Writing Influences

"My writing has been influenced by HP Lovecraft, because if you don’t like giant sky squids, there is something fundamentally wrong with you." -- Larry Correia

Kitchen Sink

I have wrestled with the Forces of Darkness (it's dark under the kitchen sink) and emerged (some hours later) triumphant, having installed a new faucet. Tools used: flat screwdriver, phillips screwdriver, box cutter, carpet knife, allen wrench, WD40, bread knife, drill, socket wrench.

The one indispensable tool for installing a faucet (which you, Gentle Reader, doubtless already know is a Basin Wrench), was of no help at all; the existing Kohler needed a socket wrench to remove, and the new Delta specified "hand tight, Hand Tight, I SAID HAND TIGHT STOP STOP STOP!" according to page 4 (loosely translated).

Paperwhites

Every year, Diana prepares paperwhite flowers as Christmas gifts.

Every year, I hear it as "paper wights."

Thanksgiving, with Australians

We had 18 people for Thanksgiving: Mom and Dad, me and Diana, Josh and Gwen, David and Elizabeth and their kids plus a couple extra, Tabitha and Chris and their kids. And Gwen had her laptop, and got her family in Melbourne on Skype, and it turns out that Marguerite, brothers Chris and Nick, Nick's son, cousin Duncan, and a couple of friends, had gotten up early on Friday morning and joined us with their Thanksgiving turkey and trimmings--can't really call it "dinner" because it was 6am for them.  Gwen had planned for the video call but the whole "we're having Thanksgiving dinner with you!" was a surprise, and quite touching. So we had a total of 27 for Thanksgiving.

Snow at the Farm

We drove up to Blacksburg on Sunday night to spend a little time with Josh and Gwen, then headed to the Farm on Monday evening. And it snowed Wednesday morning. Everyone (Dad coming in from his contract office, Chris and Tabitha, Josh and Gwen) made it to the Farm; fortunately no one had to fly, as airports were a mess in the midAtlantic. Roughly five inches, and the first time we can remember snow accumulatig before Thanksgiving--it's more commonly January. Diana and I and Josh and Gwen went sledding.
And then the power went out, around 1pm. It looked as if we might have peanut butter sandwiches for Thanksgiving, or else haul the whole clan over to Elizabeth and David's place on Thursday morning. But the lights came back on at 7pm, and we were able to go back to cooking, washing, setting places and playing Skip Bo as normal.

Dentist

I got crowns installed for my front six teeth; the temps were done a few weeks ago, and today was the day for the permanents. I was half an hour late for my appointment, because it was scheduled for 2pm, but I associate the dentist with "tooth hurty".
When the process was done, she asked if any of the teeth were bothering me, and I replied that the most painful part was paying for them. She said that I could have gotten crowns for a dollar apiece, but nobody ever wants that type, because they're buck teeth.

Deeply Deeply Skeptical

"Americans should be deeply deeply skeptical of government power. You
cannot trust people in power. The founders knew that."

James Comey
FBI Director
October 12, 2014