Brad’s having trouble with his lights again. Darn.
Archives for December 2006
Checkmate this out
Every year I teach our 7th graders how to play chess, then around Christmas I send home an order form so that they can buy some nice chess stuff (by that I mean so that they can convince their parents to buy them some for Christmas (by that I mean that maybe their parents will throw some money my way to buy some chess stuff for school)).
We order from www.wholesalechess.com, and this year our order was over $500.00. They have great prices. This stuff would have cost well over $1000.00 anywhere else that I’ve found. At the bottom of the order form is a blurb asking them to consider giving a little bit to help buy some chess equipment for the school, and every year our parents are more generous than I expect. Last year, in addition to listing the price of a set ($6.90), I also said that chess clocks cost about $20.00 each. A parent sent in enough to buy three. This year I mentioned that a giant chess set costs $110.00 and a parent sent in $110.00.
It takes up both of my tables, but they were mostly used for playing smaller games of chess anyway. Interestingly enough, about the same number of people participate. Instead of having 8 people playing 4 games of chess, there are 2 people and a host of spectators. I’m training up a bunch of geeks.
The king is a little over a foot tall. So, my question for you is: Where am I going to store these?
Snowing in the basement
One of the ideas for Kate and John’s wedding is to hang snowflakes all over the enormous cathedral ceiling. Off and on I’ve been working on spray-painting and glittering them. (They are mostly metal – some purchased from ebay and some were handmade by a kid at John’s school. They’re awesome. The less awesome ones are plastic ones from Mennards.)
So here’s a view of how I spend ten minutes a week, and also a glimpse of our dirty basement:
Well.
(By the way – Happy Birthday, Mark!)Â
Darn elves. I’m going to have to start leaving traps out. Lloyd and I came home from Lincoln tonight to find that a certain ‘bathroom elf’ had left some pretty towels for the bathroom. Well, I had planned a perfectly good evening of sitting around and watching important television shows, but no – I had to do something to justify a new post.
May I present – the Holiday Bathroom, inspired by Sneaky Lady
Yes, there’s a tree in my bathroom. Funny story. I put up our old tree in the living room a couple of days ago, and several times since have thought, “I really should buy a skinnier tree that fits in that room better.” This evening when I was looking for other stuff in the basement, lo and behold – I found a box with the skinny tree I bought last year. It’s fun being absent-minded.
 A tiny view of the window. I don’t know what I’m doing with the camera.
Painfully slow
I can’t believe how long this dumb bathroom project is taking.  Everyday I come home and think, “Eh.” It’s a miracle if I get one thing done – like take the tools out of the room. Anyway, over the course of a couple of weeks, the mirror is back up, a curved shower curtain rod is up, and the curtain is up. Yippee.
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Favorite Vessel
At first I titled this post ‘Favorite Pot’, but I knew you yahoos would make all the obvious jokes, so there – do something funny with ‘vessel’.
Anyway, this my enameled red cast iron dutch oven from Target that I love like a child. It’s so pretty, and makes anything cooked in it appear like I’ve really slaved, y’know? You can’t dish something out of a dutch oven without thinking, “Boy, this food must have had some work done on it.” It’s not fast and flashy like a frying pan, or quick-to-boil like a saucepan. It takes minutes for this thing to heat, and even longer to cool down. I love it.