grace.kindness.peace.disruption.pain.processing.rinse.repeat.have a nice day.

It's safe to leave the edge of your seat; the roof is done. All that remains to complete is the re-installation of the gutters. The entire process from tear off to clean up took five days. Yikes! I've learned a lot. This sentence would usually be a bit of sarcasm saying that I learned enough to never do it again, but that wouldn't be true. I probably would roof my own house again in the future. Thankfully, that future is a long way off.

Thank you to all of you that helped out! I could not have done it without all of your time and effort.

I love the opera …

Thanks to PVT for the tip off on this one.

So, you're already wasting valuable company time reading my blog. You might as well help Indianapolis food banks by voting for the Indianapolis Colts in the Campbell's Chunky Soup Click for Cans Contest/Advertisement/Campaign/Thing. Indy is currently fourth, despite being the only remaining undefeated team in the NFL. Let's help reconcile the records.

So here's the deal:

• go to http://www.chunky.com/clickforcans.aspx
• vote for the Colts
• go back there tomorrow and repeat
• do so until the page says the contest is over

"But I don't like the Colts or quarterbacks with rocket-laser arms," you say. Don't think of it this way. You're voting for people of central Indiana that need your help. So even if you like another team, please suck it up and vote for the people of Indianapolis by voting for the Colts.

Thanks for helping out Indy!

Hey there folks, it's me, your friendly purveyor of helpful information. Are free web registrations annoying you and wasting your time? There's nothing so annoying as being forced to create yet another username/password combination for a web publication. Maybe there are seventy-seven times seven other things more annoying, but in any case, this is one of life's little situations that could be improved.

Be annoyed no more with http://www.bugmenot.com! BugMeNot is a site that gives you username/password combinations that work with most all web sites that demand them. Check it out next time you need to read an article at the NY Times, Washington Post, or Chicago Tribune.

60,080ish. That's the end mileage. The Accord is a trusty steed; too bad it doesn't work better on an empty stomach. In fact, it required much combustible fuel over the 68 days of tripping. Fortunately, the car averaged 29.8 miles per gallon, with a maximum of 33.3 mpg (dry arizona air) and a minimum of 25.5 mpg (California PCH) … not that I'm keeping track.

I'm glad to be back. Life is more relaxed when working from a home base. I enjoyed the realization that I would be returning home to enjoy a dinner (after picking it up from Yat's). The concept of having a key, a bed, and a washing machine available at any time is quite comforting. And yes, apparently I really have a thing for my washer/dryer combo.

So, in any regards, I'm back again again (from Africa, from Seattle, from the road trip). Good times behind. Good times ahead. Heck, good times right now.