minerals

I was in a hurry after work last night. I had agreed to look at a couple of craigslist dog crates for my sister and brother between 4 and 6 and wanted to get dinner in first. I cooked up a box of quesadilla noodles and browned some turkey burger w/ some corn, salsa, onion peppers, beans and we made up some burritos and nachos. So dinner went really fast and I drove to a nice house in prairie village showing up just before 6. My hurried effort did not pay off though as both dog crates were too small for my sister’s Steve and my brothers Foo. So i drove home with a sad face.

Peanut and Heath had been quite the busy little bees while I was gone and I found all the dishes cleared and washed, the food put away, the toys and everything in the family room put away and caught them in the middle of cleaning up the last of Peanut’s room. I helped put away the train set then Peanut watched some cartoon movie we got from the library and Heath worked from her laptop.

I went into the garage and put together our new hose reel sink contraption.

Once I got it all put together I felt like the engineer that designed this thing and the guy who had just put it together were both geniuses. The thing was so easy and logical to put together. I was worried when I saw the directions had no words but just a picture of the thing exploded with arrows pulling all the pieces back together. I am eager to make the sink prove it’s worth because it looks so cool and useful. besides having a sink outside, the sides fold in for a decent table, it has lots of storage and it reels in your house for you on its own with water pressure power.

So anyway it went together real easy but I decided not to install it yet because it is still cold out and I worry a bit about a dog chewing on it.

I went downstairs and played with a measuring tape, pencil and paper. First I drew pictures of all the walls in the bar, then I measured them and added measurements to my drawings, then I measured and counted all the mirrors we had from a craigslist post a while back.

I also took my toys over to the downstairs fireplace and drew a picture of it with measurements.

Then I went upstairs and caught the end of Peanut’s movie while I got out the calculator and figured out how much of the bar I could cover in mirrors and with Heath’s help figured out the square footage of fireplace tile we would want under a few different plans.

Then the movie ended and Peanut and Heath ate some ice cream and I researched techniques for cutting mirrors with little success. Then Peanut got on his pajamas and brushed his teeth. We read a book about kids with crazy pets and places not to take them (like don’t take your snake for a walk) the second book was about an elephant that had a bird on his head and his friend the pig helped him out. This book had us all laughing. After it Peanut went to bed.

I went back to my drawings, measurements and calculator. Heath and I discussed some plans and I was nervous about the mirrors both not covering as much of the bar as I hoped and me not being able to cut them to go around outlets, lights etc.

Then we came up with another idea for the mirrors. we could put them up in the family room all together and make one big mirror on a large wall. This would require no cutting of glass and would be easier to put up and take down.

So I had two plans for possible weekend projects. Why did I need plans? Well Tony is coming to town and we are going to put new brakes on his car and this should not take long so I want to have things for us to do besides sit around.

So once I had my plans put together I found Stooks and several beers and so we put them in large plastic cups and took Berry for a walk while enjoying the beverages. I did not dress for the cold wind and once my beer was gone I was ready to get home so the walk did not go as far as I thought it would. Afterward Heath went to read in bed and I watched "The Riches" on FX and played on the laptop. I won a load of bricks on craigslist and hope to get them today at lunch.

So now I have another possible project this weekend if the bricks are there and they have a lot of them. I may start working on extending my patio with them. The deck sticks out over the patio a way and the grass below never gets sun so is usually just mud. I am thinking brick would be nicer then the mud so thats my plan.