Category: Fun Stuff

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Tightwaddery2

Ab out a year ago, I found a belt exactly like the one pictured here ($16) for a buck at a local “fell off the back of the truck store (closeouts, returns, salvage, etc.). I liked the fact that it was extremely adjustable, and since I needed a belt at the time (intentional weight loss, pants falling down, broken buckle on old black belt I had used for years–had LOTS of additional holes punched in the leather, anyway), I purchased it.

After a few months, the part indicated with the arrow broke. Unlike the rest of the belt buckle, it was just cheap pot metal. #gagamaggot

Today, I finally decided to either fix the thing or toss it. So, I used a twist tie to emulate the functionality of the part that broke–a part which worked together with a spring-operated tongue on the buckle to grip notches in the belt.

It works, but that’s about all I can say for it. Still, “it works” is enough for me to once again wear the thing with a pair of pants I bought “too small” which now fall down if I do not wear either a belt of suspenders (or both *heh*)

So, Tightwaddery2, ;cos cheap buy of an item I needed and cheap fix of same item, broken.

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Me and My. . . Messes

So, this is what our kitchen once looked like, more or less (at least the western portion):

I’ve cut off the 3′ portion of counter top that has the marble rolling pin on it (never fear; I have a use for it *heh*) and removed the support elements, so that between the mobile island (the wooden top immediately to the left of the counter top in the pic that I removed) and the remaining countertop, that 3′ of free space provides better flow for the kitchen.

But I’ve not exactly lost the very nearly nine square feet of counter top, not entirely, just made it possible to have that space be more useful, buy adding a 2’x4′ piece of plain faux butcher block (real wood but not real butcher block) that very nearly matches the existing island’s top to that island with a piano hinge and two folding legs, for occasional use.

Oh, and the counter top I cut off? I plan to later attach it to the end of the counter I cut it off of to extend that counter straight, in a modification of the current “coffee shrine,” which is a 1’x2′ extension off that counter, now. I’ll trim that 3’x3′ piece of countertop down to 2’x2′ to attach it, giving me back the net loss of ~ one square foot, plus a bit, just in a different configuration.

THe counters and cabinets in our kitchen were all carpenter-built, and so are not compliant with normal cabinetry standards, so these modifications have unearthed some. . . unique, let’s say, solutions to what was initially planned, since a simple demo was just not in the cards.

You can imagine how that 2’x2′ extension/modification of the “coffee shrine” will look (complete with expanded storage underneath) by glancing at how it looks now:

Plan slowly coming together. I did need to get the demo done before I could complete installing the new flooring in the kitchen, though. Still, I’ve made another huge mess getting as far as I have. *shrugs*

Oh, the dishes displayed above/next to the “coffee shrine” have been replaced (the ones seen above donated) with some plain white Corelle® dishes, the storage underneath the coffee paraphernalia is now full of cookbooks, and the stools have been displaced by some comfy stepstool stools with nice supportive backs, but apart from those things, it’s more or less as you see it in the pic. *heh*

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The Difference Between “Uffda” and “Feeda”

Uffda and feeda are two words commonly used by folks of Norwegian extraction, and while they have some similarities in meaning, the differences were graphically illustrated for me in the summer of 1978, when I visited my Wonder Woman’s family in Minnesota for the first time. One afternoon, while there, my Wonder Woman’s sibs took us to see “Grease” at a local movie theater. The movie was OK, but the highlight of the day came as we exited the theater and made our way toward the car. A couple of guys were walking in front of us, and one of them pointed at some gum on the ground and said, “Uffda!” The other guy didn’t see it in time, stepped in it, lifted his foot and looked at the gum on his shoe and disgustedly said, “Feeda!”

So there you have it. If one merely _sees_ something unpleasant, the proper expression is “Uffda!” But if one _steps_ in it. . .

YW. 🙂

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A Teensy-Tiny Piece of History

Back in 1959, in observance of Alaska’s new statehood (1958), the Southern Baptist Convention sponsored an evangelistic effort, partnering with existing SBC churches in Alaska. My dad obtained sponsorship from the baptist church in Seward, Alaska, along with its partnering churches in the lower 48, and spent a month as part of evangelistic meetings, clinics on church music and church education, and in personal evangelism.

I have copies of letters between him and the sponsoring church, copies of various agendas for meetings, and a very special “cookbook” compiled by students of Shishmaref Day School, Shishmaref, Alaska.It’s a little ~4”x5” typewritten booklet with a hand lettered cover that includes such “recipes” (descriptions of preparation, no amounts given; kinda like my “Not a recipe” recipes I post here now and then *heh* like

Eskimo Ice Cream

  • grate reindeer tallow into small pieces
  • Add seal oil slowly while beating with hand
  • After some seal oil has been used, then add a little water while whipping
  • Continue adding seal oil and water until white and fluffy
  • Some berries can be added to it

It might be difficult to come by reindeer tallow and seal oil, here in America’s Third World County™, but it’d certainly be “keto friendly.” 🙂

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I Blame Keto

An old box of my dad’s WWII memorabilia came my way, recently. One of the real keepers was his uniform web belt. The brass was in need of serious TLC, but the webbing was in great shape. Strangely, unlike his Boy Scout uniform belt, I can actually wear this one. Surprise: my waistline is a close approximation of my dad’s when he was in the best condition of his life. Oh, I’m not in a similar conditioning, but shape? Close. I’m a bit taller than he was (and still a wee bit “puffier” *heh*), but in the ballpark.

Interesting.

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No Names (In Order to “Shield” the Guilty)

. . .but either someone(s?) in the turnpike authority of a certain state (again, no names, but the relevant initials are O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A) has a macabre sense of humor, or the turnpike authority needs a literate adult on staff, because signs in construction zones read:

“Don’t hit our workers
Pay $10,000 fine”

I tell ya, I don’t have the $10,000 to spare. I started thinking I should look for a worker to hit so I could avoid the fine. . . *heh*

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“Teach Your Children Well. . . “

Lovely Daughter commented today after Mother’s funeral, graveside service, and the funeral dinner at the church (at which neither she not I found anything to eat, though there was some palatable–just!–coffee) regarding my (successful!) efforts when she was a small girl (a talkative three year old? About that) to teach her to say to my mom, “Grandma, please take me to Chik-Fil-A.”

So, in honor of her grandmother, she had her lunch at. . . Chik-Fil-A.

🙂

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Happy Discovery: Issues and Answers

So, a while back I began installing new laminate flooring on one floor of the house. It was planned (and purchased for) to cover the living room (where we really do “live”–spend most of our time), dining room, kitchen (with precautions against water damage), and two bedrooms. When I got to the hallway to the two bedrooms on this floor and pulled the carpet and padding, I discovered oak flooring underneath. Sadly, it would take too much work to reclaim it because the moron who installed the carpet glued down the padding! (In addition to stapling it to the oak flooring.)

#gagamaggot

But. . . when I got to the bedrooms, I discovered that the padding was apparently NOT glued down there. *shrugs* I dunno. Maybe the moron thought traffic in the hallway would cause the padding to move. Oh, the carpet pad is still stapled, which means a LOT of fiddly bits to carefully remove, but the flooring itself looks to be in really nice condition. So, removing the carpet and padding a bit at a time (makes removing it from the house easier, anyway) and getting the staples dealt with looks like it will give us back some nice hardwoood flooring we didn’t even know was there.

Oh, transition from the “bronzed acacia” look laminate to the oak flooring will be. . . interesting, but we decided we can live with that pretty easily. I’m using actual oak baseboard trim to make transition from the hallway to the bedrooms, and I decided to stain it “red oak”–different from both the laminate and the oak in the bedrooms. Why? Because the laminate is 3/8” “taller” than the oak floor. The trim I’m using to make transition with tapers down from 3/8”. The different oak stain will provide an almost subliminal cue to the transition in height, hopefully making the (very small) height differential marginally safer to navigate, kind of like those yellow/black warning strips for stairs and shallow ramps. *shrugs* We’ll see.

But then there’s the fact that we’ll be stuck with several hundred square feet of extra laminate. Oh, well. Maybe I will eventually end up doing a garage conversion. Really nice laminate on a workshop/crafts room. *heh*

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Dewey Was a Great Man (No, Not That One. Not That One Either. *heh*)

The Dewey Decimal System is an extremely useful method of categorizing knowledge for cataloging a library, but it is also a very useful system to use when searching out and exploring a topic of knowledge. An understanding of its classifications can yield some few advantages over computer catalogs of libraries for card catalog users, too. And then, just browsing a section, grazing the pages of books from one end of a class to another, can sometimes yield great benefits.

I once spent time “living” any available spare moment in a large state university library as an undergrad (and it wasn’t even the school I was attending *heh*) making such discoveries–especially during one semester when I was taking a course so far off my majors that I had almost NO background, and none of the prerequisite courses (yeh, talked my way ito it because it seemed interesting) in the subject. Result: The professor found my “insights” refreshingly stimulating, much to the disgust of the other seven members of the class who were restricted by having all the prerequisite boundaries instilled in their thinking.

Ah, but of course all classifications of knowledge, especially those which–like the DDS–comprise relatively rigid, detailed classifications, have the basic flaw of placing artificial boundaries between fields of knowledge. But then, it seems to be a basic human trait to connect disparate elements into a whole, even when that “whole” is wholly artificial and even nonsensical. So, the DDS is, in my use at least, most like a box of building blocks divided into compartments by shape, color, size, etc. It can make it useful when searching for just that right building block.

Sometimes, though, one wants to just dump the box out and scramble up the pieces to see what serendipitous connections one might make. That’s the Internet.