This weekend I was supposed to shuttle kids around (especially Tatiana's big Twilight outing), bus tables for a fundraiser, build a new ladder for Kayla's bed, replace the new hot wire on my EV (I haven't told you about that one yet, I think), and celebrate my father's and my birthdays at my parents' house.

Four outta five ain't bad.

I built Kayla's new ladder entirely from 2x4 pine. I got to buy a random-orbit sander to finish it. I was going to leave it naked, but Eri insisted on staining it. The stain we chose was much lighter than the container implied; it almost looks like it wasn't stained at all.

Melissa, Kayla, and I built the ladder while Eri took Tatiana and her friends to Twilight. Kayla was delighted to use the power drill to remove screws. She lost control of it, but the scratch didn't even draw blood. I only let her use it because I figured she would lose control an learn a lesson in the process.

We finished staining it just before the fundraiser (which went quite well, incidentally). The next day I drilled all the holes and screwed everything together. It's strong. Not exactly square, but very strong. Next time I'll do more math and more measuring; everything will come out straight.

I didn't feel like getting all sweaty just before celebrating my birthday, so I skipped replacing the hot wire. The birthday was fantastic: we had spinach soup, with blackberry cobbler for dessert. Dad liked our present, a solar device charger. I got a wonderful yoga mat from my sister, which will come in handy with my Wii Fit workout. And my parents gave me $100. In dollar bills. Inserted into the pages of a Ray Bradbury book! It was fantastic! I wondered why the book wouldn't close properly, and when I turned it over (expecting a card to fall out), money started dropping out!

All in all, a good weekend. Both productive and fun!