Oh yes, it's Monday all right. I actually managed to get out of the house on time this morning and rewarded myself by driving through Starbucks for a Grande Decaf Vanilla Mocha... The Starbucks lady handed me my coffee, I leaned over to put it in the cup holder between the seats... and the top popped off, splashing hot chocolatey coffee all over my right arm including my cute sweater, all over my right leg and my favorite jeans, all over the stick shift, even a few splashes on my cute new white strappy v-neck top. My hands were sticky, the steering wheel was sticky, the stick shift and the parking brake were sticky... I turned around and went home, dropped my entire outfit in the washer, and changed clothes before heading back to work. What a great start to my week. At least I didn't lose more than 1/4 of the coffee.
Actually the <sarcasm>great start</sarcasm> to my week (and Hubby's) would probably have been last night, when Hubby and I were putting together our new computer desk. Studio RTA makes some of the better-quality "put it together yourself" computer desks we've run across, and as such they are more difficult to put together than the flimsier furniture we've done. This particular desk involves a lot of screws, and the predrilled holes are quite a bit smaller than the screws so they are not the easiest to turn. Hubby and I couldn't find his socket set, which would have helped somewhat with the ratchet action... the next brilliant idea was our battery-powered screwdriver, but that had been off the charger since our electrical problems started in October because when it is charging the end of the screwdriver extends into the way of the breaker panel door, and we were opening it quite a lot last fall. So it was completely uncharged. My next epiphany was that my mom had brought me a battery powered drill about 3 years ago, and the batteries on that sucker had been charging in our kitchen for the last 3 years. I searched our spare bedroom and found nothing (well, actually I found quite a few things I forgot we owned - wedding presents, the entire "Hitchhhikers Guide to the Galaxy" book series, and Christmas stocking items from 2 years ago... I have got to spend a weekend clearing out that room). I finally found it - and some screwdriver bits for it - in the garage, but I guess having the batteries on the charger for 3 solid years was too much, because it didn't work. No more bright ideas here.
We worked together to get the base assembled with the non-powered screwdrivers we had, and that ended up fine. We turned the base over and got the back and support poles attached with the allen bolts and allen wrench (I hate allen wrenches by the way, they really start to hurt the fingers after 2 or 3 bolts). The problem occurred when trying to install the upper shelves. We were soooo close to done I could taste it - it was approaching 11 PM by that point, but the desk was looking good and we'd both had a 3+ hour nap that afternoon, so we both still had the energy to finish it. Until the stupidity. The upper shelves were supposed to attach to the back with two shorter allen bolts, and to the support poles with two longer allen bolts. We got the shorter ones in just fine, but I started on one of the longer bolts and just wasn't getting anywhere. It would get to a certain point and no farther. Hubby tried his, and had the same problem. We took a close look at the other shelf and decided that the problem may be the cams that were inserted in the path of the bolt, but then the cams appeared to contain the threading that the allen bolts were supposed to screw into, so they had to be there. I tried again on my side of the desk, and with a lot of work I managed to get mine in place. Hubby tried his again. And again. And again. No luck. He finally got frustrated enough to let me try, and I tried for at least 15 minutes before giving up. I even tried adjusting the position of the cam on that side, in case it wasn't lined up right to grab the threads on the allen bolt. No such luck.
Finally I gave up and suggested we take the shelf down and see if there was something wrong with it, maybe we could get Studio RTA to send us a replacement shelf. When Hubby got it down, I adjusted the cam position again slightly and managed to get the bolt screwed in farther than it had while the shelf was up, so I think MAYBE we can get it to work next time. But I wasn't about to try it again last night, it was well after 11 PM by that point, approaching midnight, and my thumbs (and Hubby's too) were nearly raw from messing with the allen wrench for the past hour. They're still sore, now that I mention it.
Anyway, the desk is nearly together, and it's going to be very attractive. Katie-cat has claimed the bottom shelf (where the computer tower is supposed to sit) as her new lounging spot. The drama with the desk (and other weekend whatnot) took away from the time we'd planned to finish the new site design and other blogging (we now have 3 restaurant reviews to write up, and I've still got a few other posts rattling around in my head).
More later, sports fans.
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