posted: May 21, 2007

Been a little low-profile on the Drawger circuit lately, and I wanted to dispel the rumor that I'd married a Bolivian prostitute and was overseeing a Canadian muskrat farm. Simply not true ( she's from Uraguay ).

Actually, Mrs W and I are expecting a baby in October and, upon learning the news, I did what any other expectant father would do: I went into a blind panic and started swinging a hammer with reckless abandon.

When we bought this house, the hippie that owned it previously had dome some interesting 'renovations' of her own, one of which was adding a tub, sink and toilet to the back bedroom. This room was to be my studio. I removed the filthy claw-foot tub and sold it via Craig's List to a zaftig goth girl and her diminutive boyfriend. The sink was worthless- I tossed it. I opened the walls and capped the plumbing. But the toilet remained in the corner, hidden behind a bookcase.

One thing I've been meaning to do was build a 1/2 bathroom in this corner. Junior's impending arrival lit a fire under my ass; this was the first order of business. Against the side wall of the bathroom will be a large storage closet.

I'll be ripping down the ceiling, shoring up the sagging subfloor and sistering a sagging joist, insulating and running all new electrical, including a dedicated AC line. Directly above my office will be junior's room - it'll be getting the same treatment.

Lastly, I'll be breaking out the back wall, framing it out for 2 new large double hung, low-e windows and adding R19 denim insulation.

Next winter we'll all be warm and snug- the past 2 years the studio was actually windy.

posted: May 8, 2007

I've never claimed to be a financial wizard. I can add and subtract, multiply single digit numbers, and calculate a 20% tip. That's gotten me this far.
Recently I got a gig from a financial mag. The AD gave me a pithy account of the article's content and suggested an image that she'd like to see sketched out. She also requested that I sketch out 3 or 4 ideas of my own.
I read the article and, for what I believe is the first time in my professional life, could make ABSOLUTELY no sense of the content. I  thought  about the AD' s suggestion for an image and couldn't  for the life of me understand excatly how it fit in with the article. A thin layer of perspiration settled on my brow. My knees went weak and rubbery. I ate an entire bag of Doritos.
Then I started highlighting key phrases. One of them was 'recapture' - I used that as my springboard and came up with several images of 'assets' being 'recaptured'.

This is the one that was chosen. I owe it all to the Doritos.