My stoopid neighbor’s stoopid dog

…kept me awake all god-damned night. From 22:37 to 04:16 (yes, I looked at the god-damned clock), that hell-bound mutt was trying to raise the dead headed for a size-13 smackdown determined to acquire an acute case of lead poisioning carrying on. At one point, I was considering calling the cops. At another, I was considering getting out the 12-gauge and making a little racket of my own.

Look, I realize that we live in the country. In Wistucky. In an unzoned county. But still, there’s such a thing as common courtesy. There’s also such a thing as dog jerky. Now in new “obnoxious” flavor!

Down-n-back

I just bopped down to the Cities last night and came back this morning. My mom is working on a play, and had a reading at a local playwright’s workshop. Some local actors came in and read the parts, then they and the audience members gave mom a whole bunch of feedback on what worked and what needs work.

It was pretty neat to see that sort of creative give-and-take happening live and unrehearsed right there in front of me. I took some pics, but they’re barely usable. What did I expect, holding the camera for 1.5 second exposures of moving people. I mean, seriously.

Just updated WordPress

I just made the leap into (semi) uncharted waters with a development version of WordPress. When I saw that the cool cats @ HappyCog did a reimagineering of the WP admin interface, naturally, I had to see what kind of candy was in the bag. There are some really nice bits and bobs: admin navigation, tool-tips, and some little ajaxy-features really make everything feel new again. I’d say “spring fresh,” but up here, spring means that when you slip on the ice, you fall in the mud. Fucking spring. :-/

My only real complaint is that the happycoggers picked an obnoxious color of light blue for the main boxes and bars. As far as complaints go, that’s not so bad. And besides, that’ll just give me a chance to dig into a little cog code to change things. And see how they did what they did. And learn something. So maybe I oughtta even be saying “thanks” for the blue.

Update, part II

Well, The Boy has only peed on the floor three times this afternoon. Of course, he’s also peed on the couch three times. Let’s hear it for the first day of potty training! He’s getting better, though. He made it to his potty once, and once, when I asked him, “Do you need to pee?” the answer was yes. Definitively. We even almost made it to the potty. ;-)

Boyz

The Boy and Number Two are doing well. The Boy is full of energy, bouncing, dancing, and spinning around the house, helping me brew, and yes, peeing on the floor. Number Two is full of smiles for everyone but me, apparently, though just today, I finally got him to smile by singing some goofy made-up blues variant. He (Number Two) is also holding his head up by himself for a minute or two at a crack, not to mention getting more and more interested in looking around.

Beer

I made a Northern Brewer IPA kit yesterday, and all went really well, except that I killed my yeast before I even pitched it. Yeah, I left it in the car in freezing temperatures. But only for a couple weeks. *sigh* I ran into the local BPC, grabbed a packet of ale yeast, and pitched that this afternoon. We’ll see what happens. And in the meantime, I’ve got my drink on with the help of a 750mL Rare Vos Belgian-style amber ale. Yummy, fizzy, and fruity. Thanks Ellen & Steve!

Bread

After almost a whole year with nothing in the house but homemade and bakery bread, I have a couple of observations:

1. Store-bought bread is invariably crappy, spongy, flavorless nothing
2. The Wife still hasn’t learned how to make a straight cut in a fresh loaf ;-)

As you were.

Update #20080320

I’ve been a busy boy for a while, but have a little down time, so I figured I’d bring you all up to date. I know: “oooooooooh,” right?

Balls

Anyway, my balls are damn near healed, and that’s a good thing. And if you haven’t figured it out yet, I was kidding when I was talking about putting pics on the ‘net. Unless I get paid better than I currently am. ;-)

Brew

Picking brewing up again has been really nice as far as hobbies go. As far as I’m concerned, it’s *totally tits* to have a keg of brew in the basement. I’ve even helped The Boy refine his pouring technique (his main problems were that he didn’t hold the tap all the way open, then didn’t close it soon enough; heh). In fact, having a keg in the basement might be a little *too* tits, if that’s possible. My friends and I (but mostly me) have swilled almost the whole thing in a month. And of course that puts me in an awkward predicament: I don’t have enough homebrew to last until the next batch (an IPA which I’m going to try to make tomorrow with The Boy and my dad) is ready. Fortunately, the Beer Drawer is full. Whew — that was close!

Build

Work has been good. I’ve been charging forward with implementing the MODx content management system in a few different contexts: some development work I’m doing for a designer friend, a couple sites I’ve designed and built on my own, and at the county.

Getting the CMS rolling has been cool. I’ve learned (so far) a little about how PHP and MySQL play with each other. The great thing about all this work lately, though, is that my css and xhtml chops have really gotten blasted into shape. So much so, in fact, that I’m working on a plan to open a small shop to do build sites that look great, work flawlessly, and have fab code. It’ll be a side thing because I can’t give up the great benefits that come with being a county employee, but hopefully, it’ll make the difference between qualifying for food stamps (which this branch of Clan Van Beest currently does) and being able to go to The Beach.

Well, The Wife and The Boyz just rolled in, so I’ll continue my update later. As you were.

The Big Snip

My balls are achy, and still oozing a little blood and pus. And that’s a good thing. Sort of…

I got a vasectomy on Thursday. I tried to schedule it for Friday so I’d only have to celebrate that anniversary once every four years, but no such luck. The Wife and I feel extremely lucky to have two wonderful boys, and we’re also pretty damn sure they’re all the peeps we want to bring into the world. Down the road, if we want to expand our family, we’ll look at adopting some kid(s) who needs a good home.

And that, gentle reader, is the end of today’s testicle update. Pictures tomorrow. As you were.