Centerfield

We're doing taxes. It's our first time filing with a dependent and house.

It's also been harder because the kid's in a growth spurt, which means we're starting two hours than we expected to, because he didn't feel like getting to sleep. He usually goes into a "Crawl Or Die" mode when this happens until he finally calms down enough and is otherwise ready for sleep.

And, while I'm kidblogging, today's funnest image: Mama has just plugged the nightlight BACK in, because the kid's already taken it out once. The baby can be seen dimly in the odd, dim, white, rayed light of the nightlight, crawling toward the light. When he sees the light, he takes off and hotfoots it the rest of the way. The light goes out, the last image a small hand reaching the light.

I spent the day cutting and welding steel for a new smoker/grill. Does that count? It's just a little one, a mere 128 cubic feet or so. Won't hold more than 60 or 70 racks of ribs and a couple o' dozen briskets when we're done.

Tully, starting a second career?

Got myself a new front rotor for my old DR350S.
With gas going up and all it's time to pull it out of mothballs. My old Ford still gets 35mpg on the freeway but the DR gets over 55 mpg. Still need new battery and rear shock - the old one is leaking. Added some more Tufte books to my library, "Visual Explanations" and "Envisioning Information". My partner is lamenting the eventual move out of her apartment overlooking Lake Merritt. It has a gorgeous view, especially in the early evening when the gondola is out with it's romantic cargo.
My partner also sent out our parents evaluation to the hockey club regarding the clusterbleep of a season, complete with outrage and acid comments regarding the man-child they had for a coach. Like all large organizations we don't expect change and we expect her kid will not be on the AAA team and become a practice player or whatever.
What happened this pass season was literally my worst thoughts about adult-run youth sports programs come to life.

If you want to see what kind of problems we have with Oakland City government, nothing says it like this Chip Johnson column in the SF Chronicle.

Ex-controller sues Oakland - wrongful firing
Got any Drano?

We're not gonna sell it, Marcus, we're gonna COOK with it! It's a group project. It's not our first big smoker project by a few. The big fun will be when it's done and we have to move it from the construction platform onto the trailer it'll be attached to. Sucker's gonna weigh in right around a metric ton without the trailer. I see a framed I-beam crane-building project in the future as well....

Cutting steel is no biggie. Welding is a brand-new skill. But welding stretch steel to angle iron framework for removeable grills isn't the toughest job in the world, as demonstrated by the fact I can do it. :-)

Now welding up the Big Box from plate steel, THAT I will leave to my more skilled friends. Because we'd like it not to crack and fall apart the first time it gets heated up.

Hey, I wanna be your city manager! Lemme get that account opened in the Caymans first.

That's quite a contrast to us. We're FINALLY getting around to getting our very, very own grill. Oooh! You gotta understand that neither of us has lived much in cultures that did anything beyond burgers with grills until we came here. I'm likeliest to do fancy things with noodles, and the Profesora with ovens.

We're probably getting a Weber, prolly a basic 22-inch, next time we go shopping by car (the HEB's in easy walking distance).

The Profesora has a friend who used to work high-up in the Oakland city govt., but didn't get along well with Jerry Brown (yeah, it was then). Now she works for DC (she's pretty brave).