Household projects update

The bedrooms that I've been working on are coming along just fine. Unfortunately there have been other setbacks...

The cat situation exploded! A cat we had been caring for started fighting in earnest with our cats; and one of them started peeing! A cat that pees once is forever a pisser. It had to go; but the reason it was in my house was that it had no where else to go! So I'm building a cat house for the garage. It's heated, and should be quite comfy; especially when the thermostat I ordered from Amazon arrives.

Another set back lies in our new furniture. We bought a new bed and nightstands from IKEA. My visiting father and his sig-o slept on them fine, and on new years Gretchen and I crashed on it; no problems. Later that afternoon I leaned on the bed and, the frame broke; the box-spring and mattress went crashing to the floor in one corner. So now I have another opportunity to use my new welder. I'll have to go buy some steel and weld up a bed frame; or at least a structure to reinforce the new broken one.

Flashlight project and other thoughts

I have a pair of DeWalt DC527's (battery powered hand-held florescent lights). The reason I have two, is that one doesn't work! I'm too lazy to go through, what I assume would be, a difficult returns process; so I'm fixing it myself.

The not so functional light does sort of work; the bulb glows; but does not fully light. I may have narrowed down the problem: the not so functional light is running at twice the frequency of the good light. I'm working on a circuit diagram (for diagnostic purposes), hopefully I can determine which components create the AC switching frequency, and test them next.

I may have given up trying to tape and skim coat my walls upstairs, I'm just not very good at it. I found someone to hire to help me with the work. I hope he calls tomorrow.

- Sy

Congratulations Mom!

I voted today! - I'm not 100% sure I voted for the correct people/things but who is; either way it's an important civic duty.

Congratulations go out to my mom who is now the director of the MMLC!

Mideastern Michigan Library Cooperative?
Mortality and Morbidity Liaison Committee?
Minnesota Master Logger Certification?
Management Markets and Legal Consulting Group?


I know what she does, but not what the acronym is exactly. Is it?: Madison Masonic Learning Center? Regardless; when I think about where my Mom works my mind instantly jumps to the: "Derek Zoolander Center For Kids Who Can't Read Good And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too" -- Yes you should watch that movie. In fact I'm going to go see if Gretchen will watch it with me tonight.

Peace out! Oh and play more Alien Swarm!]

Fungus/Insect Free Car

My car got crop dusted today. I was driving to Dugway, on my way to work, when PhWOOP! All my windows, front, back, and sides were covered in a fine white dust. It was so uniform, that it looked like some sort of white wash paint.

I flipped on the wipers so I could see the road, and by the time I got to my destination the rest of it had blown off the car.

It was quite startling!

Healing my sprain.

So I can walk, somewhat... I've been going to work the past two days, but just doing partial days. Today I did 8.5 hours (out of 10) - and it was very hard on my ankle. One more day, then I get to rest up over the weekend. Chuck, Gretchens cat, has enjoyed R.I.C.E.'ing with me every evening (Rest, Ice, Compression & Elevation). I've been told that when it gets stronger a wobble board is a good idea to strengthen the muscles and such. I like the idea of having strong ankles; mostly because:

I never want to sprain my ankle again!

New pets the: GDC's

Gretchen decided to get some chickens. They are generally quite nice, here is a picture of them perching in the grape vines:



Today however, they hopped there way onto the wine barrel, onto their makeshift perch, onto the top of the fence, over the makeshift steel cable that was supposed to help keep them inside, over the rock wall into our neighbors yard, through their fence, and into our neighbors-neighbors yard.

Our neighbors came round, baby carriage in tow, to kindly ask us to get our chicken out of their yard. They have a hunting (pointing) dog, a German short-hair, and they couldn't put it out into the yard without seriously endangering the life of the chicken.

To make a long story short, I tried to catch the chicken, and am now in nausiating pain due to a sprained / rolled ankle. I've never rolled my ankle before! - I'm so upset. I thought I had really strong ankles. - I had weakened it by partially rolling it earlier at work though; and it was apparently too much. I am very disappointed with my ankle...

Nom[?.!]

So two of my friends were riding in separate caravaning cars. This is a conversation they had, translations in parenthesis. I will refer to them by nicknames:

Rain:	Nom?	(Are we stopping for the promised food soon? The girlfriend is starving)
Bunny:	Nom.	(Yes, most definitely, food is something we must have.)
Rain:	Nom!	(Fantastic!)

They refer to this as the four letter conversation. I like my friends.