June 14, 2013

Today I got to sleep in a little bit and then I had a fairly productive day. I started to put my TV wall mount on the wall and that turned into a bit more work than I expected. According to the wall mount, the screws used for the TV base are often also used for the wall mount. That turned out not to be the case with my TV. Luckily the the wall mount came with a bunch of other screws and four of those ended up working but I needed washers for them.

So I made a trip to the hardware store across town. I got the four washers I needed and I also got some extra screws because the ones that fit from the wall mount it seemed a bit small. The screws I got ended up not working out but the washers served their purpose.

While I was on that side of town I also stopped at Hobby Lobby because I needed to get a frame for my dad's cross stitch for Father's Day. I also got some foam board because some of the tutorials I saw used that but I'm afraid it will be too thick for the frame. And I got some more needles and pins, to possibly pin the cross stitch to the foam board, or cardboard if the foam board is too thick. I think tape would hold for awhile because after awhile it would dry out and start to fail. I want to get started on the mounting and framing thing tomorrow. I'll need to try a test piece to make sure the soap I have doesn't doesn't make the threads bleed, and then wash the piece for my dad (and the other ones I have made), let them dry, iron them, and then mount and frame. I'm getting there.

When I got home from that I had just enough time to eat a peanut butter sandwich for a late lunch and then head over to my grandma's to take her to her doctor's appointment. I ended up getting there early so we sat and talked for awhile before leaving. We took her car because it was a little bit taller than mine, and I never quite got used to the touchy acceleration. It was a lot more sensitive than mine so we had a few unintentional fast starts. But we made it to her appointment and back without incident so I'll call it a success.

I wanted to take a nap when I got home but my desire to finish mounting my TV was greater. So I finished that. I got the mount on the wall without a problem before I left for the hardware store so all I had left was getting the TV up there. I misplaced one of the screws I needed but I figured three would be fine in the meantime (and I eventually found the fourth screw). The mount I got thankfully allowed me to rotate it into portrait view so I was better able to hold the TV in one hand and put the screws in with the other. It took a little doing but I managed it and I think it turned out pretty well. It is pretty sweet being able to change it to a third monitor and have YouTube videos up there in fullscreen.

When I had finished that I still had a little time before I needed to eat dinner and go to work so I put up the shelf my mom wanted in her bathroom. She got it last weekend but I wanted to wait until my TV mount came because it shipped with a small level and I wanted to make sure the shelf was level. I downloaded a level app on my tablet but it required a level surface to calibrate it. And I would need a level to find a level surface. So it was kind of a Catch-22. But yeah. I took a bunch of measurements, checked the level, drilled small holes, then drilled bigger holes for the plastic sheet rock screw thingies, pounded those things in with a hammer because I erred on the small side so they weren't too loose, and then screwed the screws in. When all was said and done, it was perfectly level. Well done me.

Tonight at worked I finished a cross stitch and a book, watched a significant chunk of the first series of Doctor Who, and played some games on my tablet, when I wasn't writing this. The book I finished was Speaker For The Dead by Orson Scott Card. It is the sequel to Ender's Game although it is a completely different book. Not just because it is literally a completely different book but because the whole feel of the book is different. Ender's Game is about a kid fighting a war against an alien species. Speaker For The Dead takes place three thousand years later on a small planet where a colony of humans is trying to learn about a pig-like alien race that is also present on the planet. That is a horrible description of the book but whatever. Everyone I know who has read Ender's Game loved it, and everyone else I've heard talk about it for that matter. I thought it was alright but not great. Speaker For The Dead was a better book I think. Even if just by a little bit. The concepts were interesting and it left me wanting to read the next book. Which I probably will. Unless it is completely different from the first two, like the second was from the first. I haven't looked it up yet.

We had a midnight sowing of Man Of Steel, and it is a long-ass movie, so I am still waiting for that to get out. I should be able to go home around 3:00AM. Thankfully I don't have to wake up and come back to work in the morning. I think the work on my grandma's shower is going to start tomorrow and I'm supposed to go over and help, but I am hoping that doesn't happen too early. I need some sleep.