Sunday's tale

Woke up Sunday morning at 6:00 AM and slowly eased into the day. Jake and Carla had brought me some Irish porridge Jake has been making since buying steel-cut oats. (It looks just like horse-feed). They have tried several toppings (apparently buttermilk is the traditional topping) but, not having any buttermilk in the house, I just put a pat of butter on top. Very interesting texture and taste, but very, VERY filling!

Started a load of clothes. Yes, I had everything done yesterday, but Scruffy decided my fresh, clean bedspread would somehow benefit with the addition of a hairball last night!

While that was washing, I cleaned the stove top and the very badly caramelized grill pan (I had to use a drill and wire brush on that!) Then I got the two things I need to mail today all lined up. One is Jeremy's Christmas present that finally showed up on Saturday and the other is DVD's of shows that I taped for Luanne and Sadie.

At 1:00 PM, I shaved and showered, then left for the funeral home for Dave's Mother. Dropped the packages at the Post Office on the way (big line and a long wait!) It was nice to see Dave and Melissa again (its been too long) but I wish it was under better circumstances. I also saw Dave's sons Ian, Dustin, his wife Lidia and, the apple of Melissa's eye, their son Gavin. He borrowed my cane for a while. I can't blame Melissa, he really is a cutey!

Later on, Melissa's mother, Fran and her husband Jim arrived. We chatted a bit and then I left for home.

Got back home around 4:30 PM, changed clothes and started working on carving a mock pipe from a 2 x 4. I don't know how it will work on a hardwood burl (the traditional pipe wood) but the band saw went through the pine like butter. I'm very impressed with it.

The vacuum base hobby vise was another matter. The vise itself was great, but the base kept losing suction. I think next time I'll wet the bottom. Another thing I learned, you can't (or maybe just I can't) do this for a long time. I worked about 2 hours on it and then I noticed I was getting sloppy with the Dremel tool and starting to make mistakes. So, I quit. Apparently, pipe carving for me will have to be a 1 - 2 hours a day until its finished rather than from start to finish in one setting.

Warmed up the last three remaining baby back ribs and the beans for dinner (still tasted great!). Got everything lined up for work on Monday, watched TV until 10:00 PM (not the Superbowl) and then went to bed.