The flaming mess is slowly cleaning up. You can expect an update of activities tonight or tomorrow, which will include discussion of the following topics:

• The new animals
• The new project
• The new sensation
• Pie

Thanks for caring, thanks for sharing.

Hi everyone. Just been a flaming mess the past few weeks. Slowly coming out of it. Learning to write complete sentences. Too.

Back soon.

Help answer the most important question in modern government history: Which political figure looks most like Skeletor?

My kids have the same reaction when handled by Democrats.

Two small white zebra finches have been added to the menagerie here at Cold Comfort Farm. Best of all — they're mutants! They were specially bred for a high school science project, and have now come to fill my house with Frankenchirps while synthesizing genetically superior poops.

The animal collection also increased last night by one racoon.

Briefly.

More about that tomorrow.

Tucker Carlson, one of the hosts of CNN's Crossfire, has a new book out about his experiences as a television news commentator. I like what I've read of his writing in the past, so I popped over to Amazon to buy the book.

Amazon, however, appears to have a view of Tucker's co-host that is less than optimal. I decided to let CNN know this through their online contact form:

Please advise Tucker that Amazon.com feels that people who buy his new book "Politicians, Partisans, and Parasites: My Adventures in Cable News" may also be interested in Colon Disorders, Herbal Parasite Remedies, and Parasite Elimination Help.

Personally, I think it's rather rude of them to describe Carville like that.

Michael Genrich
Southwest Harbor, ME

If they air this letter, I'll buy all my regular readers a slice of pie.

Today's entry is partially brought to you by my eight-year-old boy:

On Saturdays I like to walk in the woods. I follow a path that I know. I also cut plants for my chickens. They tramp on the plants that I bring them.

Not only is this more entertaining than my own posts, it's also more grammatically correct.

I don't have writer's block. I have something much more insidious and insurmountable: writer's lack of talent and time. I know this has never stopped John Grisham from his assault upon American letters. But he never had to hold a full-time job while raising four kids and trying to trap a raccoon.

That's right: I'm trying to trap the medium-sized wild animal that has been pestering our chickenfolk and duckfolk for the past few nights. Like a drunken fraternity brother, he wakes us up at midnight stumbling around the premises, jonesing for that perfect late-night snack that will take the edge off pounding too much of the racoon equivalent of Milwaukee's Best (please leave your suggestions in the comments as to what the racoon equivalent of Milwaukee's Best might be).

We've borrowed a "humanitarian" trap from a friend to aid in this endeavor. What makes it "humanitarian," you ask? As soon as the trap springs shut, Jimmy Carter and Madeline Albright will helicopter in to explain in simple trans-species terms that I don't understand the root causes of why the raccoon wants to eat my birds. They'll make signs and puppets to demonstrate that the racoon was driven to this behavior by the fact that I didn't feed it enough, care for it enough — love it enough! Bruce Springsteen will write a song titled "41 Traps" that is punctuated by repeated stacatto bursts of the snare door closing: Crash! Crash! Crash! And if history is any indication, the poor creature will most likely receive an invitation from Kofi Annan to join the United Nations as an observer in the sessions and the work of the General Assembly as the Trans-International & Maine Benevolent Ensnared Raccoon (T.I.M.B.E.R.). Which all means I won't only be woken by the noise from the trap catching the blasted thing, but also a telephone call a few hours later from a really pissed-off Colin Powell wondering why the hell I helped create one more consulate he needs to shmooze.

If the ASPCA allows it, I will post photos of the criminal once he is apprehended. If the picture features a captive that looks more like a stuffed teddy bear, well, ah, that's just a mirage due to the salty sea air that wafts over our property.

Back into the posting swing on Monday. Until then, enjoy this fine photo of Senator John Kerry eating an oversized sandwich: