Dealing with life's ... crap

The septic system froze. *weep* It's actually been happening for some time -- toilet's been flushing slow, the bathtub's reluctant to drain, and finally, a couple of days ago, it got to the point where it just wouldn't do it anymore, and we finally realized that no, it is NOT a clogged air intake that's causing the problem, because we uncapped the sewer vents and they are full of ice.

To make a really long story short, it is currently being thawed with the heating element from a water heater, lowered down one of the holes -- hopefully by now we've sufficiently worked out the initial side effects such as shorting out the circuit (no insulation on heating element) or melting the pipes (yeah, we did some of that too).

One unfortunate thing about freezing sewer lines is that they tend to happen a month or two AFTER the actual cold weather, because it takes awhile for above-ground temperature changes to propagate down through the ground. So you think you're safe and then ... wham!

Photoshop geekery

Hey, fellow Photoshop artists ... I found an *awesome* brush set. I've been trying to find good (i.e. realistic-looking) foliage brushes for ages, and here's a great batch that are believable, interesting-looking, print-resolution *and* free!

http://designfruit.com/jasongaylor/blog/?p=37