Take me home, Alabama. Fresh photos, served daily - click to see the whole thing.
 
I
t's not really summer until you find your pores weeping their saltiness while you sit motionless in your home. I have an informal rule about picking one type of temperature to complain about, and dealing with the other silently (by dealing I mean scowling and mumbling to myself in a dark room). I choose "cold" most of the time, because winter is a sucker's game, and Illinois is filled with suckers (Rod Blagojevich was elected, you know). All of this to say that yes Virginia, summer...
Read the rest of “Is it summer yet? Stuck to the vinyl in Illinois” posted 6 days, 9 hours ago on Friday, Jun the 26th 2009
Past Mumbling
I
have a friend that claims I'd rather build things than use them. He's wrong, of course; I'll use anything that's built right -- most things are not. As a result I build things I'll be using, and then I can only blame...
Read the rest of “The Crusty Luddite” posted 1 week, 6 days ago on Friday, Jun the 19th 2009
W
ell, we pulled it off and victory was achieved. Even though we had some communication issues, all units eventually made a showing. Who would have expected such a sneak attack to work on a day in early June? There was some resistance, but...
Read the rest of “Surprise surprise” posted 3 weeks, 5 days ago on Saturday, Jun the 6th 2009
O
n driving into work the other day, I was bestride the miata (strike one) listening to NPR (strike two) and had the top up, even though it was sunny out (strike three). A miata driver going the opposite way saw me give them the...
Read the rest of “The Emasculation Triple-Crown” posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago on Tuesday, May the 19th 2009
I
realize it's supposed to be "heavy hangs the crown", but a crown sounds pretentious, and a tiara just sounds confused, so I went the more informal route. My brother and business partner (same dude) took off for a two week party in...
Read the rest of “Heavy hangs the sweatband” posted 4 months ago on Wednesday, Mar the 4th 2009
A
friend of mine from many moons ago has a blog, and writes at a pretty steady clip. She's married, with kids & a husband, and records her highs and lows with a fair amount of transparency. I'm jealous of her openness. ...
Read the rest of “Bite your [digital] tongue!” posted 4 months ago on Friday, Feb the 27th 2009
I
saw a post from someone that had reached their 10th anniversary blog. It prompted a short visit down memory lane to my first post, back in January of 2002. Clearly I was enamored with the whole phenomenon, because I wrote three posts...
Read the rest of “Hope, Change and Two Smoking Barrels” posted 4 months, 1 week ago on Friday, Feb the 20th 2009
B
eing the happy-go-lucky member of the citizenry that I am, I rarely find myself questioning the wisdom of my state or local governments. Unfortunately, Sally goads me into a frothy rage over things, and I'm forced to lash out, with angry little...
Read the rest of “Frothing mad” posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago on Tuesday, Feb the 17th 2009
I
n a near-record sprint, I chewed through the remaining batches of photos from the cruise and got them posted. I probably should have deleted more, but what good is empty disk space? I've been asked if Sally ever smiles, and I'm pretty...
Read the rest of “Cruise Blues - The finish” posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago on Thursday, Feb the 5th 2009
S
o, there was this one time, waaaaaay back in early January, that I went on a cruise. A boat, of the oceanic variety, ...
Read the rest of “Speed 2: Cruise Control” posted 5 months ago on Monday, Feb the 2nd 2009
I
'm in bed, at 6am, watching lines of print statements dump out the progress of a long running loop. I was watching three log files at work until about 11:30pm. New code has been misbehaving, and it needs to stop. I run...
Read the rest of “Babysitting Bytes” posted 5 months ago on Friday, Jan the 30th 2009
P
ity the quiet neighborhood through which I pass on my travels. Cower in fear and shield your children as the wheezing fury of an overworked, under-maintained 14 year-old Honda Civic lets loose with the roar of 1,000 angry weed eaters on its...
Read the rest of “With apologies to Yeats” posted 6 months ago on Tuesday, Dec the 30th 2008
I
n trying to do my part to bail out our economy, I've graciously allowed my debit / check / bank / credit card number to be stolen and abused by a random person in Florida. They tried to buy something for $900 from a Wal-Mart...
Read the rest of “I am the Every Man” posted 6 months, 2 weeks ago on Tuesday, Dec the 16th 2008
I
t's not as if there aren't myriad other interesting things to blather on about, but I've become fairly bad at making the time to ramble about those things here. ...
Read the rest of “Windows to my soul” posted 6 months, 3 weeks ago on Thursday, Dec the 11th 2008
W
hen, in the course of human events, one finds that opening the refrigerator at work presents them with the odor of a very fresh, very large Sharpie marker, one must breath deeply of the need to clean the fridge. Or grab a Mt. Dew and back...
Read the rest of “Lettuce hope for the best” posted 7 months, 4 weeks ago on Wednesday, Nov the 5th 2008
3 days, 8 hours ago
EyePulp
Man, they'll let *anyone* post on the internet... I did not check my floor ... view
3 days, 10 hours ago
Woodman
Nice work Andrew. You're well on your way to becoming a true Finnish carpenter ... view
6 days, 7 hours ago
SallyPants
Isn't the 4th anniversary the kitten year? Because guess what's waiting at home ... view
1 week, 6 days ago
SallyPants
I see a funeral pyre in the making! view
2 weeks, 4 days ago
SallyPants
Great shots, camera dude. view
2 weeks, 4 days ago
SallyPants
Whoa. Please tell me that's not Cerberus. view
3 weeks, 3 days ago
SallyPants
I believe it's Dick Cheney's face. view
3 weeks, 3 days ago
EyePulp
What's the emoticon for a grimace and/or scowl? view
3 weeks, 3 days ago
SallyPants
A big thanks to everyone who gave up part of their Saturday to take part ... view
1 month, 1 week ago
Shep
Shep who? view
Caught on Film
Part of “The Big Table”
11 pixelated photos taken on June 24, 2009
I finally spent some time sanding and staining the top of the table. I ended up at a 220 grit, which made it feel really smooth. After cleaning up with ...


Part of “Church in Progress”
9 wayward photos taken on March 16, 2009
We sprayed the last part of the ceiling that remained uninsulated. We used a closed-cell foam instead of Icynene. It has twice the R value per inch, and cost less ...


Part of “Church in Progress”
6 digital photos taken on May 21, 2009
My first foray onto craigslist resulted in purchasing a huge lot of Douglas Fir from a local lumberyard. It was wood they ordered for a guy who liked to make ...


Part of “Shorter Trips”
19 cursed photos taken on May 30, 2009
Friends from Chicago tied the knot, and some bumpkins from south of Route 80 drove up to admire the festivities. It was a Greek Orthodox ceremony, which is anything but ...


Part of “Non-Holiday, Non-Food-Centric, Family Awesomeness”
9 sordid photos taken on June 7, 2009
We had a similar reunion in 2007, with (possibly) greater attendance. I don't think people had seen each other much (if ever, in many cases) before 2007. This year didn't ...


Part of “Birthdays”
6 photoshopped photos taken on June 6, 2009
My wife of many (hundreds and hundreds by last count) turned... a year older, and since modulo division by 10 resulted in 0, I felt she deserved a surprise. A ...


Part of “Weather's clever, Trevor (and a bit o' Nature)”
10 half-hearted photos taken on June 13, 2009
This was a particularly evil looking creature with all sorts of "touch me and die" markings that appeared to be laying eggs in a tree, or possibly drilling for oil. ...


Part of “The Big Table”
9 hyperventilating photos taken between May 18, 2009 & May 19, 2009
Some further work, including stain, drawers and the start of the table-top.