Sawdust & Axle Grease

Update

2011-11-26T16:21:00.003-06:00

OK. So there's been a few things done. Got the heat working, which is a HUGE deal. Thanks Dad! Got the rest of the kitchen cabinets out. Got the insulation out of the soffits in the kitchen so that they can be removed. And the big thing is the new windows are here! I went and picked them up today. Making progress.

House project - "during renovation"

2011-11-17T22:09:00.006-06:00

OK. So there's been quite a bit of work done. All the carpet, pad, and tack strip has been removed. All of the particle board underlayment has been taken out. The "hardwood" in the kitchen dinette and foyer has been removed. In the above picture you can see the base cabinets have been removed as well.

Here, you can see the railing around the stair well has been taken out.

Another shot of the kitchen and dinette.

Here we've removed an old chimney chase. There is an old wood fireplace in the basement that must have been used to heat the house at some point. It is no longer needed so we made the closet full size again.

Dumpster in the garage. We were able to get it in the garage which was nice. We didn't want the neighbors filling it up with junk. We've got enough of our own stuff to fill it. Also, I can't thank Al, Melanie's dad, for all of his hard work and help thus far. It's great to have him around with all of his knowledge about this sort of stuff. I wouldn't have half of this done if it wasn't for him.

House project - "before pics"

2011-11-17T22:05:00.003-06:00

Kitchen

Kitchen and dinette

Living room

Foyer

Hall

House project - "before pics"

2011-11-17T21:58:00.003-06:00

Bathroom

"Master bedroom"

"Owens room"

"Play room"

Living room looking toward kitchen

House project.

2011-11-17T21:40:00.002-06:00

Melanie and I have bought a house!! It's a rambler built in 1971 located in our home town. We're very excited. It's a fixer upper, but we're up to the challenge. The plan is to completely gut the main level and renovate it. We'll be leaving the main structure, walls and such, but everything else will come out. It was a bank foreclosure and we got it for a great deal.

Mission trip 2010

2010-08-01T21:53:00.003-05:00

This year we took 7 kids and headed to Harlan Kentucky to work with SWAP ( Sharing With Appalachian People) This is an organization that repairs homes in the area. Shepherd of the Lake partnered with Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd from Bloomington and headed down. We left at 6:15 am on Sunday July 25th and made it to Louisville, KY for the first night. We shacked up at a local church and on Monday we headed out and made our way to Natural Bridge State Park. We spent a few hours there, had lunch, and started to meander through the mountains towards Harlan. We rolled into Harlan at about 5pm. Stopped at the local Wal-Mart for a couple of things and headed back up the hill to the SWAP camp.

The camp is at the top of Porcupine Mountain, 3000 ft above Harlan on Little Shepherd Road. The camp was built in 1969 as a logging camp, then it was used as a minimum security prison, then it was taken over by SWAP. The camp consists of 1 boys dorm, 1 girls dorm, a common building and a couple of other supply buildings.

Tuesday through Friday were work days. They looked something like this....

6:30 am - Wake up, pack lunches

7:00 am - Breakfast and clean-up

7:45 am - Morning devotional

8:00 am - Head for work sites

4:00 pm - Leave work site, return to location, shower and clean-up

6:00 pm - Dinner

7:00 pm - Evening session (Mon., Tues. and Fri.)

8:30 pm - Free time

10:30 pm - Lights out

Wednesday after work we headed into Harlan for a service at a local church and a pot luck dinner. Thursday we cut out of work a little early and went over to Martians Fork Lake to swim and have a dinner picnic. Then it was off to the Dairy Hut for some ice cream, or a Dairy Deluxe burger. Then an impromptu "dance party" in an empty parking lot. We parked the vans, kicked the doors open, and cranked up the tunes. The kids were able to burn off some energy.

Friday was our last work day. After busting our butts all week, Friday was met with energy and a we can do it attitude by everyone to try and get things wrapped up so that we could see the fruits of our labor.

Friday night we loaded up vans, cleaned dorms, and the leaders hit the sack at about midnight, only to wake up Saturday at 5:30 am to try and be on the road by 6:15 am.

Saturday was driving. Lots and lots of driving. We pulled into Cedar Falls, IA around 7:00pm. Set up shop at Nazareth Lutheran Church for the night. The leaders dumped the kids off at the local "mall" and then headed to Texas Roadhouse for some ribs and a time to share stories about the week with the other leaders. 10:30 pm we were back at the church. We set up a little candle lit recap in the basement youth area of the church and spent the evening going around the group, talking about the things that stood out and what we'll keep with us for the years to come. This wrapped up at 12:30 am. We sent everyone to bed, the Mark and I had one more thing to take care of. A "gift" if you will for the Good Shepherd kids. We had it with us from KY and we unpacked one of their vans, hid this item, and repacked everything on top of it, so that when they got back and started to unload everything they would find it. 2:00am Mark and I finally made it to "bed" and we were back up at 4:50 am to head out to the grocery store for some breakfast for everyone, gas for the van, and coffee for the leaders. We hit the road at 6:30am and made it back to Shepherd of the Lake during the 9:45 service this morning.

I was completely blown away by the ability of these kids to go into a trip like this not knowing anything about what to expect, and I heard from some of the other leaders that they thought that all of our kids had been on this trip before. They hit the ground running and far exceeded my expectations. I'm proud of all of them and am already looking forward to next years trip.

Update

2010-07-15T22:54:00.003-05:00

Well, having gotten a new camera, I've been trying to get as much use out of it as I can. I started a flickr.com account. Here's the link.

With the year having been half over by the time I got the camera, I started a 365-2010/11 in pictures. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it up for a year. Also I've got just over 5 months to learn the ins and out of the camera and photoshop before baby arrives in December. BTW I can't wait for December to get here!

P.L. Sunset

2010-07-04T14:04:00.003-05:00

Cameras

2010-07-02T15:31:00.002-05:00

Inspired by a photo of Pete's, in his 365/2010. I took this picture of my old Minolta, with my new Canon EOS Rebel T1i, or for those of you following along in Europe, the Canon 500D.

night time

2010-06-30T22:49:00.002-05:00

Night time shot with the new camera.

I want to go camping.

2010-05-17T21:58:00.001-05:00

I really want to go camping. I think it's time to plan some weekend getaways.

Fish

2010-05-07T17:41:00.002-05:00

31 inch Northern Pike, caught on Balsam Lake in Wisconsin. Caught 5-2-10

Grippy

2010-03-28T18:04:00.003-05:00

Ergon GC2-L

REI + 20% off + Dividends = unbeatable price on these!

Bling part 1

2010-03-19T16:45:00.002-05:00

My Origin 8 UNO saddle showed up today. I put it on Blue Thunder just so I could use it right away. I've got bigger and better plans for it, but I couldn't just let it sit around. And yes, I got brown on purpose.

Digital Macro

2010-03-16T20:44:00.001-05:00

If I can't ride I can at least wrench

2010-03-13T08:11:00.002-06:00

Me homemade work stand....yarrr...

something new

2010-02-25T14:50:00.004-06:00

I say if opportunity doesn't come knocking you gotta kick its door down and say WTF!

I'm seeking out some new opportunities. I'll keep you posted.

Also, Mel and I are going to Cancun in April!! A much needed vacation.

Time for an update..

2010-01-31T22:32:00.003-06:00

OK. There will be bigger and better updates coming soon, but for now you get this....

These are two albums that I haven't been able to stop listening to for the past 3 months.

And...

Arizona Mission Trip

2009-06-28T23:26:00.001-05:00

Here's the blog.

...more to come..

Uhhh......hello!

2009-05-30T08:09:00.002-05:00

Man it's been a long time. Well, I suppose I should update this thing. I've been keeping busy. Mel and I have been planning for our mission trip. We're heading to Phoenix, AZ at the end of June. We'll be going with two other adults and about 16 high schoolers to lead a VBS at a small church down there. We're very excited.

Melanie and I have also started to ride our bikes again! Aboot time, eh! She and I have been making laps around Cleary Lake and our neighbor hood. I've been riding on my days off. In my last three rides I've logged about 50 miles. Slowly but surely.

The Jeep lives again!

2009-03-10T22:48:00.002-05:00

After many nights in the garage, tinkering with the Jeep. I finally got the head gasket replaced. I also, ended up replacing the intake manifold. We cracked it while we were putting it back in on Saturday night. So Sunday was spent driving around to different junk yards looking for a replacement. We went to U-Pull in Rosemount. U-Pull in East Bethel. Then ended up getting one at Johns Auto in Blane.

I spent Saturday morning in the DMV getting current tabs for it. I never thought that the DMV could be as busy as it was on Saturday morning. I walked in at 10:30am and grabbed a number. I pulled number 35. I looked at what number they were on.....11. Damn. I didn't end up leaving until about 12:00. They closed at 11:30, but since I had a number they had to help me. One poor bastard grabbed a number, left for something and came back and they had passed his number by one, and they wouldn't help him. Sucks to be him.

I was off work today, so I was able to go and visit with my friend Josh, who I haven't seen in a long time. It was good to catch up. His kids are growing like weeds! We hung out in the garage and he showed me his buggy that he's working on. Then we went inside and watched some TV and played some Guitar Hero. The we went upstairs and played LEGOS with his son Cody. On the way home I decided to go get some dinner at Chipotle. I was driving down hwy 101/169 on my way to county road 18 and I went under an overpass, and found myself spinning out of control! I ended up gaining control enough to direct myself off the road into the ditch and back out, unscathed! I guess I found out the hard way that the roads where icy. I forgot how easily the short wheelbase of my Jeep can go out of control. I guess I'll be a little more careful from now on.

Kennedy Faith Brower

2009-02-09T22:55:00.006-06:00

With Grandpa

Born at 5:17pm 6 pounds 6 ounces. Congratulations Todd and Jackie.

Time to go 'Off the Grid'

2009-01-19T21:44:00.002-06:00

This is from the latest Beastie Boys album The Mix Up. I thought that 'The In Sound From Way Out' was great. The Mix Up is great-er-est!

I heart my CHOCOLATE Lab

2009-01-17T18:48:00.003-06:00

Summit turned 2 on Thursday and I just wanted to say I love her. There have been some that have said that the chocolate is the, lets see, how can I say this, "dumb" gene. I couldn't disagree more!

Puppies of all colours can potentially occur in the same litter. Colour is determined primarily by two genes. The first gene (the B locus) determines the density of the coat's pigment granules: dense granules result in a black coat, sparse ones give a chocolate coat. The second (E) locus determines whether the pigment is produced at all. A dog with the recessive e allele will produce little pigment and will be yellow regardless of its genotype at the B locus.^[11] Variations in numerous other genes control the subtler details of the coat's colouration, which in yellow Labs varies from white to light gold to a fox red.
(from Wikipedia)

Now having said that. I don't think that any of the lab colors are a lessor dog than the others. I think that they are all equally outstanding dogs. I just wish that the prejudice against the Chocolate would stop!

For those of you that were at our Christmas party and my 30th birthday party know that Summit was VERY well behaved. She has been socialized very well with other dogs and people. On the topic of hunting. It is my belief that they are all equal and that it's the TRAINING that determines how well they use their senses.

I love my Summit and can't imagine life without her.

Pen Trick Fail

2009-01-16T10:51:00.001-06:00

Work?

2009-01-08T14:53:00.002-06:00

What's that? We have seem to come to a stand still at work. Since the Monday before Christmas I've only put in 39 hours. OUCH! I don't know what's worse. Having a job but not working, or just not having a job. I suppose I could collect unemployment if they lay me off. That would at least be something. But evidently it cost the company less money to not lay off employees. If any of you know of someone looking for some work done send them my way. Not just floors. I know how to install base and crown moulding and stairs.

Now that I'm done complaining about work.... I had a birthday on Saturday. Thanks to everyone who came over despite the bad weather. I had a great time. Check out Mel's blog for the pics. That's about all for now.

What I'm listening to.

2009-01-03T16:17:00.001-06:00

Super awesome album.

Remember

2008-12-18T20:59:00.001-06:00

It's not about stuff.

A great cover of an even greater song.

2008-12-15T19:22:00.000-06:00

It's not Wednesday but he's got the hair....

2008-12-14T00:49:00.000-06:00

Top 5 Christmas movies

2008-12-08T23:17:00.002-06:00

Movies

5. White Christmas

4. Home Alone

3. Elf

2. Christmas Vacation

1. A Christmas Story

Cartoons

5. A Garfield Christmas

4. The Polar Express

3. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

2. How The Grinch Stole Christmas

1. A Charlie Brown Christmas

Amazon Wish List

2008-11-30T23:35:00.003-06:00

Here is my amazon wish list. Click.

From the makers of "Slow Dance Chubby"

2008-11-20T13:31:00.000-06:00

Tag. WTF!

2008-11-16T22:45:00.003-06:00

Evidently I've been tagged...whatever the hell that means...

These are the rules of this tag game.

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random thoughts about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know he or she has been tagged.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is posted.

This is the link to the tagger http://www.andersfamily-afinemess.blogspot.com/

Six random thoughts....
1. Contrary to popular belief. I am still a Jeep-a-holic. I still have a subscription to Crawl Magazine.
2. My garage is a disaster.
3. I do like my job, but I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.
4. My church thinks I'm responsible enough to be a youth leader.....HA!
5. If I had the time, I'd grill every meal.
6. I'm still thinking about joining the PLFD.......

I'm tagging Eric, Bryen, Mike, Aimee, Pete , and Ann. Mel was tagged by the same person who tagged me.

Camera

2008-11-10T14:59:00.004-06:00

We got a new camera recently and I was playing around with it today.

Congratulations Pete and Anne

2008-11-09T23:24:00.005-06:00

This weekend Mel and I journeyed 231 miles to Bryant, SD for Pete and Anne's wedding. It was a wonderful time. They got married in a little church that hadn't had a regular service in it since 1978. The reception followed in the town auditorium / gym. There was no heat in the church, but thank god it was a Lutheran service, so it was short.

Congratulations again you to. I wish you many years of happiness.

Here's some pics.This was our hotel. Ward's Store & Motel 3

The church.

Everyone huddling together to keep warm.

Pete and Anne

Kris, Mike, Me, Aimee, and Andrew.

Goofing around. Drinking a lot of Spotted Cow......mmmmmm..

And one for Mikey. Notice the name of the store in the background. I thought it was funny...

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T16:19:00.004-05:00

Go Wild!

It's hip-hop punk, yo!

2008-10-28T21:19:00.002-05:00

It's Hilarious!!

An update in pictures

2008-10-07T20:23:00.005-05:00

So.... I went out and bought one of these...

...and some of these...

I went here...

...to hunt for these...

I ended up with.....

...that's right. Nothing. It was still fun though. I just think it's been to warm this year and the birds haven't started to migrate yet. I could be totally off base too. Maybe there just are no birds around any more. Who knows. Good thing it's a fairly long season.

Little update

2008-09-25T22:00:00.002-05:00

Well, I've been pretty busy lately. Work and side jobs and other activities. I recently did a floor for a co-worker of Mel's. It turned out really nice. They live in a "slab on grade" town home. So it was a floating floor. It was a character grade maple. I went over on a Saturday and removed all the base boards and tore out the carpet and pad, and was done by 10:30am. I would have started installing the floor but I had to be home in time to go to a wedding at 2:00pm. I went back on Sunday to finish the floor. I was finished installing and putting the base back on by about 12:30pm. It was, all in all, an "easy" job.

Duck season opens on October 4th. I'll be going up to my father in laws cabin for opener this year with, by brother in law, Brian. I'm pretty excited about that. I used some of the money that I got from the side job to buy a shot gun. Can't wait to use it. Todd and I went over to Al's and cleaned out is stock of Goose silhouettes. There were 250 decoys that he gave us. He also gave us a duck boat. It just needs a little work. If we can't fix it up we'll just scrap it, so no loss.

I am also in the processes of finishing up two canoe paddles for a silent auction. One of Mel's old co workers, works at a school in Shakopee. Each class got a theme for the auction. Their theme was "the outdoors." So they asked me to make some paddles. I was off work today so I spent the majority of the day working on them. I've almost got them finished. I'll post some pictures when they're done.

I finished trimming out our cabinets today as well. I had some weired gaps under the toe kicks from the old cabinets. When the house was built they installed the flooring after the cabinets were installed. When we replaced the cabinets the new toe kicks ended up being deeper than the old ones so they didn't cover the flooring like the old ones. I had to make the base shoe a little bigger so that it covered. It's nice to have that done.....finally.

Priceless

2008-09-19T15:18:00.003-05:00

This is my favorite commercial. I think it's HI-larious.

State Fair '08

2008-09-01T22:42:00.005-05:00

SPAM for breakfast....

Mega Pronto Pup

Deep fried Oreo's.

Cheese curds. The greatest fair food EVAR!!

Mutha fawkin fish Police!!

BUSTED!!! For being an A..hole.

New chopper....HA!!!

Another paddle

2008-08-20T15:49:00.003-05:00

I just finished a paddle for Mel. This one is mostly Red Cedar. It came out weighing less than the one I made for myself, so I'm really happy with it. Three coats of Spar Varnish, and it's nice and shinny, too.

Here's some pics.

Random Picture

2008-08-17T21:21:00.001-05:00

For Sale

2008-07-31T21:05:00.003-05:00

CANOE PADDLES!

When Mel and I were in St. Croix State Park, we sat in on a demonstration on how to make a bent shaft canoe paddle. It was a very good demonstration and the instructor was very nice. He let me take pictures and measurements, and even handed out a card with measurements on it. He encouraged us to try to make them at home.

So I did. Here's what I made.

If any of you canoe and want a custom made paddle I would love to make one. They cost on average $100.00 at the stores (REI, Gander MTN, Duluth Pack, etc) Cost would be negotiable.

I made the paddle of Pine and Cedar. I could make it any way someone would want. All pine, all cedar. More stripes, less stripes, no stripes. The one in the picture is my first attempt. I fiber glassed half of the blade for strength and abrasion resistance. I think on the next one I'll just add an epoxy resin tip to the blade. I think that would be more than enough and would be easier.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share. If any of you know someone in the market. Send them my way.

Fishing and Severe weather

2008-06-15T22:22:00.004-05:00

This weekend Todd and I went to my father-in-laws cabin for a Bass fishing tournament. It's just a little made up tournament between friends. We all toss in 20 bucks and fish for the money and bragging rights.

Friday.
Todd and I left my house at about 8:45am. We got to the cabin just before noon. It was windy. White caps on the lake and a constant 30 mph wind. So no fishing. We just hung out and as more people arrived, the wind started to die off. By dinner time the wind had calmed down enough for a bon fire.

Saturday.
4:00 am. Up. Dressed. 4:30 drive to the launch. Put boat in water. Drive boat to Al's dock. 5:00 am. GO!! Todd and I took off only to watch everyone else in their fancy new and fast boats blast past us. So I told Todd that we may as well head to the farthest point and work our way back. That's what we did. We headed to the adjoining lake and got two fish in the live well right away. Off to a good start. Worked our way back to the main lake and hit our next spot. Boom. Todd catches a 20" walleye on a bass jig.

By 8:00 am we had our 6 fish + 1 walleye, and we were off to measure up and clear some space in Todd's live well (an old cooler with an air-rator suctioned to the bottom). We found Al and measured our fish, took off for the cabin to put the walleye in the live box at the dock and take a potty break. Back out we go. By 12:00 pm, when the tournament had ended, Todd and I had a total on our 6 biggest fish of 88 1/4 inches. I thought we were doing pretty good. We loaded up the boat and headed back to the cabin. We came in 4th out of 5 teams. The winning team's 6 fish measured 105 inches.

Saturday afternoon.
Lunch and a nap. A few beers, and it's time for a fish fry. After dinner, everyone decided to head back out and hit the evening bite. 6:30 pm boat's in the water. Headed to the first spot and noticed that there was a pretty heavy cloud headed our way. We didn't think any thing of it. We thought maybe we'd get a sprinkle. About 7:15 I turned and looked at the sky and noticed that the cloud had turned into a pretty significant wall cloud, but it was off quite a ways yet. The sun was still out and Greg was still fishing next to us.

7:30ish. I look at the sky again and see that it has moved closer and that there was now thunder and lightning. Todd says, "I'm ready when your ready." I say, "lets go then." Off we go. The ride in Todd's boat is not fast but I figured we'd have a chance to at least get to the launch before the rain. Wrong! We got about half way to the launch and I looked up and the cloud had caught up to us and I could see that it was moving faster than us. I then turned and looked back to see if Greg had left yet. I didn't see him. Then I looked forward again and he was in front of us. I then looked back across the lake and I could see the wind coming. Turned back around and we hit Greg's wake. Soaked! Then the rain came. It wasn't raining that hard, but when the wind hit, it was blowing so hard that it was actually sucking water off the lake and blowing it at us. The waves would only make it so high and the wind just ripped them apart. We were heading straight for the dock, and I told Todd to just beach it. He came in full throttle and turned the key off at the end of the dock and we still slammed into the side of it. The wind blew us off our forward course that quick. I would estimate that the wind's were easily a constant 70 mph. We pulled the boat up on shore as best we could, and waited it out. It was short lived. Maybe 15 minutes. When we went back down to the boat it had filled with water. It was almost submerged in the back. We bailed as much as we could and then hand loaded it on the trailer. Got it out and pulled the plug. It drained for another 10 minutes.

In the mean time Al had drove to the access to make sure that we all got off the lake OK. He said that a tornado had touched down in New London, which was about 4 miles from us. He also said that he watched the funnel cloud forming over the lake from his cabin.

Once the boat had finished draining, we put the plug back in, backed it back into the water and reloaded it onto the trailer. Pulled it out and made our way back to the cabin. By the time we got back the sun was back out. I'd say the whole storm lasted 45 minutes tops. I changed clothes and had a beer or ten.

That was by far the most intense weather I have ever been in. At no time did I really feel my life was threatened, but looking back, had we stayed 5 minutes longer in that spot before leaving, things could have been a lot worse.

Mercy

2008-06-11T22:21:00.003-05:00

mer - cy [mur-see]

-noun

-compassionate or kindly forbearance shown toward an offender, an enemy, or other person in one's power; compassion, pity, or benevolence

-an act of kindness, compassion, or favor

"It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' for I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

Go and be undignified. Associate with someone out of your comfort zone. Perform a random act of kindness. Speak positively. You'll be surprised at how good it will make you feel.

Ouch!!

2008-06-04T21:50:00.003-05:00

After watching this on Monday night. It's just more reason to think that hockey players are some of the toughest athletes around. Ryan Malone was the player that got hit, and he even came back to that game to play in the OT.

Detroit won tonight, by the way. They are the winners of Lord Stanley's Cup for 2008.

What I've been drinking

2008-05-21T16:48:00.002-05:00

Lakemaid beer is a limited release brew from August Schell Brewing Co. & Rapala. Brewed in Schell's old world tradition, this classic American lager is a crisp, clean, refreshing beer, specially brewed to capture the flavor of the fishing country where the legendary lakemaids swim. With a malt flavor like a soft summer breeze and the sparkle of hops that dances like sun on the water, this is the ice cold beer with a taste so good it proves that great fishermen never need to exaggerate.

Todd and I tasted this at the Sportshow in MPLS this year and we really liked it. I've only seen it at Marketplace Liquor in Savage. I think it's a really good beer. Under each cap tells you what you've caught. "Weeds." "Picked clean." "26lb Carp." etc.

I suggest that you pick some up while it's still available.

Random pictures

2008-05-17T20:14:00.003-05:00

It's been a while since a post, and even longer since I've talked about Jeeping. So, here are some pics of Jeeping. Enjoy

Nick

Weekend update

2008-05-04T21:57:00.006-05:00

Friday-

Worked till 6:30pm. Got home, and met up with one of my wave kids from a couple of years ago. He was at church last Wednesday for the closing ceremony and he wanted to get together on Friday. So when I got home I called him and we went bowling. We rolled 4 games then came back to my house and hung out. It was good to catch up with him, since I hadn't seen him since before he graduated.

Saturday-

Back to work. I worked for the better part of the day, trying to get a custom job ready for Monday morning. We made an 8' Mahogany circle for a dining room, and there was a mistake so we had to correct it.
It was made in quarters and as you can see in the picture, one of the sections is missing. Well, that's what we had to fix. Somehow when we installed all the sections, that one ended up being short. I don't know how it happened.

After putting that section in our jig, I came home and vegged on the couch until it was time to go get our drink on at the P.L. VFW. Since the smoking ban, it's actually nice to go out to the bar. All of the other bars in Prior Lake are dives, and the VFW is no exception. However, the have the cheapest drink prices.

Sunday-

Slept in!! It felt great!! Didn't even get dressed till noon. Finally made it over to Mom and Dads to finish up on the cabinet doors. Then we rode along with Mom and Dad to deliver some picture frame molding that Dad ran for someone that he works with. Made a pit stop at Von Hanson's Meats and had ourselves a BBQ. Made our way back over to Mom and Dads to pick up the doors. Got home and installed them, and finished installing the crown molding. Hopefully tomorrow is an easy day, cause I could use a little break.

We installed 3 custom jobs last week. Not only is it physically exhausting but it's mentally exhausting as well. Here are the other two jobs that we did. This one is a custom header that the homeowner wanted. Rather than the usually straight angle he decided that he wanted a little bendy thing.

This one is a curved nosing. The total length on it was just under 33 feet. This is just an opening to the lower level of this house. The stare case is in a completely different spot.

I love doing this kind of work.

A winter wonderland...

2008-04-26T11:08:00.003-05:00

...in spring? April 26Th and I wake up to this.....

Earlier this week it was 75 degrees. The ice finally went out on the lake last weekend, and I thought we were done with this stuff. What a bunch of crap.

Progress

2008-04-14T21:56:00.004-05:00

The kitchen is moving along swiftly now. Todd and Nick finished up and came over to install everything on Saturday. I have to say that they did a fantastic job. It really looks great. I couldn't be happier with it.

I spent most of the day Sunday putting on sanding sealer and polyurethane. I did some touch up tonight, and put on some of the crown molding. Mom offered up their garage to finish the doors, since mine is full of Jeep and old cabinets. I'll probably be bringing them over sometime this week. Todd will be coming over, probably tomorrow, to measure for the new counter top.

For fear of jinxing things. I'm NOT going to say that spring is finally hear. I'm NOT going to say that it was a really nice day out today. I'm also NOT going to say that it's supposed to be in the 60's this week and that it's aboot time. I will say that the job sites are a damn mess because of the melting snow and ice, and that I got stuck in the driveway of my job today. That was a treat.

Well, I've gone and babbled on about a bunch of crap that no one cares about. So, I'm off to bed.

What I'm listening too.

2008-04-07T22:02:00.004-05:00

Quick update

2008-04-02T21:00:00.003-05:00

On Easter, Mel's Grandma and Grandpa asked me to make them a stool for their entry way. Something they could sit on to put on their shoes. So, hear it is.
They wanted it unfinished because they want to finish it them selves.

I also finally got the mantle for the fireplace hung. That's only taken a month. Once I get some new batteries for the camera I'll put up some pictures of that. So basically that it. I get up, go to work, come home and go out to the garage and work on things like that. I do have to clean the garage though. The new cabinets will be coming soon. YAY!!!!

A good days work

2008-03-28T21:58:00.005-05:00

I got to install some custom medallions in a floor today. These are made by Oshkosh Designs, out of Wisconsin. They are CNC machined and sent to us. All I have to do is cut them into the floor. The quality of these are second to none. Not only do they send the medallions ready to install, but they also send a template to cut the floor and they send a pattern bit for the router. The only thing else they could do is install them for me.

Now I know that your thinking that a trained monkey could probably do this. However, I'm about the only one that my company trusts to do this right. Sad isn't it. These medallions only took 45 minutes to install. The rest of the day was spent repairing holes left in the floor from the old radiators, and cutting in 8 flush mount vents in the existing floor. That part took about 6 hours.

What I'm listening to.

2008-03-24T16:03:00.001-05:00

One of my top 5 favorite albums.

I can listen to this album over and over and I never get tired of it. It's that good.

Thanks Pete and Anne

2008-03-16T11:05:00.001-05:00

Thanks for the party. Mel and I had a fun time.

What I'm listening to

2008-03-14T16:02:00.003-05:00

Muse
Black Holes & Revelations

Fireplace update

2008-03-12T21:19:00.004-05:00

My buddy Jes came over tonight after work and re tucked the carpet. It looks great. I just have to find the time to make the mantle. Tomorrow night and Sunday are my only free days. I'm excited to get this project done.

Transformation

2008-03-11T22:40:00.009-05:00

Hear is what I've been working on. I started Sunday morning with this....and the pics are in order up to current.

I've spent a total of $7.89 on Sheetrock and stain. Everything else I had in the garage. I also know a carpet guy from work. I made him a cutting board so he owes me a favor. He'll be over latter this week to re tuck the carpet. All that's left is the mantle. Hopefully I'll have some time this weekend to tinker with it.

To Mel

2008-03-07T12:00:00.002-06:00

I think I need to take this opportunity to tell my wife how wonderful she is. She's been having a little trouble lately with work. Mainly the parents of the kids she teaches. They are being very difficult and very unrealistic. Their kids are, for the most part good kids, but, as kids do, they have trouble from time to time. Weather it be understanding the lessons or behavior or whatever.

When the teachers have to discipline or suggest that their kid is having trouble with learning something, the parents will immediately dismiss it and blame the teaching. Which is totally unfair.

So...I've said it before and I'll say it again. She is great at what she does. The parents have a hard time coming to terms that their kid might actually not be "perfect." Mel, you have the ability to make learning fun for these kids, and I know that it's true because of the stories you tell me. All the songs and little tricks you make up to help the kids remember things is amazing. If I had one teacher in all the years that I was in school that actually attempted to make what they were teaching fun. I know that I would have been a better student. Just remember, the good thing about being a teacher is that you only have to deal with this group for one year. Then it's all new parents, and kids.

Also, just remember that you kids on Wednesday nights look up to you and trust you, and will confide in you with probably more than their parents. That's because they know that your there to help them and not punish them. For me, the kids have actually helped me on my path, and I know that if you give it some more time your kids will do the same for you. In helping them find their path they'll in turn help you find yours. That's the way I've viewed things. Just know that something made you want to do this and I know it was for a reason greater than me. There is plenty of time for you to figure out your own journey while your helping your kids find theirs, and I'll be here to help you with whatever you need.

I love you.

Update time

2008-02-28T21:19:00.006-06:00

I suppose it's time to update.

I did actually finish the tile job. Here's some pictures.
We decided on a little bit darker grout. Mel didn't like it at first but she has come around.

I had to redo the toe kick on the vanity. So I decided to sheet the side and make it flush with the face frame. I also was able to trim it correctly and get rid of the stupid little toe kick "cap" the the builder used.

Here is the "before." This is the other bathroom. You can see that the base shoe going around the bottom of the vanity stops and there is a dumb "stop block" looking thing, then it continues under the toe kick.

Here is the "after." Now you can see that there is no more "stop block" and the base shoe is mitered like it should be.

Work is mega slow, so I've had some time to get this stuff done. I've also been framing some pictures I've had lying around the house. I've got a frame made for the leaf picture that we got from Mike and Aimee. It's HUGE!! It's going to be awesome though. I also finished up the coffee table that I made for my mother in-law for Christmas. I had it made and gave it to her unfinished, that way she could pick out a stain color that she would like. Since it was a little warmer out the last couple of days I got it all stained up, and now it just needs a couple coats of polyurethane.

I've been pretty lazy on the updates lately cause we got Dish and I've been so absorbed by Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe and being able to watch Wild and Gopher hockey, that I haven't wanted to even look at this computer. But I suppose I can still keep all of you up to date on the thrills of my day to day life.

The first

2008-02-12T21:32:00.007-06:00

Here are the progress pics of the first of three major updates to the house. This is the master bathroom.

There are the before and after shots. The tile we had was just plain white. And there was some cracks in the tile so I figured it was time to replace it. I also found a great deal on the new tile at the Home Depot. I'll probably grout it while I'm waiting for the Dish people to come on Saturday. Oh yeah, I'm getting dish. Giggity!

The tear out of the old tile sucked! It took most of the day, and was a HUGE mess. I think I'll have to make a withdrawal from the "assist bank" for the next bathroom.

I used an air chisel to tear the tile out but my poor little air compressor just couldn't keep up. I may have to swipe my compressor from work for the next one.

Any way, there it is. I'll post up finished pics when it's done.

a thought to live by

2008-02-11T21:07:00.000-06:00

"Wisdom is knowing I am nothing, Love is knowing I am everything, And between the two my life moves."

"I Am"

2008-02-08T22:35:00.000-06:00

The "I" that is me - you cannot see
You see only the form that you think is me.
This form that you see, will not always be;
but the "I" that is me - lives eternally.

No in between

2008-02-07T22:16:00.000-06:00

Why is there no in between? When I say that, I'm talking about how it seems like everything lately is going to extremes.

Bills: We have none.
Then we have all of them.

House projects: Nothing going on.
Now I'm building a kitchen and have new tile for the bathrooms.

Work: All week I get off at noon.
Today I worked till 7:00pm.

Work part 2: Everything has been going fine.
One little thing today, snowballed into a mountain of crap today and I spent almost a hour on the phone bitching at people and having people bitching at me. WTF!

On a side note. I'd like to publicly say that I have no love for vinyl floors or their installers. I dislike them a little more each time I have to tear out one of their floors. Vinyl is the "band-aid" of the flooring industry. Nobody actually says "Huh, I think I'll install a vinyl floor and leave it for the rest of the life of my house." NO! Inevitably, they get sick of how crappy it looks and they call us. Then I have to go in and remove the crappy band-aid. I call it a "band-aid" because usually during the building of a house the builder will run out of money and be looking for a "fix," or a way to save a few bucks. Enter, the vinyl floors. They look harmless enough from the top, but if you've ever had to remove them, especially if they are not on concrete. If it's on concrete, you get a scraper, and in no more than an hour your done. If it's on a sub floor, there will be literally thousands of little crown staples left stuck in the sub floor, that will need to be removed. You spend the rest of the day on your hands and knees pulling staples. They use the staples because they install a layer of 1/8" underlayment and then put the vinyl on it. I have no idea why. OK, OK. Long story longer, vinyl sucks, and I had to tear it out today and thats why I got into it with some of the office dorks at work today.

A week in review.

2008-02-01T23:01:00.000-06:00

POW! It's done! That's how fast it went. I was off two days last week cause I was sick. Only worked 27 hours. Poo. This week. Not so much. Almost 50 hours.

I reinstalled a floor that I installed about two weeks ago. Apparently the home owner decided on a different floor and didn't tell anyone. I installed 2 1/4" select red oak, and the home owner wanted 3 1/4 #2 Maple. Just a little difference. So, Russ, the job sup. had to tear the original floor out, and we came back and installed the "right" floor.

Church was pretty low key. We had a "coffee house" night. One of the band members came and played for us and we just hung out and talked, like at a coffee house...... It was pretty cool. I got to know the new director of senior high ministries and had a chance to talk with some of the other leaders about what kind of things we'd like to see happen with our group of kids.

Thursday night, Nick and I, well, mostly Nick. Got all of the parts cut out for my new cabinets. Next step is making face frames, I guess. Oh, if you don't know, we're getting a whole new kitchen. Yay!

This weekend we actually don't have anything going on. I can't believe it. Next Thursday Summit gets tied. No more "fertile Mertyl" for her.

Well this turned out to be a pretty lame update. Oh, apparently I have more than 2 readers. It would appear that I have a total of 7. 6 of which I know, and the 7th remains a mystery. 7th reader, reveal yourself, please.

Thank you, that is all.

Update.

2008-01-29T21:46:00.000-06:00

Well, after a couple of sick days last week, I've finally got some energy back. I still have this nagging cough, and a runny nose but I feel a whole lot better.

Last Saturday, Mel and I went down to Mankato, so that she could go to Hobby Lobby. That's a hell of a long drive for some yarn, but we made the best out of it. There is a Sheel's sporting goods store down there, so we went there too. On the way back we decided to take a detour through New Ulm. We drove down Main street and went into a little shop, then we decided to go find the Schell's brewery. We figured if nothing else we'd see if the gift shop was open.

After a drive through the whole town, we found it! Gift shop open 11-5. Kick ass! So we head in and see that they are still giving tours. There is one at 3pm. and 4pm. Since it was 3:30 we decided to check out the 4pm tour. It's an hour long, and talks a lot about the history of the family and brewery. At the end of the tour we headed to the tap room to "sample" some of their brews. All good I might add. The Snow Storm is lacking a little this year, but that's just my opinion. The tour was well worth the 3 bucks. I recommend it if your down that way.

Sunday found me and the boys (Mikey, Kris and Todd) in Todd's fish house for the whole day. 9 hours to be exact. The fishing was a little slow, but we did catch fish. Good thing Todd had some movies to watch. It was good company, OK fishing, and as usual, good beer.

Well that brings us up to date. It's already Tuesday, probably Wednesday when all 2 of you get around to reading this drivel, and it's really f-ing cold outside!

What I've been drinking....

2008-01-23T21:06:00.000-06:00

It's good when I'm sick.....I'm sick.

What to do......

2008-01-22T21:51:00.000-06:00

I've been working in the housing industry now for almost 3 years and one thing that I've come up with is, it's not very stable. When I got started, there was more work than there was people to do the work. Now, everything is so slow. The only thing keeping us afloat is remodels. It seams that people are willing to stick endless amounts of money into their existing houses, but when it comes to moving or building a new house, it's not happening.

That fact has got me thinking. What am I going to do next? I love the work that I do but the job security isn't really there and the job itself, is really taking its toll on my body. I've got a stiff back all the time, my knees hurt constantly. I've even got tendinitis in one of my knees. As age 30 approaches I find myself thinking more and more about what I could do next. I'd like to stay in this industry but in order to make any money you need to be in a trade long enough to be able to "prove" yourself. I've done that with my current trade. My company knows that I do good work and they recognize that by not cutting me when there is no work, and by giving me raises when there "isn't any money to be given." I'd like to stay with the company and maybe move into a sales position but I don't see the two current salesmen moving on anytime soon. In all actuality I don't see anyone above me moving on anytime soon. Therefore, I'm kind of stuck.

My brother tried having his own business but unfortunately he had to sell it off because it wasn't a steady enough "paycheck" to make it worth it. It makes me sad because I would have liked to see him succeed with it and it would have given me "hope" that maybe I could have gone off on my own, but I don't see that as an option now.

I do have faith, though, that an opportunity will present itself and I'll be able to move on and remain happy with my career choice. I am open to suggestions, too.

Poor Wild.

2008-01-18T22:25:00.000-06:00

I got to go to the Wild game tonight with my bro Todd. They played, and lost to the Anaheim Ducks. (4-2) As I was watching the teams warm up, I never realised how many players the Ducks have that I LOVE to HATE!

Lets go through the list......

Doug Weight. A player I remember from my sports cards collecting days. He was always a decent player, but seemed to have a bully attitude.

Rob Niedermayer. A player that I remember from the '03 playoffs. When the Wild lost to the Ducks.

Todd Bertuzzi. A bruiser from the '03 playoffs, who played for Vancouver. During a Vancouver-Colorado game, on March 8, 2004, Moore fought Matt Cooke in the first period. Late in the third period, Bertuzzi began following Moore down the ice and tried to start a fight. When Moore ignored him, Bertuzzi grabbed hold of Moore's jersey, and punched Moore in the side of the head from behind. Bertuzzi then pushed him down headfirst into the ice.
After lying on the ice for several minutes, Moore was removed on a stretcher. Moore suffered three fractured vertebrae in his neck, a grade three concussion, vertebral ligament damage, stretching of the brachial plexus nerves, and facial cuts.

Chris Pronger. One word. Goon.

Bertuzzi had two goals tonight against the Wild. Every time he or Pronger touched the puck, though, the crowd booed. The only redeeming part of the game was the Wild's two goals in the second period. They were at 10:43 and 10:47. 5 seconds apart! Awesome! Oh, and Boogaard played. There was only one fight, and it was a poor excuse for one, too.

Ah well, still a good time.

Ice Fishing Report.

2008-01-08T21:46:00.000-06:00

Slow.....

Went out on Prior Lake the weekend before new years.

Saturday, 12-29, with Eric, Zach, Eryn, and Liz. It was pretty eventful. We were shocked to find 16 inches of ice on the lake. After an hour of getting the kids set up to fish, they wanted to go home. So Eric took them home and came back with Zach. In that time I actually caught fish. I had about 6 or 8 bluegills. Nothing worth keeping, but still, at least I caught something.

Sunday, 12-30, I went out again on P.L. This time with my Dad, Eric and Uncle Dave. Dave was catching bluegills, and Dad and I each caught a Crappie. We only stayed out for about 2 hours.

This last weekend I went out to Carl's lake to Todd's permanent fish house. Which, by the way is coming together nicely. It's not done, but it's at least out of the wind and warm.

Friday night, 1-4, I got skunked. Not one fish. While right across the house from me Todd was bringing them up once every 5 mins or so.

Sunday night, 1-6, Mel and I went out to Todd's house again. This time I had a little better luck. I think I caught 5 or 6 Crappies. Todd spent the whole day out there and caught a bunch of Crappies and a Northern. To bad the Crappies are a little on the small side. They're good eatin'.

This weekend is the Sportsman's Show, at the St. Paul River Center. Maybe I'll be able to get some tips on what I might be doing wrong, or on what the fish are biting on, cause it's not been anything that I've been giving them.

What I've been working on

2007-12-27T21:52:00.001-06:00

I made these shadow boxes for Mel and I, Mom and Dad, and Al and Kathy. Rustic cherry with a glass door.

I made a coffee table for Pauline. Rift and Quartered red oak with "country" legs.

I also made three crosses. Two were rift and quartered white oak, and one was rustic maple. I forgot to take pictures of those though. Oops.

So that's what I've been busy doing lately. Now that their all done I need another project.....Maybe a kitchen...

"That's what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown"

2007-12-24T10:41:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas.

I'd say it's time for an update!

2007-12-18T22:44:00.001-06:00

I've been a little busy lately. That in combination with the projects I've been working on have all been Christmas presents, I haven't had much to talk about. So let's see....

I installed, sanded, and coated a floor for my parents neighbors. Had some help from Todd on the install and some help from a couple of guys from work on the sand/coat. It turned out fricken sweet!

I've been making wooden crosses for Christmas presents for a few people. (they don't read my blog) All the other stuff is top secrete till after Christmas. Then I'll have a full report on what I've been making.

Work is about to drive me off the deep end. The owner is a jack ass and half the employees don't have licenses or cars, so those of us who do have to cart them around. SUCKS!!!! They had their Holiday party last Friday but it was for "employees only." They said that we could bring our spouses but they didn't "buy" food for anyone but the employees so we'd have to pay for them. I thought that was pretty rude, so I didn't go. They the owner called me on Saturday morning to find out why I didn't come. WTF!!!1! I didn't come cause you all run the business like a bunch of damn commies!! So, the long of the short of it is....anyone know of a place where the housing market doesn't suck and I could get a job?

Well enough of that. I had to take Monday off to take care of my wife and so now I have to work on Saturday to make up for the hours I missed. Crappy but at the same time not. After Saturday, I'm off through Wednesday. My cousin Bryen is going to been in town from San Fran, for Christmas, so I'll get to seem him and the family on the 24th and then again on the 28th. We're having a Grill 'n' Chill at Eric and Holly's. Ah, just like old times. I can't wait. Eric, there is a list of things we'll have to do, you realise. Snowball the shed, blow up a grill, have a lot of beer, maple sausage, and of course, since we haven't seen B in a long time, ask him if he's broken any glass tables lately.....I think I might get punched for that last one.....

Well that'll have to do for now. Oh, if anyone wants we're going to the 11:00 pm service on Christmas eve, at our church. All are welcome to join us.

"That's a honey of a tree, Clark."

2007-11-26T22:33:00.000-06:00

"Dug it out of the ground myself."

My little giant ladder is extended all the way up and I'm 6 feet tall. I measured the tree while I was up there. 12 feet tall!! Bigger and better than last year!

Summit is doing good with it so far. She wanted to eat it yesterday but we put that thought right out of her head.

Happy Birthday

2007-11-22T10:27:00.000-06:00

To my blog. It turned one yesterday.

Sunrise

2007-11-15T16:22:00.001-06:00

There was an awesome sunrise the other morning. Here is the best my crappy camera could do.

Veterans Day

2007-11-11T09:23:00.000-06:00

Veterans Day is an American holiday honoring military veterans. Both a federal holiday and a state holiday in all states, it is celebrated on the same day as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day in other parts of the world, falling on November 11, the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I. (Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice.)

Veterans Day is largely intended to thank veterans for their service, to acknowledge that their contributions to United States national security are appreciated, and to underscore the fact that all those who served - not only those who died - have sacrificed and done their duty.

Be sure to thank a Vet.

"We ask God to go to work for us, but on earth we know that Gods work is truly our own." - JFK

Mel forgot one......

2007-10-22T22:46:00.000-05:00

Parker and his Uncle.

Ducks and Pheasants

2007-10-14T18:22:00.000-05:00

This weekend Todd and Mel and I took the dogs, Sadie and Summit up to Al and Kathy's cabin. Todd and I and Sadie did some duck hunting and then we took Mel and Summit and walked a field for some Pheasant. The ducks proved to be a little more plentiful this weekend. Actually they were just Coots and there was thousands of them on the lake. The Pheasants were a little more elusive. We only saw one hen, but it was still worth it to get Summit into the field. She did really good, even if she was just following Sadie.Here's another one for ya E. This time it's brats, potatoes, and Whiskey 7's.

One for Eric

2007-10-02T21:33:00.001-05:00

It's a grill-n-chill. Wisconsin style.

2 Chicken boobs, 1 Sirloin, 4 twice baked potatoes, and 1 fillet of salmon. I know, I know, it's on gas but it's all that was there.

Oh, and Captain Coke, in the glasses.

Just for Todd

2007-09-19T22:23:00.000-05:00

Here they are, Todd. Right out of the '70's. I think 3 of the doors lined up properly. The bottoms are all square, but they don't close right. They all bump into each other or the hinges on the door next to it. I'll have to take the ones that don't close all the way and just rip a little off with the table saw.

And you thought it would look like a soup kitchen. If anything it looks like a church basement.

If anyone's still wondering these are the cabinets that Todd and I made for my garage. The boxes and doors are cover sheets, and the frames are Oak, Maple, and Alder scraps. It's a hodge-podge.

Latest side job.

2007-09-17T22:41:00.000-05:00

Here's what I've been working on for the last couple of weeks or so. With installing it, scheduling the sanding and coating, and covering the floor, it's been pretty time consuming. But it has turned out to be my best work to date.

The floor is 4 inch rustic Walnut. It's been sanded and has two coats of oil based sealer on it. That's why it's so shiny. It will be getting two more coats of water based polyurethane, which will give it a satin finish.

The border in the living room is 3 boards wide, which makes it one foot wide in total. The center will be getting carpet.

The joints of the border are done "log cabin" or "herring bone." I chose that style because it believe that it is stronger than miters and I think that it fits the style of the house much better.

Thats 'bout it for now. I've got some cool stuff that I'm doing on Thursday and Friday, so until then.

What I have been drinking.

2007-09-10T18:06:00.001-05:00

Quick Update.

2007-09-04T21:18:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I wrote. So here's a snippet of what I've been up to.

*Works been super busy. Which is awesome since I'm in the housing industry.

*Been busy with side jobs.

*Did floors for Jacobs, Robin and Greg, and will be doing another one this weekend.

*Got a new nephew. Parker Mathew. He's just a little peanut. Oh, and I'm his only uncle. Poor guy, huh.

*Went to the Fair with Mel. Mmmmmmm......cheese curds.........

*Stupid Labor Day....summer's over now. poop.

*Summit's getting big, and she's all full of piss and vinegar. Destroying all of her toys, and I even caught her trying to take a bite out of my new table. She'll only do that once, trust me. But she's still a puppy so it's normal.

*Since buying the Tahoe, I've put 4000 miles on it and about 4 on my Jeep.

That's probably about it.... Pretty boring, eh?

O.K. then bye.

For Mel

2007-08-15T20:10:00.000-05:00

She's been telling me to post about this, so here it is....

This is the wooden valance that I made for our bedroom. It's made out of Hickory to match our bed. I used floor scraps from work, and finished it with one coat of oil based sanding sealing and three coats of water based polyurethane.

I built it to match the design of our head and foot boards.

Tables

2007-08-06T21:43:00.000-05:00

I've finally finished the new tables for our living room. I made a coffee table, two end tables, and a side table. They are made in Mission or "Shaker" style, and made of rustic Alder. I purchased plans for these tables before we moved into our house, and have finally got them done. I altered the plans a little to make them suit my needs and looks.

For a first project I think they turned out pretty nice. I had some help from Todd. He let me in the shop and helped with cutting and sizing the wood and with assembly. Thanks Todd!

The next project will be the fireplace. I've figured out a new mantle and I think we've decided on which wall treatment and hearth design we want to go with. Stay tuned!

Nick will be getting our other end tables and old leather recliner for his new house! Way to go Nick on the new house! Can't wait too see it!

Quick uptdate

2007-07-22T09:55:00.001-05:00

As you know, Mel and I went to Lake Bemidji State Park and did some camping with our friends. The new Tahoe did awesome on the trip, except for the A/C going out, again. Oh well.

It was pretty much back to work as usual, until Thursday. Glad this did NOT happen to me. One of my buddy's at work was cutting on the table saw and cut off the tips of two of his fingers on his left hand. His middle finger and ring finger, are now about 1/2 of an inch shorter. I talked to him on Friday and he said that he was at the hospital for 6 hours. He seemed to be in good spirits, but was mad at himself for doing something like this. He said that it wasn't an issue of using the saw wrong, it was just a freak accident.

As Mel said she went to the Wizard of OZ play in Eagan, on Wednesday and again on Friday. I ended up going with her on Friday, and to my surprise the play was excellent! There were a lot of scene changes that kind of made it long, but the sets were very well built. They also had a lot of people flying through the air, which I though was cool. Flying monkeys, the wicked witch, Dorothy in the tornado....

Well, that's about all I know for now.

Until next time...

New Ride!

2007-07-03T12:50:00.001-05:00

Here is the real reason that I needed to fit the Jeep in the garage. I picked it up last night and have been cleaning it since. I haven't washed the outside since it's going to rain, but the inside needed some serious attention.

It's a 1997 Chevy Tahoe LT. Leather, power seats, power windows, power locks, AM/FM/Cassette/CD, running boards, 40/60 split rear bench seat, tailgate instead of doors, etc....

The Jeep is no longer my daily driver. I know what your thinking. How's the mileage on that thing? Well, believe it or not, it's better than the Jeep. It gets about 17mpg and the Jeep was getting 12 to 15mpg. We'll also be able to keep some miles off of Mel's Jeep. We were piling them on pretty good over the winter with my Jeep not having any heat. So this will be our main auto for road trips, and just running around on the weekends. We're heading to Al's cabin with it this weekend and then to Bemidji with it next weekend. I might even see how it does towing my Jeep, for our next off roading adventure.

Garages! Part Deux

2007-07-01T16:31:00.000-05:00

Yes, that's correct. My Jeep is parked in my garage. No hell did not freeze over, and the Vikings won't win the super bowl this year, but my garage is.....I don't want to say "clean".....how about uncluttered enough, that I can fit the Jeep in there.

For the last month we've had the garage full of crap from a garage sale that we had in the beginning of June. We finally got sick of looking at it all so we loaded up the Liberty and dumped it off at the Goodwill. After lunch I did a bit of reorganizing, and WHAMMY!

There is still a lot of crap that I need to find a home for. I know that James wants the light box, and I've still got the tables in there. They'll be going back to my parents house. There's a few other random things, golf clubs, random pile of wood flooring, folding chairs. Speaking of golf clubs. If anyone wants them, let me know. There's one crappy driver, a decent 3 wood, and some decent irons. There to short for me, so they gotta go.

I'd eventually like to install one of those drop down ladders in the celling, so that I can store some stuff up there. That will help a lot.

Look for the real reason the Jeep is in the garage, in the next update. Coming soon!

Good Question

2007-06-27T19:39:00.000-05:00

I was reading my favorite Jeeping forum, and someone had asked the question. "What do you want to do before you die?"

That's a damn good question. I really don't know. There are a few things that I want to do, that I can think of off the top of my head. There are certainly things that I've already accomplished.

Lets list some of them...

Already accomplished.

Got married.
Own a house.
Gone cliff jumping.
Traveled to London, and across the International Date Line.
Gone flying in a single engine plane.
Been to Canada.

Things I'd like to do.

Visit all of our country's National Parks.
Visit all of MN's State Parks.
Visit Hawaii.
Off road on the Rubicon Trail.
Own a custom furniture shop.
Learn how to Fly Fish.

Just to name a few...

I know that there are more things that I want to do in my life but when you sit down and think about it, that's kind of a hard question to answer. I'm sure that most people don't aspire to sit in a cubicle their whole lives. I know I sure didn't. I also don't want to be installing hardwood floors my whole life. I want to get out there and achieve. Learn new things. Share knowledge. Learn from kids. Make mistakes. Take pictures. Smell the flowers. Watch thunderstorms, and meteor showers. Get up early, and stay up late. Work like I don't need the money. Love like I've never been hurt.

I sure don't have any idea what I want to be when I grow up, but I do know that I've got a few things to do to keep me busy along the way.

Friday at work...

2007-06-23T21:35:00.000-05:00

Work doesn't get any better, than it did on Friday. I got to install floors at the Minnesota Zoo.

They are redoing the whole Minnesota Trail, at the zoo, and they hired us to install some floors in one of the sections. They are making the whole thing look like a north woods cabin. We installed 5" Hand scraped Hickory. It was glued down the the concrete that was there before. They're really making that section look nice. I asked them when it was set to open, and they said that next week they start special group tours of the exhibit, then the press comes through, and it will be open to the public on July 7Th.

Here's some pics...

I wasn't able to get any pictures of it complete, cause we covered the floor right away. That's to keep it clean and free of scratches, while they are still working on the exhibit, since it's a pre-finished product. I guess you'll just have to go see for yourself.

Hot weather

2007-06-18T20:44:00.001-05:00

With everyone complaining about the hot weather. I though I'd chime in.

I, for one, enjoy it. I thought I'd hate it too, but after working in it for 3 summers, it really isn't that awful. When I worked for the Oops, I used to run through sprinklers on the way back to the big brown truck, and if it rained I'd just stand out there for a while and cool off.

Now that I'm pounding in floors, there are no sprinklers to run through but if I drink a lot of water, I'm fine. I do sweat like a prostitute in church, but that's just part of the job. I'd much rather have the heat over the cold winters. That's the suck right there. Trying to stay warm, running in and out of the house hauling in wood and tools, at 5 degrees. Having a 5000 sq/ft house being heated by one lonely bullet heater. Seeing your breath all day long, but not wanting to wear a jacket or stocking cap, cause you'll end up sweating and then the sweat will freeze and so will you. Now that's a bunch of crap.

So, in conclusion. I say bring on the heat. That's what they make AC for. I guess I haven't noticed the heat at work. The only time I really notice that it's hot out is if I'm not doing anything and even then it's nice.

This has been the fat kid saying, quit whining about the hot weather and enjoy it. We only get it for 3 months.

Fathers Day

2007-06-17T22:45:00.000-05:00

We started the weekend at Al and Kathy's cabin near New London, MN on lake Norway. For more on that see Mels Blog.

I can't think of a better way wrap up the weekend, on Fathers day, than sitting at the "Last Stop" bar with my Dad and Brothers, sorting through Grandpa's old fishing tackle. He had a lot of stuff. A lot of old stuff. We divided it up 4 ways. I thought that there would be some arguing over some of the stuff, but everyone was very generous about it.

I ended up with a lot of old tackle. I plan on making a little end table with a glass top and a drawer in it so that I can display some of the stuff I got. It's hard to pick a favorite lure, but if I had to it would probably be one of the old red a white bass plugs.

Happy father's day Dad and Dad in-law! I had a fun weekend!

Cover songs

2007-06-14T22:07:00.001-05:00

Cover songs are a touchy subject. When you do a cover song you have to do the song justice by not totally ruining it, but you also don't want to make it a clone of the original.

That being said. There is one song in particular that has been getting some air play, that I really like. That is Green Day's cover of Working Class Hero. They did an awesome job with this song. Every time I hear it I like it more and more. For those of you that don't know, I'm kind of a big Beatles fan, and with that, I like each one's solo career. Particularly George Harrison, but John Lennon's is nothing to overlook. It was short lived but he really made some great songs. For this song to get covered is great, cause it's not a song that gets played relentlessly.

I keep saying to myself that I'm going to make a "cover songs" CD but I never get around to it.

What are some of every one's favorite covers?

Puppy progress pics

2007-06-13T19:48:00.001-05:00

This is the night we picked her up.

The was a couple nights ago.

Had her one day.

Tonight.

Tongue.

Cuddling with pheasant.

It's a celebration!

2007-06-07T16:52:00.000-05:00

Happy birthday Mom L.

Bike

2007-05-28T19:59:00.001-05:00

This one's for you E.

I've been working on a new (to me) bike. Nick found this GT Rebound frame in a junkyard, and decided he didn't want to do anything with it. So I grabbed it. 3 or so years later I've done something with it. I took all the components off my Giant Yukon and put them on the GT. Anyway, it's much lighter and simpler. I've got a SRAM 9.0 8 speed rear derailleur, LX cranks with a 32 tooth chain ring on the front and Pro Max V Brakes. I decided that since I rarely ever shift the front when on the trail I figured that I didn't need one. It's much easier. Oh year I've got an Easton bar and stem, sooooo nice.

So, E. When you get back we have to hit up some trails. They've completely redone Murphy. It's got a beginner, intermediate, and advanced loop with table tops, bridges, and boardwalks. I can't wait to ride it!

Here's the bike pics...