After finishing the case, I was on to the hardwood face frame. It will basically consist of four cut poplar pieces joined using 3/8″ dowel joints. It was my first time using dowel joints, so I was a bit nervous. However, by using the dowel jig for the drill and the dowel kit (dowels, bit, rubber stopper) it made it quite easy. The frame is now in the clamps – and looking good!

A month or so ago, I started on a project that will consist of two bookcases and a small mini-desk that will join the two. I have completed the frame of the first bookcase. The frame is made of ¾” Birch Plywood. All of the hardwood in the project will be poplar. You can see the case below.

Shannon and I are not big on watching TV. There is no show that we really watch regularly (outside of the morning news – and we all know that I love my Law and Order Reruns). However, the other night I flipped on “America’s Got Talent” to see the first performance of Cas Haley (first video below). He was absolutely amazing. Great guitar player, great singer (with virtually perfect pitch). This is one of the positive things about Reality TV. If he had pursued the “traditional” avenues of getting signed by a record company – he might not have ever surfaced. I will go ahead and say that I am sure someone will sign him within the next year. I could see him becoming one of the next big singer / songwriters (in the vein of Marc Broussard and others). (I also added his second performance below).

It amazes me how some perfectly sweet and kind dogs can display another side on occasion that makes you want to strangle them. Such was the case yesterday – while on our way back from Tennessee (btw, we made it back safely). Nala had done so well on the trip yesterday until we stopped a few hours from home. Let me precede this by saying that Nala is always a bit weird about not wanting to pee in strange places – so, on trips it takes a while to convince her to go. We stopped at a gas station in the bustling metropolis of Metter, Georgia. We commenced to walking her for about 20 minutes – and she would not use the bathroom. Finally, we decided that she didn’t need to go (we don’t give her much to drink on trips). As soon as we put her back in the truck – she started to pee (also keep in mind that she peed in the truck on the way to Tennessee also – and that we had a much longer trip to Virginia a few weeks ago – and she did fine).

As if that wasn’t enough – I was awakened at 3am to discover that she had peed in her crate also. Fun Fun.

In a few hours we will be heading off to Tennessee to see family. If we get any good pictures on the way, we will put them here for you to see.

I have finally put together everything for our highlight reel. This gallery has captions at the bottom of each picture. We took our favorite 2 or 3 pictures from each day. Hope you enjoy!

Nala seemed to have a pretty good time at the kennel. However, she grew 6 pounds during our vacation. She has gotten a bit bigger, and she is just as hyper. Hope that you guys enjoy the pics and video (which is of us trying to teach her to roll over).

We are home.

Our first tip involves daylight. I know it sounds funny – but it is very important. First, I need to give you a bit of background. I wake up at 5:45am every day (except for the weekend). It is always dark at 5:45am. However, this is not true in England. We were in the middle of the island, and it started getting light at roughly 4am. It didn’t start getting dark until after 10pm. This was a big adjustment for me. Not only did I have to get past the jet lag, but I had to try and learn how to sleep when it is light outside. If you stay in a hotel, just be sure to pull the curtains at night. If you are staying somewhere without this luxury – you might want to get used to sleeping with an eye pillow.

Well, the long flight is over and we are back in the United States. The flight from England is about 1.5 hours longer than the flight to England (due to winds and such), so this one felt pretty long. There were several kids near us – which made it seem a bit longer too. However, we made it back without any major incidents or problems. The people that were directing everyone after we went through Customs were incredibly rude here in Philadelphia (the Customs / Immigration people were GREAT). It helped us understand how visitors get the wrong impression of the United States. All in all, we are ready to get these two last flights over with and get back to sunny Savannah.