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Surprise Ending
Jul. 12th, 2018 09:39 pmSo we went to a lecture at the Smithsonian tonight, on "The Queen's Spymasters: Cecil, Walsingham, and the Secret Service."
And a fire alarm went off and we were all evacuated 15 minutes before the end.
D-:
I took the day off for a couple of medical appointments and ran some errands mixed in between ... was going to finish by hitting the vet's office for some more cans of pricey "kidney diet" cat food for the critter, but apropos of nothing decide to call and see what their hours were today. And lo and behold, they are closed the first Thursday of every month "for training." Lucky, huh? My iPod agreed:
( Cut for med etc. details, including mild ladybits stuff )
ETA: At the end of this Salon intervew, Merchant talks about "Wonder" and what it has come to mean for some people. And yeah, I got a little teary watching the video just now, especially in the light of the positive outcomes today.
Update on the Messy Little Injury
Apr. 24th, 2014 10:33 pmThanks for all the sympathy and good wishes!
( Cut just because not everyone wants to listen to this stuff even when it's not gruesome )
We have an old house, and it has old-house problems, including lots of lousy, ancient wiring. One of the main kitchen circuits can handle only one significant appliance at a time. The tea kettle, the slow cooker, and the rice cooker are all OK, but if you have both the toaster oven and the microwave on, the circuit breaker trips and takes 4 of the 5 ceiling outlets, as well as (ironically) the light near the breaker panel in the basement.
Tonight I was broiling a piece of lamb in the toaster oven and absent-mindedly put some baked sweet potatoes into the microwave to re-heat. After about 30 seconds, the breaker flipped. When I flipped it back on, the microwave came back to life, but the toaster over — didn't.
Goddammit, we've only had the thing for about 3 months!
Owwww. Pavement Is Hard.
Apr. 13th, 2013 06:16 pmSo it's nice out: not cold and not hot. I went down the street to "Old Town," had a haircut, bought some on-sale sports sandals, and then met the Mr. for brunch at one of our local places. Then we shared some gelato and looked in on some of the "Art Hop" exhibitors (this is a yearly event where local artists exhibit their stuff in the front windows of cooperating businesses).
So far so great, and then we parted ways because I wanted to go to the co-op (local cooperatively owned grocery store) to get a few items to tide us over until I do the main grocery shopping tomorrow. About a third of the way there, I tripped on an uneven bit of sidewalk and essentially did a face-plant.
( cut for description of minor injuries )>sigh<
It's not that I never trip, but I usually manage to catch myself before actually falling.
Today Was a Good News, Bad News Joke
Jun. 12th, 2012 09:40 pmThe good news was the my stress echocardiogram was fine and so was my blood pressure.
The bad news was that my work computer died on me at the end of the day, just before I could finish something that needed to be ready for my early-shift colleague in the morning.
An Ill Wind
Feb. 25th, 2011 09:00 pmMan-o-manischewitz, we've been having some mongo windstorms lately! Power's out at home, so I've been hanging out at the office. But I think I need to go now.
This Evening, I Went Out for Drinks!
Jan. 21st, 2010 08:43 pm... I can count the number of times I have done such a thing on the fingers of one hand.
(The occasion was a farewell for our student library assistant, who has been offered a decent job as a real Librarian despite the fact that she still has a semester to go on her MLS. And no, I'm not sure why I never end up going out for drinks. I just don't usually seem to work or hang out with going-out-for-drinks people.)
We Now Own a Prius
Nov. 15th, 2009 09:29 pmYou've probably heard me tell stories of my ancient Accord, Ruby Lee, who has been getting less and less dependable. The Mr.'s Avalon made sense when he bought it a decade ago, but it's a little silly at this point in terms of gas mileage. So, Ruby's days are probably numbered, and I'll be stuck driving a Toyota boat. Which is OK, I guess, because I don't drive to work (I take Metro), so it's only for shopping and such. Hence the Prius.
It's white and its rear visibility sucks, but it has a back-up camera (and lots of other strange electronic gizmos). I'm thinking we could call it Jeep and confuse everyone.
Oh, and half the power at the dealership building was out. So it took us more than 3 effin' hours to complete the paperwork (the staff were all sharing the printers in the powered part of the building, for one thing). At one point, I was lighting the process with the Mini-Maglite that I carry in my bag, like the geek I am. I am now more behind that ever on what I was trying to get done this weekend ... .
My Brain Is Dead
Oct. 2nd, 2009 11:11 pmAs proof, I offer the fact that I spelled "dead" as "ded," above, when I started this message.
We're RPGing on Saturday night for the second weekend in a row, in an attempt to get the monthly game back on its pre-summer schedule (it has now become a space opera game; I am an uplifted dog ... who happens to be a fantastically skilled paramedic). And the Young Lady is in a high-intensity driving/driver safety course that runs 10:00am-1:15pm on every weekend (both days) for the rest of the month, and it's located in Rockville (= 40-minute drive).
And between dropping her (and her best friend) off at driving lessons tomorrow and going to the game, I am driving to Glen Air to visit my sis-in-law who is recovering from a hip replacement. So I am not going to be able to mellow out for a day any time soon (hmmm ... maybe Columbus Day, although TYL has school, so I will still be waking up early).
And also! Sunday is the Takoma Park Street Festival. Which will make it hard to get in and out of our neighborhood, because they block off the end of our street near the main drag and set up one of the stages there ... .
No wonder I can't get any creative thinking done ... .
Live & Learn 101
Sep. 22nd, 2009 09:41 pmIf the top element of the toaster-oven-broiler is apparently not working, one should not touch the bottom element to see whether the same is true of it, as well.
My Glasses Just Broke!
May. 25th, 2009 11:56 amOne of the temple pieces snapped clean through, right up next to the hinge.
The Mr. is trying to superglue them, but I don't hold out much hope. It's a very small surface area.
I am wearing my old glasses ... I can feel an eyestrain headache coming on already.
The changes/upgrade to the CMS over the weekend broke lots of things and I am still helping to pick up the pieces.
And I just found out that the lovely lady who founded the Shejidan C.J. Cherryh message board was killed in a car accident a couple of weeks ago.
So I owe people interview questions and reactions to lovely music, and maybe I can get to them sometime tomorrow. But it's not happening tonight.
>sigh<
So I meant to post about this like, Tuesday night, or maybe yesterday. Didn't happen. And nothing disastrous happened either - in fact, I had a lovely (if too-brief) visit with smillaraaq. But so much that was supposed to happen - didn't.
( Cut for mild yet still banal griping )
Yesterday I spent close to two hours digging out of the bottom of my compost bins. Last year, when I was out of commission, the Mr. did it, and he just piled it up near the bins. I don't know whether that encouraged the evil English ivy to grow into the bins, but the older bin, especially, was a wad of tiny rootlets, and it was hard to get anything out. Still, I got out about a dozen pails-ful, and poked and turned the upper stuff a little so that it fell down into the empty spaces I'd just made. Then I started planting bulbs, with lots of nice compost in the holes, but didn't finish. I have 30 narcissus (3 kinds), 20 crocus, 20 miniature iris, and 10 squills (pushkinia). The narcissus need to be 4-6 inches inches apart from each other, and the ground is tough - it's ground that's now getting some sun since the big dead oak came down and no one's dug in it for decades at least.
So today my hands and forearms are all stiff and sore. But I was outside in the daylight for about 3 hours, so that's got to be good. I hope to plant the rest at the end of the week, when I'm off for Thanksgiving.
And on Saturday I got a therapeutic lamp for phototherapy for Seasonal Affective Disorder. Man, that thing is bright! I have it in the kitchen because the first thing I do on weekdays is made breakfast and pack lunch for the Young Lady.
What Is It About Cinnamon?
Oct. 3rd, 2008 09:30 amComing up the escalator to the main floor of Union Station (DC's main train station, which I cross through every day to get to my office), I was mugged by the delicious, warm smell of cinnamon. It was probably coming from the Corner Bakery, which was right there. But it gave me the same intense rush of pleasure that I get from the first sight of a lovely sunset, or the first notes of a favorite song.
So why is that? Is it just that I associate it with tasty treats? Or is there something deeper and more basic going on?
On the Way the Metro This Morning
Sep. 18th, 2008 10:08 am... I saw a very handsome blue jay.
I also saw a bumper sticker that said Mediators Do It Until Everyone Is Satisfied.
XD
We have all sorts of wildlife in Takoma Park!
An Unexpected Visitor
Aug. 17th, 2008 10:42 pmI just had to show a quite large bat off the premises.
I will confess to being slightly freaked out, even though I like bats in principle, because s/he was about twice the size of any other bat I've ever seen that close.
I trapped it in the dining room (the only room on the ground floor that closes off entirely) and then with the Mr.'s coaching (I had to roust him out of bed and away from his crossword puzzle), opened a window in there and exited the room myself. A minute later, it flew outinto the night.
I have no idea how it got inside in the first place!
