I’m ready for bed, but I stayed up late enough after all. Yay for 2015; may it be filled with projects!

For the record…

I didn’t want to go out in the cold, but I gotta do what I gotta do, so I did. I squared up my glued boards, and was reluctant to try skimming off so little with the skilsaw, so I was going to use the belt sander, but in the end, I just marked the corners and did the whole thing with the jigsaw, using the old blade because the coarser ones chip the wood. It came out fine, and I left 1/8″ between my cut and my mark so I could tidy it up with the sander. $deity bless that belt sander! Still needs a little filler on the knot and one spot on the side where the wood splintered a little, but it won’t be noticeable.

I also finally broke down and got a Gorillapod and tripod bracket for my phone. The BT remote is coming; it was three and a half bucks, so no Prime shipping. I’m in no hurry.

Done sanding. It’s cold out there.

There was still a slight warp in my tabletop, so ‘scuse me while I iron my wood. I’ll need to give it a quick scuff with 220 sandpaper because steam raises the grain a bit, but it’s flat now and that won’t take long. I also ironed the one shelf that was slightly warped. The other one was okay.

Bottom shelf rough sanded, top marked but not yet sanded. Probably won’t get done until tomorrow, but at least they fit!

I lied. I had enough daylight, and I doubted I’d feel like sanding in the goddamned cold again tomorrow, so I just finished the lot, and so far (1638h), I’ve applied the only coat of stain that the bottoms are going to get. 🙂

For the record, I love my wifi repeaters. In the bedroom.

In the gradge.

Also, I’m glad I always check out what’s free in the Appstore because today, I got a photo editor I may or may not keep, and this builder’s calculator, which I absolutely will keep. It even adds fractions, which is cool because I can’t add anything past 16ths in my head very quickly. B can…he can’t divide by 10 by quickly moving a decimal place (I can…thank you, metric system), but give him 64ths of an inch, and he’s like a human calculator. Anyway, I’m not a calculator, but this is!

Two coats of Colonial Maple and one coat of Early American. I officially hate the smell of oil-based stain. The worst is yet to come when I do the urethane tomorrow!

I applied one final coat of Early American, it looks fine, and I don’t care if it’s NYE; the 2014 Stain Party is over. I just want a shower and bed. 2015 will come whether I’m awake or not…so I won’t be.

I didn’t write anything because first I went shappin and got…boring stuff (allergy pills, laundry stuff), nail punches, drill bits, green paint for the router repeater and a plant cache pot, Gorilla Glue for wood, and a photo mat at Walmart. At CHC, I got 8′ of not bad pine, 12 x 1 for the entryway table top, and some finish nails just to have some. At Buchheit, bird seed, wood filler and two 30″ bar clamps.

When I got home, I put the picture of us at closing in the frame I’ve had forever that used to have a religious saying in it. It was kind of old, as evidenced by the discolouration. A lot, considering how dim it was in the living room of 544.

Walmart had *one* mat that was the right size, and it happened to be the right colour, too. Frame looks better with us in it.

Then, I started measuring and cutting the wood for the tabletop. I was doing that when T texted to come over so I could pin her pants for hemming. After that, I accomplished little because I called R and talked for a long time. I did, however,  get the pieces cut and glued for the tabletop, and sized it so that there was exactly enough left to make two shelves for one of the aquarium stands.

The boards have a slight bow, but I don’t think it’s anything I can’t sand out.

Aside from waiting until the urethane has cured sufficiently for me to flip the table over and screw (possibly also glue) the top to the base, my chair/table/curtains project is complete! Nearly a year I spent on it, but once spring came last year, it was full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes for the Bistro, and by summer,  it’s too goddamned hot and I was too goddamned tired to work on much of anything.  Of course, I still need to do the ruffled nightmare on the north side windows, but that’s my plan for today, since I don’t have to do any sewing. Anyway, this was my vision, backlit though it is in daylight, and I like it very much!

Giant, frothy nightmare. I took down the six panels (and 143 safety pins) I intend to use and de-ruffled them; they’re in the washer now. I’ll de-ruffle the rest once I figure out how to fix the broken rod they had repaired with scotch tape. Yes, scotch tape. Jesus. Anyway, kind of cluttered ATM, but ruffly nightmare clearly visible.

Still needs to be adjusted and steamed, and I’m short three blinds because I used them on the west windows last summer, but in spite of the broken rod and having to install two blinds (other three should arrive on Friday) on the window frames that might as well be concrete, I got all of them de-ruffled, washed, starched/ironed and hung. I’m happy with them, and as soon as I convert lux to foot-candles to figure out if there’s sufficient light to support green life, I may stick a sansevieria (potentially an aspidistra) somewhere in there. Dunno…my south window plants are so happy that I’m loath to move any, even the big, dark green sans. We’ll see.

I put the first coat of urethane on at 0825h this morning. Supposed to dry in 6-7h, but that’s not happening,  probably because it’s a bit cool (60-ish) in the gradge. It’s drying; it’s just taking longer, and for the record, that stuff smells horrible! Assuming this coat ever dries, I’ll apply one more.

Only half done, but hanging them right from the top instead of the pocket (didn’t want a ruffly look at all) has a bonus of making them juuuuuust long enough that I didn’t have to add anything to the hem. I opted to skip the sheers, too, because it lets in more light and doesn’t cut the window height in half. Not sure how I’ll feel about this in summer because the blinds don’t cover the small bottom windows, but I like it now…or will once all of the curtains are up and my table is back together, and I find a light fixture that’s not so heavy and bulky. P and I both hate this one.

Not that it looks any different, but I’m documenting the time I finished applying the last coat. I expect it to be dry no later than Valentines Day.

There. The curtains are done except for proper hooks on the end tiebacks, and I’ll let them hang for tonight, then if they need steaming to get the hang just right, I’ll steam them, spray lightly with starch, and let them dry in place. I’m quite happy with the look., and not having to sew extra on the hems makes me more likely to get at the 5-window, frothy, ruffly nightmare on the north side of the room.

EDIT: Well, fuck. We moved the tabletop to make sure the cats didn’t get up on it during the night, and…I found a fucking spot I missed with the 2nd coat. I daubed some urethane onto it, and hopefully it’ll be dry by morning so I can sand it flat and APPLY ANOTHER GODDAMNED COAT OF THIS STINKING STUFF THAT TAKES DECADES TO DRY. It’s not recommended with the high-build stuff, but I have no choice. Fuck! I was trying so hard not to have any cat hairs or lint drop off my clothes when i was applying it that I missed a spot on the far side. Fuck.

EDIT AGAIN: 2240-ish. It felt dry, so me an’ Old Kitteh said to hell with it and applied another coat. Probably should’ve waited until morning, but meh. At this point, I just want the goddamned thing done and dry enough to take in the house to cure enough that I can flip it over and put the screws in, and be DONE with the whole table and chairs project!

After I cleaned up the cris-mess yesterday, I fired up the belt sander and decided I’d finally finish my table top. That thing ripped through the glue blobs that would’ve taken ages with a palm sander, so I finished it. Bottom got belt sander, 60 grit, 80 grit and 100 grit. Top had already got to 80 grit, so I went over it again with 80, then 100, then 150 and last with 220. I was inspired by the belt sander, so I did the base, too. Belt sander rules, but still, fuck that blue paint, or at least whatever they put over it that turned yellow over the years. Anyway, I sanded that down to 150 grit because it was only getting painted anyway.

I’d decided on Colonial Maple stain because that was the closest I could find to the tables that we got with the house.

That was two coats, but I wasn’t happy with it. A little too light and a little too orange. P was going to Walmart, so I asked him to pick up some polyurethane, and some stain in Early American. While he was gone, I started painting the table base.

He had a lot of stops to make, so I also took down the curtains on the west windows and de-ruffled them. Big pile of ruffles, which I’ll wash later (curtains already washed and dried).

After he got home, I put a coat of the Early American stain over the maple. This is just applied…much too dark.

Wiped off, still wet. Better.

Couple of hours later. I’m still arguing with myself about applying another coat of Early American.

I won the argument. Second coat of Early American. This is the colour I want, and by no coincidence, it matches the colour on the can label of Colonial Maple.

One full coat on the table bottom. One more to go!

Wearing cow jammies and safety glasses, brandishing a Fat Max saw.

P and FireTV

Pwresents! Including 5 lbs of Swedish Fish, a Stanley tape with Blade Armor, a vintage 70s horror book that I used to borrow from Gram, a grass hook, a sweater dryer, big fat socks, CDs and DVDs, and a mini wunderbar. Shoes not mine.

Belt sander and mini grinder. Those are mine.

P, opening his leather jacket from Dennis and Sarah Jane.

P’s TV, sound bar, FireTV and the organizer Old Kitteh got him so my rakes, shovels, forks and such aren’t in the way in the gradge.

My TV, mirroring my phone’s display, courtesy of an MHL cable.

Sarah Claus

Christmas chaos. Guess what I’m doing tomorrow?

I finally got around to doing the dd-wrt firmware upgrade on the Linksys router C gave me, and it worked just fine. I also have our old Linksys; newer firmware, but still supported. I had no more than got the repeater set up than the goddamned power went out (a damaged line somewhere, according to Ameren’s site), but thankfully, I hadn’t yet started the upgrade for the second router, which involves precise timing, DO NOT TOUCH THE ROUTER, requirements for uninterrupted power, and waiting five earth minutes. Anyway, the repeater works, and if I can find an outlet that doesn’t have something cat-related plugged into it, I might move it to the gradge. Dunno…we’ll see when the power comes back on. At least we have OK’s fireplace to keep the gradge warm, and it’s not freezing outside (it’s actually raining ).

EDIT: After I trusted the power to stay on (and watched some Netflix), I flashed the other one. Great signal strength, but no Internet access, and I’m betting I forgot to change the IP from the 192.168.1.2 that I initially typed (before grabbing a clue about IP conflicts). Actually, I know I changed it, but it’s entirely possible that I forgot to click the little Save button, then switched to another tab, losing the change. Now, I can’t get into the settings interface, so I’m going to try a 30-30-30 reset and hope that restores the dd-wrt defaults. Fingers crossed; we could use the signal strength in the Man Cave!

EDIT AGAIN: HALLELUJAH! I’m a god damn network genius!! Okay, I’m the poor slob who finally thought to check the security type. Yep. That’s all it was. I’m such a dumbass. BUT, I’m a dumbass who flashed two old routers and turned them into repeaters so we have better intarwebz in the gradge, and P’s Man Cave connection is literally twice as fast. I also bought two high gain 7dBi antennas on ebay for the gradge repeater. The ones that come with those Linksys routers are 2dBi; I know the antennas are removable on one, so if it makes enough difference, I’ll check the other and if they can be replaced, I’ll be back on ebay! Anyway, yay for wifi coverage!

P.S. My Sennheiser earphones are awesome! Great sound quality, and most importantly, I can lie on my side without having to remove one earphone!

EDIT DAYS LATER: I’ve looked at that screencap many times, and it only just occurred to me that I should’ve immediately realised it wasn’t getting a connection to the main router because it’s broadcasting on channel 6, which means it’s trying to be a router, not a repeater, which would be broadcasting–repeating–the signal on the channel the original uses, which is channel 11. Duh.

Not a $500 item this time, but I’m hoping Sennheiser earphones will be better than the ones that came with my phone, and I’m pretty sure that’s not an unreasonable hope.

These retail for $50-$80, but there’s no way I’d pay that much for headphones of any variety. Amazon Lightning Deal for $19.99, however, sure! They’re due to arrive on Christmas Eve, but even if they don’t, I’ll live. I’ve been thinking about different headphones for a while, but haven’t wanted any enough to pay much for them, so it’s not like I won’t live without them.

Merry Christmas to me, from me!
I finally broke down and bought a new P&S. I love my T2i,  but miss the ability to go from an extreme macro of a dragonfly’s face to a shot of a bird 50′ away in a few seconds. I also missed a swing-out LCD display for shots close to the ground; damselflies are the worst for that. Anyway, I bought myself a Canon SX60; I was going to get the 50 because they removed full manual focus on the 60, replacing it with “auto-assist”, but then it occurred to me that I never used the manual focus on my beloved S3, and it was pretty clunky anyway,  so I opted for 65x zoom over 50x, and wifi capabilities. It was on sale for $499 with free 1-day shipping, plus I had $50 and some change in points. I’m getting it shipped to work so it’s not left on the patio to potentially end up under some low-life thief’s Christmas tree. I also bought two extra batteries; not Canon, but Vivitar that got excellent reviews. Having it now will give me a chance to play with it for a while and get used to what it can and can’t do. It’ll be pretty easy because I’m used to Canon and they’re all fairly similar, but it’s new, so I want some time. I know it’s bad in low light, but that’s true of pretty much all the super zooms, and I bought it for outdoors in broad daylight, so that’s not a problem.