While packing up ornaments, I watch cable TV. After my "Designed to Sell" fix, and sometimes "The Big Idea" or a cooking show, I often switch to the Discovery channel.
I really like the show Dirty Jobs. Mike does a great job making a hash out of any dirty job, thereby making the regulars look like the competent professionals they are (generally) and does so with good humor. I worry about his lack of respirators and long term lung health, but I love the show. An unlike queer eye, it doesn't get too big for its britches as the show gets more popular. (I liked QEFTSG when it was helping people who needed help. But when they started taking on whole baseball teams and various famous people, I felt it didn't serve any purpose but advertising and fundraising, and it was less fun to watch when people weren't really being made over anymore.) Dirty jobs just gets dirtier and more like itself.
I'm iffy on Bear's Man vs. Wild adventures. Mostly because a lot of what he does is unnecessarily gross. Like drink out of disgusting water pits without even an attempt to filter out the bigger chunks of crud. Or eating bugs that are so small as to be hardly worth the effort. Or what I just watched - rubbing cow patties on his hands to mask his scent while setting rabbit traps. Understandable, maybe even necessary, but gross. He says he doesn't tell his wife what he eats so she won't stop kissing him - then by the time she finds out, it's too late. uh huh. But contrast that with watching the joy on his face while jumping out of an airplane, and he does do something really cool or interesting a couple times a show, so I keep watching. (The american version, Survivorman, I object to the premise for some reason. Plus it's not as watchable.)
Mythbusters, always good fun. They test a myth, then figure out what it would take to make it true. Or just blow stuff up which is also fun. And they have a good sense of style and design while they do it - it really is worth the effort to paint something to look real and put a hat on Buster. The final finishing details make the difference between professional looking, highly watchable tests and cobbled together crap in the garage.
I like the continuity of shows that do something along the same lines every time so I have comfort in format, but if each show is independent of the others, I vastly prefer it. I find some of the network dramas watchable (ugly betty, desperate housewives) but I can't handle keeping track of series right now. Sometimes I see ads for them and just think, oh, I'd really like that, but it seems like too much effort to follow. Ever since the TiVo moved out of my friend's apartment with the roommate and we stopped watching Gilmore Girls off-night, I've kind of lost my enthusiasm for dramatic series. Maybe if I had a TiVo, I'd even program it, but probably not. Aside from Heroes and Buffy, what should I put on my list of DVD's to get?
When the writers strike is over, I'll look forward to more Daily Show. And Friday night is a Firefly marathon. Not that I need to see it on TV, but hey, that's how I usually watch stuff (it happens to be on) so I probably will tune in. Unless I get a hot date. In the mean time, I'll be packing up ornaments and scrubbing the condo in preparation for the cookie party, my own dirty job. But someone's got to do it!
Monday, December 10, 2007
Saturday, December 8, 2007
The Best of All Possible Worlds
There are things I'm very pragmatic about. How long it takes to do things is not one of them. How long it takes to get somewhere? Nope. I tend to underestimate. One could say I misunderestimate quite dramatically. I'd pretty much need to teleport to get places in the amount of time I think is required. Additionally, while in my head I know how long it takes to make ornaments, I forget that not every one of them is stunning and saleable, and I'm not a robot, so I need to add more time. Meaning that I made ornaments for six and a half hours today, and just maybe might have enough to fill my orders.
The trick with the ornaments is that last year I made a lot of large ones. This year, I got asked for small ones. So I made small ones. I have lots of small ornaments. Then I got a huge order for big ornaments. And so I had to make a lot of big ornaments but I had only today to do it. We'll see how many turned out. I think I have a reasonable chance. And that assumes I don't drop the lot on the way home. Usually a reasonable assumption, but I'll be driving about a lot tomorrow. With a carload of pumpkins and ornaments.
On the theme of the best of all possible worlds, I think that describes a lot fo the movie "Love Actually", so I'm watching it again for probably the dozenth time. (Only the Bourne Identity, A Christmas Story, and Big Trouble in Little China probably have more viewings.) I tear up a bit every time during the wedding between Ki.era K.night.ly and the operative from Serenity. Even more now that I know they modeled the scene on Jim H.enson's funeral, where everyone brought their mup.pets along, somewhat covertly, then busted them out at the end. Or so the story goes. I like HG's crush on Natalie, and when he threatens to send the SAS after her ex. I like CF trying to speak portugese. I like the body doubles discussing traffic. Well, I like pretty much the whole show. Everything but the mobile phone ring, and the cheating bit. And noone's buttocks get sacrificed to feed the people.
I kind of wish they'd left the Christmas Farts scenes in. Comedic genius. Is there any way to replay a DVD with all the deleted scenes reinstated? Of course I'd settle for being able to fix the brightness that has been washing out all my movies recently. I've fiddled with all the picture settings I can find and still get a lot of wash out. I don't remember this happening often before, just during my last couple of movies.
The trick with the ornaments is that last year I made a lot of large ones. This year, I got asked for small ones. So I made small ones. I have lots of small ornaments. Then I got a huge order for big ornaments. And so I had to make a lot of big ornaments but I had only today to do it. We'll see how many turned out. I think I have a reasonable chance. And that assumes I don't drop the lot on the way home. Usually a reasonable assumption, but I'll be driving about a lot tomorrow. With a carload of pumpkins and ornaments.
On the theme of the best of all possible worlds, I think that describes a lot fo the movie "Love Actually", so I'm watching it again for probably the dozenth time. (Only the Bourne Identity, A Christmas Story, and Big Trouble in Little China probably have more viewings.) I tear up a bit every time during the wedding between Ki.era K.night.ly and the operative from Serenity. Even more now that I know they modeled the scene on Jim H.enson's funeral, where everyone brought their mup.pets along, somewhat covertly, then busted them out at the end. Or so the story goes. I like HG's crush on Natalie, and when he threatens to send the SAS after her ex. I like CF trying to speak portugese. I like the body doubles discussing traffic. Well, I like pretty much the whole show. Everything but the mobile phone ring, and the cheating bit. And noone's buttocks get sacrificed to feed the people.
I kind of wish they'd left the Christmas Farts scenes in. Comedic genius. Is there any way to replay a DVD with all the deleted scenes reinstated? Of course I'd settle for being able to fix the brightness that has been washing out all my movies recently. I've fiddled with all the picture settings I can find and still get a lot of wash out. I don't remember this happening often before, just during my last couple of movies.
Friday, December 7, 2007
I Like Cold Bev'rige, yeah!
This is my 2nd post of the night. Feel free to skip the previous one where I whine about banking which is antithetical to the premise of this blog, but needed to escape my brain pan. This entry is much more upbeat and positive. I was going to save it for later, but blog topics tend to be ephemeral, over and done with before one might be ready, and my brain won't shut off and let me sleep unless I also post this. Although, that could be partly due to the subject of this blog, now that I think on it.
The newly renovated gas station near where I eat chinese for lunch at least once a week had a grand re-opening party today, and they were giving away various products. I stopped in and picked up a free "Rockstar" energy drink from the sweet young things handing them out, figuring I wasn't planning to try one if I had to buy it. Despite the fact that one of our techs drinks at least one of these a day and says they're tasty, I've remained distrustful and resistant to the lure of peppy, upbeat marketing and X-game type product placements. Oh, how much liquid happiness I've missed out on!
I managed to know almost zero about this product, assuming it was yet another Jolt soda (pop for you midwesterners) in fancier packaging. I was soooo wrong. It is a wonderful carbonated fruit drink.
Here are some highlights:
The newly renovated gas station near where I eat chinese for lunch at least once a week had a grand re-opening party today, and they were giving away various products. I stopped in and picked up a free "Rockstar" energy drink from the sweet young things handing them out, figuring I wasn't planning to try one if I had to buy it. Despite the fact that one of our techs drinks at least one of these a day and says they're tasty, I've remained distrustful and resistant to the lure of peppy, upbeat marketing and X-game type product placements. Oh, how much liquid happiness I've missed out on!
I managed to know almost zero about this product, assuming it was yet another Jolt soda (pop for you midwesterners) in fancier packaging. I was soooo wrong. It is a wonderful carbonated fruit drink.
Here are some highlights:
- Lightly sweetened WITHOUT aspartame or high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), Rockstar is not too sweet for me! (At least not when consumed cold from the can.) I like soda (Coke, Dr. Pepper, Vernors, Squirt, A&W) but lately they all seem too sweet for my palate. I have to drink them with lots of ice to cut the sweet. I've wondered why no one just cut back on the sugar instead of totally replacing it with scary chemicals, but it turns out someone did. My search for a less sweet "soda" is over.
- I try not to drink more than one or two sodas per week because an 8 oz serving with HFCS is 180 calories, or about a tenth of my daily allotment. (It's about 120 with sugar.) Rockstar is only 100 calories for an 8 oz serving, or 200/can. Whoa! I can actually drink one of these with minimal guilt!
- The primary ingredients are fruit juices! There's some sugar too, but, may I repeat, NO HFCS! Also I don't tolerate sugar substitutes well. Apparently they use them here but I didn't notice - for the first time ever. Bravo!
- The flavors favor my picky palate which prefers the obscure and exotic: pomegranate, mango, guava! In theory, I dig them all! I even asked for a 2nd can so I could try the mango, after the pomegranate proved tasty, and the cute young rep gave into my greed with a smile. (It's still at my desk, I can't justify 400 calories of juice after a big lunch, even if it is free.)
- The energy doesn't just come from caffeine, although there is some of that. There are good herbal and vitamin additives, some of which I take when I bother with supplements, to boost energy. They chose wisely.
Cranky Banking
So... I've waited until the last possible moment to cope with the fact that my Ne.tBa.nk account has gone the way of the dodo and some wonky outfit called ING is taking it over. Fortunately I read early that I don't have to do anything but re-establish my payees. So I've written down all my payee addresses and whatnot. I've saved electronic files that might be pertinent. I've hated every minute of it.
In looking through all the printed information I got from ing, they said nothing about a checking account, only a savings account. But the online stuff I just read implies that there might possibly be a checking option. I'm going to need the pay the mortgage soon, so I hope this gets straightened out without much ado. (For once, having all my bills due between the 18th and 27th is working in my favor.) I do have an alternate checking account with WF, but my direct deposit only sends enough money there for me to get cash out of the wall once in a while and it can take up to 2 paychecks to re-direct the direct deposit. Apparently I can link the ing to the WF for cheap transfers, but it still means I have to pay attention to these details on someone else's (rather tight) schedule which makes me a little cranky.
I think I would actually come out ahead if I hired an accountant to deal with my finances. It's not like I'm incapable. It's just that I tend to do things in fits and starts, feast or famine, rabbit racing style, but corporations want to get paid regularly on the slow and steady wins the race tortise plan. Yeah, I set up online bill pay to keep my credit rating reasonable. I don't have any notion about credit money being free money - I only spend what I can reasonably expect to repay. But not every account requires the same amount of money every time, and I have developed an unreasonable mental block about dealing with it. Which makes me feel idiotic and whiny because stupid people with much less money manage to pay the bills on time, why can't/ won't/ don't I? It's not rocket science. Although there's reason to believe I'd be better at rocket science than accountancy.
After hanging out with my parents again, I can understand better where some of these tendencies come from. Doesn't excuse it but makes it easier not to hate myself for. Push comes to shove, I sit down and pay the bills. But it would be a lot cheaper, fee and interest wise, if someone more responsible than me handled it. And my living room would be a lot less messy.
Yes, it still looks like this 2 weeks later, just worse. My organizer grrl is coming over tomorrow. I meant to have it all done when she got here so we could focus on cleaning and decorating for christmas. But insanity like this is also why I hire an assistant. So someone responsible makes me do my homework. But I still have to pay the bills. I would seriously like a vacation from this chore, but that feels like something to be careful about wishing for, so I only wish it with velleity (for now).
P.S. Suiting my mood, the dictionary .com word for the day is surly :)
P.P.S. My original happy blog idea was to write about the free Roc.kSta.r beverage I got today. That may have to wait until the banking ire runs its course.
In looking through all the printed information I got from ing, they said nothing about a checking account, only a savings account. But the online stuff I just read implies that there might possibly be a checking option. I'm going to need the pay the mortgage soon, so I hope this gets straightened out without much ado. (For once, having all my bills due between the 18th and 27th is working in my favor.) I do have an alternate checking account with WF, but my direct deposit only sends enough money there for me to get cash out of the wall once in a while and it can take up to 2 paychecks to re-direct the direct deposit. Apparently I can link the ing to the WF for cheap transfers, but it still means I have to pay attention to these details on someone else's (rather tight) schedule which makes me a little cranky.
I think I would actually come out ahead if I hired an accountant to deal with my finances. It's not like I'm incapable. It's just that I tend to do things in fits and starts, feast or famine, rabbit racing style, but corporations want to get paid regularly on the slow and steady wins the race tortise plan. Yeah, I set up online bill pay to keep my credit rating reasonable. I don't have any notion about credit money being free money - I only spend what I can reasonably expect to repay. But not every account requires the same amount of money every time, and I have developed an unreasonable mental block about dealing with it. Which makes me feel idiotic and whiny because stupid people with much less money manage to pay the bills on time, why can't/ won't/ don't I? It's not rocket science. Although there's reason to believe I'd be better at rocket science than accountancy.
After hanging out with my parents again, I can understand better where some of these tendencies come from. Doesn't excuse it but makes it easier not to hate myself for. Push comes to shove, I sit down and pay the bills. But it would be a lot cheaper, fee and interest wise, if someone more responsible than me handled it. And my living room would be a lot less messy.
Yes, it still looks like this 2 weeks later, just worse. My organizer grrl is coming over tomorrow. I meant to have it all done when she got here so we could focus on cleaning and decorating for christmas. But insanity like this is also why I hire an assistant. So someone responsible makes me do my homework. But I still have to pay the bills. I would seriously like a vacation from this chore, but that feels like something to be careful about wishing for, so I only wish it with velleity (for now).
P.S. Suiting my mood, the dictionary .com word for the day is surly :)
P.P.S. My original happy blog idea was to write about the free Roc.kSta.r beverage I got today. That may have to wait until the banking ire runs its course.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Yesterday, when I was Mad
It's been a weird week at work. My job is a mix of sustaining work and project work. I normally have well behaved tools that let me go about working on my projects. But this week, every single tool I have has acted up. Most of them have been out of service all week. This, in 24/7 manufacturing, is what they call not good. There's a limited amount of stuff I can do - I can help diagnose, troubleshoot, and theorize fixes. I don't actually get to reprogram the handler, rip out and replace the guts, use the winch to lift heavy things, and actually fix my tools. On one hand, there's a little bit of "it's my problem but it's not my fault" going through my head telling me that I shouldn't be overly concerned about how this looks aside from my project deadlines being pushed out by a week. On the other hand, I need to figure out how much of this is preventable and institute appropriate measures. Or at least help by providing a compiled listing of how we manged to fix various equipment woes.
Some days, I'm pretty zen about things. This week, I was not so zen. I threw a bit of a hissy fit at one point when a production lot got loaded on the tool I'd put down for breaking wafers, just as I went in the fab to run a handling check. We have a computer tracking system that will disable lots (a batch of stuff to process) from being tracked into a tool if that equipment is down. Well. Everyone in the whole building, I thought, was aware that I'd planned to run handling tests tuesday morning. Everyone but the guy who loads the tool apparently. His supervisor knew, his boss knew, their bosses knew, my boss knew, my boss's boss knew. The 35 people packed into our 15 minute morning meeting where we prioritize things like this knew. But the little guy? Apparently no one told him. (I didn't because I'm supposed to tell the Lead, which I did. The Lead then tells whomever has been assigned to the area that day which can be up to 4 people and can vary from day to day.) And then the computer tracking system, 4 minutes after I put the equipment down, flagged the tool for a regular maintenance event and put it in a state that allows trackins. Gah!
The combination of the two events (lack of communication, change in equipment status) meant that when I showed up to run a test, someone had just started a 3 hour run. I unloaded it, yeah, but then I had to write up a rework plan, and by the time I got the first test started, it was time to go to the dentist. So the engineer who volunteered to watch the tool while I got my teeth cleaned was the one who found the problem. I'm glad the problem was found, but I kind of wish it was me who found it. Not enough to reschedule the dentist appt at the last minute, but still. Of course, then after fixing the problem, the tool still needed the regular maintenance work, then it devised a new and more troublesome way to break wafers so it's still down.
Then the other tool like this one had a little bit of a water-on-the-floor-next-to-high-voltage incident. It didn't take the tool down or cause electrocution, but did require cleanup time. A whole different tool went down for a different handling problem, then when it came back up, went down for a vacuum problem...just when I'd gone into the fab to run an experimental lot. My fourth and final tool is only partially released to production, but has been down for weeks now because we have been unable to find the source of a leak. It turns out that they didn't ever do a leak back rate on this chamber (I ass.u.me.d that they had.) Then I ran one and the bad chamber leaked up almost 2 decades higher than the other two chambers and I still got people asking if that was a problem. Yes! Yes it is. E-4 torr is not acceptable vacuum when it should be E-7 or even E-8.
So. Hisssy fit city. I did better with that today.
To turn that frown upside down:
Good: I have beautiful new tags to put on my glasswork.
Bad: I get to spend the evening at Kink.os.
Good: People seem to like having the professional looking tags and I like doing that little touch extra to make the whole package work.
Bad: I ran out of tags and sent out a bunch of stuff without them.
Good: I have no cavities and I like my dentist.
Bad: I immediately got meat stuck between my teeth after they cleaned them all up for me.
Good: The stuff with my equipment is not my fault.
Bad: The stuff with my equipment is my responsibility.
Good: Our company has pulled in more orders. Our stock price went up. I still have a job for the forseeable future.
Good: I have been selling enough glass to afford to make more.
Good: I think I found the good berillium green glass color that I've been turning the interwebs upside down to find. Just in case it's not the right one, I bought some backup color that looks a lot like it from the color chips. And it should all be here friday.
Some days, I'm pretty zen about things. This week, I was not so zen. I threw a bit of a hissy fit at one point when a production lot got loaded on the tool I'd put down for breaking wafers, just as I went in the fab to run a handling check. We have a computer tracking system that will disable lots (a batch of stuff to process) from being tracked into a tool if that equipment is down. Well. Everyone in the whole building, I thought, was aware that I'd planned to run handling tests tuesday morning. Everyone but the guy who loads the tool apparently. His supervisor knew, his boss knew, their bosses knew, my boss knew, my boss's boss knew. The 35 people packed into our 15 minute morning meeting where we prioritize things like this knew. But the little guy? Apparently no one told him. (I didn't because I'm supposed to tell the Lead, which I did. The Lead then tells whomever has been assigned to the area that day which can be up to 4 people and can vary from day to day.) And then the computer tracking system, 4 minutes after I put the equipment down, flagged the tool for a regular maintenance event and put it in a state that allows trackins. Gah!
The combination of the two events (lack of communication, change in equipment status) meant that when I showed up to run a test, someone had just started a 3 hour run. I unloaded it, yeah, but then I had to write up a rework plan, and by the time I got the first test started, it was time to go to the dentist. So the engineer who volunteered to watch the tool while I got my teeth cleaned was the one who found the problem. I'm glad the problem was found, but I kind of wish it was me who found it. Not enough to reschedule the dentist appt at the last minute, but still. Of course, then after fixing the problem, the tool still needed the regular maintenance work, then it devised a new and more troublesome way to break wafers so it's still down.
Then the other tool like this one had a little bit of a water-on-the-floor-next-to-high-voltage incident. It didn't take the tool down or cause electrocution, but did require cleanup time. A whole different tool went down for a different handling problem, then when it came back up, went down for a vacuum problem...just when I'd gone into the fab to run an experimental lot. My fourth and final tool is only partially released to production, but has been down for weeks now because we have been unable to find the source of a leak. It turns out that they didn't ever do a leak back rate on this chamber (I ass.u.me.d that they had.) Then I ran one and the bad chamber leaked up almost 2 decades higher than the other two chambers and I still got people asking if that was a problem. Yes! Yes it is. E-4 torr is not acceptable vacuum when it should be E-7 or even E-8.
So. Hisssy fit city. I did better with that today.
To turn that frown upside down:
Good: I have beautiful new tags to put on my glasswork.
Bad: I get to spend the evening at Kink.os.
Good: People seem to like having the professional looking tags and I like doing that little touch extra to make the whole package work.
Bad: I ran out of tags and sent out a bunch of stuff without them.
Good: I have no cavities and I like my dentist.
Bad: I immediately got meat stuck between my teeth after they cleaned them all up for me.
Good: The stuff with my equipment is not my fault.
Bad: The stuff with my equipment is my responsibility.
Good: Our company has pulled in more orders. Our stock price went up. I still have a job for the forseeable future.
Good: I have been selling enough glass to afford to make more.
Good: I think I found the good berillium green glass color that I've been turning the interwebs upside down to find. Just in case it's not the right one, I bought some backup color that looks a lot like it from the color chips. And it should all be here friday.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Pumpkin Mojo
I've been having issues finding someone to make stems for my glass pumpkins who bothers to show up. I have orders to fill so I wound up hiring the studio manager to help me out and it went pretty well, although I was frustrated by not having my mojo going on right away. The mojo is all about having the heat in the right place at the right time. The room temperature matters as does the color choice of the pumpkin. I did ok, but not great. I think I made some good looking gourds, but they weren't as big as I was going for and they took longer to futz with than usual - although I did deliberately make some of them smaller for a lower price point.
Actually, it was a miracle I got there at all. My 3rd stage alarm - the beeper - didn't go off because the switch was only *mostly* on, and I slept until 11:45 but I was supposed to be there at 11. Whoops! I got there a little after 1 and set up a bazillion colors - most of them part of an orange blend - because sight unseen, people ask for orange pumpkins. I like other colors better. I managed to make a slick black one with an orange stem. I want to see how it looks when cooled off. I'll post pictures when I get them picked up.
Good things today:
Off to finish painting the shelf, remount the secretary door, and read a book from the TBR mountain range. (Yes, C, I did steal that phrase from you!)
Actually, it was a miracle I got there at all. My 3rd stage alarm - the beeper - didn't go off because the switch was only *mostly* on, and I slept until 11:45 but I was supposed to be there at 11. Whoops! I got there a little after 1 and set up a bazillion colors - most of them part of an orange blend - because sight unseen, people ask for orange pumpkins. I like other colors better. I managed to make a slick black one with an orange stem. I want to see how it looks when cooled off. I'll post pictures when I get them picked up.
Good things today:
- My uncle takes care of my grandma (his and my dad's mom) and deals with her finances. He just sent a lovely update with pictures and things are going as expected.
- Yay! I got the pumpkins done! Hopefully these will be enough of the right thing to fill the christmas orders I already have.
- I'm liking the new dining room layout. It's not done, but the hard things are done, as are the pesky things like painting, so it's already more relaxing. And I still have energy today.
- I've been reading some lovely threads on the book club board - so many I can't keep up - but someone posted about thanksgiving and I realized I talked a lot about thanksgiving but not a lot about what I'm thankful for. As the online book club is is the source of most of my Left Coast friends, I'm very thankful for the interwebs that let me meet new friends and keep the old.
Off to finish painting the shelf, remount the secretary door, and read a book from the TBR mountain range. (Yes, C, I did steal that phrase from you!)
Round like a Record
I still do better with external deadlines than internal ones, despite making lists and giving myself motivational speeches. This seems not restricted to just me, I'm happy to hear, as one friend got her lovely handmade table finished in the nick of time for Thanksgiving. I've been meaning to do a lot of stuff around the condo, but it all requires both effort and coordination because there are prerequisites for each of them that also require effort and coordination. And instead, I've been reading or goofing off, or traveling. But the combination of acupuncture giving me more energy, a desperate desire to avoid dealing with the bills, and a cookie party coming up in 2 weeks that requires a tidy and very clean dining room... and boy did I get busy. And inspired - while working on some things, I get ideas for other things. For me, a project day is an all or nothing kind of thing.
I wanted to paint the baseboards of the dining room to match the wall color. They had some drips of paint on them and looked bad. (They'll be replaced early next year, but still, it bothers me and I wanted it fixed.) How hard could this be? The paint is still in the dining room. But in order to do the job, I had to move furniture, including my huge 4x4 grid with doors and drawers affair that I use to store heavy paperwork out of sight. It weighs a TON. It does not slide. Unless it has teflon pads under the feet, which I bought about 10 months ago and never attached because I thought it was a 2 woman job to lift the behemoth even a little. On my own I could lift it about a sixteenth of an inch. Oh, and it was covered with about 40 decorative items I didn't have a place for. And kind of still don't.
Looking around for something to prop one end on while I attached the teflon skids to the bottom of 8 legs, and realizing that I couldn't lift it high enough or find something that wouldn't get crushed or injure my shelf in the process, I had an epiphany and got the car jack from my hatch. (Mazda has good designers and put it in a side pocket so I didn't have to lift stuff out to get to it.) One jack and a block of wood later, the shelf assembly was mobile. I also washed underneath it so I wouldn't trap anything sharp in the skids, and washed the baseboards. I had to do something similar to the secretary on the adjacent wall but it didn't need the jack. Then after cleaning the floor again, I swapped the shelves and I like it. While swapping them, I noticed the backing was gapping and that I could fix it, so I had an interlude with the staple gun. With the shelves pulled away from the wall, I was able to finish painting the baseboards and do some other touchups.
While retrieving the staple gun, I walked by my lumber stash and realized that a shelf with hooks that was useless on my patio might work really well in my bathroom if I shave a little off the sides. I've been thinking about a solution that doesn't require $200 spent at restoration hardware for the funky towel rack I'd prefer. But it was too late to haul out the circ saw so I cleaned it and marked it up to cut tomorrow. I'm going to paint it with the remaining baseboard paint which will be a fun orange going on a lime green wall. I'm not sure what to do with the corroded brass hooks - I got the corrosion off with fresh squeezed lime juice and salt - but they don't look good. Maybe I can spray paint them. Anyhow, it'll be a place to stash the extra TP and hang up visitor towels.
Since I was on a woodworking kick, I also glued up the door on the secretary that was falling apart at the hinge so it doesn't break irretrievably. I have to let it dry overnight and re-drill some holes, but it'll be much sturdier.
I also had to move other stuff out of the way and cleaned all the glass and pottery that had been stashed on top of the behemoth to get it out of the way. So that all got washed with ammonia and most of it got put somewhere else or boxed back up for later. The things I need to take pictures of went back on top. I took all last year's candy out of the candy jar, pitched it, and replaced it with new stuff in a cleaned jar.
I cleaned up after myself (no mean feat with all the glass and tools and various art pieces and displaced stuff laying about that required undoing months of indecision), doing a few other small projects on the way, fixing broken stuff. Of course now it's 3am and I have to get up at 10. Which isn't so bad. But I've been going since 2pm. Actually noon if you count the glass color inventory and assessment I did, in preparation for making pumpkins tomorrow. I am glad about the secretary though, I've needed to fix that since my parents let me run off with it several years ago.
So this is what I'm like when I have energy. Productive, but spinning around and just going flat out for 12+ hours, adding project onto project. I enjoyed myself even if I did listen to the same HGTV shows twice. And this is what scares me off starting projects when I don't have energy - I ALWAYS add some new task that seems critical at the time until I get in so far that I have to finish to get out. And all too often just the thought of a third of what I did today is enough to make me take a nap. This acupuncturist seems to be helping more than the last two, so maybe I'll have a few more days like this. If I can coincide them with my kitchen reno, all will be well.
I wanted to paint the baseboards of the dining room to match the wall color. They had some drips of paint on them and looked bad. (They'll be replaced early next year, but still, it bothers me and I wanted it fixed.) How hard could this be? The paint is still in the dining room. But in order to do the job, I had to move furniture, including my huge 4x4 grid with doors and drawers affair that I use to store heavy paperwork out of sight. It weighs a TON. It does not slide. Unless it has teflon pads under the feet, which I bought about 10 months ago and never attached because I thought it was a 2 woman job to lift the behemoth even a little. On my own I could lift it about a sixteenth of an inch. Oh, and it was covered with about 40 decorative items I didn't have a place for. And kind of still don't.
Looking around for something to prop one end on while I attached the teflon skids to the bottom of 8 legs, and realizing that I couldn't lift it high enough or find something that wouldn't get crushed or injure my shelf in the process, I had an epiphany and got the car jack from my hatch. (Mazda has good designers and put it in a side pocket so I didn't have to lift stuff out to get to it.) One jack and a block of wood later, the shelf assembly was mobile. I also washed underneath it so I wouldn't trap anything sharp in the skids, and washed the baseboards. I had to do something similar to the secretary on the adjacent wall but it didn't need the jack. Then after cleaning the floor again, I swapped the shelves and I like it. While swapping them, I noticed the backing was gapping and that I could fix it, so I had an interlude with the staple gun. With the shelves pulled away from the wall, I was able to finish painting the baseboards and do some other touchups.
While retrieving the staple gun, I walked by my lumber stash and realized that a shelf with hooks that was useless on my patio might work really well in my bathroom if I shave a little off the sides. I've been thinking about a solution that doesn't require $200 spent at restoration hardware for the funky towel rack I'd prefer. But it was too late to haul out the circ saw so I cleaned it and marked it up to cut tomorrow. I'm going to paint it with the remaining baseboard paint which will be a fun orange going on a lime green wall. I'm not sure what to do with the corroded brass hooks - I got the corrosion off with fresh squeezed lime juice and salt - but they don't look good. Maybe I can spray paint them. Anyhow, it'll be a place to stash the extra TP and hang up visitor towels.
Since I was on a woodworking kick, I also glued up the door on the secretary that was falling apart at the hinge so it doesn't break irretrievably. I have to let it dry overnight and re-drill some holes, but it'll be much sturdier.
I also had to move other stuff out of the way and cleaned all the glass and pottery that had been stashed on top of the behemoth to get it out of the way. So that all got washed with ammonia and most of it got put somewhere else or boxed back up for later. The things I need to take pictures of went back on top. I took all last year's candy out of the candy jar, pitched it, and replaced it with new stuff in a cleaned jar.
I cleaned up after myself (no mean feat with all the glass and tools and various art pieces and displaced stuff laying about that required undoing months of indecision), doing a few other small projects on the way, fixing broken stuff. Of course now it's 3am and I have to get up at 10. Which isn't so bad. But I've been going since 2pm. Actually noon if you count the glass color inventory and assessment I did, in preparation for making pumpkins tomorrow. I am glad about the secretary though, I've needed to fix that since my parents let me run off with it several years ago.
So this is what I'm like when I have energy. Productive, but spinning around and just going flat out for 12+ hours, adding project onto project. I enjoyed myself even if I did listen to the same HGTV shows twice. And this is what scares me off starting projects when I don't have energy - I ALWAYS add some new task that seems critical at the time until I get in so far that I have to finish to get out. And all too often just the thought of a third of what I did today is enough to make me take a nap. This acupuncturist seems to be helping more than the last two, so maybe I'll have a few more days like this. If I can coincide them with my kitchen reno, all will be well.
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