It’s a good thing Sasha doesn’t read the blog, because she’d probably disown me after reading this one… After her operations yesterday, I picked Sasha up at about 5:30 after work. They bring her out, and she’s got this big cone on her head! I knew she would have it, but knowing it and seeing it are two different things! I couldn’t help but laugh a little (And feel a little bad for laughing) when she came out. She was pretty miserable afterwards… She would just sit there with her head hung low… She probably thought she was being punished!

I took her outside, and the first order of business was getting her into the car. Although paper thin, the cone takes up a surprising amount of volume. I showed her the kennel in the back seat, opened the door, and said “Get in your house!”… She looked at me like I was stupid or something, as if to say “Do you not see this frickin’ cone on my head? I barely fit in there without it, what makes you think this thing makes me any smaller?”

I took her around to the other side, and let her in on the front passenger seat. She calmly sat down on the seat (A bit muddy, but I could clean that up…) and waited patiently for me to get in. The drive home was uneventful… She sat there calmly while I rubbed her ears… After a while she started drooling on the seat… That’s normal for her though. She gets a little carsick normally, never mind when she’s had surgery.

Upon getting her home, she was more attentive, but wouldn’t eat much… And with the new contraption on her head, she tended to try to go through spaces she no longer fit… Outside, running across the snow, she would look down to “inspect” something, and drag the cone on the ground filling it with snow. Inside, walking down the hallway, she would run into the wall… then get caught on the dehumidifier, then stuck on the doorframe… Eating was a whole new thing for her… She’d lower her head over the bowl, so the cone was touching the floor all the way around… I couldn’t help but think of some weird alien movie where the cone lowers down and sucks up the scrambling humans into the UFO… Freaky…

So far she’s doing well though, and should make a full recovery in no time!

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This story has always been a favorite of mine and my friends, so I have posted it here to save for all eternity, never to be lost again! enjoy!

By Richard Aronson (aronson@sierratel.com)

In the early seventies, Ed Whitchurch ran “his game,” and one of the participants was Eric Sorenson. Eric plays something like a computer. When he games he methodically considers each possibility before choosing his preferred option. If given time, he will invariably pick the optimal solution. It has been known to take weeks. He is otherwise, in all respects, a superior gamer.

Eric was playing a Neutral Paladin in Ed’s game. He was on some lord’s lands when the following exchange occurred:

ED: You see a well groomed garden. In the middle, on a small hill, you see a gazebo.
ERIC: A gazebo? What color is it?
ED: (Pause) It’s white, Eric.
ERIC: How far away is it?
ED: About 50 yards.
ERIC: How big is it?
ED: (Pause) It’s about 30 ft across, 15 ft high, with a pointed top.
ERIC: I use my sword to detect good on it.
ED: It’s not good, Eric. It’s a gazebo.
ERIC: (Pause) I call out to it.
ED: It won’t answer. It’s a gazebo.
ERIC: (Pause) I sheathe my sword and draw my bow and arrows. Does it respond in any way?
ED: No, Eric, it’s a gazebo!
ERIC: I shoot it with my bow (roll to hit). What happened?
ED: There is now a gazebo with an arrow sticking out of it.
ERIC: (Pause) Wasn’t it wounded?
ED: OF COURSE NOT, ERIC! IT’S A GAZEBO!
ERIC: (Whimper) But that was a +3 arrow!
ED: It’s a gazebo, Eric, a GAZEBO! If you really want to try to destroy it, you could try to chop it with an axe, I suppose, or you could try to burn it, but I don’t know why anybody would even try. It’s a @#$%!! gazebo!
ERIC: (Long pause. He has no axe or fire spells.) I run away.
ED: (Thoroughly frustrated) It’s too late. You’ve awakened the gazebo. It catches you and eats you.
ERIC: (Reaching for his dice) Maybe I’ll roll up a fire-using mage so I can avenge my Paladin.

At this point, the increasingly amused fellow party members restored a modicum of order by explaining to Eric what a gazebo is. Thus ends the tale of Eric and the Dread Gazebo. It could have been worse; at least the gazebo wasn’t on a grassy gnoll.

Categories: Jokes
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I’ve added a new gallery for our pets, where I will post the occasional shot of our freaky animals. When I post new pictures, I will usually have a short blog entry about them as well… Visit their gallery here to see what they are up to!

Here’s a recent shot of Sasha… she’s about 6 months old now, and full of energy. She’s usually calm, and doesn’t bark, but when visitors come by she turns into an uncontrollable ball of spinning, jumping, and licking fur. She’s just over 35 lbs now… With any luck she should reach 65 to 75 lbs once she’s grown!

Her and Max are quite the duo… Max loves to torment her by running past her cage, jumping all over the place, and sometimes even stealing her treats and dog food! Sasha is booked in for tomorrow (The 12th) to get “fixed”, tattooed and have her dew claws removed. She will be staying at Expressway Kennels over the Christmas Holidays, and I’m sure we’ll both miss her!

Here’s a recent shot of Max… He’s quite the building inspector. During all our work in the basement he’s been right there, rolling in the sawdust, playing in the dirt, and sleeping on the insulation. Even when the plumber was over digging below our foundation, Max was right in there digging with him… Although he had a different intent than the plumber…

Max is quite the stud, as you can see from his shots. He really stretches out and just “lays there” whenever he gets a chance… draping his lags and tail wherever they might land. He loves to torment Sasha, and climb up on the fish tank to “get a better look”. He’s a real talker too, when you tell him to get down, he cries at you until you swat him. Max is scheduled in tomorrow as well… He’s getting his front claws removed! I’m sure he will be *pissed* at us about that one after! Max will be staying with my parents in Estevan over the Christmas break… He’s sure to have a great time there, tormenting Andrea’s cats!

Categories: Photo Comment
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After arriving at home from work on Friday, I spent about four hours hanging drywall in the bathroom. I completed the interior walls of the bathroom, except for the bit above the closet door. I should be able to finish that off tonight. It was fairly easy work, besides the one full size sheet I had to hang across the doorway. I put my drill into my toolbelt, lifted the sheet with both hands, then put my shoulder into it while I got a few screws in place. I don’t recommend trying that… Help is always necessary when hanging drywall horizontally!

The rest of the weekend was spent planning and assembling the remaining plumbing hookups for the bathroom. To get things started, I figured out where the shower valve would be placed on the wall, and cut a hole for the valve to poke through. I assembled the valve with it’s proper pipes, to be coupled to the rest of the pipes later…

On Sunday, Lee was over helping, and we worked on finishing off the system. We added these two valves above the laundry room, so that I could cut off the water to the bathroom in a hurry if necessary. After soldering these, we later discovered the hot side leaking, so we had to resolder it. Later that night, Chantale and I noticed the cold side dripping, so we also had to resolder that one!

While waiting for the valves to cool down, we soldered the shower valve assembly in place (Seen above). This one was easy, as I had soldered all the lines the day before… All that was needed was to couple it to the water lines hanging in the wall. It turns out one of my threaded connections started leaking later that night, so that one had to be rewrapped with teflon tape and reseated.

After working on the shower hookup, we attacked the sink hookup. My first beginner mistake a month ago was bringing the water lines off on the wrong side, resulting in the hot and cold pipes in the wall being backwards. This fancy crossover was assembled to bring them back to the right side. Amazingly, this rather complex connection didn’t leak at all!

Later that night, after Lee left, Chantale and I finished up the toilet connection (This one was easy!) and let the water in! As stated earlier, we discovered a leak on the cold water valve in the laundry room (And resoldered it), and a very slow leak on one of the threaded connections to the shower valve. That one was a little more work, but not too bad!

In my opinion, it all turned out rather nice… I’m leaving the system pressurized for the next week to make sure no leaks develop. To view more pictures, be sure to click on any of the pictures in this post and browse through our gallery!

Categories: Basement Renovations, Photo Comment
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What do you get when you cross Star Wars and American Pie? American Jedi of course! If this was a real movie, I’d be there to see it!

Categories: Linkage
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This Mastercraft Maximum Rotary Tool (Mastercraft’s version of RotoZip) was on sale for half price… $87.50, down from $175. Since I’ve had good success with Mastercraft Maximum in the past, I decided to give it a go… and so far I’m really impressed! With the included drywall bit, we’ve been able to make cutting out doorways, outlets, windows, lights, and vent openings MUCH easier. For outlets and vent openings, you simply insert the bit through the drywall in the center of the fixture, and then cut across until you hit the box or vent. You then pull the bit slowly out, and carefully cut just past the edge of the fixture. Finally, you push the bit back in and guide it around the outside of the box or vent.

For windows and doors, you just have to guide the bit along the edge of the 2×4 and hold the piece being cut out to keep it from falling and tearing the paper. To cut a circular light fixture opening, just screw on the circle cutting attachment, set it for the right radius, and cut away! Drywall bits have no cutting surface at the end of the bit, so it can travel easily along the edge of a metal box or 2×4 framing.

This tool came with a variety of attachments, including the plunge router base, snake attachment, circle cutter, angle grinder, and two different depth gauges, one with a handle and one without. All of the attachments snap on in seconds, making it easy to change cutting methods. The angle grinder uses a short flexible shaft to connect the rotary tool to the gears that run the angle grinder… I’ve already broken this shaft! After talking to the Canadian Tire guys, they recommend I call the number in the manual and order a replacement part for it… I will try that first thing on Monday.

Overall, I would HIGHLY recommend this tool if you plan to do a lot of drywall work. It cuts faster and smoother than a hand drywall saw, leaving a more professional finish. Add to that the fact that it can use any Dremel/Rotary tool bit with the included collets, and you should never need another rotary tool! Unfortunately, it was only on sale at one of the three stores here, and it’s no longer on sale… Keep an eye out for a good deal on it!

Categories: Photo Comment, Tools
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A unix system administrator joined the Army. As part of his basic training, he went out on the rifle range. He fired 99 shots at the target, and missed the target with every shot! His Drill Instructor tried to find out why.

“What’s the matter with you?” asked the DI. “Why can’t you hit the target? What were you in civilian life?”

“I was a unix system administrator,” replied the new recruit, “and I don’t know why I can’t hit the target. Let me see…”

The system administator checked his rifle, checked his rifle again, and checked his rifle a third time. He then put his finger in front of the muzzle, pulled the trigger, and blew the end of his finger off!

“Well,” the system administator said, writhing in pain, “the bullets are leaving here fine. The trouble must be on the other end!”

Categories: Jokes
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Proved them wrong I did!

HA!

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On the left, the original stack of drywall (Plus all of the insulation, more than half of which has been used already)… On the right, the stack as of December 4th, 2006. Of the original 90 sheets of drywall, we have used about 40 sheets. Based on walls/ceilings completed, we figure we are just about half done hanging drywall. At this rate, we should have just the right amount of drywall, if not a bit extra!

In this shot, you can see Max perusing our work… He has been a real work-cat… From day one he has been involved in every aspect of this project:

• Climbing on and under the pile of debris
• Walking in the cement and leveler when I poured it
• Clawing up and laying in the insulation
• Laying in the pile of sawdust by the miter saw
• Playing with random objects (Nails, screws, wood, wire, screwdrivers, etc) on the floor
• Laying in the trench that the plumber dug beneath the concrete, and then
• Using the same trench as a litter box…
• Laying on the pile of drywall while Colin tries to cut it…

I’m sure there’s more, but that’s all I could think of for now! It’s always fun having a weird cat around…

Categories: Basement Renovations, Photo Comment
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This is a picture of my office, after we finished hanging all the drywall. In this shot, you can see the hole cut out for the air duct… It was cut out using a Mastercraft Maximum rotary tool, very similar to a RotoZip. This tool is extremely useful for drywall work! We haven’t cut the holes out for the lights yet, but their distances from the wall are marked along the joists, so we can use the same tool with it’s included circle cutter to cut out 5 inch holes for the recessed lighting.In order to make it as quiet as possible in these rooms, and to reduce noise traveling through the floor to the rooms upstairs, we’ve insulated all the ceiling and wall spaces with Roxul Safe & Sound insulation. This stuff has great acoustical blocking qualities, and is also a great fire block… It will not burn!

This is the storage/work room in the northwest corner of the basement. To the east it opens into my office, and to the south into the furnace room through a pocket door. We put up drywall everywhere in this room, ceilings included. The floor will eventually get new tough linoleum. I plan to build a workbench directly below the window (Thus the high outlets, for tools), and storage shelving along the north wall (On the right).

This is a shot of the furnace room… The walls in here are insulated and covered in drywall. The ceiling will not be drywalled, however I will be putting in as much insulation as possible, and holding it up with vapor barrier plastic. I am undecided about how far I will go to finish the walls in this room. I might mud them and not paint them, or I might just mud and prime them. The floor will have it’s linoleum scraped off, and painted with high quality gray concrete cement.

Categories: Basement Renovations, Photo Comment
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