house

French polishing refers to a way to finish wood using shellac and other cool stuff. Shellac is made by harvesting the shells of lac beetles. The shells are ground up, sifted, blah blah blah---what am I? Wikipedia?---and sometimes bleached to get it very clear. There are varying grades and colors, some shellac is waxed, some isn't, and so on.

It is very easy to apply---drop some flaked in a container, add alcohol (but not the vodka, I'm using that), and shake very gently to dissolve the shellac. Strain through a paper coffee filter. You can apply by wiping it on with a cotton rag all bunched up or spraying with an HVLP system. Read below the fold...

2010 Midterms Analysis: House Generic, Senate RV/ LV Polls, Exit Polls vs. Recorded Vote

Richard Charnin (TruthIsAll)

Nov. 16, 2010

http://richardcharnin.com/2010SenateMidt...

The 2010 midterms are history. The typical reaction of the pundits is to promote the conventional wisdom that it was a GOP blowout of epic proportions - even bigger than 1994. Yes, the party in power nearly always loses seats in the midterms. The unconventional wisdom is that the Democrats do significantly better than the recorded vote indicates in every election. There is no reason to suspect that 2010 was any different. Read below the fold...

http://richardcharnin.com/2010ElectionFo...

11/01 Final 2010 Midterms Forecast: RV/LV Polls and Election Fraud

Richard Charnin (TruthIsAll)

The 2010 House and Senate Forecast Models are based on a comprehensive analysis of Registered Voter (RV) and Likely Voter (LV) polls.

The LV Model predicts a 234-201 GOP House and a 50-48 Democratic Senate. Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball predicts a 233-202 GOP House and a 49-49 Senate. Electoral-vote.com has a 51-48-1 Democratic Senate and a 217-200 GOP House with 18 ties. But the registered voter (RV) projections tell a different story.

The Democrats lead the weighted average of 18 Senate RV polls by 8.5%. They lead the corresponding LV sub-samples by 0.9%.
The RV projections indicate a 53-45 Democratic Senate. Read below the fold...

2012: How U.S. Voters Can Wrest Control of Congress from Special Interests -- Part IV. How Voters Can Build Transpartisan Voting Blocs and Use Legislative Mandates to Get Control of Electoral and Legislative Processes

[Ed. note: This series has been re-posted by Joe Firestone (a.k.a. letsgetitdone) on behalf of author Nancy Bordier with her express permission.]

By

Nancy Bordier Read below the fold...

crossposted from a comment at FDL Read below the fold...

Read below the fold...

Today I painted our first room. It was the water closet in the master bath and only took an hour to mask and primer, but still. The fab GF came out twice to snap photos.

The drywall has been ready for three weeks, but we had such crap weather, I didn't even want to go outside. We had drifts over four feet high and both of the roof vent pipes are bent like mofos. I don't think they're broken, but I won't know until it's safe enough to scramble up on the roof, something I hate doing even in dry weather. No sign of any leaks, but until I can touch 'em, I won't know for sure. Read below the fold...

Thank the flying spaghetti monster with all noodley appendages, the drywall is up, taped, and mudded, and the PVA applied. Russ did an amazing job. I never could have done this. I can hang drywall and stuff, but this...smooth wall is right.

We're going on week nine of what Russ thought would be a five weeker. Ah, well. I was framing and helping for the first few weeks, but I've been inside trying to earn money. So starting this week, I get to start back with sawing and hammering and swearing. Yay. So here are some pics.

Warning: several big pictures.

It's been really cold, so cold the rain froze in the copper cups last week and hasn't thawed. Read below the fold...