The journey continues...

Brian Bilbrey February 18, 2013

George Lincoln's Birthday

Or something like that. I neglected to check in last night - I actually stayed off the computer all day yesterday. I checked email on the phone a couple of times, for reasons about to become apparent, but that was all. Woodshop work, and Top Gear UK rounded out my Sunday. Saturday was a big system upgrade project. We'd been preparing for the event for the better part of a year: endless cycles of build, test, and document. Towards the end I was losing sleep thinking about it each night. Finally the day came, and all of the prep work…

Brian Bilbrey February 10, 2013

Clear and Cold

Thankfully, we didn't take the winter storm hit that nailed the North East - one of the "advantages"of being mid-Atlantic, I guess. It was quite windy, especially over Friday night into Saturday morning, that much did swing south, but other than a bit of rain on Friday, there was no precipitation for us. All it takes is half an inch of snow to grind this place nearly to a halt. I will take note that my 328i really does do well in the snow and ice. Earlier in the week, I was joking that I'd have a chance to see…

Brian Bilbrey February 3, 2013

There's a game on? Also, a Red Letter day!

Ah, but you see, the Ravens ensured that I wouldn't have to watch football this year. But this morning I did get rolling on the first shelving install (the new five-foot wide unit), following shopping... Lexi always has to "help", but actually through most of this process today she was a good girl, and slept on a chair in the library. I unloaded all of those shelves into stacks in the guest bedroom, then hauled the shelves downstairs. I'm going to make use of the white one in my storage room, for paints and such. The brown one is a…

Brian Bilbrey January 27, 2013

Another weekend gone

Also this weekend, I baked cookies, and made an army's worth of chili. I used the last of the summer's freezer-reserve tomato sauce, a couple of pounds each of ground turkey and ground spicy italian sausage, and mixed red kidney and black beans. Heat and chili powder added. Yum! Sadly, the cookies are almost gone... I got the second coat of white on the shelving today. A small roller with a smooth-coat cover, and a gallon-size rolling grid solved the problems I was having with painting. I still have to decide what to do next: Poly or no poly. I'm…

Brian Bilbrey January 26, 2013

Finishing in Stages

The woodshop isn't big enough to build everything, then finish everything, then put everything in place up here in my office. SO ... I've assembled the first set of shelves (which was done by the end of last weekend). Since then, I've been applying finishes. Four days of finish, just for the shelving backs. A coat of the dark teal, knock down the grain, and recoat with the teal. Coat once with satin finish oil-modified water-based polyurethane, sand with 320 grit, and recoat with the poly. The backs are stunning, but not photographable as standalone objects. You'll see what I'm…