yesterday, i put together a swing set for the kids. i started at about 1 o'clock and ended a little after 5. rin helped after a couple hours, so if she didn't help, it would have taken a while longer. why so long? let me explain.

i pulled all the items out of the box and they were covered in loose plastic with the items number/letter on it (ex. u1). after everything was pulled out, i grabbed the instructions and started reading them to find out where to begin (yesh, i am a guy who reads directions and instructions...shocking, i know). so, i got the first two pieces and fit them together and screwed them together and so on with the next two. afterwards, i was supposed to put the combined pieces together to form one long frame. they don't fit. what?!?!

so, i grab in instructions again and read them over. did that, did that, did that. they should fit. so i look closer and see that one is a little bigger than the other. so i take everything apart and redo it (what i like to call, "the right way") and lo and behold, it fit. two of the pieces were mismarked. so that set me up for the rest of the assembly. a couple pieces were bent, so i had to reshape 'em. i got the frame work finished a little later and started putting braces on and again, the directions weren't written the correct way, so i had to go back and redo them, again. rin asked me if they were written in chinese and translated to english. "nope" was my reply. "it was written by someone that has no comprehension of the english language." actually, what i think happened is there is a large, windowless room where sweaty, nerd like gnomes write the instructions booklets and crack themselves up, thinking up ways to confound those that buy their products. . .