My ridiculous industry...

So, every now and then while looking for parts, I come across something like this:



Yeah. Thought I'd share.

Two big nights in one weekend...

...for the first time in ages. I was beginning to think I was getting too old for that. Thankfully I still have a little problem-drinking youth left.

Friday night: After a very hit-the-spot meal and Thundermug at Boston Pizza with Ginny, I met up with Jon at Christian's, where we availed of inexpensive pitchers ("inexpensive" is a rather tall order at Christian's). C&A met up with us there for a couple of hours. We lorded over the jukebox, but it seemed like every song we chose struck a chord with at least one other person in the bar. Afterwards we went to Dooley's for a few games of pool. I guess it was about 2:00am before we called it a night.

Saturday night: Craig's b-day. Of course that's going to be a big night. And it delivered. Lots of Rock Band II played, and we were all in wonder at the very extensive song list it had. With the aid of some wine stolen from Tim, it was a very large night indeed. Cut it off at around 2:45am, and probably would have been sooner if I hadn't rambled about my Happy Adventure story. Blame the wine, folks, it makes me talkative.

Unfortunately, these late nights meant late rises: after 10:30am both mornings. Of course, some of that is attributable to the lack of sleep I got over the last week, owing to the heaps of noisy, driving rain we got in the nighttime. But I got some stuff done. Namely, I caught up on all the housework that had fallen by the wayside as I pushed myself to get that wine rack done last week. Yes, the wine rack is done, and functioning in my kitchen right now. Like my Holland trip, I'll eventually post a pic (maybe).

This morning was a great fall morning. Blue sky, chilly temperatures, and most importantly, no fucking rain. A good start to the week. As is posting a blog entry...

Fall Rain

This fall hasn't been too bad for us, in terms of getting tail ends of hurricanes. But it looks like we're getting our fall rain in one massive installment. It hasn't really stopped since Tuesday night, and is supposed to continue (in varying intensities) until after Saturday. Does wonders for one's mood.

The glue is drying on the wine rack right now. Just have to glue up the other half, which I could have done simultaneously if I weren't so cheap and bought more clamps. Meh. By Friday night, this puppy can and should be ready. Unfortunately, it means finding a spot for the wretched liquor box and its contents. I guess I gotta lug that old thing up two flights of stairs. And I have some cupboard space available above my fridge, so I guess I'll stash the bottles there until I can trick my friends or myself into drinking them.

This project has really dragged on, so I'm looking forward to continuing work on the other ones. I've got a magazine rack and "entertainment centre" (basically a tall coffee table with shelves underneath) well under way. So on Saturday when it is - once again! - piss pouring rain, I'll try to get the rest of the forming done on those.

Methinks work is gonna get busy again soon. I gotta get myself mentally prepared to make a big push until Christmas. This year I'm planning on taking two full weeks off for Christmas, which will work out to only seven vacation days. I'm not going anywhere, and no family is coming in, so I'm looking forward to two weeks of just slacking off at home. I can't remember the last time that happened.

Slow start this week

Having a little difficulty getting myself going this week. I'll say one thing about crushing deadlines: they're good at motivating a person. In their absence, however, sometimes it's hard to get started. Maybe it's because I uncharacteristically skipped breakfast this morning.

It may also be that I spent a lot of time in the workshop over the weekend, and I'm "worked" out. On the upside, I've gotten a lot done -- I've found myself working on three projects concurrently, with a fourth to be added to the mix. It's easier to motivate myself to stain a project after having done something "more fun" in the shop. "More fun" means cutting, dowelling, routing, or anything involving some sharp, dangerous power tool.

The goal is to get these four projects done by Christmas. Given my slow pace so far this year, this goal is indeed lofty. But now that it seems every weekend has at least one shitty-weather day, there's more time spent at it.

The weekend was pretty good. J&J had a party at their place on Friday, which was buckets of fun. It was also a very late affair, with a turn-in time of later than 5am. Saturday was actually a nice day, so I moved some of my firewood into the shed before this latest marathon installment of rain.

Ah, One Fine Morning by Lighthouse is now on the radio. Maybe that'll give me a boost.

Long Hours

The last couple of weeks were crazy busy. The meeting in Holland produced a lot of work, which I'm only now really getting around to, since I had another project that was boiling over. I think I've got things under "control" now, but last week almost drove me nuts. Long hours at work, on top of which I had to attend a conference (NECEC) and prepare trivia as I was hosting. Both went well, I thought, except that at trivia there was a drunken British lout who kept bellowing out answers and generally acting like a huge tool.

Needless to say, I was glad when the weekend finally rolled around. I found empathy with Andrea and Ginny at a happy hour held at the bowling alley bar (awesome specials!), as they had had pretty shitty weeks as well. That was pretty well the highlight of this past weekend; the rest was spent doing a bit of workshop stuff, and watching a football game at my cousin's place.

This week has been much more manageable, mostly because of the holiday on Tuesday. Went to the Remembrance Day ceremony with Ginny that morning, and spent the rest of the day in the workshop getting dizzy from stain and turpentine fumes. I hope I didn't get any dain bramage. And last night a bunch of us checked out a hockey game, which was a good bit of fun.

Ah, that's pretty well it for now. Hopefully this coming weekend produces some good drinking stories...