Oh. So that's where it was.

OK, I already knew I'm an idiot -- I don't have to be reminded. As it turns out, my copy of The Folksinger's Guitar Guide (long out of print, not sold in stores, and which I've been searching the house for for over a year now, on and off) has been sitting on a shelf in my bedroom all this time. The same shelf where I used to keep my filk binder, as a matter of fact.

Dumb bear.

By the way, when did music publishers start intimidating stores into refusing to sell used books? They won't even take returns, it seems. Those eyetracks just destroy the resale value, you know...

To whom it may concern:

Just because our new kitchen faucet is on a nice high tower that lets you pile an extra nine inches or so of dirty dishes in the sink, that doesn't mean that you have to do it! People who cook in our kitchen should clean up after themselves.

Yes, I know: I'm living in a fantasy world.

Update: Although the white corel dishes are almost indestructible, it can be done if you drop something heavy on top of one. Or step on one. Kids with messy rooms, take note.

Safety Tip: Do not wrap a sponge around the sharp edge of a knife to wipe it off, hoping that it won't slice into your fingers just as easily as it slices the sponge. The last thing I need when I'm out to dinner is a call to pick up a kid in the emergency room. Wipe each side of the blade separately, holding the edge away from you and wiping from the back of the blade toward the edge, i.e. also away from you. Gamers may like to think of it as the same action you use to wipe blood off a single-edged dagger.

Did I mention that I don't like telephones?

That goes double for telephone wiring. Spent much too long trying to get the livingroom phones reconnected after the plumbers managed to disconnect the old outside wiring that I shouldn't have been using anymore anyway. What I have now is a totally jury-rigged piece of junk, but it at least works well enough to provide a dialtone. On the correct line, which was the most recent in a long chain of problems.

At least the two Cat-5 cables from the livingroom to the server closet were intact; would have been much harder if I'd had to replace them.