Aberrant Prose

Surprise! A toy cabinet!

When Kathy, Rylan and Aubrey came to visit us (they flew home just this morning), there was something new in our living room. Something I have been wanting to blog about but with Robert wanting it to be a total surprise I held off doing so until now.

When Rylan was old enough we pulled out old Play Family Fisher-Price Toys from the barn; toys from Chris and Kathy’s childhood. He loved them so much we decided to keep them in the house. Every time Rylan left we ended up piling them haphazardly on a coffee table next to our living room half wall. I came up with building a toy cabinet. About a month or so ago Robert decided he needed a new project and was ready to build it.

I seized the moment and quickly drew up a very rough sketch for a 6-foot x 2-foot toy cabinet. For the top I sketched in side rails to keep marbles and small things from falling off the edge and a back panel for inserting flat squares of wood with letters and pictures on them. I was sure he would nix my ideas. He went along with the back panel even knowing what a challenge it would be to make slots for each square. However, instead of hand cutting flat squares of wood (a very arduous task) he came up with using leftover tiles from when we tiled our kitchen counters in 1985. He then talked me into using half rounds instead of railing (he told me railing would be ridiculous to try to build on such a small scale). On top of that he came up with using our laser printer to create the letters and pictures instead of me laboriously hand painting each tile. The letters and pictures were printed onto clear adhesive in a dark green to match the cabinet and then adhered to each tile. The tiles turned out absolutely awesome! We used the same technique to decorate the knobs on the doors and drawers. I came up with adding wheels to roll the cabinet into the middle of the living room to allow for more playing room.

Between Robert’s ideas and mine, the toy cabinet turned out to be one very nice addition to our living room and is perfect storage for blocks, marbles, cars, and Play Family toys. We added the last touches the day before Kathy, Rylan and Aubrey's visit. Although it was late at night when they arrived, Rylan immediately noticed it and had to check it out. Kathy was duly impressed. The next morning Rylan quickly climbed right up on top of the cabinet (it had not even occurred to me he would do this) and started playing with the marbles and chutes. He was impressed how the marbles did not roll off onto the floor. It did not take him long to also figure out the half wall made a good seat while playing.

Build a shed and they will come

Well, more like they will be wheeled, shoved, pushed, slid, hauled, carried, pulled, and/or dragged—they being shovels, lawnmower, shredder, wheelbarrow, rakes, wood, chemicals, trimmers, weed whacker, and anything else Chris decides should live in a shed.

Since the rainy season is coming Chris has been anxious for a shed thus Robert and I spent our weekend at his house to build one. I came along deciding I could use his sewing machine to work on outfits I am making for Rylan and Aubrey and to chronicle the shed project with my camera.

Robert had hopes the shed could be completed by Sunday night. Those hopes were dashed when reality set in. The shed had to be designed, a ton of materials had to be purchased, a floor had to be built…two days just weren’t enough!

Click on Chris’ image for pictures from our weekend. Take special note of the nail gun Chris is proudly wielding. Chris has wanted one of these for forever. He decided this shed project was enough to warrant buying one!

Who does this coat belong to?

Robert and I did a total wipe out today. Thanks to United Cerebral Palsy announcing a curbside clothes drive we totally went through our closets this afternoon and took everything out we didn’t need and even the things we thought we needed but decided since we haven’t worn or used them in over two years we probably didn’t really.

Counting all the empty hangers that were left I’d say I threw out donated at least sixty tops, pants, skirts, dresses and blouses. There were probably another thirty items that I had stored thrown in the closet shelves and piled in neat stacks scattered on the closet floor that I also decided to donate. Plus Robert donated his coats, pants and shirts as if he were in competition with me. Between the two of us, there is so much stuff we will be setting out two large boxfuls and, I am sure, four or more very full garbage bags tomorrow morning for pickup!

If there was anything we didn’t recognize like duds Chris or Kathy have left here and never took home over the years, out they went. Except for this coat. It looked very familiar so I am holding onto it.

Hanging clothes out to dry all for a staple

Handyman Robert pulled our dryer apart this morning. His quest: to search for the cause of a strange harsh swishing noise we heard last weekend just as a second to last load of clothes finished drying.

Fighting the urge to call a repairman, he reluctantly took the front off, inspected the easy to access areas with his flashlight and found nothing but a lot of dirt and dust. He sighed and told me, “Looks like I am just going to have to totally dismantle everything. This could take awhile.”

Within a few minutes he had the vent trap and inner door dismantled and instantly located the source of the noise. “Okay, it’s my fault,” he told me as he showed me a bent up staple. He had forgotten to remove it from his pocket before throwing his pants into the hamper last week!

Sure glad he didn’t call a repairman for something so small!

And the answer is...

Refresh your browser window to repeat slideshow.

Any guesses?

This could be an easel, a bike rack, a tire holder, a wood rack, a hay fodder, a yard light base, a chicken roost…or it could be for storing hoses, TV trays, or gardening tools…or it could be…

What is painted yellow at one or both ends?

Fence menders

Robert was in Benicia a lot this last week taking care of yet another storm mishap. Back in January high winds knocked Kim’s fence down. Posts had to be replaced and boards nailed back in place.

The first day, on Tuesday, Kim’s neighbor came over to tell Robert her son (I will call him Medley) wanted to talk to him. Robert decided he would just wait to talk to him after he finished setting posts. However Medley showed up after the first post was set. He told Robert he had had a survey done. If Robert continued, the next post would end up a foot and a half on his mother’s property. Not only that, Medley pointed out that the post Robert had just cemented in was a couple of inches on the property. He told Robert it HAD to be moved. When Robert didn’t respond, he stepped over and pulled the post out forcing Robert to move the post the two inches! If anyone other than Robert had told me this, I wouldn’t have believed it.

After Robert had to reset the post and the fact the post Medley directed to be moved a foot and a half was going to end up smack in the middle of a huge mound of pampas grass, the fencing project pretty much ended for the day.

It took another two trips to Benicia to finish the fence-mending project. In spite of Medley being so obstinate on Tuesday, in the end he decided to do some fence mending of his own. He agreed to pay for half the fence!

Today, with the fence-mending debacle behind him, Robert started a fresh, new project (below). More on that later…