Atari Irata

It's been a very long time coming, but I finally grabbed one of these bad boys (or girls?) from Amazon... behold, an RCA Female to Coaxial adapter!  <crickets>

Okay, so it's a bit lame.... that is, until you hook it to your TV, plug in your dusty, 30-year-old Atari 7800 into it... then it becomes a portal to a globby, blocky 8-bit slice of retro heaven!  Finally, I get to play games like these again:

Donkey Kong is one of my fav games of all time... Just look at that HD quality!

Now for a random, unexpected update...

I'm not sure how I haven't updated this thing since January... absolutely amazing!  Anyway, I've been sidetracked for the last few months with work (what a concept!)  Plus, we're close to having our 4th little 'un, so, there you go.  We did manage to get our bathroom finished, so another post should happen soon... I think a song post will also happen soon... 'bout time!

P.S. Does anyone read this thing, or am I just rambling to myself?

Project: Bathroom Floor - Part 1

Well, I guess a good thing to learn in life is to expect the unexpected.  I wasn't planning on starting this project for a little while.  In fact, I had already begun my weight loss project with a post ready to go...  until I got curious and started to peel up the crack in the linoleum.  Here's what I found (Warning: these pictures are not pretty.  You've been warned.)...

Yeah, I told you... not pretty.  Well, bookcase the weight loss project for a couple more weeks, I suppose.  So I guess this has been happening for a while without us even really knowing.  Our ceiling downstairs didn't show any signs of water because the toilet sits directly over a shaft that runs straight down to the foundation of the house.  Anyway, after completely ripping up all the linoleum around the offending water damage, I sprayed the heck out of it with lysol and put a fan on it for a few days to thoroughly dry it out and start killing any mold and such.  Tonight (with the help of amazing parents and in-laws) I got the toilet out, and more of the sub floor uncovered.  Here's what it currently looks like...

So I guess the next step will be tearing out that sub floor panel and replacing anything that got wet as far as insulation, sheetrock, etc.  After I figured out exactly where the pipe was, I had a better idea of where to check in my ceiling below for water damage.  Luckily it looks like it's only a small area...

Well, that's about it.  I guess the moral of this story is "Water damage is not cool."  - or - "When it rains it pours, and when it flushes it floods."

More updates as they come...Cheers, and may your luck be better than mine 

(as I'm sure it probably is ☺)

2015! Another year for endless projects

Happy New Year!  As 2015 begins, I wanted to get a head start on some of my New Year's resolutions, as always.  Some years are better than others at accomplishing these types of things, and I hope this year will be one of the better ones.  I have quite a list of goals for this year already compiled, but for the sake of sanity and relevance  I'm only going to list the ones that really apply to the purposes of this blog... so here goes:

• Lose weight!  (This just has to be on the resolution list, right?)
• I'm hoping to shed at least 30 lbs, though I wouldn't complain about losing 40.  That would drop me to a whopping 190 to 200 lbs... you do the math.
• Replace tires and brake pads on my Yamaha Vino 125 scooter
• I bought my sweet little ride a few years ago from a co-worker and usually commute the 6 miles to work during the warm months.  It's in generally good repair, but the tires are need of replacing... enough said.
• Finish my laundry room
• When we moved into our house 4 years ago, the laundry room was completely unfinished.  Since then, we've added plumbing, drywall and paint.  It really just needs some finishing touches at this point... I need to install a window sill, caulk and paint the base boards, and install a light fixture.  Other than that, already done!
• Replace shed floor
• Another project that's been looming over my head for the past 4 years.  The floor in my shed is completely rotted out.  It's now to the point where if you step in the wrong place your foot will just go completely through.  Yeah, I think time to be replaced!
• Finish my piano
• Yeah, Yeah, Yeah... I know what you're thinking, and you're absolutely right, too.  After all, this piano was the entire reason I started this blog in the first place.  I actually got it to the point where we're ready to paint.  The problem is, I ran out of money and the actual paint/varnish is EXPENSIVE!  With a bit of help from my amazing father-in-law, I think this will actually happen this year (cross fingers)
• Deck/Patio maintenance
• It's now been a few years since we put our deck and patio in out back.  I'm going to have to re-stain the entire deck and caulk the overhanging pergola.  I am also planning on installing a permanent type of roofing over it for shade (Utah summers get HOT!)  I tried a tarp this last summer which worked okay, except for one major drawback:  the wind!  Yeah, it gets really windy on occasion in my backyard, which ended up ripping the tarp up where I had it secured down, and kept everyone up in the night because of the constant flapping... annoying.  So down it came.  The End.  As for the patio, many of the stones have either come out or sunk in a little too far.  Hence maintenance. 
• Bathroom Floor
• This one is going to be fun... As in not at all.  So a couple weeks back I was cleaning the master bathroom when my foot met a little soft spot close to the toilet.  Uh Oh....  After examing it a little, I'm thinking I'll be ripping out the floor.  Yay!

Like I said, these projects don't represent my entire New Year's resolutions list.  There are many other things I'm planning to accomplish this year.  These simply represent the major projects I'm going to undertake this year and report on.  Also, I don't plan on doing these in any particular order.  Some I won't even start for several months.  I'm guessing they'll probably happen when I feel like doing them.  And I'm positive there will be other projects I haven't listed that will end up on here, too.
Here's to a year full of progress, success and completion!  Cheers!

Ghetto-Style Video Game Storage

 Recently, I pulled out all my old childhood video games for the kids to have fun with.  Unfortunately I had to keep picking up the big messes they made every day.

I finally got a brilliant idea... game storage containers!  Since I'm cheap and didn't want to spend money, I decided to make my own instead.

Materials:  A standard elementary school ruler, a razor blade, pencil, duct tape & the old cardboard box I was storing all the games in.

I measured each type of game cartridge, traced out the dimensions on pieces of cardboard, cut them out, taped the ends, and.... Success!

For the game cartridges that I didn't have too many of, I simply slipped a rubber band around the cardboard container to act as a holder so the games stayed up neatly.  Worked like a charm.

So now the game room stays clean for a total cost of... Free.

And 3 Years Later...

I'm back!  I know, I know... You're asking yourself, "Back?  From where?  You were gone?  How did I even get to this weird blog?"  So I'll catch you up to speed really quick... Started this blog to document random projects, worked on some random projects, got a church calling, stopped doing random projects, church calling ended, lack of motivation occurred, motivation came back, started this blog again.  So here I am... back!  (Preferably more often than every 3 years)

And it begins....

I have officially begun THE project.  It's taken me a while just to get motivated enough to get started on the piano.  I'm excited knowing what it will look like when it's finished, but I can't say I'm exactly jumping out of my chair to take on all the work ahead of me.  Anyway, the fun has started, so no turning back now!

The particular piano I'm working on is a Wurlitzer 1203.  I started out by removing the the spoolbox along with the sliding panels that cover it, the music shelf/fall board, the bottom panel,  the keyblocks, the keys and the two front legs.

I've discovered that old pianos are similar to a grandmother's attic.  You never know what you'll find in there!  Here are some of the things I found:

mouse droppings,

an old mouse nest,

a 128mb SD card, lots of cobwebs, lots and lots and lots of dust, and about 34 cents in loose change.  I vacuumed everything out, and removed the lid last night.  I'm hoping to get this project done and out of the garage by the end of October (before it really starts getting COLD!).  If everything goes well, the piano will look something like this with a nice ivory satin finish:

Here we go!