Fractured

Here it is in all it's gory glory. My ankle after a Distal Tibia Fracture. This is the ER x-ray about 3-4 hours after the event.  My toes are pointed to the left as you look at the photo, so the fracture is on the front of the leg. Yay.   For clarification- it's the dark streak on the left.  The gap on the right is perfectly normal between the Tibia and Fibula.

You can see that there is no bone displacement (whew!) and its about as clean and simple as they come.

That my friends is Fracky McFractureface.

The plan is two screws into the bone to fix the fragment in place. That will ensure that it doesn't move and I can start PT a lot sooner to rebuild strength for when I can put weight on it again.

Building a corner table

Recently we decided that our existing naugahide couch and loveseat combo in the basement just wasn't cutting it anymore. They were at least 15 years old, and while the upholstery was intact the cushions were sagging and the fake leather thing was just really really cold.

So- Sectional time!

Pretty nice, eh? There was one problem however- that little corner space behind the curved section. What do you do with that?

Well, if you're me- you get some plywood and fabric, and make yourself a shelf/table thingy.

Here's the finished product:

In the interest of thinking anyone cares, and because I've been getting some comments from people that I don't update my blog much- here's a quick overview of what we did.

I should mention here that most of my practical building experience was gained in High School theater shop, where the rule was that all platforms had to support a dancing student that you might actually like. I was also thinking of the fact that people come over with their kids, and kids like to climb around on things- so this shelf is probably several times stronger than it really needs to be. But it also won't collapse under anyone's weight any time soon- so that's a win.

Materials: one 8x8 sheet of 3/4 inch plywood, 3 metal corner brackets, one retractable outlet, one right angle plug adapter, and 1 yard of upholstery fabric.

Step one: Make a the top.
This is tricky, because the curve is not exactly easy to measure ( for me anyway- I like straight lines). So I got some cardboard and made several templates.
Once I got one I was happy with, I traced it on to the plywood and cut out the top.
I also marked out the hole for the power grommet, and cut it with a hole saw (more on this later).

I then made the base. Rather then mess around with legs, I decided to make the base out of interlocking pieces of plywood. This provided me with several advantages: I was using the same material as I used on the top, so less waste, the plywood pieces provide more strength and stability, and the base and top could be moved around independently to get the best fit.

Each piece has a cutout which is 1/2 the height of the piece. By fitting them together like a 3D puzzle I get a strong base without having to be too precise on my measurements.

Once the base was set, I was able to judge the fit for the top and cut the whole for the power grommet. I picked a power unit that hides down in the table or lifts up and tilts. This gives me 3 standard outlets and 2 USB ports, so I can charge phones/tablets without wall warts and still plug in a laptop, lamp or other device. When the unit is retracted, we have a nice clean look.
Link to power grommet

I also got a Hug-A-Plug adapter so that the cord would plug into the wall better behind the couch

Once this was all set, we bought a couple yards of fabric from the couch manufacturer (we could have gotten by with 1!) in the color to match the Ottoman.

Since Sherri is the master gift wrapper here, she got the fabric wrapped around the top, and we stapled it in place. Note the hole for the power grommet- the fabric is glued to the inside of the hole.

After this it was just a matter of putting the top on to the base, and using Corner brackets to secure it.

Then drop in the grommet, plug it in,and we have a table!

Slide the couch back into place, and enjoy!

Here's the shelf with the outlets retracted. This should work.

I'm sure someone will tell me all the things I did wrong (this being the internet) but this works for me!

Float!

It's Mardi Gras time. And this means: Parties. And that means: Shoebox floats.

Our friend Charles puts on one hell of a spread on any occasion, but on Mardi Gras, the stops are removed and he goes completely past the edge of sanity. And it's great!

As part of the festivities, there is a Shoebox Float parade. This year Sherri and I decided, we were In It To Win It with the best damn float we could put together. We've been working on this thing since December really, and are very proud of the result. Presenting Kap'n Kirk and his Krewe in "Landing Party- Bead Me Up Scotty!"




Impressive, no?

So how does this start? It starts with passion and commitment really- Charles puts himself out there so much, we felt like we had a duty to put just as much into it as he did. Plus it was a hoot.

So after much brainstorming and looking around the house, we settled on what I call the "inspiration piece"- the item that serves to set the tone for the project- our Kirk talking bobblehead(shown here with a necklace made of pipe cleaners):



So after removing the batteries (the talking was getting on our nerves) we had to figure out what else to do around him. And the answer was obvious- a captain has to have a krewe! To E-Bay! Fortunately, $24 and a Buy It Now button got us this:



Yeah, we were going to cut it open and 'ruin' the value, but I have some thoughts on Collectibles. First- anything that says 'Collectible' on the box... isn't. Second, the thing is only worth $24 now- no one is retiring on that.

Anyway, From there we did a test-fit:


Success!. Now- were we doing a Ship scene or a planet scene? Tough call, until we found these:

Planet it is!

But then this happened:


So that's a fail. They never got going.

No matter- we are committed! We'll address that problem later.

In the meantime, how will we affix the Krewe to the float? How will we get the beads to stick? Millions of things to consider- time for a POC testbed box:


Ok- we have a lab to test everything, we have a Kirk and krewe, we have a glue gun, pipe cleaners, a box, wrapping paper, beads, and no rocks. Anything else we need? Oh yeah- this:

a battery operated string of green, yellow and purple LEDs:

Ok- now we Make!

First- we need a star field:

then we wrap the box, and A Stroke Of Luck/Inspiration: the Rocks can be rock candy (grape and lime)!

So we pick some up, and here's a test fitting:



Sherri noticed that every float always has some fringe hanging down to cover wheels of the old clunker the float is built on- so...


And every float has a sponsor and theme:

Time to add some rocks:

But that's boring. How about we do something with those LEDs?


Much better. For the infrastructure types, here's what the bottom looked like at this point (extra holes are for the figures). The lights are just held in by friction- the holes are just big enough for the light but tight enough they don't need any glue. We only used 3 of the LEDs (one green and 2 purple). The others are just tucked away.


So we have signage, fringe, glowing rocks (!) and a starfield. Time to add some flora:

And some Fauna:

Next we wanted to trim it with beads. The idea was to have a straight border of gold beads and a bunting-type run of purple beads under that. This is tricky, because the hot glue gun only gives you about 15 seconds of work time, and we really didn't want huge glops of glue. After some experiments, we decided the best method was to tie the two bead strings together at predetermined spots with thread, then glue it up as a single unit.

And with the beads AND the back on:

The back was looking a bit plain though, so we decided to do something about that:


This was a long and tedious project, so as you can imagine the gang got just a bit silly:

Bones did let his temper get the best of him though. But to be fair Spock was pulling that same gag in every shot, so it was getting on everyone's nerves

In the end- Success! A pretty, pretty float and we won. So all in all, not a bad month's work.