I’m Still Unique Just Like Everyone Else

I did this once already, but it was 3.5 years ago. First image to come up in Google Images for each of the following answers. I would try Bing for the novelty, but they don’t do a good job of indexing my site. Sorry, JL. 1. Age on my next birthday: The crazy thing is

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The 48-State Road Trip: One Year Later

Labor day a year ago, I was waking up at 4:30 AM and heading out onto the Nina Moose River with a rented canoe, heading toward Lake Agnes in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. This year on Labor Day? I’m writing blog posts in order to avoid doing readings for school. What a difference a

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Worst Birds Ever

I made a pledge to myself two years ago that I’d one day post something on my blog about the birds that used to crap all over my deck when I lived on the lake in Mission Viejo. Was transferring photos off the laptop today and came across the cretins: So infuriatingly not dead. They

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And the Kitchen Sink As Well

Cabinets, counter top, appliances, sink, faucet, garbage disposal, and dishwaser: I think that’s officially a functioning kitchen. Water lines by Rube Goldberg, aka what happens when you tell the guy at Home Depot that you want to hook up a dishwasher without soldering anything. Eh — maybe I should have just left well enough alone.

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Yorktown, Petersburg, and Old Confederate Cemeteries

I was gonna do some big write up about the CSA, but I guess I don’t care that much. Going to the south is like going to a foreign country where they speak English. They have their own history and aristocracy and culture and symbols and clearly none of these are mine/yours (unless you’re from

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This Is What the Kitchen Looks Like Now

Some calm, boring day in the future I’ll do a retrospective video slideshow that I’ll never want to watch again. In the meantime, for those living vicariously, here’s what the kitchen looks like as of an hour ago. No, it’s not done. It will never be done. Srsly. Hoping to get the sink, dishwasher, and

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The Museum and White House of the Confederacy

Main reasons for going to Richmond: (1) I’d meant to spend a day there on my road trip last year, but it got squeezed out; (2) $36 a night at a newly renovated Holiday Inn. Also it was within a six-and-a-half-hour driving radius from Pgh (barely). Plus there’s nothing to do there that requires you

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Fort Necessity and George Washington

“Fort Necessity” is arguably the answer to the question of “Where did George Washington become George Washington?” No one ever asks that, but maybe they should. Definitely they should. It’s where George Washington sort of took over from aristocratic old-school British General Edward Braddock in the French and Indian War. Supposedly Washington also sort of

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Kitchen Floor: Slated

Still needs to be washed another 30 times and then sealed (twice? we’ll see), but otherwise it’s done. Enjoy the photo retrospective. Or not, whatever works for you. What the in-store sample tiles looked like. It wasn’t very gauged, either. The dry run. Also on the floor: a hammer, wire strippers, small wonder bar, four-foot

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Cutting Slate Tile with a Wet Saw

This was kind of fun. And now I have a power tool that shoots muddy water at me. Finally. bkd