Hodge Podge of Handy Work

Where to begin...how about with the first day of school. My parents used to take pictures of us with our backpacks on the first day of school and I suppose Michelle and I just couldn't resist...even if I am 25 and in my last semester of graduate school....I tried to slouch and throw on a goofy face but realized I look about the same as I do in most of my normal pictures. Hmmph.

 

**You may have noticed that I am wearing a sling. Here's a note for the rising generation: (1) Don't work on the sabbath, (2) Don't snowboard with your students when you are at work on the sabbath. I caught an edge and broke my collarbone. The stupidest, most annoying injury ever. Those triple backflips are killer...

 

On another note, one thing I have always believed to my core is that my generation is useless (I say that with fondness) and that unlike our fore fathers we have very few practical skills. So I have decided that if there is something to be fixed I will use the most reliable sources I can (wiki how and youtube) to figure out how to fix it myself and hopefully acquire some useful skills along the way. Here are some of our most recent successes...

Fixing the book shelf was a pretty simple task...and now we don't have to yell timber or avalanche every time one of the over weighted shelves slides off the plastic chips (and make-shift replacements). It's nice to have a little more stability in our lives....even if it is in the form of a solid bookshelf.

Changing the Ballast was a bit trickier but no less rewarding. I enjoyed the process of troubleshooting the problem, cutting and trimming wires, and shedding light on the situation (pun intended). Before we fixed this kitchen light it would flicker on and off at intervals or go off altogether. It drove Michelle crazy and left our apartment feeling dark and dingy. I don't know why I put it off for so long...oh ya, thesis. Happy holidays.

What I enjoyed most about the project was the sexy photographer and capable assistant who helped rewire and finish the project with me. A true help meet...

Some of our handy work has been more crafty and fun. We've been chatting about creating an FHE board for a long time but I think we never gave it a shot because we'd been unimpressed by the tacky or gaudy versions we'd seen prior (not directing this at anyone in particular...seriously). We scanned the nets a bit and found a few clean looking, simple, diy types and decided to give it a shot (see below).

This particular FHE board is great because we can update it with dry erase markers as we please. 

Sadly Elder Dube did not give our lesson (as seen on the board above) but we have been trying to read a conference talk every week as part of our Family Home Evening and it has been a great way to get know each other better and strengthen our marriage. 

 In addition to our FHE board, we wanted to do something a little more fun with our crafty time and realized our walls were still kind of bare. So we decided to tackle our own Pollock style wall art. We obviously went to the most reliable source, a pre-school aged activity website and found a great tutorial on 'splatter art' and gave it our best shot.

Here's the "before" product: (Notice the clean canvases have been prep'd with rubber bands for splattering)

 

The idea is to soak or lace the rubber band with acrylic paint and snap the rubber band so that the paint fans out and covers the canvas. 

This is me putting on my protective battle dress...didn't want to splash paint on my skin tight, flesh covered thermals of course (courtesy of the US airforce). AND if you were wondering, I'm not wearing whitey tighty underwear in this picture...that is just a flap from the garbage bag I am wearing, thank you very much.

Michelle looked much better in her classy garbage garb....of course.

Our "after" products turned out better than anticipated, however, I think we'll leave the real art to the greats (Pollock and Mrs. Stanley's preschool class):

Oscar, the dog I never had

This post comes quite delayed...

*Disclaimer: This post is not quite as sentimental as the title would have you believe. 

On Thanksgiving morning I woke up and headed out for a run.

*Note: We had our Thanksgiving dinner together on Wednesday, since Garrett had to work on Thursday.
I only went a few blocks before I saw a medium sized black dog slowly wandering along the sidewalk, listing back and forth a little. Having just finished reading To Kill a Mockingbird, I was a little wary about a "mad" dog. I typically run on the streets, so I passed the dog, keeping an eye on it. The dog just looked tired. And old. I stopped running and turned around. He looked at me, whuffed a sigh, and sat down.

And then I melted.

And walked over. He was either old, cold, or both, and was trembling. Tail wagging though. relatively shiny coat. No collar. So. I picked him up and limped the several blocks back to my apartment, taking small breaks in between. I laid a sheet and towel down on our carpet (praying he didn't have fleas that had hidden during my inspection of him). He obediently sat, then laid, then slept. I brought out a bowl of water mixed with a little leftover turkey broth, which he downed.

Fortunately the animal control has a back-up officer, and he came within two hours. I'm optimistic that the dog's owners contacted the control center (I'm optimist that he had owners... well trained, no barking, obedient, shiny coat...). And if not.... I'm optimist that dying in a warm environment with food is better than dying cold and hungry on the streets.

Basically I'm writing this because I don't want to forget it. Our landlord was out of town for several months, and the temptation to bathe "Oscar", feed him, and keep for a few days was an awful temptation.