I’ve always been fascinated by snugness. Part of my delight in bad weather is the comfort I feel when I’m inside looking out at it (though I really don’t mind being out in it, if I’m prepared). One of the reasons I love heating with wood is that it’s so overwhelmingly cozy. You can’t grab …

I think I wrote before about how we put this computer desk in the corner of the dining room because we don’t have any other place to put it. Well, it works handsomely. We got this used machine off of Craigslist and it works pretty well.* Um, yes, I wrote about it here. Jess decided …

Last year Jess bought an expensive set of stuff-on-a-pole gimcracks— window squeegee, light bulb changer, that kind of thing. I tried using the squeegee on the window exteriors last year, and it wasn’t pretty. The fly specks had been drying there all summer, and they were impervious to all my window-cleaning efforts; and the sponge …

Next time I build a shed (which will be next spring; I have to redo the wood shed before it collapses under its own ugliness) I’ll do it like this. The bike shed, so named because we prefer to store bikes and other outdoor miscellany in a shed rather under (or next to) a tarp …

When the kids were younger and I mentioned home schooling to Jess, she didn’t like the idea. She was glad to have the kids out of the house during the school year, and she didn’t want them hanging around. This is understandable since when Emma was in, say, 5th grade, we had Becca in 4th, …

Long, long ago when I was considering trading in my old Camry for a four-wheel-drive something or other, I wondered if I should buy an old pickup truck. For various reasons, I opted not to; and though I’m glad we have the Jeep, we’ve had to make do occasionally. For example, when we built our …

By the way, for all those I may have offended with my unflattering portait of television, I am sorry only that I didn’t show more tact. Some of you may actually like television. But my true opinion of the medium is that it’s offensive, unclean, obnoxious, contemptible, odious, invidious, revolting, distasteful, low, foul, corrupt, bad, …

The BGF is fine, by the way. I put in three quarts of new Mercon V transmission fluid, just like the owner’s manual said to use, and started the vehicle, backed it up, and drove it down the driveway, and it was fine. It was a little shakey on startup; maybe that was due to …

Our dogs will stop at nothing!!!! to destroy Jessica’s plantings. Flowerbed? Dig it up. New lawn? Dig it up. Newer lawn? Refuse to play anywhere else; chase each other relentlessly for eight hours a day until the grass seed is ground to powder. Fence? What fence? Doggie repellent? That’s for city dogs. Flowerbeds strewn with …

I posted this post from home on Friday, when I had the day off (and back when my internet connection was working). Looks like it didn’t stick to the post. So I’ll try to replicate it today. (Sorry for not catching it sooner. My life is already so full as to strain credulity, but last …