Vegas here we come!!!

I bought myelf a plane ticket today... well Carol bought it with her credit card miles. I'm heading out to Las Vegas next weekend for the Street car nationals!

This will be 3 days of total insanity. "STREET" cars, with functional doors, painted on headlights, and 10 1/2" tires, running SIX second quarters at well  over 200 mph!
These cars are nuts, it's gonna be fun.

Of course Mark is joining us, as is Royce and a few other Team Camaro diehards.
Danielle, if you're reading this, hide in your Dad's  suitcase, we'll ditch the old guys and I'll show you Ceasar's Palace!

Look here for some cool  pics and videos http://www.camaros.net/forums/showthread.php?t=168730
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Parkview Christian Academy

had thier second annual "Taste of Africa" tonight.

Brian goes to Parkview, has since he started thier all day kindergarten many years ago. He's in sixth grade now.

This place is unbelieveable. If you ever doubt your faith, or start thinking maybe there isn't a God, go spend some time at Parkview. We are sooo lucky to be able to send our youngest son there. Yesterday, he brought home a "High Honor Roll certificate" one of 6 awards given to the 6th - 9th graders, and the only 6th grader to make the cut. He works very hard, because he loves his school and his teachers.

Because they are simply the best. When our founder and principal left 2 years ago, we though it might be the end. And then this guy Jim Apker took over, and he's proven to be just great too. Parkview has expanded into preschool and into high school, and still there are less than one hundred students. Class sizes are counted with the fingers on 2 hands. All the students get the help they need to reach there highest potential. Many excel. None are simply average.

The existance of such a place is truly a miracle. Their education of my son is a blessing.
Check them out here http://www.parkviewchristian.net/
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The energizer bunny?

Well almost... That bunny is not as exhausted as I am....
I almost got a little work work done today. I did have to go work on Carol's computer, and also had to deal briefly with my Mom and her tivo. Thanks Dann, for helping me out on that one!

Dog's and brats on the grill for dinner, and then back to my woodwork. I did get you guys some pics, but first, how 'bout a thumb update?
Here's tonight's thumb pic:

It really is healing, pretty quickly now. here's a pic of where I started, exactly a month ago:

So much for the gross stuff.

When we first built our timberframe house, we used carpeting on the kids level, as well as on the stairs from the mainfloor to the kids level, and up from there to the second floor master wing. Yes, master wing, well over 1000 square feet, 7 rooms (the closet, at 8 by 16 feet, qualifies as a room!)  but that's another story.

Anyway, I hate carpet. Dirty disgusting stuff, impossible to clean or keep clean. One of my projects this year has been to replace the carpet in the kids wing with hardwood. I used 5/16" prefinished wood flooring from Bruce. Great stuff, very close to the natural  finish oak we used in the great room, but considerable thinner than  the carpet and pad it replaced. So much so that there was a gap of near 1/2" between the bottom of the baseboard and the new flooring.

Regular baseshoe would not fill this gap. Kinda small aginst my 8" custom made baseboard too. (Yes, I made all the woodwork in this house, out of clear pine lumber) So I made some base shoe. Starting with clear pine 1x2, I first rounded opposte corners on the router, then ripped the strips in half, making 3/8  x 2" base moulding that was rounded over on the top edge.

Tonight I finished nailing this down in  the guestroom

You can see the hieght difference, and that I still need to remove and lower the corner block, and make a new taller doorframe block. So the guestroom is almost done. 2 corner blocks to move, and 6 new doorframe blocks to make.

I've also been changing the stairs over from carpet to oak. I got the first one done, from the main floor to the kids level:

So this past weekend I started on the other stairway, this one's a lil bigger at 9 steps instead of just 5. I got Dann to pull off the carpet and pad last weekend, and then I got all the tacks and staples off, and cut off the "toes" of the steps.

Soonly, I'll be cutting 8 steps and 9 risers ($18 and $7.75 each respectively) to exact fit, staining and varnishing them, and attaching the new parts over the old.

Meanwhile, I'm saving money for new carpet upstairs,  in the MBR and sitting room. I'd love to do that in hardwood, but the catwalk and loft are done with 3/4" finished in place oak. At $7 per square foot, that just isn't in the cards.

Someday soon, I'll get more into the house... I love our home, we built it with our own blood and sweat, and much of it with our own hands. It's a unique and special house. I'm sad that we will be moving on soon, and hope that we find a family who will enjoy and respect it as much as we have. Still, the plain and simple fact is I'm done. I need to look forward, to a time when my primary focus won't be maintaining my trophy house. Denver here we come!

So much for today, thanks for joining me.

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Another beautiful day!

Spent most of today over at Carol's studio. She worked me pretty hard, all 3 computers, cleaning gutters, even up on the roof sealing up a leaky skylight. I think I got everything handled pretty well though, fingers crossed!

Brian had scouts tonight, finished his first aid merit badge work, and got meal planning and such done for this weekends campout, he should fiunish his archery badge there. He was also named in his school's weekly newsletter as one of 6 students who made the "top honor role" He had 1 a- on his last report card, rest was straight A's! I'm  kinda proud of that one, he's a good kid.
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Back at it with a smile

Gooood Mooorning!
Another beautiful day, shower and breakfast are handled, it's 9 am, and I am back at it.

First will sand, seal, and stain those peices of base shoe I cut yesterday.
Then need to finish pulling all the carpet staples off the stairs, and trim the toe of the steps back. I didn't talk of this yesterday, as I had Dann to work on it. I'm "reskinning" the formerly carpeted stairs in Oak. I HATE carpeting!

We still have to finish moving leaves, and mowing the lawn. Also hope to wash the vette, and pull the drivers inside door panel off and tighten a loose outside mirrir.

and other stuff, it's endless. But if I'm ever to get to Denver, I need to finish me casa.
No pics, but the webcam is on, so take your own. http://www.jimragtop.com:12000/ user team p/w camaro
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Interactive JimDay!!!

Good Morning World!!!

It's a beautiful warm sunny autumn day in chicagoland, and I've got lots of activities planned. Shortly I'll be out in the garage for activity one, troubleshooting and repairing what appears to be a failed "blend door" in the heating system of Dann's 03 Malibu.

The webcam is on at  http://www.jimragtop.com:12000/
user is team
p/w is camaro
you have to install the active x control for it to work.

First, some breakfast.

You all pull up a chair and get comfy, I'll be out there in a minute.

If anyone has the slightest idea where to find the heater temperature blend motor on an 03 malibu, pas the info on, otherwise I'll be taking stuff apart until I find it.
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just another workday...

I was out and about most of today. I tried to get Mark on the phone, but he wasn't picmking up. I need Sandra to hang out the side of the pickup while Mark does a burnout and a 3 gear peel, need some good diesel audio for the "Hot Rod your Motrorhome" website.

I need a good  picture of a nice coach on a cool road (send pics to jimm1968@att.net) for the front page of the website, I'll have Carol Photoshop it doing a hairy burn out while Mark's Powerstroke does the background tunes. It'll be awesome.

Since Mark didn't answer the phone, I called grandma's house (Mark, what's your mothers name, it's impolite to call her "hey you!")
So grandma gave me a talking to about the thumb, suggesting that perhaps I should let the medical profession give me an opinion on if I will survive.
Then I got Danielle on the phone (far too briefly) and listened to her suggest the same thing...

It's good people care about me. Thank you.

But the thumb will be fine. I'm keeping it clean. taking care. Watching close. If there is any sign of infection, I'll be right off to the nurse practitioner in the walgreens drugstore. Foor now though, it's ok. Really.
Hmmm, the webcam has moved. But it's not aimed at me.
I think I'll get some ice cream and give Mark a call.
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Hooters!!!

It must be getting close to winter, cause our Team Camaro South Side Group had our first get together of the season.

We  meet the first Wednesday of every month, at the Hooter in Orland Park, Illinois, for adult beverages, tall tales, hot wings, and girls in orange shorts. If you're in  the area, join us next month, on December 2, 2009.

The headcount was nine. The beers were cold, and the tales were tall.
See ya all next month, here's the pics.

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Thumb update

hmmm, I didn't see it happen, but someone muct be on my cam cause it's aimed in a different place. Good thing I didn't pick my nose.

All I got for you today is a thumb update.
At this point I  don't even know how many weeks it's been, certainly long enough for me to be getting tired of only having one useable thumb. The worst is dealing with things like snaps, buttons, and zippers. All of these things, on men's clothing, are made to be operated with the right hand. Since I'm left handed this has never been terribly easy for me. With most of the tip of my right thumb gone, it's nearly impossible.

Tomorrow, try to button your pants using only the side of your thumb, at the first knuckle. It ain't easy.

I used a bandaid for the last 36 hours or so. This melts off all the hard crusty scab looking stuff.
Here's today's pic, a beaut, ain't it?

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LE Johnson Hardware

If you're house is like most, if you have sliding bypass doors in your closets, you have really cheesy hardware. When we built our house 9 years ago, we bought the hardware that menards carried, Lowes and Home Depot carry the same crap. At least the stuff is cheap, less than $20 if I'm remembering right.

Stuff is still crap though. Even looks cheap, and every time my kids so much as touch a closet door, they fall of the track. Here's a picture of the problem

and as you can see, the wheel is off the track.

After some searching, I found a company called LE Johnson Hardware, and they make some serious good stuff. High quality hardware for all types of doors. I got a total 6 of thier heavy duty bypass door hardware with valence. This is serious stuff, with an extruded alluminum double H beam track, and captured 3 wheel trucks to hold the doors. Here's a (no) comparison shot

Big difference, eh?

And here's the finished job

And my kids will never knock them off the tracks again.

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Working in the garage, live on cam!

Ya, I  missed a day, sorry. I'll post twice today.

Right now, I'm working in the garage on hanging some closet doors, and I am live onCam for any who want to tune in. My team Camaro buddies all ready know all about JimM's garage cam, for the rest, here's how it works:

Thne cam is actually a security cam, a DLink 5300G. It is it's own built in web server, and has power pan tilt and zoom that you can control. It's really funny to watch with new or multiple drivers, as it starts spinning in circles and pointing at the cieling and stuff. To get on, go to http://www.jimragtop.com:12000/.
Without the colon 12000, you just get my website. With the colon 12000 my server passes you to the cam.
The cam will give you a login prompt. The user ID is team, p/w is camaro If you've never logged on b 4, you'll get a prompt to install an activeX control, look for a brown bar at the top of internet explorer, click it and click install. It doesn't hurt, promise. And you only have to do it once.

Once the active X loads, the cam will come up. Right now it is in the garage, sometimes I put in in the great room in the house, and sometimes upstairs in my den. It's almost always on. Enjoy. Leave a comment here or on facebook if you get on, and ask away if you have troubles. I'm on msn as JimM, and "might" also be seen on yahoo / sbc / att.net as jimm1968 or jimragtop.
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Friday night quickie

It's  Friday, the workweek is over. Go do something. Why are you on the computer reading this?
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