Welcome 
to Orb Designs

Home

Graffiti

About

Sitemap

Visual

DevWork


Email Brian Bilbrey

Email Brian

GPG Key

GRAFFITI -- March 05, 2007 thru March 11, 2007

>> Link to the Current Week <<

Last Week << Mon   Tues   Wed   Thu   Fri   Sat   Sun >> Next Week


Search this site :

Welcome to Orb Graffiti, a place for me to write daily about life and computers. Contrary to popular belief, the two are not interchangeable.     About eMail - I publish email sometimes. If you send me an email and you want privacy or anonymity, please say so clearly at the beginning of your message.

Ron Paul in 2008

Creative Commons License

Read LinuxGazette, get a clue.

MONDAY    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
March 5, 2007

One angle of the painted master bedroom

0652 - Good morning. I won't inflict much in the way of pictures on you for the master bedroom redo. There really isn't much that's visible except the new paint color, and the new ceiling fan. Well, and all new switches and wall sockets, and cover plates all around. But really, that's all. Once the carpet's in, later this week, I'll put the hall door back on. We've got a new headboard downstairs, awaiting the king bed being delivered the day after the carpet (and awaiting my building of the low frame to hold said bed (that shouldn't be much trouble at all - I *do* need to pick up some lumber for that project, though. As you can see, we left the trim in the gold that Kathy put on to complement the gold-over-deep-red that was on the walls previously. The moment I started to think about changing the trim, that brought the doors into play (as they're gold, too) — just too much work, when the gold works fine with the color palate we chose for fabrics in the room. All that's going to be left is Art for the walls, and that could take a year or three...

The quilting sewing machine on its new frameClose-up of the two-axis setupI was also blithering about building a frame for Marcia's new quilting sewing machine. She already has a small frame setup that works in one of her "conventional" sewing machines, but we needed something a bit more ... substantial for use with this new beast. To give you a sense of scale, the wheel-to-wheel measurement of the sliding tray is 42"So I built her a two-axis frame using (so far) all scrap lumber from former projects, and some rails and slider wheels I bought. She'll have lots of control, and be able to work between 18 and 12 inch swathes of quilt at a time, instead of the 4 inches clear that the old setup gave her. And she'll have nearly 7 feet horizontal clear, which she assures me is quite enough. The good thing about this setup is that we can remove the sewing machine from its tray, put both machine and tray on the floor out of the way, then pick up, rotate, and put the frame vertically against the wall behind the table, leaving Marcia the full size of her cutting table to work with when the need arises. I had fun with this project.

I have an extraordinarily busy day or two in front of me, followed by two more very nearly so, as I prepare for a week of business travel to Israel. When that is done ... well, time enough to deal with the future when it arrives. Have a great day!

Top  /  Email Brian


Mon    TUESDAY    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
March 6, 2007

No Post..

Top  /  Email Brian


Mon    Tues    WEDNESDAY    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
March 7, 2007

2306 - Good evening, though still not really a post. Busy, busy. Carpet is in. Bed frame is built, headboard attached, bed delivered. Master bedroom mostly reassembled. I think I'll go to sleep. Heh. See ya!

Top  /  Email Brian


Mon    Tues    Wed    THURSDAY    Fri    Sat    Sun   
March 8, 2007

New bedframe, new carpet, new paint2202 - Good evening. Time is short. I've got a laundry list of to-do's before departing for Israel tomorrow afternoon. I got a lot accomplished today, and this evening. Check lists of tasks, all with little checks on them ... so that's progress. Other progress can be seen in the picture at left. That's the cold light of dawn creeping in the window — the bed delivery folks called at 0645 to say they'd be half-an hour at most, nearly an hour before the delivery window was predicted. I guess it's good to be first in the queue, but darn if that wasn't a bit too early to be rushing about. Still. That bed frame is all red oak. Eventually I'll take the bed back out of it and stain it ... probably. I cut and pre-drilled in the basement, then built the frame in the bedroom. That's a good thing, because it'll never leave except in pieces. And that lovely headboard? Similar things were in the high-hundreds at furniture stores. We slapped down just over three hundred for it at Pier One, and got new runners on clearance (for the dressers) at the same time. And it's a comfy firm bed, we slept well, and there was room for both dogs without anyone getting pushed off onto the floor.

Tomorrow, some errands, cancelling the cable modem (made redundant by FIOS), and other things will eat my midday. I'll do a packing round in the morning, then review for things I forgot shortly before departure. Posts *may* happen once or twice while I'm travelling, can't promise a darn thing, though. I'll try to get Pournelle's column and mail out on time (as long as it gets to me on time-ish). Lots of meetings, and a day-trip to Jerusalem will fill my week. Wish me luck!

Top  /  Email Brian


Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    FRIDAY    Sat    Sun   
March 9, 2007

Lucy in Winston-Salem, watching TV0937 - Good morning. I've got many things organized. The suitcase is packed. I've got a stack of stuff to put in the laptop bag, including a printed 253 page administration manual to redline. That shouldn't be too much trouble ... I'm going to have 18 hours to work on it, from the time I hit BWI airport until we touch down in Tel Aviv. I'll probably plunk in my earplugs and bash through it before we've even left Newark (the interim hop) at 11 tonight. So I have a couple of paperbacks with me as well - Lucifer's Hammer and something by Charles Sheffield. More books in the suitcase for the trip back. With all that setup behind me, I figured I'd take a minute to drop by here and say "Hello." I've bookended this paragraph with pictures of Lucy at her favorite activity while she's visiting at the Thompson's — watching Lucy-TV. Most times when we come downstairs there, she doesn't even turn her head to see who it is. There are squirrels scampering around out there, and she sits noiseless (fortunately) and trembles with rage at their very existence being paraded in front of her eyes.

Now to head out and take care of a couple of errands. Happy Friday!

Top  /  Email Brian


Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    SATURDAY    Sun   
March 10, 2007

1055 - Good evening. Yeah, that's a morning timestamp, but it's after 6PM where I am. Safe trip. Whacked. Happy Saturday.

Top  /  Email Brian


Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    SUNDAY  
March 11, 2007

1750 (UTC+2) - Good evening. First things first. I can get to the site. There are fourteen press releases announcing casualties since last Sunday's post. I will catch up next week, but simply haven't got the tools here to do the job quickly before I have to depart for the next scheduled event in this New Hire Orientation roller coaster. As always, my thoughts are with our troops in harm's way, and with the families of our soldiers, both those who have lost family and loved ones to battle, and those who sit and wait for that telegram. I'll catch up next week, promise.

We had a nice supper out last night, here in Tel Aviv. And there's another dinner tonight, more team building exercises. I need to get ready for that after a full day of meetings. Whew. Wish me luck.

Top  /  Email Brian


Last Week << Mon   Tues   Wed   Thu   Fri   Sat   Sun >> Next Week


Visit the rest of the DAYNOTES GANG, a collection of bright minds and sharp wits. Really, I don't know why they tolerate me <grin>. My personal inspiration for these pages is Dr. Jerry Pournelle. I am also indebted to Bob Thompson and Tom Syroid for their patience, guidance and feedback. Of course, I am sustained by and beholden to my lovely wife, Marcia. You can find her online too, at http://www.dutchgirl.net/. Thanks for dropping by.

All Content Copyright © 1999-2011 Brian P. Bilbrey.

Creative Commons License
Except where otherwise noted, this site is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.