The balance of my Citibank card is, with the exception of about $500, paid off. You better believe I can deal with the interest on $500 instead of $3K+. That’s a good feeling, to have that liability gone.

So I got DJ Shadow spinning Ape Shall Never Kill Ape on iTunes right now; does anybody know when he cut this and if it was a tie-in with that *ahem* Tim Burton movie…? (It’s really funny to have Charlton Heston screaming about damned dirty apes! over a real sweet backbeat.)

I was able to put in the first step to the deck last night; there’s a 4×4′ support on either corner with carriage bolts tying in the step and the overhang boxes (pictures to come) so that everything is secure and won’t hop or sag. Next I’m going to pick up a 2×8 or so and fabricate some stair hangers to tie in that step with the main frame; then I can lay and secure the rest of the joists, run wiring to the stair lights and planter boxes, and then the difficult part—figuring the math for the stairs and building them.

Note to Amazon: I want to hear the audio clips you so generously provide on the site, but I absolutely refuse to download and install the Real player or any software written by that company.