Fallen

Look, Autumn – I don’t like you and you don’t like me, but I concede that you’re aesthetically pleasing.  It doesn’t mean I like winter, though – got it?

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Winterey

I had to wear gloves and a balaclava on my ride to work this morning, and now there’s snow falling outside.  It seems appropriate, then, that we’re mailing in our application for federal weatherization funding tomorrow.  Thanks for the blown-in wall insulation, President Obama!
To Shane (in the comments): You’re right, although technically I owe more [...]

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Streetscape

We live very near a business district.  “Very near,” as in, I can see the stoplight from the porch without leaning over the railing.  There’s  potential for hipness – independent cafes!  used bookstores!  ethnic restaurants!  cool people walking around! – but at the moment, it’s all potential.
At our neighborhood meeting last week, a representative from [...]

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Zoo

There’s a squirrel chirping inside our wall.  Chirping happily away, inside our first-floor wall.  Ugh.
Update: No wait.  There are two, and they’re talking.

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Paul David Plumbing

Christopher over at Shaker Heights Restoration had a terrible experience with Paul David of Paul David’s Plumbing.  I’m linking to it because (1) I’m an empathetic guy and I commiserate, and (2) more links will put his review higher in the Google results.  I think that’s the way Google works anyway – but I don’t [...]

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Up, up and away

The first two weeks of the fall semester always kills me dead, and this term is no exception.  I’ve cut a handful of strips for the basement stairwell wall, but that’s the sum total of the progress I’ve made.  I’ve let the larger houseblogging community down, and I’ll clear the breakfast table at our  next [...]

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Dots and dots

I’m not sure why my daughter isn’t wearing pants in this picture (a power struggle I missed out on?  Lost a bet?), but the rug looks good, eh?  Those curtains, on the other hand -

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Band-aid

Gah – I just want to rip the office carpet off, fast, so it doesn’t sting so badly.

But first I promised to finish the new basement stairwell – and it’s creeping along.  I don’t have very much time per day to spend on it, and it shows.  Ugh.

The garbage/recycling closet is almost totally enclosed now, [...]

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Craigslist: beautiful mess?

Long article, from Wired:
Newmark’s claim of almost total disinterest in wealth dovetails with the way craigslist does business. Besides offering nearly all of its features for free, it scorns advertising, refuses investment, ignores design, and does not innovate. Ordinarily, a company that showed such complete disdain for the normal rules of business would be vulnerable [...]

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Chain of events

We had a moderately-successful garage sale last weekend.  I don’t even remember what we sold, which is a pretty good indication that we had boxes full of things we didn’t really need.  Wait, someone bought a blue rocking chair, for sure, but I don’t know what else.  In any case, Missy and I prodded ourselves [...]

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