There are moments, and the rest of the time, I'm a Bonehead.

Bit of running around today.   Got wind of a table and dresser up for grabs from a buddy of mine.  Initially I didn't really give much thought to the email he sent around,  until Travelling Companion mentioned that perhaps one of her sisters could use a couple things.

So fine,  picked them up.
It's that whole "pick-up truck"  thing.  Sure comes in handy.


Note,  I've let it be known in no uncertain terms that Muggins here (that would be me)  is not,   and will never be,  willing to "help move".

Sorry.

Those days are long in the past.
The last five moves we did ( that Puerto Rico thing,  and then years later from here to the Netherlands,  then on to Vienna,  and then ultimately back home again)  involved moving companies. They were "company moves" after all.
I only supervised.  My kind of moving.  Even then, something to contend with.

If you're moving,  get your young friends to help.  And if you're my age and moving?  Hire movers.


The next "move" I do will likely be when they take me out of here feet first.  But whatever.

Where was I?

Right.

We did a little detour first,  as there was a request for a return favour,  in that we went off to Exotic Woods to pick up some Mahogany Plywood.  He bought six sheets.  Glad I wasn't paying,  as the bill came to something in the neighbourhood of eight hundred bucks.
Not my kind of neighbourhood.

That's the same place where I bought the Cherry Plywood for the cabinets I built for the bathroom.  Good resource to have,  but you need deep pockets.   The Cherry Ply came out to roughly $140 a sheet.
Not a good idea to make any mistakes.

So I was a little surprised to discover that these two pieces of random furniture that these folks were willing to part with for the sake of a bit more room in their condo,  are genuine antiques.

No idea as to the age of the table,  although the size of the pine boards that make up the top haven't been available for at least a half century,   and the dresser,  although "factory made",  uses Pin and Cove joinery for the drawers.   There are three drawers by the way,  I hadn't put the top two back in,
 as the dresser needs a bit of TLC.

Stole a couple pics off the net....

Goes by various names,  however it rightly should be referred to as a "Knapp Joint",  as it was patented by Charles Knapp of Waterloo, Wisconsin in 1867.

Because you really need to know this!

It was no longer in production as of 1900,  so I suspect that the dresser is like...old.


Anyway,   they're sitting in the garage.  And like I said,  the dresser needs some lovin',  so I'll sort that out later today or tomorrow.  It's mostly the runners that hold in the drawers.  Wonky.
That's a technical term.


Meanwhile,   I've been getting my camping ducks in a row,  as I'm headed to Youngstown, N.Y. for the weekend for a sailing thingy.

Oh wait,  it's the Can-Am Challenge.  There we go.

As I'm not overly thrilled with sleeping on the boat (remember that whole claustrophobic episode on the train?)   I'll be taking along a tent.

Of course,  I'm also not overly thrilled with sleeping in a tent,  but with enough libations,  and the fact that it's not moving,  I'm sure I'll be fine.

I mean,  my last "camping" experience was in a class A Motorhome.   Queen bed etc.  This will be a bit of a retro step,  to say the least.

In the back room of our shed,  I have a sort of "sanctum sanctorum" (OK,  it's not really "holy",  I just like that phrase)  in which I also have some mouse proof cabinets,  containing many of the items that I took out of the aforementioned Motorhome to hang onto.  I'm a bit odd that way,  I know.
I had sort of forgotten about it,  but there was,  in fact,  a tent.   Thought I'd better set it up,  just to make sure it was serviceable.

Good to go.

But,  here's the "Bonehead"  part.   In one of the totes (gotta love Totes!)  there was this black fabric type of thingy,  and I really had no clue what it was.

So, what did I discover that I didn't know we had,  nor have any recollection of ever buying?

Yup.   It's a BBQ cover!

I may or may not keep it on in the summer.  I have mixed feelings about covering a BBQ,   as I find that a grill such as the Weber really doesn't require a cover.   But I might just use it in the winter time to keep the snow off.  I mean,  we have it.  It's there.  Why not use it?


I have yet to go up into the attic and do some further rummaging.  I do suspect that I'll need some tent pegs.  I'm sure I saw some somewhere.  *sigh*
And they do have those things available for purchase,  if it comes right down to it.

Stay tuned.



And thanks for stopping by.





.

Somebody had a good day.

While I realise that for the most part,  this blog thing is all about me me me.   However,  it's worth mentioning that T.C. had a birthday last week (a week ago, to be exact)  and it was sort of a "milestone"  type of thing.

Anyhoo,  we had planned to go golfing that afternoon,  with the thought of then "going out to a restaurant"  later in the evening.  Long story short,  it was a total ruse.
Not the golfing part.
We did do eight holes at Victoria Park Valley Golf Club.  Had a great time.  I only lost two balls.  Um,  the loss of golf balls is pretty much my benchmark for whether I've made out OK or not.  Scoring is another matter.

(I took down the photo)

I have to be a little careful here,  as T.C. does NOT like her image posted to the net.

So,  when we later got to her sister's place up in Guelph,  she did make a comment about a car in the driveway with Massachusetts plates,  which I pretty much ignored,  as I suspected that there just might be a host of people waiting for her in the house.

And there was.

She had no idea.

The car from the States was being driven by a couple of folks we had visited in Slovenia,  who are now in the process of doing a little tour of Canada and the States.   A friend of theirs in Mass.  lent them a car.  Pretty awesome that they were able to work their plans in such a way as to be there that day.
Needless to say,  T.C. was "gobsmacked"  (to use the U.K. term)  when she saw everyone waiting for her.

I'll only be so bold as to put up one of the pics that they had assembled for the occasion.

The last time I saw photos assembled in this way was at a funeral, so this was a nice change.

So it's been cards and letters,  and dinners out.


Meanwhile,  I just keep plugging away here at The Ponderosa.

I've finished my set of "cubby holes"  for the bathroom.   When the tub was in there,  the space at the end was pretty much wasted,  and when I put in the wall for the controls and such,  I knew I wanted to take advantage of that space.

So here we go:

Right next to the "tooth brush charging station".

Now I just have to replace that door.   It's only back up there because the new one will be getting its finish over the next few days.   Then I just have to do the rest of the painting.

I think that's it.

It's been a bit of a long haul,  but here's the thing:  A similar endeavour taken on by one of my sisters-in-law was in the neighbourhood of thirty thousand dollars.   T.C. added up all the costs so far,  including about a thousand bucks for a wet saw,  and we still came in at around eight grand.

No accounting for my time of course.

I suspect that if I had the patience/tolerance/whatever to let trades people come into the house,  this job may very well have exceeded that amount. (30k,  that is)
But then,  nobody is going to make truly custom mill work.

And I know this,  'cause one of my brothers-in-law,  who happens to be an architect and would therefor have all kinds of contacts when it came to having custom work done,  had to hire me to do some cabinets for their rather tiny galley kitchen in their Toronto home once upon a time.
I  must have done an OK job,  as they are still there and in good shape.
The bonus was,  not only did he pay me almost twice what I was asking,  but also supplied me we some awesome plans to follow.
I so love it when someone else makes all the decisions like that.

I think that's about it for this go around.

I'll pipe up sometime when I think I have something worth saying.

Thanks for stopping by.

It's been a great summer so far.

I always think I'm going to somehow "jinx" things when I make those kinds of statements,  like when you're on the racecourse,  and you think you're doing alright,  and you screw up a gybe.  But let's not go there.

Of course,  we did that trip over to Europe.   Took a whack of pics.  I've saved them.  That's about it.

Once you've seen one old building you've sort of seen them all.

Quick recap:   Flew in to Vienna.   Cabbed it to our hotel on Mariahilfer Straße (that funny looking thing is a double "s" by the way.)




Which is now a pedestrian zone.  Which made it remarkably quiet I found.  Turns out motorised traffic is louder than I realised.

Went to the State Opera to see Swan Lake  "Schwannsee"  if you prefer.

Then cabbed it back to the airport to fetch a rental car and drove down to Slovenia.




A Nissan Qashqai,  which we both quite liked.

Drove back from Slovenia after a few days to meet up with some of  T.C.'s former work associates,  took the car back on the Friday and flew off to Dubrovnik.   Stayed there for the weekend to visit yet another former work associate,  who flew in from Serbia.

Dubrovnik is cool.  A "once in a lifetime",  as there were many,  many tourists.  Of a certain ethnic origin.  And forever underfoot.  That's all I'm sayin'.

Looking back to the harbour/gate.

Flew back to Austria.   Picked up yet another car.  Drove to Slovenia.

Tired yet?

I could go on.   T.C. made a couple fabric shopping stops.  One in Vienna at Komolka,  and another in Slovenia at a rather difficult to find place called Gramatex.  And I can't seem to find their website.  Wouldn't matter anyway,  it would be in Slovenian.   You'll notice (if you're brave) that the Komolka site is in German.


Anyway,  good trip all in all,  and we'll just cut to the chase.
 It was especially nice for Travelling Companion,   as she didn't have that Sunday night dread of having to get back in order to go to work Monday morning.   After all,  "Every day is Saturday"  around these parts.

Oh, and I have to say,  I've never been to the ballet,  but Swan Lake was pretty freakin' awesome.  I mean,  it's the Vienna State Orchestra,  the Vienna State Ballet Company.  It's kind of a "go big or go home situation" right?

No sour notes,  and nobody did any face plants or some such thing.


I think I'm just going to skip on up to today, as we just received a replacement Grill delivered to the door.
I had been getting a little frustrated with our 17 year old  (yes,  seventeen!)  Weber Q,  as part of the cast iron grill has gotten a bit rusty,  and I've had to mess around with the little gas opening/port/thingys.    We had been looking at something more elaborate,  couldn't quite pull the trigger on something in the thousand dollar range, and just figured we'd do a "do over" with the Weber.  So,  got a replacement.

I really like having things delivered to the door!  So much less hassle.

Anyway,  you have to put on the lid and add the igniter a such,  but I think I had it back on the old stand (I did spend a few minutes giving the stand a wash at least)  in maybe 20 minutes or so.

Good to go.

I was really trying to think of why I would possibly need anything more complicated (you know,  "infrared" whatever?)  and decided that,  even though I Grill all year around,  I never really get past burgers,  chicken  and a few veggies here and there.  

We'll see if this one lasts as long.   One thing,  they've now changed the cooking surface to some sort of porcelain coated cast iron.  That should make a difference I suppose.

That's it for now.  I'm out.

Thanks for stopping by.