Regular Life

I’m off work all week and we’re finally painting a few rooms in our house after living here almost three years. That’s a record for living in one home, by the way, in our nearly 16-year marriage.
Do not read the rest of this unless you like boring update posts that don’t have any real [...]

Ben atop the “new” swingset (click to enlarge)
As I have stated elsewhere, there are two types of people in this world: stump finders and stump dodgers. This is a sledding analogy. When sledding down a hill in or near the woods, the one who goes first is the stump finder. All who [...]

(Note: New banner for April 2008 today. You might have to force a refresh in your browser. It’s a bush eating a fence.)
After a somewhat difficult day at work Monday, it was great to talk on the phone with my wife for nearly 30 minutes. Her dad’s in town visiting — [...]

There’s a little bustling going on in our house right now. Shannon busily packs up a brown grocery bag with light tortilla chips and a homemade southwest dressing for the huge chicken-strip salad she made.
Personally, I’m going straight for the chili dogs when we get there.
You see, we’re going to watch the Super Bowl [...]

Thanks to all who answered my call for help on Thursday’s post. I think I came to some of the same conclusions in a comment or two that a few of you pointed out later, but no problem. It turns out that all the repetition moved me to action.
If you read yesterday’s post, can [...]

I need help, and it required a visual aid. So, I decided to forgo a text post, skip the podcast, and go straight for the vlog.
Please click the “play” button. Give it a moment after doing so (in IE you might have to click it twice to get it started). Scrolling could [...]

(Click any image to enlarge)
I miss snow.
All of you living in places where you have too much of it, I know it’s hard to believe, but the cold white stuff — never the same flake twice! — is very miss-able.
Like the bodies of dying crystalline butterflies, the flakes float to the ground and silently stack [...]

We were there to honor my grandfather, who died in his sleep in the New Year’s wee hours. The sun hid behind the gray sky and the wind added a chill to the 30-degree temperature.
My brother commented that Granddad would have insisted we all wear hats. Summer or winter, rain or shine, he [...]

I got the call on New Year’s Day that my grandfather had passed away in his sleep the night before. My last living grandparent, he was the only one fortunate enough to meet all those who have come after him thus far.
He deserves far more strikes of the keys than I can manage right [...]

Phone line down from who knows when until 11:50 p.m.
Realized it at 9:30,
After putting the boy to bed.
DSL was dead along with it.
Moved music files from random locations
To my external hard drive.
Been meaning to do that.
Centralized aural fixation.
Ate the yogurt from the cup on the desk,
Because my apple made me hungry.
It isn’t just me — [...]