It's really hard to summarize oneself for the general public. I mean, really, what does the public want to know about me? Am I married? Yes. Do I have children. Yes, three, and they're all grown thank God. (By that I mean parenting is HARD. I'd do it again in a heartbeat, but I'm really glad our offspring have all reached adulthood.) Do I have pets? Yup. Two dogs. Since the kids are all grown, you'll read more about my dogs than my kids. Because that's what happens when you get old like me. I have three grand kids, too, so you'll read about them as well. But the dogs live with me and, when I am desperate for blog topics, they usually help me out.
About a year ago, I bought an old end table for $12. It was in decent shape, but it wasn’t solid wood. I liked the detail on the front and thought it would be a fun experiment.
It sat in my basement since the day I brought it home.
While at our WV Place recently, we realized we needed a table about that size for the living room. So I figured I’d give it a quick makeover.
QUICK is the key word here.
Including dusting, painting, and waxing, I don’t think I spent more than an hour on this piece. It required very little paint (single coats of each color dry-brushed on) and only one quick coat of clear wax.
I love the end result.
Click on the image to see a larger version.
When I showed Hubby the table in its “before” state, he looked a bit skeptical and asked, with all the bias of a woodworker, what kind of wood it was. I told him parts were plasticene, and the rest was something else. I didn’t care. I didn’t want to burn it, just have something cute to look at for a bit.
No sanding was required. I removed the old handles (didn’t even need a screwdriver) and then added a very thin coat of Graphite on the top and Old White on the base. I covered the painted areas with a quick coat of clear wax. Finally, I added new knobs I’d purchased on clearance for $1.36 each.
Not a bad table for under $15 (not including the teeny bit of paint and wax I used) and an hour of my time. Do you agree?
I’d hoped to tell you all about our working Memorial Day Weekend at the WV Place, but it’s been a busy week.
Our Cozy Little House in the Woods
The last I told you about the place, we’d begun making repairs. Since then, we had a contractor do some drywall work and other stuff. It was left to us to clean, paint, and generally make the house livable again.
I’ll do a full post, sharing pictures, when I have time.
The house looks soooo much better. It’s cozy again.
Old Town Warrenton [(c) Denise Schefer. All rights reserved.]I often tell people that Warrenton is the perfect spot for Hubby and me to live. It is away from the crowded, noisy, busy madness we left behind in Maryland. It’s big enough that most of the essentials are available right here in town. And it’s close enough to the densely populated area known as Northern Virginia (NoVA) that, with a 20-30 minute drive, we can pretty much obtain whatever it is we want or need.
According to the most recent Census data, Warrenton has a population of 9,803. The entire county only has ~67,000 people (that equates to 100.7 persons per square mile). The population of our Maryland county (Anne Arundel) was 555,743, which is 414.9 people per square mile. The town where we lived — Severn — by itself had a population of 44,231 in 2010, which equates to 2,497.1 people per square mile. That’s a lot of people.
Although the town of Warrenton has 2,136.3 people per square mile, it is surrounded by rural area. So it FEELS far less crowded. It is certainly more picturesque. Check out my Old Town Warrenton photo collection on FLICKR if you don’t believe me.
It is also surrounded by great motorcycle roads.
This past Saturday, my friend, Dottie, and I did a nice loop of just under 150 road miles. My last post features a nifty slideshow of the last part of the ride leading into town. There’s also a video of Dottie, who only recently got her motorcycle license, leading the way across Thornton Gap.
I just finished editing another video from that ride that I wanted to share. This Google MAP shows the route covered in my highlights video.
Snapshot of the Overview Map
Look closely, and you’ll see Warrenton on the right-hand side of the map. Hopefully this will help you appreciate just how close we are to the AMAZING roads featured in the video below.
Yesterday was a gorgeous Spring day in the Virginia Piedmont. Since I knew Hubby was bound for the WV Place — chores called — I figured it would be a good day to take Dottie for a ride.
Dottie
You “met” Dottie before. She was the Elf who joined me on the Christmas ’13 Santa Ride. And, in this March post, I told you she’d gotten a motorcycle for Christmas and had her motorcycle learner’s permit.
Since that time, she’s gotten her motorcycle license. A fact she’s quite proud of. Dottie told me she grew up on dirt bikes, but hadn’t ridden in years. She’d always wanted to get a motorcycle that she could ride on the street, but her hubby, Jim, isn’t really into riding. So she never did.
Then she met me. I’m a bad influence, I think. After I took her for a ride through the Virginia countryside and she did the Santa ride with me, she had a bad case of the “I really want a motorcycle” blues.
Jim, being the awesome man he is, decided, after seeing how happy riding made his wife, that Dottie should have a bike.
Yesterday was the first chance we’d had to ride together since Dottie got her license.
Ride Map ( about 145 miles)
I planned a route, rode down to her house (about 20 minutes outside of town), and off we went.
In my opinion, it was a beautiful day. Temperatures hovered around 60 degrees (F), the sky was blue, the sun was shining… perfect. Dottie, who has fibromyalgia, was cold. Of course, I didn’t know she was cold until we were in the middle of nowhere.
We stopped for a bit to soak up some sun. At that point, we were on the Old Blue Ridge Turnpike (VA 231), about 15 miles south of Sperryville. It was a gorgeous spot.
Photo Bomb
I, of course, had to take some pics. Dottie is learning what it’s like to travel with a moto-blogger. And she’s adapting well, as evidenced by that photo bomb.
More captures…
She even joined the photo-capturing fun.
We talked about stopping in Sperryville so she could buy a sweatshirt, which we did. But Sperryville is short on clothing stores. So Dottie suggested riding across the mountain into Luray. She recommended a spot for lunch, too.
Looking west from downtown Luray.
Dottie in Luray
I’d never actually gone into the town of Luray before, so it was my first time in Luray.
Uncle Buck’s made an awesome lunch stop. So awesome, I’ll have to take Hubby there. Soon.
Inside Uncle Buck’s
Sliders and Fries … YUM
While we were waiting for our meal, we started chatting about apparel (I need a lightweight jacket for Summer). I found one on-line that I like, and that got good reviews, but, as I told Dottie, I wanted to try one on before ordering. Since we hadn’t planned on going to Luray, a town I’d only ever driven past previously, I decided to google motorcycle dealerships to see if there were any nearby. That’s how we found Outlanders.
As we were getting ready to mount the bikes, a local lady, also a rider, stopped by to chat. Dottie asked her about Outlanders. She told, without hesitation, that we should go there. She said it’s owned by a woman, so they have a nice variety of gear for women. We were already planning on going, but that sealed the decision.
In all fairness, Outlanders can’t be called a motorcycle dealership. They do sell motorcycles, parts, accessories, apparel, etc., but it’s so much more. Here’s how they describe themselves on their Web site:
Established in 2004, the Outlanders brand was created as a way to celebrate and share the owner’s Scottish heritage and love of motorcycles with kindred spirits. Outlanders store has now become a favorite shopping destination for locals and Luray, VA guests by specializing in unique gifts, jewelry, apparel, powersport equipment and motorcycles. Outlanders also offers a grocery store and lunch deli where you can dine indoors or outside.
Dottie found the perfect hoodie there, too, which saved us from going to Wal-Mart (yay!).
Sky above the convenience-store part of the HUGE complex.
Sky as seen from Outlanders’ parking lot.
Dottie’s tag.
From there, we headed back east. We hadn’t gone far before we had to stop for some more pics.
Cool Signage
Famous Luray Dinosaur
First time I got to stop and visit the Luray dinosaur.
I just HAD to get a pic there.
After that, it was time to finish our ride.
I let Dottie lead the way over Thornton Gap. I even shot video, which I’ll post later after editing.
For now, here’s a slideshow, the majority of which is from the last part of our ride. (The slideshow may eventually have an audio track, but YouTube is being REALLY slow on the processing.)
It was a good day. 🙂
UPDATE: Here’s the video of Dottie leading our ride across Thornton Gap.
I have a favor to ask of all of my friends that ride. Can you please leave a comment critiquing Dottie’s ride?
She’s only had her license for about a month and, in my opinion, is doing very well. But I do have one recommendation. I don’t want to tell you what I see (that would be too leading), but I will tell you it’s in the second half of the video. It’s a challenging road with variable radius curves (the radius changes mid-curve).
Jim, we’re not going nearly as fast as the video would lead you to believe.
Those of you who have been following me for a while know that cows intrigue me. They always have. Maybe I was a farmer in another life.
The thing about cows that I find most interesting is how they always look at you when you stop to say hello. Whether you actually speak or not. They’re curious critters.
Here’s further proof of their inquisitive nature. This video has to be one of the coolest I’ve seen for a while.
