Oops!

Somali pirate error ends with 5 in French brig

Somali pirates in two skiffs fired on a French navy vessel early Wednesday after apparently mistaking it for a commercial boat, the French military said. The French ship gave chase and captured five suspected pirates.

Doesn't qualify them for the Darwin Awards, however. They were merely captured and not killed.

UPDATE: And then there's this story from the Daily Mail Online:

Thugs attack two transvestites... who turn out to be cage fighters wearing fancy dress

Two thugs who attacked what they thought were a pair of transvestites picked on the wrong men - when their intended victims turned out to be cage fighters on a night out in fancy dress.

Dean Gardener, 19, and Jason Fender, 22, singled out the two men walking along a street in wigs, short skirts and high heels.

Bare-chested Gardener was caught on CCTV confronting one of the men in a pink wig, black skirt and boob tube - then seen swinging a punch, a court heard.

But the other cage fighter, wearing a sparkling black dress and matching long wig, sprang to his friend's help, delivering two lightning-quick punches to the two stunned yobs.

The cage fighters were then seen teetering away in their high heels, stopping only to pick up a clutch bag they dropped during the melee.

Gardener and Fender were left dazed and seen staggering to their feet after their failed attack.

Two questions:

1) What made the fools think transvestites might be easy targets? (Especially since they themselves were rip roaring drunk.)

2) Just why were these two cage fighters dressed up as women? The article gives no clue.
[UPDATE: Read somewhere...Ace of Spades?...that they were going to a stag party at which all participants were to dress in drag.]

Then there's this part of their sentence:

The pair were sentenced to a four-month community order, were electronically tagged and placed under a curfew between 7pm to 7am.

Friggin tag -and-release!

Workshop Progress Report

Yesterday I finished putting the frame pieces on the quilt square leaving it in the clamps overnight. This morning it was time to touch up the sanding, patch a tiny hole created by the router in an oak and apply some spray Verathane. It's not perfect, but I think it looks pretty nice.

Finished quilt square.

Wall hangings in the White House

Allegedly, this is one of the pieces of art from the National Gallery that the Obama's chose to hang in the White House:


Perhaps Sear's should contact the President and see if he'd like to star along side Bret Favre in those indecision commercials they've been making lately. (Hey! That might make a good skit for SNL!)

UPDATE: Another choice from Ann Althouse can be seen here.

Windy Aerie

I woke during the night to the sound of a freight train rushing through the yard. It wasn't a freight train, of course, but the wind and rain. The rain didn't last long--the gauge held just 0.15 inches this morning, but the wind lingers on. This was on the weather.com site at 9:45 AM

Issued by The National Weather Service
State College, PA
4:13 am EDT, Wed., Oct. 7, 2009

A WIND ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM EDT THIS EVENING.

A STRONG COLD FRONT WILL CROSS THE REGION THIS MORNING. WESTERLY WINDS IN THE WAKE OF THE FRONT WILL INCREASE TO BETWEEN 20 AND 30 MPH... WITH GUSTS AS HIGH AS 50 MPH THROUGHOUT THE DAY... ESPECIALLY OVER THE RIDGE TOPS.

Now, the Aerie is not at the ridge TOP (approximately 2360 feet), but it's pretty damn close to the top (2100 feet) and I can attest to the fact that the winds are howling!

Not too shabby for an old manVikings 30- Packers 23

Well, the old dude didn't do so badly. Favre, who turns 40 on Saturday, completed 24 of 31 for 272 yards and three TDs in leading the Vikings over the Packers. (One question comes to mind: What the heck happened in the second half of last season, dude?)

He got a lot of help from the linemen, however. On offense, he could have been sitting in a rocking chair knitting and never have been touched. Probably would have finished the sweater, too. On defense, Jared Allen was a one man wrecking crew with 4 1/2 sacks including one for a safety. (And that was a weird challenge! The ball popped loose as Green Bay QB Rogers tried to get out of the endzone and it seemed the Vikings recovered on the one-foot line. Green Bay challenged the call of a fumble and won. The result was a safety --just 2 points--and the Vikes got the ball on a free kick instead of the one foot line--a sure 6 points. So Green Bay challenged, won and gave up 2 points instead of 6. Weird.) As for the sacks...the rest of the Vikings D did all right too. In total, Rogers was sacked eight (8!) times.

Still Rogers found plenty of holes in the Vikings defensive backfield as he completed 26 of 37 attempts for 384 yards (a career best) and two TDs. The final TD kept the Packers in the game with minutes to go.

The Packers schedule for the next month: BYE, Detroit, @ Cleveland, and then Minnesota again. They should be 4-2 on November 1st.

Th Vikings have it a bit tougher: @ St Louis, Baltimore, @ Pittsburgh, and then @ Green Bay. The Baltimore and Pittsburgh games are going to be key. If they split them (losing to the Steelers on the road) then they should be 6-1 on November 1st.

It will be interesting to see how the Green Bay crowd reacts to that Favre fellow showing up in purple.

******

I've gotten a kick out of the Sear's commercials that feature Brett Favre trying to decide whether to purchase a big flat screen TV. The first one had the salesmen talking about people who just can't seem to make a decision and Favre saying how he hates those kind of folks. He then declares he'll take the TV and immediately shakes his head and changes his mind. "I don't know."

Well, last night I saw a new one for the first time. Farve is still standing in front of the TV trying to decide as the sales clerk goes off to conduct business elsewhere, goes to lunch, dinner, and finally offers Favre a ride hope as the store is closing for the day. It ends with Favre still standing there rubbing his chin as the clean-up crew vacuums the store with nearly all the lights and all the TVs turned off.

Cracked me up.

******

Speaking of "old guys"... Do any of you remember George Blanda? Hell of a QB and kicker back in the day. Even when he played for the Oakland Raiders (*spit*) when they were really good and dirty, I would have to root for the old man. (Except when they played my Jets.) Now there was a guy who seemed willing to play forever...and damn near did. "Oldest person to play in an NFL game: &0000000000000048.00000048 years, &0000000000000109.000000109 days" according to the Wiki page linked above. "He is the placekicker on the All-Time All-AFL Team, and was one of only 20 players to play all ten years of the AFL, as well as one of only three who were in every AFL game their teams played. Blanda was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1981, his first year of eligibility."

Favre has a long, long way to go to match that longevity. And, not being a place kicker, is unlikely to do so. One thing Favre might do that no one else has ever done is win a playoff game while over the age of 40. Maybe this December.

I always had doubts about that saying.

see more dog and puppy pictures

Aerie Report, October 5, 2009

A beautiful, if chilly and deer free, day here at the Aerie. The thermometer says the low was a mere 40 degrees soon after sunrise at 7:30 AM. The "high" at 4:30 PM was just 53 degrees despite the sun's rays shining between the scattered clouds. The wind blew steadily out of the north-northwest all day and would have had those windmills atop the ridge spinning happily if they had been up and online. If the clouds stay widely scattered, we could be in for a cold--not chilly, COLD--night.

******

Not seeing hide nor hair of any white tails, I spent some time in the workshop again today. I managed to cut the final pieces for the square and dry fit everything together satisfactorily. Oh, it took a little tweaking here and there, a little sanding of edges, and a little "there, that doesn't look so bad" but it got put together. Once I was satisfied, I glued everything to the backboard. Piece by piece. There are the eight large diamonds; 32 small diamonds, 16 small squares, and 16 small triangles for the corners; four larger triangles along the edges; and 16 angled pieces for the interior trim. That's 88 pieces all together. And there's still eight more to from the frame. But those are a piece of cake to cut and install.

Dry fitted pieces on the backboard.

Sorry about the poor picture, but, for obvious reasons, I couldn't tilt the board for a better angle without having to play pick-up-pieces. Maybe tomorrow after I get the frame on it I can tilt the bloody thing without having everything slide off. The wood looks exceptionally pale here but when it gets a coat of spry-on Verathane on it it will change appearance. The walnut in particular will darken considerably.

******

Well, the Giants won, and the Jets lost. The outcomes were pretty much as I expected, but who could have predicted that it would be the New Orleans DEFENSE that would beat the Jets? Come on! An interception returned 99 yards for one TD and a Jets' fumble recovered in the endzone for another. That's ridiculous when you think about it. Two plays of 99 yards and zero yards produced two TDs, while the NO offense produced just 10 points--the same as the Jets' offense. *sigh*

Okay, time to go watch some old guy in a purple jersey try to throw the football around. He's 40-freakin years old? How good can he be with that wet noodle dangling from his shirt sleeve. What? His team is 3-0? he won last week's game with a hail Mary on the final play? No way! That guy retired at least twice...didn't he?

Later.

A report from Terry

Terry reports that she has handed over the gavel as President of the Smocking Arts Guild of America (SAGA) and is now a former President. They managed to get through their national convention in Indianapolis without any major snafus.

She left Indy mid-morning to drive east. Of course, there was a football game there this afternoon. The Colts beat Seattle to go to 4-0.

She's now in Pittsburgh for the national convention of the Embroiderer's Guild of America (EGA). Where Sunday Night Football is being played.

She joked about the wacky place Pittsburgh is with the Sunday night football game between the Steelers and the Chargers being played there tonight. She said every one was walking around in black and yellow. The Steelers, winners of last year's Super Bowl, are 1-2 and need a win against San Diego.

Personally, I think the ladies should have raffled off tickets to the football games. After all, it's National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the players are wearing pink shoes, gloves and arm bands in recognition.

Week 6 for The Big East Coming Up

This week’s Big East Schedule is another abbreviated one. Both #8 Cincinnati (5-0) and #23 South Florida (5-0) are idle. Two games match conference teams against each other and will go a long way toward setting up the Big East standings.

#8 Cincinnati (5-0) is idle

Connecticut (3-1) The Huskies will play at Pittsburgh (4-1). Pitt should win easily.

Louisville (1-3) The Cardinals host Southern Mississippi (3-2). This will make or break the Cardinals' season. It's all ready a long one for the Louisville squad but another loss here and it will become a real gut check.

Pittsburgh (4-1) The Panthers host Connecticut (3-1). As I said above, Pitt by at least 14.

Rutgers (3-1) hosts Texas Southern (1-3). The Knights play another FCS team (Howard was the other) and it will serve as a learning session for freshman QB Tom Savage who should be ready to go after suffering a head injury at Maryland.

#23 South Florida (5-0) is idle.

Syracuse (2-3) The Orange will host West Virginia (3-1). Does Syracuse have the defense to hold the Mountaineers in check? No. Do they have the offense to outscore them? No. The question is how big the margin will be.

West Virginia (3-1) The Mountaineers play at Syracuse (2-3). As long as they play like they did this week, they should score whenever they want.

Pre Week 6 College Football Rankings and Opponents.

There was a tiny bit of shuffling in the Top 25 (more or less)this week. The three real upsets--#8 Oklahoma dropped a real close contest to #17 Miami, #12 Houston lost a high scoring affair to Texas El-Paso, and #22 Michigan lost to Michigan State--caused the largest movement, but there were other, smaller shifts along the way also.

We can be pretty sure of some major moves after this week is done. We've got #1 vs. #4, #3 vs. #20, and #21 vs. #24. And then there's the Wisconsin Badgers (NA/25/20) going against #9 Ohio State.

Here are the rankings going into week six as well as the opponents in this week's contests. The rankings are from the AP/Coaches Poll/CBSSports 120. Those in parentheses are those heading into week 5.

1/1/1 (1/1/1) Florida (4-0) The Gators will play at #4 LSU (5-0)

2/2/2 (2/2/2) Texas (3-0) The Longhorns host Colorado (1-3)

3/3/3 (3/3/3) Alabama (5-0) The Tide play at #20 Mississippi (4-1)

4/4/4 (4/4/5) LSU (5-0) The Tigers host #1 Florida (4-0)

5/5/7 (6/6/8) Virginia Tech (4-1) The Hokies host Boston College (4-1)

6/6/5 (5/5/4) Boise State (5-0) The Broncos are idle this week.

7/7/8 (7/7/10) Southern California (4-1) The Trojans are idle this week.

8/10/10 (10/11/12) Cincinnati (5-0) The Bearcats are idle this week.

9/8/6 (9/9/6) Ohio State (4-1) The Buckeyes host the Wisconsin Badgers (5-0)

10/9/9 (11/10/9) TCU (4-0) The Horned Frogs will be at Air Force (3-2)

11/11/11 (17/21/25) Miami (Fla.) (3-1) The Hurricanes host Florida A & M (4-0)

12/14/12 (13/17/13) Iowa (5-0) The Hawkeyes host Michigan (4-1)

13/17/18 (16/25/21) Oregon (4-1) The Ducks travel down to UCLA (3-1)

14/12/14 (15/13/14) Penn State (4-1) The Nittany Lions Eastern Illinois (4-1)

15/13/17 (14/12/17) Oklahoma State (3-1) The Cowboys will play at Texas A & M (3-1)

16/15/13 (18/16/15) Kansas (4-0) The Jayhawks host Iowa State (3-2)

17/19/16 (NA/NA/NA) Auburn (5-0) The Tigers play at Arkansas.

18/20/19 (20/21/23) Brigham Young (4-1) The Cougars play at UNLV (2-3)

19/21/21 (8/8/7) Oklahoma (2-2) The Sooners host Baylor (3-1)

20/16/15 (21/18/16) Mississippi (4-1) The Rebels host #3 Alabama (5-0)

21/22/23 (23/24/NA) Nebraska (3-1) The Cornhuskers play at #24 Missouri (4-0) Thursday night.

22/23/25 (25/NA/NA) Georgia Tech (4-1) The Yellow Jackets play at Florida State (2-3)

23/24/NA (NA/NA/NA) South Florida (5-0) The Bulls are idle this week.

24/18/22 (NA/23/24) Missouri (4-0) The Tigers host #21 Nebraska (3-1) Thursday night.

25/NA/NA (NA/NA/NA) South Carolina (4-1) The Gamecocks will host Kentucky (2-2)

NA/25/20 (NA/NA/NA) Wisconsin (5-0) The Badgers play at #9 Ohio State (4-1)

NA/NA/24 (12/15/11) Houston (3-1) The Cougars will play at Mississippi State (2-3)

Week 5 Reults in the Big East

There’s nothing surprising about the results in the Big East this week. Teams that should have won did. Teams that should have lost did. Both Connecticut and Rutgers are idle.

#10 Cincinnati (5-0) beat Miami (Ohio) (0-5) 37-13.
Connecticut (3-1) idle.

Pittsburgh (4-1) pounded Louisville (1-3) 35-10 Friday night.

Rutgers (3-1) idle.

South Florida (5-0) beat Syracuse (2-3) 34-20 taking advantage of five (5) interceptions thrown by Gregg Paulus and two lost fumbles by the Orange.

West Virginia (3-1) had some Devine (220 yards rushing) help in defeating the Buffaloes of Colorado (1-3) 35-24 on Thursday night.

Week 5 College Football Results

The Top 25 (more or less) remained pretty static this week. There were only three real upsets over the weekend. #8 Oklahoma dropped a real close contest to #17 Miami, #12 Houston lost a high scoring affair to Texas El-Paso, and #22 Michigan lost to Michigan State. As a result, there is likely to be little movement in the ranks.

Here are the rankings and results of the week five contests. The rankings are from the AP/Coaches Poll/CBSSports 120. Those in parentheses are from week 4. I'll post the new rankings later today or tomorrow.

1/1/1 (1/1/1) Florida (4-0) Idle

2/2/2 (2/2/2) Texas (3-0) Idle

3/3/3 (3/3/3) Alabama’s Crimson Tide improved to 5-0 as they rolled over the Kentucky (2-2) 38-20.

4/4/5 (7/7/8) LSU The Tigers (5-0) got a little help from the refs with a questionable “celebration” call and two late TDs in overcoming #18 Georgia (3-2) 20-13.

5/5/4 (8/8/5) The Boise State Broncos are now 5-0 after beating UC Davis (1-3) by a score of 34-16.

6/6/8 (11/12/14) The Hokies of Virginia Tech (4-1) beat the Duke Blue Devils (2-3) 34-26.

7/7/10 (12/10/12) The Southern California Trojans (4-1) walloped #24 California (3-2) 30-3.

8/8/7 (10/9/10) The Oklahoma Sooners (2-2) were edged by the #17 Hurricanes of Miami (Fla.) (3-1) by the narrowest of margins, 21-20.

9/9/6 (13/11/9) The Ohio State Buckeyes (4-1) beat up on Indiana (3-2) 33-14.

10/11/12 (14/15/16) The Cincinnati Bearcats (5-0) routed Miami (Ohio) (0-5) 37-13.

11/10/9 (15/14/13) TCU (4-0) had their way with Southern Methodist (2-2) 39-14.

12/15/11 (17/23/15) The Houston Cougars (3-1) dropped a high scoring affair to the Miners of Texas-El Paso (2-3). Case Keenan had a career day going 51-76 for 536 yards and 5 TDs but the Miners’ Donald Buckman ran for 262 yards and 4 TDs as UTEP scored 41 second half points. Heck, EACH team had 21 points in the fourth quarter on the way to the final score of 58-41.

13/17/13 (NA/NA/NA) The Iowa Hawkeyes (5-0) edged Arkansas State (1-3) 24-21.

14/12/17 (16/16/17) Oklahoma State (3-1) Idle

15/13/14 (5/4/4) The Penn State Nittany Lions (4-1) squeezed Illinois (1-3) 35-17.

16/25/21 (NA/NA/NA) The Oregon Ducks (4-1) scored 42 points in the first half as they coasted past Washington State (1-4) 52-6.

17/21/25 (9/13/11) Miami (Fla.) (3-1) The Hurricanes edged the #8 Sooners (2-2) 21-20.

18/16/15 (20/19/19) Kansas (4-0) Idle

18/14/18 (21/17/18) Georgia (3-2) The Bulldogs lost to #4 LSU (5-0) 20-13.

20/21/23 (19/20/21) Brigham Young (4-1) beat up Utah State (1-3) 35-17

21/18/16 (4/5/6) The Mississippi Rebels (3-1) beat the Vanderbilt Commodores (2-3) 23-7.

22/20/19 (23/22/20) The Michigan Wolverines (4-1) caught the Michigan State Spartans (2-3) during the final minutes of regulation, but were intercepted in OT while the Spartans got a TD to win 26-20.

23/24/NA (25/24/NL) Nebraska (3-1) Idle

24/19/22 (6/6/7) The California Golden Bears (3-2) were trounced by the Trojans of # 7 Southern California (4-1) 30-3.

25/NA/NA (NA/NA/NA) The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (4-1) out scored Mississippi State (2-3) 42-31.

NA/23/24 (NL/21/NL) Missouri (4-0) Idle

Aerie Report, October 3, 2009

Today was the opening day of the archery season for deer here in PA. With the rains of the last few days, I never did get a chance to set up my tree stand--if I could find out where the deer have been traveling. I took a walk around the property during a lull in the weather a week ago and saw very little to indicate any deer were strolling though the property. Today I repeated the process and still could find no deer sign.

It might be that the logging, the gas drilling, the pipeline laying and the wind mill construction have all played a part in changing the patterns of the deer and sending them into the deepest woods they can find. A very good crop of acorns from the oaks has probably encouraged them to stay in the deep woods, too.

There's no Sunday hunting and the weather (after the 40% chance of showers this evening) promises to be good again tomorrow, so I'll probably take another walk about to check out some corners of the acreage that I didn't visit today. I'm not real optimistic, however.

******

Speaking of the weather. Today was just gorgeous! The sun came out, it didn't rain, and the temperature rose to 64 degrees. I went out and checked the rain gauge and found 0.53 inches of rain since yesterday morning. Looking at the widely scattered rain in Michigan during today's game, we may get some tonight. Then there's the snow out in Wyoming and South Dakota. Hopefully that snow will change to rain showers, as predicted, before they get here later in the week.

******

I made the adjustments to the diamonds in the woodshop today and dry fit them together. I also dry fit a couple of the corner squares which are composed of eight little diamonds, four squares and four triangles. TO get them to fit neatly into a square shape may require the judicious use of some fine sand paper, but fit they will. Then there are some border and framing pieces yet to be cut. I might be able to begin gluing things to the backboard tomorrow.

Amazing Comeback

There were a couple of remarkable comebacks during today's (LSU over GA--with a little help from the zebras, Washington tying ND only to lose in OD, Michigan coming back to tie Michigan State but also losing in OD)but nothing compares to this comeback in a high school game in Texas back in 1994. Be sure to watch to the very end.

.

(h/t to The Enlightened Redneck)

Devine intervention

Chester and I watched the West Virginia-Colorado football game last night. WVU won 35-24 but it wasn't--and should not have been--that close. The Mountaineers had a case of the turnovers in the first half and kept handing the ball over to the Buffaloes Luckily for WVU: 1) the Buffs failed to do anything with the ball in that first half missing two field goals within the 40 and just not advancing much on the goal line and 2) WVU had Noel Devine.

Devine ran for a personal best 220 yards on 22 carries and got a good chunk of the yardage in the first half which included a 77-yard TD run and another 56-yard run from scrimmage. In the fourth quarter, he carried nine times on one drive alone before WVU's red-shirt freshman running back Ryan Clarke scored on a one-yard play.

Take out those two big runs--77 yards and 56 yards--and Devine gained just 87 yards on his other 20 carries or a little over 4 yards a carry. The same thing happened last week against Auburn. Devine had 128 yards on 15 carries but 71 of them came on one play meaning he had just 57 yards on his other 14 carries. Again, that's about 4 yards per carry. Nothing to sneeze at but stoppable. Just DO NOT let him get passed the linebackers!

Devine's quick and he's fast, and when he's on his game, he's tough to stop. But that was against Colorado's defense. A defense that seemed to be pretty tough on the pass but very soft (or slow) on the run.

On defense, the Mountaineers had their problems but did a lot of bending without breaking. Except for a 36 yard run by Colorado's Rodney Stewart (who finished the night with 105 yards on 21 carries) and a 29-yard TD pass from Cody Hawkins to Scotty McKnight to make the score 21-17 WVU, the Mountaineers allowed little until the final drive of the game. Still, the stats show the Buffaloes ran 84 plays for 392 yards, 292 of which were through the air. I'd say they are vulnerable.

It will be interesting to see how WVU fares against Cincinnati and Southern Florida. They play at Rutgers in their final game of the regular season on December 5.

Tonight it'll be Pittsburgh vs. Louisville. I just hope Chester lets me have more of the love seat tonight. Did I mention he fell asleep last night with his head draped over my arm? What's worse is he snores--almost as loudly as he purrs.

Aerie Weather and Workshop ReportOctober 2, 2009

Another day in which the thermometer conserved its energy and never rose above 50 degrees. (Strike that. The temperature cracked the 50 degree mark at 5 PM and is heading UP! But he high for the day is suppose d to be only 52, so I expect it won't go much higher.) And, to add insult to injury, it's been overcast and showering all day to boot. Makes me glad that I turned the heat on yesterday. I didn't want to build another fire as they can become habit forming what with their production not only of heat but the warm, flickering, orange glow seen through the glass door. I figured if the cats wanted to build a fire, they knew where the firewood was. (I may give in later this evening, however.)

******

I spent a few hours in the workshop this afternoon trying to figure out if I did things correctly this time. Turns out I have produced something I can use even if it's not perfect. The problem is, as I've said before, that you're gluing up narrow strips (7/8" wide), cutting the glued up panels n a 45 degree angle, and then gluing the resultant strips together to make a diamond pattern. If even one of your original strips is off by 1/16" that error multiplies throughout the process. If two of them are off, you can forget about trying to make everything fit together. I seem to have one or more strips that are not exactly 7/8" wide but I'll be able to fit everything together with the judicious use of the belt sander once the diamonds are glued up.

Diagram of finished square.

The darkest wood in the diagram is walnut. The lighter woods are oak and cherry. The boards are supposed to be milled to 1/4 inch thickness but the oak seems to be a hair thicker than that.

You start by cutting long strips from the boards--as well as small diamonds, triangles and squares for the inserts. Once you have the strips, you glue them edge to edge in particular patters. (The one below shows oak, cherry, oak and walnut from left to right.)

Gluing up the initial strips.

I built a small clamp out of 3/8" bolts and some scrap wood to keep the panel from buckling when I applied pressure from the edges with the quick release clamps. That little wooden clamp also ensures that the strips' bottoms are all on the same plane.

Three sets of strips (out of 5)

These panels of glued-up strips were then cut at a 45 degree angle to yield 8 pieces which would then be glued in a mix to produce the diamonds.

Strips of strips become patterned diamonds.

Yeah, the workshop has become quite the strip joint.

Okay, back to the project. Cutting all these little triangles and 45 degree angles of thin (1/4") wood on a table saw can be daunting. Wanting to safe my finger tips and have better control over the small pieces, I built this small cutting sled to which I attached wooden blocks with 45 degree angles to the blade. Seems to work fine.

Cutting sled.

After all the cutting was done--and before I glued up any diamonds--I started to dry fit the pieces on the backboard.Just to see if, you know, they would actually fit.
Dry fitting pieces for the diamonds.

They did not fit exactly, but they came pretty damn close. So I started gluing up the diamonds. That will take a bit of time unless I get some more clamps.

Gluing up the diamonds.

With all the angles involved, I need a block on each side of the strips and a longer clamp than the little ones in the earlier photo. Still, I can manage to do three (out of eight) at one time. And it only takes an hour or so for the glue to set up enough that I'm willing to take the assembly out of the clamps.

Tommorrow: With all the diamonds assembled, I'll work to "fine tune" the fit. I might even be able to start gluing everything to the backboard.

Okay, this one cracked me up!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Aerie Report, October 1, 2009

I had to turn the heat on this evening. After building a fire this morning (and putting another log on it at noon) the house temperature did get up to 68 degrees, but the outside temperature today never got to 46 degrees (48.6 was the highest at 4 PM). Tonight's low is supposed to be in the 30s--again--although, perhaps, five or six degrees colder than the 39 we had this morning.

Weather.com says the average high for 1 October is around 67 degrees. They have also posted another Frost Advisory for tonight. Since the winds have pretty much died, they could be right this time.

******

The clouds stayed around all day today with a few short, heavy showers and a few little mizzling ones. Just enough precipitation to make going outside undesirable. So, I went to the workshop, instead.

Measuring three and four times as I set up the table saw, I tried to make absolutely sure I cut my 1/4" thick oak, walnut and cherry into the correct dimensions. Last time I goofed and ended up with pieces that could not be cobbled together to form the square I wanted. Once everything was cut to my satisfaction, I ran the strips through the router to put a 1/8" round over on the long sides and glued up three of the diamonds together. Other pieces got cut into small squares and triangles. Tomorrow I'll glue up the other two diamond structures and do more router work. (I'll also try to remember to take some photos!)

Speaking of Legislation that needs to die...

There's Cap and Tax, Son of Stimulus and, of course, Obamacare.

I heard this Paul Shanklin parody on the Rush Limbaugh show a couple of weeks ago while driving to/from the Bolt Hole. It had me tapping on the steering wheel and singing along. The Day Obamacare Died.



Shanklin's work reminds me of the TV show That Was The Week That Was. Begun on BBC, an American version ran on NBC but only ran from January 1964 through May of 1965. I don't know if they could take the political heat or stand the rapid pace (often calling fro rewriting as the show was being aired) but I watched most of the episodes and found them, well, interesting. A very different way of learning current events.

(h/t to Don Suber for reminding me of the song and linking to the YouTUbe production.

Well, there's still death...

Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) links to TAXPROF's post that 47% of the population will pay no income tax in 2009.

This might explain in part why 53% of the voters went for the Democratic candidate in 2008.

I agree with Glenn: "See, I think that’s wrong. Everyone who votes should pay something — and that something should rise when spending does. Skin in the game...."

Cold, wet morning (again!) at the Aerie

Frost warning? We didn't need no steenkin' frost warning!

Thinning clouds didn't happen either. As a result, the heat didn't escape as much as it could have. Yeah, it was only 39 when I came down stairs at 7 AM but that's not nearly cold enough for a frost. And with the constant breeze that blew all night there's little chance it got much colder in the valley.

Oh, and it rained over night, too. Not likely to have a frost if it's raining. I awoke at 5 AM thinking, "Did I turn the heat on?" See, I heard water running through some pipe and thought it might be the baseboard heat in the bedroom, but it wasn't. What it was was water streaming through the gutters and down spouts. Another one of those quick, but heavy, passing rain clouds. The total rainfall didn't amount to much (the gauge only held 0.15 inches from yesterday morning), but it certainly made enough noise to wake me up.

Another fire in the fire place this morning, but this time I'll get to enjoy it as well as the cats. Might go into the workshop to have another go at the wood quilt design, but I'll not be going outside again today.

******

I've noticed that the trucks of the pipeline, gas drillers and windmill construction crews have been going up the hill a little more slowly these last few days. Not that there's any fewer trucks, mind you, but they seem a little more reluctant to get started on these cold, wet mornings. Or maybe it's just that they are having a little more difficulty traveling the wet clay road that can be as slippery as a snowfall. I can't imagine what sort of quagmire exists at the top of the mountain where they have been putting in the pipeline.

I have also noticed that no matter what the original color of the trucks, they are all reddish brown with clay from the top of the bed on down. Since many were originally white, this makes me smile for some reason.