Merry Christmas!

I wish everyone a wonderful Christmas, and hope that you all get your own "Red Ryder carbine action, 200 shot range model air rifle," whatever it may be.

Congratulations Todd and Jackie!!

Over this past weekend my brother Todd got married. December 16, 2006 was the date. The ceremony was at Prince of Peace church in Burnsville and the reception was at The Wilds in Prior Lake. I think it's safe to say that a good time was had by all. I'm not much for giving a speech but there was a few things that I'd like to tell the bride and groom. So I figured that this might be the best avenue since I know that at least one of them reads my little corner of the interweb.

Dear Todd and Jackie,

Congratulations! I'd just like the two of you to think about the day for a while. All of those people that came to share your special day were there because they love you. Just remember that. It's not about how much stuff you get or how much money you got, but how much love you give and receive. I can guarantee that most of the people that came to your wedding got the invite and said 'great, now I gotta buy a present, and right before Christmas too.' Then they thought about it and said, 'well it's for two people that I love so it's not so bad.'

Love isn't about how much you get it's about how much you GIVE. To love is to sacrifice. If you love someone you'll sacrifice something to make them happy. I just want the two of you to remember that from time to time. It's easy to get caught up in the Christmas season, and all the stuff you'll get but that's not what it's about. Everyone that came on Saturday loves you. You love each other, and I love you.

-The older brother

"The Last Stop"

Well here it is. The finished product. My Dad wanted to name the bar "The Last Stop" so when we where up in Nisswa they bought a print at a gallery and had the artist draw on the glass and call it "The Last Stop." Pretty neat, eh.




In this last picture you can catch the reflection of the ink from the pen on the glass of the print.

Now everyone's got to come over and have a drink.

Short work week? No matter.

My week was pretty slow. We had work for every day but I was done at 3pm on Mon, Tues, & Wed. Then Thurs I was done at noon, and today at 9am. So Thursday and today I went down and helped Todd crank out some doors at the shop. Thursday afternoon I went over to the finishing side and checked out the rents bar. It looks fricken sweet! I throw up some pics of the finished product next week sometime.

I ended up talking to Jeff, the finisher about wood floors and I lined up a side job for today and next week. I installed Austrailian Cyprus in his new addition, an office, and next week I'll be putting a border in his new living room. It will border the carpet and tile areas. I will post pics of that too when it's done. Anyway, I ended up making as much on those two side deals as I did for my whole last weeks paycheck! I should just go off on my own.....eh, maybe not. The housing market sucks, maybe I'll wait it out. If anyonw wants to increase the resale value of their house, let me know. I'll most likely have some time on my hands for the next couple months. Stupid winter!

Bring on the ice fishing!

Peace out, fawkers!

Wish List 'ala' Corey

Amazon.com

Nisswa!

After stuffing ourselves to the gills on Thanksgiving, Mel and I decided to head up to Nisswa, MN with my parents and my Brother and his fiance. Every year on the day after Thanksgiving the town of Nisswa lights up for Christmas. The whole town is decorated in lights. They have carolers, bon fires, vender's with food, and fireworks! It's quite the good time.

We stayed at Daggets Resort in Crosslake, MN about 15 mins from Nisswa. The place was huge. Its actually a time share that they rent out when no ones using it. There was a full kitchen, living room, three bedrooms, two baths, fireplace, and washer and dryer. So the 6 of us were quite comfortable.

On Friday night we tried to eat at Zorbaz, in Crosslake. We were all very excited because Zorbaz pizza is some of the best around. Well, when we got there, we walked in and found that they were doing some remodeling in the basement, thought nothing of it and ordered our food. When our food arrived we all dug in. I was the first to notice that something was a miss. It tasted a little funny, almost mint like. What could it be. Well, they were varnishing some wood in the lower level of the restaurant and the over spray had gotten into all of the dough for the pizza. That wasn't mint it was varnish! Needless to say we got our money back and headed to Nisswa for the lights. There were thousands of people there for this night. We tried to do some shopping but the stores where packed. We went into the art gallery of wildlife artist, Jerry Raedeke. We got to meet him and my parents purchased one of his prints. It was an Artist Proof and he actually drew a little scene on the glass that went along with the print, right in front of us. Cool! A one of a kind!
We made our way up to Walker, MN on Saturday. We spend the good part of the day up there doing a lot of Christmas shopping. We checked out Reeds which is a pretty cool sportsman store. Then walked up and down Main St, going in and out of all the shops.

Saturday night we tried Zorbaz again. This time we went to the one on Gull Lake, and success! An outstanding pizza!

After getting most of our Christmas shopping done up north we headed home today. (Sunday) On the way home Mel and I decided that if we didn't get a Christmas tree today there would be no other suitable time to get one. So we flew home, unpacked the car and headed out to Hampton to cut down our very first real tree as a couple!

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, is an annual one-day holiday to give thanks (traditionally to God) for the things one has at the close of the harvest season. In the United States, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November, and in Canada it is celebrated on the second Monday in October. In the United Kingdom, Thanksgiving is another name for the Harvest festival, held in churches across the country on a relevant Sunday to mark the end of the local harvest, though it is not thought of as a major event (compared to Christmas or Easter) as it is in other parts of the world.

Be thankful for everything you have. Have a great day.

The rents bar

So last weekend I built the top for my parents bar. The weekend before my bros built the cabinets and doors and such. They built the bar out of rustic alder. It's a very inexpensive wood and it's easy to work with. Not to mention it looks fricken awesome! When my parents told me that they were going to build a bar for the basement I was on a pretty sweet job for work. The wood for the floor on this job was Ipe (Brazilian Walnut) It's a very dark very dense wood and it weighs about 6-7 lbs/sq foot. In comparison Oak only weighs about 2-3 lbs/sq. So anyway. I decided to take home the scraps from the job to make the top if they ever decided to go through with making the bar. Long story longer, I built the top last weekend. It's trimmed with a Maple bar rail and the back side has maple trim to match.

Here's the top after we wiped it down with some spirits.

Here's the whole thing

This is the corner of the bar. I installed the wood log cabin style.

This is the whole bar.

This is a little inlay that I put in the trim on the back side of the top.

First post

I decided that I might try my hand at this dumb blog thing too. Hear it is in all it's glory. The first of hopefully many posts at Sawdust & Axle Grease. Sounds like a bar. Maybe I'll own a bar and name it that at some point in my life. I'd drink at a place named that, but for now I'll just have to drink at home and post crap at this place named that.