AND INCIDENTALLY

...the one October post here in which I vowed to post more often was about the very last thing I did before Ye Olde Laptop went Brad Lidge on me and needed a full Windows re-install. Which is done, but now it's the secondary machine in the house...and blogging will proceed once the new computer's fully set up.

TRANSLATION TIME

And now, radio-weather-forecast-speak translated into plain Hudson Valley English:

Scattered storms = six hours of relentless torrential downpours (see today's forecast)
Isolated storms = isolated...over you
Slight chance of storms = if you leave the umbrella in the car, the skies will open up when you're a country mile from the clubhouse and knee-deep in the rough
Sunny, clear, dry = archaic terms, no longer in use

ANOTHER WEEK BITES THE DUST

Monday got eaten by catching up from last week, Tuesday got gobbled up by the car in the shop, Wednesday meant Maria's big show at school, and today?

Power outage. I'm running off a generator now, and so must be brief in case this outage runs all night.

Say hi to a new addition to my "useful links" section, a friend of mine of long standing: Wire, Fabric, Beads. Nothing like getting to the point with the name of your blog.

RIDICULOUS WEEK

Between the inaugural and the Gillibrand stuff, it has been a fully bonkers week. You can also follow me over at Facebook or Twitter if you so choose, because I haven't really had the time to do the full-blown idiocy here. Hopefully that changes this weekend, but Burger Hill is calling my kids' name.

FOLLOWER NUMBER SEVEN, WELCOME!

Michael down in Florida has picked up on the unalloyed genius we spew forth here, which means that with five more followers I am officially entitled to a messiah complex - although the kids will then think I'm made of loaves and fishes and demand I go pick up that toy they threw into the Hudson, and my wife will get grouchy if I go to the liquor store when I can just make a perfectly good riesling out of that bottle of Poland Spring in the fridge.

This is why Jesus never got married. Family life is too much of a time-suck if you're going into the savioring business.

GETTING THE SNOW

And thus, not a whole heckuva time to post much of anything. Stack up a coupla pre-Christmas-wired kids on top and you can see where the time goes -foof-.

But yeah, I'm here. Covered in icicles, but here.

Last-minute Christmas shoppers, if you make your sojourn to Amazon through that Boogershoppe link over there to your right, Amazon slides me some gold. Frankincense and myrrh, not so much.

RE-SCAN THOSE LINKS

I've added a few new local restaurants to the "Food & Drink" list. More to come, and you can always email me if you know any other good ones 'round here.

STILL HERE, NO WORRIES

Just the kind of day where 20 pounds of WTF got stuffed kicking and squirming into a 10-pound bag. Nothing bad, just a lot to (not) get done.

Thank you in advance for understanding.

UPDATED PROFILE

And having thrown some of my favorite movies up on my profile, apparently I am the only blogger within Blogger to appreciate the subtle joys of Piranha II: The Spawning.

As such, it's going to have to go into the Boogershoppe as a holiday gift the whole family will love.

(Many other items have been added as well! Anything you buy from Amazon via Boogershoppe, whether or not it's in the shop itself or at Amazon in general, means a little extra stocking-stuffer for the family here. Much obliged, as the Stranger would say.)

ALSO, IF YOU DIDN'T NOTICE THERE TO YOUR RIGHT...

...the Boogershoppe is now up and running! Only a few items in there at the moment, things which my family already has and has found favor with, with the exception of that Genesis box set, for which I am furiously lobbying Santa Claus. You buy the stuff through me, same as you would through Amazon, at the same price regardless, and Amazon shows me a little bit of love. And therefore...

If there's something you'd like me to track down, drop a line via knockatize --at-- gmail --dot-- com and I'll try to find it and post it.

Also, for those of you trying to shop local, I'll be trying to get as much local stuff listed as possible in a local version of Boogershoppe, things that you can track down by heading to a Hudson Valley locally-owned store near you instead of to a jam-packed mall full of the sort of people who don't know better than to not walk three abreast in a mall corridor during the holiday shopping season. I'll have the local stuff up soon as I can teach myself the relevant geekery - and again, if you're a local merchant yourself drop me a line and I'll list you. If you've got graphics, what the heck, send them along and I'll try to fit them in. Free, at least until Xmas, while the space lasts.

YESSSS!!

The Beast has drifted off for his afternoon nap on his new day-care-center-style cot. Flawlessly. Soon as I find the cot on Amazon it'll be the first item up for sale in the Boogershoppe.

THE TRICK...

...is to make the purpose of the mission plain before going into the toy store.

"We're strictly checking out what Santa might be able to bring you and your brother this year, so please don't ask for anything in the store - okay, my sweet noodle?

O-KAY, daddy!"

And it worked. She was saintly. There was even an amazed "she's so good!" from one mom at the toy store. I wish I could put it down to my superior parenting skills, but please. Far as disciplinary skills go, I'm the anti-Great Santini. For once in my life I just happened to be lucid enough to lay out the situation to my daughter at the right time. At any rate, it's a small success, and now I need to chase down a Santa right quick to keep her on the beam.

Speaking of Santas, I'll be rating them locally and you are free to pitch in with your own observations of local Santas you see and I don't get to. Just drop a line, a photo, whatever to knockatize -=at=- gmail.com and we'll see how this works out.

THATCLOSE

...to 1000 profile views, I am. And only a few of them are me checking to see how many profile views I have. Thanks to everybody for your continued readership, and do become a Follower if you appreciate whatever it is I'm offering here.

UPDATE: we're there! Woohoo! Alert the international press and get the Grucci Brothers here stat for some fireworks!

COMING SOON FOR THE HOLIDAYS: BOOGERSHOPPE

Classy name, yes?

Once it's up - target date will be the Monday before Thanksgiving - the way it should work will be pretty typical: if you're buying holiday gifts online, do so through this site and I get a little kickback at no extra cost to you. It'll be an expansion of the three-item shop I've got here now - so if you're in the market for a certain Britax child safety seat, you know what to do.

Tell your friends!

DESIGN NOTES

I have been informed, in a constructive way, that this blog's color scheme would put Hieronymus Bosch off his lunch.

Yes, I've had a design tweak in mind, but when I spend my days thinking like a three-year-old it's hard to upshift into geekliness, especially when said geekliness hasn't gotten a serious workout in decades.

I'm also pondering a way to set up podcasts here, for those of you who simply can't do without the sound of my voice after 19 years of having it inflicted on you at the top and bottom of every hour every weekday morning.

But for now, zonk-time.

FOLLOWERS DOUBLED AGAIN!

First one follower, then two, then four...thank you and welcome to "FlinchOnce" and "mbunt13".

I told you we were going to grow exponentially. Let's keep it up!

(This post brought to you by the Department of Exaggerated First-Down Celebration Dances On One's Own 14-Yard-Line With Twelve Minutes Left In The First Quarter.)

HOT DIGGITY - 2 FOLLOWERS!

I doubled my total, so at this rate I'll have the entire world reading my blogs by New Year's.

Thanks to new follower "e.f." for coming on board!

WHEW, THIS IS DIFFICULT WORK.

Managing that one follower I have, that is.

Won't you look over to the right for a moment, click in the appropriate place, and join whoever it is in getting regular updates on whatever this is?

FOLLOW YOU, FOLLOW ME

Hey, take a gander over to the right and become a follower of this blog. It's new!

UPDATE: Sweet! I've got one.

TELLING MOM

Well, whaddya know. She didn't have a conniption or anything. I was bracing for a meltdown, but she held it together nicely and began threatening to show those empty suits what for.

Down, Ma. Down. Easy now.

So it's back to getting the house ready for winter this afternoon, while the weather's still decent. I'll be on a ladder, which is always good for laughs.

Watch for a blog detailing my job search shortly, where you'll be able to share in my struggles and laugh at my failures.