Loose Lips Biff Quips

The hayfever has been outright ridiculous today, but that hasn't stopped us from moving forward. Despite the perpetual nose-run and the overwhelming urge to nap all day, we at least managed to knock out a couple of the "bigger" things on my lodge punch list for this weekend. Friday night I marked, drilled, and cut to length the steel box-tubing that will form the uprights for the balcony (interior) railing. I brought all this in to the parents for Sat AM, cleaned up, then Cara and I headed downtown to meet Ben for an hour or so of dinner and drinks at Toads. Now that I think about it, I took the afternoon off to pick up supplies at Men@rds, and more importantly, a stack of exterior sheathing from Gypsum S*pply.

After whipping up eggs and sausage the next morning, I caught the UNI presentation of "American Cinema: The Studio System", part of their Sat AM series made a few years back. Then I headed to the parents, pulled out the welder, found my mask, and gave it a go. Now, it's been a few years since I've welded and if I was going to pull this off, I'd need more power than the generator could provide. Actually, the welding went very well. Tried out the new angle grinder as well and smoothed the transitions. Just needs some paint and we're in business! (sunrise red) The evening temps were just right so we took advantage of a gorgeous night and had a picnic on the front balcony, watched the moon rise, waited for the fireflies to come out and listened to Dick Bartley.

This morning, still feeling more tired than ever, I got up and got going out there working on electrical, ripped down and stained a stair stringer reinforcement, measured and drilled more steel uprights for the gangway, and hammer-drilled and glued in the 2" drain pipe for the washtub while Cara worked about the apartment. I know, it's all so glamorous!  We met for lunch at 2PM, went out there an hour or two later together and brush-cleaned, broomed and rolled on cement sealer on the exterior balcony (finally!). 

I'd ramble on about my trip to Moline or more construction nonsense (like how tough it is to find BLOOD RED carpetting), but really, what's the point? Yeah, with winter just around the corner my mind is on the punch list, but who wants to read grocery lists?