Spring camp

Last weekend was the final Pathfinder camp of the year. (The only thing left is to finalize the financial books, which I plan to do tomorrow or Monday.)

This was the hardest camp of the program for me, because the girls plan and run it themselves. I struggle with letting them do that, even though I know it's critical that they do it.

The two girls running camps did a poor job of preparing - they needed to be prodded multiple times before the camp - but they did a great job at the camp itself. One of them, in particular, has become a much stronger camper over the past two years. A year ago she'd light a match, scream, and drop it, and this weekend she was confidently lighting fires and camp stoves with no issues.

Now to get the books done and put it all away until fall.

Secret door

I painted the living room when I did because I was waiting for a back ordered set of hinges.

The closet in my front hall had a folding door, as many closets do. The door was always open, and it tended to get scuffed because it was always open, so I decided to remove it and replace it with a secret door.

I started by removing the door. I measured the opening and bought 1x6s.

The I realized that I had to remove at least the ... door edge inside the frame. Basically, the boards that covered the pink paint.

Next I drilled holes In the tile to place the bottom hinge, and made the basic door frame. (Drilling through tile takes forever, by the way.)

Once I had the frame the right size, I built the cabinet. (This took a while.) I then painted the frame. I ended up removing the rest of the previous trim as well, which required more repainting.

Then I attached the rest of the frame. This also took several adjustments.

I added trim and realized the hinges needed to be adjusted again, so I took it all apart and moved them to the front of the cabinet. 

Finally, it was done. I touched everything up and attached the latch (which requires a magnetic key to open).

Weeks later, it was finally done.

Start Spreading The News

I spent the weekend in New York. Wanda and I left Friday morning. We drove down to Newark and parked at the airport, then took the train into the city.

For some reason, we decided to walk the 24 blocks from the train station to our hotel. It wasn't actually that far, but it was wall to wall people.By the time we got to our hotel, it was around 7. Since we left to come home on Sunday around 9, it was a quick trip


Here is a quick look at our trip by the numbers:

• Modes of transportation (car, train at airport, train into city, subway, shuttle to get back to the airport since there was an issue with the train, shuttle back to the car, Staten Island ferry) - 7
• Restaurants with free wifi - 2. Luckily, we had excellent internet access at the hotel.
• Subway trips (to the west village, to the World Trade Center, from Battery Park to the West Village, to Times Square, to the train station)- 5
• Number of times I filled my subway card - 3
• Broadway shows - 1 (Hedwig)
• Partially consumed bottles of Cherry Coke I brought home - 2 + 1 full one
• Ice cubes obtained from the (apparently broken) ice dispenser at the hotel - 0
• Pairs of shoes worn (by me) - 2
• Degrees difference between NYC and home on the day we returned - 18
• Number of states (New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey) - 3
• Stops in each direction - 3
• Tanks of gas - 3
• Visits to the Sock Man - 2 (it wasn't open the first time)
• NYC maps obtained and left in the hotel room instead of being brought with us - 2
• Women in Times Square wearing only body paint - 2
• Questions asked by the customs officer on our way back into the country - 4 (where are you coming from, when did you leave Canada, did you buy anything, do you have any firearms)
• Number of tolls paid - 3 (two of them to get onto the island with the border crossing)

It was a good trip.