My next home will have some minimal requirements, and one of these involves the laundry facilities. It is transparently obvious that the people who design American homes have never washed their own clothes. Nobody actually responsible for this task would ever put the washing machine and dryer in the basement of the house. The very idea is insane ( Read more... )

I received a very nice email from someone who is probably a very nice person, asking if she could buy an autographed copy of Travels Through Middle Earth from me. Regretfully, I turned her down ( Read more... )

The BEST trap ever, three of them, each requiring about $7.00 in materials: 1 stink bug

Alaric's cheap-ass handy dandy stink bug jar, just one, requiring an empty jar: 18 more stink bugs

I should make a you-tube demo movie.

A local television station publicized instructions for making the BEST trap for brown marmolated stink bugs. It looked fairly simple so I bought the necessary items (mostly masking tape, little LED lights and empty two liter plastic soda bottles). Drank six liters of cherry soda. Assembled three traps ( Read more... )

For me, the crowning glory of this year's HPF came from an entirely unexpected direction. For years now I've only seen Sam's son Sean at Heartland. Sean's mother moved to Alabama (with him, of course) about fifteen years ago. When he was a baby and a toddler I often babysitted him, but early memories fade as we grow older, and I didn't think I ( Read more... )

THERE AND BACK AGAIN. Caesar was a great traveling companion. Every rest stop was a new adventure for him. I stayed over with my friends Carvin and Paul in Indiana, and had a nice visit with them.

STORMS AND TWISTERS. The weather could have been better. Lots better. Tornado sirens were going off everywhere while we were getting ready to ( Read more... )

Today I accomplished more towards getting Holendun ready to put on the market than we have done since last autumn. The front porch is fixed. Arrangements have been made for everything but carpeting and painting, and work should begin in early June, just after I get back from Kansas ( Read more... )

Thank you dewinblaidd, earthly_gnome and crzykbdplyr! My ipod is now worthy, and just in time for my 1800 mile trek over the rainbow and back ( Read more... )

My pocket phone - the third one I've had in seven years - is starting to give me problems. It doesn't ring a lot of the time, and the alarm doesn't always work. Admittedly an alarm is not traditionally a function of a telephone, but the other issue is sort of fundamental for phone service ( Read more... )

Turns out I'll be leaving for Heartland a day earlier than expected, which means more food needed for Caesar and Lucky. Yesterday I made a new batch of chien cuisine, and packaged and froze it in single meal portions. The rest of this week I'll be focused on getting ready for the trip. I have a schedule now, although I'm sure everything won't go ( Read more... )