Entry 14.4.06

SATURDAY - (Star Wars section) I did a quick clean up today just to make the studio a bit more foot traffic friendly for when my friends come over. I have to admit to a bit of excitement as I was able to remove a great deal from the floor. It's nowhere near being finished since there's still enough clutter about to choke a herd of elephants, but I can now more closely envision what this place is going to look like once everything has found its spot on a shelf. WOO-HOO!!!

MONDAY - (Star Wars section) I rearranged the action figure shelves to open up more space for other items. For some reason, Mondays are always hardest for me to get motivated. I don't know if it's because I'm coming off the weekend or, when I was actively working on my own projects and those for clients, I designated Monday as a writing day which would, in turn, inspire me to work in other disciplines during the rest of the week. I got just a bit more done than expected because I also placed a few vehicles and alien monsters in among the figures which means fewer items to find space for on the other shelves.

TUESDAY - (Star Wars section) I've hit another snag. Last night, my wife came up to take a look at my progress. She's diggin' how it looks so far and I filled her in on my plan to stack some 2' deep shelves today. Her concern was that everything underneath those shelves might not be easily visible. I had thought about that before buying them and thought it was something I could live with, but hearing someone else say it somehow made more sense. As I looked over my inventory of empty shelves last night, I saw a 15" deep one that could easily take the place of a 2 footer. When I tried to use it today, I found it was too short. Looks like I'm going to Lowe's early tomorrow! Not letting that deter me, I worked with what I had and have now filled two 1' shelves with stuff that hadn't been displayed before. It's exciting to see the number of yet to be displayed Star Wars stuff dwindling. The 2' shelves won't go to waste since they're going to make excellent bottom shelves for other displays.

WEDNESDAY - (Star Wars section) To wildly misquote Darth Vader, "Phase 1 of the Star Wars section is now complete!" WOO-HOO!!! I went to Lowe's earlier this morning and picked up that 15" deep shelf I needed; it did the trick. A couple of friends stopped by at around noon and I went right back to work when they left. Everything that came out of a box is now up. I still have Legos to build, but my game / project table is currently a staging area for items that still need to be shelved. It'll be empty when I reach Phase 2, so I'll have a place to build my Legos. I think I have a clue as to how a director feels when he's close to blowing his movie's budget. The Star Wars stuff has taken up more shelf space than anticipated and I'm finding available space disappearing ... fast! It's amazing how constantly keeping one's fingers crossed slows down the display process. I may give my brain a rest from decor tomorrow. If it's as beautiful a day as today, I may cut some shelves outside. I'll also be stacking and taking a picture of the boxes for the next section - Sci-fi. Tonight I'll be helping my brother in-law and mentor pick up and carry some Ikea furniture. He'll be stopping by since he's seen the studio empty. Tomorrow afternoon I'll be dropping my mom in-law off at the train station. Wednesdays are supposed to be laundry day, but I've been sorely remiss in my duties for the past few weeks so, instead of waiting for Friday or the weekend, I'll use the time off to do the laundry tomorrow.

THURSDAY - Last night's Ikea run went off without a hitch. My bro in-law knew exactly what he wanted and they were all self-service items, so before you could say, "Drömmïngëjërkërbjörksücksën", we were done and on our way. What I still can't seem to get over is how well my wife and I know Ikea's layout. I mean, it's not a big surprise since we've been there enough, but I remember a time not too long ago when we got lost and had to call in the marines! We're lucky they came before we had to eat each other! I dropped my mother in-law off at the train station this afternoon without incident. Most of the laundry got done today since I keep forgetting the clothes in the cool new hamper a friend handed over to us. I've done nothing in the studio. Instead, while I was taking care of household chores, I also watched a couple of my Netflix movies - disc 3 of Make Your Own Damn Movie! and Scarlet Moon. When Sue got home, we went out to dinner at the Rainforest Cafe and I picked up Lloyd Kaufman's second book, Make Your Own Damn Movie!

FRIDAY - (Sci-fi section) I didn't do much in the studio today except stack the boxes that contain my sci-fi toys. About four boxes didn't make the stack since I didn't have to sift through shredded paper (used as packing material) to dig out the one or two sci-fi items they each carried. I was hoping to cut some shelves today, but the weather was wet and dismal. I hope I can cut at least three 8' shelves in half over the next couple of days or else I won't be able to display anything. My wife stayed home today to try and get some work done. Our cable modem started crapping out on us since it was old; we visited the nearest Comcast office to swap it out. It's been working like a champ! No more jiggling the power cord to get it work! Now, I'm off to finish up a few more household chores.