holy crap!

One of my big toenails fell off yesterday.

where's my punchline?

"How are your trees, Grandpa?"
"I've been getting a lot of fruit this year."
One of the coolest things about my Grandpa's place in Florida is all the variety of fruit trees in the immediate vicinity. Happy belated 78th birthday, Grandpa!

My friend John describes a recent evening:
"So we walked to the lake shore, to the breakers off of the beach, and the moon was huge and red and we were sitting there and it was the perfect romantic night. Until we saw a big rat coming down the breaker toward us. What the hell is a rat doing there anyway? So yeah, the moment was kinda ruined."

"My daughter calls me. 'Dad, I need some poster board.' How long have you needed this? 'Well, I thought I had a piece, and I thought my sister had a piece, but she didn't, and the only poster board we have is messed up...' Yeah, but how long have you known that you need it? 'A week.' And when do you need it for? 'Tomorrow.' Of course. So now I'm sitting in the Wal-mart parking lot, with zero cash, and I can't remember the PIN number of my debit card."
From a conversation with my uncle Lee. Who also related the demise of my old car, a '94 Geo Prizm, which clocked in at 188,000 miles before imploding.

Meanwhile, the jinx is in, and B and I are on indefinite hiatus. Who didn't see that coming?

and perhaps a few more...

Things I could live without in the wake of an alien abduction:

- Back issues of Wired
- M.C. Escher sticker book
- Iron
- Sense of despair and childlike hope after the first big snowfall of the season
- The latest episode/re-run of Lost
- Sugary cereals
- Concert t-shirts
- 403(b) pension
- Scented candles
- Collection of maps to the residences of all of my friends
- Passive aggressiveness
- Commuting
- Incessant habit of list-making

Just add hot water

Do I associate tea with sickness? All summer long, I was in no mood for drinking tea. Now I have the sniffles and all I could think of today was how nice it would be to get home and make a nice cup of tea. Or two, so far. I think I'll run the spectrum tonite; I had the green and white blend first, followed by the chai spice black. Maybe I should throw in some lemon while I'm at it.
Still, I don't want to develop a negative association. It's been wet and chilly the past few days, though, so I could just as well be linking it to the weather. Kind of like I associate mashed potatos with winter far more than any other season.

Row Row Row

Things I saw in or near the water during Sunday morning's canoe trip:
-Dead fish
-Branches
-Condoms
-Basketball
-Cranes/herons
-Ducks
-Turtles

We went north up the Chicago River, near Addison, as far as Bryn Mawr before heading back. Except for a break to have a snack, we spent about 3 hours on the water. I ended up in the middle with Jeff steering and Richard up front; leaning back against a wooden railing while sitting on a seat cushion did not make my back too happy. Oddly, my arms are not as sore as I expected them to be. The weather was great; just enough breeze and sunny but not too hot.

Poor man's kaleidoscope

Last night I gave my bathroom a fresh coat of paint. This morning I was putting it back together, and happened to look through the long, square towel bar (one of those cheap metal ones that everybody has had in their bathroom at one time or another). I was able to capture a sample of the effect in this photo.
Yes, I am easily amused.

Another baby

Eliza and Trey

As of yesterday, another newborn amongst my friends. And is it just me, or does Big Bird seem to be defying gravity in some way?

So that's finally done...

The project that took all summer to get done is finally complete. The shower leak is fixed and the whole thing has been re-tiled.
The guy sent out from Handyman Connection did a nice job and was very efficient and easy to deal with. So I would recommend them; my only complaint is that it took a while to actually get the work scheduled and done.
So...now I'm realizing that I probably ought to repaint the bathroom. Sigh. It never ends, does it?