Your leaking thatched hut during the restoration of a pre-Enlightenment state.

 

Hello, my name is Judas Gutenberg and this is my blaag (pronounced as you would the vomit noise "hyroop-bleuach").



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Like my brownhouse:
   thwarted by a thunderstorm
Sunday, August 9 2009
It's not easy digging into bedrock, but excavating the greenhouse well is an occasional relief from whatever I'm doing otherwise, which is usually more cerebral and involves sitting in front of my computer. As i dig deeper the rock at the bottom of the well seems to be growing brittle once more, making it easier for me to break up with either a small handheld hammer drill or a cold chisel and sledge hammer. The key to recent progress has been the diamond-bladed handsaw, which has allowed me to easily cut three-inch-deep slices in the rock. That saw is a messy tool because of all the dust it throws, so I generally operate it from outside the hole. Soon, though, the hole will be too deep for this method.

I'd had plans to finally re-enter the crawlspace beneath the house's front entrance so as to patch up some holes animals have been using to gain access. But just as I'd assembled all the things I needed, including a DECT 6.0 handset so I could page Gretchen for surface support, a huge thunderstorm came through and rained me out.
Soon after that Penny and David came by in their brand new Subaru Forester and we all went out to the movies. They'd turned in their Land Rover to take advantage of the "Cash for Clunkers" (or "Jalopies for Jesus") program, and gotten a trade-in on their two year old Toyota Matrix, condensing down to a single four wheel drive automobile, which seemed more appropriate to their future lives as adoptive parents. [REDACTED]
The movie we saw was the new Judd Apatow creation, Funny People. It seemed to be an attempt by Apatow to make the definitive film of his career, in that the comedy was mere decoration atop a framework of drama and pathos. It even featured a video clip Apatow had shot of Adam Sandler back when they were living together as unknowns struggling in Los Angeles, as well as a clip of one of his own daughters performing "Memory" from Cats. The movie dragged at times, and if I'd expected it to be a laugh riot I would have been disappointed. Still, I liked it more than Gretchen, who found the scenes featuring the actress Leslie Mann (Apatow's wife, playing Sandler's long lost love) somewhat narcissistic. Everyone has a blind spot for the things intimate to their life, and this is the reasons one should be careful when casting one's wife. As for me, I didn't pick up on this flaw, though I thought the portrayal of Mann's character's husband by Eric Bana was a bit more cartoonish than it should have been, even if it wasn't cartoonish by the standard of normal Hollywood films.

After the movie, Penny and David wanted to go to Cucina in Woodstock, whose food seemed, to Gretchen and me, too mediocre for such a detour. So instead we went back to our place and Gretchen quickly whipped up a multi-course vegan meal. We also indulged in vodka-laced fruit juice beverages Penny prepared. [REDACTED]


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