Tetris!

These would be AWESOME in my living room.

Well, they would be awesome once we rip out the paneling and put drywall in, and after we take out that ex-window while we're at it. (There's a window that used to look out onto a patio. That patio is now a room. The window framing, trim included, is still there on the living room side.) When we moved in we were broke, so we covered up the ex-window with three seven-foot bookcases. If that wall were all nicely painted drywall these Tetris shelves would be STUNNING.

But they'd be way out of the budget. Way out.

I suspect it would be possible to make my own. I am the least skilled woodworker on the entire planet, even if you count newborn infants, so I would not be able to depend on kung fu joinery skills to make shelves that wouldn't collapse. I see a few options:

1) Don't ever put any stuff on the shelves. Then you don't have to have excellent joints. A simple miter would do.
2) Put a back on them. They'd look a lot less cool, but they'd be more likely to hold if you put weight on the shelf. (To mitigate the loss of cool, the back could be painted to match the wall.)
3) Hide angle brackets between two layers of wood, or hide flat corner brackets on the back surface.

I don't think you can get away without knowing how to do veneer. Either that or your finish work -- on a lovely wood -- has to be very good.

A Note for lkeele

MMMMMMM BREAD WITH CARDAMOM MMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

That, with some mint tea, was lunch. There's about one slice of it left now.

Let it go, let it go

MANY things freecycled this weekend, including some stuff I am stunned that anyone took. Rob was gracious enough to list it all and arrange for pickups.

People claimed, get this,
- complete plans, blueprints and instructions for building a Lancair IV! (THREE responses!)
- a big bag of towels dating back to our first apartment together
- 80 empty wine bottles
- a car stereo from approximately 1987
- used pillows
- three years of aviation magazines
- sheets and pillowcases worn to wonderful softness, and frayed a bit
- some really bad books
- a candle/incense holder that's basically a sand-pit on a stand (so top-heavy that if you breathe on it it pours sand all over your floor)
- a light fixture that looks like a War of the Worlds ship landing

Plus some stuff that was probably useful. It's amazing.

(Now if they'd only come and pick it up.)

I've also thrown away a big pile of crap. I finally pitched the model airplane my ex-housemate started building. I had to admit that no, I am never going to finish someone else's model airplane. I can't even get my butt in gear to finish MY model airplane. I also admitted that I am never going to find a lovely dark green laundry bin to replace my broken one, and I pulled the spare one out of the upstairs closet to use. Poof, no more duct-taped broken handles. In retrospect I'm amazed I stuck with that thing for so long. (Hey, Bay Area people, if any of you are still reading: how do you recycle an entire laundry basket?)

That upstairs room is starting to look almost nice. Next weekend we do the OTHER closet.

Productive! Decluttery!

Amazing how much I've got done, though I wish I'd done twice that. I always feel pressure to get non-work stuff done on weekends. I only have two days, these two glorious days, and anything I don't get done has to wait another week.

- Lots of decluttering.
- Went through a month's worth of mail, paid bills, etc.
- Wrote Team in Training (fifth paragraph) a polite little note saying "cut it out". Declutter my inbox! Yay!
- Ate my way through the fridge. It's in pretty good shape now.
- Ordered some clothing I've been badly needing, but have been too lazy to shop for. Three cheers for Web access and for not needing to try stuff on.
- Laundry. Dishes. What the cat did. Prescription refills. Personal e-mails that had waited a few days.

Still to do:
- Skim my third USB book. I have it only for the weekend. Yipes.
- New user icons with short hair. Oh, joedecker...

And hey, I have a cat on my lap. Life is good.