It wasn't much of a rain, not enough to make mudpies, so I was back at the yard again. Removed a couple of trees (you try it sometime), and rounded the home stretch on demolishing the old retaining wall. Fifteen feet to go, and I've already pulled the top tiers on that stretch. With good weather, should have it done next weekend. If you scroll back a week or two you will note that I had previously ranted about the prior landscaper creating structures which diverted water underneath the house where it could never drain. I certainly can't prove malicious intent, but I have so much damning evidence that any jury in the world would convict him of doing this deliberately. It's dumbfounding. I found the moisture line. It stops right at the retaining wall and from there flows underneath the house. And the bottom tier of the retaining wall is actually formed into a "shelf" which has no other practical value but to catch water and divert it there. It's mind-boggling to try and understand what this idiot was thinking. Maybe he bought a ton of flood insurance and was hoping to cash in on it. I'm trying to find a way to give him the benefit of the doubt; that maybe, just maybe there were lights on in his brain, but it's really stretching my imagination.

Quite a workout this weekend. Been hefting a jackhammmer all day, and removed just under two tons of concrete. How many software engineers do you know that have their own jackhammer? Thought of posting an image to one of my raunchier websites showing me hefting the thing with a caption "Call that a vibrator? This is a vibrator!". I know, that's pretty lame, but it sure as heck vibrates. That's now about 18 tons of concrete that I've pulled out of this place overall. That's why I own a jackhammer. Costs $100/day to rent one, and about $700 to buy one. It has long since paid for itself.

Was playing "Deuling Jackhammers" at one point with the folks across the street who just moved in and whose home had either the same or a similiarly inept landscaper.

There was an interesting show on TV last night, after a few strange ones. Watched all the gory details of understanding "spontaneous human combustion". Coupla' shows on serial killers and how they were eventually caught. (Discovery Network, which I've now aptly named "The ultimate source for those who want to dispose of bodies").

But I digress. The show I'm talking about was about romance, and all the weird ways people play the game nowadays. One happy couple met in the Mall of the Americas (if you know where this is, my sympathy). It was kinda' like "Who wants to Marry a Multi-Millionnaire" except this was just a normal dude. His friends got together and decided to find him a wife, took out ads in the local paper (and on TV), held interviews, and chose a nice gal for him. He married the "winner"; and they involved her too, I mean she knew much more about him than his net worth by the end of the interviews (and vice versa). For those true romantics out there, this actually worked. They've been married two years now and are totally happy. Nobody was preying on vanity like the other TV show. It was just old-fashioned matchmaking with a high-tech twist, and probably the best way to find somebody who might get along with a quiet dude that wasn't having much luck meeting interesting women on his own.

Heck, I can't find interesting women in California (ok, "unattached"). Couldn't imagine how to go about it in Minnesota, where the dating season approximates the growing season - a full six weeks a year.

Now if I only had any friends.... (hint, hint).