Sunday, July 23, 2017

Still out for lunch

I've been taking advantage of our somewhat-summery weather to continue exploring the lunch places near my job.

Last week, I went to Stella Luna. I had a sandwich and some bottled ice tea. They were fine, but not my favourite.



And then on Friday, I went to Thyme and Again. I had a tuna sandwich, coleslaw, and a pickle. They were somewhat bland but OK none the less.



The basement reno is almost done, so I have been busy moving stuff from point a to point b, then from point b to point c. This week everything will hopefully go back to point a.

In the meantime, I have been building furniture. I helped Wanda build herself a bookshelf bed and headboard, and this weekend I built 3 nesting beds. We will use the tallest one as a couch except when the nieces are in town.

I didn't have a plan for this, but I'd seen a picture and thought I could figure it out. It is essentially three rectangles of varying sizes, with legs on two of them. I googled the size of the mattress I wanted to use, and built the first box to fit.

The rest of this post is talking about building the bed, so feel free to skip it - I am writing it down so I remember.

The mattress was 38.5 x 74.5", so I cut a 2x6 (for the front) and 2x4 (for the back) to 77.5" (so that the inside of the box is 74.5"), and then cut the side pieces to 38.5". I drilled pocket holes with my Kreg jig on both ends of the short pieces and attached them so that I had a rectangle. Then I cut 2 2x2s to 74.5" and attached them at the bottom of the front and back (as a resting place for the slats). The front is a 2x6, so it is a little taller than the 2x4 on the back - this is to hide the mattress when the beds are nested.

I then screwed wheels into the corners of the box, and cut slats to 38".

Bed #1 was done.

For Bed #2, I repeated the process, except that the front, back, and 2x2s were all 6 inches longer, When I was done, I cut 7.5" legs for each corner and attached them with pocket holes and then added the wheels.

Bed #3 was 6 inches longer again. I put the 2x2s higher on this one (because I didn't want the 2x6 to hit my legs when I am using it as a couch). This time, the legs could go on the outside since it doesn't nest inside anything else. I cut 4 pieces of 2x4 at 30 inches each, put a mark on each board 16 inches from the bottom and added pocket holes at the top. I then attached a 38" 2x3 (because I ran out of 2x4s) across the top of 2 of the legs to make an upside down U. I lined up the mark on each board with the bottom of the rectangle and screwed the legs on.

And here is the final product. All that's left is staining it.



Sunday, July 9, 2017

Going out for lunch

I started my current job at the end of August, 2015. At first, I was getting used to my new location, and before too long it started getting colder, so I planned to start exploring the area around my new office in the spring.

And then I broke my leg. Needless to say, I didn't do much exploring last year, so on Friday I decided it was time to get out of the office. I walked over to a local farmer's market, and then I went to a restaurant one of my coworkers recommended for a sandwich.

It was nice to get out of the office.






Monday, July 3, 2017

Spontaneous dinosaurs

As usual, life has been busy.

Last weekend, I spent Saturday helping my cousin take out her lawn. It was about 8 feet by 16 feet, which doesn't seem like it should be a lot of work, but let me tell you .... 9 hours and 2 trips to Home Depot later, it was mostly done. Somewhere in there, we also went to McDonalds for ice cream. We ordered at the automated kiosk and had them bring us our food using their magic coaster system.



I'd intended to go to a movie on Sparks Street afterwards, but I did not.

Here's the final result:

This weekend, I went downtown for Canada Day. I did not go to Parliament Hill - the security line was daunting - but did go to the inspection of the guards (where I saw Prince Charles) and then to Major's Hill Park, where a large screen was broadcasting the show from the Hill. 

I didn't bring my dinosaurs, but there was one there anyway for some reason.





The only downside was the bus home, which was stopped for 45 minutes for a motorcade. Still, a good day.

And, in the midst of all this, I'm having my basement renovated. I'm very much looking forward to it being done.