Leg Joint DetailIn my previous post about my desk, I mentioned that the legs had experienced a catastrophic failure. Today I rebuilt the legs based on the lessons I learned from the previous attempt. The new construction uses a hanger bolt through the corner brace. I also changed the way I attached the corner braces to avoid producing weaknesses in the wood.

Writing TableBack in the spring my dad built a pretty neat little knock-down writing desk. It was something that could be built inexpensively, looked nice, and was highly portable. I decided that I wanted something similar for my own desk in my office, instead of the particle board desk that I bought when I was in college.

I put this together over the weekend. In the process of doing it I learned a few things:

1. I don't know beans about joining table legs.
   

Check out the Hunting Poodles that a woman in Loveland, Texas is breeding and training. This doesn't come as a great revelation to me because I've heard of others doing it. But it's still very cool.

http://mosaicartsource.wordpress.com/category/mosaics/architectural-mosa...

This has to be one of the coolest pieces of found sculpture, i.e. art created from trash, that I have ever seen. Cool enough, in fact, that when city officials found the artist building the piece on land that he wasn't supposed to be on, they gave him the land, a salary, and workers to complete the project.

Yes, I realize that robins have been around for a couple of months now. But Aiden brought us his first robin of spring this evening. That makes him the first of the cats to score a robin this spring, which is kind of surprising since he's not out strongest hunter. Still proud of our boy though, and happy to see that he's doing his part to keep of the reputation of our cats.

The patio bricks are now all cut and placed (pictures to follow). I was able to finish the rest of the cuts (fan, edges and circle) in one afternoon thanks to my new tub saw. The 10" blade cuts a brick in one pass, allowing me to make neater edges and to work a lot faster.

Patio Construction continues today, the third day of work. Saturday and Sunday I worked from Can See to Can't See, along with my wife. Michael and his friend Ryan worked through most of the day on Saturday as well, hauling gravel.

Adelfa Passing BricksThe circles and fans consumed a lot more time than we realized. They look really cool, but they added a day to the construction.

Weather permitting, we're scheduled to start building our patio this weekend. Materials are delivered on Friday. Saturday morning from can see to can't see we'll be outside hauling and compacting gravel.