Sunday, October 26, 2008

Tryin' to Stay Productive

I had a great week home from Nevada. Came back to a house full of guests up to enjoy the NYS Sheep & Wool festival. I know it sounds hokey, but I've really grown to love these weekends. It's even more enjoyable if you're married to a woman who knits. It's Beth's equivalent to Tap NY or a woodworking show for me. Kudos to Kelly, Ginger, and LuLu for making the weekend an enjoyable one. We missed you Lorena, Sharon, Jacquie, and Sophia. Hopefully next year you'll be back for a reunion tour!

So...while I was back in town, I managed to take a few days off from work to focus on some projects I've been neglecting. The first of which is the casework around the new sliding glass door in the living room. Well over a year ago, I installed a new Andersen slider out to the porch. The door turned out great, but I've been putting off the trim work on the inside because as always, it required custom piecework to make it look good. You see, nothing is easy in my house. Studs aren't where they're supposed to be, walls, floors, etc all all out of square, yada yada yada... I finally worked up the courage to give it a go this week.

The photo below is how the door looked just after install. Not the best photo of the door, but it does have our friends Tim, Cambria, and Baby Calder in it, so it will do :-). Ugly drywall spots, sprayfoam, and unsightly gaps do have a way of drawing attention from the nice door, huh?

I was pleasantly surprised with how it all went. The hardest part was making a custom custom jamb extender to fill the gap between the inside and outside wall. Three pieces, all different dimensions! Once that was in, the rest was pretty straightforward, notwithstanding the adjustments for out of plumb walls. The trim replicated from some of the original colonial door casing in the house. It's made of 3-pieces; flat casing with a bead that I made on the router table, an outer square build-up moulding, and a bed moulding on top. Here's the finished product, sans paint.

One other work-in-progress to report on...My many-months-late jewelry box gift is also nearing completion. I made a small upper divider tray for it last week to complete the woodworking. All that's left is sanding and applying the finish. Here's a few shots as a teaser. I'll post the finished photos and more descriptions of its construction before I send it off, which looks to be mid-december at the rate I'm going.

Happy Halloween all!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Catching Up

I've been back out in Vegas for the last 2 weeks, doing the same job I've been working on for the last 2 months or so. Not much has changed since my last post, with the exception of my 401k going in the toilet thanks to the bums on Wall Street and in Washington.

One good thing that has happened since then is a change in work schedule that now gives me both weekend days off instead of just Sunday. This was such a welcome change, since it gives you an opportunity to go out and do something fun on weekends instead of just doing laundry and catching up on sleep. Well, this weekend my buddy Shawn and I decided to trek up to Zion National Park in Utah to hike around a bit and do some sightseeing. It's only 2.5 hours from Vegas, so we drove up on Saturday to see as much of it as we could. From everything I had heard, Zion is unbelievable and shouldn't be missed. This was so true.

We took hundreds of photos throughout the day, as we hiked up Angel's Landing and walked along the Riverside Trail. We packed in as much as we could in just a few hours since we knew it was supposed to rain in the afternoon. Actually, it started snowing about noon! Luckily, we got through the toughest part of the hike before it started. Otherwise, we would have been in for a very rough day. Here's a link to the photos.

We had a great time, and have the sore muscles to show for it. I hope to get an opportunity to go back again and see more of the park. There's so much to see, plus it's really close to Bryce Canyon and Grand Canyon NPs. Hopefully, I'll get back here soon.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Ahhhhhhhhhh......

That's the sound of...
  • hugging and kissing your wife
  • taking a shower in your own bathroom
  • sleeping in your own bed
  • playing with your cats again, and
  • sitting on the porch with a cold beer and a cigar.
It's been a long month away from home. It's good to be back. :-)

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

New Addiction...

I have a new addiction, my friends, and it is called a Blackberry...I've been angling at work to get one for some time and have finally gotten my clutches on one. I now completely understand why they're called 'crackberries.' The coolest part is that the new ones also work as a broadband modem for your laptop, which means I'm no longer at the mercy of wi-fi connections in airports, restaurants, or any other places anymore while I'm on the road. Can I get a hallelujah???

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Great Day at Hoover Dam

My buddy Shawn & I decided to go to Hoover Dam today on our day off. I've been wanting to see it for the longest time, so the fact that it's only 40 minutes from Vegas made it a perfect short day trip.

We took the tour to take a look inside some of the tunnels and see the power plant. It was definitely worth it. The scale of the place is breathtaking. I found out that the concrete that makes up the base of the dam is 660 feet thick! Dam(n)... :-)

I took these photos with my phone. They didn't turn out too bad.

View from the parking deck looking at the face of the dam.

Looking south down the Colorado River

8 of the 17 generators that make up the 2080 MW generating capacity of the power plant. These are on the Nevada side of the river.

Lake Mead. The white line on the banks is where the water was in 1983. It hasn't been that high since.

These are the intake structures to the power plant. The water that goes to the turbines enters through the grates on the sides of these towers. There's 4 in all.

Another perk of life on the road - big bundles!

Friday, September 12, 2008

What would you do?

OK...I get 1 day off a week out here in Vegas (Sunday). For the last few, I've basically slept in, done laundry, and watched TV. I felt pretty good about it too. Well, this is the first week I have a co-worker out here with me and he wants to do something Sunday. With all of this in mind, I'm taking a poll.

What would you do this Sunday?

1. Stay local, sleep, and recharge the neurons.
2. Go gambling on the strip, lose money, and look at all of the goofy mid-westerners
3. Drive ~1 hour each way to Hoover Dam / Lake Mead
4. Drive a long way to the Grand Canyon (don't know exactly how far but guessing it's at least 3 hours).

Happy weekend to all of you who will get 2 days off starting tomorrow. Have a drink for me :-)