Monday, May 29, 2006

One Little, Two Little Three Little ...

Less Than A Month - And Counting...

Memorial Day weekend has traditionally been when we get the pool ready for summer. Not this year - that occurred weeks ago. We did swap off a leaking hose for a non-leaking one and topped off the pool. Said leaky hose currently resides in the trash barrel to prevent inadvertent use in the future. BTW, why ever would one save a leaky hose? That hose was replaced last year and never thrown out. Go figure.

There is PLENTY to do with the arrival of seven house guests (DD, her DH, and their 5 children 6 years old and younger with a set of two-year old twins bringing up the rear) in less than a month. Following them by a few days will be all of DW's siblings and a good number of their offspring for a family reunion. Plenty to do.

We started out Sunday (yesterday) with family finances followed by mowing the lawn with a sharp blade this time and the mowing deck set half an inch closer than last week. The outcome was much better than last week's really ragged cut. At Jean's request I got out the weed whacker and trimmed around the buildings, pool, flower beds, etc.

The next task was to disassemble our old picnic table that was left to us by the previous owner when we bought the house 19 1/2 years ago. I had "rebuilt" it a short time after we moved in (read: 1 - 3 years) and now it is simply too rickety to depend on for a picnic lunch. However, all those lag bolts that I put in years ago need to be removed before my neighbor across the street will take it for a July 4th bon fire burn pile. While we were at it, the small children's picnic table that Jean picked up beside the road in Hinsdale, IL, in late 1970s and which I had rebuilt a couple times also needed the same treatment and fate. Eventually both tables (One little, two little...) were reduced to a pile of boards ready for a bon fire.

Two (Old) Picnic Tables

The piece de resistance was the assembly of a new picnic table that Jean bought Friday afternoon. She checked two stores (WalMart and Lowes) finding that WalMart's had a lot of knots. Just getting it out of the back of the van I pulled a muscle in my left low back and have been taking Mobic all weekend to be able to keep moving. It took longer than I had figured it would take and I was starting to feel like a mosquito feeding station near the end. We found that while WalMart's had a lot of knots, the one that she got from Lowe's had a LOT of large splinters that needed to be removed leaving sharp edges and divots as well as a lot of mold/mildew. Jean scrubed it with water, soap and bleach then rinsed it down with clear water as night fell.

This morning we started out right after breakfast with a bicycle ride downtown for the annual Memorial Day Parade. We left after the parade and before the speeches began this year. We got home about 11 AM and as we put our bikes back in the garage, Jean remembered that she wanted to scrub the mildew off the door we were taking the bikes though. She set up with a bucket of soap, bleach and water with a scrub brush and was making very good time while I assembled items to swap off the pool hose that was leaking and found the chlorine table floater in the pool. When she finished that door, she started work on the entrance to our front door which had a similar affliction.

I changed my clothes and got a step ladder out to complete the job followed by a hose to rinse the siding down with. While I was at it I sprayed down the entire front of the house and garage as well as the side of the garage where the door she had worked on was located, removing large amounts of dust and dirt.

I sorted out the hardware from the two picnic tables saving only the reusable nails, screws and lag bolts with the majority being too rusted to be re-used. The rejected hardware joined its friend, the pool hose, in the trash can.

The next step was to tackle the numerous areas on the new picnic table that had splinters, gouges, rough spots or just plain black ink! Out came my trusty electic Craftsman "Mouse" sander which I used to wear out three pieces of 120 grit sandpaper before I was satisfied with the result. I vacuumed the dust up while Jean went to get sealer/stain. She came back with Thompson's Water Seal which I had heard (from a physician friend) did not work well. She checked an online forum and confirmed that there have been significant problems with that product. With 10 minutes left before the Sherwin-Williams store closed (early for the holiday) we headed off and got there just at closing time. We got some stain that we have applied and the picnic table is all ready for use as the stain dries within 3 hours and was dry in some areas by the time we finished applying the stain.

New Picnic Table

While we were applying the stain, Deb made delicous lentils for supper which we ate as soon as we got cleaned up.



A technological side note:

(Multiple Choice Question)

Which Microsoft product(s) qualifies for the installation of Microsoft PowerPoint 2003:

1. Microsoft Works Suite 2003

2. Microsoft Office Suite Basic 2003

3. Microsoft Power Point 97
_______________________________

A. 2 & 3

B. 2

C. 3

D. 1 & 3

E. All of the above

CORRECT ANSWER:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
D!

I was VERY surprised that Deb's Microsoft Office Basic 2003 did NOT qualify for the installation. Luckily, I have a standalone full installation PowerPoint 97 which I have given her to use as a qualifying software so that she can have the current version of PowerPoint on her computer in her room at college. I had it on my computer (uninstalled now) but never used it as I have PowerPoint 2003 on my laptop, which is what I use for that purpose anyway. Strange, really strange. Who can understand Microsoft's logic.

3 Comments:

At 9:44 PM, Blogger Cheryl said...

Congratulations on the table construction. RE: MS upgrading. Who can tell indeed?

 
At 6:13 AM, Blogger LarryandJean said...

At least the table was not "hurling" at me while I was working on it.

OC

 
At 4:34 PM, Blogger Sunny said...

The "new" table is great! Hope it provides you lots of enjoyment

 

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