For those married guys out there, read this, it might save you some headaches.
I'm not saying that my example has been a headache, but it did happen to change some of my priorities for me. if you have ever said to yourself, "Wow, it would be a good idea to do .... [Fill in the blank]" and if this was in reference to something for the wife/significant other/girlfriend, then you should know all about this.
There is a time & place to present ideas that the wife might be interested in. As I have recently learned, it should only be AFTER all of the things you want have been completed. I had two objectives to accomplish today.
Well, due to my big mouth, these priorities were altered. Granted, neither of my objectives for the day truly had a deadline, therefore this was not a big issue. However, for future reference, this is what did occur and why.
Yesterday, we did some shopping at Sears. We both had a few things that we wanted to get for the house and had some giftcards to use. Therefore, we picked up the following:
Well, when we returned home with our booty, it was time to find homes for what we purchased. Well, as you can imagine, we now had more pots & pans than we had homes for. I had already devised an idea as to where to put them, but had yet to have presented the idea to Angel. Well, it would seem that now would be as good of a time as any. I presented to her that we create a pots & pans rack to put on one of our walls in the kitchen. So, I explained my vision to her and apparently this was too good of an idea. Once I was motivated to start working around the house today, Angel asked if Home Depot/Lowes was on the agenda. Well, as of that point, it became an overriding activity for us today.
We took our giftcards for Lowes with us and headed out. We picked up the supplies for the construct and returned home. It turns out the rack supplies came to the exact amount that we had in giftcards, man, was that ever nice. :) The items we purchased for this rack included the following:
Notice that the cable is not mentioned, it wasn't forgotten, we just happened to have some at home in the shed.
So, when we get home, I test fit everything together and we're good so far. Once I take it a back apart, do a test fit of the closed S loops to see if then will fit on the pipes. No-go! Damn. There are 15 of these things and I have to unbend each one of them. So, once I get them unbent to fit the pipe and the other end open to hold the pots & pans, I tape the threads on the pipes and head to the shed to do some painting. the parts were all different colors and conditions, therefore, we wanted to make it uniform. I get to painting the parts, which didn't take to long.
At this point, it occurs to me that I should have dealt with the closed loop S hooks after applying the paint. The paint will take 2 hours to dry (due to the temperature, our high today was around 45). Unfortunately, by the time the paint application is finished, it is already 5 PM. This
does not give me too much time to work in the yard. Oh, well. I will get what I can completed. So, the fence is down now, and the front three vertical supports are out of the ground. There are only 4 posts left to deal with and I'll get to them eventually. Also, note, that Angel did do some cleaning while I was working, so I can't really complain too much that my objectives were not met, as they were hit to some degree or another.
Once I'm done with what I can get to today in the yard, it is now 6 PM and I still have an hour to kill. I putz around on my computer for a bit and realize that it is now 7:15 PM. Time to return to work on the rack. I check the parts by flashlight and to my surprise, they are dry. I take them down and into the house to finish. It is too cold to be subjecting myself to working outside for no reason. Once the tape is taken off of the threads, the assembly begins. The actual assembly of the rack is completed in much shorter time than earlier because I already figured out the tricks of the system.
Keep in mind, threaded pipe is not designed to be joined into circles with itself. Thankfully, water will not be traversing this thing, one of the pipes is not completely tight because the threads are opposing when trying to get it into one fitting and then into another. Therefore, a comprise was struck, tightened one side real well and then loosen it to thread it into the other. The important part is that it works.
Once the structure is constructed, I start working on the cabling. This took longer than I had expected, but then again, what does? My first and second trial with this process resulted in cables that were WAY too long to suite the need. Finally, the third attempt got it to the length required. If it hasn't been obvious yet as to what the cables are for, it is to prevent the pots & pans from ripping the bracket off the wall if it were to get too heavy. Pictures will be provided at the end to clarify how they play into the system.
Now that the cables are in place, I mount the "floor fittings" to the wall. Now, I was lazy and didn't bother looking for studs (thus the additional cable supports), so I used screws that were designed to act like drywall anchors and screws in one. Also, since I wasn't looking for studs, I put the screws in last so not to tempt the structure from pulling itself off of the wall.
So, I did get something accomplished today. I think it even turned out pretty well. Although, it wasn't on my list of things to do, although my to-do list for the day wasn't vital, so I didn't mind doing it. Although, next time I have any thoughts about a home improvement project, I will wait until my to-dos are done first before presenting it. :) Just a word to the wise that just because you offer an idea for the future, the future might be closer than you anticipate.
As promised, here are the pictures:
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Ideas
Christmas Vacation
For those of you that are not aware, I have been off of work since December 20th. Much as not transpired during my time off. Therefore, I'll just hit the highlights.
Neverwinter Nights 2 (NWN2): This has been my affliction for most of my vacation. I can't tell you how much time I have put into the game in the past 2 weeks. However, I will tell you that I have progressed from the middle of Act I to the middle of Act III in that time. I know for most of you that doesn't mean too much, but for those that know the game, there is your reference.
Blackjack: For some background, I'm working on a project with Beagle, Ray & a few others to implement a game that we would like to play online. As far as any more specifics, I can't say. It is of a classified nature and can't publicly share that information. However, I can tell you that Blackjack is our first adventure into the technology and it is looking promising. Prior to my vacation we had already established that we can get a lobby working. Those of you not intimate with the project, I'm sorry, the update won't mean much.
So, as for my update, I've put some time into creating documentation, however, not too much. The biggest thing to note with it is that I've implemented XSLT into the lobby and proved that the method would work and have been puttering around with the game table.
Christmas: Angel & I spent the holiday together. We had a wonderful Christmas Eve at Kathy & Ernie's. Chris and kids, Jay, the Skorzas and Nancy were present. What a spread they had put together, there was too much food there to mention everything, but I've got to say, the Prime Rib that Ernie made was incredible. As for Christmas Day, we were in no hurry to be awake, I think we rolled out of bed at around 11AM. We opened what gifts we had accumulated from our parents and each other. It was different. Just us, no kids, no hustle & bustle. It wasn't until around 2 that we departed for Aunt Linda's. It was nice. Uncle Larry made a mean meatloaf for dinner. But the best thing was, not having to run everywhere & anywhere for once. It was been a long time since I'd only had one place to go on Christmas. Usually it is a run from the start. It was nice to be more, um, casual with our time. Don't get me wrong, I would have done the running around if I would have been at home and not have complained about it. But to not run from the start was a welcome change. The adult conversation was a welcomed difference too. Typically, it is a constant barrage of kids. Anyway, It was good to be around family for the holidays, even it if wasn't the family we were used to being with.
New Years: This was also different from the past few years that I've spent at home. It has almost become tradition that we go to Dustin's for the ringing in of the new year. Well, we had a nice & quiet time alone for our first new years married. We spent the early part of new year's eve shopping at the mall on gift cards. What a wonderful way to shop. Once we returned home and realized that we were not going to be hanging with Chris for the night, we just decided to stay home. We played Monopoly and watched some movies followed by some channel flipping between the 3 stations having festivities televised. Quiet, quaint, and atypical, but once again, a good night.
So, there you have it, a synopsis of the past two weeks or so. To all of you that have taken the time to read my post, Happy New Year!!!
Peace!
