My weekend in pictures and story...

[penk]

Until I get Movable Type on my blog working, I'll continue to post here when the muse is upon me. It works, it's okay, but it's not the best format for what I'd like to say. However, for life chatterings such as these, it shall suffice.


This was a weekend of projects, plans, and processes. I had a whole slew of things on my mind that I wanted to get done, and since the weather looked like it was going to cooperate, I vowed to Get Shit Done.

And done I did!

The Video Situation
Since I moved into my new house, I've had a sort of 'catch as catch can' setup for video in my living room. The 32" LCD display + playstation + stereo has been working well, but it was sort of stacked up in some Ikea shelving in a pretty haphazard fashion. I knew it was temporary, but I hadn't gotten it together to redo it. This weekend though, it was time to change that.

The first step involved a stop at BJ's to pick up some minor items. I'd been research wall mounts on Amazon and a few other sites (holy cow the price differential on flat panel TV wall mounts is astounding. Lowest price - $50. Highest price - $750-range. Difference between the two? Not one heck of a lot.). I had settled on a mount from Amazon for around $55 that was the right weight and size for my TV. BJ's had roughly the same mount for $5 more, so I opted to pick it up while i was there for groceries.

When I purchased my Cambridge Soundworks speaker setup, it came with floor stands for the left and right front channels. I took those out and dusted them off. The mounting of the tv to the wall went pretty easily (hoorah for stud finders!), and I have to admit, the end result looks pretty spiffy. There's still work to be done - I want to replace my receiver / amplifier with something slightly lest gargantuan, and I want to add shelving for games and the center channel speaker.

Of course, when I was done, I realized I had moved the TV back about 2' from where it was... and now it looks too small. Oh well, 42" tvs are coming down in price, and the mount supports them. I'll upgrade at some point

Oh, and about the bed...
Remember back in the day, when I built my own loft bed? Well, I moved that bed into my new house (after lowering it a bit, as I didn't need the full height for zach's 'bunk' sleep space anymore). It's been doing just fine, but one last bit on the design was never completed.

The headboard has been in, um, my head for the last year. I knew what it should look like, how to assemble it, but I never got around to completing it. This weekend I remedied that. A trip to Lowes for lumber and other assemlage hardware, and I was able to cut, shape, and install the pieces for the headboard in about 2.5 hours. I love having a fully equipped woodshop here. It made shaping and prepping the wood so much easier.

I'm very happy with the result - I don't have to cram pillows and blankets behind the mattress (between it and the wall) anymore, and I have a lovely shelf for my Chumby, light, and other bits.

Uncle Sam wants me! ... well, my money actually,
The only downside from this weekend was doing my taxes. Somewhere along the line I muffed my withholding, and though Catya was super-helpful letting me use her Turbo Tax installation (which made the whole process pretty durned painless.. at least from a process standpoint), I'm still ending up almot $4k in the hole. This is particularly bumming since I feel like I've just gotten a strong hold on my finances and I'm very close to zeroing out all my credit cards. Grump.

Music!
On Saturday, I went into Berlin center and sat in with a jam session of the Berlin Country Orchestra. I'd been trying to find a local group to play for a bit, and these folks play at the regular Berlin contra dance. I contacted them a month ago asking if they'd like a bass or guitar player, and they invited me to come play.

I was nervous as heck, because I generally don't play contra music, and I was rusty to boot, but with good sheet music, very friendly folks, and a little practice, I was up to speed and enjoying myself enormously.

Gosh Waltzes are fun to play :)

Geocaching, ho!
I'd been toying around with the idea of setting up a Geocache on our property. This weekend Zach, Pascal, Kim and I went up into the woods with a properly prepared container, and hid it (noting the coordinates). We'res till putting the final touches on the cache description, location, and instructions, but when it's ready, I'll let folks know.

I'm considering upgrading the cache to a puzzle setup - have some devious ideas in mind for it. Should be fun!

And other stuff
Even with all these nifty projects, I got some basics done.

• Did a bunch of laundry
  
• Did some banking - not done yet, but got my invoices out, and some checks deposited. Woot.
  
• Kept the house relatively clean during all the work. Booyah.
  
• Succeeded in an AWESOME 2.5hr nap on Sunday. This made the whole weekend worth it :)
  

All in all, not a bad weekend.

Happy April!

Comments

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

I missed the part where you play an instrument! Yay, more musicians.

[penk.livejournal.com]

Ayup. I play bass primarily, but I also play 6 string acoustic and some flute.