It's Miller Time!

Yesterday at 4:27pm PST, I became the happy father of this little fella.

Name: Miller
Breed: Australian Shepherd Mix
Gender: Male
Age: 9 weeks
Weight: 9lbs. now, will be around 65 when full grown.

I've been waiting for years to have a dog, and now I have finally come to a place in my life where I am able to give him the proper care and attention.

Night one was tough, Miller missed his brother and sisters - but we got through it together (I had to sleep on the couch next to him). There have been no accidents and I can tell that he will take to his potty training very well. He's very smart, learning the basics of fetch (get, bring, drop) in about 10 minutes.

Enjoy the pics, more to come later...

Food 4 Thought

If television has taught us anything; it's that in the future, technology will turn on us and our lives will be spent in a post-apocalyptic waste land where our survival will depend solely on archaic caveman technologies. Take that scientists.

No two snowflakes are alike, which is amazing. No two poops are alike, which is disgusting - yet amazing.

Sometimes joke-voting is funny...

Sometimes, it's not...

Mike Builds a Poker Table:

I play in a texas hold 'em tournament with a few friends almost every week. We usually play on someone's coffee/dinning room table. Seating is awkward and playing can get a little cramped. So I decided it was time to do something about it, result: I built a 8-10 person professional poker table. I am by no stretch of the word a "woodworker", but my minimal experience from high school woodshop was enough to create a pretty decent table. Here are some pics of the construction and finished product.

Started with 3 pieces of 4' x 8' plywood. Two were ugly and rough (seen in the outside ring). The other was a nice sanded peice of pine. Then I cut the rounded parts at each end and then cut out the rings. Heres side view of what the layers look like:

The light yellow parts are the base board and rail, those parts where made out of the low-grade plywood. The brown and green were made out of the pine. The brown part is called the race track, it is basically a nice wood part for players to set their drinks and poker chips. It was stained and varnished. The green part was covered in a very nice cloth called "speed cloth" and severed as the playing area where cards are dealt and chips are wagered. Here's a look at the race track being stained.

and the cloth...

Next - I had to pad the rail with foam and wrap it in vinyl, so as to create a nice soft and cushy place to rest our arms.

Cover that in vinyl, put it all together and you get...

Isn't she a beaut'? I am really impressed with how it turned out.

-Mike