With a knowledge we're unbound

A couple of quick things...

First, in target the other day I'm looking for an accent table with Ian, when I notice my cart isn't moving quite as smoothly. I look down and there's a strange kid hanging on the side of my cart.
"What's the baby's name?", he asked.
"Ian", I replied.
"What's your name?"
"Scott"
"What are you doing?"
"Looking for accent tables"
"Where's your mother?"
"I dunno, what are accent tables?"
At that point, I turned around and deposited the kid with his mother.

What surprised me on reflection, was how calmly I took the whole thing. This isn't the first time I've had kids who have never seen me before attach onto me. The most memorable was the one at M&K's house who on entering their kitchen, saw me for the first time, and came over and attached himself to my leg. Apparently, I've become numb to the whole thing. I don't think I even mentioned it to Pam.

Second, I'm soooo unprepared for hockey season this year. It managed to sneak up on me. Those of you going against me in fantasy hockey will have an easy time of it.

Third, when you get Gavin into cleanup time, he goes all in. His little legs were pumping in place looking for the next thing to pick up. We had fun.

Fourth, go Steelers!

Fifth, the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian is an absolutely fantasic series of books (the movie Master & Commander was based on them).

Sixth, its been a strange week. Gavin & Ian have both been in bed and asleep around 8:30. Pam and I have had....free time. We weren't sure how to cope with that...

We're too sick to know we're sick in the mind

What to blog about, what to blog about, I have home stuff, I have politics stuff, I have music stuff...

I just blogged about politics, I'll put that on hold...

The music stuff (the title is a clue) means admitting I was very wrong about something, not up to that yet...

So apparently work has been busy enough that I can't seem to sit and relax anymore. On Sunday, Gavin was playing quietly by himself, and Ian was asleep. Pam was busy watching her shows, and I was on the couch. Being lazy. I hadn't been lazy for a while, I liked it. But that nagging feeling started, the feeling of needing to be productive...so I rearranged all the furniture in my family room.

I've been thinking about it for a while (and I've gotten plenty of suggestions as well). I finally did some measurements, plugged it in Google's SketchUp, printed out the plans, then saved them for a rainy day. There was no rush after all...

Btw, for any space planning project in your home, I highly recommend using Google's SketchUp. It's free, and pretty functional. The interface can take some getting used too though.

Anyway, this is what the family room originally looked like


(OC stands for Orange Chair)
It's set up for maximum viewing comfort of the TV. However, we lose some space due to the size of the TV (it's not a flatscreen, and the partition of the back wall of the couch. It wasn't terrible, but that 'what if' kept nagging us.

So now it looks like this


The TV now goes through the opening and invades the room on the other side that holds Pam's shot-glass collection and other nice things. We'll have to keep the kids away from the back of the TV, but look at all that room!

Gavin wasn't very happy about it at first, "I can't go over the back of the couch!" (he's not allowed too), but he's on board now. The downside is not all the viewing angles to the TV are as comfortable as they used to be, its not bad, it just isn't as effortless as it was. On the upside, I can actually set up the surround sound correctly. Speakers in the old setup were all over the place, now the effect is much better.

BTW P, when you get back from Europe, I need to borrow your sound meter and re-balance the speakers again.

I'm quite proud of myself, yet slightly sickened by my inability to seriously slack off. Well, that's not exactly true. I can slack off as long as I've accomplished something that day, however with kids, if you miss your window of slacking by being productive, you don't get another chance that day.

Frankly this is probably the best way for my wife to get me to do home improvement projects, just clear everything out of my way during the day and leave me to my own devices.

I need help.