Thank you Grandpa

The last few months have been busy. Since buying this place, it's been a never-ending collage of home improvement projects minor and major. Lately though we started to give ourselves a little time off so our heads wouldn't explode.

It's been a while since I did a project just for the heck of it. Okay, I guess the last one was the hoist for the kayak, but that was a response to the challenge, "Where do we store the new boat?" I get to be crafty and ingenious at work while solving unique problems, but that too, is problem-solving with flair. In a small way, so was this one. "What do I get SuperMom for Valentine's Day?"

Neither of us are big into the commercialization of that day, but I know she still appreciates the sentiment. Flowers are, oversold. I try to remember to give her those on completely random days of the year with a special process involving a Chinese lunar calendar, a hampster, pecans, and a bicycle chain. What could I put together on short notice (Yeah, procrastination is a specialty. It's like a gift-with-purchase for being male)? Better yet, what could I build?

My brain started to flash back to my youth. My grandpa was great with these kinds of things. Small projects. Tinkering projects. When you grow up during the Great Depression, you get great at building your own solutions rather than buying them. Grandpa used to build most of his own Christmas decorations. He'd build airplanes out of beer cans. He helped me carve out custom propellers for my 7th grade science fair project on propeller-pitch-efficiency. Lots of things I know were cool but just can't remember, but most of all they were simple. That's when it hit me. A bird house.

Yeah, I know all you women are thinking about how much you'd just loooooooove to get a frickin' bird house for Valentines Day, but there's a perfectly good story that goes with that decision. And no, I'm not going to tell you :p

So I grabbed the munchkin and made a quick trip to the hardware store, then to the shop for some of my tools (because even though I have practically everything, most of it stays on the utility truck @ work), and finally it was off to the internet to figure out the best way to build a bird house. Yeah, it seems simple enough, but I did actually learn some stuff. Like those little dowels everyone puts in front for the bird to perch on? -Apparently the birds don't like them so much. Friggin' finnickey birds already made me waste $2 on a piece of dowel and I haven't even started building yet! And the hole in front, yeah, they don't care for that either. Aww come the frick on! What happened to the old-fashioned birds that were happy to get free housing whatever way we decided to build it for them? Damned yuppie birds.

So for the most part, it was simple. Measure twice, cut, um, 3 times or so. Wood glue, brad nails, and lots of painter's caulk. The best part though was having Twerp help paint it. It took me about three times longer to accomplish, but she helped, "build the birdhouse for mommy and the birds," and loved it.

And so did SuperMom.