Dad’s Weekly Report

Dear Family,

This was a good week for us. We had a nice home evening with friends on Monday. We went home teaching on Thursday. We played cards with Langfords on Friday. The Blazers beat Phoenix and Memphis by more than twenty points. Their number is now four, four more wins by the Blazers or loses by Phoenix and they will be in the playoffs.

I have made good progress on the table for our TV. I have all the pieces cut our. Now I need to sand and finish them. Most of them I will stain and varnish before I glue it together. There is a variety of joints in it. The top and shelves under the top are attached with aluminum angle brackets. The bottom will have glue and finishing nails. The rest is glued together with Gorilla glue. Yesterday I sanded and stained the top. I am using the same stain that I used on the cabinet that I made for our stereo. I don’t like the staining and varnishing part of the project because it takes so long to dry between each step and so it seems to drag out.

Yesterday I finished forging a Suffolk latch. I threw away my first 4 or 5 attempts. But I am pleased with this one and when I showed it to Bill at the fort he was pleased also. It is a little big in the handle area, but it is still very usable. There is still some more pieces to make but they are not difficult and I should have it completed in a week or two. I am going to offer it to the Barton family for the cabin they are going to build this summer and if they don’t want it I will offer it to the fort for the cabin they are building. Here are pictures of it.

There is a little rectangular hole just above the handle and the piece that you push with your thumb goes in this hole. The shadows hide this hole in the picture. This hole is the hard part of the latch. The rounds on top and bottom are period correct. It is known as a “bean” shape.

We learned that the job cuts at my work will be announced on 6 April. That is a week from tomorrow. I am pretty sure that I will be cut. I hope not. I applied for two more jobs this week. On in Portland is very interesting to me. I hope I have a chance for it. I have also applied for a Hewlett Packard job in Houston, TX. I applied a few weeks ago and still haven’t heard about it. If I get cut I will ask my managers to help me with it.

It is starting to become Spring here. There are flowers that are starting to come out but it is still cold and quite rainy. Sandy got some lawn fertilizer/moss-killer and put it on the lawn and this week she mowed the lawn for the first time this year. I’m afraid that with rain everyday that the moss will require more work to get rid of it out of the lawn. It is pretty bad this year. This week starts April and April is the best time in this country because of all the flowers that bloom. It is quite beautiful.

Well that is all the new from here. Take care everyone.

Love,

John

P.S. Last week I mentioned that I bought some new shoes online. On the second day that I wore them the soles separated from the uppers and I had to send them back. I expect that the replacements will be here tomorrow.

Dear Family,

First news on the job front: we were told that the announcements of job cuts would come in the middle of April. I think that my department will not be cut much. However if there are any cuts I’ll probably be the one chosen because I have the least work to do. All the others have been in the department longer than me. I have applied for several jobs but I am not getting anything back from them. Last summer I signed up for an online class put out by the American Quality Society. The class is a preparation for taking the Certified Quality Engineer test. They offer the test in June and I am going to take the test. I have finished going through all the course material. The course allows as many practice tests as you want. So I have been taking a practice test every day. I am trying to get so that I can consistently score in the high 90%. There are some parts that I am not very good at, especially statistics. Hopefully the questions on the test will be like the ones on the practice tests. If I am able to past the test and get certified, it will be help me meet requirements on the jobs I am applying to.

Allen had his spring break this past week. He drove with his friend to Olympia and we went there last Saturday to pick him up. Sandy took him back to Olympia yesterday. It was really nice to have him here the past week. He spent a good part of the week writing his thesis. He has to have it finished in a few weeks. He is making really good progress. I am sure that he will do well.

I have spent a lot of time working on the table for our TV. It will have a tray that tips out. The tray is sized to hold DVDs. Yesterday I finished the tray. There are two more pieces that I need to make. Then I will sand the pieces, stain and varnish before I assemble it.

Let’s see what else has happened in the past couple of weeks? Sandy and I went with some friends to play. It was a tribute to Patsy Cline. The story was written so that she could sing Patsy Cline’s most well known songs. It was really good. It has been raining a lot. I have been watching the Blazers play basketball about every other day. They are an exciting team this year and it has been fun to watch them this year. They should make the playoffs this year and may even win the first round. I bought me a new pair of shoes. I really like them. This is the kind that I bought: http://www.onlineshoes.com/productpage.asp?gen=m&pcid=87964.

Well that is all the news that I can think of. Sorry no pictures this week. Take care.

Love,

John

Dear Family,

Not too much to report this week so I will only do a short post.  The big event was Sandy’s birthday yesterday.  Friday night we had 3 couples over to play games and to help eat the cheese cake that I made for her.  I haven’t made cheese cake before so I just followed the recipe.  I must have beat it too much or something because when I opened the oven after cooking it for 65 minutes, it was risen an inch above the top of the pan.  Luckily it didn’t spill out.  I cooked it an extra 20 minutes before I though it looked done.  Of course it fell.  I think that it was supposed to fall.   Anyway it tasted good.

I bought Sandy some thread and extra parts for her new sewing machine.  That is what she told me that she wanted for her birthday.  She didn’t like the thread because she said that it was too thick.

Yesterday, the ward had a pinewood derby for the adults, it was a fund raiser.  I made a car in the open class.  I put little ball bearings in the wheels and and extra 2 oz. of weight but it didn’t run too fast.  I wasn’t able to use the lathe at work and so the wheels didn’t run straight and true.  There were 7 entries in the “open class”  The three winners got trophies.  The rest got big chocolate bars.  I would rather have the chocolate bar so it turned out great.  Here is a picture of my car.

I hope that all is going well for you.  Take care.

love,

John