One really really big one. The paperback I have is practically a cube.

That's insane. It must be close to 1500 pages.

The cable guy I just had here was shocked to see that I knew how to access the modem configuration. He's like "I never show people how to do that!"

And I said, "Uh, yeah, we set up our own network in our old house."

the individual stories were what enthralled me.

Yeah. That. What I took from that book was something along the lines of "1. People suck and not very trustworthy and will turn on you when you'll need them most, 2. Try to never be poor. You'll have to sell your teeth".

I took books very, very seriously.

Hee. I am deeply amused at the idea that repairmen and religious folks are cut from the same cloth. And that problem (repairmen, not religion) is why I'm having the builder come in today to look at our settling cracks. I could get another tradesman in, but a) the work should still be warrantied and b) I want him to deal with his own work.

But that's the other problem, is that he's going to say there's nothing wrong, since he did the work to begin with. But dude, my doors won't close. There are giant cracks in my wall. My ceiling is pulling away from my wall. I want him to look at it.

And also to pick up his ladder.

ION, yay, Dirty Sexy Money! I love that show so much. I missed several eps, so it'll be awesome to have the marathon, although I think I'll miss a good whack of it.

Speaking of repairs, the top half of the window in Dylan's room has come off its track. (We have his air-conditioner permanently installed so that he can't knock it out of the window, which means we can only open that window from the top. Over the weekend I wanted to close it because rain was coming in, and it wouldn't stay up. I had to prop it in place with a wooden spoon.)

I've got a window guy coming on Thursday to take a look, but has anyone had this happen to them before, and was it a totally PITA to fix? I'm worried he won't be able to fix it from the inside.

Happy birthday Nora!

Happy Birthday Nora!!

I had to prop it in place with a wooden spoon.

That happened to my bedroom window in Oak Park. I kept it propped open with some small boards until I finally called the maintenance guy, who just had to replace the ropes (it was a very old window!) in the window to keep it up.

Oh yeah, I'm sure there was a ton of politics I was missing, but I loved it anyway. I even read most of the random digressions (100 pages on the sewers, whee!)

Yeah, I love the encyclopediac writers. Thomas Mann, when one of his characters stops at a hotel, spends the rest of the chapter explaining the fundamentals of hotel keeping (as Thomas Mann understands them). But even though I love the digressions, I totally get that some people are tearing out their hair and screaming "get on with the farkin plot already!".

And don't forget Hawthorne's pages and pages of prison descriptions.