Eric's Bedside Tables

On January 24 and 25, Eric Klimpke and his dad, Bob, built two alder bedside tables in the workshop. Note the SketchUp illustration and the final table. With a few demonstrations Eric was off and working. Eric now has 16 hours toward his 120 hour Cabinetmaking 101 certification. A special thanks to Eric for use of his new Canon camera...

Christmas 2008

Marc & Amy, Bob & Nora, Brian, Erin, Willem & Hayden -- 1/18/09

The Fullers celebrated Christmas on January 17, 2009 in Eau Claire. We enjoyed food and fun. Presents were exchanged and we all took turns playing with the new Wii. Saturday afternoon we all prepared for snowshoeing. Unfortunately, the wind chill made it quite cold and several had to abandon the trek. For those who continued, it was an enjoyable first-time experience. We'll have to do some more in warmer weather.

Willem demonstrated that he can now walk, talk and speedily crawl toward anything that catches his eye.

1000 Aces

Congratulations, Larry!

Today I experienced an unusual card playing hand. Four of us have traditionally played Pinochle on Martin Luther King Day for a number of years. Today, Larry managed to meld a hand with "1000 Aces". That means he has all the aces in the deck. Two of them were passed to him after he took the bid. While I don't know the odds for such a hand, I've never seen one before and I'm sure it'll be a long time before I see one again. If it hadn't been for those 1000 aces, my partner, Jack, and I would have won the day - maybe.

Larry's partner, Edsel, recalled this happening in another game he played...

"A few years ago, one of my partners raised the bid from 24 to 27 indicating that he had 5 or more aces. That bid requires a response if holding one or more aces, so I raised the bid to 29, indicating two aces. Elated (like Larry was), my partner raised the bid to 129 in his exuberance. It turned out that all we had for meld was the 100 aces plus a marriage for 102 meld. Taking all the tricks still left us 2 short in making the bid! What a way to go set, huh?"

Happy New Year!

As has been tradition for about 40 years, we spent New Years with our college friends. Fourteen of us stayed at the Carlson's in Carmel, Indiana for the annual gathering. We always enjoy a project or two and Carlson's provided an unbeatable combination of activities and hospitality. Several of us searched for about a dozen geocaches in the area. One contained a Travel Bug which has been brought back to Wisconsin for placing in a local cache.



They say problems come in threes. It's true. The first one was a leaking water pipe in the ceiling of the family room in the lower level. The second was a leaking water line to the toilet in the master bedroom ...and the third was a visit by a plumber that included a demonstration of how to clear a main sewer line from the street. That didn't work so the 300 pound machine was moved to the basement to achieve success. The guys enjoyed learning and providing unsolicited advice on this - not to be ignored - repair. The women went shopping.

It was New Years morning when one of the group noticed water on the floor in the basement storage room. Upon further inspection, we found water bubbling up from the floor drain. All toilet usage was halted! The room was cleared, the water vacuumed and the sewer clean out prepared for the plumber who arrived about 11:30. The neighbors were very obliging and encouraged us to use their facilities - all 14 of us.

A special thanks to the Carlson's for their great hospitality!

Below is a slide show and movie of our New Years entertainment.




Click here to see a VIDEO documenting our plumbing experience.