notes, thoughts and events

The things needed for continuation or your corporeal existence: air, water, food, shelter, clothing. The last one I can provide you. Get a Toothless Joe shirt and impress your mom when you wear it. It may not make her happy, but she'll be impressed. Also, if you haven't seen it, I've added the first chapter of "Lestrygonians: the Transdimensional Frenulum" to my site and you can download it. One MORE thing, if you have kids and want a book or two that they'll want you to read over and over and over and over (really) to them, then you can get them here .

I've been thinking about this one for a while now. We got Chester almost nine months ago. I had said that after the last dog I had, I'd never get another one. With all the kids we've got, I just didn't need the hassle. But my wife Angie has a weakness for cute animals, and in mid-winter, it caught up with her. Since she had done so much for me, since I owed her more appreciation than any other person in the world, I didn't even think of putting up a fight (she could have wanted a boa constrictor and I would have found a way to make it work :) So, in February we got Chester the dog. It wasn't but a few seconds before I was overwhelmed with his cuteness and any shred of internal resistance that I might have still been harboring was gone. There's something about a living, moving ball of fluffiness that makes it impossible not to believe that the world is, in fact, a wonderful place and that just to be alive is all the awesomeness that one can handle. S