I’m testing a Flickr layout template with some flower pictures from last spring. I’m liking the service very much so far. Now I just need to start taking pictures again…
The domain name search has been an exercise in frustration. I used to think that I’d be able to come up with something in five minutes, but when I actually put my mind to it, it stumped me. A word or a phrase or a nickname that isn’t too embarrassing, perhaps. (I didn’t really have anything other than my last name, which worked fine usually, but isn’t what I want for this site.) Hopefully nobody else has taken it yet. Do a domain name search for it…. Chances are, it’s already gone. Adding a level of complexity, tailoring the name around what the site is about- art, poetry, quantum physics… chances are somebody’s got it. Or worse, somebody’s squatting on it and willing to sell it for an inflated price. This stuff gets harder and harder.
Now, I’m also a snob because I don’t want a .biz or .us or .info extension, so I realize I’m being picky. I tried phrases that reflected the house, and things inside it, e.g. the toilet in the basement, which always makes me laugh, has a yellow seatcover with a smiley face painted on the top: Pottyface.org. I tried silly words I use all the time: all permeutations of craptacular and craptastic are taken. (Most of the other phrases I use are PG-13 and R-rated, unfortunately.)
Then I started thinking of common phrases and dissecting them: one came to mind immediately, which was [open mouth] insertfoot.org. Another was [this house/truck/tool is] donebusted.org. Song titles that might lend a name were consulted: idiotking.org is available. I haven’t decided on anything yet, but I’m going to make a decision in the next 24 hours so I can get this thing off the ground.
Bling. This past weekend, I noticed a new realty sign on the corner down the street on my way to work. Always curious, Jen and I did a search and found that the four-square around the corner (same floorplan, same square footage) is on the market for the astronomical sum of $550K. Good LORD. We’d better spiff up our house before the neighborhood upscales us out of existence.
This morning I awoke to the sound of the doorbell click-clacking and a knock on the door. I was laying in bed ignoring the snooze alarm and trying to decide if the beep-beep-beep sound outside was a road crew hot-patching the hole across the road (it wasn’t) and later, if the hollow tapping sound was our door, when I suddenly realized we had an appointment with a cabinet installer, who was supposed to take measurements of our kitchen so that we can find out just how much blood we have to sell to finance a remodel. He seemed ok when I greeted him in my pajamas and bedhead, and clucked when he saw the room. The good news is that we’ll probably be able to fit a dishwasher in there, and running a gas line for a range should be easy. The bad news is that it’s still small, the stove stays where it is, and there’s not a whole lot we can do with the fridge.
In the meantime, I’ve been lax about writing here so that I can put the finishing touches on the local version of a new weblog. I have a sideblog installed (a sort of secondary blog of interesting links, in this case) and the templates completed; I’m still working out the archive sections and the search result page. Unfortunately, I’ve been neglecting to settle on a name for the damned thing, which is kind of important in buying a domain. Suggestions? Really, I’m kind of stumped here.
foursquare and brokedown are all unavailable with the extensions I want (.com, .net or .org). Fivecentsplease has been ruled out. Waitingroom is unavailable. (I’m thinking of a doctor/house theme here, have you noticed?) PerpetualRenovations is available but a little long—maybe there’s a shorter cousin…? ThisOldGrouse is available.
It Is Decided. Our firstborn son will be named Octavio.
Corrollary: It took us about an hour to remember the third Bee Gee’s name (Jen finally got it). Can you get all three? No cheating…
Progress is being made on the design front; I have a working, usable index page template in Movable Type running on my Powerbook’s webserver (where my test install of MT resides) and it’s been slowly coming together. I’m tweaking the fonts and coloring, and I’ve moved some stuff around. Next up is enabling and configuring the comment section (popup vs. inline?) and then wrassling with the Archive section. Finally, I’ll install some sideblogs for other content (the music and links sections). I’m excited.
Can somebody else out there with IE6 or 5 check my home page and tell me if the image shows up at all? Thanks! (My install of IE here at work is hopelessly buggy.)
This weekend looks like it’s going to be very barfy around here, so we may keep close to home and get things done around the house. I’d like to finish the painting job and put the baseboards back permanently, and actually get to work on the wiring in the back bedroom. I also got in touch with a friend’s wife who designs kitchens, in the hopes that we can get our disaster cleaned up before we’re in the family way. Note: the other night I pulled up about five square inches of the linoleum to expose a thin layer of plywood and green pre-war linoleum underneath. Under the green is pretty pine flooring, ready for sanding. No word yet on its condition….
Jen and I got about a months’ worth of social contact this weekend, something we really haven’t done in a long time. Friday night we had our friend Dave over for dinner and the resurrection of his main music drive, which had crashed catastrophically the previous week. He brought over his new Mini for us to drool over (my review: absolutely beautiful engineering. Fast, QUIET, and elegant. One drawback: only one FireWire port. However, we will own one) and we stuffed him full of lasagna and PBR while waiting for the progress bar on Disk Warrior to inch rightwards. Success was achieved early Saturday morning, and we sent him into the darkness knowing his music collection was safe. (Disk Warrior comes recommended.)
Saturday we knocked around town running errands and enjoying the sunshine; later that evening we stopped over to our neighbors’ house for pizza, beer, and caught up with the latest local news. Sunday we took up Dave’s offer to visit his church, and sat in on the 10:30 service. The service was very modern, very upbeat, and the sermon was a thoughtful reflection on child-rearing that had Jen and I talking over our coffee for an hour after we left. Later in the day I started on the trimwork and made my way up the stairs to the hallway, covering all the doorframes but one with a coat of fresh white paint. Oh. My. God. It’s like a brand new house up there.
In no particular order.
- Before it became a hipster drink of choice, supplanting that headache-inducing brew known as Yuengling (and, before that, Rolling Rock), my parents reintroduced Jen and I to the simple joy of Pabst Blue Ribbon on a can, based on its recommendation in Consumer Reports. Yes, I drink beer not because the Cool Kids tell me to, but because Consumer Reports gives it a little red dot. I understand now why my father kept a case of Black Label in the basement when I was growing up; it’s much better to always have a 12-pack of cheap cans in our fridge than a monthly six-pack of foo-foo microbrews. Not that I’d ever drink Black label again.
- The huge steel plate on the road outside our house can’t get filled soon enough. Having city buses thunk-thunk over that thing like a kettle drum every fifteen minutes during rush hour is damned annoying.
- Two coats of bright white paint on the trimwork in the hallway make the place look so much brighter. I’m sure the upstairs hallway will be a new room once it gets the same treatment. Now, unfortunately we have a houseful of drab, alligatored Phillip Morris White doors, all patiently awaiting a dip at the refinishers’.
- Yesterday, I was officially ready for spring. The wind was howling Chicago-style, the snow was looking gray and dirty, the trees all looked tired and saggy, and the air smelled like copper. It’s time for bulbs, shoots, sprouts, and seedlings. It’s time for mulch, loam, fertilizer, and compost. It’s time to have the windows open, and have the smell of fresh breezes and summer air throughout the house.
Penn is now off the Xanax and back on Prednizone. I have no idea what is wrong with this cat, and I’m not sure what to do next. I wish we could get a straight answer from somebody.
The GeoUrl link on the left there works again; after about six months of busted they updated the engine to re-index everybody.
Jen was visiting her father in the L-P city this weekend, so I took the opportunity to make as big of a mess as possible while she was gone. Friday night and all day saturday I spent mudding, taping, sanding and priming the upstairs and downstairs hallway. You’re wondering why I said the downstairs hallway, when I’ve posted pictures of the “finished” product—well, as with any drywall job, you never notice the blemishes until you get the first coat of primer on it, and then suddenly it looks like Ray Liotta’s face. Upstairs, the walls took two coats of primer and about four coats of white paint before they looked clean; now the Phillip Morris White on all the trimwork really stands out in contrast. Sunday I pulled the baseboards in the dining room and braved the fiberglas insulation to run wiring, so when we call the electrician back in, we can get ¾ of the first floor hooked up.
Other than that, four loads of laundry, and a sinkful of dishes, I did nothing. Two solid days of work, bachelor meals, and sleep. But it’s 99% done.
Well, I’d love to tell you good folks that I was able to finish the hallway and clean up the mess, but that would just be too easy. Instead of the three solid days of work I thought I’d put in on the place, reality stepped in and hit me upside the head—Saturday was spent recovering from a walloping hangover due to a late-season holiday party, which required copious amounts of water, comfort food, and videos to fix; Sunday we took Penn to a behaviorist, cleaned up the house and visited with the Brizzis, and Monday I got an even later start but worked up until 11pm.
Unfortunately, there’s a nasty seam right at the foot of the stairs that needs to be feathered out and smoothed, the taping upstairs is more extensive than I thought, Hunter S. Thompson killed himself, it was too wet/cold to get the Scout indoors, and I can’t hold my liquor as well as I used to.
On the positive side, the freelance fairy keeps dumping stuff in my lap, so I’m going to be busy for the next eight or nine months at least.
R.I.P. Over at metafilter, the post on HST’s passing has reached 492 comments at this writing, which must be a record of some kind. In college I got into a Beat/Wolfe/Thompson phase and burned through Fear and Loathing in one feverish night (no small feat, I can testify) which, after reading the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and drinking a six-pack of Boh, was much more accessible. Later, I read Hell’s Angels and re-read FLLV several times to soak up what I’d missed the first time. Drug user, journalist, gun nut, misanthrope, patriot, American, author, original: his dispatches from the wilderness will be missed.
The primer is creeping up the stairs and has made its way to the left side of the bathroom door, although there’s a bunch of patching to be done up there. I hung my ass out over the stairs and finished scraping the last of the wallpaper, patched a few more holes, and caulked a bunch of the trim, stopping only for pizza and PBR (now our beer of choice, because it’s tasty and it’s $6.50/12pack.) This morning the sunlight reached all the way down into the hallway, and it made me feel good. Once the ceiling gets a clean coat of paint and the last of the old plaster is covered, it’s going to make a huge difference. I’ll post pictures of the whole thing on Monday, when it’s cleaned up.
Word of the Day: Pulchritude, n. Great physical beauty and appeal, or: an ugly word to describe a beautiful thing.
For looking at, and spending a half hour attempting to rationalize, a Triumph TR-6 I saw on the Baltimore Craigslist yesterday. Or, the ’62 Vespa for $650 in Dupont Circle. BAD MONKEY!!
