UPDATED: This post initially misidentified the above bird as a Bufflehead. Fortunately, followers of the blog include avid birders who care enough to help me get my facts straight.

Like the Wood Duck, the Hooded Merganser is closely associated with forested wetland habitats. In breeding season, this bird is especially common around the Great Lakes, although it is widespread in many other regions as well. Year-round populations occur in two ranges: The first, in the East, extends from Nova Scotia south and west to eastern Oklahoma and northern Louisiana. A second, smaller year-round range includes parts of coastal and southern British Columbia, Washington state, and patches in Oregon and western Montana. The Hooded Merganser is a short-distance migrant, moving south to avoid harsh weathers. The majority winter along the Mississippi Flyway in the south-central U.S.

I copied the description above from a birding site to ensure no further errors.

After my mother died, I discovered a folder she kept containing press clippings covering my time in high school, college, and my early business career. I found several items that I had never seen before. My scrapbook contained the photo above but not the article. Reading it brought back many memories. I had forgotten that I trained under US Olympic wrestling coach Jim Peckman alongside future Olympic super heavyweight champion Jeff Blatnik. I often wonder, how far I could have taken my wrestling career had I focused on athletics over academics. I am sure I made the right choice, but I still like to ponder what might have been. The digitizing project I started yesterday was in full swing today as I captured dozens of news and magazine clippings.

Having moved our entire household three times in the last three years, I have decided to digitize all memorabilia that will be stored rather than displayed. This is for the benefit of our kids who will not have to sort through it all when we pass away. Instead, each will receive a thumb drive containing all of these items and all the photos I have taken over the years. Pictured above is my senior class photo from Union College. Of my classmates, Richard Templeton was famously successful. He eventually became the CEO of Texas Instruments and recently made a $51M donation to the college. He married classmate Mary Haanen pictured immediately to his right.

Jeanine is staying with friends on Martha’s Vineyard this weekend. It has become an annual trek in celebration of Irene’s birthday (front left). The crew spent the evening at the Black Fog competing in Trivia Night. Despite considerable Harry Potter knowledge, they were not able to secure a top 3 finish but enjoyed a spectacular evening nonetheless.

Kyle is headed to Austin, Texas later this month where he will be cat-sitting for Gypsy, a gregarious 8 year old Tabby cat. This is part of his strategy for spending the winter months in warm places. He has enrolled in a service that matches him with people from around the globe in need of pet or house sitting. In exchange for the supervision provided, he enjoys free lodging and access to the household amenities (in this case a pool). His job allows him the flexibility to work from anywhere that has electricity and internet access.

Maya has offered to help Jeanine organize her spices in our new kitchen. She takes after her father when it comes to this obsession. The spice bottles that she ordered arrived today and the extent of my involvement in this project was to unpack them and place them in the designated drawer. Jeanine and Maya will do the filling, organizing, and labeling. They estimate that the collection will have 90 spices which means that the last 4 rows of bottles will be spares.

The third bedroom closet in our new house is tiny by comparison to the others, but no less deserving of custom shelving. Today, I completed the pictured built-in that features a high rod, low rod, shoe and boot shelves for 10 pairs, and three general-purpose shelves. The sliding mirrored doors provide access to either side of the closet. Interestingly, the bedroom itself is larger than the other two, this by design to accommodate a dresser or desk.

With a major Nor’easter forecasted for Valentine’s Day, I thought it wise to pick up roses for my sweetheart a little early. She has been the love of my life for 40 years.

In preparation for a visit from the kids to watch the Super Bowl together, I fitted the TV in our living area with an over-the-air antenna and sound bar so we could tune in to the game and listen to the broadcast in high fidelity. When it is just Jeanine and I, we watch television in the small 2-person theater off the kitchen. We included a second large-screen TV in our house plan just for occasions such as today when we are entertaining a larger group. When not being used for this infrequent purpose, the TV will be used to display my photographs in a picture frame mode and the soundbar to stream music.

Jeanine’s father, a salesman for Simonds Saw (files, bandsaw blades) used to refer to woodworking machines as “meat and bone saws” given their ability to quickly separate an operator from one of their digits. These tools are especially dangerous when cutting smaller pieces. I have been using wood biscuits extensively in the construction of the shelving for our walk-in closets. Since the shelves are horizontally aligned, the biscuits mechanically interfere with each other in the middle of the vertical supports into which they are seated. Solving this problem is a simple matter of trimming a tiny bit off the side of each biscuit. That is easier said than done safely. I built this simple jig to facilitate the operation and to keep all my fingers intact.

My mother, who was an excellent knitter, would have been so proud of Maya upon the completion of her first sweater. In the works for a couple of months, Maya shared this photo of the completed project with the family and immediately received an order for one from Kyle. She is quoting a lead time of one year 🙂 which dissuaded the rest of us from placing our orders.

The walk-in closet of our main bedroom is 11 feet deep. I completed the shelving/hanging unit that hangs on the right wall today. It features 3 feet of a high-hanging rod, 8 feet of low-hanging rod, and 16 shelves of various heights principally designed for shoes and boots. There is room on top for larger items such as luggage. The left side of the closet will have a built-in 16-drawer dresser with shelving above. I expect to begin that project next week. Tomorrow, I hope to complete a similar unit for the smaller guest room walk-in closet.

When I built the kitchen and bathroom cabinetry for the River House, it was still under construction and I had little trouble making large components in the shop and then moving them into place fully assembled. Now that the walls have been painted, the floors finished and the stair railing installed, it is much safer to construct new built-ins in situ rather than risk dents and bruises to the new house. Pictured above are some of the parts for our future walk-in closet. My plan is to do all machining in the shop and tranport the pieces to the bedroom where I will do final assembly. The holes will support the hanging rods and the long slots are for biscuit joints that will be used to support shelving. It is important they all be aligned perfectly so that adjacent shelves appear as one continuous line. This will make more sense when I share a photo of the finished unit (perhaps as early as tomorrow with any luck).

For the last few weeks, we have been using a 14″ cube made of styrofoam as a side table for the swivel chairs in our living room. It was part of the packaging material for our new couch and just the right size. This morning, I woke up with a design in mind for a permanent replacement made from leftover bamboo plywood. I thought that a cube was just a little too basic so I decided to add an 8-degree taper giving it a wider top than bottom. In aggregate, I spent under three hours capturing CAD for the design, building it, and finishing it with a hard wax oil. The main project for the day, however, was applying finish to all the plywood that will be used to construct shelving for the walk in closets of the main and guest bedroom; a total of 256 square feet. Jeanine and I worked together to complete the job which took a solid three hours.