Fun Fact Friday - Paint Your (Band)Wagon

Wednesday, when I devised a fiendish plan for wealth and world domination, my friend Sarah (buy her book on March 19th!) indicated she would like onto my bandwagon. Sure, the bandwagon needs fundage to grease the wheels, get the wagon rolling, so to speak. But really, just what is a bandwagon, anyway? And why should we be jumping onto it so willy nilly?

The term originated in the mid-1800's right here in the good old US of A, when politicians would announce their arrival into town for the campaign season by riding atop a circus wagon populated by a loud, (and probably out-of-tune) brass band. To show their support of said politician, lookers-on would run into the road and climb aboard the wagon. I envision this looking much like the busses and trains in third-world countries, where buying a ticket doesn't necessarily guarantee you a seat inside.

Using a circus wagon over a century ago as our nation was expanding and really coming to fruition, is it any wonder that the term 'political circus' has remained in vogue? And sure, the classic circus featured a band, but certainly not as prominently as some other three-ring denizens...

Coincidence? I think not.

Am I blue? Am I blue?

Ain't these tears in my eyes tellin' you?

I love food science. And I love beautifully spicy Indian food. And last evening, while throwing together some basic sustenance, I happened upon a beautiful thing.

When we order from the Indian restaurant up the road, I am drawn to the tandoori selection, the glory of high heat cooking at its finest. One of the items I've had repeatedly is a tangy, turquoise-blue chicken, and I couldn't quite figure that one out.

Until last night.

I have some spicy cilantro chutney that I added to my smoky, citrus and culantro chicken (yes, culantro, not cilantro...), and it turned the red-orange chicken a glorious teal color. The possibilities are now endless.

Plus, it gives me another reason to take on that project I've been itching to start for a few years. Because I'm nerdy that way.

When Darwins, we all win.

They've been doing some work on our office, building walls, tearing walls down, moving the buckets around for the new leaks in the roof, the usual. By they, I refer to Frick and Frack, and while the quality of their finished work is generally impressive, sometimes I must question their means.

I don't have a camera phone, so you'll have to bear with me. One of the walls they removed contained several electrical boxes and outlets. The conduit to these boxes is firmly and permanently ensconced in concrete. However, since they need to come out, our fearless crew is using a sawsall.

Plugged into one of the outlets they're cutting out.

On the up-side, if they fry the building electricals, I can go work from home for the rest of the day.

I am the king of bad ideas

And it's good to be the king.

Thankfully, I am not the king of followthrough.

The first car I ever lusted after was a '69 Cutlass. I actually had my first crush in Kindergarten on a girl named Tina because her mother dropped her off at school every day in that Cutlass, and my five-year-old brain was capable of discerning that if Tina were my girlfriend, her mother would most certainly drive me places in that car. There was also a yellow '70 Rallye 350 that rumbled through the alley behind our house every day, and I was smitten with the body style. My father drove Oldsmobiles for the first 11 years of my life, so I had plenty of time at the dealership to see more and more of these rockets on wheels.

Now, as my readers know, I already have a project sitting at home in the way of a two-ton Steelcase desk. This does not mean I can't want another project, one that is nearly attainable. Like the desk, I have discovered another nearly-attainable Craigslist find: a 69 Cutlass that is just begging me to bring her home.

On a trailer.

But I can see the potential. Can't you?

And that potential is lucky I don't have $600 burning a hole in my pocket.

The DL on the CL

I've always viewed Craigslist with a bit of a skeptical eye. Though I'm a hardline moderate, things like Craigslist and Birkinstocks make me feel like a radical right-wing conservative. (For that matter, I'm not even going to look up how to spell Birkinstock, for fear it shows up in my browsing history.)

However, we did manage to part with a few overbearing, out-of-style, unused pieces of furniture, and replace them with more stylish pieces for a good deal less than retail. Oh, and Lori got her half-manniquin there. And we've met some nice people as they collect our cast-offs, or we collect theirs.

The winning argument for the greatness of Craigslist came a few weeks ago, when I found my dream desk - an old-school Steelcase. $50 seemed a bargain, since once refurbished, these desks sell for closer to $1500, and I'll keep sitting at the kitchen table for that much money. Sadly, even at $50, I have better things to spend my money on, like that urgent-care visit and the industrial-grade antibiotics for my week-long fever that seemed to kick in about the same time as the desk turned up, so I just figured that the time wasn't right and moved on.

Sunday, I got email from the seller telling me that if I wanted the desk, it was mine. Nobody had claimed it, and she needed the 500-pound monstrosity out of her garage. It's mine! All mine!

Now, it's not pretty, but I was looking for potential, not perfection. There are roller marks in the paint, some of the handles were painted while others were not, and as you can see from behind the chair, not all of the desk was painted.

The red does NOT work with the genuine imitation walnut-grain Formica gracing the top, either.

This does not faze me, since I've been told by my lovely wife that I need a hobby. Desperately. Soon. As in NOW. For my own good and the safety of others.

The goal is far loftier than the above picture suggests to anyone but those with the most discerning eye for diamonds in the rough. The 'after' picture, herein provided by a stunt desk, hints at what I hope to accomplish with my less-than-stellar handyman skills and sketchy follow-through:

Oooh, shiny! I love, too, that my double-sided desk (unlike the single-sided model above) has the deep file drawer on one side, disguised as two single drawers for a remarkable sense of symmetry (like cutting off your other thumb).

The CL truly can rock from time to time. Oh yes, it can.