Tonight I thank God for picture-in-a-picture.
Of course I knew Lance had already won the Tour de France, but I spent the evening on the couch switching between OLN's prime time coverage of Lance's triumphal ride in to Paris (with the ever-exciting race for the sprinter jersey) and ESPN's coverage of the Red Sox-Yankees post fight baseball game.
I missed last nights game/fight ( I would have loved to see team leader par excellence Jason Veritek get in the face of player extrordinair Alex Rodriguez)...
So I got to switch back and forth between the majesty of the Arch de Triumph (sp?) and Fenway, between Keith Folke and Ivan Basso. It was a night mare, but a hell of a lot better than having to pick just one.
This line from the New York Times coverage uses my favorite Tour euphemism: "...Joseba Beloki (who crashed spectacularly in a high speed decent during last yeas's Tour, causing Lance to ride cross-country through a field, hop a ditch, and remount his bike)...was without a team because of injuries and lack of form." Lack of form. Ouch. That has GOT to suck: to be with out form.
Can you imagine your wife/husband/partner saying, "Honey, I don't think you should go to work today; you lack good form."
Come to think of it, that's how I feel. I lack form.
Sunday, July 25, 2004
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Wiring up next
I worked on finishing the framing for the bathroom last weekend. I didn't get quite as far as I had planned, because along one wall I need to notch all the 2x4s to fit against the main beam and around some wiring that I can't move (yet). A pain in the butt.
But we submitted the wiring permit application. It turns out you don't actually get a permit in exchange for the application and $40. You just call in when ready for the rough inspection. According to the inspectors office, people routinely do the rough-in first, then file the application. I had been hoping for some feedback from the inspector on my wiring plan... but I guess not. Apparently he really doesn't subscribe to the view that the inspector is supposed to be helpful; he simply ensures that the work I do isn't dangerous. That's OK; it is exactly what he had told me going into this.
On Sunday we bought the all the lights for the bathroom/laundry room except for the vanity light. The others are all recessed lights and under-counter lights, which I need to have in hand when I do the rough wiring, which should happen this coming weekend.
But we submitted the wiring permit application. It turns out you don't actually get a permit in exchange for the application and $40. You just call in when ready for the rough inspection. According to the inspectors office, people routinely do the rough-in first, then file the application. I had been hoping for some feedback from the inspector on my wiring plan... but I guess not. Apparently he really doesn't subscribe to the view that the inspector is supposed to be helpful; he simply ensures that the work I do isn't dangerous. That's OK; it is exactly what he had told me going into this.
On Sunday we bought the all the lights for the bathroom/laundry room except for the vanity light. The others are all recessed lights and under-counter lights, which I need to have in hand when I do the rough wiring, which should happen this coming weekend.
Thursday, July 15, 2004
Power Tools(!)... Shower In
Last weekend I did a little more framing; not enough to justify renting the nail gun, but enough for me to appreciate how much difference the nail gun makes, both in the speed and quality of the work. During a break, Spouse and I discussed the economics of purchasing a nail gun. After tossing numbers around for a while, we realized that if I rented the nail gun for four weekends it would be cheaper to buy it. Now, it is not at all certain that I WOULD rent it for four 2-day weekends: if I could prepare the entire basement and frame it at once, it might go faster than that... or it might not, and I really don't want to do that. Besides the pure dollars and cents, there is a major convenience factor to having the tools readily available.
So the next day (Monday, July 12) the plumber calls to tell me he actually needs more of the wall behind the washer hook-up done. I had thought of this previously, but forgot about it over the weekend. So, having decided to buy the framing gun, and needing to do some framing that night, I took the plunge. But of course nothing is that simple. The big box store where I went (it was, after all 6:15 pm when I started shopping; who else was open?) had several manufacturers combo deals that included a compressor and a nailing gun. The combination I ended up getting included a smaller, but still adequate compressor and two (count 'em, two) nail guns: a finish nailer and a brad gun (poor Brad). And separately I bought the framing gun.
So I ended the evening with three nail guns. As one friend said, "Boys and there Toys." But I reminded him that now my toys need pneumatic assist....
Oh yeah, and the plumber has been busy. The shower is in (though he had to apply some force and a chisel to the framing I had done. Part of the wall had crept 1/2 inch in when I wasn't looking.), and he will finish roughing in the copper today.
And finally, the electrician upgraded the electric service from 100 to 200 amps yesterday.
So the next day (Monday, July 12) the plumber calls to tell me he actually needs more of the wall behind the washer hook-up done. I had thought of this previously, but forgot about it over the weekend. So, having decided to buy the framing gun, and needing to do some framing that night, I took the plunge. But of course nothing is that simple. The big box store where I went (it was, after all 6:15 pm when I started shopping; who else was open?) had several manufacturers combo deals that included a compressor and a nailing gun. The combination I ended up getting included a smaller, but still adequate compressor and two (count 'em, two) nail guns: a finish nailer and a brad gun (poor Brad). And separately I bought the framing gun.
So I ended the evening with three nail guns. As one friend said, "Boys and there Toys." But I reminded him that now my toys need pneumatic assist....Oh yeah, and the plumber has been busy. The shower is in (though he had to apply some force and a chisel to the framing I had done. Part of the wall had crept 1/2 inch in when I wasn't looking.), and he will finish roughing in the copper today.
And finally, the electrician upgraded the electric service from 100 to 200 amps yesterday.
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
The walls start to go up
It has been a busy week!! The plumber finished roughing in the drains last Thursday, and I filled in the trenches and cemented them on Saturday. That was a fun job :\ Shoveling all that sand BACK in to the trench, then Carrying sixteen 80-pound bags of cement from the car to the driveway (I made one trip with half the bags in the Subaru wagon, and the other trip in the minivan), then mixing them by hand with a hoe and pouring and spreading it... That lead to a sore back. Fortunately, I quite work early that day and went to a couple of Fourth of July parties, which helped!!
The next day, Sunday, July 4th, I started framing. The first step was to lay out the walls. The plumbing had been laid out in relation to a wall to be built adjacent to a foundation wall. All of my framing needed to be laid out in relation to the plumbing. Most important, the walls around the shower needed to be precisely placed with respect to the drain, but all the walls have drain vents in them which dictate the wall location. After marking the wall locations, I nailed down pressure-treated 2x4s using a stud gun, a nifty device that uses a .22 caliber charge to drive a nail through the wood into the cement. The framing went pretty smoothly. I finished most of what I wanted to get done so the plumber could start the roughing-in... but it turns out he won't be here until next week anyway.
The next day, Sunday, July 4th, I started framing. The first step was to lay out the walls. The plumbing had been laid out in relation to a wall to be built adjacent to a foundation wall. All of my framing needed to be laid out in relation to the plumbing. Most important, the walls around the shower needed to be precisely placed with respect to the drain, but all the walls have drain vents in them which dictate the wall location. After marking the wall locations, I nailed down pressure-treated 2x4s using a stud gun, a nifty device that uses a .22 caliber charge to drive a nail through the wood into the cement. The framing went pretty smoothly. I finished most of what I wanted to get done so the plumber could start the roughing-in... but it turns out he won't be here until next week anyway.
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