Some days are harder to start than others, even with a good cup of coffee. Alex and I sat on the porch this morning to watch the day begin and wait for Ryanne to arrive.

Make no mistake about it, Alex is getting ready to crawl. He has been working on a new trick - kind of a military belly crawl using his knees and elbows to slink along the floor. He's gotten much faster now too.
Another thing that's lots of fun to do is pull on Daddy's hair...

He always makes the funniest noises when you do that! Eeeeh! Ooooh! Arrrgh!

In other news, here's what the garage door currently looks like:

Here is what the garage door WILL look like once I'm done with my little side-project:

I ran into just one little snag though. The door frame doesn't have 2x6 trim around the inside as recommended by the manufacturer. So I mounted the track inside the door jamb, where it fits EXACTLY. Only problem is that there's no room to lift the door now, as it butts right up against the top of the frame!
I'm going to have to trim some of the header off and move the tracks back a couple of inches so the door will clear the door frame. Nothing in our house is "standard" or "by the book". Nothing.

Tonight my buddy Tyr came by the house to help me and Dana maneuver my Grandpa's lathe down the basement stairs. The shop down there is a perfect place for this beautiful classic machine. Unfortunately the darn thing must weight 200 lbs without its motor! Finally we just ended up scooting and grunting it down the stairs and over to the workbench. We managed to hoist it into place and re-align everything. To my great joy, after just a little tuning it purred back to life just like it was still in my Grandpa's shop in Oregon. It'll take my 29-year old back a few hours (days?) to recover, but that's the worst of it.

Tyr and I spent an hour or so tinkering with all of the gears, screw drives, and pulleys to figure out how everything works. It might just give the new sewing machine a run for its money in terms of mechanical complexity. We were tickled to find that despite its age and apparent complexity, we could understand how everything worked. The coolest feature we tested was the automatic tool movement, where the motor drives the tool mount in and out, forward and back at varying speeds. We considered many uses for this capability. It's intended purpose is for precisely turning bolts and screws, but we realized one could also use it to etch a phonograph master disc, among other things.

My Grandpa was happy to know that I'd take care of and enjoy using his lathe. I need a good project to get started with it, but that's just a matter of time. As happy as I am to have the lathe set up and working as good as ever, it's no substitute for its former owner. I wish he could show me just a few more little tricks.

Walkies & BBQs

One of the best ways to spend a calm early fall evening in Berthoud is going for a walk with Alex. That's just what we did tonight after I got home from work.

Last Sunday night we decided to have a BBQ in the back yard. We fired up the BBQ and cooked up some killer kebabs. We fired up the propane fryer and fried up some sweet potato fries. We spun up the ice cream maker and froze ourselves some homemade chocolate ice cream. I cranked up the iPod and cranked some tuneskies. It was fantastic.

Mr. Project

Last weekend I was Mr. Project, working alongside my Dad to finish a bunch of projects that have grown stale. I had to replace the bathroom sink at the rental, only the vanity top that was installed was an odd shape, and my trusty Home Depot and Lowe's didn't stock that size. So it was up to us to cook up some crazy scheme to build a new vanity top. In the end we did it for less than half the cost of a custom piece, and I think it looks pretty darn good:

"Custom" vanity top made from common kitchen laminate

We had a ball. We also investigated some of the options for installing a new garage door in the shop. I bought a new 8x7 door that was on clearance over Labor Day, since that's the size of the rough opening. Only the door instructions call for a flat 2x6 trim around the door opening, which my funky 100-year old garage just didn't come with. But we worked out a scheme where we can forego the manufacturer's clever little aluminum brackets and just bolt the new door's track to the existing door jamb. Yeah!

Another project was finishing the trim on the inside of the new closet upstairs. I bought some cheap 1x6 pine to use, figuring I could stain it to match now that I've found the perfect Minwax color. But coat after coat that I rubbed on with a little foam brush, then diligently wiped off afterwards left the wood far too light and the rings and veins in far too stark contrast. As I applied the stain, the color was perfect - deep, rich reddish-brown that masked most of the variegation in the wood. But no matter how long I waited for the stain to sink in, it would always wipe off and ruin the look. I realized somehow I had to leave the stain on permanently. I figured out that by brushing it on with a normal paintbrush, I could maintain the desired color, but keep the stain coat thin enough that it would dry evenly and smoothly. Once again I probably have the saving graces of Colorado's wicked dry climate to thank, at least in part. The technique worked like a charm, and now I have the perfect stain, ready for a glossy urethane coat as soon as I get a few minutes alone in the garage.

Meanwhile my Mom taught me how to sew on the new sewing machine she bought us (another Labor Day clearance sale find!). This little machine is easily the most complex mechanical device I've ever used - it makes modern oscilloscopes and table saws look like kids' toys! But she patiently walked me through the setup of the thread and bobbin, and helped me to repair the pocket in my fleece jacket, which has been torn open for the past 4 years. Now it's as good as new, and I finally mastered the total mystery of mechanized sewing.

On the Alex front, Mr. Monkey Man has begun to develop a taste for rice cereal.

Grandma helping Alex with the mechanics of eating

I think the majority of the cereal went onto his bib, but he certainly had a fun time trying it.

Alex loves to half-crawl too!

Alex has taken to crawling -- sort of. He's perfected a kind of wheelbarrow stance: With his legs stretched out behind him, he'll start out on his elbows, but rapidly these give out and his forehead takes over. He pushes himself along on his forehead like it was a caster. As he inches along, he'll stop every other push or so, drop his legs back down, and lift his head up to look around, presumably to determine how much progress he's made and how far off course he's getting. Once he has his bearings, it's right back down to push on from there.

I do think he's getting close to crawling for real. When he's on his hands and knees, in a "proper" crawling position, he will rock himself forwards and backwards, as if testing out all his limbs to find out if they can handle the job. From this starting point, he nearly goes into a crawl, but rapidly degrades into the inchworm mode described above.

Alex, taking a break in one of his many lighter moments

Over the weekend we had the distinct pleasure of attending the wedding of two good friends, Julie and Chad. I've worked with both of them since they started, and have really enjoyed my friendship with each, and watching them grow closer together. It's said a lot, but these two were made for each other. They couldn't have picked a more beautiful evening in the mountains, and they couldn't have picked better partners.

And as if there weren't enough signs that Fall is arriving, the grapes out back are alllllmost ready:
The cooler nights are obviously having their effect on our thriving vines. Last year I tried my hand at making grape jelly, thanks to some recipes my Grandma gave me, but I let my intuition get the better of me and over-boiled the compote. Once it had cooled in the jars, what I had was more of a stiff grape taffy than anything resembling jelly. Plus, the recipe I used had way too much orange in it, mostly overpowering the subtle grape flavor. If I do it again (and that's a big IF) I'll try a different recipe and just go with the boiling time that it recommends. Out of all of our grapes, I ended up with about 6 jars of the aforementioned taffy goo, so it hardly seems worth it...

Oh, before I forget: GO BEARS!!! Starting off a Cal football season 2-0 is still very, very foreign to my late-1990s sensibilities. My tolerance for horrendous, humiliating losses has certainly waned a bit, but I still keep expecting the Bears to just toss up their hands at the half and say, "Well, that was a good quarter, now let's get back to sucking ass." They've hinted at crapulence a couple of times, but it's just a tease to keep the fans from changing the channel over to re-runs of Hogan's Heroes on cable.

Exhausting, Productive Weekend

Labor Day weekend was busy and exhausting. Having my Mom here has been pure bliss. She really enjoys playing with Alex, and it offers Dana and I uninterrupted free time whenever needed to get stuff done. We've been saving up a lot of things that needed doing.

We all spent most of Saturday outside cleaning up the yard. Mowing the lawn, trimming back overgrown shrubs, edging, cutting down the weeds in the back alley, and all manner of tidying up. The effort really shows! Too bad the lawn's dying, but we never really liked it anyway.

We spent most of Sunday shopping. There were a number of big Labor Day sales that drew us in, plus we had to do our regular household shopping. I got a deal on a late season window AC for the new bedroom (just $70 at Home Depot), and we FINALLY got a barbecue grill! On Sunday night we grilled up some extraordinarily good steaks, corn, baked potatoes and salad. Nothing so good as the first steak off a new grill!

Today we split up to work on stuff. I spent the day prepping and staining some wood furniture and trim pieces for the new closet. I can't seem to get the deep, rich red color out of the stain that Russ found. I'll keep at it though. I also stained all the pieces of a nightstand I've had unfinished in the garage since we moved in. Unfortunately I lost the little bag of hardware that I had for it. I'm sure it will turn up, but very frustrating! Finally I spent about an hour planing down the door jamb in the new closet so that the trim pieces I'm making will fit flush with the jamb. Whew! What a lot of work. For dinner, Dana made lamb kebabs on the new grill, plus salad, roasted new potatoes and mixed veggies. Yummy! That woman can cook. Add a bottle of great Chianti and some strawberry rhubarb pie, and you've got yourself a dinner.

Now for some pictures:

Grandma helping Alex try some rice cereal

The first BBQ

Relaxing on Friday night after a loooong week at work