We have a TABLE!

Oh happy day, we finally have a pause table at home! My parents gave me money for my birthday back in AUGUST that I earmarked for my table project, and it took me *this long* to actually get around to it. I had to special order the corner pieces and I've even been sitting on those for weeks.
My dad is awesome and pretty much did all of the work involved. I stood there and watched. :o) Having a woodworking factory certainly does help with the construction process, however, as he slapped the table top together lickety-split and we used the radial saw to slam out the PVC pretty quickly.

The only real wrench in the project was the fact that the 1 1/2" Schedule 40 PVC was *not* going to fit into the 1 1/2" Furniture Grade PVC parts. Sigh. What is up with that? I never experienced such an issue with the other stuff I've built, but these parts were not going to go together. We had to do a lot of sanding to get the pipe small enough to fit relatively easily into the fittings. It was such a giant pain in the butt that we ended up only doing the 24" and 12" legs. My dad had done enough, so I said I would just finish the 8" & 16" legs by hand at home (eventually....).

I stopped at the hardware store on the way home to pick up some sandpaper and primer paint. After our picture posing session I got to work in the garage and was able to primer the entire table, top & bottom, before bed. It will need at least one more coat of primer over the entire thing, then perhaps still one more coat on the top that will be the sand layer, to be covered by paint (my standard yellow & blue!).

I don't anticipate any problems whilst training Secret to do the table. She is quite enamored with it already and will perch on it at any given chance. I figure we'll dust off the clicker to help teach the automatic down -- A given now that AKC has gone to a position-less table and USDAA still requires a down every time.

In other news, our Max story has encountered a hitch. Yesterday afternoon I received a call from Max's previous owner, Bobby, who has decided she wants him back. I explained to her why I felt this was a bad idea, as Max has come to expect a good deal of exercise each day since he's come to live with me. He was starting to pop out of his seams with her, and now I fear it would be even worse. A tiny apartment with an inactive person is NOT the proper home for a young Border Collie. She trusted me to find him an appropriate home, and I don't feel her home fits that description, so I cannot in good conscience return him to her. She is thinking about all that I told her yesterday and I am to call her this afternoon to talk about it. I hope she comes to her senses, as I will find it very hard to outright say, "NO, you may not have him back." I fear that even if I did allow him to go back, within the span of a week she would realize that she made a mistake and I would have him back again. All that shuffling around is so unfair to Max and we really need to keep his best interests in mind.