Tapas du Jour

Odds and ends today. What I really oughtta do is post smaller bits more frequently instead of saving them up and blogging all at once. Probably not gonna happen.

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My wife Karen has taught our pup Riley some neat tricks, including fetching the newspaper every morning. A couple of days ago we decided to record it, understanding that standing in the driveway with a camera would distract Riley from her duties. Which it did. Still, she got the job done:



The real miracle documented here isn't a dog fetching a paper, but the fact that someone still subscribes to one.

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Karen and I are dedicating the next several days to redoing my office (it seems somehow pretentious to call it a "studio," but it is where I make all my comics in addition to doing my day job). It's a spare bedroom in our home that hasn't been painted since before we moved in, way back in the 20th Century, and is long overdue for a refurb. The challenge is that the room is packed: books piled in front of overflowing bookcases, storage boxes, crap atop crap. It makes for a cozy bear-den-like environment I actually find quite comfy, but even I concede it's time to run a river through these Augean Stables. The only way this'll work is if a lot of things leave the room and don't get back in.

The goal is a neat, clean office with crisp light gray walls and white ceiling and trim. We can't move the furniture around too much--it'll only fit and function configured as it is--but we're going to install cabinets for more storage and construct a built-in bookcase on top of them along the entire length of the back wall. If my calculations are right our bookcase capacity will increase slightly but we're still going to have to get rid of some books. We'll find them good homes.

Here are a few "before" photos. Maybe I'll post some in progress, and will definitely share the "afters" in a week or so. We have a motto in our house that "It's not a real project until Brian bleeds." I will be employing power tools. Wish us luck.

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Finally: tomorrow--the fabled and fated Ides of March--is the 25th anniversary of the Best Day of My Life. Happy Birthday, Pooters. We'll see you tomorrow night.