Nicole's Notes

Up to my eyeballs!

I've been a leeetle busy lately, if you can't tell from my lack of posting. When haven't I been busy lately, though? :) Quick summary:

Jason was in the hospital with a kidney stone attack for a few days.

My car battery somehow died in the hospital parking lot (no, I didn't leave the lights on).

I am rearranging my home office.

I started my new job.

Those are the headlines! More info below the crease!

After a total of three interviews (involving different folks from the company) spread over a month, I finally got the job I'd been hoping for. Hooray! :D After a week of training, I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. Now that I've said that, I'm sure I'll put my foot in it! :P Oh well. I'm having so much fun. The company's full of interesting and interested people.

I'm working remotely - working from home all the time - so I've made a few changes to make the most of my office. I bought doors for one of my bookcases so that it can house all my papercraft junk and office supplies. I have never considered myself a crafter, but I sure do have a lot of the accoutrements. (Interesting! Google spell check thinks accoutrements should be spelled accouterments, although the singular is still accoutrement... I think I'll leave it as is.)

I needed a desktop computer, since mine was cannibalized for parts ages ago. Jason got me a swanky, powerful one with two, count 'em two graphics cards. Woohoo! This thing can sure render stuff nicely, although I never did get the free t-shirt that was supposed to come with it. A new monitor rounded out the electronics purchases.

But... the new monitor didn't fit in the opening of the roll-top desk. I haven't been really wild about the desk anyhow, since I find it easier to work facing the room than with my back to it (memories of my childhood hutch desk and the buzzing fluorescent light in it - that sound still throws me into a fit of procrastination panic!).

So, I bought a new full-height bookcase to house my growing collection, and a new free-standing desk. The desk was the tough part - nothing at Ikea, at Costco, at Jordan's - finally Jess suggested Target, and they had a lovely Mission-style desk for a reasonable price. The wood colour is very similar to the wood all throughout the house, and it's nice and open to let the breezes (such as they are) circulate. The roll-top is destined for Jason's basement workspace, once I find some sort of chest-of-drawers to stow office supplies in. Any suggestions?

Once the rolltop is out of the way, I will put the lighter-coloured tall bookcase there, and assemble the new "medium brown" bookcase which matches the others. And I think I'm going to move the chair that matches my current armchair down from the bedroom to use as "guest seating" (translation: cat seating). One day I'll get the two comfy chairs recovered.

Jason's kidney stone was 4mm and wound up having to be destroyed with a laser. Ow ow ow. My car got a jump to get me home (but at 1am, I wasn't up for taking the scenic route to recharge the battery completely) and a second jump to get the battery back to F. :D Seems to be no harm done, but I'm sure you'll hear if it turns out differently!

Full of Vice

I really wish there was a way for potential employers to just tell you yea or nay at the end of an interview instead of leaving you biting your fingernails for however long it takes them to debate and discuss and interview the competition. I know it's not realistic, but... patience is a virtue, and I guess I'm not very virtuous!

(I have three more days of work left)

I'm Free...

... to do what I want, any old time! I handed in my notice on Friday, so this is my second-to-last Monday here. :D It was still hard to drag my butt in, but the promise of not having to do it much longer is nice.

I went to post this entry and saw that somehow we had a HUGE number of comments on this and Steph's blog... turns out we got hit by a massive amount of spam, and somehow those comments were being auto-approved. I've gotta sit down with Jason and figure out why that was happening.

In the mean time I went through and deleted every comment since... oh... mid-April. There were over a thousand, so I apologize if there were one or two legit ones hidden in there, but I was not up for sifting through the online poker/cialis spam. :P

So, I've had one job interview, have a couple more leads, and am looking into some interesting classes to bulk out the resume. And I'm making a list of junk to get done around the house once I have time to get to it (goal one: go through clothes and purge!).

Jason's started work on the next couple movies - he's simultaneously working on two at once.

We've got a busy summer ahead of us - Jason's committed to talk at a handful of conferences (all, of course, happening almost concurrently, on opposite sides of the continent); we're going to Kalamazoo and Vegas; I'm going to Toronto later this month.

You may remember that one of the office buildings that we manage where I work had a fire earlier this year - it just reopened and we're trying to get everyone moved back in. Kinda stressful, while I'm trying to wrap up my time here. :P Oh well. Soon, it won't be my problem. :)

Time "saving"

Must be a slow day at work. I'm inspired to post because I feel all smug after reading this article on optimizing your email because I have an efficient email filtering system already in place. :) And because I am bored and feel the need to brag, let me tell you all about it (I know you're panting to hear more!).

First, if it's something I need to take action on (like the credit card bill or an electronic plane ticket or an invitation to a baby shower), I leave it marked "unread". I currently have 21 unread messages in my inbox, ranging from notification that my Amazon order has shipped (and is likely getting soaked on my front porch right now!) to the 2006 401K Benefits Summary (which I could, and should, probably file away in my finances folder) to voicemail from my parents (ah, the joys of VoIP... now if only I had a sound card at work so I could listen to it!).

Second, my custom inbox view in Thunderbird only shows unread messages, messages with non-null labels and those less than three days old. I sort them by read/unread and date, so that the unread are all at the bottom, and the oldest of the labelled messages are at the top. (Ed. note: labelled and labeled both appear to be correct, in case you think I spelled that wrong.) I ignore the standard meanings for Thunderbird's colourful labels and instead apply my own: purple - fun things for the future, like vacation deals or upcoming trips, green - stuff relating to the documentary, red - bills and taxes, blue - RSVPs for parties or updated addresses for my Xmas card list and yellow - messages about investments, 401Ks, healthcare and other benefit-ish things.

Third, once I year, I consolidated all my read inbox messages and all my "Sent" messages from the year into one box (eg. "2005 Correspondence") which I then "unsubscribe" from - so it doesn't show up in my list of folders, but still exists on the server should I need to get at the messages (for example, when I am trying to find an older address or last year's tax figures).

Fourth, I use filters to shunt mailing or group-related messages to special folders. All of my TimCooks messages automatically appear in their special folder. All of my theatre-related stuff gets manually shuffled into another folder (line notes, new versions of the script, funny jokes, requests for first aid kits, etc). Filters also take care of all the "Susan Parker" spam I've been getting lately - it goes directly into the trash. Thunderbird's spam thingie also puts anything suspect into a Junk folder where I can review it and delete at will.

Ah. I feel so much more efficient for having wasted half an hour describing how much more time I have to waste...

Hooray!

Well, apparently at around 4:30 this morning, Jess and Chris became parents! Yay! Veronica Isabel Cannon (I'm guessing at the spelling, and hoping I heard Jess right, the cell connection wasn't great!) took her own sweet time coming into the world - Jess was in labour for roughly 24 hours. Yuck. But still. Baby! Yay!

Mom and baby are staying in the hospital until Wednesday. I spoke to Jess this morning and she sounded wiped. But excited. I knew she was being induced this weekend, but I didn't want to call for an update, in case they were sleeping the sleep of the exhausted new parents. The fact that we hadn't heard anything was making me a little nervous, but I figured... updating me is pretty low priority.

7 pounds, 15 ounces and 21.5 inches. I'm told this is about average - she wasn't that big a baby. So now, I need to buy every cute baby thing ever. So what if she's not even a day old, she needs little tiny jeans! (I'm joking, I'm joking. I'll wait at least a week on the jeans.) I know, I know, it's a sickness. Just wait until I become an aunt in September! Maybe Jess and Chris will let me be an honorary aunt, so I can get some practice in.

I'm so excited!

Phew!

The server that houses this blog and my mail (among other things) died on Tuesday. Happily, Jason was able to salvage the data and to get everything put back together again by yesterday morning (!), but unfortunately, he had to replace the server itself. :( I'm so glad that the mail was saved, since my copy of the rehearsal schedule was only saved there!

Rehearsals are going on steadily now for A Midsummer Night's Dream. I have to say that these actors really know their stuff. They are nearly line perfect (which is rarer than you might think) on top of being absolutely hilarious. It's been wonderful to watch their characters come to life.

We held a going-away party for Rich this weekend. He's moving to Seattle to work for Microsoft, which is endlessly amusing to me, since Rich is someone I just don't associate with Windows. He'll be working on their kernel and drivers, though, so I guess he doesn't really have to deal with the GUI. Obviously they value him, since they're paying to have him packed and moved (including hauling his car) and putting him up for 30 days while he looks for a new place. I hope he can find someting easily.

I'm still searching for a new job during those slim moments when I'm not at work or at the theatre. :)

Yawn.

Taxes are finally done (what a mess, next year we're working on the separation of church and state... I mean, business and personal). And I'm well into rehearsals for A Midsummer Night's Dream, and it's looking good so far. A good version of the script (the cast list was pared down because the fire marshall puts a limit on the number of folks allowed in the theatre - and that includes cast members) and great people.

This is the first year in many that our office will be working through the Marathon. Previously we've had a big barbeque and then everyone's watched the runners for a bit. But due to a bunch of office politics that I'll not bore you with (too complicated to explain anyhow!) we're not doing that this year.

However. Most of our tenants are on or near the race route. Which means... no calls. They've either closed up shop and gone home (none of their clients can get near them) or they're outside watching the Marathon (nothing like cheering on sweaty runners while you yourself are lazing about, eating something fattening). So I'm sitting here twiddling my thumbs. Well, okay, there's some filing I could do and other assorted menial tasks... borrr-ring!

So instead, I'm kvetching here. :D And continuing to perfect my resume.

The Busy Bee Gets The Worm... ?

Wow, I can't believe it's nearly the end of March and I haven't finished putting the Christmas decorations away. I am such a slacker! Yikes. Well, I guess I have some fairly decent excuses... I just can't think of any at the moment. :)

I've really become bored at work, so maybe that can count as an excuse? Although you'd think I'd have more energy when I got home to tackle stuff like that... but really, I wind up hanging out on Second Life or doing stuff at the theatre.

I guess the problem is that I'm just not challenged at work any more. I have stretched this job description pretty much as far as it's can reasonably go. Any more duties and I'd be out of time on busy days. There's upward mobility... but only into property management, which... frankly, most days I count myself lucky that I'm in at the desk and they're the ones out there dealing (in person) with the screaming loonies and the clogged toilets. So... no.

The fire we had recently and the stress that surrounded coping with it, really just drove my dissatisfaction home. I like the people, don't get me wrong. My coworkers and our tenants are wonderful (except now and again when individual members of either group get annoying or annoyed!). It's just that I'm not jumping out of bed excited to go to work. Or even interested in going to work. :P

So I'm starting to look more actively. Tonight's plan is to brush up the ole resume. There are lots of interesting-looking positions available out there. And some of 'em I might even qualify for! I think I want something more tech-related. We'll see who wants me. My ideal job would involve hanging out on Second Life all day, but there's not many who'd pay me to do that. ;)

There are a number of social scientist types who appear to be doing something along those lines, though. They're running all sorts of interesting studies on online communities like Second Life; the most interesting of which, in my not-so-humble opinion, are the ones that compare how people interact online to how they behave in "real life". Very iiiiinterestink.

I'll keep you all posted. Well, maybe. When I get around to it. :D

Naptime!

Ever notice how things come in waves? Whoosh! And then your head's underwater and you're trying to tread water to keep up? On Friday, I finally succumbed to the cold Jason's been nursing for the last three weeks. I went home at noon with a sore throat and a fever. I limped through the weekend, took Monday off, and am still reeling on Wednesday!

Elliot (one of my classmates from Ryerson) was in town and stayed with us, and fortunately was fighting a cold himself so didn't expect a whole lot in entertainment - which is good, because he got none. :)

On Sunday, I was hosting a baby shower for Jess at Spark Craft Studios in Davis Square. I got there at about 11:15 (shower was to start at noon) and half the roads in the misleadingly-named "Square" (it's not rectilinear at all!) were shut off by police. There's a St. Patrick's Day marathon going on. And of course, the finish line is directly opposite the studio. Blocking the parking. :P

Surprisingly, a lot of attendees actually made it to the party! And the baby book we made for Jess turned out nice. The Spark Craft instructor could have been a bit more of a leader, but she was very nice anyway. I think everyone had fun, but I was so dazed with the cold that I can't vouch for my ability to judge anything.

I went home for some food, then out to rehearsal. I'm assistant stage manager for the upcoming Hovey Players production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Kristin (the stage manager) and I are tag-teaming the rehearsals, so Sunday was my first on my own. And my voice went. I squeaked. Ugh. Someone else had to read for one of the actors who wasn't there. It was awful. Then I went home and crashed.

I took Monday off from work, and tried to recoup, but really, I think I should have taken Tuesday as well. I feel like I haven't had a lick of sleep (although why sleep should come in licks I don't know) and I'm really dragging at work. My voice is back, mostly, but I'm still coughing and I just can't focus. This entire blog entry may make no sense, as I ramble incoherently. Whee! Come 5:30pm, I plan to be comatose.

Keith, my regrets

I got an email today from Scott, letting me know that our former classmate Keith had been killed in a helicopter accident in New Zealand. I don't think I'd seen Keith since graduation, and we weren't particularly close at school. But it's still depressing.

I feel awful, and upset all out of relation to what our connection would call for. Maybe it's not that I feel bad because I'll miss him, but that I feel bad because I won't? He was never a major part of my life. He had a tendancy to invite himself along, which we actively tried to avoid. He also always seemed so young, you know? Exhaustively so, at times. In retrospect, it seems really petty that we'd gripe about this overly-friendly guy who just wanted to hang out with us. I know what I did or did not do was not an influence on his death, which came years after I last saw him, but I feel guilty for not including Keith in more things.

I guess it's one of those life-lessons: appreciate the folks around you.

It could also be that he's the first one of my school contemporaries to pass away. We were a fairly close class of 40-or-so. Obviously not that close because I didn't know Keith had moved to New Zealand. But I could tell you roughly what's going on with a lot of them. We all got together to celebrate knowing each other for 10 years over Labour Day weekend.

Hrmm. And there's the rub. I said "We all". That's just not true. Mikie wasn't there; he lives in Australia. Sean wasn't there, and I don't know why. Neither Alex the guy nor Alex the gal were there. In fact, there were more absentees than attendees, now that I think of it. Oh, a lot of them I got the scoop on from other people, but... it still seems wrong and exclusivist or something. But there's no way you can keep in touch with everyone you know, is there?

It's definitely something to ponder.

Yeah, yeah, I know.

Whoops. So much for being a better blogger. :) Ah well, best intentions and all that. I do have a good excuse. In the wee wee hours of Monday morning (like 3am), there was a fire in one of the office buildings managed by the company I work for. We had to relocate 26 companies to new locations and they all wanted to be up and running in their new locations ASAP! Blech.

Some of them only had some minor smoke damage, but others... er, "crispy" is perhaps the best term. And, since most of the fire was in the common areas, the bathrooms are going to need complete overhauls and the elevator... well, the elevator is slagged. In fact, they think it probably started inside the elevator.

Commercial grade elevators are made to keep fire *out*. The current theory (around the office at least) is that there was a short in the elevator's COP (ooo, a TLA (three letter acronym), look at me getting all technical!) - which is elevator-speak for the panel where the buttons are inside the cab. The elevator was at the ground floor, with the doors shut.

So the oh-so-fireproof doors held the fire in the cab. The shaft acted like a chimney, so it was super hot as it ate away at the interior. Eventually, it melted the circuit that holds the doors closed, so they opened, causing what was likely a huge rush of fire into the lobby area. The glass entrance doors melted. And *then* the fire alarm system tripped. State code says no fire alarm devices are allowed in the elevator shaft, which is probably want prevented it from triggering earlier.

So there's been a boatload of excitement that's been going on around here. Lots of insurance folks, movers, phone guys trying to rig the temporary office space, etc. Thank god it wasn't the building where we have our offices. One thing I've learned is OFF SITE BACKUPs. There were number of tenants frantic to get at computer systems so they could get going in their new homes.

Because of the stress and longer hours I've been working since the fire, I pulled out of the next show at Hovey. I have been asked to work with the following show, but said I only could handle an assistant position. I am feeling a little burnt (pun intended).

My addiction to Second Life continues unabated. Weehaw. Met a lot of really fun folks on there. Learned how to build stuff. Well, sort of anyhow, but nothing like some of the folks... they've got way better spatial orientation skills than I do! I've learned how to script in the nifty keen "Linden Scripting Language". Sort of (again). I have a better hope of wrapping my head around things in that arena at least. I've missed programming. It's like a muscle that I haven't exercised in a while, but I'm getting back into shape!

Speaking of muscles. Haven't skiied much at all this season. Not a whole lot of snow in the New England area - or at least, not like last year. Phooey. Well, with luck Jess will be rejoining the ski team next year at least part of the time (Sprout is due to put in his/her appearance in May), so that'll encourage me to get off my duff.

Plus, I can feel spring looming. Spring always makes me want to go for walks outdoors near the office (there's some gorgeous woodland trails). The bugs haven't really woken up yet, and the humidex isn't through the roof. It's dee-lovely.

My hair is finally long enough to tuck behind my ears. I'm sure you're all thrilled.

My little sister is pregnant, did I mention that on here yet? Well, she is, and the kidlet(s) won't sit still long enough for them to do a head count. She's so big, they figure she might be carrying twins. Steph and Shayne are very excited, of course. The baby or babies are due in September. They should be in the new house by then (I hope!).

And that's the news. Tune in later for a recap at 11. :P

Hey! My car!

I'm driving down the street, minding my own business, when Wham! Pothole. Pothole that ate Manhattan. Boston's housing problems could be solved with this pothole and a bit of drywall. I thought I might have left the wheelbase of the car behind. It was that kind of wham.

But the car kept going. Good, right? Steers normally. I'll check for scrapes/dents when I get out, I think. So I get on the Mass Pike, bound for home.

Just shy of the final toll booth, my oil pressure light comes on. Not the friendly amber really-annoying-Volkswagen-but-what-can-you-do? oil light, but the angry red blinking oil light. I pay my toll and immediately pull over and (and this is important) shut the car off.

I guess that last step was what prevented the engine from completely seizing up. I consulted the car's manual on what to do if the oil pressure light comes on.

Step 1: check the oil levels. Uhoh. Dipstick is dry. Problem.
Step 2: panic.

So I call Jason (and my cell battery dies midway through my directions) and he comes out with some oil and we add it to the tank. And watch it pool around the tires. Big Problem.

Fortunately, my car is pulled over in a tandem trailer parking lot. That is completely empty of tandem trailers. Must be the wrong season or something.

We went home to regroup and get phone numbers. AAA came and towed it to the Wellesley VW lot. Which is closed, because (of course) it's Sunday evening.

Blech. So today, I'm biting my nails. The VW folks say that the oil pan is cracked, which I expected. No comment on the engine at this point, although all the car buffs around work claim that the engine won't seize while it is off, so if it was still running when I turned it off... it should be fine. :I Should. Eep.

It would happen now. I have stuff going on every night this week. This is the final week of Home, the show I've been working on. Which is in the South End (that's what I was coming home from when I explored the pothole of stupidity). I can take public transit to get there, but it's a pain. The show has been fabulous. The people are great, the story is moving and the equipment in the theatre is easy to use. I'll be sad when it's over.

My next show will be at the Hovey again, though. The commute is loads easier. It's nice to be able to go home for supper. :)

Wow, I suck.

I'm apparently not great at keeping up my weblog. And I blew off sending out Christmas cards this year too. Even after a joyful trip to The Paper Source for a boatload of supplies, and far too long poking around online looking for a font that I liked, I still didn't manage to get them done and gone.

In my defense, there's been a lot going on lately. The annual migration north over the holidays was a bit shorter than usual - we came back to Boston for New Years. Immediately following that, I started work on my next show (ASM for Queersoup's Home), which opened on the 13th. Unlike the shows I worked on this fall, this one is in town, in the South End. It's not as easy to get to (Hovey is right down the street), and the parking is evil. I hate hate hate parallel parking. Hate. Especially on a busy street like Tremont. (Hate.)

However, there is a silver lining. First off, the folks I'm working with are stellar, wonderful people from start to finish. And the play is extremely moving, despite a premise that sounds a little odd (go read the website, I'm not recapping it here). And then there's the joy on a plate of Francesca's. I'll probably be in trouble for the January weigh-in, but ooooo. So worth it!

I've become addicted to filling up my iPod (birthday gift) with random music that I already own on tape. All those albums I never listen to, because tape is such a hassle, and the track I want is always at the other end of the side that's cued up. And some of the ones I really liked are starting to wow and otherwise degrade. So that's been a happy little trot down Memory Lane (to the corner of Torrent Street). Heh.

My other new addiction is Second Life. It reminds me of TinyTIM - it has the same lack of a formal role-playing theme. But with pretty pictures, animation and music. Hoorah. Less imagination, which is kind of sad, and more folks running around looking for TS, but I've found a couple of places where that sort of behaviour is frowned on. And met a bunch of fun folks. Which is to be expected, since it reminds me of TIM. :)

Work is busy busy busy as usual. I'm growing my hair out a little and it's reached the stage where I can't stand it. :P The cats are driving us nuts, and the documentary continues to sell at a regular pace. So it's business as usual around here.

A Change Is As Good As A Rest

Or so they tell me. I've been tweaking the page style again. In case you didn't notice. It's pretty subtle. The page is still significantly better in anything other than Explorer, but that's intentional.

The Votes Are In!

As I may have mentioned (particularly if I've talked to you lately), I'm stage managing a show at the Hovey Players called The Beauty Queen of Leenane. It's not a happy-go-lucky musical comedy. Just to warn you. Anyway, we're more than halfway through the run, and there's a couple of reviews I wanted to throw up somewhere so I don't lose them.

The MetroWest Daily News

This isn't exactly a paper with huge circulation, but a fair number of folks do read it. The reviewer apparently didn't like the play itself, but was fine with our presentation of it. Well, okay. Whatever.

Will Stackman's Quick Takes at Theater Mirror

If you read back in his reviews, it's apparent that he rarely gives an unequivocal thumbs-up to anyone. So we're feeling pretty darn special. It must have been the fantastic kettle sound cues.

Larry Stark's Theater Mirror: The Week That Was

Okay, this one makes me laugh because of the screwy HTML, but I think I met Larry and he seemed like an enthusiastic audience member. And of course, that's the best kind! I'm sure he was just too overwhelmed by the coolness of the working television onstage to mention it.

So far, that's it, but I'm sure that some people are holding back, trying to find words to describe the experience. :) As someone who has seen the show a whole bunch of times now, from the early days of rehearsal, I have to say... man, those people can act! The actors I mean. I don't know if Jessie or Michelle, my heaven-sent crew can act, but they can sure take cues! And they do dishes!

I've already signed on to do crew for the next show, although I don't know what I'll be doing yet. I've had such a blast doing this one, though. Well, except for the part where I keep getting the horrible "Spinning Wheel" song stuck in my head. That part is not so much of a blast. More of a torment, really.

Have you seen my brain?...

I'm sure I had it just a minute ago. I feel like I've been running non-stop for the last few weeks. Between work and shipping the BBS Documentary and stage managing The Beauty Queen of Leenane, I feel like I've been going full tilt. It's strange, but the first chance I've had to sit calmly was this weekend, after opening night at BQL. Weird, huh? But boy, am I having a blast. I forgot how much I missed the theatre.

Jason's been roaming the country promoting the DVD, speaking at conventions, etc. He was in San Diego to speak at Toorcon this past weekend. Next weekend, a flying visit to his Mom in Albany. The following weekend, it's Seattle for Jeremy's wedding. I'm missing all of these due to the show. But did I mention how much fun I'm having? (Put the Cheer on the popcorn.) It's grrrreat.

Do not adjust your set. The above paragraph won't make any more sense than it currently does. Hi Shell. Hope you're enjoying the new job!

Later this year, Jason will also be speaking at PhreakNic (in Nashville) and PumpCon (in Philadelphia) in October, and at the Vintage Computer Festival (at the incredibly cool Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California) in November. So I've been busy getting his travel arrangements all in order. Or at least attempting to...

He gave me the wrong dates for the Nashville one, or at least, he just told me the convention dates, and I took it as "I want to be in Nashville on these days". Which means his flight arrives fifteen minutes before his talk (on the opening night of the convention) starts. Um. That's not going to work. He messed up, however, so he gets to call United and fix it. :P

So anyway, that's been my life lately, in case you're wondering why I never update this. I actually have a valid excuse this time.

Stylin'

I've been having Fun With Stylesheets(tm) today. This site now functions in very different ways depending on what browser you're using. Go on, go on, I can tell you want to test it! Load it up in another browser and see the diff.

I've only checked it in Firefox and Explorer, so if you're using Safari, Opera or Netscape or some other flavour of browser, let me know how it functions there. It depends on how much the developers have implemented the W3C's CSS 2.1 Specifications. If they've implemented the majority of the functionality, then my page looks cooler. Or at least I think so. Hey, it's not frames, right? Anything's better than frames.

Okay, so now that I've geeked out all over the place, what else is new? Well, I'm stage managing the upcoming performance of The Beauty Queen of Leenane at the Hovey Players. Come see it early and often. The show is about a month away and the panic is starting to set in. Actually, the sixth rehearsal was just the other night, so I guess it's fair to say that the panic has moved in, set up shop, and is forwarding his voicemail to us. Yep. In the midst of this, I'm trying to remember how to stage manage. Oh yeah... stopwatch... right...

The sales of the Documentary continue. Somewhere between work and stage managing, I'm managing to print out labels for Jason to ship the DVDs out. We're expecting our first check from Amazon any day now.

Over the Labour Day weekend, we're going to Toronto so that I can hang with the gang from Ryerson to celebrate knowing them for a full decade. A full decade! Egad! I feel old. I have to go sit down now, until the feeling passes.

The Colour of Money... I mean "Living Room"

Kudos to my buddy Jess for her help in dipping our living room in red wine. Or at least making it look like we'd done that! Four coats of paint later...

The paint is really a deep shade of burgundy from Behr called "Estate Vineyard". The difference it makes in the feel of the room is astounding. The walls seem to recede into the shadows at night, so the room feels bigger than it is. And they glow in the sunlight. Wonderful.

Not only that! It was a bargain! I got two gallon-sized cans of the paint off the Oops! table at Home Depot. Mixed by two different employees, on two different days, but the exact same colour!

We've been slow to bring everything back into the living room, because it looked so nice and big. Socks gave us sad looks until we brought the coffee table back in (he likes to hide under it). Of course... all the furniture is squeezed into my office right now. :(

The cats enjoyed the painting experience because (a) we had all the windows open (we generally keep them closed when we have the a/c unit on in there - which has been most days this summer), and (b) we had sheets over the couch (in the middle of the room), and it made nice tents for Socks to hide in to randomly leap out and attack us. I have seen no evidence that the cats stepped in any paint or got any on their fur, in spite of them being in our faces "helping". :)

We still need to re-hang the pictures. I'm reluctant because Jess and I worked hard to patch all the nail holes. I definitely want to re-hang the one Jason's Mom painted for us over the couch again.

Next project: My Office!

Everything's Coming Up Roses!

This spring, I found an awesome deal on rose bushes at Costco. Actual Jackson & Perkins roses, the kind they generally only sell to nurseries - they come in a biodegradable box, which you just stick into the ground whole. So I got five of them. And the first one is blooming!

I fully intend to have some photos up here (provided I can get Jason outside to take some, and it's not so humid that I fall over before I post them). Look for an amendment to this posting soon.

In the meantime, the rose is called "Double Delight" and it's a cream colour with red/pink outer petals. And a couple of the other bushes also have buds. Very exciting. I'll keep you all posted, I know you're thrilled by my horticultural talents. Next thing you know I'll be "putting up" preserves and curing my own bacon. Yee haw.

Blech!

At the BBQ I went to yesterday, the hot topic was the new Diet Coke with Splenda. Gossip had it that the Splenda version would be replacing the "normal" aspartame-sweetened brew we all know and love. And the new "Coke Zero" (oh yeah, they're not bringing this is out to fight Pepsi One, that's just a horrible rumour) will become the only aspartame-sweetened beverage in the Coke family. Not so, according to the makers, however! Thank goodness.

First of all, Coke Zero has both aspartame and acesulfame potassium as sweetening. Mmm. That sounds like it'd do a body good! It is supposed to taste "more like regular Coke", according to a few of the BBQ-attendees who had sampled it. Sound like a beverage made by a man with a medical degree? Does to me.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Diet Coke has coupons for the new Splenda-full formula and #2 in the FAQ next to it states that they will not be changing the regular formula. Halle-freakin'-lujah. The Splenda-ized version and the regular historically-profitable version will be sold side by each parallel. They also point out, not-so-humbly, that Diet Coke is America's #1 diet cola (no mention of the ranking for Canada or elsewhere on the globe).

While spelunking for this information, I encountered another interesting factoid: I know people who have long maintained that fountain Diet Coke tasted different from the stuff in the cans and bottles at the local grocery store. I discovered that these people are not on crack! It's true! According to the Product FAQ the fountain version is sweetened by both aspartame and saccharin, because aspartame can't handle the heat, and the fountain syrup loses the sweetness faster than a bottle or can would. Oooo. Education.

In the same vein, I discovered that international versions of Diet Coke (or Coke Light in some locales) are flavoured with different substances, based on what the company feels will go down well with their target audience in a given country.

Whatever the deal, I still don't like the Splenda version. Tastes like someone put a heaping teaspoon of Equal in my Diet Coke. Ugh.

Welcome the Fry Guy

Well, my sister's wedding went off without too many hitches (except the all-important one where they got hitched), and Shayne is now officially part of the family. There were the usual emotional ups and downs during the wedding fuss (by which I mean the planning and politics leading up to the Big Day, and the post-party let-down), but the overall aftertaste was a pleasant one.

Shayne works for McCain's and let me in on an interesting fact: McCain's produces 1/3 of the world's french fries. Wow. Including those served at certain fast food chains which I'm failing to mention here in case it's some sort of big secret. Mmmmm. Secret fries.

Anyway, the weather was decent for the wedding; not as sunny as we'd hoped, but temperature-wise it was perfect. The guys in suits didn't fry, the gals in strapless dresses didn't freeze. And it didn't rain, although it looked like it might for a while there.

And now I'm back to the daily grind, tired but otherwise no worse for wear. It's funny, I kept thinking, "Oh, I'll be able to do this or that when the wedding's past," but really, I am playing catch-up in my real life and have no time to do those things yet.

Like the wedding photos. All 18 trillion of them. Not up yet.

We've been busy processing, packing and shipping documentary orders. I think we've shipped around 900-950 units, but to tell you the truth, I've kind of lost track. It's all a blur.

My Tale of Woe

I suspect a black cat must have crossed my path or something, because it seems like all sorts of not-fun thing are happening just now.

Saturday, I went to put in my contact lenses, and Socks had knocked over the case, causing a lot of the solution to drain out. The new solution I use is hydrogen peroxide based, and converts to saline overnight, when exposed to the neutralizing disc in the lens case. I didn't really know how it worked, so when the lens was still damp, I thought, "Fine, it's been in the solution overnight, I should be okay," and stuck it in my eye.

Ow.

I managed to wrench the thing out. Thank goodness I hadn't chucked my old saline solution because I dumped half the bottle in my eye to flush it. And then went to bed with an ice pack on my eye. Ow. Ow. Ow.

Ow.

On Sunday, I was babysitting Jason's cousin's daughter, Rhiannon (and wearing glasses). Rhiannon's parents had left maybe 45 minutes before, and I was just sitting there on the couch, (honestly!) I shifted slightly, and my back went into spasm.

Ow.

And, of course, Rhiannon was attempting to convince me at the time that drawing on the carpet with dry erase marker was a good thing to do. Um, no. So I had to grit my teeth, while simultaneously cajoling her into not drawing on the flooring. Happily, Rhiannon's parents keep painkillers in the kitchen on a shelf at eye level. Obviously parenthood is a tough business! I helped myself to a couple of extra strength Tylenol and made it through the rest of the day (somehow).

But, ow.

That night, we find out that Jason's grandma has possibly slipped into a coma. Although now they're not sure - it could just be really deep sleep. I'm a little worried about a hospital that can't identify a coma, but hey, we're not there. If his family thinks it's an okay facility, and the staff know what they're doing, I'll take their word for it.

And then, Monday morning, I found out that my coworker's mother, who had been quite ill for some time, passed away this weekend. My coworker's having a rough time of it with other stuff going on in her personal life, too, so this was just one more awful thing. And it also leaves us short handed at work. Thank goodness a new guy was recently hired (although he wasn't really finished his training yet - we're now trying the sink-or-swim method of employee instruction. :)

And Jason's first 500 (or so) DVD cases arrived Monday afternoon. And one box was apparently used by the FedEx folks for shotput practice. The corners of about 110 cases were bent. Some to the point where you couldn't even send it at as a free reviewer copy. That's okay, though, because the DVD manufacturer included 75 extra cases just in case. So the worst, we right off, and the other less-than-perfect ones, we give to reviewers. Hey, waddaya want, they're getting a free copy.

So I think I've used up my share of bad news for the month. I'm done. Full. Nope, thanks, I've had my serving. I gave at the office.

Drumroll, please!

Well, after several weeks of fumbling, I've finally got my new site design up and running. What do you think? Pretty snazzy, huh? There are still a couple of small bugs to be worked out, but I think it makes a nice change from the dark set-up I used to have.

I was inspired to this upheaval by renovating my sister's webpage. I changed it to reflect her design for the wedding invitations. I think it looks quite nice, if I do say so myself.

I'm also playing with various plug-ins. I'm going to add a "link log" showing links in another boxy bit on one side of the page. This will makes adding to and updating my link list so much easier. I'd like to have a whole section of web design-related links, like to the list of Movable Type tags, and to various programs, plug-ins, etc. that I use. And then the links to things I just enjoy. Like Tomato Nation and Two Lumps.

I'm also working on a photoblog. Now that I have Jason's old digital camera (a very decent Olympia Camedia), I'm going to try to get some use out of it.

'Scuse me while I fall over

Okay, someone smack me. I need to learn to schedule. I topped off a weekend babysitting jaunt to Maine with Mark and Marcie with a 5 hour visit to the Gem and Jewelry Show in Marlborough. Can I sit down now?

Jess and I had way too much fun at the gem show. Surprisingly, there seemed to be a lot of beading supplies (and beading enthusiasts) at the show, and not many with supplies for making jewelry. I really wanted some basket settings for my earrings, and there was only one guy who had anything like that, and he was willing to sell them to me... for $50+. Um, no. Wait... no.

So instead, I bought myself a new pair of mystic fire topaz earrings for $12.50. I think I got the better deal.

Maybe the actually jewelry creation supplies were in the "dealers-only" area. Phooey. I would have been interested to see the machines that are used to make faceted stones (industrial dremels!) and the various settings. It seemed to be really geared towards the consumer, and here I thought I was at a trade show!

Maine was a riot. Mark and Marcie are professional photographers, and this time of year their big gig is graduations. I come along as a nanny to Rhiannon, their two-year-old prodigy. So while Mark and Marcie did their photographic thing, Rhiannon and I went to the Children's Museum, where she exhausted me. I tried to prevent her from napping until we hit the road home, and as a result, she didn't nap. At all. And remained remarkably cheerful, even when all the adults were ready to fall over.

We stopped on the way to Bangor at the Outlets in Kittery, Maine. Looked like fun, but we didn't have long to stay, so we just went to the Hanna Andersson outlet where Rhiannon got new shoes! Oooo! Shopping for kids is way more interesting than shopping for me.

I've got to get to bed early tonight if I'm going to be able to function at work tomorrow!

I'm Cuckoo for Cocoa!

On Tuesday, Jess and I went to Chocolate Madness at the Cyclorama at the Boston Center for the Arts. The huge round room was full of tables offering samples of chocolate goodies (and people sampling said goodies). Wow! Yum!

Unfortunately, we failed to pace ourselves, and after doing a bit less than half the circuit, we had to take a break and slow down. And boy, were we wired! There were some pretty strange combinations there too. White chocolate lavendar ice cream, spicy chocolate pudding and black rice krispie pops were only a few of the weird (and sometimes wonderful) goodies.

Neither of us had spent much time in the South End before. It really reminded me of the area I used to call home in Toronto, and not just because it seems to be Boston's gay district. It has a lot of neat shops and gourmet restaurants, and a certain antique style that's edgy at the same time, if that makes any sense? I like it a lot!

The area in Toronto was just starting to get gentrified when I left, and the South End has definitely gone that path as well. The homes seem to retail in the six figures, and that's not for an end unit!

We also discovered a few gated alleyways (obviously the back alleys for these homes), that were beautiful vignettes of twisty paths through gardens. My favourite were the dungeon-esque entrances to the basement units, however. Wish I'd had my camera.

I felt very old and suburban visiting there, though. Like I've lost my "urban" identity. It's been ages since I went downtown in Toronto or Boston as anything but a tourist. :( Sometimes I think I should try to convince Jason to move downtown (although it's way out of our price range!), but that would mean giving up our house, which I love, so I always change my mind. Can't have everything, I guess.

On the home front, Jason's documentary has pretty much wrapped up. We're just waiting for the disks to come from the factory so we can box 'em up and send 'em out. Not sure where we'll put 5000 disks, however. Er, hope no one wanted to stay in our guest room...

Since he's had more time on his hands, Jason's been doing some yard work. We bought some neat Jack Daniels half-barrels at the grocery store, which we're going to make into planters. Vida from work gave me some onion seedlings and Jason's Mom gave us some other plants, so all we need is to drill a drainage hole and some dirt to go in them.

Lots of plans for the yard this year, and I'll try to post some pictures of what we've done.

How do you pronounce VoIP?

VoIP. VoIP. It's my new phone company. I used to be with Verizon, but now I have VoIP. Er, no, not really. Well, kinda. VoIP is Voice over IP (ie, connect your phone to the internet and save thousands of dollars... no, really!). We have, as Jason corrected me in a previous post, a T-1 at home. Why are we dishing out an additional $80 for local calls, long distance service, callerID, voicemail and call waiting? Seems like a tad much, doesn't it?

I thought so. So we looked at Vonage. You must have seen their prolific ads with all those folks telling their phone companies where to go. But we chose to go with the package offered through the folks who provide us with the T-1, SpeakEasy. And today was the big day for the switch.

Turns out you don't actually call your phone company and tell them where they can put their stupidly high fees. SpeakEasy gets to have all that fun. Since it is inevitable that the joy of telling Verizon to go blow goats would be outweighed by the irritation of navigating their touchtone/voice recognition menu, I guess that's only fair.

The deal is: SpeakEasy sends you equipment you need, and it's yours in a year. If you cancel before then, you get a fine, unless you return the equipment to them (it's unclear whether they'll remind you... I suspect not, but then I may be jaded from my dealings with phone companies).

So the equipment arrived today. Today was also the day our phone number switched ot the new service. Quick turnaround. I only called last week. And Jason plugged us in, and was able to call me at work, after he reconfigured the phone adapter (it came configured for some other IP address, don't know what was up with that). The clarity was reasonably good, and considering it's saving us $55/month, reasonably good is good enough for me.

I think we still need to set up the voicemail, and possibly set it up so that if the broadband goes down, the calls forward over to Jason's cell phone. Yes, this arrangement does mean that if the power goes out, we have no phone, but that was been true already, as all of our phones are portables. With bases that plug in. Think about it, Einstein.

It also means that if Jason is grabbing a ton of podcasts, and I'm trying to talk on the phone, I may sound a little... odd. At which point, I'll yell at Jason that I have no connectivity. This happens all the time when I go to check my email, and I find that the server has no time for me. We may have to do some bandwidth monitoring and limiting so that someone doesn't eat it all for breakfast. Naming no names, of course.

Completely off topic: I laughed at this so hard, I cried.

And for those of you who noticed it, Jason designed the funky N graphic up in your browser's address bar. Contain your excitement, please.

I'm Tired of Waking up Tired

Now that's the true test of a friendship: will you get up before dawn to drive your best friend to the airport? Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury, I am guilty as charged. And bone tired. Did I mention I feel pooped? Too much fun this weekend, while Shelley was visiting, and up too early this morning to get her to the airport.

What did we do, you ask? Or maybe you don't, but I'm going to tell you anyway. We purchased a moose. We fought with wires, using pliers (hey, that rhymes!). We ate out. Repeatedly. We didn't have our pictures taken. Repeatedly. I knew there was something we forgot!

We went for supper with my in-laws (now there's a testament to her friendship with me!). Never mind that she agrees with me that they are strangely normal and reasonable (I was very fortunate in the in-law lottery).

We exercised our physics skills by origami-ing a floor lamp into my volkswagon bug. We drove all over the place, and frequently obeyed the speed limits. Okay, occasionally. Sometimes, anyway.

It was a good weekend, and I am tired in that way you only achieve when you've been having a lot of fun. And when you've stumbled around in the pre-5am darkness, looking for your socks. No, not Socks, socks.

Hope you guys had a good weekend too.

New Tech Toys

I have to tell everyone how much I like new tech toys! :) Jason convinced me to switch to Firefox as my browser. I am a long-time loyalist to Netscape, but I switched to Mozilla a few months ago - which really isn't much of a change, since one is the outgrowth of the other. Switching to Firefox was more of a stretch, since it's not a suite of applications (ie. not a browser/mail program). So I also switched to Thunderbird.

One of the appealing things about both of these products is how customizable they are. Not only can you "skin" them (and when I think of skins, I always think of WinAmp, since it was the first application that I used that had a variety of skins available), but you can also install lots of useful extensions. On that note, here's a few of the ones I think kick butt.

1. The Gmail Notifier. Yes, I know Google has their own version, but I like this one. It sits in the corner of my screen and just gives me a number. Right now it's telling me that I have one new message in my Gmail box. I really like Gmail for the mailing lists I'm on because of the conversation grouping ability. Makes keeping track of various threads less overwhelming.

2. ForecastFox. Next to the little Notifier icon, I have two weather icons. One is today (right now it's the moooooon), and one is tomorrow (Mostly Sunny). If I hover my mouse on them, it'll give me more info. Very keen.

3. BugMeNot. I hate having to create a login to access things that are supposedly free anyhow. And I never remember them once I have set them up. This utility just gives you the info to plug in. Granted, sometimes they don't work, but it's better to have tried and lost, then never to have tried at all. Um.

4. DictionarySearch. When you right click on a word, it gives you the option to look it up in another window. It's cool.

5. The GoogleBar. It's not just for Explorer anymore. :) You can add in the option to right click on a word or phrase to do a search in another window. Very handy. I use this ALL THE TIME.

My favourite skin is Neptune. I don't like the zebra stripes in the Thunderbird window, however, so I followed his instructions to get rid of them by editing userChrome.css. Oooo. Aren't I just the hacker chickie?

There are lots of handy-dandy (not to mention easy-to-follow) instructions kicking around online to help you optimize both Firefox and Thunderbird for your needs. Do a search in that handy googlebar.

Other news: we're switching to VoIP. That's Voice over IP. Still looking blank? Well, I'm sure you've seen the extensive ad campaign launched by Vonage. They provide phone services through your broadband connection, instead of the plain old telephone system, or POTS. Really, that's what it's called. You knew those - ahem - people - at the phone company needed to get out more, didn't you?

Anyhow, we won't be switching to Vonage because SpeakEasy our internet service provider, offers a slightly better deal. And they'll roll the broadband (well, partial T1, actually) and the phone service into one invoice. One less bill for me to pay. And the savings will be significant. All local, regional and US and Canada long distance fees included for $24. And voicemail, caller ID (which I've found far more useful than I would ever have thought), call waiting, yadda yadda yadda. You can also set up selective call forwarding, so while we're on vacation, if you call our house, it'll forward to where we are. Or to some phone sex line. What? I don't want to talk to you while I'm on vacation!

Provided this switch goes well (it'll take up to a month to actually port our number over from the regular phone company to VoIP), my next step will be to convince Jason to switch over his beloved Cow Town number. It's currently forwarding to his cell, and we're paying some idiotic amount (over $20) for it to do so. Plus we're paying his cell phone fees. Well, okay, his work is chipping in part. When he remembers to submit the bills. But still.

So that's my technophilia tonight. Just had to share.

Summer Goals

Yeah, yeah, I know it's been a while since I wrote anything. Life's hard, suck it up.

Work has been phenomenally busy, but better that than boredom. I guess. Well, right now I wouldn't mind a couple of days of boredom to get caught up.

I recently did our taxes and nearly fell over when I saw we owed $3,000! Then I discovered a typo ($363 instead of $3663) and found we owed about $100 to the State, and the Feds owed us about $800. Much better. :)

Jason's documentary is done. Hallelujah! He still has to do the artwork to go on the disks themselves, but that's it. I'm on him to get that done and out of our hair. I want these things mailed out and no longer hanging over our heads!

I bought five new rose bushes at Costco a few days ago. They're Jackson & Perkins so they are at least decent quality. We planted two this weekend.

Here's what I bought:
Carefree delight
Seafoam
Simply Marvelous!
Perfect Moment
Double Delight

So far we've only planted the latter two.

While doing my taxes, I gave myself the proverbial pat on the back: I donated about $400 worth of clothes to Goodwill this year (if you drop them off at Zoots dry cleaners, they'll give you a tax receipt). This is what happens when you change sizes dramatically and stop having any patience with clothes that don't make you feel good.

I'm sad that the ski season is over, but it's nice to be able to open up the windows again. Must get out the caulking gun and have a go at the gaps between the frames and the storm windows.

My goal for the warmer weather: go canoeing at least once. And plant the remaining roses. And caulk the windows. Okay, so three goals. All summer to get them done.

Bookworm

I know I haven't updated this in a while now. I've been busy reading my way through the pile of books (mysteries, mostly) that I got from Eve (of Eve and Eli fame) at their "house cooling" party (they were moving away). I've noticed I have a habit of picking up the speech mannerisms of the characters from whatever book(s) I'm currently devouring. Right now, I'm mid-way through the second of the Kate Fansler books (by Amanda Cross) that I were in my pile. Not much impressed, I have to admit. They're very wordy, and seem to include a lot of random... junk... that does nothing to further the plot or help develop the characters. :P

On the other hand, Joan Hess' Arly Hanks mysteries were fabulous. In addition to the books in that series in my pile from Eve, I sought out the others at the library. And devoured them all. :) Nothing like a good book to fill you up. And I started thinking in her writing style (lots of strange hillbilly kind of metaphors), which I have to admit is a bit more amusing than the "modern angst" style of Amanda Cross.

I may just be prejudiced against Cross' books because the first one I read was "In the Last Analysis," which, in my mind, I keep calling "The Final Analysis," which then triggers my internal muzak to start playing "The Final Countdown". And it's a very annoying song.

Then again, it could just be because "In The Last Analysis" was about psychoanalysis, which is so passe these days. The current style of choice for most therapist/analysts is an eclectic one, meaning that they do whatever they think might work, and have given up on trying to fit into one particular mold. :) This second book, "Death in a Tenured Position" is all about feminism and female professors at Harvard. Hell, I went to Harvard, you'd think it'd be at least interesting because I could follow along with the landmarks. But no, it is still wordy, still a lecture disguised as a mystery novel, and still, frankly, boring.

Not that I won't read it cover to cover.

And I'll read the 3rd and final Amanda Cross novel that was in my pile of goodies: "The Players Come Again." We'll see. I'll probably donate the lot of them to the library when I'm done.

I already donated "Venus Envy," by Rita Mae Brown. I like Brown's mysteries, and this book seemed pretty good at first, but then it went into an unlikely dream sequence. Which just wouldn't end. The premise was good: respected business woman thought to be on her deathbed sends her loved ones letters revealing her real opinions of them. And then she recovers. Yikes. Talk about your embarrassing situation. Anyway, like I said, it's a good book until the dream sequence kicks in. After I realized that the dream sequence wasn't going to end anytime soon, I skipped ahead a couple of chapters. Nope, still going on. And then I skipped to the end, and decided this book as just not worth my time. Phooey.

I was going to say, "But in spite of that, Brown's most recent mystery, Whisker of Evil is quite good," but I just realized that I can't actually remember any of the plot. So it must not have been that great. Oh wait... now I remember. There were monks. Yeah, monks as in robes and Catholicism. Unexpected, yes, but what can you do?

Other news: my laptop has developed power issues. The socket, to be precise, into which the power cord plugs, is being finicky. So Jason swapped the hard drive into his perfectly functional laptop, and that's that. Eventually, we'll need to repair the other laptop's power socket, or replace the whole thing. We're a two laptop kinda family. :)

I took Doug the Bug back to the excessively clean Metric Systems in Cambridge, and they discovered that the vacuum hose was leaking again. Apparently their replacement hose had a small hole which triggered the check engine light. Now that it was off, I figured I had better get the inspection sticker updated ASAP (for those of you following along at home, Massachusetts requires $29 a year from it's drivers to have their vehicles inspected for emissions and other goofiness). My 2004 sticker expired in March of this year. I discovered that you need to wait a minimum of one week after you get your check engine light reset before you get the test done. Your onboard computer needs at least that amount of time to "prepare" for the test (ie. gather data to prove you're not spewing fumes hither and yon). So my car failed, because it had only been a couple of days. I get a free retest as long as I bring it back within the next 60 days to the place I failed at. I'm hoping if I bring it back in April, they'll give me a sticker that doesn't expire until April 2006. That seems fair, huh? An extra month for the same $29?

We've a house guest this month: my sister's best friend since pre-school, Sarah. Sarah is the final throes of getting her medical degree, and was offered the chance of a month-long elective here in Boston at the VA hospital in West Roxbury (VA=Veterans' Affairs). So she's staying in our guest room for March. It's kind of nice having a third person around the place.

Funny website recommendation: Tomato Nation. Sars' hilarious description of the Roomba with her cats had me laughing until I cried. Literally. Tears streaming down my face. :D At work. :( Not good. Had to leave the page until I got to someplace where I was allowed to browse for my own amusement.

It's snowing again today. It keeps varying from big fat fluffy flakes to wet sleety rainy drizzle. We've had a very snowy few months. Which makes up for winter's late onset, I guess. I think I'd prefer if it just snowed at the skihill!

Anyhoo, back to my book. Must finish reading it so I can get rid of it!

Just Call Me Mrs. Fix-It!

I guess I'll be giving Red Green a run for his money - folks will start finding me handy! :) Last weekend, I let my fingers do the walking and did a little online research. Apparently, there's a well-known issue with the coolant temperature sensors on VW New Beetles. Apparently you can tell if the original one has been replaced with the less-likely-to-fail one, by looking at the colour. Apparently, no one thought to swap out this $5 part on my car during any of the repeated service visits!

I figured this out late on Saturday, so all the VW service departments were closed, and, since AutoZone wanted $45 plus shipping (not in stock at any MA store), I was forced to wait until the work week started to get my part. It was tiny! Just a little sensor, a U-clip and an O-ring gasket. The theory is, you pull the electrical connector plug out of the existing sensor, pop out the existing U-clip and yank out the old sensor. The reality was: can't get the bloody electrical connector plug unconnected!

Jason stepped in and judiciously applied a screw driver to lever a plastic bit out of the far side (and succeeding in breaking it off... hopefully that wasn't an important bit). The actual replacement was easy as anything! Getting the U-clip back on... well that required dexterity Jason wasn't up to early in the morning. After fishing it out of the engine compartment twice to try again, we finally lost it to the briny deeps. Phooey. So Jason drove me to VW to spend less than a dollar on two more U-clips, and managed to finish up after leaving me at work.

The next day was the big test: would Doug the Bug still start? Answer: Yes. Unfortunately, the little "oh my god, you're engine's melting into a nasty pile of steaming goo" light came on and blinked and beeped. Seems the coolant was low, probably due to seepage during the sensor replacement. Or possibly due to a leak. I'll keep an eye on it. So I took Jason's car again. On the drive home after work, I remembered we had a jug of coolant in the garage. Oops.

Turned out that it was a good thing we had it - Jason's car developed a flat tire. He had to take my car! At some point this weekend, he'll get a new tire, I hope. Hope is a wonderful thing.

Did I mention that during this whole automotive educational process I've been fighting a nasty headcold? Ugh.

This Bugs Me!

I have a 2000 New Beetle named Doug the Bug. Doug has a bug: the check engine light keeps coming on. I suspected that the VW dealer that I was taking it to was screwing me over, because it kept coming back on. So I just ignored it most of the time.

One of my ski buddies, Wiley, has a cable to hook up a laptop to a VW and the appropriate software to read the check engine codes (and reset them, if necessary). So he read Doug's codes, and said it seemed like a fuel injector issue, an recommended that I take it in for service. I explained about my mini-boycott of the dealership, and he recommended another garage that was not far from the dealership (although neither are particularly local to me).

So I called, and they could take me the following week. Yay! Much better than the dealership's week or so wait time. Their hours, however, left something to be desired: 8-5, Monday to Friday, and no after-hours drop-off as they have no lot to park cars in (it's inside the garage, or the side of the road - which, in Cambridge, is insanely pricey).

Anyhow, I dragged Jason out of bed at an ungodly hour to fight the commuter traffic and drop off Doug at 8am on Wednesday morning. By 9:30, they were calling me with a comprehensive list of things they'd found wrong:

* vacuum leak (possible cause of engine light)
* original fuel filter (should have been changed by VW at regular maintenance)
* front brake pads badly worn
* left rear brake pad dragging
* broken middle exhaust hanger
* passenger windshield wiper fluid dispenser broken

$1000 later, it was all fixed. I ransomed Doug back on Thursday morning (again dragging Jason out of bed to fight the commuter traffic), and went merrily off to work.

Halfway home after work, guess what light lit up? You got it, Pontiac! Or, VW, as the case may be. Grrr. A call to the garage elicited a, "Hmmm." And the suggestion to bring Doug back next week. Today would have been perfect, as Jason needed to go to the airport this morning, but I guess that didn't work for them. "Did it handle okay?," the voice on the other end of the phone disinterestedly inquired. Duh. It's handled fine throughout this whole experience. The only bloody problem I've had with the car is the stupid check engine light!!!! Okay, and the windshield washer nozzle. I hadn't noticed the brakes being bad - just squeaky.

Watch this space for my continued automotive frustrations.

My Life As A Social Butterfly

Busy week. Here are the highlights:
Last week, in addition to the major snowstorm over the weekend, we also had a major winter storm on Wednesday. And what did I do? I went skiing, of course. It actually wasn't snowing as badly at the ski hill. In fact, hardly at all.

My new ski boots are not as comfy as I'd hoped. In fact, they rub the same way that my first rental ski boots, way back when, did. I have a little boney bit in my ankle that apparently no one else does. Anyway, I decided to quit after only a few runs, and therefore got off with only a teeny tiny blister.

I took the boots back to Ski Market on Saturday, where a nice tech put in heel wedges for me. If those don't work, they'll stretch the molded plastic of the boots to accommodate my odd little bone spur. While there, I acquired a new tuque. That's a woolen ski hat, for you Americans.

On Friday I went with Jess and Chris to the Boston Home Show, at the Bayside Expo Center. It was small and unexciting. Blech. Not worth the admission. We're going to give the one later in February a try - the New England Home Show, at the Seaport World Trade Center (not an auspicious name, in my opinion, not that anyone asked for it). It's apparently a larger show, so I'm hoping there'll be lots of those slice-it-dice-it vendors that want to give you a free set of steak knives with your purchase. "But wait, there's more!"

Saturday, Chris and Jess had Jason and I over for Robbie Burns Dinner. Including the dreaded haggis. Jason liked it. What a weirdo. In fact, I was the only one who wasn't interested in even sampling it. Ugh. The rest of the dinner was, of course, delish. Jess is a good cook. She made cock-a-leekie soup from scratch. Is there anything she can't do?

Sunday, we went to a "House Cooling" party hosted by some of Jason's friends. They're moving to Seattle, and wanted one last hurrah at the old abode. They also were distributing the majority of their library to loving homes. About two dozen books came home with us. Hurray!

This week looks like it might be busy. Wednesday, the problem that keeps triggering my "check engine" light actually might get fixed (can I get a whoop-whoop?). I'm also going skiing that night (carpooling with Jess).

Jason's headed to DC for a convention this weekend, and with luck the documentary will be in some sort of finished state. Knock on wood. He's also managed to hurt his shoulder - probably due to shovelling last week. It'll be better before the trip - I hope! At least he's not driving! They're calling for snow on Thursday, so hopefully his Friday flight will be able to get out of Boston. If we get another major dumping of snow, I think the snow removal folks will start keeling over! On the other hand... the skiing would be great!

Dude, where's my car?

It started snowing last night, and only just stopped this afternoon. A total of about two and a half feet. Plus hurricane force winds. Sounds like a blizzard to me, doc. I peeked outside and the cars were just two anonymous mounds of snow - narry a rearview mirror or antenna to be seen. And my snow gear (all my ski stuff, really) was in the trunk of my car. With considerable effort, Jason and I managed to dig the cars out, and remove the snow from the driveway. Happily it wasn't wet, clumpy snow. But it was still cold and wet.

Considering I stayed inside for most of today, I didn't get a whole lot done. Before the snow started yesterday, I dashed to the mall to buy a pair of jeans, drop off my ring for re-sizing (down a whole size), and get some links removed from my watch band. I also made chicken soup (kinda from scratch: I used store-bought chicken stock, and a frozen chicken breast for meat). Today I broiled some steaks, and baked some of my beloved Quaker low-fat bran muffins (from the mix). Mmmm. There's something about snow storms that makes me want to eat.

I've become a Gmail addict. When I originally got the address, I thought, "Yippee, another email address to add to the pile. Yawn." But if you read mailing lists (like Yahoo! groups), their "conversation" groupings are extremely handy. Especially if you read a list that's very chatty. Which, if it isn't clear at this point, I do. It means I don't get overwhelmed. I'm all for not being overwhelmed.

I finally made it skiing this past Wednesday. Hooray! The weather was great for skiing, not so hot for driving, but what can you do? It was after midnight when I came home and crawled into bed, mumbling something to Jason about a good time. My new skis worked great, except for a nasty tendancy to rub on one ankle. I suspect I may have left one strap too loose. I'll have to play around with that sort of thing.

Grr. It's 10 o'clock at night, and I'm just about ready to turn in and the @#)$&@#$~!! neighbour just started up his gas snow blower. Where was he when we were straining our backs shovelling (and it was light out)??? Pretty inconsiderate. Good thing my bedroom's at the back of the house, and I can sleep through car alarms (thank you 40 Alexander).

This week's skiing is bound to be good, what with all this natural snow that just got dumped on the hill. I'll give them 'til Wednesday to get it all organized and groomed and all that, and then swoosh! :) Some time, I'll try Blue Hills which is somewhat closer to home and see if it's worth the drive (no, it's not in Acton, it's in Quincy).

Hope everyone else stayed warm and (relatively) dry.

Sometimes the world conspires against you...

Sunday we were going to attempt skiing again. The weather report was calling for a big snow storm, however, and surprisingly enough, nobody was eager to drive in what was to be foul weather. Of course, in a totally surprising twist of fate, very little snow actually fell. It was extremely cold however, so I guess it's just as well we didn't go.

I did spend Sunday profitably, however. I bought myself some relatively inexpensive goggles at REI. They're Scott Noram ACS goggles and they were the most comfortable pair on my face. And, scarily enough, also the cheapest ones on the shelves. Strange but true.

While I was there, I fell in love with an extremely soft 100% Angora toque by Turtle Fur. Unfortunately the colour it came in (well, colours - it was an alpine knit pattern featuring a lot of taupe and some khaki), didn't go at all with my black, purple and caution yellow ski jacket. No sir, not at all. Phooey. And they had no other hats that were equally as soft. Plus, the styel looked nice on me. It had earflaps, but instead of strings at the bottom to tie under your chin like a goofy rendition of Heidi, it had tassels. No sign of it or any similar versions on the REI website, nor on the Turtle Fur one. Double phooey.

When I got home, I rearranged the furniture a bit in my home office. And encountered a problem: I have several Ikea Billy bookcases (yeah, yeah, I know, me and a million other people!), and for the shorter two, I bought extension shelves years ago. Like more than five years. And naturally I no longer have the installation instructions. So my rearranging required that I take the extension shelf off one of the units (not a big deal, just a question of lifting it off and pulling the little metal dowels out of the holes). And I thought I would use it on top of the other one (ie. short unit plus two extensions).

The issue is, I don't remember how the holes occurred on the tops of the small bookcases. Did I drill them? I don't remember doing so. Did the metal posts just kind of force their way into the pressboard? Did the beech veneer cover an existing hole in the pressboard? I'm reasonably certain that they didn't come with the holes. And there are no holes in the top of the extension shelf units, so how will I secure the extension to the other extension (which probably isn't a very secure thing to do anyhow).

At any rate, we've packed away most of Christmas (which had been in my office as well, for sorting before stowing). I left the wreaths on both doors, because I like them.

Jason had a brilliant idea to lock both cats in the bathroom so they could duke it out. Penny staked out a corner and wallopped Socks whenever he came too close, and he wandered around bored. Not exactly a successful experiment.

I'm going to try to get to Wachusett and hit the slopes Wednesday after work. Provided that the weather and transport all cooperate.

To Ski Or Not To Ski?

The best laid plans.... yadda yadda yadda. So I had every intention of skiing Wednesday night after work with my buddies Jess and Wiley. Loaded the gear in the car, packed up the appropriate items of clothing (although I still need goggles), got directions and everything. Wednesday afternoon it started raining/sleeting/snowing.... wintry mix, I think they call it. I was going to wuss out, but got talked into continuing with the plan. So, after work, I changed into my jeans, hopped in the car and hit the road.

I was about 20 minutes out of the city when my partner in crime, Jess, called to say that Wiley's car wouldn't start. I had assumed they would already be at the hill, considering Jess left work nearly an hour before me. Wiley assured us he'd have it going in about 15 minutes, so I continued on my merry way.

Flash forward another twenty minutes or so. I'm more than halfway there. Jess calls back. The car still won't start. Magically, while I'm on the phone, the engine catches! :) But now they're wary. They don't trust it. So we agree to do supper somewhere near my house and I turn back towards the city.

Flash forward another twenty minutes/half an hour or so. Since there's very little traffic heading into the city at this time of day, I was nearly home when the phone rings again. Wiley's car has died at every red light. They're giving up on going anywhere in it. Jess went home, got her own car, and we went out for some food. Wiley went home and talked some sense into his vehicle. And we're going to try again next Wednesday.

In other news, my sister's Christmas gift to me was the new watch of my choice. It arrived yesterday. The bracelet is too big, so at some point, I need to find a willing jeweller to yank out some links.

Jason's Christmas gift to me was a fancy-schmancy photo printer. It has little slots for putting the memory cards/sticks from digital cameras into. It has a little screen where you can crop, zoom, balance, etc. the images. You can use a cable to connect it a laptop or to a camera (PictBridge). It's very snazzy. So far, I've printed pictures of the cat, me, the woods near Kristen's cottage, my family playing cards, and my sister. I have generally been an HP fan, but apparently the Canon PIXMA printers are the best when it comes to ink prices and usage. The ink is really where these photo printers get you - it can really cost!

2005 Update

So we drove to Toronto for the holidays, and now we're back. Had lots of fun. Got Jason a swanky new Canon Digital Rebel camera. Word of caution: this camera does not come with any memory cards, and nothing is open Christmas Day. Once Jason managed to get some memory, however, he ran around taking fantastic pictures of everything. We had a professional photographer come in and take a portrait of the family, though. It was my gift to my parents this year.

Our older cat, Penny, came with us on the journey north of the border. She's not a bad car cat. There's a lot of meowing at first, and then she settles in behind the driver's seat in the footwell, and kinda goes comatose. Poor kitty.

Today a wicker cat bed arrived on our doorstep. To Jason and Nicole. No from on the tag (except PetSmart). Don't know what that's all about, but thank you, whoever! Socks was inside the lower level for a bit.

Socks stayed with Chris and Jess while we were absent, and became best buds with their cat Tip (the talkative). He appears to have picked up some chatty habits. But I'm glad to have him back with us again. I missed his little demonic habits.

We spent a couple of nights up at Kristen's cottage and I got to hang out with a bunch of my friends from Ryerson. And their kids. Roman is now officially a cop. That's so neat. And Shag's considering a career change as well. As usual, we ate copious amounts of artery-hardening goodies. Mmmm. Bacon. And played with fireworks. Whee!

I'm trying to plan my vacation time for the coming year, and my sister's wedding is sucking up a lot of it. I need to be there the Wednesday before, for the rehearsal (the place is booked Thursday and Friday for other weddings... June, you know?). Since Monday is a holiday here (Memorial Day), it makes no sense to go to work on for one day (Tuesday) and then take off. So that's 4 out of my 10 vacation days. Poof. There it was. Gone.

And I haven't even begun to consider next Christmas. Happily, Christmas Day is a Sunday, so I get the Monday off (one less holiday to use up), but Steph wants to host it in Calgary (she's using all her holiday time for the wedding and honeymoon!). I'm not real keen on that, because I won't be able to see my friends at the same time. Unless I drag them all with me, and they won't go for that. :( But we'll figure something out. I wonder if Steph gets the 26th and 27th both off, since the 25th is a Sunday. That would make it a long weekend for her to come to Toronto. :)

It's funny how going home at the holidays really just pushes an internal reset button for me. I have so much less stress now. Well, okay, not really, but I enjoyed the time with my friends and family and it reconnected me with them. That's what I meant.

We got a lot of snow here in Boston yesterday. Lovely big fat fluffy flakes. Then rain on top of it. :P Next Wednesday after work, Jess and I are planning to go skiing. Hopefully the weather will be good for the drive there, and the snow base will be excellent. I should probably take some time this weekend to make sure I've got all the necessary gear (warm socks, etc), and to do some stretching and such. I should probably have started "conditioning" myself in September, but hey, that's just "not me"! :)

Going Down (Under)

Got an invitation to my former roommate Mikie's wedding yesterday. It's in February. In Australia. (!!!) Gonna check to see if anyone else from RTS is going. If I get to travel halfway around the world to another continent and hang out with a bunch of folks I don't see enough of, then it'll be worth the airfare. I also need to find out how pricey the airfare is! If it's through the roof, then maybe not, even if a passel of folks from Toronto are going. We have documentary expenses happening, after all.

Attention, cuteness alert! Jason is obviously trying to procrastinate. And who could blame him. He's documentarying all the livelong day. Or night, as the case may be.

We got the proof for the cover art back from the DVD manufacturers, and it needs a little... massaging... to make it look right. Not much, just a little. So Jason has already done this, and hopefully we'll have another proof shortly.

I ripped both my thumbnails (on two consecutive days) a week and a bit ago, and got tired of having it hurt every time I tried to open something. So I had a friend who used to have her own nail salon come and put some artificial nails on me. She gave up the salon because she can make more doing bookkeeping. Anyway, our living room definitely didn't have enough light for her to see what she was doing, until towards the end, when I got Jason to bring in another floor lamp. So the paint, and the nails themselves, are lifting.

It's making me crazy. I'm going to get some acetone nail polish remover on the way home and get these off. It's nice to have the extra strong nails, but it's annoying to have stuff constantly catch on your nail bits.

The ski hills aren't open yet, due to unseasonably mild weather. Grr.

Weeda Weeda Woo

You must go look at Two Lumps.
Some of the strips are enh, but some of them are hilariously funny. The one I've linked to is my favorite.

I went to the ski show and got me some skis. I still need some boots, though. Might go this afternoon. Might go after work on Tuesday. Gotta get ready. Wachusett opens on the 26th, weather permitting. :)

I also found out there's a leetle teeny half-way decent ski hill here in town. Much like Centennial Hill in Toronto, Blue Hills is nice and close to the city. It's only got one chair lift, and a couple of tows, but it'll be handy for last minute ski fun. I was under the impression that they had no snowmaking, but the website claims they have a new system. And they have night skiing, always a necessity when it's pitch dark at 5:00pm.

Speaking of which, I noticed that it gets darker here significantly earlier than in Toronto. Must be a factor of how much further east we are. We had more snow sooner, but I think that's because we're not much further south.

Huh. According to that website, Waltham, Massachusetts, where we live, is north of the southernmost point of Canada (which is no longer Point Pelee, but Middle Island in Lake Erie). Waltham's latitude is listed on various websites as approximately 42.4 degrees N. Middle Island is 41.7ish. Toronto's latitude is about 43.39 degrees. That's sure not a lot. The distance between the two is pretty much due east (or west, depending which way you're going).

Interesting fact to know, huh?

The Social Whirl

Yeah, whatever. Things have been fairly busy around here. I've decided this is the year when I hit the slopes on a regular basis. In preparation for this I've got a pass to ski nights at Wachusett Mountain, and a ski buddy, Jess. Jess and I are heading to the Boston SnowSports Expo this weekend to check out the gear (I need new skis) and the fun.

In other news... Penny went for her annual check-up (she's gained only 0.3 lbs., what a good little kitty!) and Socks recently became an it. He's now only a little smaller than she is! In fact, Socks has nearly doubled his weight since he moved in with us. They are still not getting along. I'm hoping that familiarity will blunt contempt.

My sister, Steph, successfully moved to Calgary, and now has a job working for Sleeman's marketing department. It's really a perfect fit for her, as anyone who knows Steph will tell you!

Jason's BBS Documentary has pre-sold over 250 DVDs at this point. There was a "beta premiere" in California at the Vintage Computer Festival, which is held at the Computer History Museum. The museum was fascinating for anyone who is into computers. They have a panel from ENIAC there, and an Apple I on loan from the Woz! We were there so that Jason could talk about the making of his movie, and judge audience reactions. I think things went really well. I was impressed, anyhow, but I might be kind of biased. The artwork for the DVD went to the manufacturer today, and hopefully the stuff actually going on the DVDs will be there before long. I'm doing the english subtitling and making suggestions.

We're making plans to go to Toronto for Xmas. We'll probably drive, and we're not certain if we'll bring the cats or not. The issue is finding someone willing to look in on them a couple of times a day, and hoping that they don't kill each other while we're gone, versus being stuck in a car with two unhappy (and feuding) cats for hours on end. Meow Meow. Hmm. I don't suppose there's any chance I can convince the gang to come down here for New Year's, is there? Rumour had it that Kristen wasn't sure she could get the cottage...

What's with all these people spawning? Shag and Chantal Jones had their second daughter; Chris Carlton's firstborn is a boy; Kristen Hall is pregnant with her second. Egad. So adult.

I installed Trillian today at work and on the laptop at home. Handy thing, letting me chat with folks on ICQ, AIM, MSN Messenger, Y! Messenger, etc. I'm wondering if I'll get any work done, however. :) Oh well.

Where the Pets go...

I think Petco may open a store right in our house, because we have so much cat paraphenalia (sorry, if you want toys for furry killing machines, AKA ferrets, you'll have to go elsewhere). Socks has now been wearing a collar for 48 hours. It's a different kind than I tried before - much more elasticity. It's not the pretty shade of lilac like the first one I tried on him was, but then again, it's not covered in blood stains like the first one I tried on him was!

We also have multiple litter boxes. Apparently the general rule of thumb is one for each cat, plus one extra. Maybe the extra is for guests? I'm not sure. And of course, each box needs a scoop. And each box has a different type of litter, because some felines prefer one to the other. As far as I can tell, Socks is made entirely of poop. I scooped his litter yesterday, and I swear the bag I took to the trash was heavier than he is!

I now understand how new parents feel! Speaking of which, my friends Shag and Chantal just had their second daughter last week, Fiona Cait Jones. Very sweet. I like the name Fiona.

Looks like I've officially got the week between Xmas and New Year's off to come north and hang with friends and family. Phew. I try to save up my vacation days, but this year with the time I had to take off for chemo and doctor's appointments... well, it was touch and go. Plus, I'm taking one day in November to go to the premiere of Jason's documentary at the Vintage Computer Festival.

For those who are interested, the documentary is now in pre-order and so far the response has been good. Jason got slash-dotted so our home server was being really sluggish - some insane number of hits.

Over Thanksgiving, Jason showed Mom and me this incredible origami-like clothes folding video. It's really funky! I think I've got the hang of it - the key is to reach across the shirt you're folding, and also to make sure the shirt is right side up. Very quick, once you get going. Of course, it helps if the shirt hasn't spent any time crumpled in a laundry basket! :)

Snatched Back From the Jaws of Death!

I decided to put a bell on Socks, because I think part of Penny's appeal to him is that he thinks she's a big toy (she sounds like one... well, apart from the growling and hissing). So I bought an adjustable collar with a safety release and tightened it into the smallest size possible. It was a nice purple (purple is a power colour, you know!), and looked great with his charcoal grey fur. He was a little freaked by the way he kept jingling. He tried to get a good look at the bell, and attempted to paw it off. Well, next thing I know he's making these horrible sounds!

He had managed to get his lower jaw under the collar, and now it was stuck in his mouth! And it hurt, I could tell. Jason and I were both attempting to remove it, but the safety release was very difficult to get working. The two of us got scratched pretty badly by this ballistic ball of screeching fur. Finally, I got the thing to unsnap. The poor guy was completely freaked out, and there was blood on the collar. Not cool.

Anyway, the moral of the story is: cats sometimes do dumb things. And I won't be trying to put a collar on him again for a while!

I am gearing up to have a large group of folks over for Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend. So much to do in preparation. I'm also feeding a cat while my friends are out of town this week (I am only doing evenings). I keep reiterating my list of things to do to anyone who will listen - mostly to keep it straight in my own head!

Little Kitty Has No Brain...

I don't know for sure, but I suspect Socks is missing a vital organ... his brain! Penny doesn't particularly like him. She generally shows it by leaving any room he's in. What does he do? Chases her. Backs her into a corner until she snarls and hisses and raises a paw to him. And then, when she's good and pissed, what does he do? Comes back for more. Repeatedly. He just won't leave well enough alone.

That said, he's a cute little bugger. He goes for the snip-snip operation (shh, don't tell him!) on the 27th. Penny has been told that if she's a good kitty, the horrible little demonspawn (her term for him, not mine) will have to go to the medicine-smell place and have his balls cut off. Boy, is she gonna gloat!

Socks refuses to eat dry food. We now serve his wet food on top of the dry, in the hopes that he'll at least make a dent in our kibble supply. We're attempting to train him not to drink from the toilet (mostly because damp kitty prints on the toilet seat are not very pleasant to sit on). I'm planning to procure a bell for him, so that Penny can at least hear him coming.

He currently spends a portion of the day locked in the guest room (if only so that Penny can have some down time). That's where his litter and food are. Problem is, we have a guest coming next weekend, intending to stay in there. A guest who is allergic to cats, and probably doesn't appreciate being woken up with a face full of kitten meowing loudly, announcing that it's 3 o'clock and he wants to play. Wants to play NOW.

One of my friends recently referred to 4pm as kitty midnight. Which made me wonder what time the cat clock reads at 3am. Noon? 9am? I don't know.

We're expecting a housefull of folks next Sunday for turkey and accompaniments as we celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving. Unfortunately my sister won't be in attendance, as Steph and Shayne have just moved to Calgary. In fact I think Steph and Owen (their cat) flew out there either today or yesterday. Hopefully, Owen made the trip safely... actually, I should be more concerned about the other passengers on the plane, since Owen turns into a raving looney in the car.

Shayne has been working in Calgary since Labour Day. I forget when their stuff arrives. I think later this week. They're going to spend a few days painting. Mom is out there right now, helping. Their experience painting the old place will probably come in handy. Remember: cut in the edges and THEN roll the rest of the wall, not vice-versa, or it'll be obvious.

Recently read The Cat Who Came For Christmas, by Cleveland Amory. Very funny book, I recommend it to anyone who has ever been owned by a cat. I love his descriptions of the conversations he has with the cat.

TiVo captured another Clean Sweep-knockoff television show. "neat" is on Discovery Home and Leisure (or whatever they're calling themselves these days). During the introduction, I thought I recognized the northern Ontario accent. In the credits they thanked the Days Inn Barrie. :) Ha! Scary that I hear a "Canadian accent" now, but I think it's important to support the Arts in Canada, so I set up TiVo to record the entire season. :) I got tired of watching "The Designer Guys" (also on Discovery Home, etc.). That channel must have some sort of deal going with Life Network (I think that's where these run... or is it CityTV?).

My new favourite thing: No Pudge Fudge Brownies. Yummy. Low fat and yummy, at that. Two tablespoons of mix to one of vanilla fat-free yogurt, pop it in the micro for a minute, and you have lava-hot brownie goodness. Mmmmm. In fact, I hear them calling me now....

A New Addition

Apparently someone pinned a note to my back that reads, "Give me cats, or give me death!," because people keep trying to foist felines off on me. Jason's Mom's strays are now living at Jason's brothers (phew!), but our good friends Chris and Jess (whose cat, Tip, we cat-sat for a couple of weeks earlier this month), called us to say that they had a stray in their basement that Tip hated - would we like him? Otherwise, he would go to a shelter.

Since "going to a shelter" so often translates to "going to the catnip fields in the sky," we offered to give him a try, if they got a clean bill of health (we're not risking our current cat!). He came through with flying colours (except for some roundworms, which have been treated), and is currently hanging in our guest room. His name, provisionally, is Socks.

He's going to stay in the guest room for a few days at least, on the recommendation of several different websites to let Penny get used to his scent (and vice versa) under the door and on us. He's just a little guy (the vet figured about 5 months), so hopefully she won't feel particularly threatened. He really does make Penny (who's not a very big kitty at all) look enormous.

He hasn't been fixed yet, but once we've determined that we're keeping him, we'll do that. No spraying his territory!

As he's still really a kitten, he's got springs in his legs, and an attention span of about 9 seconds. He's very snuggly and has the cutest little tiny meow. And the tip of his tail is white. Just the tip. Aw.

He has his own litterbox (at least until he's certified worm free!). Did you know there are tons of cat illnesses with -worm names? Jess mistakenly told me he had ringworm (which is way more serious than roundworm, and actually doesn't involve worms at all, but a fungus). There's also heartworm, hookworm, tapeworm, whipworm, among others. Sheesh. Very confusing.

A new leaf

Okay, I'm turning over a new leaf: I've decided to use this blog thing to track stuff non-cancer related, because it's a handy way to keep in touch with a bunch of folks that I don't see regularly.

So I'll be posting about what is going on in my life, and general natterings.

Sooner or later I'll revamp the look of the whole page.

What's new? Well, we're minding Tip O'Neil, the cat belonging to our friends Chris and Jess Cannon. Tip never shuts up, but he's got a lovely purr, and a sweet disposition (except when he's hissing at our cat, Penny). Tip will be staying at our house until the 13th.

My sister just bought a house in Calgary. Her fiance, Shayne, got a job there working for McCain's - so they both handed in their notice at CIM and are preparing for the move. Well, okay, Shayne's already in Calgary. He started his new job yesterday, so he's not doing much packing, but Steph certainly is.

Their new house is in a subdivision called Copperfield. They have an end unit townhouse, with a walkout basement and a single car garage. It has three bedrooms, two and a half baths and mountain views. They take possession on October 1st.

We're looking at hosting a Canadian Thanksgiving dinner again this year, so now's the time to start hinting (broadly) if you want an invitation. Steph and Shayne will still be trying to get unpacked, so I doubt they'll attend. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Canadian Thanksgiving (read: unenlightened) it is observed the second Monday in October (but our dinner will on the Sunday).

My friends in Toronto, Shag and Chantal, are expecting their second child right around the Thanksgiving weekend (I have the date for Chantal's C-section written somewhere around here). Very exciting for them, but, of course, bizarre to think of people my age doing something so adult as becoming parents (a second time, no less!).

Another set of Toronto friends, Roman and Alison, got hitched over the long weekend. Ali told me that the honeymoon destination was a big secret, so I don't know where they went, but hopefully it wasn't somewhere they're expecting a hurricane! Is it just me, or are those storms worse this year than previously? Maybe it's just because it's raining here today.

I've been having fun with my hair. Since it's short, I've been getting highlights and streaks and such, since they grow out in next to no time. Here's a shot from a BBQ we went to last weekend.

I'm extremely jealous of my friend Jill's house (where the BBQ was held). She's just off Route 9 - a minor highway similar to Rte. 20, where our house is, but with more shopping and less residential - and she has a lake in her backyard. In the front yard, it feels like a major metropolitan area; in the backyard, you're at the cottage! There's a little beach, and there were even fish in the water! And people were canoe-ing! In her backyard!

It's Lake Cochituate (it's mandatory that all cottage-y lake names be difficult to pronounce... all except Doe Lake). It's pronounced "Co Chi Chew Ate", and is made up of three large ponds. But what they call a large pond, I would call a lake! Jill, and her husband, Dick, used to have a dock, but stopped replacing it when there was a fad among local hooligans of paddling docks around the lake and abandonning them when they got bored.

So I got a taste of cottage summer this year, in spite of not making it to Cottage Country!

Update

I haven't written in a while, and people have been asking me why. Since I was mostly using the site as a way to keep people updated on the whole cancer thing, I felt it was silly to continuously post "still healthy!" over and over again.

On another note, I had my 3rd post-cancer haircut today. :) I'm digging the short hair thing. So much easier to maintain, and it never gets tangled. I stopped in to see the nurses in the oncology department (I was at the hospital for something else), and they all liked my hair. :)

Still waiting to hear from the genetic analyzing folks - who are waiting to hear from our insurance company. I have my followup oncology bloodwork in August, and a followup colo