I’ve officially given up on attempting to drywall the entire porch myself, after getting the first six sheets hung last week before the parade. It will be easier and cheaper in the long run to hire out a pro, and so the nice fellow who did the ceiling in the living room will be back on Friday to finish out the work I started—as well as taping and mudding the whole thing. For an exceptionally reasonable price. Score. However, this means I need to hump thirteen sheets of drywall to the house before Friday afternoon.

Somehow, in the last two weeks, the short amount of time between now and the package delivery has filled up with stuff—good stuff, to be sure, but damn, man. I think we have more on our dance card in July than we had for the last six months of last year.

For the three or so people who use the Atom RSS feed to follow this here site, I fixed the problem with it so that it’s actually updating again. Sorry about that.

Still no resolution on the videocam issue; I’m reading all kinds of reviews about the Flip product line, which basically boils down to: ±$100 instant-on, five-button, no-nonsense video recorder which captures the important moments in a child’s life instantly, vs. ±$500 bulky, button-tastic über-recorder shooting HD quality. The archivist in me likes the idea of high quality, but the pragmatist knows that having a cigarette pack that turns on in two seconds for baby’s-first-whatever will be priceless. I think I’m leaning towards value and convenience, honestly.

This is the first year we have run an A/C unit in the downstairs portion of the house, and by golly, it’s nice. I haven’t seen the latest electrical bill yet, but the ability to walk through 3/4 of the house and not seriously consider climbing into the refrigerator to cool off will be worth the extra cost. Addendum: I saw an ad for this Fujitsu system in the latest This Old House. I like the idea of not having to run ductwork from here to Cleveland, and I’d love to hide the compressor(s) out back somewhere.

Can I just say how freakin’ much I’m digging on the Venture Brothers? The Adult Swim website has streaming copies of the last several episodes available (however, they don’t have previous seasons, the bastards) and I’ve been on that like a cheap suit. I totally dug the old Johnny Quest cartoons as a kid, and this is an updated version of that series with a definite twist. Santa? Put the DVD collections on my list this year.