WOW! I have not felt that in a while. Although I was not scared per say of myself, this was the first earthquake since having kids. My thought quickly turned to my children who where home alone with my mother in law. The hard part is that everyone immediately uses there cell phone to call loved ones and it completely clogs the cell towers for more than a half hour. I was not able to get through until I reached a land line and called my mom. The boys slept right through it. And everyone was safe. My wife was very close to the epicenter and the Nixon Library got shook pretty hard. They even closed it down until they can inspect the facilities. I was at Taco bell waiting for my food when everything started rolling. All the patrons just looked at each other in a very laze fair attitude. The one thing this reminds me of is to make sure i am prepared for this kind of catastrophe. Make sure you have drinkable water, generator, canned food, emergency kit, and batteries. Or in my case just get a gun and steal it from your neighbors. BTW, that is a joke but not really!

Christine and I were cleaning the garage when we stumbled upon this magical box of history. we proceeded to open it and inside we some of the coolest treasure from our Disney career. For those of you that know me I am kinda sentimental and I really enjoyed this little find. Inside was a collection of name tags. You will notice that one of them is the original Disney name tag that was given to me in good ol’ 96 when I hired in. Also is a collection of clips from various guest control location around the park. check out the metal mickey ring on the right. Those where milled by Gerry Halberg. Christine and I’s 5 year pins are at the top and some old re-ads where in there. The leather Mickey head with my name on it. And also the ever so hard to find and goes for alot at Disneyana conventions guest control pin set. Anywhoo! It was great stumbling upon this little find and know I am going to go in search Of my huge Disney box with the bigger things.

So Christine and I decided we wanted to get a Thomas the Train set for the kids this Christmas. My mom wanted to buy the train and after she purchased it looked over at me and said “well, I paid for the train so you get the table.” I started shopping around and for a hundred bucks you could get a crappy table. So I looked at Christine and told her “I’m gonna build one” Instanty I know that something was going to go wrong. I had never made a piece of furniture before and did not realize what I was getting myself into. After some searching on the internet I discovered all sorts of groups, forums, and downloadable plans to make a table. Of course I was not happy with any of them. The plans I found continued the pattern of cheap flimsy crappy tables. I made the decision I was going to create it from scratch and my own ingenuity. So here goes…

I started with the sides of the table. For that I decided a nice red oak would be good. I then routed the edges with a half round bit to soften the edges and make it kid friendly. I then did a 45 degree corner. I learned that 45’s are really difficult and the slip all the time. I will attempt a dove tail joint or a biscuit joint next time the situation calls for it.

For the legs again I used a red oak and this time did a channel edge with the router. This hides the seam better and makes both sides more even.

I used a quarter round molding for the inside and reinforced the table top with some pine. Pine is cheaper. Alot cheaper!

Here is the table completed with a malomine top which is really durable and can handle much abuse.

And here is the final pic with the train installed on it. All the track has been screwed down so the kids don’t destroy it and makes for easier track modification.

I really surprised myself I was capable of creating such a beatiful piece of furniture that should last my kids years to come.

I’m not an environmentalist by any means. I do believe that this whole going green business is a bunch of bullshit that is now ingrained into our heads for the shear purpose of feeding more money into this embedded green economy that has spun in the last years. I do believe that we should try to recycle whenever possible. I don’t believe that humans are causing global warming. I do believe that Al Gore won a Nobel Prize because he is an ha-idiot (Gore impression). I do not label myself as pro environment. I do like to think of myself as pro human.

But seriously!!!!!

I bought this coffee cup at the Disney Store in Downtown Disney and the girl wrapped it for me. I was not paying attention until I got home. 17 feet later I finally got to my Mike Wazowski coffee mug. Seriously! Is this too much paper to wrap a mug in?

I was informed of my bee problem by my neighbor behind. So being the reponsible person I called Long beach Vector control to come out and take a look behind my garage. He told me there was nothing he could do about it because the bees where on my private property, but he did tell me that i could take care of it myself by pluging up the hole that they were going through. He also went on to tell me that if I did not take care of the problem That the city would give me a fine of a 1000$. Thanks Vector Control! So a little expanding foam later the bees found another way in. After a couple of days of trying to plug every hole that the bees found I decided to call an exterminator.

The exterminator came and quoted me 100$ for the killing of the bees and 750$ to break the wall and remove the hive. Being the cheap bastard that I am, I went with just killing the bees. He drilled holes into the walls and sprayed toxins. The wall vibrated heavily and it actually made me very sad. I have nothing against bees. In fact they are one of the few and only insects that I think are cute. Plus, there really fascinating. The next day i get my lovely letter from vector control and it said that I had to remove all the honeycomb or I would still get the fine. Well, I decided to go for it and do it myself.

WOW! the hive went from the floor to the ceiling and spanned 3 wall studs. Absolutely amazing! The aroma of the honey filled the room. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. The tragedy was at the bottom of the hive where all the bees had collected from the poison the previous day. It was really sad too because they where not all dead. I’m glad I did it myself with the help of some of my family members. Thanks guys.