A man walks into his dining room...

One day I came home to find flock baby chicks had taken up residence in the dining room.

Sure, they were cute and all. Fuzzy little cheeping things. What's not to like?

But I knew they would grow -- the kids were bound to start feeding these McNuggets, and then where would I be? Not eating in my dining room anymore, that's for sure.

No, no, she said.

You need to build us a Chicken Coop, she said.

A Chicken Coop?, I asked.

Sure, I replied.

I'm an engineer.

I own a chop saw.

Of course I can make a Chicken Coop.

I mean, how hard could it be?



It'd have to be a bit stylish, of course.

Something with plenty of room.

Something the neighbors wouldn't object to.

Ha, I said.

I'll get right on it, I said.


Couple of Saturdays, a bunch of two-by-fours, some old screening.

Ha, I said again.

I'll get right on it, I said.

And baby makes three!

(Three kids, that is. There's five of us total now, counting the adults too. Sixteen all told, if you count the cat, the fish, and the chickens.)



Abigail Rose Gerlek was born 30 May 2009 at 4:45pm, measuring 9 pounds 11 ounces and 20 inches.



Mother and Child both now at home and doing well.

Yet one more NYT piece on the New Economy

From the NYT, natch:

As we all know, lax writing practices earlier this decade led to irresponsible writing and irresponsible reading. This simply put too many families into books they could not finish. We are seeing the impact on readers and neighborhoods, with five million Americans now behind on their reading. Some are just walking away from novels they should never have been reading in the first place. What began as a subprime reading problem has spread to other, less-risky readers and contributed to excess inventories.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Ancestral Whiting Farm, Hidden Springs, Idaho!

-mpg, kmg, meg, nrg, and tbdg

Another Zoom blog post today

This one is from the ImTech file.