No, really. It's true. You see, I've never mentioned this before because it's kind of embarrassing, but I'm a recovering DIYer. Yes, I know many experts say there's no cure—that, with only one whiff of varnish remover, some people are addicted for life. You get your hands on a stack of shiny new paint samples or a batch of fabric swatches, and the next thing you know you're glued to HGTV all day and clipping pictures out of House Beautiful.

The blog is back up after a few days of erratic behavior. I finally got MT v3.2 up and running, but I'm still working on the new templates and style sheets. Hopefully I've have them up in a few weeks when work calms down.

Every now and then, I get edged out of a computer and have to go looking for a new one. Last time, my kids got interested in computer games, and rather than fight them over Dora Explorer, I gave them my PC and bought this laptop. This time, I'm vying with football season. Apparently sports radio, 24/7 ESPN and the sports page don't cut it anymore. To be a true self-respecting fanatical sportsaholic you have to be able to sneak onto your wife's computer when she tucks the kids in bed and hang tough while she sighs, clicks her tongue, taps her fingers and repeats for the tenth time, "Are you done yet? I have to get back to work."

Recently I've been in a battle against large, messy, unwieldy style sheets. I always start out so neatly, organizing my rules by selector and carefully keeping track of them. Then sometime around 3 a.m. one morning, the neatness wears off. I can't remember if I've already written a rule similar to what I need, and frankly I've stopped caring. The heck with it, I grumble, let's just write a new rule and toss it in there.

The other day my 5 year old showed me a picture of a totem pole she'd colored. She pointed out various things, then hesitantly confessed she'd copied one part from her older brother's totem pole. She was pretty surprised when I explained this was perfectly all right--that, in fact, I copy bits and pieces from other people all the time in my work. It's the way we learn.