Spring break - man stuff

My spring break is now over - tonight I go to bed with the knowledge that classes resume in the morning.  It has been a well-rounded break.  Lots of sleep, lots of time playing with the kids, date night with Rachel, etc. But this post is devoted to those man topics I am most interested in: sports and tools.

On Saturday, the family went up to Evanston to take in the Spring Game Practice of the NU football team.  Citing lack of depth, Coach Fitz cancelled the scrimmage and held an open practice instead.  The weather was ok, but not quite warm enough.  When the boys are older they can sign up to participate in a free clinic and hang out with the players on a field.  For now, we headed back to the car and went home.  We were just happy that Andrew did not try to run away from Willie (irrational fear of people dressed up in costumes).

 Perhaps the lack of hot drink like his Dad gave Andrew the blues.  

 Daniel did not show much interest in football.  Then again, he is 3 months old and does not show an interest in very much....

The only time we will ever be on the 50 yard line?

Proof - he was not "all done" with Willie this time around.

The other aspect of spring break was home improvement.  We thought a lot about different house projects (hmmm...is there still time to make that master list?) and engaged in a couple of little projects.  The new challenge for me is making furniture.  I have never attempted finished carpentry (wait - there was that bookshelf I made for Rachel in college, but Dad mostly just showed me what to do), but we have a need for more furniture.  I had been bothering Rachel about a new coffee table for the living room, but Craigslist was not producing viable options.  

So she suggested I try to make one, and pointed me to various DIY sites with plans.  I was skeptical, but willing to try.  The problem was, we wanted a nice stained wood and it could be expensive to buy the oak.  So I decided to rummage.

In the garage, I stashed away some solid wood panels from the old basement walls.  I borrowed a sander and went to work.  The wood looked nice, but the panel was not quite sized correctly.  Looking again, I saw that the garage walls were paneled with the same wood.  

  

I pulled a couple of them down, cut them to size, sanded them, and assembled it into a nice little table.  (with a little help from our neighbor, the professional carpenter)

It is clamped together as the glue dries.  Next will be staining.  Fun!

You will notice in the background the other project - the next set of shelving for the basement.  These will be used as part of my workshop, as my workbench was constantly cluttered with junk.  Now at least the junk is out of the way.

Once the coffee table is done, we are looking at paint samples for the living room.  We are not in love with the color so now might be the time for a redesign.

-alan