For this latest helping tower project, I needed to cut off a bunch of pieces that were all exactly the same length to use as rungs for the tower. I tried to get something set up with the chop saw, but it just wasn’t the right tool. That’s when I learned about crosscut sleds. It fits into the rails on my table saw, holds the wood perfectly square to the blade, and allows for very repeatable cuts. Marc Spagnola of The Wood Whisperer fame has a good post/video on his site showing how to make a crosscut sled and what you can do with it. I followed his design and was very pleased. Mine still needs a little tweaking but it’s more than good enough to get the job done.
If you’re unconvinced that you need one in your shop, go to his post and play the video starting at the 15:38 mark. He walks through 5 different uses for it.
Yuck. I said the Seahawks wouldn’t make it to the Super Bowl. Now I’m just hoping they can make the playoffs. They got pushed around in the first half but had a better second half. That non-review call at the end of the game seems insane to me, but it still would have been a stretch to win from that point and they never should have been there in the first place. The fake punt was an incredibly gutsy call, and the misdirection on the punt return earlier in the game was one of the coolest special teams plays that I’ve seen in a long time. Too bad they were performed against the Seahawks and not BY the Seahawks.
A while back I wrote a post wondering why there were no good sites with woodworking plans that were nicely categorized and reviewed. Most of my requirements in that post have been met at 
The Seahawks faltered again this week. In five games, they have yet to regain their dominance from last season. Forget about the Super Bowl repeat. Let’s make it through the first round of the playoffs. Here are some of the big changes I see from last season:
I’ve been getting a few Visa/AmEx/Mastercard gift cards for various things like rebates. They’re nice in that you can use them anywhere, but it’s a struggle for me to remember how much money is left and it’s not always easy to pay use the remainder of the gift card and then put the rest on another card. That’s when I realized that I could just take these gift cards, buy 
Christmas Lights
Tim and Chelsea have alternating red and white bulbs on their house and I really like that look. Unfortunately it’s hard/impossible to find this in a strand of lights off the shelf. It’s also quite difficult to find interchangeable LED bulbs to make my own alternating strand.
I gave up looking for the cheaper consumer grade products to fill my needs and splurged on the professional grade stuff. You buy the cord with empty sockets and then buy individual bulbs to screw into them. Theoretically, these should stand up to the elements better and if/when they do need maintenance, I can replace just the piece that is broken. It also lets me do whatever light pattern I want.
We’re starting small with the theory that we can build more each year. The lights will follow our garage peak and then follow the gutter line around to the cedar tree on the corner of the house. I wonder how long I need to wait before I’m that weird guy who puts up his lights too early?