Armed and (Not so) Dangerous

I never win anything. Ever since Ed McMahon stopped sending me huge letters about the millions I (may) have already won, I haven't even tried to win anything on a regular basis. I don't play the lottery because I have at least a high school understanding of math and statistics, so I'm definitely not going to win at that. But, otherwise, I don't win the door-prizes at benefit dinners. The prize randomly stuck to the bottom of the seat of one lucky attendee is never stuck to my seat. I don't even happen on really good deals as often as some people I know do! But that changes NOW!

About 2 weeks ago I took my kiddos to Academy to pick up a couple of things. I was approached by a guy who may have been college age. He asked me to buy a raffle ticket. I said, we'll see (which is shopper for, "No!") I did my shopping but he came back! He was friendly with the kids so I asked him what group this was for. I turns out that the organization was a Christian group that shares the gospel with youth through the venue of hunting and fishing. The gig seemed good enough and I bought a $20 ticket with a long list of prizes - all guns - fully knowing this was a donation. I expected nothing!

Cheryl calls me at work yesterday and says, "It may be raining outside but the sun is shining on you!"
"What?"
"You won!"
"What!?"
"Some guy just called and said you won some raffle. He said you won the gun everyone wanted, too!"

Yes, I am a winner. It is official as of 6pm today - when I show up to claim my prize. What is it, you ask? I won a Beretta px4 Storm. if you don't know what that is, I didn't either, but I've been assured that this is a very nice handgun.

The funniest part of the whole thing was our scramble to find the ticket yesterday! And I kid you not, I actually had to go through the trash and found it in a stack of magazines and stuff where it had likely been picked up by accident. Awesome! If they had called today - it would have been gone in the trash this morning! Whew!

Overheard at the Landes House

After a particularly good s'more, my son Isaac announced, "This is GROT!" Not being up to speed on this new evaluative term.

Cheryl inquired, "What is 'grot'?"

Isaac's eyes never left the s'more, and, without missing a beat, he explained, "It's better than great. It's GROT!" He smiled. We laughed hard.

The Youngest Settlers of Catan

On a recent rainy Saturday, Isaac and Julia asked if we could play "Settlers of Catan". If you have not played you won't get that this game is easily on par with Monopoly and Risk in complexity and has dozens of little pieces and rules about such. It is not what you might think would interest a 3 and 5 year old!

I agreed to play knowing with great certainty that we would likely tire of it before the first roll of the dice. That, however, did not happen. In fact, we played the game out and even finished it. I filled them in on rules as needed, and gave them advice on each turn. But other than playing with our cards down (so I could tell them what they could do), we played the full game.

The funniest part of the whole deal was that the winner was Julia. I don't know for sure but I would think that this would put her in the running for THE young settler of Catan.

By the way - if you want to get a peek at Catan ... there is a free online version now at PlayCatan.com.

Overheard at the Landes House

It has been a while since I did an "Overheard..." post, but this certainly warranted it!

Mondays are grill night around here since the purchase of my new gas grill. Tonight the menu was Chicken Shishkabobs. Isaac was protesting, and, to extend him an olive branch, I suggested that we to a "kids grill night" next week. He asked what that meant. I explained, "We'll find something fun to grill that you guys will like to eat!"

His response: "How're you gonna put a cake on the grill?!"

Patio Cooler Project

My latest project in the garage has been a cooler for the patio. I'd seen an item like this for $100 at HEB and decided to make my own. I used cedar fence pickets for the wood, a $.99 styrofoam cooler from CVS and some hardware from Lowes. All-together, it would have been under $50 (I think), but I already had about half the pickets.

Isaac helped me get the wood ready. We pulled out a bunch of cedar fence planks left over from a new fence almost 2 years ago! I cut the boards for the sides and kept them together so their grain pattern would run around the box. The lid was essentially a "face-frame" - 4 boards butt joined with pocket screws. I got to use my Kreg Jig for this part - Fun!

The legs actually took 2 trys - the boards were very rough and the joins would not conform to a 90 deg. angle, so I took them apart. and cleaned up the joining edge and face on the table saw. Then, I glued and nailed them. They were much more solid after that!

I glued up the side panels, lid, and bottom to make assembly easier and give the box more rigidity. Again, all joined edges were run on the table saw (in lieu of an actual joiner which would've been the better tool). I dadoed the sides to trap the bottom and dry fit these pieces to check sizes and joints. This is where I realized the bottom was a 1/4" too wide. That's better than being too narrow, though!

With the box done, I clamped on the legs and stood it up on the table saw (because it is a lot more level than my Garage floor!) and adjusted the legs so it wouldn't rock. With the legs all clamped at the right length, I attached them to the box with 1" wood screws from the inside. Knowing the box will weigh a lot with ice and drinks, I used ample screws - 8 per corner! Tim Taylor would be proud!

The last step was attaching the top. I added hinges under the front edge of the lid frame so the top could be opened in order to get at the cooler. The lid itself was hinged in the back with a handle up front. All the hardware was black, antique styled items from Lowes.

Now to fill the cooler with drinks and the house with friends! Sounds like another great reason to use the grill!