“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!”

HA!

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…

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.

Tony Vs Paul - Stop motion Fight - Spikedhumor.com

http://break.com/verizon/white_board_stop_motion.html

As many of you know, I have big feet (Really, Big, Feet)…  Size 17 to be exact.  I have searched high and low for a supplier of size 17 ice skates, with little to no luck.  So, of course, this was the first thing I asked them.  The guide came online and had to verify that’s what I really wanted… “Really?  Size 17??”…  Yeah, really.  So, he did the search, with much the same results I had.  Nothing.  I wasn’t really disappointed, as I knew this was one of the hardest queries I could have submitted to him.  Either way, I was impressed by the level of service I got, from a search engine!  It felt very personal, as if we were on a quest, hunting for the Holy Grail together!  (Ok, maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but if you had big feet you’d understand!)

Once your search is complete, and you end the session, you have the option to rate the guide on his (or her!) performance…  I rated my guide as “Great”, since I knew he wasn’t going to find anything…  And I really liked the service.

Anyways, I let him know that BigShoes.com was planning to get some ice skates in this winter, and went on my way.  I highly recommend you give ChaCha.com a try…  If nothing else, maybe you can have a Holy Grail quest of your own with these guys!

http://www.chacha.com - Live Search Engine, Real People Search for You!
http://www.bigshoes.com - Really, Big, Shoes!

Disclaimer: This blog is in no way associated with chacha.com or bigshoes.com