Nine years ago today

Nine years ago today, Nancy and I closed on the house in which the cats and I now live. I used to celebrate this day as "Fifth of July," or more appropriately, "independence from landlords day." Now, though, I don't. When I bought her out of the place a few years ago, I think the closing was on February 8th, not exactly a party sort of date... and refinancing it this summer will take place July 22 if all goes well... also not a very memorable date.

I do think I'm going to continue to celebrate Bastille Day, since that corresponds to the day my divorce went final a couple of years ago. I think I wrote about that here.

But that's a Thursday this year, and I'll be on the road to the aforementioned high school reunion. Whoopee.

I finally got Podcast #4 out the door, so be sure and go over to the site and slurp it up. You didn't have anything else planned for the next thirty-six minutes, right? This is the one about finding the perfect single... and no sooner did I complete it (days late) than I started laying out the next episode, which will be before-and-after themed. The idea is, since I'm such a fanatic about original versions of records, I am going to play the well-known versions of songs, and then go back and play the original (or at least the oldest I can find) recording of the same song. Realistically, I could do this sort of thing for days, but my bandwidth and time are limited, so I'll probably just do half a dozen such songs and call it even.

And after that, Podcast No. 6 looms on the horizon.

The schoolteacher and I had a rather sharp exchange in IM last night. She pisses me off, but she says things I've never heard before, and I value that. I still don't see her as a "forever" girl, but she just has a lot of traits I'd value in a friend. Prime among them is a willingness to kick ass in a nice way, yet not make ass-kicking a way of life.

So... my house. Nine years, and the fucking bathroom still isn't done. And the kitchen floor is still covered by horrible vegetable-themed vinyl flooring. And the attic is still nearly useless. And the septic tank is still an ongoing mystery. And and and and and.

I always said I'd be there till I died, so I guess I shouldn't worry much about these things. I ain't dead yet.