April 2011
6 posts
The Gazebo arrrives →
Signs of spring: fewer kids at the bus stop; more kids on bikes. Two enormous raccoons on the fence tonight, spotlit by the garden lights. Turned on the fountain on the Oak Island Water Feature,…
Friendship is Magic →
Yes, I know, same old photos. New and exciting web redesigns coming, rolled out one-two-three this week. Worked on the site a lot this weekend, but also – big suprise, this – went to Southdale on…
Extended play update bonanza! →
Friday! It was warm in the morning, relatively so – no finger-nipping frost, that is. I think we hit 60 in the afternoon. In the evening I sat in the sole surviving chair from the gazebo collapse,…
Leaning towards lunch →
Blustery today. The sun came out in the afternoon, but it was weak and abashed, as if it knew it could do more. It did enough: the hard-packed ice on the back patio has begun to recede, and today I…
A Herculean Effort →
Friday night, here:
It used to be Figlio’s, a restaurant whose primary purpose was filling your belly with Italian food for a night of drinking, and whose secondary purpose was teaching…
Just the Facts →
There’s rain in the air, and it smells like spring. It’s expected to turn to slushy snow overnight, but that’s expected; defeated armies are famous for atrocities committed in retreat.
Back in…
March 2011
17 posts
Our Neighborhood →
So the long scrape of March ends, with the insult-to-injury day, the Thirty-First. As if thirty days of March is an insufficient ration. April brings the usual hope, and more: tomorrow I order the…
A Tin Fig, Given →
Several times today I’ve removed my jacket while wearing earbuds. Some sort of static electrical charge is generated by the motion of my arms through the sleeves, and it goes right up the wires…
Thiiiis close →
Looks like I’ll finish it this weekend, all right: completed the big slam-bang action chapter last night, and it was grand; I was exhausted when it was done, sore in the shoulders from tensing up…
That Tom Cruise Interface →
As noted, this is a sorta-kinda hiatus week, as I am taking some time off from work, kid’s out of school, and I am finishing the novel this week. Today’s brief note: I was sitting in a doctor’s…
The Pentagon Papers →
Seen at a gas station today. Liberty, perhaps, to go overboard on typefaces:
Hahahahah! I didn’t have to have my wisdom teeth out after all!
Well, not exactly. I did. Years ago. Glad…
The Primer Squiggle →
Total lazybones mood continues; I blame the Healing Process. And I am healing nicely, aside from various irritations. The vicious cycle of oral discomfort: it would all go away on its own much…
Dancing about architecture →
I just feel like doing nothing. No, it’s not the Vicodin; I stopped that. It was boring. Two of the little things and I was just a congealed person-thing who sat and poked at the keyboard and looked…
It’s just fine →
It’s not that bad. Really! And all the vicodin wore off, too. (Replaced by plain old ibuprofin.) I rose, did not have coffee, did not have breakfast, took a small pill. It’s the year 2525! Went…
No Laurel For You →
Fine weekend, with a rich and zesty blend of work and less-that-work and hardly-work-at-all. Redesigned the main index page, the Institute of Official Cheer (simplified it; not up yet) and started…
BTL FTW →
One of the reasons I like living in cities: real watering holes. Not chain boozeries or nightclubs tucked in strip malls, but a real genuine bar in an old building in an old part of town. I feel…
Solid, Jackson →
The snowbank by my daughter’s karate school: yes. Substantial.
A small today will yield a large tomorrow. All the updates – minus a Diner, alas – pile up like logs borne down a raging…
Ouch, con’t →
Written at the doctor’s joint:
At the office for a consultation. After this we will set up a date for The Procedure, as it’s called. I prefer to call it an Extraction Interlude during…
First Affirmative →
A quiet evening at home with only the dull silent roar of my back molar to interrupt the heart-salving balm of domestic joy. I think that was the problem with the chap in the Munch painting, “The…
Stressure →
Target parking lot, Saturday:
Sigh.
That was Saturday: errands. Sunday: I fixed the back door, so the wind no longer grabs it and bangs it against the side of the house. During one…
From Shinola →
Well, today was better, in the sense that the 37th blow of the whip on your back is better than the third. (The first is a shock, the second makes you consider that the first was not an anomaly, and…
X →
Challenge: I saw this kid in a Richard Widmark movie. She popped out right away, because I’d seen her in another flick I’ve seen ten times. She had one line. One word. What was it?
What…
Whadda Maroon →
Happy March, the month that sounds like a cry ripped from a red raw throat. MAAAARRRRCH. The world:
It’s the point in the year where you slip and fall into the snow and the snow makes you…
February 2011
21 posts
Oh the Shark Bites →
Dillweed request: I have a mail program that sends up little alerts when I get a new message; it appears to be trashing some mails I mark as “unread.” If you’ve contributed this last week – and…
Happy Birthday Mr. Dog →
NOTE: this was written yesterday, before I realized I forgot to post a Bleat. So it’s a day behind. But there’s a Diner; links at the bottom.
Today’s snow photo, taken at the parking lot by my…
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Spoilers →
NOTE: I can’t believe I forgot to post this. And didn’t notice. Yet I did. So here’s yesterday’s Bleat, today! As if they’re all that timely. Note: I will be on the Dennis Miller show today,…
AAAAUUUGH →
The whole damned day was built around fargin’ snow. Wife gets up, heads out, I get a phone call a minute or two later: I’m outside, stuck. Go outside. Indeed: the car progressed exactly one yard on…
Another foot or so →
Another foot of snow. Or more: could be 15 inches by the time you read this. Eh. Fine. Do it. At this point we’re like the wounded in a field hospital. Just saw it off, doc. I’ll take a swig and…
Smartest Kid on Earth →
A long day, born from fog, laid into the grave with the brief benediction of the setting sun. Lots of satisfying work. At the end: sat on the sofa with daughter, who doesn’t have school Friday, and…
Big. Tiny. Little. →
Oh. Lord. Wednesday was wall-to-wall, and I’m not even close to the second wall yet, so you’ll forgive me here. But part of my work tonight involved the site, with a BleatPlus update – small,…
The Final Solution →
My main computer is having issues. The screen fills with tiny lines, and everything is unresponsive. The mouse works; iTunes continues to play. But the screens are locked. With my years of…
Hey Now →
Busy. Things today:
1. Daughter loved her Valentine’s Day Japanese confection gift, and she had a card for me as well. I bought her a funny card with cute characters saying things – a Whoops and…
A hit from the billabong →
First of all, congrats; yes, the working title of the novel is Positively Fourth Street. I’m ambivalent about this. It feels like a failure, somehow. I should find an obscure Elvis Costello lyric…
Ar-ee-es-pee-ee-cee-tee →
It’s two below. I think we might have hit five above today. The house is a meat locker, because it would be ruinously expensive to heat the pile to habitable temps, so we huddle and layer…
Eight O’Clock is when I have my first cup →
Oh, I don’t know about this.
On one hand I’m always amenable to the churn and reinvention of American brands, except where they abandon the traditional elements that bind them to their…
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TBA →
Daughter spent part of the weekend on a project devoted to the explorer De La Salle, part of the elementary school imperative to lodge a few kernels of factual information into the infinitely large…
The Stigmata →
A marvelous, busy, productive weekend. I did not watch a lot of Al Jazeera, because I got the impression that the regime is going to squat and wait and sit it out. Because they can. And if they can,…
We know a place →
New Diner! Link here, if you’re impatient.
So big important media dude that I am, I’m teeing up a podcast with Harry Shearer. Aaaand of course in the back of my mind is the realization that…
Those beautiful things →
Today was the day I decided to cut the cable. I’ll have to find a way to fit the needs of the family, which are different than mine; they watch a little TV. I don’t. But here’s the problem:
I…
Sorry Charlie →
February now. Time for pink-hued Oreo filling, as noted on last week’s Diner. Time for heart-shaped boxes of confections and roses and all the other obligatory amatory symbols, just to give us…
January 2011
16 posts
It’s a trap →
I think we’re all caught up on the Bleat Premium stuff – which, I should note, you can get for any contribution. A buck! Two! Whatever you wish. There’s a new link on the sidebar that whisks you off…
Friday! →
This is boring, so you might as well skip to the bottom for the updates. Sorry: nothing more uninteresting than the life of a guy who’s writing a book.
A reminder: if you donated at any level,…
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I am a Soybean Man →
I love getting mail that begins “Dear Fellow Soybean Farmers of North Dakota.” I am not one of those. I have some land on which soybeans are grown, and I suppose this entitles me to membership in…
Three Stars →
I have decided that it is not important if my play count for each song in iTunes is at least “1.” As I may have noted, I’ve been letting iTunes play all day and all night with the sound turned to…