I’ve had a special affinity for otters since I took a personality test on which I scored a 100% for the otter personality type—so much so that otter was a nickname of mine for a few years. So when Janelle discovered that Ireland has a massive mythological otter as a part of their heritage, she had to get me a Dobhar-chu t-shirt to celebrate my fearsome otter nature. Beware my large smashing rocks!

Check out Janelle’s post on the best birthday cake ever. (It was my birthday cake.) If you sampled the cake, make sure to leave a review!

New poem up on the poetry page. It’s been a while since I’ve written one. This one is a sailing metaphor. Every guy writer, if he writes long enough, will eventually use a sailing metaphor. This is fact.

I won’t try to hide that this is about Janelle. She’s really a balancing force in my life, and I don’t admit that nearly enough. She’s a great source of strength for me, and I find myself leaning on her a lot more than I originally thought I would.

So here’s to Janelle, and many nautical references to come! Cheers!

My dad and his wife just made the trek up to Kansas to help me and Janelle finish out our basement. Improvements include adding two light switches and wiring for two lighting fixtures, putting in an entire ceiling, and adding a wall to block off a portion of the basement for storage.

If you don’t know, hanging drywall on the ceiling is hard! Even with the eight foot sheets, it’s pretty labor-intensive. So we got pretty tired out doing that, and the wall was the last thing we put in. We did some quick measurements, built the wall (if you don’t know, you build the frame for a new wall first and then put it into place), and put it into place, only to discover that my house was built crooked. The wall is seriously slanted. So we had some work to get it into place.

This is the most amazing part, though. Christine (my step-mom) just got a big-ass hammer and started hitting the wall until it went into place. I was so tired that it took me a moment to register, but it soon clicked: You could just hit it until it worked!

This got me thinking about how much easier my life would be if there was a web design equivalent.

PNG transparency not working in Internet Explorer 6? *Whack!*

Three pixels off in Internet Explorer 6? *Whack!* One pixel off. *Whack!* There, I fixed it.

I think, really, I just want a way to hit Internet Explorer 6.

Anyway, the ceiling and wall are in. Janelle and I still have to finish mudding and sanding both and at least paint the ceiling before we can put the lights in. Soon, band practices will be held, and I’ll be able to work out my web design aggressions on my congas. All will be right in the universe.

me: By the way, I filled our sink full of mayonnaise.
Janelle: Filled? Or just put some in there? Is it broken?
me: That’s how the Alaskan Natives celebrate Sinko de Mayo.
Janelle: Oh, that’s bad. Really bad.

We made it back from OK City. Bryan’s birthday was a big hit. (He’s four now.) We went to one of those arcades/go-kart tracks/pizza buffets. I played a drumming video game and so totally sucked at it. I have never felt so white. We earned almost 1,000 tickets, which somehow turned into almost 4,000 when they tallied them up at the counter (I still want to know how we pulled that trick, because I want a lava lamp).

Explosions in the Sky CDs are meant to be played loud. Janelle didn’t want to put one in while she was driving for fear that it would put her to sleep. When I started driving, I put one in, but because it was playing softly, it very nearly did put me to sleep.

When we got back, Franny was not happy to see us and gave us the cold shoulder for a while. Either she or Zoey jumped up on a bookshelf and knocked everything off of the top of it. Tilly’s still malnourished, and doesn’t like her back scratched too hard (she bit me!).

Man oh man, I’m tired. I’m off. Just checking in. Good night.

For those who don’t know, Janelle works part-time as a shoe shiner in a bank. The bank is also the lender for our house loan, so I was there today to sign some papers for the closing. While we were waiting for some papers to be processed, Janelle decided to shine my shoes. Here was the exchange:

me: What’s that?
Janelle: What, the scuff?
me: No, those things that look like little, tiny teeth marks.
Janelle: [thinks about it] They look like little, tiny teeth marks.

That’s right—a cat took a bite at my shoe. My new shoes. They’re made of leather, so it may have been instinctual.