Rough one

Whew! First interview in a while was a rough one! Good thing I have some of my buddies from Munich by way of La Crosse waiting for me at home. I think I'll go paint a while.

Floating shelves for the boy

2x2 project number 2: getting the boy some shelves for even more flat surfaces for him to put his crap on.

I try not to be the parent always talking about how much better my kids have it than I did, but man oh man do my kids have it good. Without going into detail, let's just say our kids are not wanting for experiences or chances to explore what life has to offer. And the boy already has tons of trophies and medals to show for it. But along with the ridiculous amount of toys that show up any time the grandparents/uncles visit, all the trophies and medals are starting to clutter up his space. After stepping on some putting him to bed the other night, I thought it was time to make something to help get them out of the way for now.

Hence a pair of floating shelves, using all scrap from the media stand. 2x2's for the frames, boards for the actual shelves. Plus a few dowels to hang medals off of.

After the painters canvas I was pretty much down to some small scraps of the 2x2, so the two longest pieces dictated how long a pair of shelves would be. And I had scrap 1x12 and 1x10 to decide how deep they are, with leftover 1x3 to hang over the front. I was going to try and box the frames in completely but wasn't 100% sure the materials would be there. So I went simple instead. The frames would go into a stud, and I'd just lay the boards over them.

Getting a plan with lots of scrap to sort through.

I really need to clean at this point.

Kregged the 1x3 on with one edge needing a bit of a squeeze

Test fit from beneath

I added the dowels to one side of the bigger shelf to hang medals from, which had to get painted to match the rest of the frame. And since I was painting I lacquered the boards, leaving them natural.

Everything steady? Seems good...

Okay, think these will work for now.

This is my favorite part, obviously.

Getting these on was easy once we had decided how high and where to place them. They're each in one stud, with a drywall anchor too just in case. The shelf boards each got one screw in the back to keep it on the frame. Easy. I actually like how leaving them un-boxed turned out with the contrast and think these look good for now. They might not be permanent by any stretch but will do the job, and they'll be easy to replicate if he wants more later.


The last thing I want to do is just keep adding surface area for the boy to clutter up, but these are good for small stuff that's more for display vs playing with. Plus it's keeping his desk a lot clearer, just in time for school to start. Anyway, I think I've used up about all of my scrap now, so maybe I can actually get around to cleaning up which I keep putting off to do more of these small projects.

It's a palomojito, I guess?

After a 12 hour day at work yesterday, but before going back to work Saturday morning, I thought I'd come home and spend a pleasant night drinking and enjoying some family time. I was planning on having a few mojitos, since I could have a couple and not wake up feeling horrible on the way into work tomorrow. Unfortunately I was an ingredient short; my club soda supply was non existent.

However, I did have some grapefruit-focused soda around, and since I really wanted a (more than one) drink, I thought I'd give it a try. It wasn't half bad, and would definitely do in a pinch. I make home mojitos a little off recipe anyway, so tossing in some different soda isn't really that much of a departure for me.

Here's my usual recipe:

-One healthy scoop of sugar. Refined if we've got it, if not regular is good.
-Half a lime, halved again. If they're big limes I use whatever ratio gets me the same size.
-Handful of mint leaves. My plant looks really good right now, so it's all good.
-Two jiggers of rum. Yes, jiggers. I don't know how much this really is.

The mint looks really good right now. 

Start with the sugar, and squeeze the lime bits over it. Drop the rest of the lime in, and add the mint. Give it a good muddle, really getting the lime busted up. I use a single-drink shaker since it's tin and can stand up to it. Add the rum, and if it hasn't been in the freezer it never hurts to add an ice cube or two either. At this point, you can add extras if you're going for other flavors. This is when I typically add coconut. And yes, since I use a shaker I give everything a good couple shakes. I like it frothy.

Dump everything in your vessel of choice, and top it off with the appropriate amount of club soda. If you've got it. Which I did not. But other soda ended up working fine. B/c the kids are in bed and I'm on my third one of these tonite, so mission accomplished.

Tomorrow at work should be fun. This recipe is not perfect; it's a good mix of practical technique and short cuts, but still close enough to a mojito recipe I feel alright calling it that. It took a lot of trial and error to get it to something simple enough to replicate each time but complex enough to be close in flavor profile to solve a craving. But even with club soda it still doesn't quite capture the pure awesomeness that is well-made bar mojitos. Adding different soda took it a step further away from that but these are definitely still palatable. Maybe it I have some tequila around next time I'll toss that in too.