I’m mucking about further with the HTML behind this page; it’s slowly crawling towards 100% XHTML compliance (don’t even bother trying to validate this page- it’ll explode.) bits and pieces here and there are getting rewritten, then rewritten again—the calendar over there on the left is a good example, and it’s still not done. Originally I had intended to build around a new redesign, but I’m going to stick with the layout I have for the time being and get it to where I want it to be.

Cash. My mother gave me a subscription to Vanity Fair a few Christmases ago, because she’d see me bogarting her copies when Jen and I were heading down on to the dock to swim. Truthfully, I was looking for reading material besides Better Homes, which I’d never read, and The New Yorker, which I already get, because I never bring reading material when I visit. I find the magazine a strange hybrid of fawning starlust and lurid true-crime stories of the Rich and Famous (seriously, how many people have been murdered suspiciously in the Hamptons? And do I really care? I’ll never vacation there, and sure wouldn’t consider it now, given the apparent homicide rate.) Still, between the profiles of über-rich asshole society figures and glossy Bruce Weber photos of young rich Hollywood stars, there’s the occasional nugget of goodness. This month, there’s a profile of the strange, fruitful collaboration between Johnny Cash and Rick Rubin, which is worth the price of the magazine—I was a latecomer to the music of the Man in Black, but have grown to enjoy his early work, which makes the last five albums of his career stand out in greater relief, and highlight the genius of the work they did together. I’d link you to the article, but Condé Nast has a dumbheaded anti-Web policy where they don’t post anything online that I can find.

Wax On, Wax Off. Today we have a fellow meeting us at the house; he’s going to give us an estimate for sanding and finishing the first floor and stairwell. We decided, because it’s mainly oak with a decorative inlay, that having a pro do the first floor was the best course of action—that, and the fact that it’ll be done in a weekend as opposed to a month. Hopefully the quote will be low, the timeframe will be soon, and the job will get done quickly.

Huh. International has gotten back into the business of building pickup trucks… sort of.