A Trip to the ER or A Fun Night Out?

Tuesday night I was out turning a pen in the garage and to make a long story short, I tripped and stabbed the back of my thumb with a turning tool.  It was not pretty and I kept my head about me and just casually asked my husband to come downstairs while my thumb was bleeding profusely.  He helped bandage me up and then I asked him to wrap my hand in a plastic bag so I could shower.

That's right folks, instead of heading straight to the ER, I was going to shower.  I probably had some funky B.O. going on, had covered myself earlier in the day with bug spray and was currently coated in a layer of saw dust.  I knew if stitches were going to be coming, they couldn't get wet, so I was going to rid myself of all that grime prior to the ER.

Once that was done, hubby stayed at home with sleeping kids and I drove myself to the ER at Christus St. Catherine.  I had a stack of magazines with me and was prepared to wait a long time.  The whole trip took just over 2 hours.  Seriously impressed!

The nurse that I had was amazing, sweet and fun.  Seriously a girl I would love to be friends with.  The doctor was very nice and had better bedside manner than any other ER doctor I have encountered.  The radiology tech was really fun to talk to and everything was done so quickly!

Of course, having to explain exactly what happened to me was difficult when I was dealing with people who had no idea what I was talking about.  So, I busted out some photos and showed them some of the things I do.

Like this...

Wooden Snowman

And this...

Preschool Class Craft Bench

And this...

Acrylic Pens

And this...

Fence Picket Flag

They got the picture of what happened after they realized what I was doing.  I really did jab my thumb with a sharp pointy tool.

The cut on my thumb extends from the cuticle all the way down over the knuckle.  Not an ideal spot to put stitches, so instead they used Steri strips...after they cleaned it out of course!  (Which surprisingly didn't hurt).

Now, I am left with this and an awesome lesson learned of, "watch where you are walking!"  You can't forget shop safety, even for a moment. 

So, a big thanks to all the wonderful folks over at Christus St. Catherine Hospital's Emergency Department, you guys made what would have normally been a dreaded trip to the ER a whole lot of fun.

Stealing From My Husband

My hubby is the Blogger over at, C4 - Explosive Leadership Tactics.   He asked me to take a look at his post for today and I told him I loved it so much that I was going to steal it and put it up for you guys to see.  So if you like it, go check out his blog and show him some love. 

The main reason I wanted to steal this, I am soooooooo sick and tired of almost being hit by people texting and driving.  It is so bad that I was walking with both of my kids in the jogging stroller, came to a crosswalk where a church was letting out of service.  I proceeded to start walking and noticed that the man who should have let me cross was glued to his phone.  I yelled out, "Hey buddy, awesome job texting!"  What did he do?  He looked up, went without letting me cross and then put his head back down and continued texting.  It's dangerous, so this hopefully a wake up call to anyone out there who thinks it's okay to text and drive. 

Wacky Wednesday - Texting and Driving?

Last week I gave a presentation on Multitasking. During that presentation I shared some results from a test Car and Driver Magazine performed in 2009. The basics are that the magazine had its' editors run a course at 70 mph sober, drunk, while reading an email, and while trying to text. A passenger had control of a little light on top of the dashboard. When the light came on, the driver was supposed to stop. The sober result was used as the baseline. Do you want to see the results?

Drunk: + 4 Feet


While Reading an Email: + 36 feet


While Attempting to Text:

 

 

+ 72 Feet!!!!

Pictures are not from the Car and Driver Test...

If that's the case, wouldn't you be better off drunk in a meeting rather than "responding to emails?" 

Perhaps as leaders we should just put the phone away and pay attention?

(I am not saying people should drink and go to meetings! Or for that matter, drive. We all know that is NOT a good idea!) 

Photo credits: unknown.

Do The Safety Dance

If you have read up on my awesome Preschool Class Craft adventure, you would have seen that I totally ripped of Norm Abram and gave his safety speech.  You would have also seen the result of a shop accident I had that prompted that speech.

So, today I am joining up on Sawdust and Paperscraps linky Safety Party.

You will now get to see me in all my splendid geeky glory.  Feel free to laugh, it's obvious women do not design shop safety gear, otherwise it would be functional and pretty!

The item I wear most often in the shop is my facemask.  Wearing glasses, it makes it difficult to find safety glasses that fit properly and comfortably over the top of them.

Some jobs require the safety glasses instead of the face shield.  Usually, it is in conjunction with my face mask.

By the way, I LOVE my face mask.  I have always had problem with the felt like white papery ones.  The full mask does a great job.  It is also surprisingly comfortable to wear and doesn't make me feel claustrophobic.  Isn't it funny, I can wear that thing but turtlenecks send my anxiety through the roof?

Also, hearing protection is super important.  Even though I know some sign language, I don't want to have to rely solely on that.  The bad part about the big ear muffs, I can't wear the face shield with it.  So I often look like this.

Now that I have my eyes, ears and lungs protected, lets move onto other safety gear.  I wear work gloves a lot.  They have soft leather palms and are probably the only semi cute item that I wear in the shop.

Ooohhhh.....Ahhhhh....they put flowers on my women's Mechanix gloves!  All kidding aside, these things are awesome and going on three years old and holding up great.  Love them!

The last thing I am going to show you is knee pads.  They make me feel a little like an 80's dancing pop star, but that's way better than dealing with sore, bruised up knees when you are stuck kneeling on concrete, tile or any other completely uncomfortable surface.

Now, if you have hung with me this long, you can fully laugh out loud, because when I strap on all this gear, it makes me feel like I belong in a comic book.  I am Tool Woman!

Do The Safety Dance!

Did I make it worth it?  Are you laughing at me?  I am laughing while typing this.  I'm such a dork.  So, strap on your gear and join me on over at Sawdust and Paperscraps and laugh at everyone else too!

Preschool Class Craft: Part 4

If you are just finding this, please check out all the other parts to this saga.

Preschool Class Craft: Part 3
Preschool Class Craft: Part 2
Preschool Class Craft: Part 1

I finished the bench!  Well, the construction part.  Painting is still in progress.

I started with fixing the orientation of the slats.  If you remember from part 3, I screwed that up.  (I know, bad pun)

After that quick fix, I had to bust out the wood filler.  The wood dried out a little more, so some of my joints pulled apart a little.  Another quick easy fix.

Wood filler and a putty knife is all that is needed.  What is funny about the filler, totally looks like and has the same texture as butter cream frosting.  Looks good enough to eat, but I don't recommend it.

All you do, use the putty knife to force the filler into the crevasses and flatten it with the edge of the knife.

Easy peasy!  Then you let it dry.  It takes a couple hours to dry, then you can sand it flat.

I used a random orbital sander to smooth out a few joints, soften a few edges and clean up some of the rough end grain.  The one my hubby and I use is from Porter Cable.

It's important that you line up your sandpaper with the little holes.  It pulls the dust away as you are sanding.  Even though it does a great job sucking up the dust...I take extra precaution.  This is pressure treated lumber, which means it's laced with all sorts of chemicals.

Rock one of these and save your lungs!  I prefer the full face mask over the little white ones.  Those always let in stuff on the sides.  They just don't fit my face as well as the full mask.

Assembled and sanded.  Doesn't it look awesome!?!?!?  I am so excited that the construction of it is complete.  The bench part is removable, which prevents causing stress on the bench when you move it..

Also strong enough to hold myself and hubby on it while bouncing up and down.  It passed the stress test and is ready for painting.

Showing this project off.  I think it deserves to be shown!

Preschool Class Craft: Part 1

My son's preschool does a huge fundraiser each spring that has an auction to it.  I was asked to help with Maben's class craft.  I put together a couple ideas, let the parents vote on which one to do.  I am not going to tell you all just yet what I am doing, but here is a hint.

I am building something with wood.  Isn't it such a great hint?  Can you guess?  Here is another clue, the kids are going to be involved sometime during this project. 

Tonight I spent over an hour out in the woodshop (aka garage), chopping and ripping boards to size. I had one minor mishap which resulted in this.

I got to experience some kickback from the table saw.  I got grazed by a board and it took out a box behind me.  Small scratch and a bruise that is turning a lovely shade of purple. 

Since I am talking about power tools and injury, I will be stealing a few lines from Norm Abram and tell you this, "Before we get started I'd like to take a moment to talk about shop safety. Be sure to read, understand and follow all the safety rules that come with your power tools. Knowing how to use your power tools PROPERLY will greatly reduce the risk of personal injury. And remember this. There is no other more important safety rule than to wear THESE... safety glasses and also HEARING protection when necessary."

Now that the safety lesson is over and done with, I will show you the fruits of my labor tonight.

A whole pile of cut lumber.  The bad part, not done chopping and ripping boards.  Still probably another hour or so, then I can work on construction.  Stay tuned for Part 2, which should be up by the end of this weekend.