My Quirks

Over a year ago my dear sweet sister-in-law, Brooke, tagged me for this "Quirks Tag". The challenge is this . . .
- Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours
- Tag 6 fellow bloggers by linking them.

So here goes . . .
1. The domino of to-do's. When I notice something needing done, I stop everything to do it. Then, while I'm getting that done, I find something else to do, and stop everything to do it... there's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza.
2. I'm a perfectionist, and it drives me nuts that I'm not perfect at it yet. Still working on this one...
3. My fall asleep routine. Counting. Money, money... My best way to fall asleep started when we had significant credit card debt. I would work out ways of saving pennies and how to get us out of debt while lying in bed. This became a habit, and for years my best way to get to sleep is to plan the Welker economic journey for the next 10 years. When that doesn't work, I count in my head until I fall asleep.
4. Snack food hoarding. This one goes back to my youth. I would save my candy for a rainy day, sometimes for months. It drove my Mom nuts, knowing it was there, so occasionally she would take a piece. So the game was to hide it well enough so I would have it when I was ready, and she would have to come to me to ask. I still have a tendency to candy hoard.
5. Hypermiling. I'm not completely off my rocker on hypermiling, but it's a pretty cool concept. Some people have been known to get more than 100 miles per gallon of fuel, using their non-hybrid, naturally-aspirated engines.
6. The need to be right, or "Macs really are better". I learned to love Macs about 5 years ago, when after using an iPod for a couple of years and after growing tired of regularly having to fix my PC, I finally bought a Mac. I won't get too deep here but I'll state that getting people to understand and listen open-mindedly about the benefits of a Mac over a PC is a bit like trying to talk with a Baptist about the Book of Mormon. Outside of Macs, I'm also generally always right. I admit I have a hard time admitting I'm wrong; it's a known flaw, quirk, or (for my PC friends) you can call it a feature. And I'm working on it. Stay tuned for the next release?

I know everyone already suspected that I'm weird and bizarre. Now you know.

I probably don't know enough bloggers to tag 6, so I'll just leave you to enjoy my quirks, and if you haven't done it already, consider yourself tagged.

Shadow Boxing

This year our family decided to do homemade gifts for each other. I drew Emily's name and, at Karen's suggestion, I decided to make a shadowbox.

I first looked online to learn about shadowboxes. Turns out there are lots of types with varying complexities, but a shadowbox is basically a piece of furniture that has one to many boxes to allow for storage and display of small collectibles. They can hang or stand on their own decoratively. I was really disappointed with the pictures and plans I found online. Plans were sparse, some cost money, and none appeared to be what I wanted. So I decided to make my own plans. Here is what I came up with:

After designing the layout, lengths, etc. I had to label each wooden piece to make sure I bought the right amount of wood and kept track of each piece during the creative process. (numbered circles on each piece in the plan)

My first and biggest problem was figuring out how to fit all the pieces together. I decided to go with a dado cut at each intersection, and make the pieces fit together like a puzzle. I had to purchase a dado blade set for my table saw and figure out how to make the cut fully square and at just the right depth.

Example dado cut

Two pieces of wood with these dado cuts fit together in a perpendicular fashion, and with enough of these cuts in just the right places, you have the start of a really sturdy shadowbox. This picture shows the back nailed on, but it was stand up just fine without the backing, because of the way the dado cuts fit together so snugly.

I was really happy with the way it fit together overall. Here I'm planning the top shelf and positioning of the doors. My designed called for heart shapes cut out of the doors, but I decided they looked nice without.

Piecing together the shadow box, before anything was nailed together.

Here is the shadow box and hung in Emily's room, with a few of E's creations on display.

It took a lot longer than I had thought it would, but overall I'm really happy with it. Love you, Emily!

Imagination Sold and Serviced Here

I took two weeks off work in December, not so much that I had vacation plans but that I wanted to see what it was like to not work for two weeks. Turns out it's pretty awesome. And, depending on how you look at it you might even think I accomplished a thing or two.

Shadow Box. See previous blog.

Time with family. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Karen and the kids. Santa brought the kids Rock Band II, with two guitars, a drum set, two mics, Lego Rock Band, and the piece de resistance called Beatles Rock Band. We had a great time rockin out. Every one of them have turned out to be professional-grade rockers, including Lucy and Karen on guitar. (I caught Karen on more than one occasion stealing upstairs to play "just a song or two".)

Just-opened Rock Band

Lucy rockin out

Downtown excursion. We explored the downtown Houston tunnels, found something to eat, and enjoyed a really awesome rendition of The Nutcracker at the Wortham Theater Center. We entered at the top and walked down fairly steep steps into our row of balcony seats. Randy experienced a bit of vertigo coming into the theater, and we thought he might not make it through the show. He sat beside me, not the least bit interested in being there, but once the show started he actually watched, and daresay enjoyed it.

The kids at the Wortham Center

Lucy in the balcony, awaiting the start of The Nutcracker.

Game day. We had a full day of gaming with the Gardner family. The whole clan came over to the house and we had a great time. We played Die Macher most of the day while the kids played upstairs on Rock Band, Runebound, and so forth. I learned I'm not cut out to be 'die macher'; that title went quite handily to Chad.

Karen contemplates her next move on Bandu.

Z Machine. This is not a German vernacular but refers to Frotz, the game interpreter I spent hours and hours running over the holiday. I discovered the free download on iPhone app on the Apple Store. Turns out Frotz can run Zork and any other Z-based program.

(Cut scene. Fade into my boyhood bedroom, where as a young teenager I spent hours and hours playing Zork on my Commodore 64.) Try as I might, my 1980's young genius mind was not able to solve all of puzzles found in the Zork game. (Zoom onto my boyish hands and fade out as they pound the keyboard in frustration, the thief having just slit my virtual throat with his virtual stiletto knife.)

Some of you older farts might recall those old text-based games ... Zork being one of the most popular. (Geeks: Frotz is an open-source Z Machine Interpreter.) In these games, there are no graphics. The fun is left to the glowing words on the screen and your imagination. Input is in the form of words, phrases, and sentence. ("Pick up lantern" "Open the mailbox." "Climb the tree") In my opinion Zork is one of the best computer games ever made, and I had a blast playing it again after all these years.

A highlight was completely mapping out the maze, which I never understood all those years ago. I spent hours and hours more solving puzzles, but after several days focused effort I was still not victorious. I read a hint site or two to confirm with satisfaction how much I had solved, but disheartened at just how much was still left to be conquered. I made the sad but careful decision to put the game away, for now. I'm not through with you yet, Zork. Maybe when I'm 50 or 60 I'll pull you out again, and conquer what remains of your puzzles and surprises. One eye open.

Buckets O Fun. We had lots of other fun this holiday, but I'll spare you some of the details and just highlight: Pillars of the Earth board game, Sherlock Holmes movie, Avatar movie, Alamo Drafthouse calzones, tickling Lucy, Tyler "Jimi Hendrix" Welker on guitar, Randy on Tribes 2, Emily's hugs (and her really awesome hand-made gift of pieces for Agricola!)... Suffice to say it was a great vacation.

Now, before everyone comes home, I'd better go find a guitar, a mic, and that Beatles game. "Ooh I need your love, Babe. Guess you know it's true...."