Christmas is for spending hours on your knees

9:43 pm
We begin with a dedicated workspace in the Large Project Area, or "living room." Soothing colors and the very latest in ergonomic lighting.

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11:18 pm
First mat is cut from the large board and window positions are pencilled in. Being a lazy bastard, I printed the layout from the office laser and am using that to make my guide marks, eliminating much tedious measuring (mocking the ruler that's sitting right there, it only gets used as a straight edge tonight).

Mistake #1: Working on the back of the mat, I nonetheless lay out the window positions as if viewed from the front. Laziness kicks in with a debate whether to just flip the final picture positions. A visit to the computer to see how it would look (answer: like crap) results in all the vertical lines being erased and redone correctly.

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12:23 am
First mat finished and manages not to get trashed, even with much fondling.

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12:42 am
For some reason, a picture of the fireplace mantle. Playing with the macro, I think.

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1:51 am
Second mat finished. Doing this as a double mat seemed a really good idea a month ago.

Mistake #2: After making my second cut in the new board, I become convinced that one or both of the cuts have been done backwards (so the cut edge doesn't face the front of the frame). Five minutes are spent poking, prodding and figuring out a way to avoid prepping another board before I realize that both cuts are just fine. The remainder of the cuts take place without incident. I look forward to hearing voices in my head next.

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2:32 am
Pictures all trimmed and taped to the bottom mat.

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2:34 am
...and how everything stacks up. This is for my nephew, who went to his first Packers football game last month. Fortunately for his future childhood memories, it was the game against the Rams, and not the following week's slaughter at the hands of Philadelphia.

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3:05 am
...aaaaand in the frame. The other one is for my parents. I scanned and did a bit of salvage work on some antique negatives my mom got recently of her childhood on a farm. That frame came with a thin, pre-cut mat, so Lazy Boy here didn't have to do another one.

Mistake #3: In clamping down and tightening corners on the big frame, I forget I'm sliding the surface near the edge of a hard object and put an 1/8" burr mark low and center of the plastic face. Being 2:30 in the morning, this bothers me less than it normally would. I was going to recommend my brother replace the cheap plastic with a non-glare glass anyway. He's handy like that.



Now would be the time to pack it in, but the family Christmas get-together happens this weekend and I've got wrapping to do.

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6:36 am
Cat.

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7:48 am
Wrapping's done. Why do so many kid's toys (and some adult's) have these gaping huge holes and odd edges that need to be covered before you can wrap them? I goes through more corrugated sheet around the holidays, I tells ya...

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11:06 am
I bring cereal, milk and orange juice in to the office.



I like orange juice!

Next, a road trip this afternoon for a four-day weekend with the fam. A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!