OK, I'll admit to being a little bit of a sentimental wimp.

This morning on the way to work I heard of Mr. Roger's passing. For a brief moment I cried.

He was a good man, courageous and gentle, uncompromising of his beliefs and unparalleled in his devotion to children and the world they inhabit. Even when he stopped doing his show, he didn't stop his good work and never really retired, despite his illness.

He loomed large in my childhood and beyond, even as he became the butt of jokes because of his gentle manner and relentlessly positive attitude. And much the way we look at parents, even though I'd left him far behind, I suppose I'd always kind of expected him to be there.

I hope he knew how loved he was. And I'd like to say to him, though it's a little late now, thanks.

So as of Feb. 19, I'm an uncle. What's more surreal is that this means my sister is a mom. It's pretty cool.

Photos to follow soon, just to express my pride and show off. She's beautiful. She and my sister are both doing quite well post-c-section, and will be coming home soon.

We got to babysit some dogs for a few days around the event. That was fun. Sorta.

I'm really bad at updating lately, but I suppose it comes from the whole having-a-life thing. It's either that or my poor time management skills.

Anyway, much interestingness in the last couple of weeks. DCS got evicted from my mom's house through an elaborate drama that I won't go into here, but which has still left an extremely bad taste in my mouth. Consequently, I spent part of the weekend finding a storage facility where we could move all our crap, so the business stuff can fit unobtrusively in the apartment.

Spent Saturday morning at the peace rally here in Phoenix, which had a completely different tenor from last month's in San Francisco. The Phoenix people really seemed like they were out for a leisurely Saturday concert in the park. I would've liked to see just a little more anger, or at least motivation. Just a little.

Saturday night and most of Sunday were occupied by homework, which is a story in itself, one that I'm almost embarassed to relate. I drastically misread my assignment, thinking it called for ten examples of each of 15 things on the assignment sheet. After spending literally five hours on this Sunday, I realized that what it actually said was to find one example each of 10 of the 15. Allowing for the time that actually would've taken me, that's four hours of my life wasted that I'll never get back.

While I was killing myself over this assignment, Mason was insanely busy. He completely rearranged the office around me, including moving the large furniture pieces himself and storing away the inventory boxes, some of which weigh more than 100 lbs. each. When all was done, he was substantially less grumpy than I would've been under similar circumstances, but still very much the sourpuss, which didn't please me much either.

That said, the office looks amazingly good, organized, clean and tidy. He rocks!

Our new couch comes this Saturday. I'm very happy. Not counting beds, this is the first major piece of furniture I've ever bought. It's a quite nice red microfiber (like suede only armor-plated) number with ample room and comfort. It'll fit in rather nicely in the living room.

In other news, I wrote my first song in months. When finally recorded and everything, it'll exist somewhere in the abyss between industrial-type anger and '80s technopop. I hear lots of noisy synths and loud guitars. Joseph finally got his song. I don't think he'll like it very much.

Meanwhile, ideas are percolating for some at least slightly happier dance music at the request of the Masonoid. I think he'll get a song, too, but I think he'll be more pleased with his.

Now I've just got to set up the office recording studio ... if the boy will let me. If he won't, there will be words.