Once more I find myself on the road again. Ironically I am writing from Wisconsin again, Madison this time, and again the Vikes are prepping for another game against the Packers! Pier and I had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends and hope that all of you did as well. Our first Christmas together was absolutely wonderful. We started Christmas day off with Mass at midnight and it was great to hear and sing the Christmas hymns with my wife by my side! Then in the morning we woke and enjoyed our time together and to share our gifts with each other. I could have not asked for any better gifts than what Pier gave me. She knows me so well that she found the perfect gift for me, a painted picture of several breeds of cattle on it! Now it may not sound exciting but anyone that knows me knows how I love anything to do with farming. I love it and we have the perfect spot for it in our living room! Anyone that knows Pier knows how she loves fashion and she had been hinting mentioning how she would like a comfortable flat and that she had researched the perfect ones! She knew I would key in on the research that she did and that I would probably remember exactly what she wants. Well she was right! I got her the pair that she had been looking at, a pair of FSNY flats. Now the only way I could remember the initials was to say Fox Sports News Yes because I had no clue what it stood for. Although after a little research I discovered that it stands for French Sole New York. Now mind you I was not up to the task of picking and buying a pair of shoes since there are so many variables… size, shape, color, texture, design, etc. So I had to be creative. I ended up printing out the FSNY logo and I picked a pair that I thought she would like and I printed them out on paper. I found a shoe box and I placed the label on the box and then placed the paper cut outs in the box and wrapped it up. Needless to say she loved it and I also picked out the exact pair that she ended up getting!

We also celebrated Christmas with our friends Josh and Julia. On Wednesday night we headed up to the Melting Pot and enjoyed a long fondue dinner! It was delicious. It was my first time to eat fondue and I must say that it is a perfect dinner to have great food and great conversation. I look forward to another visit in the future!

Now comes the wood technical part…. 🙂

In the middle of all this I have found some time to work down in the shop on Pier’s wedding gift. I must say it is coming along quite well. This past week I got the wood dimensioned out to the correct thickness and out to a rough size. To do this I first laid out wood and I drew out the individual pieces on the boards so I would know where to cut each piece from. Then I used a jig to flatten the board in my planer.

I place the wood on the jig and slide the adjustable supports up to support the board and then slide it through the planer multiple times and it creates a flat top.

Then I can flip the board over and plane it to the correct thickness. Then I joint an edge with another created jig, to create a 90 degree angle to the top and bottom. That takes care of 3 sides (top bottom and side) and the 4th side will be finished in the next step when I run it through the table saw to rip the stock to a workable width. Those will eventually be glued up to create the top and bottom of the cabinet piece.

Planed and flat on top

So now I have 3/4″ and 1 1/4″ thick square pieces of stock that are ready to be glued or cut into final dimensions.

This past week has been busy and it does not look like it will be slowing down in the near future with our plans of traveling to Rome, Italy in early February. We both are excited to travel and see all the sites Rome has to offer! Happy New Year to everyone!! Craig and Pier