MY FAVORITE WORKBENCH

I can be pretty mainstream alot of the time. But then again, I can also think way outside the box at other times. Probably today falls into the latter category. Case in point: most people like to use their garage benches for all kinds of home improvement projects. Not me, however. MY favorite workbench?? ALWAYS somewhere inside the house.

I cut fabric on my dining room table. I do all my painting projects whether it be on furniture or canvas, in my family room. I like to assemble things while probably sitting atop my bed watching TV. And I usually do my electrical type work in my kitchen. Take this new project I'm working on, for example. You can see my set up there in the picture above. Also known as: my favorite workbench. 

The other day I bought these FANTASTIC over the railing planters that I'll use in a couple of weeks to plant my new Spring flowers for my outside deck. Up to now, I've always used floor pots and/or table top pots to house all the flowers. But THESE new planters are so amazing that I had to buy 8 of them to line all along my deck railings. Once the flowers begin to grow, it will be stunning, believe you me. Especially when they begin to grow over the side edges of planters. I totally can't wait. It's actually ingenious the way these deals have been built but that's another story altogether.

In the meantime, I decided the planters needed extra drainage holes thus enter: my cordless drill. Which I totally love, btw. As soon as it was all powered up, I started using it to create a couple of extra holes in the bottom of each planter. AND per usual, I did all the work... sitting down??... UPON MY BEAUTIFUL KITCHEN GRANITE COUNTER TOP! Uh... as opposed to where MOST people would be working which would be in their garage area. Most notably, a wooden work bench. I know, I know... I took a BIG risk here but seriously. Working in the house is always so much more convenient for me.

In any case, in projects such as this, I naturally have to consider the OOPS FACTOR; kinda like: BE MIGHTY DAMN CAREFUL LINDA NOT TO DRILL INTO THE GRANITE. Yikes. Can you even imagine?? So far however, I have to say I've always been pretty lucky since I really do try to plan so as to have the least amount of OOPS as possible. On the other hand, trust me... I've had plenty of times when I've had to fix screw ups whenever my pre-planning didn't quite work out as I had hoped. But I'm pretty brave overall, so as a whole, I'd have to say nothing major has ever occurred in about 40 years of doing iffy projects. Thank God for small favors, right?

In the meantime, I got all set up to begin the drilling and OMG... the drill doesn't even beGIN to make so much as a DENT into the planter material. No penetration whatsoEVER! So to speak. I mean like: NOTHING. WTF?? How can that possibly BE???? I was absolutely mystified. This drill bit should be FLYING right through. Turns out I was a total idiot and Alan was a total genius. Get this...

About a half hour after I began my drilling attempt it was time to head out to a fabulous lunch to which I had been invited. I knew Alan was going to be there, but this was the very time I had ever met him. There were a bunch of us there and we all had a lovely time chit chatting, eating, relaxing and laughing. Naturally at some point, I mentioned this crazy ass mystery of mine whereby I couldn't beLIEVE my drill bit wasn't going through the bottom of my planters. ALL OF A SUDDEN Alan said to me: I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THE PROBLEM IS. You do I said?? I do he replied. And guess what?? HE DID!! I can not TELL you how thrilled I was at his sheer brilliance. And... within minutes of my getting home, I followed Alan's advice and HE WAS ABSOLUTELY RIGHT ON TARGET!!!

Wanna know how I was screwing up?? Take a guess. Okay... times up. Listen to this... I neglected to reverse the drill bit the last time I used it so that it was now screwing OUT instead of IN!! Whoa. WHAT A FREAKIN' IDIOT I AM! I'm telling you... Alan was way up my alley BEFORE he turned genius but NOW?? Oh Lordy, afterwards I'm like gaga over him. True, it wasn't necessarily rocket science, but still. Bottom line to all this???

YIPPEE. YIPPEE. I'VE NOW GOT ALL THE DRAINAGE HOLES ONE COULD POSSIBLY WANT in each of my terrific planters! Talk about taking so little to make me happy. I am in sheer heaven is all I can say. And... once the flowers are ready to live their new home?? Oh man... I'll so be in my glory. Oh yeah. And btw... my counter top? STILL IN ABSOLUTELY PERFECT CONDITION! Thus: Thank you God, Buddha, Allah, Yahweh, Adonai and anyone else up there looking down upon me for not letting me ruin my beautiful granite. Definitely keep it up. Amen.