winkgirl4's Diaryland Diary
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Well Laid Plans
What can I say about this weekend? Well, it�s over and that�s a good thing. It�s sad that it�s actually gotten to a point where I just can�t wait for the weekend to end. This shouldn�t be true at ANY stage in your life, should it?
On Friday afternoon I had two goals for the weekend: catch up on much needed sleep and build a ten-seat poker table. Justin was due to spend the night at his friend�s house on Friday, I made arrangements for Raymond to bring Jordan on Saturday and it looked as though I might be able to get that whole sleeping thing out of the way by Friday night.
WRONG
Justin ended up NOT spending the night at his friend�s house and I spent an unnecessarily long amount of time discussing with Raymond how my actions weren�t intended as a slight towards anyone. I wasn�t trying to keep from giving anyone attention; I didn�t have any secret trist planned, that I was choosing over both he and my daughter. I just thought it might be a nice opportunity to sleep. I�d be rested and fully able to provide said attention first thing Saturday morning, had I just been given these few hours of reprieve. I did, finally, get to sleep- which was dotted with a modge-podge of disturbing dreams and woke, fairly early, Saturday morning, ready to begin the table.
WRONG
Mike, my co-builder, had to work a little late that morning but he arrived with the last of the materials that we were going to need to get it done by about 1:00. I had already cut the pieces of birch plywood and sanded them down and was ready to mount the first piece of wood to the folding table that we were using as a base. Raymond, Jordan and Jordan�s puppy, Simon arrived.
My next endeavor was to keep Simon from attacking every power tool I tried to use. We stretched the felt. We covered the rail in vinyl and we mounted the rail to the table. After mounting the rail (at 8:30 pm) we realized that the vinyl wasn�t stretched at tight as it needed to be so we UN-mounted the rail, UN-fastened the vinyl and stretched it as taut as we could. Then we gave up. We wanted to finish but it was now about 9:15 and I was growing both cold and tired and the more we tried to do in the limited light, the more mistakes we ended up making. So we decided that if we began work on it at 12:00 noon on Sunday � giving us some time to sleep in, again- that we should be finished by 4:00.
WRONG
Sunday rolled around and, after a VERY LONG NIGHT of arguing with both Raymond and Shannon, I got (maybe) 3 hours of sleep. But I rose and was ready to begin work on the table. Mike was a bit delayed but when he finally came over we decided to make our quick trip to Lowe�s to purchase the additional staples that we were going to need and more spray adhesive. We obtained our needed items, along with that new lamp cord I needed to rewire the dining room lamp. Next it was on to Wal Mart because it was just next door and there were things we needed there, too. Well, then we were hungry and Mike is diabetic and he hadn�t eaten, yet, so we stopped to eat. By the time we got back to the house and was ready to, again, begin work on the poker table, it was 4:00 (Yes, boys and girls, the time we had intended to be completing the project.) Things went rather smoothly- well, they did once we hauled a heater out to the garage and regained feeling in our fingers, again. By around 8:00 we had the padding for the rail secure and the vinyl pulled taut (all of the appropriate creases in all the right places) and wha-la!!! It was done!!! 
We were tired but proud. It turned out nice (I think) despite some minor glitches that we hope to work out the next time we build one. But, now it�s Monday and I�m excited about playing on it but I�d really just like to go home and sleep.
11:59 a.m. - October 24, 2005
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