Steve Gadlin's piece of the Internet

Well, I created… kinda.

I installed PostNuke on Steev.Org, a PHP/MySQL web portal software. I haven’t found any theme/templates that I dig yet, and didn’t have time to customize the graphics… so it’s ugly, and I hate it. What a wash.

Boo.

Instead, I think I’ll focus on making http://www.gadlin.com/ a family home page, of sorts… a place where family members can post important dates, birthday reminders, upload photo galleries, etc.

Too many things! Instead, I should concentrate on producing my game show, “Don’t Spit the Water!” Yes. That’s what I’ll do.

Boingy McBoingerson!@#

I will spend the night creating. I’ll show you what I got in the morning.

Ok, enough posts about stinkin’ crosswords.

The weather finally dipped today. It’s been hot, hot, hot, and now it suddenly feels like fall. Excellent.

Becky and I are going to a Cubs game on Thursday. We have dugout seats, which I’m ecstatic about. We’ll practically be sitting on the field. Hopefully this will be a game that decides something. I will make catcalls a’plenty at the opposing batters to help psyche them out.

Maybe something like, “Hey, batter! Pay attention to me, not the ball!” Or, “I hope you bat poorly!” If we come down to a real tense moment, I’ll hit ‘em with, “Faaaaaaaaart!”

I finished my very first crossword puzzle.

You can solve it online. I hope.

http://www.steev.org/xword/09272004.html

Whooooopy!@#!@#

The conversation between the two ladies in the elevator with me was so boring and mundane, I wanted to chew off my nuts.

“Good weekend?”

“Yeah, busy one.”

“The weather was beautiful.”

“Sure was. I had family in town, so it was busy.”

“Oh yeah, that’s a busy weekend.”

“They wanted to do the typical tourist stuff, so we hit Navy Pier…”

“Perfect, the weather was beautiful for that…”

I couldn’t hear the rest because I was vomiting out my ears.

I did not finish the Saturday puzzle, and I’m calling myself on a technicality with Tuesday’s, and voiding the whole week. So I still haven’t reached any of my crossword goals.

I did create my very own grid, however, for the first time. That was incredibly tough. Now I’m going to write out the clues, and submit it to the New York Times.

Ugh. Freakin’ Monday. I have passed up an incredible opportunity for today, and have no one but myself to blame for this unhappiness. I think. Ergh.

I finished the Friday puzzle.

I’ve completed my big goal of solving Monday through Friday.

Plus, since I solved Sunday, I can take a stab tomorrow at the larger goal of solving an entire week’s worth of puzzles.

Of course, I still have to check my answers… so my celebration may be premature. But… hooray!@# Whoopy!@#

To get up to the train in the morning, I first have to walk under the tracks. The area under the tracks has always been littered with pigeon dookie in very distinguishable rows, as if the pigeons were purposely creating a visual pattern. The specificity of these patterns has always been a bit of a mystery to me. But no more!

Not because I’ve solved it, but because all of the dookie has disappeared. The area under the tracks where the pigeons roosted is now completely covered with dangerous looking plastic spikes. I feel bad for the first pigeon to discover these spikes. It was rude of us to cover what is effectively their toilet seat with terrible torture devices.

My crossword puzzles have turned into mini-slapstick comedies. My wife bought me some new mechanical pencils. They’re brilliant. They have the heft of a nice pen, .05mm refillable lead, and an impressive rubber grip. On the mechanical pencils I’ve used in the past, the button to advance the lead has been on the side somewhere, so the eraser remained exposed. With these pencils, however, you actually press the pencil’s butt to advance the lead, so there’s a rounded plastic cap in place over the eraser.

This is where it gets silly.

I’m so used to erasing with wild abandon, that I never remember to take the cap off of the pencil when I make a mistake. I automatically flip the pencil in my hand, and begin erasing. The slippery, rounded butt of the pencil makes it slip across the page, and it often flips 360 degrees in my hand. It’s as if it’s slipping on banana peels.

I love it. My puzzles definitely needed that slapstick injection.

I’ve completed Sunday through Thursday again… second time ever, second time in a row. And I’m about 80% done with Friday’s already. It’s not an easy one, but my new pencil has energized my brain. I’m on fire. Have you ever heard of a cassowarie? Neither had I. It’s a flightless bird that can run 40mph.

If I finish Friday’s puzzle, there will be much rejoicing… and I will pin my successes solely on these new mechanical pencils.

Nice knives make such a difference.

I bought my wife a really nice set of knives for our 2-year anniversary. The cotton anniversary. The cuttin’ anniversary. Yuk yuk yuk.

We tested them out last night on a ripe tomato. Holy McCutsrealnice. It was as if the knife generated some magical friction that made it slice perfectly through the tomato. Paper thin slices with the greatest of ease… kablam.

Nice knives. Worth the investment.

Wow.

I keep flaunting my new hat in front of my cube neighbor, Minesh. There’s a frosty glass pane between our cubes that you can kinda see through. I hung my fancy new hat right over the glass pane, so that it would always smile down on him.

But then I started feeling bad…

So I made him a nice paper hat and drew a little red fedora on it. Now we both have neat, new hats.