Anything can happen out of the blue

Friday night started off with cheap drinks at a folklore mixer I found myself at. From there we got some food, scarfed it down at my place, had a belt of absinthe, and then headed to some Hallowe'en party on Freshwater Road somewhere. It was good times, but the beer was making me logy so I took off.

Pretty eventful walk home. Most of my neighbours and acquaintances are aware of a bat-shit crazy lady who lives up the road from me. That night, I totally broke into her house.

Now, the cause was noble... I ran into her on the way back, thinking "Great, she's gonna yell at me." (cuz she always does). But she had locked herself out of her house and needed help. There was a ladder in the back yard that I had to climb to get to the second floor window, open it up, find my way down in the pitch dark, and open the door for her. Given my temulency, this could have ended a lot more disastrously.

Still pretty fucked up though. She seemed grateful, so maybe next time she won't yell at me.

Saturday night was a medley of Hallowe'en parties. Started with the folks across the road. I felt bad that I didn't have a costume, but as fate would have it, they had a veritable tickle trunk. I found myself with a sequined cowboy hat, Hawaiian shirt, and looking a lot like Kid Rock.

Thence we headed to my cousin's place, one road over. As it turns out, she's renting a house that I was considering buying back in the day. Pretty wild. I remember a lot of dancing and hula hooping. Not on my part though, owing to my bad back, two left feet, and lack of hips.

Finally we wound up at some place on Gower. I don't remember much from there, apart from a bunch of cats and the house itself being gorgeous. Afterwards we headed to Rustler's cuz the Hearth was inaccessible.

Oh, and in amidst the revelry this weekend,

Attach long handrail
Assemble living room chair

The latter was done after getting home Saturday night. Sit at your own peril.

The house has a hearth

Yes! Finally, after about a year of talking about it, I got my wood stove installed. All I gotta do now is fax the installation certificate to my insurance company. And then get the city inspector in to get his A-OK. And he's gonna pleased to see my new handrail:

Affix handrail

Done. Well, the short one anyways. Still gotta do the long one. And attach the spindles. Hey, small to-do items get done quicker ;) I found myself actually using it this morning. These stair aids will help get up to my bedroom after a long night of drinking... so hopefully less setting up "base camp" on the couch.

Let's see if this works...

I've noticed that a few of my friends have used their blogs as a way of achieving a goal. If the goal is posted in a public, then there seems to be more motivation to attain it. For example, my buddy Andrew had an overwhelming success in achieving a weight goal last year.

So what's my goal? It's actually a collection of small projects that I want to do around the house. I've been "meaning" to do these for about half a year now, but I usually found myself at the Georgetown Pub, or otherwise inebriated. I'll post 'em as I get 'em done, along with any pointers I came across.

Anyways, some early results:

Make Circular Saw Guide

This was pretty easy, but I foresee it being pretty handy, too. Cut a 2' long, 3" strip of 1/4" MDF/plywood, and face-nail one end of it perpendicularly to the centre of a footlong piece of 1x4 pine using 2d nails. Using the factory edge of the strip of MDF as a guide, cut off the pine with your circular saw. Now you have a guide that's custom built to your saw. Line up the cut edge of the pine with whatever mark you have on whichever piece of lumber, and cut using the MDF as the guide. The cut should be straight and square.

First time I ever sent back a Guinness

For the last couple of weeks, I had been taking care of a black kitten fittingly named Guinness. Last night I returned her to her rightful owners, Jon and Jessica, who had been in the process of moving into a new apartment. What did I learn from this experience?

1. Kittens have an infinite supply of energy. This thing was always tearing around the house, chasing stuff that didn't even have to exist;
2. While I was considering getting a more laid back full-grown cat, my allergies are telling me "oh no you don't";
3. My apathy towards Guinness while she was pitifully "mewing" outside my bedroom door is indicative that I would be a terrible father. But then, those who know me and my penchant for dead-baby and child-molester jokes could have told me that.

In other news, my back is stilled fucked. Yesterday was hell. Today, not so bad, but I can see that the road to recovery is going to be a long one indeed. I can't wait for Friday's physio session with the interferential machine again... huhuhuhuhuhh... I love that thing sooooo much....

Oh, and the wood stove saga is drawing to a close. I have the thing very conveniently located smack-dab in the middle of my living room. They were supposed to come by and do the chimney work today, but it's windy enough out on the ground, let alone on top of a three-storey house. Soon, though, soon...

Two posts in one day. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Here we go...

OK, a brand new blog to replace the disaster that was the old one. A record two entries are in that one, and the design is horrible. Most engineers have difficulty with graphic design; colour-blind engineers are utterly hopeless.

We'll see if this one takes. I have notoriously low motivation -- the mess throughout my house is a testament to that. But I need something else to do in my morning routine of checking e-mail, news, other blogs, and hockey scores. Hopefully this is that thing.