Woodworking
I think I sold myself a little short on that dog crate project a while back. I wasn’t very satisfied with the fact that the four walls didn’t really come together at 90-degree angles; I had to kinda force the walls together and it was no small task. But once the roof was screwed on it actually looks quite nice and is very sturdy. I figured sooner or later Baxter would find a way to escape, and eventually he did, slowly scratching away at one of the bars on the door until he could escape to freedom. I patched up the bar on the door with some spare wood, then reinforced the door with some plywood halfway up, and he’s yet to escape again.

Dog crate built using Kreg Jig and a whole bunch of Craftsman drill attachments. I did all the sawing with a jigsaw attachment!
Dog crate built using Kreg Jig and a whole bunch of Craftsman drill attachments. I did all the sawing with a jigsaw attachment!

With that project in the books and all my tools, including new circular saw, just sitting out in the garage collecting dust, it is time to start on the latest woodworking project–a dining table. One of those big-ass farmhouse type of tables that will withstand anything. The table Lauren has her heart set on retails for nearly $2000 at Anthropologie, but can be built for just $65 if I do the work myself. So today it is off to Home Depot to buy some lumber and get to work.

The table I plan to construct.
The table I plan to construct.

Working
At the office this past week, I spent most of my time working on the new e-mail template. Right now our e-mails are built for desktops and they don’t always render right on a phone or smaller screen. So my task is to not only design the e-mail template and build it out, but to make it responsive so it adapts to any screen size and renders correctly. Fun, yay. Well at first I was rather lost; I was hoping to receive some sort of training on the subject. But I just started digging around for information and by the end of the day Friday I had several sections to our e-mail template working responsively. No, I didn’t break a sweat doing it but at least I accomplished something. I do not see myself building corporate e-mails to make a living for the rest of my life but it was a nice feeling to work through something and figure something out on my own for a change.

Excited to Hit the Road!
I have been feeling a tiny bit homesick lately, both for Minnesota and South Dakota, so I am very excited to hit the road in 11 days for the big Walshichetti wedding. The first year in Texas was kinda a whirlwind of moving, starting a new job, getting a dog, meeting new people, exploring, having an adventure, and entertaining a constant stream out-of-town guests that I barely noticed we were gone. But the second (and now third) year we are in more of a routine and it’s a lot more noticeable that we’re 1,000 miles away from everyone I had known for the first 29 years of my life. Plus we haven’t had nearly as many visitors this year. It hasn’t really helped that my two short visits back to the Midwest this year have featured record-setting cold! So… needless to say I am very excited for our week-long journey, which will begin with a brief stop-off in Vermillion, SD to visit the Krogman family.

Beagle
Baxter hasn’t quite been himself the last two days. That may have something to do with him returning to his beloved DogBoys for daycare after they were closed for a month due to a virus outbreak. Baxter was ragged and exhausted after running for 10 hours on Thursday in 100+ degree heat, and all he wanted was to come home and nap. But we invited our friends the Viviritos over to watch football and along came Baxter’s best dog pal, Eli, to play. Baxter basically ran around non-stop that day for over 13 hours. And then I slept on top of him awkwardly that night in bed and woke up with his ass under my neck. I was sore all day and Baxter’s tail appeared to be injured with an impaired wag. He has basically slept non-stop since.