b.rox

The view from my front porch this morning, about 5:30 a.m.

I’m not sure if those are stars or planets, but I’m pretty sure the big thing is the Moon. The picture doesn’t do it justice, of course.
Update: David Norris set me straight. Two of those bodies are actually planets. That’s Venus at the bottom and [...]

We took Van’s bandage off yesterday.

This morning he let me take a picture of his paw.

I’ve been working on this novel for seven days now, and I’ve written 7,402 words. They’re not necessarily good words, but NaNoWriMo is about quantity, not quality. I try to remind myself: “That’s what second drafts are for.” The idea here is to turn off the internal editor and write furiously. I have a hard [...]

It’s hard to take pictures and throw a frisbee at the same time.

I know the world is wondering about my knee.
Here’s what it looked like on Tuesday:

And Thursday:

And today:

As you can see, a second scab has formed over the area that was not quite ready to let go of the first scab.

Cold weather has finally arrived in New Orleans. We have gone from highs in the mid-80s to highs in the upper 60s.
I guess this October was the hottest on record. It seems incredible that just two days ago I was sitting around my house in my underwear, totally comfortable. It also seems a little unfair [...]

If the electoral votes for each state were allotted proportionally, a map like this might make sense. Puts things in a different perspective, doesn’t it? The “winner takes all” method used by most states creates an artificial polarization, but this map shows a continuum that is much more reflective of how people actually voted.

It doesn’t take a genius to discern that, even though the election results are not official yet, there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth, not to mention rending of garments and beating of breasts, amongst those who voted for Kerry and those who despise the Bush administration.
But that’s absolutely the wrong attitude!
Yes, the results [...]

Van vanished for almost 24 hours the other day, and when he returned he had a wounded paw. We tried treating it ourselves, but this morning Xy noticed that the paw had the “stink of death,” so she took him to the vet. He is now hobbling around the house somewhat pathetically, with his leg [...]

Xy & I voted this morning without incident. The cops still have Xy’s drivers license, but she presented an expired one, and it was accepted by the poll workers without comment. Besides the presidential election, we’re also looking at senate and house races and four constitutional amendments here in Louisiana. On the local level, there’s [...]

On Saturday, what with some early morning bed-wrestling and climbing around on a ladder, I managed to bang my knee a few times, and it leaked a little blood.
By Sunday morning the scab had popped halfway off.

But not all the way! It jutted out from my knee at an absurd angle, flapping like a piece [...]

I can now add “rodent disposal technician” to my job description.
I was at the art village here at the university, for a video shoot that didn’t happen, when a mouse was spotted by a student. It was cowering under a shelf. MaPo, the instructor, got a sticky trap that the Physical Plant had issued her [...]