A couple of things ...

I contacted my ad company about that horrifying "You are a lucky winner" ad that's running on my site. I was told that the ad would be removed from my site's rotation. It's still popping up occasionally, though rarely now. Still, if you know of a good web-advertising companies, I'd be curious to hear about it.

On a more positive note, I've learned that if you combine a $12 glass skull you purchased from an Adventureland gift shop four years ago with an $8 light base from IKEA, the desk lamp you get is worth far more than the sum of its parts!

Sorry...

I'm sorry for the lack of updates to the news blog recently. I spent some time entertaining out-of-town guests, then I fell prey to some horrible, devil-virus. At one point I coughed and sneezed SIMULTANEOUSLY!!! I hadn't thought it possible. Wind blew out of every hole in my head.

A few notes. My strip is also now being translated for the citizens of Luxembourg. I can't explain it.

Also, I'm sorry for that stupid "You are the winner" ad that's running occasionally on my site. I find it unacceptable. We'll see if my ad company lives up to my expectations. If I still have ads on my site next Monday, assume they have.

Lastly, the strip about the beer tasting is taken from a real event in which was one of the more frustrating experiences of my life. Sitting there for 30 minutes with 3 glasses of beer in front of me listening to some guy talk about hops (I'M FROM THE YAKIMA VALLEY!!! I KNOW ALL I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT HOPS! [Note: to be fair, I did just have to look up how many P's there are in "hops"]) I learned what it's like to be the dog with a weenie balancing on it's nose. It's not a feeling I enjoyed.

Budapest, by Blimp

So, a really nice guy named Thomas Szajko has been translating Basic Instructions into Hungarian and posting it to his blog. He just posted his 100th translation.

Please go check it out. It is, as the kids say, a "hoot".