Subject: Weekend Update: January 10-12, 2003
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 16:06:59 -0500

Joy found the opportunity last week to stain and polyurethane
the new components cabinet that we bought to stand beside the
TV in the barn; a couple of days reached into the 40s for about
15 minutes, but in the unheated spa room, it was warm enough for
the job, as long as she cranked up the wood stove in the adjacent
barn.  She wanted to finish it by Saturday because it would take
time to set up and rewire the components system.

Jessica called last week about Goliath not braking well. 
By the symptoms she described the brake lines needed to be
replaced.  Jess and Dave had the work done by someone in
their church, and we all feel a lot better about their
travels, now.

On Friday night, we got a call from Paula Bickom, needing an
immediate babysitter.  Emily was tapped but since I wanted to
go to the store in Nashua, I offered to take her.  Instead,
Joy volunteered and Emily spent the evening with friends.  We
had a bit of miscommunication because when we got there, the
house was obviously empty.  We figured that Paula could no
longer wait and bundled up the kids and took them with her.
Not knowing anything else, we went to Home Depot to run the
errand I wanted.

I want to hang my left and right speakers from the ceiling
under the loft and I've balked at the prices of commercial
brackets figuring I could engineer a pair better and cheaper.
I was having fun with my sketches and materials at the
hardware store.  I found some brackets to attach to
my speakers in lumber, a flood light plate from electrical,
and some piping from plumbing to complete my set; all for
about $17 to construct the pair. I got the feeling that Joy
was not as thrilled about my wandering through the hardware
store, and I thought she must know how I feel walking through
a department store with her!  She said that she was anxious
about Paula and what happened so I offered to swing by their
house on the way home.

When we got there for the second time, someone was home.
It was the neighbor across the street watching Brandon and
an inconsolable Kayla.  When Joy walked in Kayla went
directly to her with her hands up, and once safe in Joy's
arms, stopped crying.  Brandon ran to her saying "Auntie Joy!"
That was enough for the neighbor to feel comfortable with
transferring responsibility to Joy.  Joy waved me inside,
and the neighbor (perhaps happily) departed. When Paula
returned with David, she explained that she must have
just missed us, and we both apologized for the mix up.

Before we got home that evening, I had gone over the
speaker mount construction in my head and realized that
my design was not going to work, to my bitter disappointment.
I would have flexibility along two axes, but not on the
critical third axis to tilt the sound downward.

The next day, I pushed the TV from its corner over to the
right and set the cabinet, still smelling of polyurethane,
to the left.  I made all the reconnections, untangling a
bunch of wires, but was unsatisfied with the outcome because
the TV was now off center.  After discussion with several
family members, we decided to move the TV in front of the
window in the barn, because we never open it anyway; again,
the cabinet to the left of it.  This turned out nicely because
it made the viewing are more square whereas it had been
diagonally situated forever.  I put the left speakers back
on their stands to the left and right, and thought I still
would like to get them up high, I was satisfied with the sound.

Once in place, we busied ourselves with cleaning the rest
of the room (and house) for the baby shower that was planned
for that evening.  Miranda hosted it for Jen Duchene who is
due on February 4.  (I told her that if she has the baby on
February 2 that she should ask the doctor if the baby saw
her shadow.)  She is having a baby girl (Emma Grace).  Andrew
high-tailed it to a friend's house to watch football and get
out of the estrogen-laden atmosphere.

Joy and I had a date with Rob and Susan Walker that evening,
but those plans fell through, so I called Diane Adams to see
if she'd like to join us for dinner.  After the maintenance
worker finished fixing her toilet, she readily accepted, and
so we met at On the Border.  The wait was long enough for me
to leave Diane and Joy to chat while I returned my hardware
pieces to Home Depot.

Back home, Jill, Erin, Mandy, Kara, Melissa, Mindy, and Jen
(with Pam and Cheryl, and now Joy and me) were busy doing
something - I turned on the football playoffs with the sound
turned off so I wasn't paying too close attention until after
the game.  I did pull out the video of Emily's birth which
made some of the girls squirm.  For those of you who do
not know, the video was filmed from the shoulder for the sake
of modesty.  Still, squirming still happened.  Jen seemed
interested however, since she'll be enjoying the experience
in just a few weeks.

On Sunday, the ENC Gospel choir came to sing at our church
and did a very nice job indeed.  The President of ENC was
in attendance and took my picture for Naznet.  I didn't ask
him if we were still on for lunch since he made that offer
some time ago.  We also got to see Katelynn Shaw and had a
good time reminiscing with her.  We go back to 1982 with
her parents, Dave and Lynn who are Pastoring the East Wareham,
MA church.  I told Katelynn that we saw her on video just the
other night, as a one-year old little girl.  Time flies.

On Sunday evening, I had the privilege of singing a duet with
Oscar Alley who will be 80-years old on Friday of this week.
Time flies faster as we get older.

Afterward, the teens hosted a hot potato afterglow so we spent
some time chewing the fat over spuds. Then Miranda brought
Kelly and Melissa home for some added fun with Dr. Mario
(the video game).

Mark