Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

We still have time to mess this up!

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickle?”

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

No one could have predicted…

I was promised a recession.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Thanks for reminding me that Van Jones needs to be slapped.

A consequence of cucumbers

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

This blog will pay for itself.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

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Some of you might have wondered where I’ve been. Most of you probably didn’t notice or care, but for the two that did, thanks!
I’ve been exceedingly busy of late. Prepping for some certification tests and taking some on line classes to prepare for a new job for which I’m going to apply.  Also doing a lot of yard work.  Getting ready to build a pergola in my back yard.  My porch faces west so in the summer evenings it get extremely hot out there.  You can’t do anything really, so I’d like to bring some shade into the mix and create a usable outdoor room kind of thing at the same time.  We have DIY network and HGTV both in HD here, after all.  The two shade trees my dad helped my wife plant when I was in Afghanistan are about twice the size they started at five years ago, but still too small to actually be useful for shade just yet.  I hope that I don’t screw myself to the lumber again.  Maybe I should ask for help this time.

Reader Interactions

35Comments

  1. 1.

    Poopyman

    I hope that I don’t screw myself to the lumber again.

    We’re past Good Friday so you should be safe.

  4. 4.

    BGinCHI

    I just assumed you were out fighting crime and working for Truth, Justice, and the American way.

    You know, your usual.

  6. 6.

    eemom

    I hope that I don’t screw myself to the lumber again. Maybe I should ask for help this time.

    Maybe Cole can help you….I hear that he’s pretty handy with the hammers.

  8. 8.

    dr. bloor

    Maybe I should ask for help this time.

    Learning from experience is generally frowned upon in the Guy’s Home Improvement Club.

  9. 9.

    PurpleGirl

    Good luck with building the pergola. And hope you enjoy using it.

    My terrace faces south/southwest and in the late afternoon and early evening it gets a lot of light an heat. I like sitting outside once the sun goes down and it is cooler. A lot of my neighbors don’t use their terraces, which is a shame because they are actually a nice, useable size (roughly 10 by 7 feet).

  10. 10.

    Southern Beale

    Angela Corey says she will not be using grand jury in Trayvon Martin death investigation according to CNN ….. said it’s not necessary. I’m guessing Zim will be arrested. Some Teanuts may be outraged but nothing like the upset we’ll see if he isn’t.

  11. 11.

    Amir Khalid

    I did notice that your posting has been rather light of late. Take your time dealing with that more important stuff. This blog can wait for a bit.

    On another note, this weekend I lost the buttons that are supposed to be at the top of the comment box (i.e. for bold, italics, link etc.). Kinda miss having them, and I don’t know the HTML code to substitute for them. I suspect the problem is on the server side.

    I hope someone there will take pity on me, and either fix it so I can seee them again on my Compaq laptop running Firefox 11 on Windows Vista Ultimate, or teach me the HTML code to compensate.

  15. 15.

    Thirty Twice

    Tokyokle and Dr Bloor are correct. Asking for help shows weakness. Don’t do it. It’s just wood after all.

    You’re not leaving the VA are you? Say no.

  16. 16.

    wenchacha

    Hey, pictures when you get it going? I have been badgering my hardworking husbandperson about a pergola for years. We also face west, both the house and the outdoor patio. The sun is brutal in the afternoon/early evening. I’d love to see some ideas.

  17. 17.

    Poopyman

    @Amir Khalid: Html starts with the left arrow thingy, ie the “less than” sign, then the command, then the “greater than” sign. Next comes the text you want to bold, emphasize, etc. Last comes the html stop string, which is identical to the start string but with a “/” after the Less Than sign and before the command string.

    Command strings are (don’t use the quote marks):
    “strong” for bold,
    “em” for italics,
    “del” for strikethrough
    “blockquote”
    “code” if you want to get techy.

    There are others, but those are the buttons on top of the comment box, which are still there in Firefox.

  18. 18.

    dww44

    I missed your posts. Welcome back and good luck with creating shade after the non-winter and spring we’ve had here in the SE US, we are all gonna need all the shade we can get. But, hey, that’s okay, according to the crawl across one of the morning shows this a.m., the Gov of Tenn is gonna sign a bill authorizing teachers there to talk about problems with evolution and global warming precepts. Just another day in the progressive universe.

  19. 19.

    Poopyman

    @wenchacha: We tried this stuff with great results. Overall less expensive than a pergola, and while I never manage to screw myself to the timber I do always manage to take a couple of splinters for my troubles.

  21. 21.

    dr. luba

    I had a friend build me a pergola many years back: 15, 20 or so. I made it fairly tall, about 10 feet above ground level. You want it to be airy, not closed in and dark. I chose to plant wisteria, which has covered it pretty nicely an sometimes even blooms.

    Love my pergola. Hope you love yours, too.

    Fairly crappy photo here.

  23. 23.

    Onihanzno

    Goddamit so much.

    Arizona bill declares women pregnant two weeks before conception:

    Under Arizona’s H.B. 2036, the state would recognize the start of the unborn child’s life to be the first day of its mother’s last menstrual period. The legislation is being proposed so that lawmakers can outlaw abortions on fetuses past the age of 20-weeks, but the verbiage its authors use to construct a time cycle for the baby would mean that the start of the child’s life could very well occur up to two weeks before the mother and father even ponder procreating.

  24. 24.

    Soonergrunt

    @Raven: We have a system at VA known as VALU–VA Learning University, also called TMS for Talent Management System.
    I don’t know who provides the back end. It looks like an in-house developed product, but I’m sure on some level it’s not.

  26. 26.

    Poopyman

    @Amir Khalid:

    Now all I need is to learn how to do a link.

    Left bracket, then “a href=” then opening quote marks, then your link starting with the http, then closing quote marks at the end, then the right bracket. Now comes the text you want to identify it with, e.g. “this great recipe” (not necessarily with quote marks), then wrap it up with open bracket, slash, “a”, closing bracket.

  28. 28.

    jibeaux

    @dr. luba: Oh, it’s lovely. I want one. We’re not handy, or rich, is there a cost-effective way to have someone build you one from a kit?

  29. 29.

    Soonergrunt

    @Raven: Thank you. I’ve heard of them second hand, but never seen any of their product. Until now, apparently.

  33. 33.

    KCinDC

    The latest DrudgeDrama seems to be that yet another of O’Keefe’s minions attempted a federal crime on video, impersonating Eric Holder at the polling place. I suppose next they’ll demonstrate that there’s an epidemic of bank robberies by taping themselves robbing a bank?

  35. 35.

    pacem appellant

    woot for HGTV pergolas! We built ours a few years back and it’s cury. It has 5-year-old grapevines growing on it now. I can’t find the hgtv website that was our model, so I wonder if they’ve taken it down? If I find it, I’ll post it. Pergolas are gorgeous!

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