Moving on

Hello:

I'm still not able to return my attention to this BLOG, but it is encouraging that the desire remains so strong. I'm hoping to hit the ground running on my writing projects when I get settled. For the moment, I am WAY BEHIND on email and responding to comments. I will catch up as soon as time allows. I have a number of meetings today for my work at Liguori Publications and I am of course behind at work as well. I'll leave you with these photos of the house I'm selling ($134,900 if you're interested in moving to St. Louis).

Peace,

P. Del Ricci - Dark Glass

Still Here

Hello:

The rumors of my death are slightly (but only slightly) exaggerated. I hadn't really intended to be off the air for so long but the demands of getting the old house on the market, the new house ready to move into and several projects at work have just about buckled me. I'm through the worst (the old house should go on the market tomorrow) and I should start BLOGging again next week.

In the mean time - I wanted to share this little tid-bit. I was boxing up papers in my office at home to move them to the new house. For some reason my agent didn't see stacks of papers, books and magazines as much of a selling point. (Some people lack perspective.) Anyway, I started reading some of the pages of my novel that I had actually written. Most were just over a year old (I was literally blowing dust off some of them). The amazing thing was, I liked what I read. I couldn't believe it. It was an incredibly positive experience and I'm looking forward to being able to dive back in.

Peace,

P. Del Ricci - Dark Glass

A Four Letter, Three Day Weekend

Hello:

I took last Friday off from work and spent my three day weekend cursing. I suppose that some time was spent preparing the old house to be sold, but it seemed like each project was just a precursor to more cursing. I did so creatively. I did so with vim, vigor and zeal. When I exhausted the old standards I resorted to inventing my own 4, 5 and even 6 letter explicatives.

Did you know that electrical boxes used in the 1920's were smaller in width and depth than the current standard? I did, but it's normally nothing but a mild inconvenience. Did you know that modern GFI outlets are larger than normal outlets and that that small small difference translates into a MAJOR pain in the ?!!!! What would normally take a screwdriver, a pair of plyers and 10 minutes; took a dremmel, a hammer and 2 HOURS! Oh and cursing, it took a steady torrent of language that threatened to peel off the fresh paint.

Most of Saturday and Sunday was spent in some variation of

1. Pull fuse in basement
2. Wire something in bathroom
3. Duck walk through attic and shimmey under eave to check connections to fixture
4. Hit head on attic roof
5. Curse
6. Return to basement, restore fuse
7. Check operation in bathroom
8. Curse
   

Change the order around as you will, but repeat those steps ad nauseum and you get the picture. To top it all off, my attic has vermiculite insulation. It's very effective, fire retardant, common in St Louis and .... oh yea was sometimes shipped in from Libby, Montana and can contain asbestos. The chances that it does are almost infinitesimally small but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little creeped out. All last week, I kept reading about how mesothelioma (a cancer caused by exposure to asbestos) is the most expensive Google adword .

For the most part, it's done and the house is ready to put on the market. I have to really question my laziness though. In the past few weeks I finished projects that I had been slowly creeping up on for the last 6 years. For 6 years, I'd been showering in the basement from a shower head hanging off an I-beam! Now there is a real shower in the bathroom that matches the period style of the house. For about the last 3 years, my hallway had a mechanic's drop light hanging from the ceiling and wired into the switch.

Now that it's over, I'm proud of my work. It all looks great. I might even, just a little bit, regret that I won't be living in the house long and have the chance to enjoy them. I wonder if I should advertise that someone with OCD did all the updates? My work is better than that of some contractors I've seen.

Earlier today they put the last coat of polyurethene on the refinished floors at the new house. I should be able to start living there in 36 hours! Hopefully, I've learned my lesson and won't put projects off at the new place. We'll see.

I'll leave you with a recommendation for a Liguori Publications title that's a little more positive than tales of my cursing talents. The Christ-Centered Heart: Peaceful Living in Difficult Times by Rick Mathis, Ph.D. Maybe it's time that I go back to yoga class?

Peace,

P. Del Ricci - Dark Glass

A Few Things I Forgot to Mention

Hello:

I recently decided to do a collection of more serious and in-depth posts (that's right folks, for your cutting edge news stay tuned to Dark Glass). I started with Terri Schiavo and planned to follow with Pro Life vs Pro Birth, immigration, child sexual abuse and the stance of the Catholic Church on homosexuality. Unfortunately, life has hit me like a freight train recently and I haven't even posted the immigration article that is all ready mostly written. I still plan to write this series, but it may be a few weeks. Certainly after Easter.

My work at Liguori Publications has been intense. We are implementing a completely new enterprise computer system. This would normally be a tremendous project in its own right, but for us is merely a staging project to prepare for creating an entirely new and fully integrated e-commerce, digital content and web platform.

I still haven't moved into the new house that I've owned since December. They started refinishing the floors earlier this week and I should be able to move things onto them next Thursday. I'd like to put the old house on the market next week, but everything I work on seems to take 4 times longer than I expect. I took today off work and have spent the entire time installing a shower in the upstairs bathroom. Sometime I'll have to share a picture of the primative shower I've been using for the past 6 years......

I've put a lot of care and effort into this house over the years. I hope the new owners both enjoy and appreciate it. You won't find many finishing here that came from Home Depot if you know what I mean.

In the odd moment (and trust me, most of my moments have been odd lately), I've rented billboard space from several BLOGExplosion members. All of whom have been splendid hosts.

Imago Dei - A relatively new Christian BLOG and an interesting read. I'm glad to be renting from it and glad to have found it.





Footsteps of Love - Another Christian which is new to me and that I'm glad I've found. Check out the pics of the Lego Church.





The Dramedy of Life - for more than you probably wanted to know about this site read my recent review.





In other news, I registered Dark Glass at the LSBlog.Com list directory.



And finally, I signed up at BLOGmad - the new BLOG exchange that's shaking BLOGExplosion's world. I'll let you know which I like better in a few weeks.




Whew - I'm out of breath and I don't think that new light in the bathroom is going to wire itself.....

Peace,

P. Del Ricci - Dark Glass

The Dramedy of Life

Hello:

Today I'd like to talk about this week's BLOGExplosion Billboard Renter. WAIT, STOP!!! Don't go away! This week's renter is very special and I want you to hear about her. This week's renter is none other than the lovely Miz Savannah, aka Shelly, of The Dramedy of Life.

Shelly has been special to me ever since we first crossed paths. She was one of the very first people to leave a comment at Dark Glass, she was THE first person to link to Dark Glass from her BLOG and she has been a valuable source of encouragement and support.

The Dramedy of Life, is a VERY professional looking site (she had a custom template created a little while back). Between the professional look of the site and her well written reviews of current television programming, you'd think she was a network shill. As far I can tell, she's just a Lady who tells it as she sees it. Hey, I saw that. Stop rolling your eyes! Believe it or not, her writing style makes these reviews actually interesting.

She is also an avid reader (yes, Shelly I still owe you that list) who shares my love for vampire thrillers. How cool is that? Whereas I ALMOST participated in last year's NaNoWriMo contest, Shelly actually did it (or started it anyway). You know about NaNoWriMo right? It's the annual contest where thousands of lemmings try to write an entire novel in a month. Most find it easier to jump off a cliff.

I know it sounds like I'm endorsing her political candidacy, but The Dramedy of Life really is worth reading. Sure I feel a little guilty that I didn't get this welcome post up several days ago, but a project at work (that would be Liguori Publications) kicked into high gear and I just haven't had the time. Speaking of me being late with this post, Shelly will only be here for a few more days - PLEASE VISIT HER SITE.

Peace,

P. Del Ricci - Dark Glass

Peer Pressure

Hello:

Last night I received some feedback from Dave of What Will I Know Tomorrow? (not to be confused with Dave of Saintly Sinner). Dave had a really valid point and I'm going to try and be better about having fresh content up if I'm going to constantly be ib the BLOGExplosion Battle of the BLOGs. Ironically, his latest post is a cartoon that deals with Peer Pressure. Coincidence? I think not! My newspaper is late again this morning so I should be able to get some BLOG work done.

Here's Dave's comment:

Hey there,

I like your blog much more than most of it's theme, but I just wanted to say that if you're going to put yourself up on BOB multiple times a day than maybe ONE new post a day would be good.... Just sayin'

Here's my response at his site:

Gee Dave - I think I am succumbing to your peer pressure and getting ready to add a new post to my BLOG!

Seriously though, what can I say? You're right. If I'm going to be in the BOB 24/7, I should have some fresh material now and then. The last few days, I just haven't had the spare minutes to put something up. I EVEN have a piece written out on paper, but haven't gotten it keyed in.

Well, thank you for the feedback and the kind words. I'll try to rotate the produce a little more often.

In the spirit of constructive criticism, I am featuring My Hope for the Church: Critical Encouragement for the Twenty-First Century by Bernard Häring, C.Ss.R. (one of our world-class authors).

So you see, I listen to my readers! In fact, we might end up with more than one post today. I had actually written out a schedule of topics for each day of the week. The Terri Schiavo piece put me in a mind to do some more serious writing than usual. Immigration, pro-birth vs pro-life and child sexual abuse are in the line up (it's the immigration piece I've all ready written). Serious, socially relevant topics. Topics that I can easily pull material for from Liguori Publications titles. Those titles of course support official Catholic teaching, but with my humble opinions thrown in the mix the posts just might be interesting (or not)! For those of you who prefer the lighter side, I will be returning to talking about my trip to the Olympics and the progress on my new house (oh, the joys of 2 mortgage payments!).

Before I can get to any of that though; I need to welcome this week's Billboard renter, Shelly of the Dramedy of Life. Shelly will be getting her own exclusive welcome post in just a little bit [see how well I treat my tenants?]. In the mean time.......

Peace,

P. Del Ricci - Dark Glass