The song "Buildings and Mountains" by The Republic Tigers has been stuck in my head for about three days. For reasons I can't describe, it reminds me of Toto.

Anyone read anything good lately? I'm stuck in a loop of re-reading stuff. If I had to pick a genre I'd ask for fantasy recommendations, but I'll try anything.

Someday I'll stop procrastinating. But not today.

Well, the Extreme Home Makeover down my road is complete. The new house is about twice the size of the old one. Apparently they didn't even tear down the old house until Wednesday, and I'm amazed that they could put a new one up so fast (even if it is modular). There were probably 75 people moving around on the work site while we were watching, ( Read more... )

A year ago I spotted a suspicious mole on Alison's leg. She had it looked at, biopsied, and then removed. There were multiple visits to the dermatologist, one surgery, follow-up visit, plus costs for pathology on the biopsy and surgical specimen. It turned out to be not quite melanoma but close enough to be scary. They took a 1 cm margin, so a ( Read more... )

I woke up in the middle of the night after having an amazing dream. "I should write this down!" I thought, then "No way could I ever forget anything that awesome ( Read more... )

Do we have a single word that means things are good because they are getting worse more slowly? Like, the derivative of badness is lowering over time. This has been in the news a lot lately (housing, unemployment, economy, etc).

Listening to NPR just now, I learned that Tracy Kidder's new book, Strength in What Remains, is about a former medical school classmate of mine! He left after second year to focus on founding his clinic in Burundi. I didn't know him well, so it will be interesting to read the book.

Leftover risotto will never be the same, now that I know how to fry it.

I forgot how much I enjoy mowing the lawn. I like that each pass takes a little less time than the previous pass, and as you go you get to lop off sections and simplify the problem down to a simple rectangle. It's also outdoors, and moderate exercise. This was the first time I mowed our lawn, and it took a very manageable one hour and ten ( Read more... )