I still had at least fifty kids show up.  I think it looked better at night, but no pumpkin mess for me this year.

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I’m doing a contract position for a special project at the School of Medicine.  It’s amazing to see what a full-fledged city this campus is, with its own police force.

I just read several profiles in succession where the person described himself in the first line as “down to Earth”.  Do they need to say they are in their profiles?  How substantive of a comment can it be?  It seems to me that this would be something only another person could say about someone, who isn’t that person’s mother, the way people sometimes say “told I’m good looking.”  Not sure what down to Earth means, anyway.  Good center of gravity?  Sober?  Not a dreamer?  Easy going?  Un-heavenly?  Jaded?  Bitter?

The largest Coast Guard base in the world was on Goveror’s Island, right off the tip of Manhattan.  We lived there for 3.5 years when my Dad got transferred back to the States from Catalonia, Spain.

We lived on the top floor of the largest building, which had two story apartments without paying rent with a view of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and Twin Towers RENT FREE.

I had a friend in the same building who I would visit once in a while and I noticed that their identically designed apartment looked different every time I went over.  While OCD was not yet coined, it appeared his mother had a compulsion to move furniture around to make her feel like she had new living arrangements, I have often thought in hindsight.

Once in a while I get inspired to do some things around my own home, but I try to make it functional and easy to maintain.  I think there is something to be said for the best arrangement of furniture for the space one is allotted, which includes outdoor furniture.

The two major projects that I’ve undertaken recently was a new gazebo for the backyard that is like Fort Knox compared to the covers I had over my hot tub area, and putting a futon in my home office to give me a true guest room accommodation for two people potentially.

The futon I got from my daughter’s boyfriend  has multiple purposes.  Besides having a completely private bedroom for guests, if I wish to take a break upstairs, without going to the main living area to lay down and nap, I can now do so in my home office without messing up my bedroom.  I can comfortably recline and watch “TV” on one of my computers in there (because cable is so Decade Zero).  It also provides a comfortable place for my Yorkies to nap and still be near me while I’m working at my desk, and yet somehow it’s not overcrowding the office as I had suspected a queen size mattress would, especially when it is inclined like a couch.

The Gazebo took a lot of work and isn’t completely finished to my satisfaction but thanks to the help of several friends it’s sturdy and not going anywhere soon.  I love the color and I’m so glad to have found it marked down significantly after admiring it in the store for a few years thinking it was overkill and perhaps a little too large for my strangely-shaped backyard

It turns out it fits beautifully and while there was some frustration and extreme fatigue over the course of six days to get it up, the features and security of having it, makes it worth it, especially since it can be seen from various parts of the neighborhood and it truly feels like a comfortable outdoor room/lanai, which is what I was going for.