01: elephant ears of bluestone - Breaking loose large irregular pieces from the bedrock.
02: cracking on a brachiopod - Where an elephant ear of bluestone decides to divide.
03: Ramona's anvil-like head - A Ramona-based injury and a cute dog resembling Ramona as she must have once looked.
04: too solid to break, too heavy to lift - A large elephant ear of bluestone in the basement of the greenhouse.
05: earthworms in the bedrock - I find small earthworms eking out a living in a narrow band of clay between layers of bluestone.
06: concrete girder permanence - After an unpleasant meeting, I buy liquor, beans, and concrete.
07: large rocks and arbitrary grades - So long as places can be found to tip a rock onto, they can be moved up slopes of any grade.
08: the best lakefront site in the Adirondacks - Gretchen and I drive to the Adirondacks to look at what may be the best shoreline property in the entire region, which is now for sale.
09: Denny Laine at the Bearsville Theatre - Seeing the most unlucky member of the British Invasion pay tribute to Abbey Road.
10: the rock grows harder - Up against a difficult knotted layer of bluestone while hungover.
11: message queues and rock layers - The former is winning out against the latter in terms of holding my interest.
12: incident with a baby bear - Gretchen witnesses both Eleanor and Ramona wrestling with a bear about their size on the forest floor.
13: kindling for housesitters - I have to make the woodstove super easy for people who stay in our house. Also, Deborah discusses her Aspergery boyfriend.
14: eyeglasses by the bedside - Waking up after an Ambien-and-vodka blackout.
15: two ambiens and three ounces of 160 proof - One way to cross North America in coach-class on an airplane, though don't try to use your laptop.
16: heels, helipads, and hardware - What makes the women of Los Angeles special. And what can be bought in a Staples.
17: reading in Venice - Gretchen does the thing she came to Los Angeles to do.
18: relocating to Downtown Los Angeles - From a bedraggled Westlake to a Little Tokyo via covertly non-vegan Mexican food.
19: Culver City - Jeopardy and a lucky Los Angeles friend.
20: don't mention Irvine - One of the few things that can leave one standing in the rain in Echo Park.
21: Chipotle, gin, vodka, Ambien, and makeshift earplugs - Another cocktail for crossing North America by air.
22: stuck open valves - Boiler problems manifested while we were in Los Angeles. At least this time I knew exactly what the problem was and had the parts to fix it.
23: gloveless in the hole - My fingers are surprisingly uninjured despite breaking up bedrock barehanded. Also: watching teevee for the first time since getting back from Los Angeles.
24: vision of a gothic arch - What to do when I've undermined load-bearing bedrock structures.
25: matters like this - An arcane web application puzzle and heating a house for easily-chilled in-laws.
26: six hours of food conversation - Occasionally I'd have to sneak out and break up rock.
27: first sushi, first lighter - Gretchen and her mother have a pair of firsts on the first night of Hanukkah.
28: Thanksgiving, 2013 - Complete with a dessert in jars.
29: anachronisms on parade - Rental car company upgrades and trying to sneak a cigarette in an open window.
30: pro-civilizational optimism - Predicting societal collapse does the one who predicts it no good.