Project 2

OK. We don't use the front door of the house... We use the garage door, so that's where we'll start.  Here's the door.

So you have to figure we'll put the shelf on the wall just as you come through the door.

Lots of issues here. Light switch is in the way. Alarm panel is in the way, and at Christmas the decorations get in the way.








So let's see about the wall opposite the door.

That doorway you see is the downstairs bathroom and the wife says she'd bump her head on the way out if we put it there.

This is the wall to the left of the bathroom wall.  Its probably the best location for the shelf.

Dolphin picture will have to go though.

Project

I have a project that I will be writing about the next several days as I attempt to recreate this:

I will be showing how I do each part and then finish the project.

 To start with I have the following:

I also have a very large board that's out in the garage. I have two more of the holders so I can put in the three seen above.

Keep visiting to see my progress and get the play-by-play.

Retired?

I "retired" in Nov 2007. After 20 years in the military. Unfortunately, I have/had two kids in college, so I couldn't just "retire". Now I'm not saying that I don't enjoy work, but this last week I had off I really got a feeling of what it would be like to really retire. Might have been the excitement of the holidays and the decorating I did, but I wish it could last forever.

Its weeks like this that make me think of opening my own business, but I can never think of what I want to do. There is cooking. I seem to be getting good at that. The wife says I should apply for Master Chef, but I KNOW I'm not that good.

I could do the real engineer thing, but that is really something that would take more time effort and money than I have now. I would love to open a Christmas Store (go figure) complete with a Christmas tree lot. I think that would be fantastic.

Well, I have another 13 years before I can even think about "retiring" for good.

Twelve Days of Christmas

We live in an amazing world. I've always wondered what the twelve days of Christmas represented. Turns out is religiously based (who knew, it was never taught to me in church). It begins on Christmas day and ends on Jan 5th. From Wikipedia: "This period is also known as Christmastide and Twelvetide." also: "Twelfth Night is followed by the Feast of the Epiphany on 6 January."

All this through a simple search. Still drives me crazy when my family asks a search type question when they all have smart phones and could look things up themselves.

Haappppy Biirrrthhdayyy!

Some good memories watching some classic Rankin and Bass:

Yep Frosty the Snowman and Frosty Returns. Rankin and Bass were the Christmas special gurus when we were growing up.

There's a reason why these are still classics. I have the movie on DVD and I might on BluRay, but I'll have to check.

Also finished by living room decorations. This is our normal configuration. I still need to do the outside decorations and the forest of inflatables. I still have to work the formal living room though, its hardly decorated at all.

Tradition

I guess I like the holidays because of tradition. All my favorite traditions happened around the holidays. I remember my mom getting up very early on Thanksgiving to cook the turkey and it would take hours. Now it doesn't seem to take the same amount of time as it did then, but I attribute that to better ovens.

At Christmas, we always went to the neighbors for a party, usually on Christmas eve. Which is why I love our night before the night before Christmas parties we started three years ago.

We have some traditions that we started after the wife and I got married. Some we cheat on, sometimes the tree and decorations for Christmas happen before Thanksgiving.

My Excuse Obviously when the kids were smaller we had additional traditions about when we went to see what Santa brought.

We started a new tradition tonight, not sure if we'll keep it or not. Its the pizza on Thanksgiving eve tradition. Ordered from Pizza Hut, promised in half hour came in hour and 10 minutes.

Its tough to keep traditions going if you only just start them, but I'll think about this more while I'm waiting for Santa.

I still believe.

Little Martha Stewart

Don't ask me why and for goodness sake don't ask the wife, but every year at this time of year, I become little Martha Stewart. I decorate, with candles and runners and everything. I also bake.

Well, at least my family loves me.