Bobcat Mantle Makeup Long Summer

A wonderful week it has been. If you can't tell, I'm working on a new title format where I try to make a complete sentence from the Blog posting subject matter.

Maybe Yoda can help. One of my greatest finds lately is a speak like Yoda translator. One of our next posts will all be in Yoda speak.

Great to hear from all of you it is! A few highlights from the week ...

1. Bobcat Scout, Nathan Doxey. In a rare confluence of events, Nathan Doxey was awarded his Bobcat Scout badge and two belt loop skill awards. LOVES his uni.

2. Liza Meets Makeup Bag. Liza's highly observant nature pays off. While Julia was reading stories and teaching foreign languages, quilt tying, history writing to the boys, (and while I was building a mantle), Liza indulged in Julia's makeup bag, proudly proclaiming, "I all ready mamma! I so cute!" Liza had a heyday.

3. Ahhh the mantle. Like I said in a previous post, "so much to learn" ...don't look too closely. What you are seeing here is a solid oak unfinished mantle, with wood patch over the nail gun holes.

I am proud to say, that thanks to Bry's ONE lesson in how to cut exact measurements, a whole new world has opened up for me. I found a mondo huge, free solid oak mantle on craigslist, took it apart completely and figured I had about $200 in solid oak boards. Then, I bought casing, trim and woodpatch, and $61 later ... viola.

With Liza, Nate & John as my witnesses (and helpers) there are 7 lag bolts in the brick, a big French cleat and two gynormo large other things it hangs on. I have to say, Bry's lesson in exactness was handy, but not without asterisks next to it. Previously I would have had to sand/grind down 5 inches here and there, but now I only had to sand/grind down a 1/2 inch here and there.
In future posts, you'll see that the mantle pictured will be stained Jacobean dark walnut, with Satin finish, maybe a few distress marks from me being P.O.'d at it.

4. 0-18. Sorry to get your hopes up last posting, but the Shaklee Slammers might be in for a long summer. Last Thursday we lost 0-18 and they called the game early. Never a good sign... and just as I was thinking, "You know I'll bet it's going to be hard for the family to keep in the loop with the Slammers."

You see, it's really hard to get good sports coverage for a team like ours here (probably b/c there are a few other big name pro, college, amateur and hobbyist teams.) Corporate softball doesn't even make the Tri-Valley Herald OR the Penny Pincher as a lead in story. This blog is pretty much all you'll get.

Be that as it may, I've already rolled out my reminder speech to our dead serious team, "Guys, it's not like we're all trying to live out our Major League Baseball careers that never happened. Remember the words of the venerable Coach Vince Lomboadi (not to be confused with Vince Lombardi), 'We all suck. Just admit it and get on with your day. Try to at least get some exercise out of this dealio.'"

Later. We're going to try to comment on your blogs more BTW. We read them all so keep posting. :)