Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

I made Nefarious a little boat for the bathtub that loosely resembles the bigger project. Here it is prior to finishing (ie. sanding and painting). I might still add a rubber band engine to it. We also picked up an oar, life jackets, and miscellaneous supplies so we can do a test of the real boat this weekend, and I also started working on the roof rack for the truck to carry it today.

I’ve spent the last four days or so — however long since the last time I posted — offline, since my laptop finally died after so many years of great service. I was pleasantly shocked by how cheap desktops are and picked up a quad-core machine with a big upgrade of memory and drivespace and it cost me a fraction of any computer I’ve owned in the past.

Quickly going over the last few days, first of all, my boat is doing great… although my fiberglass work is attrocious, it is still fitting together. I’ve learned a lot with this project, and already have my next boat all designed in my head. If I do that, I’ll put together a nice set of plans and instructions that address some of the difficulties I’ve had on this one, and hopefully will produce something that’s an ideal project for a first time boat builder.

The boat has since been moved outside (hope it doesn’t rain) to keep the stench of the fiberglass — which sadly I have gotten in my hair — outside. I’m not sure how much more fiberglass I’m going to do on it — I think I may sand it down next and paint it and see where I’m at in terms of waterproofness. The paint job (and you can see my plan in the pictures in rough pencil) is going to be inspired by fifities hot rods… I also need to build a roof rack for it so I can take it down to the lake on the top of the truck.

When I picked up Nefarious at the airport on Sunday — her plane was an hour late so I had plenty of time to stare at people — I was amused at the many (exclusively Asian) people who were dressed up in SARS-style face masks. Somehow I doubt that pig flu can be defeated in this way… not that I think there’s a whole lot of pig flu in the air. I was thinking about starting a new blog — to join my army of unattented projects I suppose — called “plague a day” in which every day I’d post a story of past pestilence (every one worse than pig flu of course) to put life into context.

If you read Caitlin’s blog, you already know about our good ol’ days fireworks party (it’s funny because I think the last time that I launched so many fireworks was at this same location, at a BMEfest years back) and our new diminutive garden (with a wonderful little gnome)… And speaking of BME, check out the great quilt she’s making (taking over a project started ages ago) from many of my old t-shirt designs.

And at High Park I saw this grody cat fish. Grody enough to keep from posting the picture at full size… The water is so terrible I can’t imagine how toxic its flesh is. It was quite active and alive, but its behavior seemed “off” so I’m not sure if it’s got long to live.

Other than that, I spent today at the hospital… Outside of dealing with the neuropathic issues, they’re trying to figure out why I have elevated CK levels. I don’t think I was bitten by a poisonous snake, nor do I think I have muscular dystrophy (fingers crossed), so it’s still a mystery. Anyway, it’s going to take me a few days still to get this computer properly set up.

I may have a couple of very large and ready-to-fester blisters on my hands, but my little speedboat is starting to look more like, well, a boat! My woodworking precision leave a lot to be desired, but it’s certainly coming together. I’ll finish the assembly in the morning, because tonight I’m going to take this rare free evening to go out and see Star Trek with Caitlin.