisible fence with two collars for stubborn dogs. I'm not sure if I need that much persuasion, but it's adjustable up to a higher level than most in case I need it. Hopefully Bailey doesn't completely disregard it. I plan to put it up on a nice weekend, but I also have to dig in the yard to bury part of it. but once i get this done, I can start leveling the yard for the swimming pool and start clearing out the garden for this year's crops.
Also on the agenda is to connect some more hose to the sprinkler system to included the flower garden (and garden better than last year).
We bought some nylon screen to replace the metal one in the screen door that we replaced last year. Not that we necessarily think it'll hold up better, but it'll be less dangerous for kids if it does get holes in it. We also plan to "sew" some of it onto the trampoline netting where the dogs caused a large hole and we have to sit in front of it to ensure Megi doesn't fall out of it. The other two are so far smart enough to not run up against it.
I'm sure there are about 6 or 7 other projects I have to do, but I haven't been my usual self and made out a list of them, so they're likely going to be forgotten for a long time.
Anyway, that's all for this week's blog. Thanks for reading.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Pareidolia
First, let’s learn something. The word of the day is pareidolia. That's the phenomenon of seeing an "image of significance" in another object. Like seeing the image of Jesus in burnt toast, Lincoln's silhouette in a sock on the floor, a Dorito that looks like Xenu, the Virgin Mary’s image appearing in a piece of paper chewed by a dog, seeing “666” or the devil’s face in fire damage on the side of a building, or even seeing images such as bunnies in clouds. It’s part of the human condition to try and find significance where there almost certainly is none, because if there isn’t more meaning to the world, then we’re doomed, I say! Doomed! Okay, enough hyperbole. Let’s get on with the blog.
As you saw from the previous blog post, we finished Donna’s room enough to move her into it. Well, now we’ve started on Megi’s room. The ceiling is now painted and the trim is tapped off. I just need to tape the accent wall away from the other three so we can get started on them.
Candice and I started a discussion the other day on whether we still want to restore the ’53 Mercury. She noted that we’ll always have higher priority financial projects. I’m good either way, but want her to be sure that she won’t have any regrets before we make the final decision if we don’t do it. The plus side of doing it would be that we’d have one sweet ride. The plus side of not doing it would be reclaiming garage space and having extra money (presumably) for Candice’s business and/or a snow blower (and a place to put it).
Megi’s at that awkward size where size 18 month clothes make her look like a superhero wearing tights and 24 month clothes make her look like she was shrunk by a “Honey I Shrunk The Kids” ray, but her clothes didn’t shrink.
We just replenished Gabe’s pants wardrobe again for the fourth time in a little over 12 months. He now wears size 14 pants. He turns 8 in a few weeks, ughh. Fortunately, his upper body growth isn’t as pronounced and he can usually wear shirts slightly longer, but he’ll need the next size shirts within the next few weeks, too (size 12s I think).
Donna doesn’t have much going on. Amazingly, since she moved into her new room, she’s been pretty good about putting her dirty clothes away in the hamper.
Candice broke a finger on her right hand, and has been out of commission for her business and will be for a few more weeks. Also, her oxygen concentrator has started to malfunction, which is fortunate timing that they are at the same time and not consecutive (though she needs to get back in touch with the company to make sure it’s still under warranty and get it fixed soon to keep them from being consecutively timed events).
My sister-in-law Jan came out to Denver for a work related conference and got to come visit with us one evening. It’s too bad she didn’t have more time to visit. We’re also sending out a couple of books to her that she informed us that hadn’t read (Pillars of the Earth and World Without End). Hopefully, she can make some time to read them as both are excellent books by Ken Follett.
That’s all for this post. Thanks for reading!
As you saw from the previous blog post, we finished Donna’s room enough to move her into it. Well, now we’ve started on Megi’s room. The ceiling is now painted and the trim is tapped off. I just need to tape the accent wall away from the other three so we can get started on them.
Candice and I started a discussion the other day on whether we still want to restore the ’53 Mercury. She noted that we’ll always have higher priority financial projects. I’m good either way, but want her to be sure that she won’t have any regrets before we make the final decision if we don’t do it. The plus side of doing it would be that we’d have one sweet ride. The plus side of not doing it would be reclaiming garage space and having extra money (presumably) for Candice’s business and/or a snow blower (and a place to put it).
Megi’s at that awkward size where size 18 month clothes make her look like a superhero wearing tights and 24 month clothes make her look like she was shrunk by a “Honey I Shrunk The Kids” ray, but her clothes didn’t shrink.
We just replenished Gabe’s pants wardrobe again for the fourth time in a little over 12 months. He now wears size 14 pants. He turns 8 in a few weeks, ughh. Fortunately, his upper body growth isn’t as pronounced and he can usually wear shirts slightly longer, but he’ll need the next size shirts within the next few weeks, too (size 12s I think).
Donna doesn’t have much going on. Amazingly, since she moved into her new room, she’s been pretty good about putting her dirty clothes away in the hamper.
Candice broke a finger on her right hand, and has been out of commission for her business and will be for a few more weeks. Also, her oxygen concentrator has started to malfunction, which is fortunate timing that they are at the same time and not consecutive (though she needs to get back in touch with the company to make sure it’s still under warranty and get it fixed soon to keep them from being consecutively timed events).
My sister-in-law Jan came out to Denver for a work related conference and got to come visit with us one evening. It’s too bad she didn’t have more time to visit. We’re also sending out a couple of books to her that she informed us that hadn’t read (Pillars of the Earth and World Without End). Hopefully, she can make some time to read them as both are excellent books by Ken Follett.
That’s all for this post. Thanks for reading!
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Two out of three ain't bad...
So, we finally finished Donna's room (at least enough to move her in so we can start on Megi's room and reclaim our space). In the process, she moved up from a toddler bed to a full size bed. We still need to paint the dressers and add some shelves, but she's officially moved into her new room. That means two out of three kids have successfully been moved to their new rooms.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Frequently Infrequent
So, in holding with my mantra of "whenever I get around to it," I haven't updated my blog in a while. I frequently update it infrequently.
So, What has happened since the last post?
Well, it turns out that though my platelet count is in the normal range, it's too low for donations outside of emergencies and holidays, so I only gave blood and will continue to do so.
We still haven't done much more on painting in Donna's room-to-be yet. We've still got one coat on the bedroom door, both coats on the the trim, and touch-up on the walls and ceilings. Then I can move furniture in there and we can get started on Megi's room.
I still need to finish Candice's ventilation system. Hopefully I can do that this weekend. I have to make a trip to Home Depot to see about ducting and connectors (specifically one that I can bolt to the fan and connect the other duct work to it) before final assembly, since that will drive how big of a hole to cut into the board on the receiving side of the fan. I also don't relish working in the garage when it's sub-freezing outside...
Gabe has lost two coats at school this year and was lucky to not have lost a third one. He's currently grounded because he doesn't think the rules we impose on him actually apply to him and he does whatever he wants to do (like taking off and not wearing his coat on the school playground when it's 30 degrees outside and leaving it out there). Hopefully his inability to play over the next couple of weeks will have somewhat of an impact on his ability to follow our rules.
It looks like we might be getting a visit from my sister-in-law next week all the way from South Caroilina. I'm looking forward to it!
The fish are surviving well, though we did lose a couple due to the stress of changing environments.
Megi has claimed "No!" as her current favorite word, and she says it in a sing-songish manor where her inflections rise as she says it. It's cute. For now. She's still a beast when she doesn't get her way and has been since 4 months old. I'm not looking forward to her terrible twos.
Donna is starting to learn that she's not the princess she believes herself to be and that she has to do what mommy and daddy say. Hopefully we get this streak of "entitlement" kicked soon, then we have to work on the crying about everything with both her and Gabe.
We haven't heard anything back from the IRS on grandma's taxes. I have no idea how long it should take before we hear anything, but I said in our response that if we didn't hear anything back, we'd assume it was over.
On that same note, we filed our taxes this morning after they were "rejected" last night. It seems we never changed Gabe's last name with the Social Security Administration after I adopted him and when I put his name in "correctly" it was "incorrect." Add that to the list of things I need to do with the government about my kids (Gabe shows up wrong for my medical insurance, the paperwork with the VA to have Meg listed as a dependant on their system STILL hasn't finished processing. I could care less about the extra $30 per month that isn't taxable - it won't affect my bottom line practically at all - I want her to be listed on my survival benefit plan in case the unthinkable happens. Damn beaurocracy.
I still haven't gotten around to cleaning out the garage after the mice incident, either. I doubt I will until it gets into the 60s or warmer either...
Many of the old members of Wordtrip are making a semi-honest effort at getting the site active again. For those that don't know, it's a forum for writers once listed many years in a row as one of the top websites for writers. Hopefully, it'll add to my motivation to get these short story compilations written and published. (Shouldn't this paragraph be near the top of this blog since the intent of this blog is my life as an author? Oh, well...) I'm not able to be on it nearly as often as I used to be, but I'm trying to access it a few times each day to post and read.
Candice's business is going well, but she's thinking about moving it to another website instead of Etsy. It's a dicey move since Etsy has a huge customer base, but the fees would be less per year, and it also adds the listing into Google shopping, which could increase the customer base (assuming the customer base isn't going directly to Etsy or eBay to do their searches. If that's the case, it could prove harder to get it going good. I think that's a better plan for leaving Etsy than starting her own website at this jucture because it's less work and she doesn't have to recruit her entire customer base. One she's well established with a large customer base, then her own website is probably the way to go. We'll see...
I did get the other hotels booked for the vacation this July, so it is all planned out and essentially finalized.
That's all I have for this entry, thanks for reading!
So, What has happened since the last post?
Well, it turns out that though my platelet count is in the normal range, it's too low for donations outside of emergencies and holidays, so I only gave blood and will continue to do so.
We still haven't done much more on painting in Donna's room-to-be yet. We've still got one coat on the bedroom door, both coats on the the trim, and touch-up on the walls and ceilings. Then I can move furniture in there and we can get started on Megi's room.
I still need to finish Candice's ventilation system. Hopefully I can do that this weekend. I have to make a trip to Home Depot to see about ducting and connectors (specifically one that I can bolt to the fan and connect the other duct work to it) before final assembly, since that will drive how big of a hole to cut into the board on the receiving side of the fan. I also don't relish working in the garage when it's sub-freezing outside...
Gabe has lost two coats at school this year and was lucky to not have lost a third one. He's currently grounded because he doesn't think the rules we impose on him actually apply to him and he does whatever he wants to do (like taking off and not wearing his coat on the school playground when it's 30 degrees outside and leaving it out there). Hopefully his inability to play over the next couple of weeks will have somewhat of an impact on his ability to follow our rules.
It looks like we might be getting a visit from my sister-in-law next week all the way from South Caroilina. I'm looking forward to it!
The fish are surviving well, though we did lose a couple due to the stress of changing environments.
Megi has claimed "No!" as her current favorite word, and she says it in a sing-songish manor where her inflections rise as she says it. It's cute. For now. She's still a beast when she doesn't get her way and has been since 4 months old. I'm not looking forward to her terrible twos.
Donna is starting to learn that she's not the princess she believes herself to be and that she has to do what mommy and daddy say. Hopefully we get this streak of "entitlement" kicked soon, then we have to work on the crying about everything with both her and Gabe.
We haven't heard anything back from the IRS on grandma's taxes. I have no idea how long it should take before we hear anything, but I said in our response that if we didn't hear anything back, we'd assume it was over.
On that same note, we filed our taxes this morning after they were "rejected" last night. It seems we never changed Gabe's last name with the Social Security Administration after I adopted him and when I put his name in "correctly" it was "incorrect." Add that to the list of things I need to do with the government about my kids (Gabe shows up wrong for my medical insurance, the paperwork with the VA to have Meg listed as a dependant on their system STILL hasn't finished processing. I could care less about the extra $30 per month that isn't taxable - it won't affect my bottom line practically at all - I want her to be listed on my survival benefit plan in case the unthinkable happens. Damn beaurocracy.
I still haven't gotten around to cleaning out the garage after the mice incident, either. I doubt I will until it gets into the 60s or warmer either...
Many of the old members of Wordtrip are making a semi-honest effort at getting the site active again. For those that don't know, it's a forum for writers once listed many years in a row as one of the top websites for writers. Hopefully, it'll add to my motivation to get these short story compilations written and published. (Shouldn't this paragraph be near the top of this blog since the intent of this blog is my life as an author? Oh, well...) I'm not able to be on it nearly as often as I used to be, but I'm trying to access it a few times each day to post and read.
Candice's business is going well, but she's thinking about moving it to another website instead of Etsy. It's a dicey move since Etsy has a huge customer base, but the fees would be less per year, and it also adds the listing into Google shopping, which could increase the customer base (assuming the customer base isn't going directly to Etsy or eBay to do their searches. If that's the case, it could prove harder to get it going good. I think that's a better plan for leaving Etsy than starting her own website at this jucture because it's less work and she doesn't have to recruit her entire customer base. One she's well established with a large customer base, then her own website is probably the way to go. We'll see...
I did get the other hotels booked for the vacation this July, so it is all planned out and essentially finalized.
That's all I have for this entry, thanks for reading!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Quill Writing
