Lord help us all, Mandy's going to play with powertools

Merriam-Webster define obsession as “excessive often to point of an unreasonable degree” which is exactly how I become when I get on a new kick.

Whether it be garden boxes, my latest food craving, or my love of Twilight when I find something new to love, I generally love the life out of it.

Since my garden box is done, I need a new obsession. Don’t you worry your pretty little selves I’ve found my newest thing to consume my every waking moment: I’m gonna build me some stuff! Real stuff- like furniture stuff.

Yep, you read that right, I’m going to build- with POWERTOOLS.

My friend was telling me about this website where a girlie gal finds cute furniture at like Pottery Barn, goes home and builds it her garage, then posts the plans online for other girlie gals (like me) to build!

So now that I’ve found this site I’m mentally replaced all the furniture in my house with stuff that I’m supposedly going to build all by myself!

My husband isn’t as confident in my building expertise. He told me to brace myself that if I start a project he won’t cut a single piece of wood for me. Now this sounds harsh but let’s be honest, he knows me pretty darn well and there’s a very high probability that he cuts the first piece of wood to “show me” how to do it, I play dumb so he cuts the second piece, I still “don’t get it” so he shows me again and again- before we know it the project is half way done, thanks Adam!

After much deliberation and by deliberation I mean hours, literally hours, of looking through the site to find which piece of furniture I want to build first, I’ve found it. Not only have I found it, I think I’ve gotten at least one friend to sign on to build the project with me!

I’ve warned her to not rely on my building skills because it’s going to be a loooong day if we’re relying on my lack of mad skillz. But hey, I figure two clueless heads are better than one though right??

We decided to do a “beginner” starter project: a bench with cubbies.

Don’t get too worked up with anticipation to read how I sawed my left arm when attempting to use a table saw, I think it’ll be at least 2 weeks before the build starts but until then, I will be obsessing over it.

If anyone has hours and hours of time to waste playing online and mentally exhausting yourselves with turning the ideas over and over in your head and convincing yourself “hey I could do that,” you will love this: http://ana-white.com

And if you do love it and want to come build with us, the more the merrier!

I've got nothin'

I know it's been a while since my last post but I'm fresh out of ideas to talk about.

I could tell you about my adventure to some creepy guy's farm to get my raspberry plants where he actually said the words "you just want to pet my goat." Which he didn't mean as a sexual innuendo or a joke at all (he had goats. Really. Goats.) but before I could stop my smartass self, the words "if I had a dollar every time I heard that" came spilling out of my mouth and just hung there in awkward silence.................. he didn't understand my sarcasm and I convince myself that I just gave him an actual invitation to rape and bury me in his garden to be raspberry fertilizer.

Then, after that awkward encounter, I had to step into the entryway of his house where he proceeded to use the bathroom and have to do a DOUBLE flush while I was there. Yep, a double flush.

Or how he kept trying to get me to have a glass of his homemade wine as my polite small talk comes to a screeching halt and we just awkwardly stared at each other until I all but turn and walk out. He proceeds to practically chase me down trying to give me business cards so I can "tell everyone you know about what a great deal the raspberries, strawberries and eggs were!!!"

Or I could tell you about how the actual raspberry plants have about 2 inches of roots when I made Adam build my garden box 30 inches deep.

Or I could tell you about babysitting my niece and nephews and how awesome it was until Adam left the room, I had a sleeping baby in my arms, the remote control for the television was on the floor, as the next tv movie starts and what comes on..... Predator, of course. My 7 year old niece has been doing crafts so I quietly pray Adam returns before anything actually happens in the movie. Then just at the very second of something scary happens she looks up for the first time in like an hour (sorry Annie!!!!!). Luckily when I asked her to bring me the remote she just shrugs and brings me the remote, not commenting or flinching at the fact that she just saw two dead bodies hanging upside down in a jungle.

Otherwise I could tell you about how we finally decided to plan a visit to my in-laws in January and it's been so long since I've booked a plane ticket that I've forgotten how quickly prices can change. So when we find the perfect flight for dirt cheap, I don't buy the tickets for 3 days and when I sit down to buy them, they've gone up $70. A piece.

But really, I've got nothin'

Being distracted by butterflies can be contagious when you're around me

I'm proud to say that I got a jump-start on one of my three goals I told you about! I set a goal and this time, it's actually going to happen!

Through playing on craigslist, I saw that someone was selling raspberry plants for $2.

Yep, 2 bucks.

So I decided that for $4-6 I could totally start my garden of raspberry plants right now!

I share my excitement with my husband who reminds me that he has to BUY the materials to build said garden which will be over $150. Hmph. My $4 garden has now turned into $154.

Not to be discouraged, I set out to craigslist again to find anything free or cheap that would help me cut down the price. Of the necessary materials needed for my garden, the only thing I could find was free dirt. But hey, free is free.

The following day I had the perk of being able to come into work 2 hours later than my normal start time. I had a pesky dentist appointment right away that morning and would have an hour to get my free dirt from northeast Minneapolis.

So I drive the 17 miles to Mpls for my free dirt. I proceed to drive aimlessly around a neighborhood in NE Mpls for 20 minutes trying to find a random parking spot filled with dirt thank you for the free dirt Mr.Craigslist Poster, but screw you for not putting your actual address so I could mapquest myself directly to your free dirt. At this point, I know I'm going to be late for work but I know I'm close, so I refuse to give up.

Thank goodness for technology as I have Navigation on my cellphone and was able to enter a new route (a second landmark they mentioned) to confirm that I was on the right track. After leaving the neighborhood I was driving circles around for 10 minutes, I drive 2 miles down the road to find the CORRECT neighborhood of where I should be.

And there's my beautiful free dirt!! I fill my tupperware containers but I quickly realize I’ve made them too full for me to be able to actually lift the 1000 pound tubs seriously dirt is heavy, so I empty half, lift them into my trunk and then refill them a second time. I'm obviously nothing short of efficient.

Finally I'm on my way bay to work thirty minutes late and more sweaty and dirty than I'd like to admit since I work in a professional office and I show up with actual dirt on my pants.

The next day, Adam comes home with all the building materials and starts to build the box.

As he's starting to build, I change the burnt out lightbulb in the garage. And hey, while I'm on a ladder I decide to add a couple of staples to a low hanging wire for the garage door.

Unfortunately I couldn't reach so Adam abandons the building of the garden box, gets on the ladder and adds the additional staples that I was attempting to add. Hey look Adam, a butterfly!!!

Then I scrub down the new lawn furniture I recently inherited. And need to show Adam how clean I've gotten them. Hey look Adam, a butterfly!!!

A few weeks ago I found where our furnace's air filter goes (yep, that's right, I didn't know where that was until a few weeks ago) and saw that there was a TON of sawdust down there. So now is as good of time as any to vacuum that out. So I breakout the ShopVac and attempt to vacuum that little space out.

Suddenly the ShopVac starts making noise and I'm losing suction power fast so I turn it off to investigate. I empty it out, I shake out the filter but I couldn't find the problem. So Adam stops building and comes to the rescue by removing the hose to find that I sucked up a papertowel. Hey look Adam, a butterfly!!!

A papertowel in the furnace?? What else is down there? Enter MacGyver wanna be Mandy with a flashlight to investiage further.

What else is down there you ask? Not only is there a cigerette butt, more papertowels and piles of sawdust, there's an actual Krispy Kreme bag down there. A Krispy Kreme bag!

They built my house six years ago and for six years there's been a frickin' Krispy Kreme bag in my furnace!

I'm outraged.

I need to get that bag out of there right now! Adam tries to reason with me that it's been down there for SIX years not causing any problems, it's just fine.

Oh no. That's not fine with me. I need to get in there and remove it. Pronto.

Unfortunately for Adam that's not as easy to get the bag as I hoped it'd be. He has to move all the boxes and boxes of Christmas decorations and actually dismantle part of the duct for me to get access to the bag. So he dismantles away. Hey look Adam, a butterfly!!!

After I get the bag and he gets the furnace put back together, I find a waterbottle for my bike that needs to be attached. So Adam finds me the right tools hey look Adam, a butterfly!!! and I attach my waterbottle all by myself after installing it upside down the first time.

And of course, I want to ride my bike now that I have this newly installed water bottle on it, even though it's completely dark outside.

I make it half way around the block and stop under the street light because something wasn't right. I see my tires are exteremely low so I walk my bike back.
Adam's surprised to see me return 30 seconds after I left so he asked what's up. I sadly tell him about my flat tire where he proceeds to take my bike over to his air compressor and fill both tires. Hey look Adam, a butterfly!!!

It's getting late now and Adam's losing steam. We decide to call it a night.

The next morning, I'm out of garage projects so Adam goes down alone and resumes building while I stay inside. He calls me out an hour later and he's made a ton of progress!

....I wonder why he's made so much more progress when I'm not down there??

I made a pact with myself to only help him this afternoon- no more butterflies. Instead, I actually help now that all the table saw and miter saw work is done. After a day and a half of building my garden box, despite all my distractions, it's officially ready!! Can't it be Memorial Day weekend so I can plant stuff already??