The eve of destruction.

My kitchen, approximately 11:AM this morning:

And now, at 5:PM:

Though all my destructive friends would love to believe that this kind of thing simply entails banging the bejesus outta stuff with a sledgehammer, the reality was considerably more scientific- I don't even own a sledgehammer. I do own a rather large and wicked pry bar, but it's mostly a lot of "what the heck is holding this together" followed by unscrewing and prying, and trying to make sure nothing falls on your head (succeeded at that) and that you don't shock yourself on all the electrical in there. (fail... I thought I had all breakers off, but I missed one. Luckily the jolt was pretty minor) Also had to make sure I cut off all the wires and electrical taped them so as not to blow anything up. As I suspecting, the brown backing wasn't a wall at all, just 1/2" particle board, which I pretty much yanked off with my bare hands. Rarrr!!!!

All was going well until my DeWalt drill crapped out. Both of its batteries died over a year ago, and I haven't gotten around to replacing them. This week I got a new battery ($70!!!), but the drill was emitting a weird smell. I figured either the new battery had too much juice, or the motor was dirty from sitting. I called DeWalt this week and they assured me that it was the correct battery, and it should be fine. Well... today that smell got even worse and was accompanied by smoke, and a large reduction in speed. Which I'm pretty sure is bad. This brought my efforts to a grinding halt. Tomorrow I shall call DeWalt and see if I can get some satisfaction. The drill is around eight years old, but it shouldn't just die, right? If they don't help set things right, I'm going to explain to them in no uncertain terms that I'm marching over to Home Depot to buy a replacement DeWalt drill... the kind that says "Makita" on the side.