Sorry in Advance

Bent Offerings

In the Middle of Our Street

Our house.
In the middle of construction.

Bockhorst Fields Forever

I present to you season 3 of the Bockhorst Fields scented candle line, imagined by Janine and me over a couple of pints and some artichoke dip (click here for our retired scents).

Burning Cottage
Clam
Atomic Wind
Clove Cigarettes
Air Pollution
Popped Cherry
Sinusitis
Yuppie Ecstasy
Martyr
Nuclear Winter
Population Control
Detritus
Mustard Gas
Citronella
Abandonment
Pirate
Catch of the Day
Flatulent Uncle (with thanks to Stefano!)

Kelli asked for some more visuals, so I'll be back on Photoshop probably tomorrow to mock up a few. "Golden Shower" is already almost in the can!

From the Bottom of a Mine Shaft

Sorry for the radio silence (not to be read as an apology for Boris Grebenshikov, who's pretty good) -- time seems to be evaporating right out from under me, and hitching posts to the vapors has been a tricky exercise. It's freakin' bedtime AGAIN, but I'll make it a point to roll out something more substantial after I drag my fried carcass home from work tomorrow (survey+116 degree heat+mountains = archaeology of the ninth circle. We just completed a dig in the Forest of the Suicides). And we have found several small mines in our survey area, so technically we are a little closer to hell here.

An unjustly quick shout out to my cousine Maureen, who just graduated from high school in Virginia, and will be hopping off to college in North Carolina in August. She was involved in a horrific car accident just before Christmas last year, and suffered some very serious injuries, but from all reports appears to be recovering well. The Bishops, the same that hosted my wedding last August, are some of the best people I know, and it's one of those head-hanging iniquities of life that they're having to endure what they've had to over the past half-year. If you're the praying sort, do put in a good word for them.

And I've subscribed to RealRhapsody, an internet music jukebox/warehouse that lets you listen to pretty much anything for $10 a month. Among other worthwhile causes I've come across (one being Anne Dudley's orchestral remake of the Art of Noise's "Moments in Love") was the Innocense Mission, an incredibly good band that I've somehow missed since 19freakin'87! Their latest was basically a lullaby album, with Karen Peris's voice skimming over the likes of "Moon River" and "What a Wonderful World." I do need more of that.

...But It Goes On

I'm back in Tucson for the evening -- it's a two-hour drive from my office in Tempe to my Tucson base, in which everything appears to be heading for the door (we've been using the living room as a central packing area). Meanwhile, I've been spending a lot of the past couple of weeks in a mostly empty apartment in the nicely landscaped and fun-to-say suburb of Phoenix, Ahwatukee, reading and listening to the local bastion of Air America. I stopped by the construction ste of our new house last night, still a little freaked out by the concept of "our house," and still a little miffed that the construction workers persist in throwing empty water bottles and construction debris all over my lawn. And yes, I am being unreasonable.

Anyway, it's a nice night -- placid traffic noise from the window commingles with the newly-appreciated Vauxhall and I selection. Just a highball of Petron away from a perfect evening.

The Story is Old, I Know

It's four something on a Tuesday morning -- I drove down from our new apartment in Phoenix last night to stay with Janine in our old apartment here in Tucson. The transition is happeneing, though. I've got a host of other very cool things to impart, but now I have to drive back, go to work, and maybe look around Phoenix tonight. My new playground...

And how cool is it that I can now call myself a Phoenician? It's like I should be wearing a purple cloak in Tyre or something.

Unless I find an internet cafe, this will be my last post for a couple of days, as all I have populating my apartment besides myself is a futon (no frame yet), a lamp, a suitcase, and a box o' books (mostly non-fiction). So, I'll probably try to find that internet cafe.

One last thing -- had a superb visit with Dan & Stacy (and finally saw their new lair), and finally met Miss Mita, all over a heap of Janine's dreamy manicotti. It was almost "good shit" overload.

Hi all,

I'm spending this week in Globe, Arizona, on a pretty minor project. Next Monday, I'll be back in Tucson for the week, and then Janine and I are off to Baltimore for five days. After that, I'm not really sure what's going on.

We do, apparently, have a house on hold for us, which should be good to move into by the end of July or so. Two story. Weird. It's going to be odd living in a place where there are areas in which you can't hear the TV.

I'm typing from an enviable Dell in the lobby of a Days Inn, and I'm in need of dinner, so I'll put off elaborating on current events for another day or two...

Hate to just post photos, but damn, I really must post this one.

My buddy, Arizona Diamondback Luis Gonzalez yesterday at a Shell station off of I-10. Guy is famous among baseball players for being incredibly nice. No lie. He posed for this photo, and I got the feeling that he would have sat with me while Janine drew a still life of us in charcoal. He said he felt fine for this upcoming year, sports fans, so expect the D-backs to lose fewer than 100 games this year!

Nearer My Dog to Thee


Janine's first crochet project: dog bonnet.