The end of 2011

The year is coming to a close and I can't believe all that has happened in 12 months. We've been blessed beyond words with our first house and our amazing baby boy. 2011 will be a year to remember without a doubt.

Christmas was wonderful - we spent the entire weekend at the in-laws house and my brother came down from Denver to hang out. I received great gifts and made off with quite the take, matched and eclipsed, of course, by Jonah who must be the most spoiled, loved baby on the planet. The kid was still opening presents an hour after everyone else was done (mainly because he took a nap while we were opening ours...). I can't fathom how the next Christmas' will go if the first was this big. I commented to Alyssa that he's got enough toys to last him til he's 10!

We played Dominion, Dirty Uno, and a ton of Spades (one of my personal favorite games from my Army days...). I gave the family (mainly for Scott) their custom-made Dominion board that I was still trying to get finished on Thursday last week. It'll get a separate post once I get pictures for it.

Alyssa got her first tattoo last week - 3 silhouetted birds in flight on the left side of her neck descending toward her shoulder. She has no pain tolerance and was surprised by how little it actually hurt. After seeing her get hers, I decided I need to re-engage the planning efforts for my next one(s). Once I get some sketches together, I'll put them up for all to see. The general concept is two bald eagles, wings outstretched, holding an American flag between them. I have a couple different images in my head - just need to put them on paper (or computer) and decide.

I sincerely hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that 2012 holds more blessings and happiness.

Here's my big boy and his AWESOME QUIKSILVER shirt from my sister:

Oak China Buffet

Michael and I spent the last two months working on a china buffet for Donna. She explained what she was looking for and left the rest up to us. Based on her reactions throughout the building process, I'd say we hit the mark. Here are some in-progress photos.

Securing the boards that will be the top with the Kreg Jig.



Dry fitting the frame.






Final assembly of the frame.




The base.



Internal dividers.



Top, wing, and back attached.



Side view of the top - so glossy!




Here is the finished product. I have some more in progress photos, but will have to upload them later.

Finished in the shop.



Finished in the house.



We enjoyed working on this one - hope you like it! Comments and thoughts are always welcome.

The next set of projects will be for Michael's long-time friend Scott, specifically for his condo in Breckenridge.

Double Fatty Melt

I feel compelled to tell everyone about an experience I had last week that changed a fundamental view on eating that I've held for a long time; portion size is based on how hungry you are at the time you sit down to eat.

After my coworker Jeannine mentioned the restaurant Crave Burger and some of their burger creations, I knew I had to give it a try. I continually drooled over their pictures and set my mind on the Fatty Melt. We finally found some time to make the trip. I'd psyched myself into a frenzy knowing what was to come.



The place was pretty hoppin' for a weekday afternoon, so my expectations grew even higher - the assumption being that all these people liked the food and service.

******SPOILER ALERT******* (Continuing to read may spoil your appetite....)

When our waiter appeared at the table to take our order, I asked if they could make a double Fatty instead of the regular. He looked a bit confused and had to go ask the chef if he could do it. If you haven't been to the link and looked at the goodness, here's the description of my lunch (and conveniently it acted as my dinner, even without a to-go container....):

Grilled Cheese sandwich (acting as a bun....), 1/3lb burger, 2 strips of bacon, tomato, pickle, grilled cheese sandwich (helping hold it together), ANOTHER 1/3lb burger, 2 MORE strips of bacon, More tomato, more pickles, and ANOTHER grilled cheese sandwich to cap it off.

Now that you're either really hungry or disgusted beyond belief, I'll tell you that I ate the entire thing. I also ate most of my sweet potato french fries and had a pair of Fat Tires to wash it all down ;) I don't have any idea how many calories were involved, but my guess is LOTS!!! It was delicious in every way. I hacked it apart with a fork and knife because taking a bite of the thing was out of the question (please keep your "mouth size" comments to yourself ;) ) I was more full than I've been in a very, very long time. I told myself that it was preparation for Thanksgiving and in a very secretive way, I hope that Alyssa makes leftover turkey sandwiches.....with grilled cheese sandwich buns....

Return to the land of the daywalkers

I get the pleasure of participating in major, national level exercises a couple times a year for work. The idea behind an exercise is to implement scenarios and to react accordingly. A wonderful concept to simulate damaged networks or elevated threats from other world superpowers, but a significant pain in the butt to anyone who maintains a semi-normal sleep schedule. I'm usually the day time guy that mans the fort from 6am to 6pm, but for this lovely exercise, I worked nights. Sometimes a perspective change is welcome and can remind you how your nice, simple, synchronized, steady schedule can be completely flipped around and destroyed. If you've never switched your work / sleep / family schedule 180 degrees, try it sometime. Go to sleep at 7am, wake up at 12:30pm, go back to sleep (try...) for another hour if it's not too light in your coffin..err..bedroom. When you've reached your daytime sleep quota, wake up and try to figure out why it's so bright. Stumble around rubbing your eyes for a bit whilst trying to clear the cobwebs from your mind. The one constant between schedules is the requirement to ingest coffee within 15 minutes of waking up. I'm addicted - don't judge. Once the first cup of coffee kicks in, get cleaned up and dressed for work, then out the door you go. Once at work, try not to look at the clock which constantly reminds you that you have 12.3 hours left until you can go home. Since the rest of the world is sleeping comfortably (in the dark...), there really isn't anyone to talk to that isn't in the office. I have a feeling the first YouTube surfers were shift workers. During my night shifts, I watched more T.V. (for situational awareness, of course...) and Internet videos than I have in the last year combined. The later the hour, the funnier the videos. Good times.

On occasion during these exercises, we move to our other office in Cheyenne Mountain.



Having been to some very, very cool places in my life, this one ranks high on the list. The mystery surrounding "the mountain" always peaked my interest growing up. The thought of a complex, hardened facility INSIDE a mountain is pretty cool. My first trip inside, it didn't disappoint. After many trips inside for work over the last couple years, it hasn't lost it's appeal. I still enjoy riding the bus down the long tunnel to the doors, knowing I'm headed deeper into the mountain. From a physics and historical perspective, the place is absolutely amazing and I feel privileged to call it my other office. The downside is driving from the mountain all the way home after a long, night shift. Fortunately this exercise only included a single night up there.



So after 5 nights, they decided not to have a night shift anymore and that we should transition back to "daywalkers." Alyssa was glad to have me home (and awake) for more than an hour and I could tell her stress level dropped substantially at the news. The rest of the week should be fairly normal and will culminate in a 4-day weekend to celebrate Veteran's day, a personal favorite holiday of mine.

In other news, Jonah has a tooth. I don't know how it's possible, but the small, human, boy-child that lives in my house is growing up. I hear that growing a tooth is tough work and based on his fussiness levels and the revoltingly explosive diarrhea that my angelic wife is dealing with, it seems to be taking its toll on him. It also means he's growing up. Every person with kids that asks about him tells us how fast it'll go and how fast he'll grow into a little boy. I have no doubt he will, but for now his mother and I are happy with the chubby-cheeked, little (ish) baby that he is.

Homecoming

One of the wonderful perks of my job is the occasional travel. The trips are spaced out well and the majority only last a week which means little interference with weekends. Since I started in mid 2007, I've been to Hawaii, California, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, Virginia, Washington D.C., Wyoming, and Texas - all on the government's dime. Those aren't all glorious vacation destinations, but each place was nice in-and-of itself. As much as I enjoy my time abroad, I can always feel Colorado pulling me home and more importantly, my family waiting anxiously for my return.

Coming home after a week away is always wonderful. Seeing Alyssa and Jonah through FaceTime on the IPad is a nice option to get me through the week, but nothing compares to seeing them in person. I swear Jonah put on a whole pound while I was in Boston last week! I've been lucky enough to take Alyssa with me to Norfolk and D.C. in the last 2 years - an opportunity for HER to do some sight-seeing while I'm in meetings or at a conference. She traversed D.C. by herself last December while 2 months pregnant and had a blast (it was 0-10 degrees each day....). We both agreed that after a week, it was time to go home.

Now that we finally own our home, this feeling is amplified even more. Feeling truly attached to a piece of property and knowing I've provided that for my family makes me that much more anxious to get back to working on it and improving it in any way possible. I've always considered myself a home-body - willingly passing on social outings for the comfort of a project, a movie, or some "time at home." Fortunate for me, Alyssa is of the same mind. We have to force ourselves out the door sometimes in order to avoid being labeled as hermits. This feeling plays right into my compulsion to get home when I'm away.

I can trace this feeling to my youth (no age comments from ANYONE!) and never really feeling that any place was "home." Not to say I didn't have a home, just no significant attachment to a place for long enough to build those feelings. Grand Junction was close, but because I have no family there and don't visit often (twice in 11 years) it feels like my connections to it are lost. The longest held feelings were to my grandparents home in Cameron Park, CA. They bought that house in 1982 just before I was born and I helped my Gramme (no comments again...) move and sell it in 2007. I had more memories in that house than any other to date. That's why I'm so happy that Jonah will hopefully grow up in our house and feel ties to it for many years. For that matter, I already feel tied to it and that's why I love coming home.

Long weekend

Despite my 4-day being turned into a 3-day, it was very productive. I took last Wednesday off to help Alyssa's uncle Kevin move. It was a snap decision for them to relocate across town and went off without a hitch. Unfortunately, that negated my plan to take Friday off. Regardless, Alyssa and I set our to-do list up and started ticking off items left and right. I finished back-filling the window well area, put down the "cloth," and moved all the rock back to cover it up. Just need a couple tons more rock to finish that job completely.

My darling wife has wanted to paint our main level half-bath since we moved in. She also planned to take the standard wall-to-wall mirror off and replace it with something more classy. Check and check. I did some research on taking down mirrors (especially ones put up using liquid nails) and with the help of a couple different recommendations, we were able to get it down without damage to walls, the mirror, or either of us. Now that it's finished, it looks great! (as usual, pics to follow...)

Our next furniture to-do was the desk (mentioned previously). Alyssa was finally sold off on the idea and the style of the desk, so we painstakingly moved it from the garage to the office/loft upstairs. Even being broken down into the major pieces, the thing was pretty heavy. We moved everything off the old desk, put the pieces in place, screwed it all together, and moved everything back. After getting it all together and stepping back, we were both very pleased with the dark monstrosity. (yeah, yeah....pics later....). Now we just have to find the time to move things into the drawers and cubbies. Having that done, we decided to head East to her parents house for homemade pizza and a movie (Transformers 3). We stayed late watching the movie and finally made the journey home without our adorable, little boy. Since our plan was to be back at their house Saturday morning, we left him for a sleepover instead of waking him up twice to get him home.

Saturday was spent doing family stuff - I'll spare you all the details. After that, we invited our good friends (and neighbors) Steve and Cat over for dinner and to play some Dominion. Alyssa made a taco stew in the crock pot and it was perfect for the end of a cold and snowy Colorado fall day. Great time hanging out, playing games. We enjoyed it so much that we spent Sunday evening at our Pastor's house playing Dominion with them as well.

Monday was a relax day. I try not to take too many "down days," but after the last couple weeks, I felt called to sit around and treat my XBox to some overdue attention. I sometimes wonder why I keep the thing at all - Monday was a tribute to why. I thoroughly enjoyed some quiet, feet-up, not a care in the world time. I did some things around the house, but overall, the day was a wash. I watched Big Trouble in Little China and played XBox. I won't have another good opportunity to do that for a while, so it was great.

Back to work today. Golf tournament on Friday. My new watch should be here today, I hope! Women's Woodworking class to teach tonight. More work on the Oak China Cabinet Thursday night (progress pics below). Trip to the Boston area next week. Busy, busy, busy!!

Running Man

I started running again back in mid-May after deciding I needed to get outside for some of my workouts instead of staying in the basement all the time. So far, I've run between 2.3 and 7.6 miles a couple times a week depending on my schedule. I've noticed a huge difference in how I feel throughout the day after these runs as they're almost always early (4am) in the morning. I hope to keep it up through the winter, but having no treadmill means I'll have to face the cold temps and whatever else Mother Nature throws at me. Colorado winters aren't always terrible; you can count on at least a couple mornings around 0 degrees with patchy ice on the roads.

I ran 3.3 miles this morning - took off at 5 after sleeping in for half an hour. I finished some reading and then forced myself out the door. Most mornings I feel like I could stay in bed til 10 or 11. Guess that's what you feel like when the candle is burning at both ends. Enough whining - I pushed myself hard for the first mile despite a chilly headwind that didn't help with keeping my eyes open. After that it was smooth sailing minus the fact that at 5:15 it's pitch black out and my route passes by 2 street lights total. I REALLY need to get a headlamp and a reflective belt / vest. Running in the dark should be a sport all in itself. Each step is an adventure in road construction especially considering Marksheffel is still under construction and you never know where they put their spare chunks of asphalt, concrete, or dirt. I'm only a little bitter after a run in with some misplaced barbed wire fencing 3 weeks ago....grrrr

So, off to clean up and get out the door for work. Going to the shop tonight to assist Michael and some friends with picture frames and "intro to woodworking" class. Should be a blast. I still owe you pics of the garage....maybe I'll run (ha) out and get a couple shots right now to add to this later. Ok - here are some pics of a shelf I refinished for Alyssa's friend Lisamarie and some shots of the garage (they'd be better, but I didn't want to move the truck and I still have some mudding to do...). The shovel / rake hanger was made from a scrap piece of plywood.

Productive Weekend and Hello October

I blinked and the weekend was gone. The good news is that a great many things were completed during my blink; new microwave....installed!


Now we can get rid of this little guy:



I finished the 2nd Dominion board which will belong to the Zimmermans - hoping to give it to Barry this week (I had some better pictures and didn't get them sent to my email this morning :( ).



I finished drywalling the garage and most of the taping/mudding in the early hours yesterday morning. (those pics to follow when I don't have the truck in the way).

We spent most of Saturday helping a friend move before Alyssa had to run off to worship practice. Her friend Lauren was kind enough to watch Jonah while we were assisting with the move, so I headed East to pick him up with a quick stop by the woodshop to get some scrap firewood we'd promised them. Ended up with a desk in the bed of the truck along with all the firewood. Yet another attack by the to-do monster as the desk will need some refinishing before it's house-ready. I'll get right on that...(here's a pic of the desk's twin now in use by the Grojean clan -)



Alyssa isn't sold on it yet. I think that after a little sanding and a fresh coat of walnut stain, it'll look great. More on that later.

Perhaps the most important accomplishment from the weekend - we bought Alyssa a brand new car (actually happened Thursday, but we'll count it anyway...). She found herself a 2012 VW Jetta SE (even though she labeled it as a 2010...don't be fooled) We've needed a safety upgrade in the vehicle department desperately and this is exactly what we were hoping for. Top safety rating, looks great, warranty, 3 years of free maintenance, and excellent great fuel economy. It even has a navigation system / DVD player built in. She's happy = I'm happy.

So, pretty good weekend - makes me that much more anxious for the coming 4-day at the end of this week. By default, I should be at least twice as productive ;)

Also, where did summer go?!?! Not only did I blink and miss the weekend, I blinked and missed the summer. Maybe I'll catch it on the next trip around.

Home Improvement

I enjoyed watching Tim "the Tool Man" Taylor (Home Improvement) work on just about every project possible while growing up. Now that I have a house and a wife (both with their respective "to-do" lists), I find myself always looking at the next 11 things that I need to take care before it gets cold outside (finish the garage) or before it rains again (backfill the new drainage ditch) or before the week gets too busy (stain my current wood projects). I've learned so much from the great men in my life - skills that have proven to be invaluable when it comes to my project list(s). Fortunately for me and my family, I'm not the accident prone Tim Taylor and I try not to bite off more than I can chew. Now don't get me wrong - I LOVE having projects galore. I've waited so long to have my own house so that I could do some of these things. I just wish I had an unlimited supply of time and energy to get it all in while still being able to spend some quality time with Alyssa and Jonah and maybe some of the friends I think I still have (not just on Facebook...). This juggling act requires a precise amount of finesse in order to keep the proverbial apple cart from upsetting. I tend to focus so diligently on a single project that at times I forget about the rest of them and have to be pulled away (forcibly at times ;) ) and back into synch with the other to-dos. These lists don't include the woodshop to-dos, either - a list that grows weekly and will never be complete.

Ah yes, home improvement - not just a catchy title of a 90's sitcom tied to a main character who worked a lot, but a concept that Alyssa and I are embracing as new homeowners. Since moving in, we've successfully improved the space bit by bit and have high hopes for what our castle will one day be. We spent some time at Ferguson on Monday thanks to Alyssa's Aunt-in-law. She works there and has been keeping an eye out for a new kitchen faucet and sink so we can replace the broken and stained ones in the house. Not only did we find what we were looking for, we stumbled on a over-range microwave for half off that will fit beautifully. Kevin and Sheena brought it to us last night and when I finally got it in the house, I realized that our old microwave will literally fit in the new one. The thing is gargantuan! (will post pics when it's installed...maybe even with the old one in it....)I'm not sure how we ever lived with our puny excuse for a cooking device! Needless to say, our trip to Ferguson showed us some potential priority list re-writes (can you say Corian?!)(or hardwood??!!) and added some different dimensions to our planning efforts. I still think the basement is high on the list especially if home daycare (for any ages) is in the mix for Alyssa. The plan is to keep tucking money away and slowly procure framing materials, then eventually host a framing party where all my great family and friends with framing experience come over and knock it out (rather put it all in...) in a day / weekend. Ideally, the same concept would be used for all the aspects of basement finishing, e.g. electrical, plumbing, drywall, tape and texture, painting, etc. Take note - that's a lot of parties that we'll host in the coming years. I'll post the play-by-play of each project here as I've done for the last week. I feel like I've done a solid job of posting as of yet - here's to hoping I keep it up!

Welcome to the woodshop!

As promised, I'm going to walk you through Michael's woodshop and some of the wonderful tools that we have at our disposal for any number of projects. Before I get there, though, lets start with where this woodworking endeavor started. Michael began his hobby in a 1-car garage using foldable benches that could be easily moved if a vehicle needed to be put inside. He then upgraded with his last house to a 2-car shop that had some fixed benches and didn't require that the primary tools be moved, but that the less oft-used ones be pulled out when needed. This setup wasn't ideal, but allowed for quite a bit of productivity and it was where my woodworking skills began. So, here it is:

Above: Sign given to Michael as a shop-warming gift / below: compressor room and wood storage in the finish room.

Desk and planning area:

Fridge, stereo, T.V., and tool cabinets:

Stain and hazardous material cabinet (given to us by my grandparents):

Most of our work is done between 2 large workbenches:

Ok, now for the hardware:

The mobile clamp rack - clamps include 1, 2, 3 foot, and some large pipe-clamps.

The planer - used to get pieces to the right thickness.

The large, wall-mounted clamp rack is used for table tops, dresser tops, and any other large glue-ups.

Table router.

Table saw.

Jointer.

12 Inch, Compound Mitre saw. There's a glimpse into where I spend my Thursdays and occasional weekend days. Hope you enjoyed the snapshot!

Check another one off!

Posted a couple Ipad pics of the hardwood floors in the last post - thanks for getting those, Suzan. Had a wonderful church service this morning - significantly more tame than last week (minus the fish in a blender....). Went to the shop after talking for a bit, had a quick bite to eat, and went right to work on the trash can. Michael made some progress between Thursday's start and today meaning we had even less to do. I cut all the face (front and back) trim Thursday and apparently made all the right cuts:



So we started in on the door and the drawer. I took some quick measurements and started ripping the pieces we had set aside while Michael started cutting some 1x2 out of the nicer pine for the door face.







After a couple hours of working in parallel, we joined back up to attach the completed door and sort out what we wanted to do for a drawer runner. We'd intentionally left enough space for a bottom mounted, single rail, then decided we didn't like the thought of the drawer being so high and having to block under both sides to keep it from wobbling. We eventually decided to use 1/4 inch strips of oak from front to back, sanded very smooth, to allow the pine drawer to slide in and out.



Once the drawer and tilting door were mounted, we started some of the finishing touches, specifically routing the rounded edge of the top, softening ALL of the very sharp exposed edges, and burning my "brand" into the interior.



So, here is the "finished" product until Suzan paints it and adds the hardware. I'll be sure to advise when she gets her pictures posted.





Overall, very happy with how it turned out and even happier with how it was received. I'm sure she'll love it for many, many years to come...even if it took 3 years to finally get it!

Stay tuned for the next post - Intro to the shop - coming tomorrow :)