Wow. Where to start.

The Roberts household has been going through a dark period of late -- y'all knew about the iffy financial situation, which is sloooowly getting better (actually working instead of lollygagging makes a big diff). In March, we took the kids to the doctor for checkups, and our son (the allergic one) had protein in his urine. Google it. It can be a sign of nasty, nasty things -- or it can be nothing at all. The doctor provisionally thinks it's nothing at all (that is, his blood is good and the ultrasound of his kidneys showed amazingly kidney-like kidneys) but, of course, you *don't know*.

Anyhoo, my wife has always thought it was the house and yard. I always downplayed that. But we still embarked on a Great Deal of defoliation in the yard -- several truckloads of bushes, removal of a couple of key trees to let in more light, and stuff. Then just when we thought we had it under control, we discovered a truly astounding amount of mold under the deck. Well, basically incorporated *into* the deck. Structurally speaking. And simultaneously we discovered a thriving colony in the bathroom wall. Ever see truly moldy bread? That's what the drywall (a misnomer) looked like on the *inside*. Teeny little leak. Big consequences. Who ever thought building houses of wood and paper (and some chalk) was a good idea? I dunno. From now on, for me, it's stone.

Anyhoo, a guy came and removed our deck. And the construction of the deck was such that the mold (and of course mold=rot) of the deck had, well, chewed into the frame of the house. So now we have people coming to quote on *that*.

SO. The plan. We're leaving. We've got friends who like fixing houses and need a house to live in (and fix) for the next year or three. In the meantime, we figure the beach proximity and concrete-and-tile construction of Puerto Rico is going to be a pretty darn mold- and allergen-free environment for the kids. Ponce, Puerto Rico, to be precise, where the rent on a three-bedroom apartment is comparable to our current mortage payment.

Anyhoo, I ain't (quite) dead yet. Just packing. And working my ass off trying to pay for house repairs and a move. Fortunately, the work is there -- this is a welcome change from last year. My translation business is getting to be, well, an actual business, and programming, while still a weak market, isn't gone entirely. So things are looking up. And I figure just about the time January rolls around and I'm still on a sunny beach, well, I really don't care about anything else.

I do indeed love working online.

So I hope that maybe, just maybe, in the next few months I'm going to have time for fripperies again, like research, Toonbots, workflow, all that stuff that doesn't actually earn me cold, hard cash. No promises, of course. But maybe.