Hey, where did you get that cool record cabinet?

What, this one? I made it, thanks for asking!

In case you couldn't tell from that setup, I'm extremely pleased with the new housing for my record collection. (This is replacing a cardboard box.) I didn't build it completely from scratch, but I recognized its potential. I was down the Basement o' Wonders during my last trip to Kenosha and happened to notice this dusty, cobwebby wooden case in a corner of the workshop area with some tools strewn on top. My eyes had probably slid over it a million times over the years, but this time they stopped. It looked like it might be just the right size for LPs, so I tried it out. Unfortunately, the case originally had a front panel of wood at the bottom matching the one at the top. The opening wasn't quite big enough to fit a record inside. Undeterred, I located a screwdriver and removed the bottom panel. Voila! Perfect size. This weekend I cleaned the cabinet, obtained some black spray paint, taped the handle and screws, positioned a plastic adapter thingy for 45s on the top for a stencil effect, and sprayed away. This is the result. Total cost? $3.29 for the paint. Nice. Incidentally, I have no idea what it originally was. The top says Bell System.

This weekend was also the weekend of the last Harry Potter book. I'm about 250 pages from the end, and plan to finish tonight. I'm proud to say that despite functioning more or less as a normal human being this weekend, I have managed to completely avoid being spoiled for anything in the book. Well, I think so anyway. I guess someone could still call me or text message me before I finish and blurt out some juicy surprise. It would be a shame that it would be one of their last actions on earth, but there you go. At any rate, I'm enjoying the fuck out of this book (to use the terminology of erudite literary analysts.) I'll be really sorry when it's finished, but I think I've done a good job dragging it out this long. My Potter reading has taken place each of the past two evenings from about 12:30 a.m. until 3:30 a.m. I refuse to be disturbed or distracted while reading it, so that's pretty much the only time that works. Tonight I'm going to start earlier, so as not to be dead for work tomorrow. We'll see how that goes.