Welcome Summer!

Though my to-do list sat lonely and forlorn this weekend, we ushered in this summer with some great time spent outdoors. A walk by the Fox River, some weeding (that doesn't qualify as a great time...just time), a few walks around the neighborhood, an exciting All-Star game, and a refreshing trip to the waterpark. In the past I've thought that the changes in temperature and season are somewhat lost on me since I work indoors and don't spend much time outside even on the weekends, but I guess having kids changes that a little bit. I think we'll be spending a lot more time outside this summer. (Hint: time outside = tired kids)

Happy Birthday Lisa!

I ate lots of cake and ice cream in honor of you. Also, Hazel gave me some drool for you.

Long enough to put in a ponytail

Daniel had to grow his hair out when he was in Fiddler on the Roof. Ever since then, he has expressed his interest in continuing to grow his hair out, often stating, "I just want to be able to put my hair in a ponytail". Well Daniel, your day has come.

Each ponytail makes Daniel exponentially more intelligent, giving him the ability to read several books simultaneously

Due to popular demand, we bring you more workbench photos...

One week ago today, I finished building my 18th century Roubo workbench down in Kentucky. Since then we have made the (long) trip home, unloaded the bench into the garage where it is, er.. acclimating before it is installed in the workshop, and generally trying to get caught up on non-woodworking endeavors. My muscles are also acclimating to engineering duties after several days of manual labor. My legs are feeling more rested, but my mouse finger seems to be cramping up a bit.


I hope you have enjoyed the videos posted on the Chris Schwarz Blog (one for each day of the class). I also took pictures throughout the class and have posted them on my Picasa site. There, you will find my least embarrassing photos of the class and photos of a neat little field trip we took to the Saulmon Early Technology Class at Berea College.

I don't have a photo of the finished bench yet because, well it's just not finished yet. I need to finish drilling dog-holes and holes for the hold-fasts. I also need to plane the top flat and work the front and back edges to make them coplanar with the legs. And there is still some finish work to do on the vises, not to mention the finish itself. So it may be more than a few days before I post a photo of the finished bench.

Until then, I hope you enjoy the class photos. You can also start making arrangements for your own bench (Ben). I require a minimum of two meals per day and will not work more than 12 hour days. Also, you have to be willing to accept help from Ella, Elisabeth, and Peter as required (they're really quite good!). And there's no guarantee that we will finish within a week.

Fare thee well MG

You came and brought smiles when smiles were hard to find. I gave you hope of renewal when all seemed lost to you. But other things have called for my time and money so you have languished and fallen into even more disrepair. I send you off with a new owner, I wish you well little car. If you can't proudly ride the roads again I hope at least some of your parts grace another of your sister cars and feel the joy of a winding road. A little money in my pocket I have to ease the pain of our parting.

It's the end of the road for this one

I'm speaking of the go cart here. In it's prime, this contraption was a dangerous machine. It's only redeeming value was that it actually would go and at times too fast for it's neanderthal suspension. Time and technology have pasted it by and now broken parts and missing parts have doomed it to the grimmest of grim reapers- the recyclers. Farewell go cart, thank you for the fun.

Another one bites the dust

The second of 3 apple trees didn't make it through the winter. We have been studying Genesis in our Sunday School class (small group in case David Rudd sees this post) and I have decided the curse is still going strong at 1208 W. Giles Rd. Visions of bushels of fresh picked apples are no longer dancing in my head. I hope the lone survivor will at least give me a half dozen or so apples this fall.

Workbench in Kentucky

As some of you know, we are vacationing in Kentucky this week. I'm building a workbench at a local woodworking school and will haul it home to be my bench for many years to come. I was going to post a few pictures, but this video is a bit more interesting.



If you'd like to read more about the bench or keep up with the class throughout the week, you can follow along here: http://www.popularwoodworking.com/woodworking-blogs/chris-schwarz-blog

I'll post some more pictures as the bench takes shape.

Just couldn't fall asleep

Made the mistake of taking a nap today. So that means I am not sleepy tonight. Can't find a golf ball to make me sleepy- Aunt Sue Gansz's advice is to rub a golf ball on the bottom of your foot to make you sleepy. So I did the next best thing. Wrote an entry in a blog. Since I deleted my old blog a while back I also had to make a new one and link it to this blog. Funny thing is I'm more awake now than ever. I think there might be a golf ball somewhere in the garage...

Now for some cooking...

Most (maybe all) of you know that I bought a set of appliances a couple weeks back, and I've been slowly installing them and transferring my kitchen stuff over to the new kitchen. Everything's working, and I've been using the new kitchen for the past week. So far, the highlights are having more countertop space (about four times as much!) and having a dishwasher. The new kitchen is also a lot brighter (though that's hard to tell in these photos, which were taken at night). It's actually kind of hard to capture the space and how nice it really is. So you should all come visit sometime (maybe not all at the same time) to see it in person. I think it's at least 67% better in person.



Here's the view from one end of the kitchen (the patio door is behind you here).


And the view from the other end of the kitchen.


And here's the kitchen with the dining room in the foreground.


I was just going to post about the kitchen, but my new laundry appliances started whimpering, so I agreed to include them too.


And here's a little bud of rhubarb that peeked out of the ground about two weeks ago. As I type this, this bud has already grown about six inches and has three or four good stalks going. Time for some rhubarb dishes soon. And now I've got the kitchen for it.

The Great Weiner Bun Genocide

It's not beautiful yet, but it will be soon.

First Flowers of Spring

As I was walking back to the garden today, a patch of purple caught my eye.
We've got temps in the 60s today, and it looks like the flowers finally decided that it's nice enough to come out. Welcome, first flowers of spring!

 

Breaking News Update: Later today I walked by the flowers again and they had all opened up. It was very exciting, so I took several more pictures. In some ways, these flowers remind me of a nest of little birds, beaks collectively open expecting incoming mouthfuls of worms.

Contact Lenses, Anyone?

I'm going through some of my old stuff in the bathroom and came across quit a few sets of old unused contact lenses that I can no longer use as my prescription has changed a great deal in the past couple years. I have 5 pairs of Biomedics55 2.75 lenses and then 3 lenses of Biomedics55 3.25.

Can anyone make use of these? The shelf life is pretty long on them and I would hate to throw them away if someone could use them if they are their correct prescription anyway.

Today I sort of feel like this...

Kind of tired, in a daze, and my clothes feel too tight.

Wishing Daniel a Dazzling Debut

A bit o' color

As anyone who's talked to me over the last six months knows, I've spent far too long deliberating over paint colors for my new kitchen and dining room. If there's one thing I've learned it's that I'm a pretty poor colorist. So after trying out close to ten different paint samples, I finally found a few that I thought I could live with, and have spent most of the last few weekends painting these rooms. Here are some pictures to show you how things are turning out.

Hazel rolls over!

Bat Dog!

Imagine the surprise when Bat Dog arrived at the McCann house, to recruit Ozzie to his team of Miniature Pinschers he is assembling to rescue oppressed Min Pins everywhere, as seen in the picture below.



No amount of negotiations or dogma could move Ozzie from his devotion to the McCann family, believing it his life purpose to now protect not only Andy and Janell, but also little Hazel. He sat proud and high to defend his little family!

Dad Attempts To Save On Bills. Shuts Off Virtually All Heat.

Excuse my unusually short post. It is difficult to type with mittens on. I report to you that Dad has decided to shave off 90% of his gas bill by turning off all heat to the house. Everyone has learned to cope with the drop in temperatures. Just yesterday, Twila was found to have recently learned how to wear ear muffs:

Those who find pity in their hearts may send donations, care of David, to help us buy just a few lumps of coal to be burned during the dead of night. Twila says to send bones.