D E S I G N /// ck

What cereal executive looked at that insane squirrel thing and said, "Gentlemen, I think we've found our mascot."? I got creeped out everytime I looked at it. But Valu Time sure can make them some good cereal.

The Joy that is Homeowning has really started to make itself known in our life. Yesterday I marched up to the hardware store and bought my first weed eater. Let the weed apocalypse begin! The backyard at the house is trying to make itself into a bona fide JUNGLE. I'm starting to feel like Viet Cong could be hiding in there. Before things get too far out of hand, I've got to put the fear of spinning plastic wire into the heart of all that green. Next up: Lawnmower!

You may have noticed in the last post that I mentioned selling Greta. For those of you who don't know, Greta was the butterscotch VW bus that faithfully served me for four years after college. Alice hated her, I loved her, and I hung on to Greta as long as possible after her engine seized up last spring. Greta holds most of my car records:

Most nights slept in on the side of the road

Longest road trip

Most sheets of plywood hauled

Highest number of breakdowns

Highest number of MacGyver roadside repairs

Most dog poop cleaned up in (Thanks, Bob)

Most rivers forded off-road

I actually got a little choked up as I watched her get hauled away. I didn't know I had that much attachment to that big ugly box-on-wheels.
Here's to Greta- she was a great car. I sold her to a guy (Owner #6) who is going to fix her up for one of his kids. I bet she has two more decades of driving in her.

Well, totally following in Colleen's footsteps, I won a mandolin on Ebay a few minutes ago (though I think maybe it was my idea first). I sold Greta the Vanagon yesterday and I wanted to use some of the money towards something cool instead of frittering it away. And I think a new musical hobby will be a good way to relax- better than just watching cable TV. I don't think I'm going to be any great shakes as a musician, but I love the way a mandolin sounds and I hope I can learn a few cool songs.

Ok, so I blatantly stole this from Will. But I had to share:

I know it's lame, but for some reason I find this site hilarious.
I guess you have to have cats to think it's funny.
I Can Has Cheezburger.

Holy crap, Cormac McCarthy is a good writer. I'm going to start calling him Cormac here, because writing his full name over and over is getting old, and after reading a heart-rending book like The Crossing, I feel like we should be on a first name basis.

Cormac can write himself a good book. The Crossing is more melancholy than All the Pretty Horses- the Border Trilogy is steadily getting darker (though not all out dark, like The Road). It's another coming of age story, but not in the classic romantic sense. Cormac accentuates the dark disillusionment that comes when childhood is left behind. He continually examines The World (with a capital W, in the biblical sense) in relation to Man. With frequent philosophical asides from the people Billy (the main character) encounters on his three trips into Mexico, we see the World as Good, the World as Dark and Fallen, the World as an Illusion. Often God is called upon as a contrast to this mortal coil, or blamed for the plight of the World. Many questions are asked, few answers are pushed forward by Cormac. He leaves it to the reader to come their own conclusions.

So I stayed up late finishing reading it, and now I am tired. I already have a line on a used copy of Cities of the Plain at the Book Eddy, so the Cormac obsession continues....