Patience.

After my whirlwind trip to DC (more to come, hopefully), I thought I'd have enough motivation to, you know, get things done around the house. I wanted to weed all the flower beds, which turned into weed all the flower beds? Instead, we slept until 8:30, went to breakfast at the diner, and did some laundry. Not quite the productive day I'd planned, but it did get a little better.

Back in March, we'd bought an antique metal ballot box to hold my knitting projects. It's big: 18" by 18" by 18". It looked awkward in the spot I'd envisioned it would go, so I just shoved it into an unused corner in the dining room. At some point, I decided maybe it would be better if it were on some sort of stand, so that it wasn't so short and squat. Because really, I don't want my decor to resemble me.

So I mentioned to M. that I'd like for him to build a stand. Since he tweaked his back last week, I never expected the following exchange to take place:
M. Since I can't do much, do you want to learn how to build it?
Me: Wait, you'll teach me how to use power tools?
M: Yes. I promise to be patient.
Me: Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

But despite my misgivings, we built something together. I measured everything twice. And when I got confused, he was as patient as could be in explaining it. So that's how I learned to use a table saw, a screw gun, and a finish nailer.

I did chicken out and let him cut the miters with the skilsaw.

Once we finished, I left him outside to clean up. I'm kind like that. I carried the hulking stand inside and gingerly placed the box into the top of it. And the sonuvagun didn't fit. I was hella worried that I'd mismeasured, but then I noticed the back of the box was bowed out. A quick flexing of metal and it popped right in.

Please excuse the terrible photo, the camera is MIA.

As an extra benefit, the cats now have a new escape from the dog.