I’ve been awake for the last two hours – for whatever reason, I woke up at 0339 and I could not, for the life of me, go back to sleep.

So, I came in to the computer room/office, and started messing around here.

Then, MEG woke up about an hour ago, and she couldn’t go back to sleep. So we sat here together, my little girl and I, and poked around the ‘net a little bit. Read the comics over at Comics.com, stuck our nose into a few of the new entries on the blogroll (Hey, Loon, you OK? I missed you for the time you were gone. Good to see you back, and I hope every thing’s OK!) and then we went outside and got the Sunday paper.

Then, I found out why MEG wasn’t sleeping. Her dinner landed on my socks. Turns out that if she doesn’t thoroughly chew her green beans, they don’t agree with her. At this stage, they don’t agree with me either.

Just to let you know – I will be out of touch while I am on the road. I don’t own a laptop, and the stops are going to be few and far between. Turns out not a lot of you (OK, none of you to the east of me) want to have a visitor. That’s fine by me. I’ll just make better time overall.

Yesterday (Saturday) was spent finishing the entertainment center. Somebody forgot to take pictures as he went along, and right now the project is sitting in the trailer, ready to be delivered and installed. Of course, that’s not going to happen until I get back from my trip, but when it does happen, I will post the final result here.

Update – got a photo of it, inside the trailer:
This doesn’t really do it justice – so don’t look at it. Wait for the install pics.

Two more jobs are lined up for when I get back, too. I’ll be hanging some doors at the ongoing project and a referral customer is looking for a corner china cabinet. That should be a good one. I’m looking forward to that.

It’s getting time to start stirring around, so I’m going to sign off now. I will be lurking some of the blogtalk shows while driving (nothing more American than talking on the phone while driving, right? don’t worry, I’ll be using a hands-free device) so you might here me in the background on Political Pistachio, My Point, and/or Jenn’s Jungle.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

I’m going on a Road Trip – are you on the route?

Be sure to stop by here and get your Red Shirt to show your support for the troops every Friday.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

Wandering around the web today – we find Guy K at the top of the list again – that’s the advantage of living way east. Find his insightful bon mots at Charming, Just Charming.

Just John is licking his chops in anticipation of molding the young and the restless over at Write on the Right.

Dave has some good news on the attempt to remove GOD from our everyday lives over on Third Wave Dave along with a way to campaign to put GOD back in your life, and everyone’s around you.

Lock and load, folks – Gunz is opening up on his “feelings” about the “candidates” in “New Hampshire” – put on your filters, ’cause remember he doesn’t hold back on Long Live the Republic.

Another John has an insightful piece on the spending habits of the Dems – even after their promises to cut down – on his site, Fire of Liberty.

Akinoluna puts out the word about a missing Marine from Camp Lejeune.

Jenn (of the Jungle) has opened another can on a prominent world leader – go to No PC BS to find out who her target is.

BZ joins the chorus chanting “Leave Israel Alone!” as he points out numerous glaring issues with Bush’s attempts to get the Middle East to play nice over on Bloviating Zeppelin.

Ed Dickson updates us on Sears’ legal problems (have you shopped there lately? You might want to check it out) on Fraud, Phishing, and Misdeeds.

Katrina victims want their cake, and your cake, and all the cake for the next three generations. Check out Texas Fred’s take on the issue at Ace in the Hole.

Doug over at Political Pistachio points you to his BlogTalk radio show. Last night’s show was regarding the separation of Church and State with some very special guests.

Bushwack weighs in on the incident in the Gulf with our warships on American and Proud.

Greybeard has some thoughts on Hillary’s use of body fluids in a campaign on Pitchpull.

Paul over on Prying 1 fulfilled his promise to me. I was, of course, touched, but most of you know already that I’m a bit touched.

Be sure to check out all the worthy entries by everyone on the blogrolls, and have a good day!

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

The daughters of our good friend came over today – (note to self: don’t let the guy who can’t keep track of days write entries) – I meant, yesterday, to watch MEG so I could take some concentrated time to assemble this latest project. Trying to start a business out of your home can be frustrating at times, if you don’t have the time to actually DO anything, so this was a blessing.

I mentioned over here about chopping the heck out of a bunch of birch – this is the end result:

I had already put the loose base together. It’s the ladder-looking thingy in the middle of the floor. (Sorry if the technical language gets in the way.)

Let’s start from the bottom – here’s the bottom piece, propped and ready to receive the dividers:

The center dividers in place:

…and the ends installed:

Technical note: I use staples and glue when going through ply into ply, and nails (headless brads, really) when attaching hardwood.

I would be remiss if I did not show you the second most important tool that I use: The first most important, of course, is the stuff that keeps my ears from sticking together.

Top rail in place, with glue and brads, and the fixed shelf (for the television) ready to be installed:

Now it’s starting to look like something:Wait, something is missing.With a back on the box, it becomes very stable – amazing what a sheet of 1/8″ ply can do.

Here’s a front view with the box sitting on the loose base:I used a loose base because the overall hight is 53 inches, and it would have needed twice the plywood to cut the ends and dividers in one piece with an integral base. This way, I can install the loose base and level it so that when the main box is installed I don’t have to try to wrestle it around – that sucker weighs in at about 150, without the adjustable shelves.

The front will be trimmed out with rosettes and ribbed moulding. I will be using the mouldings to actually scribe the unit into the niche. There is a wood top planned to finish this off.

Funny side story: I went to Lowe’s last night to pick up a few last-minute items. Since I had gotten there about ten minutes before closing, I had to hurry. So, I made a beeline to the moulding section, culled out the best piece to be the nosing for the woodtop, went straight to the paint department and picked up a quart of stain for the project, stopped off at the brushes to select a new one, and then grabbed a nailset off the shelf as I rushed to the checkout counter. When I got there, the cashier rang up my three purchases, and it was just short of the $25.00 needed to use a $10.00 off coupon. When I got home, I figured out why: I had set the stain down while selecting a brush, and failed to pick it back up before moving on. D’oh!

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!