And after I told him about my Insuretech text, my son informed me that Canadian Milton made good on his promise: www.latimes.com/california/s... Today's getting weird.

This morning's spam text: "Insuretech: We're happy to <blah blah fooking natterin>" As I read the text, I couldn't help hearing it in the voice of Lumbergh.

Huzzah! USPS marks all four tax returns as delivered. And two of the check have already cleared. Oh, the giddy joy of the season. Be still my fluttering heart.

My son shared this with me. There's still time

Free pallets acquired and stored.

There's "I got my taxes done early" nerd, then there's "I mailed my taxes last week" nerd, but THEN there's "I have a link in my browser that brings up the USPS Certified Mail tracking results for all four returns and it's right next to the Artemis II live display button" nerd.

And.....another board fixed in the fence. The horses like to break 'em.

What a heady week: fixed fence, installed new toilet, carried a load of crap to the dump, sent novel to editor (maybe *this* one will sell), arranged for a stack of free pallets,... and it's only wednesday.

Tonight I watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for the first time. Now I wish I'd seen it sooner. On the other hand, I've seen "Walking My Baby Back Home" zero times, and I'd really like to find a copy.

Portrait of an amateur plumber, flush with victory!

With the fan replaced, drywall repaired, and wall painted (Thanks, Meg!), last week's toilet replacement can finally begin.

One of my favorite webcomics is www.wildelifecomic.com Terrific creepy stories of horror and the supernatural in Podunk, OK, a town whose NPCs are as clueless as the people of Sunnydale. And the creator took 11 years, 8 months, and 1594 pages to land this Home Alone joke on April 1st. Amazing!

Ooookayyyyyy.... Let's hope they didn't use any frog DNA. "Nothing's more suspicious than Frog's DNA." -- Dr. Finkelstein www.reuters.com/science/dino...

I'm enjoying this real-time display from NASA. Once it loads, I change the Mission View (bottom left) to get the view from beyond the moon's orbit. www.nasa.gov/missions/art...

This is the pile Rumor pulled from. When I've made the changes from the markup, I drop the sheet on the floor. They get recycled later

I'm making my final pass through a novel before sending it to my editor. Rumor is helping.

Tonight's flaming moonrise, courtesy of an evening thunderstorm.

Paid my taxes today. Whee!!!

So stop me if you’ve heard this one.. @pauldini.bsky.social and some Aussie broad walk into Penguin Random House and made a LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK..!!!!! 🤩🤩🤩 Harley Quinn - Almost a Hero out Sep 1! Pre-order now! a.co/d/0izBDMB6

Progress on the drywall around the new fan... from better skilled hands than mine.

Bank, Costco, Bass Pro, Vet, Aldi, Walmart, QT, Lowes, Ingles, Library, and an undisclosed professional... thatsa lotta hunting and gathering today. Now it's hammock o'clock while the dogs romp in the front yard.

On I-85 today I passed a huge yellow billboard for a lawyer. It was basically a giant phone number and a giant picture of the lawyer. HE EVEN LOOKED LIKE BOB ODENKIRK!

I'll replace the toilet tomorrow, after the trip to Costco.

"It's fine. They'll never see it." Half a success is better than none.

It's getting worse. The vent fan needs replacing too.

Oh, boy! I've mapped out a terrific afternoon!

I was working under a sink and nicked my forehead on the plumbing. It's a vertical mark in the dead center. Since it's Lent, I'm waiting for someone to ask me if it has religious significance.

I will never not laugh at Fenton. youtu.be/3GRSbr0EYYU

Meg and I were talking about prequels in general and The Phantom Menace in particular. A phrase just popped into my head. "It's like reading The Silmarillion backwards in high heels."

I just backed IRON BARGE Book Two on @kickstarter.com www.kickstarter.com/projects/meg...

The three older chicks now live in a cage in the workshop. Every time I walk by, they scramble. C1: "Dinosaur! Gojira! Run!" C2: "Hide! Hide!" C3: "Wait. *We're* dinosaurs." C1: ... C2: ... C1: "Giant monkey! King Kong! Run!" C2: "Hide! Hide!" C3: "Aieeeeeeeeee! Help meeeeee!"

New shoes to wear around the house. I'm ready for a trip to The Village. I am not a number.

I took the big CO2 extinguisher from the workshop in for its 10-year-check today. "You're 5 years late." "Really, I thought it was 10." "Is this for a business?" "No, residential workshop." "Oh, you don't need to check those. [bangs it on the floor and listens]. Yeah, it's full. You're good to go."

There are 8-year-olds out there who can do panel layouts better than this highly trained industry professional. I can see why they did it (panel sizes), but that's no excuse for leaving out helper arrows. Also. "NOT WITH apply teflon tape..." I feel sorry for the non-mechanicals subjected to this.

One more pass through this book and it's time for the editor. But first, I need to fix a sink.

The four newborns from the incubator have integrated with the four Speckled Sussex we picked up at the feed store Saturday morning.

Holy Crap! I saw Gru's bad date at Aldi. Tall, leggy blond. Leopard print slinky dress. Absurdly high heels. Straight hair. Hoop earrings. Too much makeup. No, I did not even try to take a picture.

And they're out!

Someone has begun to peck their way to freedom.

A lovely equinox evening. Carnivores and herbivores both snacking on vegetable matter.

Two days to go. We have stopped turning the eggs and taken out the rotating wheel that turned them.

Taxes are done! Yay! And since we owe Uncle, the taxes can sit on my desk until I mail them in early April. They're in manila envelopes--a yellow row of taxes, then I'm agonna mail. The posties will deliver, despite the rain and hail.

METEOR!!!!!!! WHEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My copy of Side Quested V.1 came today!! Huzzah! Purchased from Books-A-Million, not from the nasty billionaire. sidequested.com/book/

This is the first time ever that I don't even recognize the *name* of the film that won Best Motion Picture. Then again, when I saw an ad for "Brad Pitt The Movie," I thought "Ok, I suppose that's a thing." It took a while for me to recognize the weird shape in the middle of the ad as "F1".

Can't stop the signal. www.reddit.com/r/firefly/s/...

Meg opened the door to Rumor's kennel, and he ran across the bed to climb in my lap. "Daddy, no! She's doing the thing! I'm not tired!" Then he yawns as she picks him up and puts him to bed. He is the most adorable dog of adorableness.

So, a skeet is limited to 300 characters.... And THAT is how Bluesky is like King Leonidas.

You know what day it is.

So we hear from Barbarella that there's something weird on Tr**p's neck. Me: Yeah. It's his head.