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How in the hell a dog park that's not even open yet can be voted "Best of Erie" is beyond me. Then again, perhaps the fact that it's Erie is all I need to know.

About a mile from my house sits a fairly newly erected Erie Humane Society. It was voted, two months ago, as "Best of Erie" for its public dog park. The dog park remains closed to the public.

I called today and was told "try calling back at the end of the month, we might be open then." I asked what could ever be the problem, and was told that they were having some problems with "security." Specifically, the gates.

I asked them if I could volunteer some time, because I'm close, to help them get up to speed. She laughed and hung up the phone. Doesn't the humane society rely heavily on volunteers? What the heck?

Friggin' Erie, I tell ya. I like it for a lot of reasons, but voting something "Best of Erie" when it's not even open is typical Erie, too.

I've long said that this blog is "mine" and that I write here solely for my purposes. Posts here contain my thoughts, my opinions, and my point of view. I've not shied away from writing personal things in the past, and with this, I've decided not to do so in the near future either.

Last night I had to ask my father to leave my home. Carey's parents and my parents joined us for a small Independence Day cookout. My dad got riled up about an incident that happened over 15 years ago, began to make rude comments, and I had to ask him to leave. That synopsis doesn't do the event justice, so I'll tell it in full below. Feel free to skip this one, folks.

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It turns out I was written up in the Sunday paper for something. In the business section. Something I have been hoping to announce for the past few weeks, and something I continue to hope to announce soon. But those who live in Erie, PA, already know what that thing is. You can register for free to figure out what it is, but I haven't even done so - I don't trust the local paper with my information or email address, and it's really nothing worth reading anyway.

For me, well, it was a nice little writeup, even with the one quote taken out of context. I was quoted as being the "Mac guy in Pennsylvania" (as if I was the only one). While I am one, the full quote was that I am "just a Mac guy in Erie, PA - not the most technologically advanced town in the country." Or something like that…

Some other small factual mistakes were made, like the spelling of PulpFiction (it had a space in it). I've got a quibble or two about the fact that PulpFiction was described as being an "Internet-based program" (it's a desktop app that uses the Internet), but I appreciate the fact that what is a quibble to a geek makes no difference to a normal person. I also appreciate the issue of "column length."

Question: How many kids do you want?

My Answer: I'm plenty happy with the 1½ that I have now. Flint can be left alone for a few hours at a time, thus accounting for the ½, and I can't imagine a better kid than Little One. Though she's not my own, I'm married to her mother and am her "step-dad" regardless of the genetics. Besides, what's so horribly wrong with spoiling a kid? 😀

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

Spotted somewhere near the vicinity of my clipboard:

The sport of choice for the urban poor is basketball. The sport of choice for maintenance level employees is bowling. The sport of choice for front-line workers is football. The sport of choice for supervisors is baseball. The sport of choice for middle management is tennis. The sport of choice for corporate officers is golf. Conclusion: The higher you are in the corporate structure, the smaller your balls become. -Author Unknown

Hardy har har. A cheap joke, but surprisingly true in many respects.

Question: How do you celebrate your Independence Day?

My Answer: Carey and I are having both families over for a cookout (hamburger, hot dog). Calling it a dry run for our reception/housewarming/party would be overdoing it, as it's much smaller, but it sure beats just hanging around and doing nothing, which is what I normally do. I'm not much into fireworks, so it's unlikely we'll even go to see any later.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

Question: Do you believe in magic?

My Answer: Not really. I believe that magic in the traditional sense - card tricks and bunnies from hats - is all just illusion, and that's fine. It's still entertainment. Magic in the mystical sense - casting spells and voodoo and enchanted forests - are also great entertainment, but really the purview of children. I can still pretend - any time we read fiction or a movie we're engrossing ourselves in a bit of make-believe, magic, and pretend. So, I "believe" in magic in that I'm willing to allow myself to be entertained now and then, but I don't think magic is "real."

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

Question: What's the largest home improvement project you've ever undergone?

My Answer: I installed a shower door. Was pretty easy, though I needed to buy a hacksaw and a 32-tooth blade to saw the bottom rail. The only real mistake we made was putting in one of the rails (the rail that holds the separate magnet rail) backwards. That resulted in an extra hole, but as it's behind that same rail, I don't imagine it matters.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

Does anyone care that MovableType is going to, presumably in about 29 more days or so, be at version 3.2? They're counting down the days (again, presumably) over here, and some of the features look nice.

Just this past weekend I was once again burned by what I would consider a massive bug. I deleted four categories that had about 100 articles, in total, assigned. I looked at the Entries list and tried to display only the entries without any categories assigned to them. Not possible.

Instead, I had to go through and find every one of the 100 articles, re-assign them, and rebuild them. One at a time. Heaven forbid I be asked to re-assign entries when deleting a category.

Here's to hoping that MovableType 3.2 does some nice things. The spam features may - or may not - put MT-Blacklist and SpamLookup in the dustbin. I'll try 3.2 here on NSLog(); before I try it on The Sand Trap - that's for sure.

P.S. I hope ecto support for MovableType 3.2 is either present already or coming very soon.

Question: At what age were you potty trained?

My Answer: I, like many boys, waited until I was nearly 3½ years old before I was potty trained. I remember once when my paternal grandparents were here, and I peed in the potty (from a step stool) and filled the whole bowl up with bubbles. I made my grandma come and look. I was so proud.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

I've just been informed by my wife that I'm never to write anything bad about Erin and John on my blog, because "they know where it is now." I can say one nice thing, though: they have a home theater setup with a projector, little theater type seats, a popcorn maker, and a bar. I hope to have a similar room some day.

Question: What's the nearest you've ever come to your own death?

My Answer: I've never tried to kill myself, so that rules that out. I've been in one car accident, but the guy who was driving avoided the oncoming car well enough that nobody was hurt at all. I once fell through some ice, but only up to my armpits. I split my head wide open when I was 6, but 18 (very big) stitches later I was fine. I've never been in a natural disaster… I can't say that I've ever been very close to death. If I had to choose, I'd go with the car accident, because if Matt hadn't steered hard to the left, the car would have smacked directly into my side of the truck.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

Now that I'm a homeowner, I'm very interested in getting to know my neighbors. One of the ways in which I thought to do this was by setting up a "neighborhood blog." The area in which we live is actually quite big, and there aren't any clear delineations, so I thought perhaps the street name would serve as a good "location-specific" delineator. Of course, we'd not exclude people who lived on connecting streets…

Anyway, such a "neighborhood blog" could serve as a generic "postboard" - people could apologize for traffic in advance (a graduation party, for example), post "I'm available to babysit" type messages, and, in general, communicate with more than the two or three people who share a property line with them but still live quite close. Neighbors could organize calls about potholes or talk about which cell phone companies offer good reception - whatever.

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Question: What do you do with all of your coin change?

My Answer: Carey and I are putting our change in a piggy bank. We take them to Wegman's or some grocery store and cash them in. We call it our "Outback Fund" - when we save up enough for a meal at the Outback, we go. Of course, I've already caught Carey stuffing dollar bills (and even fives) in the piggy bank, which is in clear violation of the "coin-only" policy!

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

Ben Roethlisberger's grandfather died recently, and I read about it on his blog. I'll overlook a few of the grammatical mistakes and simply wish Ben the best this year. I have - and always will be - a Steelers fan.

I love that an athlete has a blog and that I found out about the news of his grandfather dying there instead of in a writeup in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette or something, but the cynic in me wonders how long Ben will be able to leave comments open before he's bombarded with "Steelerz suk!" comments. Too many Internet-using football fans have no shame or honor.