Not a busy day today

Yesterday was kind of busy which is why I forgot to post something.

Today, however, was not busy at all. It's freakin' hot out there and the last thing I wanted to do today was, well, anything.

So having said that, let's see if we can make up for yesterday's lack of data by getting a little wordy today.

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I was trying to make a wood "circle" to use as a frame for screen that will go over my daughter fish bowl. Since I have a multitude of wood scraps left over from my various projects, I figured I would just cut up a bunch of small pieces of wood at 22.5° angles, glue them up in the shape of an octagon and use that as the frame.

Unfortunately, I don't have anything that has a 22.5° angle. It's not an uncommon angle in woodworking (half of 45°) but I just don't have a protractor. It's possible to simple draw a 45° triangle, measure up half of one of the legs and draw a line from the opposite 45° point to the halfway mark of the leg. That will give me the 22.5° angle that I want.

But I have a better idea. I now have an excuse to replace a tool I lost years ago called a "speed square".

If you've never used one to mark your cuts or as a saw guide, you don't know what your missing. They are handy as hell for everything from framing a house to building a grandfather clock or, in this case, to make an octagon that will be used to frame a circular bowl opening.

I'm always looking for excuses to buy new tools.

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We received three of these at my house yesterday. We did not ask for them, they just came to us unannounced and unneeded.

I can't help but wonder how much of my tax dollars were spent to print and mail these notices to every registered voter in Massachusetts? Because I'm willing to bet that 95% of the people that received one are not planning on voting by mail.

My state just loves to piss away money.

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I am attempting to kill some yellow jackets living in a hole in my front yard without turning myself into a wasp pincushion.

If this were a paper nest hanging in a tree, it would be easy - wait until dark, soak the nest with wasp & hornet spray and then hit it with the hose the next morning to knock it out of the tree.

Unfortunately, they have chosen an old chipmonk hole to make their nest in and my preferred method of ground insect destruction has been vetoed by my wife. My tried and true method of two tablespoons of gunpowder down the hole followed by a lit match has been labeled, "Are you crazy? You'll blow the house up."

So I'm trying a method recommended by someone on the internet who apparently practices "safe but boring" methods of wasp elimination. Last night I went out and placed small glass bowls over the two holes. For the record, only one of the holes had any activity but since they are only a few feet apart, I assume they are connected somehow.

So I got curious around 2:00 this afternoon and went out to take a look.

I'll be damned, there are a dozen or so dead yellow jackets laying on the ground around the hole that had the activity. Here's a real shitty picture of a few of them (circled in red):

While using the "safe but boring" method appears to be working, I told my wife I still thought pouring a little gunpowder down there would be best. She just smiled and said, "How about we stick with this. It's working. Besides, if you pour gunpowder down the whole, you're gonna have to let the boys know and they'll have to drive all the way here from New Hampshire and Framingham to see the fun."

Boring...

But she's right. I can't do this without my boys here to see it. They would be very disappointed if I lit off gunpowder in a hole without them here.

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I watched the Yankees play the Mets, then I watched some Bearing Sea Gold DVRs that I had.

Now I'm going to fall asleep early because guess what the kittens decided to do at 4:00 this morning? They decided to start batting around a plastic ball with a bell inside of it. This, of course, got The Small Dogs attention and she insisted that I go with her to investigate the source of the sound.

Most of the time I really like having pets. That was not one of those times.

While I nod off, you can click on these:

• Here's your Naked Guy In The News story.
  (Apparently Jesus was involved)



• Don't forget the ammo. You can never have enough ammo.



• It's like the 1970's all over again.



• Speaking of Iran...



• Something tells me he isn't her boyfriend anymore.



• Key phrase in this story: "...the disk grinder launched the steel post about 60 yards at high speed..."
  (For the record, 60 yards is more than half a football field)