This is a test of the emergency blogcast system

Um... so... what have you guys been up to? Anything fun?

Yes, OK, scaling Kilimanjaro? That's good. Final engineering on your better mouse trap? Very nice. What's that? You in the back corner? Oh, sir, please put that away. This is not that kind of website.

I myself have been a little on the busy side, you might say, which is a minor excuse for why I have not written on this blog since sometime in the 1970s. (They did have blogs in the 70s. You just had to go to the nearest research university and punch out your posts through a complex code of zeros and ones. Frankly, I think the quality of the Internet has really plummeted since just anyone can post anything from the comfort of their homes. See Exhibit A here. And Exhibit B here.)

Aside from being busy, I also have a tendency to get burned out on things and go looking for some more interesting outlet for my creative energy (or nonsensical babbling). Having found none, I have returned to this blog. I think.

So, a quick catch-up... here are a few of the highlights of the last five months of my life:

-Been raising a baby. I have reason to suspect he isn't mine, but he's adorable and so I've decided to play along for a while. He has mastered rolling over but is still working on crawling, sitting upright without assistance, and fetching. We'll be enrolling him in evil medical school in the fall.

-Planted a small vegetable garden, consisting of four tomato plants, two bell pepper plants, and one zucchini plant. (There were originally more zucchini plants, but most of them died while sitting in our laundry room waiting to be planted, while the spring monsoons kept the ground too wet to work.) I also believe these plants to be illegitimate, but they're growing tall and some of them have flowered. What else can I expect from the bastards thus far?

-Started a larger compost pile alongside the compost bucket that started last winter. The pile is corralled between a couple of homemade trellises, fashioned from the sticks trimmed off an overgrown crepe myrtle bush earlier this year. It's all very Little House on the Prairie.

-Made more minor progress toward the Attic Insulation and Ventilation Project of 2008. (Yes, I know that it is now 2009, thank you.) I figured, I had so much fun working in the attic last July and August, that I should postpone further activity in there until the temperatures eclipse the three-digit mark again this year. Meanwhile, we're just going to have to fork out the money to add another A/C unit for the upstairs. At least there's a tax credit to be had for Energy Star units right now: for example, the unit we're looking at.

Jeez, this doesn't sound very convincing. I promise I've been busy. What have I been doing? Washing baby bottles, changing diapers, giving baths, playing, protecting the child from two dogs that desperately want to French kiss him, and so on. It's all very exciting, I know. Oh, and, miraculously, I still have a full-time job, even one that depends on the very financial services industry that has been crumbling all around us for the last nine months or so.

Good, I think we're all caught up then. I'll see you all again in six months.

Kidding, kidding. I plan to return soon with riveting tales of adventure and mystery. Unless my wife brings home another child, in which case all bets are off.