§ I am frankly pumped about this sweater weather. Caroline and I spent a few brisk evenings decorating the yard for Halloween.

§ I’ve learned more about the inner-workings of my kitchen sink than I would prefer to. On Monday it decided to effectively stop draining. I didn’t quite realize how important my kitchen sink was until a quick rinse of the dishes from lunch resulted in six inches of standing water for the next several hours.

It was worse after I realized that a sizable fraction of the water that eventually drained wound up pooled in the cabinets under the sink. There was a leak.

After a bit of a panic running around with armfuls of sopping shopping bags and searching the garage for a suitable bucket, I was able to take a trip to the hardware store to buy a replacement for the blown gasket connecting two of the PVC drain pipes.

Replacing the rubber gasket fixed the leak but, if anything, it only exasperated the slow draining problem. No longer allowed to drip and pool underneath my cabinets, the water had no recourse but to sit stagnant, occasionally alternating between the left and right basin.

I purchased an adorable miniature plunger that would be dedicated for this task. Out of all career options available to plungers, this job has got to be one of the most highly coveted. Unfortunately, our new friend proved ineffective. I made a home for him under the sink nestled between my collection of spray cleaners and sponges.

This is when I realized that I needed to do the task that I had been trying to avoid up until this point: disconnect all of the pipes leading to the wall and snake each section. I wish I could tell you that I discovered some disgusting obvious culprit, dear reader, but I didn’t. I cleared out a few small bits of gunk but, nevertheless, after I put everything back together the sink started draining normally. An overall unsatisfying conclusion, I realize. I am just glad I can clean my dishes again.

§ Is there a name for the practice of saving leftovers in a ziplock bag instead of a tupperware because it will be easier to inevitably throw it out, uneaten?

§ I found a new podcast that is super charming—Hemispheric Views. Think ATP but if two thirds of the hosts were Australian. Sold yet? Of course you are.

§ I started my third—or maybe fourth—rewatch of Twin Peaks. It has consistently endured as my favorite television show with everything else—The Wire, Utopia, Station Eleven—all jockeying for, at best, second place.

§ I’ve added a “list of lists” page to this site. Included is a list of Twin Peaks lines that I find myself quoting multiple times a year.

§ My big un-curated hyperpop playlist now contains twelve hours of music. It is, however, still only my second longest playlist. It trails quite a distance behind my nearly 24 hour long African blues, funk, and disco playlist.

§ I can’t wait for Corey Doctorow’s upcoming book The Lost Cause. The two hour(!) audiobook excerpt hooked me. It doesn’t hurt that I enjoyed his previous book Red Team Blues.

§ The bottom third of the cheapo VGA monitor connected to my CNC’s computer started flaking out after only a week or so. I can’t blame it since it is inundated with massive quantities of saw dust six hours a day. On Wednesday, we had our first true technological casualty though: an old Apple extended keyboard. Will the random Dell model that replaced it fare any better? Stay tuned.

§ Links

§ Recipes