How to install a catflap in a steel door

Step 1: Get a Dremel.

Step 2: Get a Cut-off wheel and a grinding stone. Grab a steak knife from the kitchen.

Step 3: Sketch the template outline on the door in accordance with the instructions.

Step 4: Cut down the outline you have drawn, using the Dremel and cut-off wheel, just through the steel. Wear safety glasses for this, really. The sparks fly!

Step 5: Pry out the steel. It's just an outer lining. Take the steak knife and carve out the foam inside the door. Smooth the steel edges with the grinding stone.

Step 6: Cut out the other steel lining with the cut-off wheel. Smooth out with the grinding stone.

Step 7: Shove the cat through the hole a few times.

Step 8: Follow the instructions for putting up the door. Here, you will need a metal-cutting drill bit and probably a regular drill, or maybe an attachment for the Dremel. Anyway, my bit wouldn't fit my Dremel. Do not drill into the foam; you only want to pierce the steel. Your cat should catch on to using the door right away, if it's been through the open hole a few times. If your cat is dumb, like one of mine is, put them on one side of the door, and food on the other. Go shopping. By the time you get back, your cat will have figured it out.

The above is the wrong, Persnickety way to do it, but darn it it worked. The right way is to draw your outline, use your metal bit and electric drill to drill holes clear through the door in each corner of the outline. Then, using a jig saw and metal-cutting blade, insert the blade into one of the holes and cut out the door hole clean through, following merrily along the outline. Power tools and $10 blades notwithstanding, I lacked the physical strength to control the saw, particularly when it cut through the steel, encountered the soft foam, then hit hard steel again. I actually broke the saw blade off inside the door. The right way is probably the quicker way, for those with the muscle. But the right way is the wrong way if it's not personally possible.

Cheers!

P.S. You may have another bit of difficulty with the wood at the bottom of the door, or the door panels. The bottom two inches of my door is wood. My cat flap just barely fit. Ideally, the bottom of the cat flap should be at the same height as the bottom of your standing cat's belly. You might want to do a little measuring - of the cat, the door, and the various available cat flaps, before you start carving holes in anything.

Crazy Kids

Well, I'm back.

Der kinder is married now, and I guess that means he's officially all grown up. May God bless and guide him and his bride, and grant them a long and happy life together.

It was quite a ceremony. They memorized their vows and said them without prompting from the priest, with no 'repeat after me' stuff from the priest. Their feeling was that their love should be strong enough that it needed no prompting. They're both musicians, and played some of their own wedding music.

You should have seen them - him in his tux at the piano, her in her wedding dress with the flute. Nerves of steel, I'm tellin' ya.

After they exchanged rings, they both just looked at their hands for a bit, with the rings on them, like 'Gosh, it's really real.' Then he wasn't sure how to kiss her without stepping on her dress.

May the good Lord bless you and keep you, my children. May He make His sun to shine upon you.

One Team, One Fight, One Focus!!


Denzel Washington was visiting BAMC (Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas) earlier this month. BAMC is where soldiers who have been med-evac'd from the combat zone via Germany come to the US to be hospitalized, especially burn victims. At Fort Sam Houston they have facilities called Fisher Houses. The Fisher House is basically aplace where soldier's families can stay (at little charge or no charge) while their soldier is recovering at BAMC. Even though Fort Sam Houston has more than one Fisher House, you can easily imagine that they are all "filled to the brim" almost constantly. While Denzel Washington was visiting patients in BAMC, they gave him a tour of one fo the installation's Fisher Houses. During the tour, he asked how much one of these Fisher Houes cost to build. When he received the answer, he got out his check book and wrote out a check for the full amount, right there "on-the-spot." The soldiers in BAMC were amazed to hear this story, and they want to "get the word out" to the American public because it warmed their hearts. I hope that you too will spread this "good news" story. May God bless Denzel Washington and good-hearted people like him.

Update: or maybe not quite.

Name of newsletter/people removed because hey, we can all mistakes and it's my blog and I'll do what I want to.

Nar nee Nar nee boo boo.

I have the best kid in the whole darn world.

So der kinder is getting married on the 15th. Apparently there's some sort of mother-and-son dance which the bride requires, so der kinder called to discuss songs we could both stand, that weren't too long. Said he wistfully: "I kind of wish we could use Puberty Love.

Me too, kiddo, me too.

Why are comments disappearing, and where do they go?

Da Agony of Defeat

Persnickety is a Giant Bee that shoots Laser Beams, carries a Samurai Sword, is Radioactive, and Tunnels Underground. Strength: 3 Agility: 8 Intelligence: 7 To see if your Giant Battle Monster can defeat Persnickety, enter your name and choose an attack: fights Persnickety using Strength Agility Intelligence

You'd think a sword-wielding bee would stand a pretty good chance in a fight, but Bthe Backroad whupped me with the weather.