I called one of our real estate agents last week and got the name of a roofer she recommended; he stopped by this morning to give us a quote on repairing the roof leak. I’ve had people guess how much they think the repairs will cost, and their answers confirm my anxiety—I was thinking this was gonna be at least a grand or so. So when the roofer stopped back in and gave me a price of $100, my jaw hit the floor. For $200 he’s going to repair the leak and a couple of other slates further down, and I couldn’t be more relieved.

Wow. I’ve loved Gary Panter for years—he’s an artist/illustrator who has an extremely raw style and unique voice in the world of commercial illustration. Anybody who can stay as true to his craft as this guy, and become as well-known, is a hero to me. (Anybody that will coat cicada shells in latex and sell them to the public, while cheerfully warning you not to eat them, is a genius.) Turns out he’s selling custom drawings for $125 based on a couple of keywords you send him; I think this is a bargain and a unique opportunity reminicent of Howard Finster‘s ads in the back of Rolling Stone. (Sidebar: Our old boss at Cidera, a mild-mannered manager who suffered some of the worst paint-peeling halitosis known to Man, had answered one of the ads in the early 80’s and had an original Finster. I was envious.) I don’t have a whole lot of money right now, but I’m seriously considering this.