Colorado Springs Knobs N Things

Amerock 192mm CC Stainless Steel Bow Pull - BP19005-SS

Amerock 192mm CC Stainless Steel Bow Pull - BP19005-SS

Bow pull available in Popular finishes for better look and feel This item is from Stainless steel collection Size 192mm hole center Original styles When necessary cabinet hardware protected with the Guardian Lifetime Guarantee is best cleaned with warm water mild soap and a soft cloth to maintain the beauty of your hardware

Retail: $ 0.00    Your Price: $10.84   Buy/More Info

Christmas Shopping and Men Don’t Mix

I’ll be blunt. Most men detest shopping. Unless they are searching for some sort of power tool for themselves.

Only this morning, my other half breezed enthusiastically into our home office brandishing his latest gadget-like purchase. At the time, I was sitting gazing at a blank PC screen searching for inspiration, which arrived instantly in the form of a Bosch Router.

“Look at this!” he enthused, as he waved this heavy metal object menacingly above my head. “Remember me telling you about how I wanted an edging tool, so that I could get a nice profile on the borders of furniture, like this desk for example?” he said, running his middle finger across the perimeter of his recent creation and then swiftly removing it when the razor-sharp edge sliced through his flesh.

“Well, now that I’ve got this, I can do that”, he gushed, as I ducked to avoid this now identified flying object swooping precariously past my cranium, whilst he gave a charades’ type demonstration of the action that one would employ when using such a contraption.

Mention the words B&Q, Do-It-All, Homebase and, above all, power tools and his face lights up like a Halloween pumpkin. Mention any other type of shopping, for anyone other than himself, and his features contort into an expression on a par with someone who’s just stepped, barefooted, into a pile of dog excrement.

Naturally, from a man’s point of view, Christmas is the worst time of year to engage in the tedious pastime of shopping, not just for one person, but for a miscellaneous assortment of friends and relatives, some of whom you only hear from once a year via a brown paper package containing a home knitted garment.

This loosely-woven hand knit is generally a ferret-coloured sweater that would fit a cross between an anorexic chicken and monkey, sent with much love from someone with a name like Auntie Ivy, who always has stale, tea breath, who wears rancid, Eau-de-Skunk perfume and whose Orang-utan lipstick overflows the outline of her lips and invades the rest of her face in a haphazard pattern. Oh, and she always seems to forget that you’ve matured somewhat, mentally and physically, since you were a mere six years old.

As far as men are concerned, Christmas shopping is best left until an hour before closing time on Christmas Eve. This is the “panic and buy anything for the sake of having to” hour and trying to secure the best of what is remaining on the spartan shelves.

The tacky choice generally includes a cellophane wrapped set of Lavender fragranced talc and bath cubes, a pair of musical Santa socks, a reduced price window candle arch, with two faulty bulbs and a Popular Christmas Songs album, by some obscure artist sporting a coat hanger grin, Grecian 2000 hair and a diamond-patterned pullover.

The only time that my partner enjoys the shopping experience as a couple, is when we visit select underwear stores, allowing him to sidle off and rifle lustfully through the transparent lingerie and waggle his fingers through the gap in crotchless panties. When shopping as an attached man, he can conduct himself in this manner without question. Unaccompanied, he would give the impression of either being a pervert or of harbouring a secret fetish for cross-dressing.

Last week, accompanied by our two-year-old daughter, we visited a shopping mall in Bristol to “tentatively” search for some Christmas gifts. Led by my “likes to be in control” partner, we skirted past 101 women’s clothes’ shops before I barely had time to drool longingly through the window at some over-priced, flirtatious little number, as it hung perfectly from some unbelievably stick-like, plastic dummy. And no, I don’t mean Pamela Anderson.

Suddenly, without prior warning, my beloved quickened his pace to the equivalent of having had a large stick of dynamite lodged up his behind, before veering sharply to the right and cutting across the paths of innocent pedestrians. He must have assumed that I was following, since not once did he glance over his shoulder to check that I was trotting dutifully behind.

Darting in and out of a bustling crowd of people, who all seem to be travelling at right angles to you, is not so much of a problem when you are not weighed down by any sort of baggage. However, when you have a mind-of-its-own pushchair and a large, golfing umbrella that has a habit of piercing unsuspecting victims in the nether regions, life becomes a tad more difficult.

After playing skittles with the pushchair and mobile human targets and ruining a nice young man’s reproductive capacity with my umbrella spike, I spotted my eager sidekick disappearing into a store that had “The Gadget Shop” emblazoned across the entrance.

Typical.

He spent more time in this store excitedly twiddling with knobs (imagining they were nipples, no doubt) and pushing various buttons, than we did in total looking around the entire mall. After declaring, “I’ve got to get one of these” at least ten times, he announced, “Well, that’s about it then. Not really much else here is there?”

“So aren’t we actually going to do any Christmas shopping today then?” I enquired.

“No, I think I’ll take a day off work in December”, he said.

“When, exactly?” I asked.

“Oh, probably Christmas Eve”, he replied……..

Jan Andersen is a British Freelance Writer and Humorist and mother of four children. Jan specialises in satirical and inspirational articles, features, columns, sketches and screenplays on diverse issues from relationships and parenting, to social issues and alternative medicine. Jan is in the process of completing a humorous, non-fiction book and is currently writing two comedy screenplays

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Dog Training Is Work Never Finished!

Just when I think I?ve got my dog Tuxcitto in control he gives me a demonstration that this well may be a life long pursuit. Tuxcitto is a Border Collie that has an uncanny learning capability. Not from my dog training skills but from observation. He watches everything that goes on around him.

And you never know when he?s going to add one and one to get two. Tuxcitto excels in obedience training when in sight or when his master is around. All I have to do is show him what I want him to do and then repeat it for a few days and he nails it after that. His ability to learn has always been obvious from the first day we brought him home.

But he also learns on his own. We have a good-sized front and back yard. And both dogs (I have an older female dog named Spoofy) know that they can do anything they want as long as it?s in our yard. We live in a small community and have lots of neighbors with dogs. From time to time one of them comes over for a visit.

No problem there except the temptation for our dogs to go run with the visiting dogs is too much to handle sometimes. Since most neighbors are dog owners this is not a problem. Except that my dogs are supposed to stay in my yard. That?s the rule. But we all know rules are made to be broken.

So one day a friend?s dog comes over to play and Tuxcitto follows him back to his yard. I happen to see this and go out and call Tuxcitto to come home. Tuxcitto comes back and everything is fine. I look back out a few minutes later and no Tuxcitto. So this time I call him home and bring him into the house.

If he can?t follow the rules, inside he goes. I go about my daily tasks and forget about it. Some time later I glance out the window and to my surprise, there?s Tuxcitto out in the front yard. And along with him are our two inside cats. Both these cats stay inside since they are both scared of their own shadows.

After a quick look around, I see that the back bedroom sliding glass door is open. Great, Tuxcitto has learned how to open the sliding glass door. This is not a good thing since we have several around our house. And although it?s no big deal for Tuxcitto to get out, the cats are a whole different issue. So I close the sliding glass door and go round up the animals and bring them inside.

Knowing that Tuxcitto will gladly give another demonstration of his new trick, I walk out another door to the backyard and wait. Within minutes I see him use his paws on the end of the door and pull it open. It took him about 5 seconds. Did I mention that he all ready knows how to open doors with doorknobs? He learned that trick in his second week at the house.

Now I have a challenge in that it?s much easier to teach Tuxcitto how to do something rather than teach him not to do something. So now I had to figure out a way to teach Tuxcitto not to open the door. One way that I?ve had some good success with is to demonstrate a certain result that he doesn?t like when he fails to follow my commands.

So I started with showing him the door, then telling him no. Tuxcitto understands no, so I believe he understood that the door was not something he was to go near in the future. But that doesn?t always work when I?m not present to reinforce the command.

So I then locked the door and both Tuxcitto and I went back to the other part of the house. I don?t know if he went back and tried to open the door that day but I believe he might have knowing his nature. A few days went by and I decided to test his memory.

I work out of a home office so the dogs and the cats generally follow me around all day. If I?m in the office they usually come in and lay down near me. If I go to the kitchen, or anywhere else, they follow me. So I set up the test by going back into the back bedroom and unlocking the door and going out into the back yard.

I came back in and did not lock the sliding glass door. I then went back to my office, with all in tow. So now I keep a close eye on Tuxcitto to see if he would make his move. I?ve made the mistake before of under estimating his intelligence and I?m not going there again.

Sure enough, after a little while he got up and looked at me, and I ignored him, and he sauntered off. As soon as he went down the back hall I knew where he was going. I quickly slipped out another door and went to stand out of sight but close to the outside of the back bedroom sliding door.

I heard him start trying to slide the door back and walked up close enough to be in direct sight when he came out the door. As soon as the door opened I said his name and then told him no in a very stern manner. He froze, caught in the act. I came in through the door and told him no again and sent him to his couch. When he does something he?s not supposed to he gets sent to his couch, which is leather I might add so it?s not too harsh a punishment.

We went through this ritual about 3 more times before he figured out that it was a trap. I don?t care if he doesn?t open the door because I told him no or because he thinks I?m waiting outside to catch him. Either way he understands that you don?t go open that sliding glass door.

From time to time I do catch him looking or even walking up to the sliding glass door but he doesn?t try to open it. The crazy thing about this whole deal is he can go outside anytime he wants. All he needs to do is go sit by the front door. I let the dogs out many times each day, whenever they want.

Now if I could just get Tuxcitto to resist the temptation to go out of the yard I would be overjoyed. But I know that that may be too much for his personality to handle so I cut him some slack. After all we all have our weak spots and his are few.

About the Author:

Get Free Dog Training Advice and dog training tips, news, resources, and more. Get help with obedience training your new dog or puppy. Stop by and get your free dog treat recipes. Click here to Get Free Help With Your Dog Training

Old Cabinets Look New!

There are many different types of cabinets. Everyone has kitchen cabinets, some people have built in cabinets, there are medicine cabinets, toy cabinets, garage cabinets, curio cabinets and bathroom cabinets. No matter where the cabinets are located however, they all serve one purpose ? to store things.

Sometimes we store things in a cabinet for a long period of time and they rarely get opened like a curio cabinet. Other types of cabinets are more functional and receive a lot of wear and tear and daily usage like the kitchen, garage or bathroom cabinet. Regardless of how a cabinet is being used or what it is being used to store, after a while they begin to need some sprucing up. There are a few ways to give old cabinets a new life.

A more expensive way to liven up old cabinets is to get rid of them completely and buy and install new ones. There are many varying degrees of quality when it comes to cabinets. The wood that they are, or are not, made out of will be a big factor in the cost of your cabinets. Cherry is going to be a lot more expensive than veneer material. Also the design of your cabinets will be a deciding factor in how much they will cost as well. The fancier the design on the door of the cabinet, the higher the price tag. Another thing that will determine the cost of installing new cabinets is the number of cabinets you need or the amount of space you want to fill with cabinets.

If you like the idea of new cabinets without tearing your kitchen apart or the price that comes along with that work, you can always have your cabinets refaced. Refacing involves changing out the current drawer and door fronts only. The base of your cabinets stays intact and nothing is removed from your kitchen except the old drawer fronts and doors. The biggest advantage to having your cabinets refaced as opposed to replaced is that they will be completed in about 3 days, the cost is substantially lower and you will still feel as though you got a new, updated kitchen.

There are some things that you can do however, to spruce up older cabinets before you decide to take out a small loan and install new ones. First, try changing out the hardware or knobs on your cabinets. Although higher quality knobs will cost you a little more, you will be surprised at what new knobs and drawer pulls will do to your outdated cabinets.

If knobs and pulls are not enough for you, you can also paint your wooden cabinets. There is no need to sand them down completely before you apply paint. You do need to sand them enough to make them tacky so the paint will adhere well to the surface. Also, use a primer first that is made to improve the adhesion of paint. When choosing a paint, be sure that whatever color you choose, you choose a hi-gloss finish or enamel. Enamels or hi-gloss finishes are easier to clean and really shine and stand out. By using an enamel or high gloss paint there is no need to use polyurethane as a sealant.

Whichever route you decide to take on updating your cabinets in any room, know that you have options and choices and that starting over is not the only one.

About the Author: To find more information and resources about cabinets visit: http://www.cabinetx.com