60th post boo yah!

I thought I would post my current favorite internet video. If you don't think this is funny the first time, watch it again. then repeat. every time you watch it, it gets funnier. I recommend limiting your views of the video to 10x/day or you may not get anything else done.

Iran So Far Away: A Digital Short.

SNL - Iran So Far
Uploaded by Pfff

How To Build A Freakin Awesome Arbor For Under $130

Man, who has time to blog these days…seriously? I have so much to write about, but no time to do it. I have been making audio notes on my phone about things I want to write about. Maybe I'll get to them one day. Things like how Jesus passed me on the freeway coming home from Atlanta. Things like Fry-night with the Atlanta gang. Things like six flags and how I have totally forgotten how awkward teenagers are (and horny, for that matter)…Those things will have to wait.

This weekend, I (we) built an arbor in our backyard. We had been talking about making one for a while now. We were considering buying one already made from Lowe's for three hundred bucks. Luckily I was feeling ambitious and decided to build one from scratch.

With some rudimentary plans taken from various websites we set off to Lowes. 2 hours later and $130 poorer we left Lowe's with 2 bags of Quickcrete, a box of nails, a box of screws, a post-hole digger, and some wood: 4-4x4x10, 2-2x6x16, 2-1x6x10, and 2-2x4x10 (all pressure treated). I borrowed a screwdriver and jigsaw from a friend (thanks Will) and with the help of my hammer, table saw, and circular saw I was set.

So, the first hole was kind of a random one and the rest were also kind of eyeballed. It is really hard digging deep holes in this South Carolina clay (my forearms are killing me right now). Somehow in the end, the four poles ended up kind of straight and level and the thing actually looks like we put it in a good place in our back yard. I wouldn't recommend eyeballing it, especially when you are gonna use concrete to permanently put it in the ground, but it did work out for us.

Today, I laid down the top; cross beams and then the other crossbeams to go across the first cross beams (see picture). Then to finish it all off I put in a couple benches on the sides (again, see picture).

Basically, I think we got really lucky in eyeballing it. It kind of makes me want to build something else, but I doubt my next project would end up so good (ask Haley about past projects I have made – she'll never forget the original projector stand I made back in Utah).