Friday Night Photos

It's Friday night, which means it's time for my Friday Night photo dump--just random pictures I've taken this week that I didn't really have a reason to post elsewhere.

As I write this, Duck is sitting on my lap--it's become a routine, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that he does this EVERY DAY. When I blog, I always like to sit on the couch in my bedroom with my laptop resting on my thighs--and within two minutes, without fail, Duck comes in and insists on sitting between me and the computer. He likes to be as close to my face as he can, so he sits up on my chest.

As if that doesn't make it difficult enough to type a blog post, he gets annoyed when I don't pay attention to him--so he stretches his paws to touch all over my face, usually my forehead, until I pet him. If I didn't think he was the most adorable cat ever, I would lock him out of my room when I blog. Instead, I just try my best to work around him.

Remember when my prescription sunglasses were stolen from my car? Well, I got a new pair! They are the exact same ones that were stolen--I didn't even have to go in and see the doctor. I just asked if they could place the same order as last time, with the same frames, and luckily those frames were still available. I hate picking out frames! It's so nice to have the glasses again when I drive.

A blog reader, Lindsey, emailed me to suggest some board games that I might like. I ended up buying this one called Carcassonne for Jerry and I to play (when reading the description, the pieces reminded me of the book I was reading at the time--'The Evening and the Morning'. Below is actually a picture from me playing against myself--hahaha. I like to try to learn games before playing them with Jerry, so I play both players to understand it first. It's a fun game! I bought "The Big Box" version because it comes with 11 expansions--little tweaks to the game. (Amazon affiliate link)

Speaking of games, Jerry and I still LOVE Ticket to Ride. Whenever we'd play, I kept saying that I needed to make something to put our cards in while we play; sometimes we wind up with so many cards in our hands that it's hard to see what we need. Also, I hate always having to pick up the cards to look at the route I'm trying to build.

So, this is what I came up with--super duper simple. Slots for the cards, slightly angled, and a lip in the front to hold the route cards where they are easily visible while playing. 

Eli was playing catcher at his game the other day, and he caught a pitch in the dirt. It was a great stop, but he bruised the heck out of his thumb. He said his thumb was completely numb after it happened, and by the end of the game, it was hugely swollen. It's almost back to normal now.

Remember how excited I was to make the jig for my table saw that allowed me to make half-lap joints? Well, I had to route out a single side of each board so that when I fit them together to make up a square frame, there would be a recession on the inside part of the frame--that's where I would put a panel of wood to complete the cabinet door. 

Well, I didn't take into account that half of the boards would be turned upside down when piecing them together, and I cut the groove on the same face of all of the boards--so it meant that half of the boards were useless! I just gave up at that point. The cabinet is going to stay in the garage anyway, so I'm not going to bother doing it all over again and wasting more wood.

My hand/arm is starting to heal. I've been icing it with an awkward ice pack that is meant for draping over a shoulder. I'd bought an ice wrap for my wrist and one for my elbow, but they were too small--I guess I just have enormous arms. So, I bought some of these ice packs and I'm going to use the sewing machine to make my own wraps that will hold them in place on my elbow, forearm, wrist, and hand. This is a much cheaper way of doing it.

After finishing 'The Evening and the Morning', I started a new book--'Looking for Alaska' by John Green (Amazon affiliate link). After reading a few pages of it, I realized that I'd read it before! However, I don't remember anything about it, really, so I'm going to read it anyways. I saw that it's a TV show (there is only one season) so I'm excited to finish the book and watch the show.

I was finally able to bring my orange chair back into the house from the garage (I took it out there when we set up the Christmas tree, because the living room was crowded). Then I was trying to figure out a solution for board games and shoes and all that stuff while I was refinishing the Pottery Barn furniture. Now the living room is back in order, and I'm glad to have my favorite chair back! Estelle is, too ;)

I'm running pretty low on scrap wood--I've been trying to make projects out of it all year because of the ridiculous cost of lumber. Finally, I splurged yesterday and bought a sheet of plywood and some 2x4's. I'm going to build a workbench with a large outfeed for my table saw. It will make cutting boards much easier. I'm waiting for a couple of things to arrive from Amazon tomorrow, and then I can get to working on it. I started sketching in where I want the table saw to be.

My seedlings are growing! I'm so excited that a few of them lived. Remember when I wrote about how Duck and Chick like to jump up on top of the refrigerator and eat the seedlings? Someone suggested that I put a plastic baggie over them and it worked. I have four basil plants and three bell pepper plants. The rest of them were eaten by the cats. I'm just hoping that I can keep them alive long enough to move them outside. I'm going to build a little box for them.

This is the result of the snow we got. It was much more than I expected (maybe 4-5 inches total). And to compare, check out the same angle 24 hours later. It was like it never happened!

That's Michigan for you :)