...I do have quite a lot of work to do, though. Some of it is even interesting. I have always responded well to deadlines, and there are several looming. We shall see ( Read more... )

I do like LJ. It's a diary, a confidant. But it doesn't call to me like my argument board does, and it almost feels like homework to write a post of my own. But it's good homework ( Read more... )

The Dalai Lama is coming to DC again, this time not as an exiled head of state but as just a humble teacher who is just plain better than you are, no matter who you are, so you really ought to listen. He's giving a "Talk for World Peace" at the Capitol on Saturday (he's not afraid to take controversial stands), and my wife, her sister, and a ( Read more... )

I did a pretty good job cleaning out the garage. I can't believe how crapped-up I'd let it get. I threw out a lot of stuff. If I put just about anything on the curb, someone drives by in a pickup and piles it on and roars away. What they don't salvage is hauled away by the trash trucks, I guess. D got new kitchen counters and I used the old ( Read more... )

I'm not talking S&M here, people. This is kayak-related. We did do a brief paddle on the Potomac when we had time, launching from Gravelly Point. It worked fine. The weather was dicey, but that helped, because it meant that it was a Saturday that wasn't crowded. We discovered that it wasn't hard to load and unload the boats and that we liked ( Read more... )

Well, we went to a retail store and spent more money than necessary on a couple of cheap kayaks (Wilderness Systems Pamlicos) and accessories. The paddles, life jackets, roof racks, and incidental impulse purchase gee-gaws cost about as much as the kayaks themselves. The total came to about $1750. They'll fit easily in the rack I'm going to ( Read more... )

Soccer ( Read more... )

My last drink was exactly a year ago. I don't believe I'll ever have another. It seems weird...for years I tried unsuccessfully to cut down, but one day (after a bender) I just woke up and decided that was it, and it stuck.

D's Aunt Mildred is 94. For the last three years, she's been in a fairly expensive geezer warehouse. Mentally, she's a shell of her former self, only rarely getting it together enough to have a real exchange. She usually has no idea what time or day it is; the next step is for her to fail to recognize her family--that'll happen before the end of ( Read more... )

If you can think of some logical reason why a large percentage of the world's people go absolutely nuts over the fortunes of a bunch of guys playing with some sort of ball, please let me know. Are we cheering on our mighty hunters as they bring home the meat that will feed us? Is it sublimated war? Whatever it is, it goes way beyond ( Read more... )