Marc and I carpooled yesterday, so after work we decided to go to Olive Garden in Newark for dinner. Marc's been dying to go ever since they brought back his favorite dish, the Parmesan Crusted Chicken. I had the Steak Gorgonzola Alfredo, but for some reason I completely forgot that gorgonzola is cheese, and it's cheese that I don't like. Call me crazy, but cheese that tastes like throw-up just doesn't appeal to me. Luckily, I was able to remove the chunks without too much trouble.
We stopped by Home Depot afterwards to buy some wood to make a plank for Bandit to practice on. He's still terrified of the teeter (see-saw), so I'm supposed to work with him at home on getting used to the footing and stuff. They had all sorts of boards there - pine, poplar, red oak. Marc and I had no clue what to get. Marc said he thought the red oak was the best. His reasoning? "Pine is bad, because everyone says you don't want to get buried in a pine box." You can tell we were already in trouble.
The price tag said $6.47, which wasn't bad. I picked up a 6' long board, and noticed that there were boards of all lengths there, so I wasn't sure exactly how much this piece would cost, but heck, it couldn't be too far off, right? Right. All the tag said was, "1 x 12" - $6.47" - there wasn't a ' or a " next to the 1, so I was thinking, "does that mean that one 12"-wide board is $6.47?" The tag was of little help.
Anyways, I picked up some paint and sandpaper, and we went to go pay. We used one of the self checkout things - Marc scanned the tag on the board, and the machine said to ask for assistance. One of the workers punched in the length of the board for us, and the screen popped up with the price - $38.82! I realized then that we were being charged by the foot.
We looked at each other like idiots for a minute, and almost considered just buying it for a second, before sheepishly ducking out of line with our expensive wood. So we went back, and looked at the pine boards. These actually had different prices according to length, so we figured it had to be okay. I think the board we got was like $8 or something. It was definitely cheaper wood - lighter, and it was kind of warped. We also had to go through like four boards to find one that wasn't cracked. As we walked out of the aisle, I saw a sign above the red oak wood that said, "SOLD BY THE FOOT."
We then went to Blockbuster and rented 50 First Dates. I painted the board while we watched the movie (we found this cool spray paint that sprays on textured paint, which is perfect for traction). It was a pretty funny, cute movie. During the first five minutes I thought it was going to be horrible, but it turned out to be pretty good.
In a way Marc was right. I believe oak is the better and more expensive of the woods.
Hee, I remember the first time I learned how wood was sold ... I was in elementary school! Tsk, tsk, Bonnie, didn't you do any home improvement projects with your parents? Just kidding! I just remember because we were building our deck, and I was like "wow, Papa, this wood is cheap" and he's like "silly daughter of mine, that is not the price per piece." And then he wowed me with his very precise multiplication ability (including tax), a skill I have yet to master...
Well yeah, Marc was right - the oak was far more expensive than the pine. It was just the logic that was questionable. ;)
And hey, Home Depot was confusing - the pine they sold by piece, but the oak and poplar they sold by foot. Egads!
I did help my dad redo our fence when I was younger, but I didn't help him buy the wood!
So what kinds of things will you do to build Bandit up to the teeter?
Hee, yes, Marc's logic was rather ... different. :)
And of course Home Depot is confusing! They want innocent people like yourself to make exactly that sort of error! And then they are hoping that you'll just buy the wood. And have you seen how much they charge per cut? Yikes!
Dorothy, the instructor, said to get him used to just walking across the flat plank like a balance beam. He seems to do that fine in class. It's when it's sloped upwards that he balks. So I'll probably start off flat, then progressively slant it upwards. I think I may use a toy or a ball as a lure, since he's much more incentivized by that than by a treat.
Once I can actually get him to go up the thing without falling, then I can worry about making it actually do the see-saw motion.