Soooo...what did YOU do today?

[Kwak]

Originally Posted by irie feeling

So Pippa did her field trip, had lunch and completed her daily school assignments in less than an hour.
That's right. English test, Social studies, science lessons and Spanish speaking test all in an hour.
What the heck goes on in public school that takes all darn day?
She will have met her 3rd grade requirements come middle of May.
She's now with a private online academy.
Oh yeah, she hates school. Buts she's an A/B student, go figure.
She loves her stem Co-op and Arts co-op, horsey academy and ballet though.

Did she like the factory tour? I'm guessing not.

FWIW in the back of the gift store is a door to a small room filled with pretty much every model of guitar they build for people to try. One day I WILL have a D-35 like Johnny Cash, Ray LaMontagne and Steven Stills had. Martin guitars are know for their deep bass response and the D-35 has even more so.

I took the basic tour in October 2016. They offer a more comprehensive tour that takes you downstairs into the wood room. The smell is intoxicating.

BTW, I ordered more wood from a supplier over in Ohio. It came the next day. It wasn't expensive: About $70 for a set. Black walnut is domestically grown and relatively fast-growing compared, compared to the fancy stuff from south America that they found in the bottom of a river and infused with Amazonian minerals that the cork sniffers think is responsible for mojo and will make their fumblings with cowboy chords sound like Elvis.

I also have the unjoined bookmatched plates that will be the soundboard. It's sitka spruce from the US PNW (that I bought from a supplier in western NY state) and it set me back $20. Spruce is a soft wood so once I'm set I need to proceed carefully. Sharper blades and having a jig to hold things in place should reduce potential for mistakes provided I don't rush.

It's snowing today so I don't know if I'm going to open it but I do have designs set to screw together the pieces for the shooting board I need to make to work with it. I also need to sharpen the blade for my bench plane.

Realistically, the best thing I can do is tape up the trim I just painted and touch up the walls that they're framing.

[irie feeling]

Lunch with her Bff at Red Robin was the best part. Pizza and milkshakes!
She said the smells gave her a headache. I'm thinking wood aromas and varnishes.
I didn't go. The over stimulation (smells) would have me running for the door, so I don't wind up on the floor.
Grandpa is getting her Martin for her birthday. She'll be taking lessons probably next year. Grandma is all about tutorial books and and videos. The Stem co-op is offering. Always was at the Arts co-op.

[Kwak]

Originally Posted by irie feeling

Lunch with her Bff at Red Robin was the best part. Pizza and milkshakes!
She said the smells gave her a headache. I'm thinking wood aromas and varnishes.
I didn't go. The over stimulation (smells) would have me running for the door, so I don't wind up on the floor.
Grandpa is getting her Martin for her birthday. She'll be taking lessons probably next year. Grandma is all about tutorial books and and videos. The Stem co-op is offering. Always was at the Arts co-op.

She didn't like the robot arm in the buffing booth? I hear when it loses its grip on a guitar body it's very entertaining - and expensive. A full gloss D-28 costs nearly $3K.

Anyway, yesterday I made a shooting board for my bench plane and a cheap DIY light table out of a thick piece of Lexan, a desk lamp and a pair of workhorses. I'd take pictures but the basement is a mess.

[Mark B.]

So far I have slung the 2 inches of slush off my driveway. UHG! Workout done for today. Like wet cement. I also went to Home Depot. Turned out that the a squirrel that had been bogarting birdseed from the feeder was able to climb my new higher feeder pole . WTF?! I even greased it! So earlier I walked around HD looking for something smooth to wrap around the feeder stand pole. I happened upon a 5 foot thin white tube with a slit in it end to end. I believe it is a cover for shower curtain rods. Only $3! Went on perfectly. I hope this is the end of Varmint Cong!

[Kwak]

Originally Posted by Mark B.

So far I have slung the 2 inches of slush off my driveway. UHG! Workout done for today. Like wet cement. I also went to Home Depot. Turned out that the a squirrel that had been bogarting birdseed from the feeder was able to climb my new higher feeder pole . WTF?! I even greased it! So earlier I walked around HD looking for something smooth to wrap around the feeder stand pole. I happened upon a 5 foot thin white tube with a slit in it end to end. I believe it is a cover for shower curtain rods. Only $3! Went on perfectly. I hope this is the end of Varmint Cong!

Lol. Shades of Caddyshack, Mark!

[C1DoG]

Rewired the wall remote for the garage and got to cleaning up more of the garage that has been neglected since the floods back in '14. I do have a second reason for cleaning the garage... Neighbor is giving me a couple wheel barrels of seasoned cut oak for my barbecue.

[irie feeling]

Friday arts academy co-op. Hanging with the mommies.

[Kwak]

The house is a mess. I need to straighten up.

I want to:

- finish painting the trim upstairs where I can reach it without having to get the big ladder. I just need to paint the shuttle to the attic.

- then get the big ladder and start on painting the trim in that area. While I'm am it, I may take a stab at painting the ceiling too - at least the spot where I made an "oopsie" last time I painted. It sticks out like a sore thumb everything time I see it - which is every time I go upstairs! SMH.

- run the laundry, A Saturday routine.

- order a birthday cake for Justin

- somehow wrap this all up before dinner and so that we can have dinner with my mom without having to worry about her offering to cook. She's the one who taught me how to burn soup.

[C1DoG]

Did some spring cleaning here. Still a tons more to do.

[Kwak]

Well, painting trim at ceiling level is a PITA, but doubly so when it's a two story foyer. I lugged in the big ladder from the garage and have been careful not to do a Flying Grayson (Batman reference.) Ironically, the hardest part to reach is over the stairs because they obstruct the ladder. At least I wouldn't have as far to fall, but TBH I'm getting pretty confident up on the ladder now!

The real PITA has been applying caulk to molding that has been separating because of the house settling/enduring these 60mph winds over the years. Paying $7 for a caulk tool was SOOOO worth it though. I should've bought one a couple of years ago when I installed the wainscoting; the caulking there is looking pretty bad.

I'm working top-down; next up is to touch up the walls directly beneath the moulding. For that I have one of those edging tools, which has also been a Godsend.

PS: I'm using one of those foam "brushes." I'm liking it much better than a bristle brush; it applies much more neatly.

On another front, I tackled the issue of clutter (somewhat*) in my wife's bathroom. There's no sugar coating it: we're slobs. The closets are a mess where gravity has done most of the arranging for too long. There's an overabundance of lotions, shopping bags and feminine hygiene products mixed with cleaning supplies and it's been irking me. When I spoke with her this weekend I mentioned getting more bins but I'll leave that to her. I pretty much just cleared the floor and shampooed the entire bathroom floor. It's still wet 3 days later but I had to give a good soaking because it was nasty.

Meanwhile, the guitar building continues. The other day I was shooting the straight edge on a soundboard with my homemade shooting board and the blade is nice and sharp. Even the mess looks pretty; since I've taken this picture I've been getting nice consistent ribbons and the two halves of the soundboard are almost ready to glue together. After that, I start planing away at the underside in order to get it to a desired stiffness.