i remember mike asking me a couple of months ago if i had any home improvement projects to do and flippantly replying that “it’s brand new, what would i have to work on.” turns out it wasn’t more than a week or two before i was finding all kinds of things to perfect or update.

taka and i watch quite a bit of hgtv so we’re always finding new things to do. one thing that she had disliked about our place since we bought it was the builder-grade (hgtv term) guest bathroom mirror and light fixture. the mirror was just a standard mirror screwed to the wall with those plastic clips on the edges to hold it on. the light fixture was even more generic (which when we were at home depot looking for a replacement found was only $13, ugh).

The light fixture was very simple to replace and alone made a big difference. Framing the mirror to give it a custom look was a bit more involved but only took a few hours and only cost about $25. We measured out the edges of the mirror and bought the correct length of pre-primered MDF trim for about $20. Using a miter box i cut clean 45 degree angles and used liquid nails adhesive to simplly glue the trim onto the mirror. making perfectly square cuts and fitments require lots of measuring and leveling so if you try this yourself, take your time. after assembled and glued we painted it with the same trim color as the rest of the bathroom to bring it all together.

before:

after:

since i don’t have nearly enough bikes already, i decided to build up a new mountain bike. it’s really a return to my roots, as it used to be my passion before i ever sat on a road bike. i never really had any high-end gear when i was younger, but back then it didn’t seem to matter much.

and now that i’ve got the road bikes pretty much covered (i have 3 of them sitting in my front room!), i bought a haro v4 frame, and am gonna build up a relatively light and strong cross-country mountain bike. i’m probably going to go all shimano lx components since i don’t want this to be too expensive, and i have lots of random parts from old bikes that i’ll probably set this up with. stay tuned for the build.

not much has been going on lately, especially during the weeks with these 9 hour workdays and all the exercise. the more i exercise though, the less i seem to need to sleep. this week, i’ve been going to bed at around 11p and waking up before 6a and do a run around the colorado lagoon and down to marine stadium before work. after work i usually go straight to the gym and don’t end up at home until after 8pm.

since taka’s leaving in a few weeks and i don’t need / want to pay for a 2 bedroom apartment while she’s gone, i’m moving to a single unit in the same complex this weekend. i was thinking of moving closer to the office to save on gas and whatnot, but dave wisely pointed out that summer is here and it’d be a bad time to move far from the boat. last year we even started going after work, so i’m taking his advice and staying here for now. when taka moves back in 6 months, we’ll likely move up to the southbay since we’ll both be working there and likely with different schedules so carpooling wouldn’t be feasible.

american idol was pretty boring last night, and i fear that blake might get voted off tonight. this season of 24 is one of the lamest in my opinion, and should’ve just ended at the episode where jack killed abu fayed. hereos is awesome, and i’m really looking forward to next season of lost since they’ve committed to ending it in the next 51 episodes. now that they have a distinct end date, they won’t waste any time with filler side-stories. i’m also watching survivor again this year… i really hope yau-man wins it.

I finished reading “airframe” by michael crichton, which is a suspense/thriller about a defense contractor in the southbay named “norton aerospace” it’s funny, because they mention all the other companies like boeing and lockheed by their real name, so it’s easy to tell the company they’re talking about. kekeke

all the parts for my new road bike should be coming in the week and i might even have it put together this weekend. i’m building up a 54cm giant tcr aero, which should be a better size for me, and should be 1.5lbs lighter than my current road bike (2.5lbs once i get my new wheels) which i’m giving to taka. to break in the new bike, eric and i are talking about doing an irvine to san diego ride later next month.

on my drive in this morning, kroq played that “los angeles is burning song”, and it’s funny, ’cause right now los angeles *is* burning. yesterday i could see the fire from my director’s office when it was small, but today it’s just a hazy mess… i can’t even see downtown.

the snowboard that mike gave taka is almost complete. just have to clean and mount the bindings and she’ll be good to go.

just to remind you how it started off as:

mike and i were talking a couple of weeks ago about the coming snowboarding season and i was telling him how i need to get taka outfitted with some gear. he remembered that his fat ex-roomate had a snowboard that she never used, so he slept with her (or maybe he just had dinner with her, i keep forgetting) to ask if he could have it. since she was too fat to use it, she gave it to him and then he gave it to taka.

the board was a bit beat up, but the bindings were great and the board, other than superficially being ugly was in sound shape. today i decided to get to work on it. my ultimate plan is for a light pink color with embedded white flowers in the front. but first i needed to get rid of that awful red color and get down to the fiberglass before i start.

here’s the board as it started off:

i used aircraft stripper to melt off the old paint (turns out it was a repaint, which i had suspected since it looked so ugly). it’s crazy how this stuff works, you spray it on and the paint just melts off. it also has a huge warning that states: “this product contains methylene chloride which causes cancer” :) after working with it for a bit, i got down to the original graphics… ugly:

once i cleaned up all the goop, i started sanding with a 120# then up to a 220# and then a 400# before i shot my first 2 coats of sandable primer:

to be continued…