"How fortunate for
governments that the people they administer don't think."
-Hitler-
"Only two things are
infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the
former."
-Albert Einstein-
2/5/12
been working in the big
room lately. we spent a lot of time prepping the floor for stain/poly.
more time than i would have liked, but there's a learning curve to this
crap. we rented a sander, but it wasn't very powerful. we didn't want to
use the drum sander because our floors are so thin already. long story
short, it's taken us a lot of time and the results after staining haven't
been great. we had a debate about whether to precondition the floor this
morning and ended up not doing it. whenever our laziness wins we generally
don't get great results. the next step will be to try to even out the stain
a bit, but that will be for another day.
found out on friday that
i have skin cancer. it's a really mild form called basal
cell carcinoma. nothing to worry about, really. i just need to be better
about sunscreen and shade. from what i've learned in the past, my being
fair-skinned/eyed and getting a major burn at a young age (second degree
burns around age 4) are major disadvantages when it comes to this stuff.
add to that the fact that i work outside somewhat regularly and am not
good about wearing a hat/sunscreen and you get what i got. so, i opted
for the surgery instead of the cream. it's faster and 100% effective. i'll
have a scar on my forehead, but i tend not to care about such things. the
good news is that i'll technically be a cancer survivor so i can act all
upset if someone makes a cancer joke. and, from now on, it's open season
on cancer jokes - i'm going to be a cancer joke machine. i already told
my boss she can't tell me what to do anymore or i might die. she can't
boss me around anymore, i'm a cancer patient! besides the cancer thing
i've felt lately that i'm about 10 years older than i actually am. guess
that's life.
if i had to bet my life
on the superbowl i'd go with the patriots. it'll likely be a close game
though and i'm looking forward to it.
we had a bet going on the
college bowl games. whoever did better took the other out for a nice date.
well, we tied. although i have to say that i felt very strongly about switching
my pick on the national championship game and meryl didn't let me. anyway,
meryl took us to hudson in oakland the other day. it's a fancy place where
dinner lasts more than an hour and burgers are $15 and come with a teaspoon
of ketchup. food was good and i think it's not such a bad thing to go to
a nice place everyone once in a while to make fun of all the people in
their suits sipping wine and talking about the world's problems. wait,
that's what i do minus the wine and suit.
every day it seems more
and more inevitable that romney will be the guy who tries to dethrone obama.
he's a perfectly average candidate in most ways. he won't really upset
anyone. i think he'd be a very average president in most ways. however,
i think he would have the ability to be great because he's a guy who, when
the rubber hits the road, is just as willing to compromise as obama. and
(and this is the important part) he's a republican. basically, and i think
i'm being fair, the republican party is holding the country hostage in
a real sense with their unwillingness to compromise on the big issues we
face. however, with a compromiser in republican's clothing, i think that
things could actually get done. many on the right are throwing romney under
the bus for not being a true conservative, etc. and this is all code for
him being someone who changes his mind and compromises. to them that's
an awful thing, but it's not to me.
now, i'm not voting for
the guy, but i honestly feel like maybe he would be better for the country
than obama given the political climate we live in. if my theory is correct,
the republicans would be pacified with "one of their own" as president
and the rhetoric and b.s. that we've seen so much of lately, could diminish
substantially. when push comes to shove, i think romney would compromise
on healthcare, the govt. defaulting on its debt, iran, etc. the most important
thing, then, would be getting a more reasonable (i.e. more democratic)
legislature that would check some of his attempts to pander to the base.
we also finished the cabinet
for meryl's dad the other day. not sure if i mentioned it, pretty sure
i didn't post pics.
just as they were moving
in. we took out the fireplace, did some structural work, and then built
the cabinet inside the hole:
looked pretty much
like this for several months while we planned the cabinet work:
almost all done. vince
installed the rest of the baseboard after this. next time we visit we'll
install a speaker screen we built to cover the subwoofer in the space below.
