Screw LightPress. I could never get it looking the way I wanted — well, to be fair, I didn’t have the patience to get it to look the way I wanted –, it didn’t work right with Markdown, and it didn’t fix my wonky Dreamhost idiocy. So, I’m back to my friggin’ design. If Dreamhost sends me a nastygram, I’ll move. We’ll see how that goes, eh?

I had an appointment today at the house with the Squirrel Terminators. I didn’t necessarily want to. I gave the little turd every opportunity to leave my attic in peace but she didn’t take it. I have a squirrel trap, had it set up in the attic for 3 days and was well prepared to relocate said miscreant several miles away, but noooo. So we’ll play the game a little differently now.

There’s a fairly hideous, Victorian-era-looking contraption hanging off the side of my house now, courtesy of the aforementioned squirrel killers. This contraption is not designed to tickle or coerce, but rather have a more immediate and sudden impact on this animal’s life than what I initially intended and attempted. I do indeed feel bad as I love animals of all ilk, but unfortunately having this animal in my attic chewing incessantly for the past couple of months does little for my peace of mind. I like my house precisely the way it is which includes being not burned to a cinder due to some idiot squirrel nesting in my attic and chewing those pesky wires that are in its way.

More household stuff

Cat and I recently tiled the hearth and surround of our fireplace. First tiling job of either of our lives. I won’t say it was necessarily easy but it came out beautifully and we’re extremely pleased with the results. The only real reason it was difficult is because of our damned walls being so unplumb. It didn’t help that when I took off the (horrid) black slate that was originally on there, a largish, roughly 7 inch square piece of the drywall decided to go with it. I eventually decided to patch that section of drywall and it came out well, but it sure didn’t help with the plumb. Even the fireplace itself is crooked in its mounting, with one side coming out from the wall a bit and the other side inset.

Now I just have to build a mantel around it. I’ve drawn up the design, now I need to implement to the design. Shouldn’t be hard, just will require work and a bit of meticulousness. I designed our own because the surround is fairly sizable and standard mantel sizes simply don’t fit. That and all the other mantel designs in the world seem so flamboyant, with scrollwork and fluted pillars and simply far too much trim. So, I drew up what I wanted to see and Cat immediately agreed as I silently and proudly knew she would. We got lucky that we in that our tastes in furnishings generally converge handily.

Pictures when I get a chance.