Staining the Deck

The last couple days I have put another coat of stain down on my deck. Specifically, another coat of stain on the base boards. When I totally re-did the deck last autumn, I knew that I really needed to put two coats on the base boards, but after hours of pain-stakingly staining the vertical railing by hand I just didn't want to do it anymore. So, come this summer, the deck started to look really weather-beaten, as it sits in direct sunlight all day, 365 days a year. Also, certain areas with burls and other raised areas got most of the stain wore off of the boards. So, on Monday I cleaned off the deck and on Tuesday I took my can of left over stain and went to town on the boards. And then, with about maybe 3 square feet of boards left to do, I ran out of stain. This was very, very annoying. So today, after work, I picked up another gallon of stain, and after about 20 minutes of work I was done. And I have used maybe 2% of the new gallon of stain. Joy. Obviously, my estimating skills need work, as I was sure that the old can had just enough in it to finish the job.

In the interest of looking at the silver lining on this, I noticed that the handrails also probably need another coat, and now that I have essentially an entire gallon of stain, I should be good to go until two or three years down the road when I will need to completely strip and redo the entire deck. Still, I wanted to do this project for free, rather than having it cost me $30. Ah, well, such is life.

Be Afraid. Be Very, Very Afraid

It has come to my attention that a number of my coworkers have discovered this blog. To all of them, I say "welcome!" I will also say that this blog includes a number of in-jokes that you will only get if you have known me for a long time. It was originally put together so my family and friends could keep up with me on my many travels around the country, or "adventures in auditing" as I liked to call them. Now that my current project has had me in St. Louis for almost the entire last year, I'm not having as many adventures as I once did. Still, enjoy your stay here and feel free to add comments on posts that interest you.

Truer Words Were Never Spoken

He's been my favorite player for Arsenal since the start of the season, and now it has been confirmed; Cesc Fabregas is awesome.

10/27 Blues vs. Capitals Game Summary

The second game of my ticket package this season was not the over-powering performance that I saw two weeks ago, but a win is a win. Brad Boyes scored two goals, and Eric Brewer and Christian Backman also put pucks in the net to seal the win, 3-4, over the Capitals. The game wasn't really that close, with the Capitals scoring their third goal with less than 2 minutes left after they pulled their goalie for a man advantage. Still, the Blues looked pretty good, though the constant problems of too many penalties and sloppy clearing (I'm looking at you, Barret Jackman) haunted the Blues all game. The Blues had to kill off two separate 5-on-3 situations during the game. Yes, they were able to do it, but eventually they will start losing games due to junk like that.

I went to the game with my friend George. We ate dinner at a new pseudo-Japanese place close to where I live that I had been wanting to try, Samurai Jack's. It was really good, I am happy to report. We parked at Union Station and walked to the arena from there, and I learned that when you do that the entrance that you go into literally leads right into my section, 110. No walking around the arena to find your seats, you just keep walking straight. I will have to remember that one for the future.

Fall Foliage, or the Lack Thereof

The high temperature in St. Louis today should be about 63 degrees, so this is the first day that it really feels like autumn. It only took a full month to get here. Anyway, late October is usually a great time to go hiking in local forests, in order to look at the wonderful fall foliage. This year, however, things are not looking so great. Here it is, the 22nd of October, and most of the trees around where I live are still totally green. My tree in my front yard is going a little bit red, and one of the trees on the top of the hill behind my house is a nice orange/red, but that is it. What happened to my fall? Will it not occur until mid-November? Or is it going to be one of those years where I wake up one day and all of the leaves will have died and fallen overnight? I would blame global warming for this, but I have no idea if that would be factually correct. So, instead, I will use my standard environmental bogeyman and blame El Niño.