Here’s a short video that I grabbed the other day while the kids were bombing around the yard on the go-cart. I wasn’t sure that the whole sled pulling thing would be a good idea, but it worked out pretty well. No permanent damage was done to any of the parties involved.
After the first snowfall, our need for a place to hang wet snow pants and jackets became obvious. Our cash flow situation being what it is, I needed to solve this problem in the most economical way possible. Here’s what I came up with. I grabbed some 12×12 birch plywood scraps that I had out in the shop, and hit them with some sand paper and clear finish. Then I mounted them using two pan head screws directly into the studs. Finally, I mounted three 88 cent hooks on each panel. Mounting the hooks directly to the 3/4 plywood means that they’ll be able to hold all kinds of weight. I need to pick up three more hooks for the panel on the end. Problem solved for less than $20. Also shown are the cubbies I made a couple of weeks ago. They were sized specifically to hold the canvas totes from Target that you see in the photo, and I mounted hooks to the sides of these as well. Incidentally, the cubbie project produced the scrap that ended being used for the hook mounting project.
The hooks and cubbies are a temporary and economical solution, and I think they will serve us well for quite a while. Ultimately, I’d like to completely redo the entry area of the house, with new doors, floor covering, and wall coverings. The ‘oak’ bead board will definitely be going away, as well as the mottled green wall paper. I’d like something along the lines of corrugated steel on the bottom with some sort of raw wood on top…something a little more industrial. As for the floors, I’d love to rip up the vinyl, and try polishing and staining the concrete. I’ve always loved the look of stained concrete, and I got lots of practice applying concrete stain when I worked for Colorado Hardscapes.
Here’s a short video of Anna and Grace taking Jack for a little "walk". They have a lot of fun with that kid, and he just laughs and goes along for the ride. There’s never a dull moment for him. He’s got enough knots on his head to last a lifetime.
We just got word from the top that my employer, Herman Miller, will be closing the building in which I work. The MarketPlace, as it is known, has been a really cool building to work in. I’ve enjoyed the modern architectural style of the building, as well as the proximity to my home. Currently my commute to work is only about 15 minutes. There are three other facilities that are potential relocation sites. 
All Herman Miller sites have significant vacancy at this time because of the weakening economy, and the closure of the MarketPlace just makes sense. Even though we’re stuck with the lease til 2010, the savings in incremental and energy costs can still be significant. I came to the MarketPlace, from another cool facility, called the GreenHouse, so 
I’d be happy to go back there if it comes to that. Another possible relocation location is the Design Yard. That’s another very cool property, designed and laid out like a farm. The conference rooms that anchor the corners of the buildings look like grain bins. The final option for our relocation is known as Main Site which, as its name implies, is Herman Millers main location here in town. Both office and manufacturing space exist at Main Site. It is truly huge…like a small town. It even has it’s own energy center where waste products are burned to generate electricity. Overall, while it’s always a pain to have to move ones workplace, it beats having no job at all. In this economy, everyone is just happy to have a job to drive to, no matter how inconvenient that drive may be. R.I.P MarketPlace.
As usual, The Onion, the best satirical news sight in the world, gets it right. Here’s one of their news headlines after the election.
Black Man Given Nation’s Worst Job
WASHINGTON—African-American man Barack Obama, 47, was given the least-desirable job in the entire country Tuesday when he was elected president of the United States of America. In his new high-stress, low-reward position, Obama will be charged with such tasks as completely overhauling the nation’s broken-down economy, repairing the crumbling infrastructure, and generally having to please more than 300 million Americans and cater to their every whim on a daily basis. As part of his duties, the black man will have to spend four to eight years cleaning up the messes other people left behind. The job comes with such intense scrutiny and so certain a guarantee of failure that only one other person even bothered applying for it. Said scholar and activist Mark L. Denton, "It just goes to show you that, in this country, a black man still can’t catch a break.”
Another more recent headline reads…
Nation Finally Shitty Enough To Make Social Progress
That’s comedy gold right there.
Here’s a little something that’s been making the rounds on the internet. It’s been around for a while…forever in internet time…maybe you’ve even read it before. I can’t vouch for its validity…but, it’s on the internet, so it must be true, right? There is some confusion as to the authorship of the original piece, which Snopes goes through in detail. I haven’t found anyone, however, questioning the math, which is really the compelling component here. If the math is accurate, which I am too lazy to check, then the following does a pretty good job of simply explaining our progressive income tax system.
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that’s what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. ‘Since you are all such good customers, he said, ‘I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men – the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his ‘fair share?’
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
‘I only got a dollar out of the $20′, declared the sixth man.
He pointed to the tenth man,’ but he got $10!’
‘Yeah, that’s right’, exclaimed the fifth man. ‘I only saved a dollar, too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more than I!’
‘That’s true!!’ shouted the seventh man. ‘Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!’
‘Wait a minute,’ yelled the first four men in unison. ‘We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!’
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.