Bonus Time

My morning business meeting has been postponed and it is a good time to catch up on paperwork and accounting. So I think I'll spend a couple of hours on the Boat Trailer assembly.

Booyah

Jim Cramer says that he is celebrating the recent stock market surge by switching from Johnny Walker Red to Lagavulin 16 year old, single malt scotch.
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I'm impressed.

Mooring is Ready

Went down to the Harbor today to check on my mooring. We are in good shape for a WhaleEye launch this week.
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BTW, A Blackbird visited the feeder yesterday. Just one. It had a black body and a purple head. Maybe it's a sign.
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Right now there is a beautiful red cardinal out there. As pretty as a cardinal is, it's song .... a distinctive, high pitched "chew, chew, chew"... is just as neat.
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I don't know how a Blackbird sounds.

Soprano's Wrap Up

Two more episodes left. I'm thinking that Tony gets whacked.
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How else can the series end?
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I predict that his Shrink knocks him off in self defense when he tries to murder her for knowing too much.

It's All Good

Keep thinking those good thoughts.
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The Law of Attraction guarantees that your ass will get kicked if you don't.
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It's going to be a great week, right?
We're gonna make some money, right?
We're gonna close some business, right?
We're gonna get along and appreciate each other, right?
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Right on.

Some Assembly Required

I finally got a little work done on the trailer.
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If I didn't have a metal grinder and heavy mallet, I would be out of luck. Also, far more mechanical skill is needed than I anticipated. I really didn't expect this to be a project in and of itself.... I naively thought I was buying a boat trailer by mail order and not cartons of steel and bolts.... but it is what it is.
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There are four or five hours easy in this effort, which I had not planned for.

Good Song

Dropkick Murphy's

Finch Alert

So far on the feeder, the usual culprits.... lots of Sparrows, Chickadees, Mourning Doves, Cardinals and Blue Jays. Also some Tufted Tit Mouses (Tit Mice???).
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Although I have seen a few House Finches, they have been rare visitors and the Goldfinches have not made any appearance at all.
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Of Course, the pig squirrels are constant visitors... the guests who wouldn't leave.
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Why the picture of the trailer? Because I wouldn't be sitting on this couch lamenting the lack of finches if it wasn't raining and I could be assembling the trailer. That should have been able to go unsaid.

Stapleless Plywood Clamps

For the new boat, I will use a stapleless clamping method of plywood clamps secured against the frames, with a wedge against the frame and a wedge against the strip. The strips will be persuaded into place by the use of a heat gun with the system.

Nice Dinner

So I have to admit that Three Cod Tavern was pretty good for dinner tonight.... except for the fact that the owner was blatantly hitting on my daughter, Katelyn, right in front of Joanne and I. It would have been funny if it wasn't my daughter.

Stepping Out

Kate dropped by and wants to go to dinner with us.
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We're heading for the Three Cods in Marblehead, which was terrible when Tyler Gill and I had lunch there. But the two Nestor women want to go so I have no say.
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I'm pretty sure that Katelyn is not picking up the check.

Boogie Down

If you haven't tried a Neti Pot, then you can't know the liberating feeling of having your sinuses completely rinsed and drained.
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It's not fair for me to keep this secret to myself.
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All of my Peeps should experience the thrill of mucus free breathing. Your nostrils will thank you for using a Neti Pot.

Pop Culture

What is the popular fascination with the personal lives of people like Joey Butafuco and Anna Nicole Smith? Why does the media focus on people who act on the outskirts of propriety? I suppose it is entertaining to fantasize on the possibility of acting with outrageous abandon, but it gets tiresome to see characters like this constantly on mainstream TV.
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Why can't the focus be on renegade boatbuilders, or wireless telecom contractors, or basement tile layers? I suppose that will never happen, but that would be truly fascinating. I mean, I could get into that.

Unlikely Committment

A rainy Saturday.
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I told Mike that I'd like to have the Tender done for a launch when he comes home next weekend, but I'll need a combination of good weather and lots of time. With Nanepashemet Telecom getting red hot, and meetings scheduled throughout next week, it appears that I shouldn't have opened my mouth. If the WhaleEye is in the water, it won't matter though.
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I'll have to bug Ryan Marine to put the WhaleEye on the Salem Harbor mooring.
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In the meantime, I might as well tile the basement today.

UMASS Club

Had lunch at the UMASS Club today on Franklin Street in Boston with DiMatteo and Elsier. Great views, good food. I'm glad that Ryan told me about it. The only trouble is that those guys now have my club number.

Unimaginable

So I get a series of comments from Lindsey K. asking why she was named a POTW last week.
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Very annoying... even retroactively so.
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Loyal Blogger Peeps know that such information can never be disclosed. It would be like anti-matter ripping a hole in a parallel universe.
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I can't be held responsible.

Logical

Anything too stupid to be said is sung.
- Voltaire

Since I don't sing too well, the Blog will have to suffice.

Week 20 - Peep of the Week

For the first time in a long time, all of the POTW selections are males. Don't make a big thing out of it!! It's just the way it happened. I'm not going to pick a woman just to be politically correct! That would be so un-Nanepashemet-like. Why can't we all just get along????

ANNOUNCING...
NANEPASHEMET PEEPS OF THE WEEK for the 20th Week of 2007

Bill Hillegas
Pat Piscatelli
Steve Lewis
Peter Crawford
Timothy, the Gay French guy at the Paris Whiskey Bar
Tony Blair

Next week I will take care to see if any women meet the criteria, which bears repeating here due to the enthusiasm by which some peeps seem to feel when they are honored/disgraced.

To be a Nanepashemet POTW, one has to meet one or a combination of the following conditions...

• Do something Annoying
• Do something Inspiring
• Not be Dead
• Not be an Animal
• Have given me a bottle of Lagavulin 16 yr old single malt scotch over the past week

The Lagavulin condition is automatic. A side rule is that if you ask to be a POTW, you can never be selected, unless I forget later on.

BTW, I'm starting to run a little low on Lagavulin.

POTW Time

Keep your pants on. We'll be annointing the chosen this evening.

Marblehead Gunning Dory

With the Herreshoff Columbia Yacht Tender coming to a conclusion, I have to get serious about the next project. Even though I was set on a Maine Peabod, I've always liked this dory which was popular in Marblehead at the turn of the last century, and is known as the Chamberlain Marblehead Gunning Dory, as drawn by John Gardner.
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Ryan was saying that my next project should be a boat that can be motorized, and could be used to flyfish in close to the rocks.
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The dory design has a flat bottom and this version has a motor well. I can envision three people in this boat rather comfortably, with a fishing station in the bow and stern and the middle reserved for the "guide" handling the motor.
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I would modify the design by decking the bow and stern to be conducive to flycasting, changing the motor well so that the shaft and propeller could be tilted back up clear of the bottom, and rounding the hard chines so that I could plank the sides with cedar strips.
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The boat is 18' long and has nice lines. Some feel that this is the culmination of the dory line. I've seen this boat at Grace Oliver Beach in Marblehead and at the Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle.
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Bill Hillegas was freaked out that I knew so much of this boat when we were on a business trip in Seattle and saw it on Union Lake, and when I told him that I had a set of plans in my room, I knew that he thought I was bullshitting him. So I went up to the room and brought the plans down to the bar.
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I wish that I had bet him money. He couldn't believe it.
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Maybe this will be the choice.