We’ve spent the better part of the last week in the San Juan islands, up in northern Washington, staying in a cabin looking out over the ocean.  It was not terrible.  I am more relaxed than before. A few key moments: There’s a woodstove and I love getting fires going in it.  I love it […]

Today marks one year of The Byronic Man being online.  Hurray for me!  One year of not shooting myself in the foot, and not abandoning it.  Phew.  I did a few posts before launching it initially, so that when the legions of people flocked to it immediately upon creation there’d be several posts for them […]

Dear NASA, I read this morning that you are currently taking applications to be an astronaut.  I was under the impression you were making a lot of cutbacks so I’m not sure how this is possible, but I stopped reading after the “Now Hiring” part because I wanted to get my resume in right away. […]

Hey, everyone, how are things?  How’s your week?  Anything interesting happen?  Uh-huh.  Uh-huh.  Uh-huh.  Wow, that’s great but Oh my god listen to what happened to me! So, my mother-in-law has gone out of town for a few days, and we’ve been taking care of her house – feeding the pets, picking up mail, feeding […]

I LOVE CLOCK-CHANGE DAY SO MUCH.  Well, in the fall.  In the Spring I hate it like I hate hell.  It’s totally irrational of me, but I spend the entire day giddy, like I’ve been granted this unbelievable gift.  Like I’ve pulled one over on the world.  On time itself.  “Oh, I’ve got a lot […]

8:12 am.  Wake up.  Get some breakfast.  Check email.  Hm.  Internet appears to be down. Odd. Maybe the wireless modem got knocked over. 8:14am.  Modem is simply not working.  Why isn’t the modem working?  Will call tech support. 8:17 am.   “Mary” says the modem is broken and they have to ship another one.  It’ll […]

So I have a guest post today over at Deborah Ryan’s excellent The Monster In Your Closet.  You should read her blog on general principle, but also because today it’s me, me me.  You should especially consider reading if I happen to be married to you. Fair warning, though: It’s not only not humorous, it […]

Once a month, some friends and I go to this pub-trivia competition. It’s teams of 4, 9 rounds of trivia, in a no-holds-barred, winner takes all, melee of intellectual carnage! (that’s possibly an exaggeration)  It’s also a fund-raiser for Rwandan schools, which can be a bit embarrassing to forget when you can’t remember, say, exactly […]