Un peu de ci, un peu de cela*

 So, a bit of good news this past week.  Mrs J has completed her last Chemo infusion in a series of 1 a month for the last 4, oops I stand corrected, 6 months.  As part of that procedure, the medicos draw blood and do a few tests on it.  One of those is to count the number of cancer cells in it.  So in addition to her last infusion, which knocks her on her butt for a day or two afterword, she's had 4 in a row with that number going down.  As I said, good news.  She has three weeks of Chemo pill taking which she tolerates pretty well, a week off then 5 weeks of being zapped with radiation.  

My two miracle ladies, the one on the left, Miss B, - 6 months in NICU, the one on the right, Mrs J,- 6 months of Chemo.  Both are doing well.  Thank You, Lord!

 Again, I thank all y'all saying prayers for her, they're obviously working.

As some of you might remember, a few weeks ago, I had an exciting experience in my wood shop.  I had seen a youtube video about "Inside Out" wood turning and thought I'd give it a try.  

 Those two pieces, a couple of minutes before this picture was taken, was one piece. They split in half and went sailing across the shop.  Fortunately, they missed me.  I resolved I would learn a bit more about how to do this before trying again.

This one turned out much better.  Still made a couple of procedural mistakes, but it'll be hanging from our tree this Christmas.  More, and better, to follow.

Also wood shop related, Mrs. J has gently persuaded me to undergo a project for our oldest granddaughter.  MG is about 2 and 1/2 and has taken to playing with dolls.  Mrs. J told me she thought MG needed a doll house.  I was a bit reticent until she presented her plan.  We are on the mailing list of Wall Street Journal Wines (I have no idea if they're a subset of WSJ, but they do have pretty good wine offerings) and last Christmas bought a sampling of wines.  It came packaged in a Christmas themed box shaped like a house..

So my task is to modify it into a doll house, sturdy enough to withstand a 2+YO girl.

Structures are going in, it will be two stories with an "Attic" for storage of stuff not being played with at any given time.  We'll see how it turns out.

We also solved a different problem.  As our regular readers are aware, Mrs J and I inherited my Sister's 3 Dogs on her passing, a Golden Retriever and 2 Great Pyrenees.  Yes, Beans, they are very LARGE dogs.  With our blind Transylvanian Wolf Hound, our very old Dachsund and a cranky Chihuahua, the GP's became outside dogs.  However, our original outside fencing had a major problem.  The driveway gate could be pushed open.  The GP's very quickly learned this and "The Great Escape" became a reality.  

The solution originally was to put a chain around the gate and the fence post.  That worked fine, but it's less than fun to try and open a metal chain when it's raining or cold or if the GP's are standing there in their sprinter starting block waiting for the thing to open.  Tolerated it for about 6 months and finally said enough.

I called a fencing dude.  

 

Source

(No Beans, Epee's were not involved.)

He showed up, on time, which given the construction going on around here was not expected, but deeply appreciated.  I explained what I wanted.  He said he'd put together a quote and get back to me.  He did, the next day, and after looking at the quote and discussing it with my financial officer (You Guys know who I'm talking about) told him OK.  He asked if starting the next day would be feasible.  

"Why, as a matter of fact it is!" said I.

The gate is the original, the addition is along either side of the driveway.  On the right side, you can see the two GP's looking forlorn.  Instead of 40 acres to roam in, they're confined to a little less than two.  Poor Dogs!   Bwahhh-Ha-Ha, I say as I twist my mustache.  It's so much easier to get in and out I should have done it long ago.

Finally, Mrs. J and I are sitting out front last evening when my phone dings.  It's MBD and she's sent me a photo.  I had given her a box of family photos and told her to take any she wanted.  She had sent the photo to get the back story.

Well...This was taken on my 12th Birthday.  My folks had given me a pair of binoculars as a present.  Our house was one of the original base housing when Webb AFB was built for WWII.  It wasn't very nice when we lived in it and isn't any better now.  (448 Armstrong St, Big Spring TX if you want to google earth it and take a look at it now.)

But you could see the runways and flight line from the top of the fence.  It was even better with binoculars.  Yes, I knew what I wanted to do when I "grew up", so I spent a lot of time there watching those flying thingies.

The picture brought back a lot of memories. Not the least of which is "Wish I was that thin and had that much hair again."

Peace out, y'all!

 * The Chant's French Professor, a couple of weeks ago, taught me that phrase translates to "a little of this, a little of that".  Thanks, Sarge!