Welcome to my new online home! I’m no longer renting, either. For the first time since I went on the ’net, back in 1989, I’m an owner. (Of course, domains weren’t around then, but when the arrived, I never bothered to get my own until now. Amazingly, my name was still available.) Things are mighty different around here, though hopefully you won’t notice right away. First and foremost, I’ve stopped using Blogger to maintain my weblogs. I still like Blogger, but the company’s recent collapse made me realize I had to be in control of my own content, no matter how easy Blogger had made things. It turns out that there was the perfect solution: Greymatter. CGI scripts on my own server give me Blogger-like ease, greater flexibility, and complete ownership of my creation. Nothing against Blogger (I’ll still use it for other projects), but it was time for me to move on. Because of the move, you may run across some dead links. Not those pointing off-site – those die all the time – but internal links. If you find any, please let me know. There are many links pointing back to me, and many of those point to specific entries. I’m keeping everything at the old addresses for the foreseeable future, so those will still work. I’ve moved all of the archives over here and integrated them in as best I could (Here’s the last Blogger-powered front page.). I’ll try to make the old merge with the new painlessly for you. As always, I do appreciate your coming to visit me, whether I know you or not. Please do come again.

Today I migrate my laptop from Windows 98 to Windows 2000 Professional. I’m scared.

I’ve come out the other side. Amazingly enough, I only had to reinstall two applications: my virus scanner and web browser. All my email survived. And, my first impressions are great. I like Windows 2000. I am using Stardock’s wonderful Object Desktop, so my GUI doesn’t even look like Windows to begin with, and changing to W2000 didn’t affect me there at all. If you picked up my laptop right now, you would think I was using Apple’s OS X.

I’ve come out the other side. Amazingly enough, I only had to reinstall two applications: my virus scanner and web browser. All my email survived. And, my first impressions are great. I like Windows 2000. I am using Stardock’s wonderful Object Desktop, so my GUI doesn’t even look like Windows to begin with, and changing to W2000 didn’t affect me there at all. If you picked up my laptop right now, you would think I was using Apple’s OS X.

Today I migrate my laptop from Windows 98 to Windows 2000 Professional. I’m scared.

A mushroom company in North Carolina is claiming to have successfully inoculated trees with black truffles. No one has ever been able to do this before. Black truffles can net you about $70,000 per acre, but they’ve never been able to be successfully farmed. They just happen, in a small area of France and Italy, if you’re lucky. If true, this could eventually make truffles available for the masses!

My parents (and youngest sister) drove into town this morning, staying for one day only. They’ll have spent more time on the road driving here and back from outside St. Louis, Missouri, than they’ll spend here visiting, but I’m glad they came. They’ll see the play tonight and head off after lunch tomorrow.

[The Much-to-be-feared Brown Recluse Spider](http://www.countrysidemag.com/issues/3_1998.htm#Brown Recluse), from the back issues of Countryside Magazine. I know all about this. I’ve got the scar on my big toe to show for it. Only for me, there was no surgery, no charcoal compresses. Just an attention to cleanliness and my own natural healing. It’s this spider bite that gave me my superpowers. Some of them, anyway.

“My thoughts first turn to Spring mushrooming when the cottonwoods start to leaf out and release their delightful Spring scents. Along the riverbanks and in other moist areas I begin my hunt for the elusive and well-camouflaged early morels. " Morels, Truffles and other Spring Mushrooms: an annotated slide show.

Also in the current Flagpole, of particular interest to Randy:

_In related news,The Minus 5 is preparing to embark on a brief tour of the United States in support of a split release with the Young Fresh Fellows entitled _Let The War Against Music Begin… Because We Hate You _, due out this spring on Mammoth Records. The Minus 5 is fronted by guitarist-keyboardist-songwriterScott McCaughey who led Seattle·s Young Fresh Fellows to greatness in the ’80s and ’90s and currently performs live with R.E.M. The group - comprised of McCaughey, R.E.M.’s Peter Buck , The Posies’ Ken Stringfellow , John Bamberg and Bill Rieflin - is scheduled to appear on “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” on March 13.