Finley's New Axe!

Disclaimer:  Before you call Child Protective Services on me, please read Wikipedia's disambiguation entry for the word "axe" (entry twelve).

Victoria and a bunch of the moms and dads of Finley's friend circle get together every few weeks to do a toy swap.  It's a great way to spread germs...  uh, I mean...  It's a great way for Finley to have the fun of getting "new" toys without us accumulating so much plastic.

Anyway, Finley's really digging this newest plastic axe:

Tuning.

Turning the volume up to 11!

Working the whammy bar!

Artistic shot for his first album cover

The friend Finley's "borrowing" the guitar from is a girl. (Why is borrowing in quotes, you ask?  Well, it's not like little Samara's getting it back!  Sorry, kiddo.)  Anyway, so Finley got the guitar from a girl, and that's why it's pink and purple.  When I asked Finn if he was cool with that, he just rolled his eyes and said, "Daa-aad!  You're sooo old-fashioned!"  Then he busted into this face-melting solo for "Crazy Little Thing Called Love."  

In all seriousness, it's a sweet toy.  It plays excerpts of five rock songs (including hits by Queen, the Police, and The Troggs), it has a (semi-) functional tremolo bar, and -- I kid you not -- each of the five songs has three unique recorded guitar riffs that are triggered by plucking the strings that stretch across the sound hole speaker.  

The volume, sadly (or thankfully), does not really go up to 11.

End-of-Semester Class Party

Since January I have been teaching the LL class ("Low Level") at MSU's ELC, where I work.  It has been both a challenge and a lot of fun to teach true beginners.  Many of the students in this group came into the class knowing very little English, and a couple of them didn't even know the alphabet or how to say "My name is..."

My LL class was very small, made up of all Middle Eastern men: six Saudis and one Iraqi:

Front L to R:  Mohammed, Aziz, Khalid, Fayez, & Ameen
Back L to R:  Faisal & Hamzah

Since the semester is all but finished, I decided to invite them over to our place for an end-of-term party.  Victoria and I made homemade pizza, the other LL teacher (my colleague Akiko) brought fried rice, and Mohammed (who goes by "Jack" to distinguish himself from the half-dozen other Mohammeds in our program) and his wife (not pictured) brought Mandi Chicken, a Middle Eastern rice dish.  Everything was delicious!

Sitting on the floor to eat is the norm in the Middle East, so
our lack of a large dining table wasn't a problem!

Group photo!

Ameen, my Iraqi student, playing with Finley.

As you can see, we are a very serious group!

My students remembered that Finley's birthday was coming up soon and were thoughtful and generous enough to bring a present for him!

Finley loves pushing his new cart!

Anything with wheels = Awesome.

I don't know a single teacher or student who doesn't look forward to the end of the semester, and I am no exception.  But, as a teacher, when you're lucky enough to get a really great bunch of students, it is definitely hard to see them go, knowing full well that the law of averages says you're likely to get a class full of screw-offs next semester to keep the cosmic order in balance!  ;)

Curtains with a copper pipe

We are nothing if not frugal.

Frugal?  Well, that's putting it nicely.
This picture pretty much sums it up:

Frugal is just one word for it.
Stingy is probably a more accurate
term, and of course cheap also applies. 

A few weeks ago us miserly folks were tidying up the basement, when lo and behold, we found a copper pipe piece just hanging out on the floor.

Instead of chucking it, we chose to repurpose it into something for our place -- a curtain rod!  

Why not?  Those things cost too much money, anyway.  I've been wanting to make some curtains for a while now, so that was the perfect impetus. 

I had some clearance rack curtain hooks that I spray-painted copper to match.

First I painted the door (with free paint left in our basement)

Then I used no-sew hem tape to make these curtains (sorry mom).  I
DO have a sewing machine, but it scares the bejesus out of me. Ironic,
considering both my mother and m-in-law are amazing seamstresses.

Close up.  I used less-than-$1 copper pipe
holders in place of a curtain-rod bracket. 

Before...

And after....

Totally unrelated bed-head photo.  Just
because I couldn't resist.  Isn't he munchable? 

Board and Batten

Phase 2 of our kitchen work was to install wainscoting.  I wanted something to cut the huge wall of yellow, add architectural dimension to our little nook, and, as a bonus, allow me to nail things into the walls.

Note: the yellow in this pictures appears more
insane-asylum yellow than it actually is in real life.

 I bought lattice strips, chair rail, a pint of white semi-gloss paint, and a miter saw box from Home Depot for a little more than $100.  I didn't actually put up any "board" on the wall because a) I didn't need it -- my walls are smooth, and b) white paint gives enough of a contrast against the yellow.

I taped off where the chair rail would end and marked where the
boards would go.  The boards I bought were only 1/4", so they
rested at the perfect height with the base boards in our house. 

Using a level, I carefully placed the vertical strips. Then I
placed a horizontal strip along the top, and then the chair rail
on top of that. I caulked and sanded spots that weren't perfectly level. 

Nice edge shot. I mitered the corners with a hand saw. 

Painting in PJs. 

 And for the final look....


Before:

And after...

Finished!  

More improvements yet to come!