# Pardon me while I rant



## Cwalker935 (Oct 22, 2016)

I was out of town for work most of this last week.  I returned home last night and my lovely wife mt me at the door and proudly declared that she had cleaned and "organized" my shop.  She gave me a tour of my newly organized shop and due to the fact that I was tired after a day of traveling I did not realize just how bad it was going to be.  Well I am starting to comprehend what I am up against.

First my pen mandrel was no where to be found (it had been deemed be a file and placed in a newly designated file drawer),

My magic skew was somehow associated with my ratchets and sockets,

My screw drivers are now in at least 4 separate places, I am not sure as to the system behind this division.

My finishing supplies are divided across numerous shelves, 

I am missing a Jacobs chuck.  Chucks and mandrels are in numerous places.

She loves to hang up stuff, I hate to hang up stuff, I now have stuff hanging every where with no clue as to why it is placed where it is. 

I have tried to explain in the past that tools need to be organized by function and that she could not properly organize tools without understanding what they were used for.

I am trying to look for my stuff without blowing up.  I am praying for patience.

 I thank that I will organize my wife's kitchen the next time she leaves town.


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## RKB (Oct 22, 2016)

It's a sign of "affection". :biggrin:


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## leehljp (Oct 22, 2016)

I haven't had that problem and I "think" LOML knows better than to mess with my tools. However, her "kitchen" organization reflects your description of your wife. I cook about 30% - 40% of the time and know where everything is. Years ago, I tried to put things together in drawers by "function" but she resists!


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## Cwalker935 (Oct 22, 2016)

RKB said:


> It's a sign of "affection". :biggrin:



I know but some forms of affection are neither wanted nor appreciated. You just got to grin and bear it.


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## ALA (Oct 22, 2016)

Lol. I know how this can be. My wife would do the same thing if she had the chance. Just take it in stride, keep your cool. Eventually, as you work in the shop, every thing will be back in place. :biggrin:


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## Ambidex (Oct 22, 2016)

Man up and tell her she's replaceable if she dares touch your stuff again. Be sure to let us know how that turns out?? And please include the pictures of her reaction?..:biggrin::biggrin:


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## tomtedesco (Oct 22, 2016)

Ambidex said:


> Man up and tell her she's replaceable if she dares touch your stuff again. Be sure to let us know how that turns out?? And please include the pictures of her reaction?..:biggrin::biggrin:



After you wake up.


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## jttheclockman (Oct 22, 2016)

Ask her if she wants to take a road trip. My shop could use a cleaning and I could care less how and where things were put as long as that you could actually walk in there again. 

I read these and lets face it you do not even know where you put your stuff. There is no rhyme or reason where you put things. That is why we spend so much time looking for things when we do need them. You all are kidding yourself and trying to make us believe it. Now go look where you put that set of calipers and try finding them:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:


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## JimB (Oct 22, 2016)

That would drive me nuts. I guess I'm lucky. My wife never goes in my shop when I'm not here. She has on a few occasions helped me clean the shop by using the shop vac or taking the garbage out but she never tries to organize it as she knows she doesn't know what anything is for or where it should go.


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## nativewooder (Oct 22, 2016)

If she keeps your bed warm, your clothes clean, and/or your food cooked, then SHUT UP!!!


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## robutacion (Oct 22, 2016)

Well, I suppose you could let her know how you feel without saying a word and that is to, re-arrange the kitchen for her, there is, if she is the kitchen queen in some houses, that is not the case and it wouldn't work so, change a few things around and let her having to look around for her stuff when she needs it.

You both could then sit down and share the common thoughts about messing out with each other's tools...!:wink::biggrin:

PS: Make sure the dog house is big enough, though.:biggrin:

Cheers
George


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## Charlie_W (Oct 22, 2016)

Cody, What a hoot!!!!  Love It!
We all sit around and have family story time with Cody! :biggrin:


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## TLTHW (Oct 22, 2016)

When I used to travel my wife would organize my night stand and dresser by putting everything in decorative baskets. After a couple of years she started using decorative boxes, I won't worry or fuss untill she pulls out the moving boxes.:biggrin::biggrin:


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## Mrs. Charlie_W (Oct 22, 2016)

Oh Cody what a spot you find yourself in right now. 

First focus on the heart. Your wife's intentions are sweet. This is her way of showing her love to you because she knows your shop is important to you. Thank her for loving you. This sounds like her love language is to "do" something for you.

For right now, take lots of deep breaths and as you use tools put them back in an organized fashion but where they work and function for you. Don't do this in one day Cody. Stay focused on her heart. Think about what you really can put on wall storage that will work. It sounds like your wife likes organization so if you can reorganize with that in mind, you will keep the peace. Eventually you will get your shop back the way you like it but incorporating her need for organizational appearance.

When the time is right you need to explain to her if you were to rearrange the kitchen or her office, or craft room according to how you think it should be, it would be seen by her as chaos and a disaster. Your intentions would be good, again showing your love for her, but she would hate it and need to fix it. 

I think if she could understand this, she would not mind you taking the reigns on your shop. However something bugged her so talk it out and be respectful of each other. That is part of this thing called love. 

By the way I like wall storage too just ask Charlie. Good luck!


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## Curly (Oct 22, 2016)

Marla was the first to turn pens and soon learned where all my tools were stashed. She organized and bought what she needed and it wasn't hard to follow.  So teach her to work with wood and soon when you go near a tool store she will be asking "Do we need anything?".


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## magpens (Oct 22, 2016)

Keep praying, Cody !!!! . It's the only way to survive such an "attack". DAMHIKT


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## wouldentu2? (Oct 22, 2016)

Just be quiet and live with it, or you will know where all the kitchen tools are.


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## Cwalker935 (Oct 22, 2016)

Well I decided to show my wife how much I appreciate her efforts by taking her to the Whskey & Wood Artisan Festival held in Fredericksburg, VA.  Amazing how looking at some fantastic woodworking and a bourbon tasting will calm the savage beast.  I even bought her a bottle of Bowman Brothers Small Batch Virginia Straight Bourbon Whiskey and a barrel stave for pen blanks.  I know how to treat a lady.


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## Dale Lynch (Oct 22, 2016)

You shouldn't get too upset.She tried to suprise you with a nice new shop while you were away.That's sweet of her.

I wish my better half would clean up my shop.Probably find tools I forgot about.


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## Herb G (Oct 22, 2016)

I know exactly how you feel. When I was in the hospital 2 years ago, recovering from cancer surgery, my wife found 2 large boxes of exotic wood bowl blanks I had in the basement. She threw them away.

Now, before you go judging me, I am not a nasty person by nature.
I do not mess with other people's stuff, and certainly not my wife's stuff. I expected her to do the same for me. Especially when I was in the hospital. She got the message.
I didn't get mad, or even yell at her. I calmly told her she needed to replace what she threw out.


She agreed.


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## Skeleton2014 (Oct 22, 2016)

My wife did something like this 25 years ago. I turned it into opportunity.  If I can't find something she's "reorganized" within 2 minutes, I get a new (and more expensive) one. Doesn't happen much in the past few years. But, I think your wife needs to treat you to a new Jacobs chuck, a couple of mandrels, a new skew, etc.  If you find them at a later time, then that's a bonus!
Also, I have a sign in my shop that reads, "Chisels are not to be used as screwdrivers!"  That's from our first year of marriage and I've had several new sets of chisels to replace the chipped ones. 
Jeff


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## stonepecker (Oct 22, 2016)

To all you gentlemen that are having problems with your wives......

Please let the girls know I make 'cheap' tombstones also.
They can pay for them with either tools or woods.  I will deliver the stones and take home those worthless things.


I stay out of her craft room and away from her sewing.  She leaves my hobbies alone.  That has been the way of things here even before we were married.  Our first Christmas together I gave her a new sewing machine and for Valentine's Day she got the matching surger.

Cody, you could always 'organize' her purse.

Keep smiling everyone.


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## Lucky2 (Oct 22, 2016)

The only time my wife is in my workshop, is if I'm in there. We had a talk years ago, after one of her cleaning spells similar to yours. 
Len


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## jamesburger (Oct 22, 2016)

My father takes cooking pretty seriously, and I remember when I was a kid that he was making a soup essence. That basically meant making soup and boiling it down for days to a tiny amount of concentrate. When he finally finished it, he turned off the low simmering stove and walked away to his office, letting the essence cool. My mother came home during that interval, entering the kitchen through the garage, and saw a large, dirty, nearly empty pot on the stove. Being the tidy person she is, she dutifully picked it up, dumped the essence down the drain, scrubbed the pot clean, and put it back in the cabinet.


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## tomas (Oct 22, 2016)

jttheclockman said:


> Ask her if she wants to take a road trip. My shop could use a cleaning and I could care less how and where things were put as long as that you could actually walk in there again.
> 
> I read these and lets face it you do not even know where you put your stuff. There is no rhyme or reason where you put things. That is why we spend so much time looking for things when we do need them. You all are kidding yourself and trying to make us believe it. Now go look where you put that set of calipers and try finding them:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:



Guilty, as charged.
Tomas


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## glenspens (Oct 22, 2016)

Ambidex said:


> Man up and tell her she's replaceable if she dares touch your stuff again. Be sure to let us know how that turns out?? And please include the pictures of her reaction?..:biggrin::biggrin:


 
 And include the picture of all your tools and stuff out in the yard also don't forget to update IAP with the address of your new pad


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## Mrs. Charlie_W (Oct 22, 2016)

Cwalker935 said:


> Well I decided to show my wife how much I appreciate her efforts by taking her to the Whskey & Wood Artisan Festival held in Fredericksburg, VA.  Amazing how looking at some fantastic woodworking and a bourbon tasting will calm the savage beast.  I even bought her a bottle of Bowman Brothers Small Batch Virginia Straight Bourbon Whiskey and a barrel stave for pen blanks.  I know how to treat a lady.
> 
> View attachment 155529



Bowmans is awesome. Caramel cream and their maple syrup are the bomb!


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## PenPal (Oct 23, 2016)

On the occasion of the birth of our second child I did an O&M of the kitchen, pots next to the stove etc when the wife arrived home it was a two week stay in hospital 58 yrs ago. She screamed for ten minutes non stop, insisting I put it al back where it was. I could not remember her to me haphazard system. I have never since alered anything in the cupboards.

When we first married we had our block of land and after a yr moved onto the block, living in a small shed for a supposed 3 mths that turned into twelve months.

My Mums habit was boiling water to wash up, this I did and some of the special Doulton stuff had minor cracks in it gifts from the family so I went to the shed door and disposed of it. I have never been invited to wash up or wipe up now for 61 1/2 yrs.

Takes a while to shake down. I am not complaining.She is the love of my life.

Peter.


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## Sataro (Oct 23, 2016)

I look at this from the standpoint that you must have a clean workshop. My wife will not set foot in my shop. She is afraid that she might break a leg or something from the clutter...


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## Cwalker935 (Oct 23, 2016)

Mrs. Charlie_W said:


> Cwalker935 said:
> 
> 
> > Well I decided to show my wife how much I appreciate her efforts by taking her to the Whskey & Wood Artisan Festival held in Fredericksburg, VA.  Amazing how looking at some fantastic woodworking and a bourbon tasting will calm the savage beast.  I even bought her a bottle of Bowman Brothers Small Batch Virginia Straight Bourbon Whiskey and a barrel stave for pen blanks.  I know how to treat a lady.
> ...



I left the Caramel cream out of my earlier story.  Lida would not leave that place without a bottle after the tasting.  She claimed that she was buying it for me.  In retrospect, I guess that I will have keep the small batch bourbon and the barrel stave for my own use.


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## MTViper (Oct 23, 2016)

My dad was a pipe smoker.  Those who have been around pipes know they must periodically be cleaned by scraping out the bowl and running a pipe cleaner down the stem.  My mother decided she'd help Dad out one day when he was at work so she cleaned all his pipes ... with dish soap and water.  They were married 61 years and she never did that again.


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## TellicoTurning (Oct 23, 2016)

MTViper said:


> My dad was a pipe smoker.  Those who have been around pipes know they must periodically be cleaned by scraping out the bowl and running a pipe cleaner down the stem.  My mother decided she'd help Dad out one day when he was at work so she cleaned all his pipes ... with dish soap and water.  They were married 61 years and she never did that again.



When I was about 4 or 5, my dad was a pipe smoker too... one day I decided to blow soap bubbles, using his pipe.... the soap tasted funny and for some reason Dad gave up the pipe??


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## Rounder (Oct 24, 2016)

Been married 42 years. Early on my wife tried making rules for me. My response was that if a rule is made, it applies to us both. That made a huge difference in the rule making. She knows if she cleans up my stuff, I am going to clean up her stuff. Has worked well for us.


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## Cwalker935 (Oct 24, 2016)

Rounder said:


> Been married 42 years. Early on my wife tried making rules for me. My response was that if a rule is made, it applies to us both. That made a huge difference in the rule making. She knows if she cleans up my stuff, I am going to clean up her stuff. Has worked well for us.


 
Dang wish I had been that wise.


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## ilikewood (Oct 24, 2016)

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones too....and I've only been married to my wife for 1 1/2 years.  She won't touch even the simplest of my things....which kinda sucks too.  That means I have to pick them up or clean them myself.  Heavy sigh.


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## gimpy (Oct 24, 2016)

I told my wife that my tools are organized, meaning that I know where they cause I used them on the last job....and that is where it "should" be.....

Have to give her credit though, she was only trying to help.......


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## Rounder (Oct 24, 2016)

Cwalker935 said:


> Rounder said:
> 
> 
> > Been married 42 years. Early on my wife tried making rules for me. My response was that if a rule is made, it applies to us both. That made a huge difference in the rule making. She knows if she cleans up my stuff, I am going to clean up her stuff. Has worked well for us.
> ...



Probably 2nd most wise thing I have done. First was finding someone that has put up with me for that long. Last Wednesday was 42 years. Dang that is tough saying when only 61.:biggrin:


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## MDWine (Oct 24, 2016)

Sounds like you've worked past your hostilities, you already knew how this would pan out...  sometimes ya just need to vent.

Bowman's was a good call, sounds like she enjoyed it, and sounds like you're holding hands again! ;o)

Wifey stays out of organizing the shop, I stay out of everything else.  Sometimes I come home and find the entire interior different colors and all the furniture rearranged... gotta check the house number to be sure I'm in the right place.


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## MDWine (Oct 24, 2016)

Rounder said:


> . . . . Wednesday was 42 years. Dang that is tough saying when only 61. . . . .


 
December will be 39 years for us, and I hit 61 last week... ya learn things as ya go along!

congrats


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## edicehouse (Oct 24, 2016)

I read all the posts and got some good laughs.  Great thread Cody.  

I don't think he was actually mad for his wife doing that.  I think we have all been there, where we are either doing it, or having it done to us.


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## Charlie_W (Oct 24, 2016)

We, like many folks were catching up on laundry this past weekend.
 At bedtime Sunday night, Wifey comes up with some folded laundry, puts my Tee shirts in the drawer and says: " I sorted your tee shirts Honey!"........to which I immediately replied: "Thanks Sweetie!".......
....few moments later, I was laughing and said I might put this on Cody's IAP post!!!  We both had a good laugh before turning in! 


(I didn't even know they needed sorting!) :biggrin:


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## Cwalker935 (Oct 24, 2016)

Charlie_W said:


> We, like many folks were catching up on laundry this past weekend.
> At bedtime Sunday night, Wifey comes up with some folded laundry, puts my Tee shirts in the drawer and says: " I sorted your tee shirts Honey!"........to which I immediately replied: "Thanks Sweetie!".......
> ....few moments later, I was laughing and said I might put this on Cody's IAP post!!!  We both had a good laugh before turning in!
> 
> ...


 
Lida does lots of things for me that I did not know needed doing.  I sometimes get into trouble for not noticing the things that she has done.  I guess that I might be a little like this guy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_kXIGvB1uU


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## Rounder (Oct 24, 2016)

MDWine said:


> Rounder said:
> 
> 
> > . . . . Wednesday was 42 years. Dang that is tough saying when only 61. . . . .
> ...



Thanks. Congrats to you too. It is a process for sure.


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## GaryMadore (Oct 24, 2016)

Cwalker935 said:


> My screw drivers are now in at least 4 separate places, I am not sure as to the system behind this division.



My guess is that they were organized and stored as "flat", "square", "star", and "weird star."  

(that's what LOML calls Standard, Robertson, Phillips, and Torx)

Cheers!

Gary


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## edicehouse (Oct 25, 2016)

I thought of one my wife likes to do, once I figure out where the salt is in the kitchen she moves it (yes high BP here).  Once I figure out where the cookies are, she moves them.  Once I figure out where the chips are, she moves them.  (Notice a pattern?) 

And then get this, "Ed, I am not buying ______  any more because we open them and then they go stale."  LOL


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## sbwertz (Oct 25, 2016)

jttheclockman said:


> Ask her if she wants to take a road trip. My shop could use a cleaning and I could care less how and where things were put as long as that you could actually walk in there again.
> 
> I read these and lets face it you do not even know where you put your stuff. There is no rhyme or reason where you put things. That is why we spend so much time looking for things when we do need them. You all are kidding yourself and trying to make us believe it. Now go look where you put that set of calipers and try finding them:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:



I swear I spend half my life looking for something I had in my hand two minutes ago.


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## TellicoTurning (Oct 25, 2016)

sbwertz said:


> jttheclockman said:
> 
> 
> > Ask her if she wants to take a road trip. My shop could use a cleaning and I could care less how and where things were put as long as that you could actually walk in there again.
> ...



I have a specific place for most of my tools and try - that's a key word - to always put them back when done with them - otherwise I spend way too much time looking for where I might have laid them down...


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## sbwertz (Oct 25, 2016)

My husband and I share the workshop.  He does cabinet work and general carpentry, I do turning.  His spinal stenosis has severely limited his work in the shop for the last year or two.  He leaves my turning area alone, except that he will vacuum up sawdust for me.  I leave his workbench alone, except that I use it as a staging area when cutting things on the bandsaw.  

It works for us.


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## MTViper (Oct 25, 2016)

My wife is a quilter, I am a woodworker.  My shop is out back behind the garage - built it just for me in 2006.  Her quilt room is through a door off the master bedroom - built it just for her in 2012.  We never clean each other's workshops because we're never in there long enough to mess things up.  Now the rest of the house ... if I can't find something, I look in the stereo cabinet or the hutch because that's where she "puts up" everything she can't find a place for.


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## Smitty37 (Oct 28, 2016)

Gave my wife her own tools and try to get her to stay out of mine, that helps as long as she is closer to her tools than mine when she wants something.  She has never tried to clean my shop but.... she also never puts a tool that she "borrows" back where she found it and frequently not even back in the shop.  She also can't seem to learn what tools are "not" for so she frequently uses the wrong tool for the job.

But after 54 years, I'm used to it.


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## edicehouse (Oct 28, 2016)

I just thought of something, we are "venting" about our wives (excluding Sharon), but hmmmmm what would they vent about us???


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## Rounder (Oct 28, 2016)

edicehouse said:


> I just thought of something, we are "venting" about our wives (excluding Sharon), but hmmmmm what would they vent about us???



Is that a question that we really want to know the answer too? And should it even be asked? Explosive territory right there!!!


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## lhowell (Oct 28, 2016)

My wife typically leaves my shop alone but my dad and I actually share a shop! He built a really nice three bay Morton Building and one bay is dedicated to woodworking tools. Over the years I am the one to introduce my dad to woodworking and now wood turning (kind of cool being the son teaching the parent instead of the other way around)! 

Well, my mom decided the shop was a mess and took it upon herself to "clean up" For the most part, the tools were placed in the correct spots but she mistook pen blanks for scraps and all of our scrap bin we use for knick knack projects and the blanks ended up in a garbage bag at the local landfill! Since that time, she will come into the shop to see what we are working on but will NOT touch anything!

One other time, I had bought a really pretty piece of curly maple that I was going to turn into a diploma frame and a frame to show off my Professional Engineer License Certificate and went into the shop to start on it to find the board missing. Instead, I found two PAINTED baby doll cribs my dad had made for a friend's daughters with scraps of unpainted curly maple around the cribs. I was so sick to my stomach seeing curly maple painted like that.

We now have a spot in the shop away from the other boards where special pieces of lumber are stored so that it doesn't happen again!


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## Smitty37 (Oct 28, 2016)

edicehouse said:


> I just thought of something, we are "venting" about our wives (excluding Sharon), but hmmmmm what would they vent about us???


 Whatever they feel like----but who cares what they vent about...So long as they vent to someone else and not us.


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