I Got Nothing Today. Sorry. So Instead, You Can Look At My Wood.

I tried to write some snappy essays for you last night, came up dry.  I have a lot of good ideas, but my essay-writin’ segment of the brain is conking out to the point where I don’t feel like making good arguments in a sloppy way.
So here!  Have some more woodworking!
My wife surprised me for my birthday, proving she is the best wife in the world by buying me the thing I wanted most: reproduction Ms. Pac-Man cabinet art.  Ms. Pac-Man is the game of my childhood, and a bonding experience with my father: every time we get together, we find some way to go head-to-head, devouring dots.  So I’d been thinking about how to make my cabinet look like a Ms. Pac-Man machine, and lo!  She had done the research to find me the art!
There’s just one problem, though:

The art doesn’t fit.
*sad trombone*
Some have asked, “Why don’t you just cut the art to fit?” And my answer is, “Why don’t you chop up the Mona Lisa to fit in a smaller frame?” This is classic art, man, and I’m not going to resize it. That would bug me. No, instead I’ll just have to make a new, reproduction Ms. Pac-Man arcade cabinet at some point down the line.
In the meantime, Erin and I did the final touches before the coat of paint:


It looks like an actual piece of furniture now, which still amazes us. We wander outside to look at it in a happy daze, unable to believe that we did this. Which is bizarre, this idea that we formed something from tools and raw materials, but here’s the proof. It’s done. We can put things in it. So strange!
The painting is what I’m excited about. I’m told that once you paint it, it becomes an arcade cabinet, and that I can see: right now, it’s all patched wood and beams, but when it gets a coat of glossy black, it becomes a single object, and that will be exciting as fuck. I’ll probably do that on Sunday, as I have some delightful Angie-company visiting this weekend.
The great thing is that after this, I know what project I’m doing next. Gini and I have always wanted a Secret Passage in the basement. So we shall make one, hiding a door with swinging bookcases. This is going to involve me being good enough to make normal bookcases – which, let’s be honest, we can never get enough of – and then eventually making a heavily customized one. That’s a project that’ll take probably a year of time to get good at, since it’ll involve making at least seven bookcases before we’re done.
But hey. I’ve got time and wood on my hands.