My father recently put up a repeater on the house, to amplify (with permission) the wireless signal of one of our neighbors up here ('Here' being my ancestral summer home, in the heart of the Adirondacks. It's an absurdly beautiful place, and a great place to do some seriously relaxing). I've been spending a fair amount of time sitting on my deck, with my brand new lap-warmer (MacBook 2.0 GHz) and a smoothie in the cup-holder of my deck chair, looking out at this:


{taken with the iSight camera integrated to my laptop. I love my computer. It's name is Narsil, by the way, since the naming convention I have for my computers is "Named Weapons in the World of The Lord Of The Rings." I have Narsil (my macbook), Sting (my MacMini, since it's very small), Glamdring (my file server), and Orcrist (my old PC laptop. Though since that's broken now [due to an unfortunate incident involving my beloved girlfriend and a cup of tea], perhaps I should be calling THAT Narsil, and this Anduril. . . No, too nerdy.)}

In any case, my point is that my parents came into the house yesterday, and saw me siting reading Digg or somesuch, and berated me, saying "Don't you come up here to get away from all the conveniences and distractions of the modern world?" Which I didn't really understand. It's the inconveniences of the modern world which I want to get away from. Like work, and 95 degree heat, and crowded city streets. The conveniences, like instant access to news, email, and Achewood I'll keep, thank you.

So, what was the last thing you guys read about my apartment? I own one now, you know that? Nice place. Still haven't finished painting yet. Woof. It's not my fault, you know. Wait, actually I just thought about it for a minute, and it is my fault. Turns out, I'm a lazy lazy man who really doesn't mind living in squalor. Who knew? I mean, a fair number of people would have guessed, but no one knew. 'Cept maybe Ben.

Well, I painted the kitchen last week, but it turns out you can't put eggshell latex paint over high-gloss enamel paint. The latex just peels right off (ooo, gee that made me unhappy). So I had to re-prime and paint again. I did the re-priming, but decided that going on vacation was more important than finishing the kitchen. I still believe I made the right decision, but I might have to revisit that when I head back down to the city tomorrow. That's just about the last thing that has to be done. Oh, except for painting and cleaning the bathroom. I was waiting to clean the bathroom until the kitchen got finished (since that was only going to take a day or two), and, well. . . time makes fools of us all, eh?

Remind me to post a picture of the bookcases that I had made. Friend of mine named Radek is a furniture maker, and is a true artisan. He installed a set of bookcases that. . . well they are less than a set of bookcases than they are a shrine to the god-king LOGOS. They're enormous, and beautiful, and I think I don't have nearly enough books or consumer electronics to fill them up. Which means, of course, that I have to buy more books and consumer electronics. I'll post a picture of it next time I'm home.