non-friction.

That little bag on the back was a cruel joke. It caught ZERO dust.

My electric palm sander thingee got slower, slower and slower today until it sanded no more. Looks like I'm going to the pawn shop(s) tomorrow to shop for a cheap replacement: once again capitalizing on the misfortunes of the downtrodden. I've been using the handheld non-power one, but that gets to be a real b-i-itch when you're upside down on a ceiling (again, insert Lionel Richie song joke here). My mud abilities have improved greatly, partly due to the discovery of nylon mesh drywall tape, and partly because I'm just better at carving out something reatively smooth upon initial application, but there's still a fair amount of the big, gucky mess-type joints (before I got good at it) which are far harder and dustier to sand. My taping and mudding advice: go light, make everything as smooth and nice as you can with the trowel and add more layers later on.

In much bigger and more exciting news I called the Ken The Polished Concrete Floor Dude this morning. They're comin' on by tomorrow to initiate the ugly process of hacking out roughly 600 sq feet of travertine (is that a proper noun?) tile, as well as the staggering amount of smooth set beneath. This will be followed by transforming the concrete slab beneath into something smooth 'n' shiny. This means I have to clean up the moderate mess of tools, wood, drywall, etc. in the kitchen/living room tonight, something I'm not exactly motivated about. Waaaah. I'm told this whole transfloormation (I'm really knockin' 'em out of the park today with the puns) will take three or four days, but methinks it'll be more like a week. I'm sure I'll have plenty of news that's fit to print...