Fifteen Minutes of Delusion

Here it is, folks - the last week of school, and time to prepare for the big summer road trip. On Friday, the girls and I will pile into the van and head off across freeways with steadily decreasing designations for the start of our summer vacation. But before we can leave, there is a lot of preparation to do. This past week was already a busy one. I ordered a half-dozen frozen ducks, and had to defrost the freezer to make room for them. Then on Friday, we loaded the sauna into the van for our Saturday delivery. The lady who bought the sauna lives 4 1/2 hours away in Houston, so most of our day was spent driving and unloading and driving again. Fortunately, the apartment where we made the delivery was near an Ikea. Score! We had in-store credit and a completely empty van! The temptation to fill it nearly overwhelmed me, but I exercised caution and just bought four small things, including some lemon cookies. Yum. This week is going to be a mad dash to the finish line. I need to get the ...

It's been a while since I've written about the sauna, so I thought I would give a quick update. The previous efforts seem to have paid off. Kara is now using our sauna five days a week. (The other two days she's in Dallas.) It's not perfect, and if it runs for too long before she is able to get in, the terps build up to a point that it is a problem. But for the most part, it's working OK for her. I was very relieved to notice that the her increased sauna use the last few months has not caused our power bill to go up (or stay the same - January just about killed me!) The sauna seems to be much more efficient than what I had feared. Still, in order to make the most of the electricity use, I've started taking advantage of the left over thermal energy by taking a quick sauna myself when Kara is done. After she turns off the heater, it is still plenty hot (160) to get me sweating right off the bat. It's supposed to help one loose weight. Kara says I really stink...

I went to the liquor store on Monday night, and bought two big bottles of their cheapest Vodka. Don't worry - I didn't drink any. The problem I have is terpene , which is a strong chemical that occurs naturally in many plants, and is what gives wood that "woody" smell. It's also the basic ingredient of turpentine, and is the main reason that even natural, unfinished woods are not as safe for the chemically sensitive as one might expect. Ethyl alcohol is a very powerful, natural solvent, and vodka is a fairly economical solution of pure alcohol and water. Rubbing alcohol is not pure alcohol, but has acetone and methyl isobutyl ketone added to make it undrinkable, so it is unusable for our situation. Anyway, I soaked some rags with vodka and set them on the sauna bench, which had been moved to the living room. The alcohol dissolved the terpenes and then evaporated. By morning, the whole house smelled like a sawmill. And once the rags were removed and the bench had d...

I learned yesterday that once glass has been tempered it cannot be cut. It will shatter instead. I didn't necessary learn this the hard way, but it could have been much easier. When I measured the glass for our sauna, I wrote down the actual measurements of the wood panels I was to be covering, and then subtracted a bit for the mounting hardware. Unfortunately, when I placed the order, I accidentally gave the larger measurements. So after picking up the panels on Wednesday, I found they were all just a little too big. I called the shop and asked if they could cut the glass. I failed to mention that the glass was tempered, so they said "sure." I got up a half-hour early yesterday so I could leave as soon as the girls were on the bus to take the glass and have it cut. After driving 20 minutes through Ft. Worth rush hour traffic I was educated on the uncutability of tempered glass, and had to drive back home with nothing to show for my efforts. Except for the advice "if...

The beautiful weather continues here in Willow Park, Texas. Yesterday was in the mid-60s, and today we hit 70. I had to fix a flat on Anna's bike yesterday, and after I broke a sweat I decided that jeans would be inappropriate for a ride to the park. Fortunately, my shorts were easily accessible. Alyssa got to go to Casa Manana twice today - once for Anna's class, and once to see Jack and the Beanstalk. Alyssa and I walked through the Will Rogers Center complex on our way to the museum this afternoon because she wanted to see the cows again. I agreed, although I explained that we probably wouldn't see any because the Fort Worth Stock Show is over now. All that was left were big tractors mucking the many, many stalls. I wish I could have directed one of those trucks full of prime fertilizer over to our house! I got two of the kitchen cabinets replaced today, and it looks like I'll have a little extra time to prepare for replacing the big cabinet. My help for tomorrow eve...