New/old dresser: A work in progress

Below are pictures of a dresser I just got from my brother Bill. My mom purchased it about 30 years ago for 30 bucks. I'm in the midst of refurbing it. As you can see, I got through the sanding and priming steps. I think I'd like to finish it by doing an antique paint style, but I need to do a little more research on antiquing. (Is that a word?)

For now, it's past my bedtime, so I will just share a couple of pictures and call it a night. I'll post more pictures when I have them...

I'm a geek, geek, geek, geek, geek....

.... and darn proud of it!

http://oregonemployment.blogspot.com/2010/09/working-in-science-and-math-it-pays-to.html

There are no less than a billion pictures that support my claim that geekdom is awesome.



Added note (...since I failed to mention this elsewhere): My brothers and I are not the only geeks in the family. We come from a long history of geeks. And I'm quite proud of that history. GO JACKSONS!

The full article is at: www.qualityinfo.org/olmisj/ArticleReader?itemid=00007234
Or, for a limited time, from the main page of http://www.qualityinfo.org/

The latest and greatest...

I'm behind on blogging. Aack. Here's an update... briefly:

• Today: Met with the youth group this morning to plan their activities for the next 6 months, then drove them to Portland and dropped them off at a conference called "Especially for Youth." They get to hear some awesome speakers, meet other kids from around the state, and go to a dance. I'm grateful for the opportunity I have to serve as a leader for the youth group right now. It's the highlight of my week. I love my girls.

• Last week(end): I celebrated a birthday. I'm really starting to rack up the years. My parents in law took me out to breakfast at my favorite place on the coast (on the 4th), then my mom came down with my dad (on the 6th) and she went for a long bike ride with me. She also got me the most beautiful little side table for my living room:


We went to Freddy's to get some tomatoes for lunch and I spotted the side table. I wasn't sure how it would look in the living room, but I liked it so I didn't really care if it matched or not. But now that it's in the room... I'm impressed with how nicely it all goes together:


Of course, it wasn't hard to beat the old side table, which most definitely did not match our newer furniture:


• Also for my birthday: One of my thoughtful co-workers taught me something new about what it means to have "friends." You see, "friends" are the people who buy you grandiose balloons, like this one:


...knowing full well that you commute to work on your bike, and that you'll be traveling home with "the bird" flapping behind you. In other words, picture me riding across town on this:


It's a good thing I adore the spotlight and can laugh at myself. Which I did. The whole way home. Bonus points? I made many children point, laugh, and shout with glee. "Look at the bird!" and "I love your bird!" That part almost makes me want to attach a balloon to my bike every time I ride.

Almost.

• Also last week: Nathan got his "boot" off. He's still gimpy. His damaged leg looks like a little chicken leg. But he's healing. Someday I might even get another piggy-back ride out of him.... I'm really looking forward to that day.

• Mid-August: I went to D.C. (again) for work. It was a wonderful trip. I would not mind it if my work asked me to go yet again in the near (or distant) future. I learned a lot, met some great people from around the country, and had just a little time to sight-see in our nation's capitol. I love, love, love Washington D.C.

• Late July: The young women in the youth group had their second annual hike in the Mt. Jeffereson Wilderness area. I can't begin to tell you how good the experience was for me. While we were up there I spent some time doing a bit of soul-searching. The content is too personal for this public blog.... suffice it to say that I came back a different person.