I don't know what you do at the beach. But what I do when I go to the beach is build cities. The shores of St Andrews are littered with the invisible ruins of dozens of great cities, each glorious metropolis lost to the waves ( Read more... )

I was over at my sister-in-law's house for dinner recently. It was a very nice dinner and that shouldn't be overlooked, given the contents of the rest of this entry. They are always nice dinners, M. is a great cook. We were talking about my wife's amusing and awesome idea for weight loss - mine, not hers - which is that if I lose 3lbs in two ( Read more... )

A brief update on two things that are taking up my mind just now.

One side effect of the state shut down is that people didn't think to renew their various licenses to sell alcohol. I've been wondering when the rubber would meet the road viz-a-viz popular discontent with the state shutdown. I'd guess "Not long after we can't buy beer" is the correct ( Read more... )

After a fairly so-so start, summer really kicked in over the weekend of the 4th. We went up to the cabin on Friday night and opened all the new screen windows. The breeze coming in off the lake was fantastic to fall asleep to, even if our futon has disappeared. In the winter and autumn, we sleep on a mattress in front of the fire in the main room. ( Read more... )

Last night we went to The Container Store.

We went to Dick Blick's first and I'm reminded that I'd never make a good rich person because I'd blow all my money on art supplies. There is almost nothing in that store that I don't want to buy. And not because I know how to use any of it. I wouldn't know Gouache from... well, I don't know what it is ( Read more... )

In 1987, my mum gave me the best wisdom any football fan could ever receive*.

Dundee United** had cruised into the finals of the UEFA cup, battering everyone, including Barcelona - against which Dundee United have never been beaten*** - only to fall to IFK Gothenburg. Gothenburg, that's in Sweden. They were Swedish. Like Abba. That's awful.

I was ( Read more... )

... but this one works wonderfully.

I've never done Beer Can Chicken before, and by all accounts it is an easy and awesome way to do chicken. Turns out that was totally true.


( Read more... )

I was sitting drinking some coffee in Caribou, minding my own business and reading a book when a lady came by handing out raffle tickets. Free massage was the prize, with no strings attached, yet there were some people who were turning her down.

I couldn't imagine why they would turn down a shot at a free anything and since I'm not a fan of ( Read more... )

Blimey, after how boring winter was, Spring certainly stepped things up a bit. I stopped blogging anything just because there wasn't really anything to write about. It was dull, it was grey, it was cold and it seemed interminable. But then, suddenly everything started up:

The snow melted, the grass came up, all those plants we didn't plant in ( Read more... )