yay / boo

Yay: my furnace kicked on a few minutes ago

Boo: my landlord didn't make it out today, so once again, it magically heals itself before anyone else can make it here to troubleshoot the outage [meaning I have no idea when it will die again]

Frak.

n-n-n-n-no hhh-h-h-h-eeea-t agg-g-g-gain

Even the 'turn it off for a while then turn it back on' trick isn't working...it's been dead for more than a day now. Calling the landlord this morning...I hope I can get her to understand that this is a chronic, intermittent issue, and I *really* hope it stays 'not working' until after she can come look at it.

Sigh.

it could be worse

I could be the Finance folks who were here until 4am, then were back in the office before 9a to keep working...

furnace troubles again

The extended cold snap we've been having is wreaking havoc not only on my utility bills, but also on my sanity. My furnace can't keep up with the demand, so it tends to shut down for hours [and in this case, a day and a half]. It's apparently a "safety feature" that kicks in when it has been on consistently...the trouble is that it doesn't seem to be coming back *on* afterwards. So far, the only thing that has been working has been to switch the thermostat to "off" for 10-30 minutes, then cross my fingers as I turn it back on [and of course when I tell the landlord about it, it magically works again by the time she comes over].

So this morning I woke up to a house that was 47 degrees in the inner portions, and 32 by the outside walls [seriously...I'll post a pic of the space heater's display a little later].

Brrrrr.

Thank the gods for my heated lap blankets and most especially for my heated mattress pad...those are the only things keeping me going right now.

UPDATE: Here's the promised pic:

you've gotta love a song called...

..."Alcohaulin' Ass".

ouch

My utility bill for the past month is almost $320. The joys of living in an old rental house in Palo Alto...no insulation and high utility costs.

ah, insomnia...

...my old friend and companion.

hey girls, it's jersey boy!!

They have re-released "Frankenhooker", with commentary and other bonus features. The best worst movie ever, that I have been telling people about for years and years and years...and it would appear that I am no longer alone in my appreciation of this campy classic.

Awesome-sauce.

his name...

...shall be "Malfoy".

hisssss

Took some trash out last night, and saw this right outside my back door:

Went back inside, got my phone [to take a pic] and a broom. Took the pic, then used the broom to gently shoo it away.

Funny thing about plastic: it doesn't shoo. :^)

No idea where it came from or who put it there, but it cracked me up. I rescued him, gave him a warm place to spend the night, and will be bringing him to work with me soon. Now I just need to name him...

them ants is gonna eat me!!

Oddness...ants in my bathroom this morning. A small cluster of them in an empty back corner...no idea where they came from, no obvious entries. Took care of them [ah, better living through deadly chemicals], blocked the area off so the fuzzy roommates couldn't get back there [they were having fun sniffing after the brave individuals who took off to explore the rest of the room], and then headed out to work...and [huzzah, hurrah] they haven't come back yet.

Emphasis on 'yet'.

of course he is

The whistler next to me is also a loud chewer.

cocoon

"Give me isolation just for now
I feel a hard rain coming down
I promise that I will be back soon
But for now I'll return to my cocoon"

(with thanks to Tom/Assemblage 23)

a brief history of rhyme

better the second time around

Saw "Cloverfield" again last night. Saw it opening night...lines around the block [literally], packed house. Initial impression was that I liked it, but it didn't rock my world. Then I went again with my friend last night...and I *really* liked it on the second viewing. We sat a little farther back, which made a huge difference [trust me on this], and I was able to relax into the story a bit more and catch details and nuances that I hadn't seen the first time.

Not posting a lot of details, in case you haven't seen it yet. If you are going to, mind the shaky camera [the theatre has warning signs about possible motion sickness] and keep an open mind. This isn't your typical "bad things happen, military swoops in, good eventually prevails with the help of a plucky average joe" type of movie...and points to J.J. for that.

[Okay, one little spoiler: watch for the splash at the end. I missed it the first time around.]

grumbly

One of those days that seems to overflow with minor irritants. Nothing huge, each one is teenytinyeensyweensy in the grand scheme of things, but they seem to be stacking up today:

* Woman on the sidewalk in front of me who suddenly panicked at a drop of rain, stopped dead in front of me, ran into me, then bustled off to get under an awning with nary an apology.

* Random guy standing in front of the glass-doored cooler at work, trying to decide what he wanted...with the door wide open. The glass door. The see-through glass door. Wide open. Just looking.

* Woman-with-voice-that-carries is on the phone with her little one again. Loudly. In an open floorplan office.

* The guy who sits next to me is whistling again. Sadly, this is a different guy from the one I mentioned a while back...we have two whistlers on the floor. The open floorplan floor.

* Papercut

* Insomnia [well, more so than usual]

* Sandwich fell apart whilst eating it. I hate that. [On the plus side, I had easy access to a fork, so was able to salvage some of it.]

* Slow servers, bounced email, program crash

See? Nothing huge, nothing even worth whining about really...but one after the other after the other starts making even Elmo turn into Oscar.

and she's back

Sort of. Trying to get my head back into the proper workaday space. It was good having Mom here last week...I miss my family, and it was nice sharing the day-to-day with her, even though the circumstances weren't what we would have liked them to be. Now I'm back at work, with a monster deadline looming for all of Finance...lots of late nights and weekends coming up in the next few months. Going to carve out some time for me in there somewhere, but won't be as much as I'd like [but then, it never is]. Still trying to decide if the finance world is for me...my skills are definitely coming in handy, but as I've said often, just because you are good at something doesn't mean it's what you want to do. And I really miss the IT world and the people who inhabit it...I miss rubbing shoulders with geeks, nerds, and dorks on a regular basis.

But for now, I'm heads down in the land o' fixed assets, doing what I can to keep things moving forward...which is pretty much how it goes for a lot of things, isn't it?

grin

At Lee's Comics tonight, chatting with my friend who works there. Showed him my tat, and when I told him the design came out of a graphic novel, he just shook his head and asked "Why hasn't some fanboy snatched you up yet??"

<smile>

bonus fact

The pineapple is the most well-known example of a bromeliad.

my brain is a scary place

There is a plant in a restroom at work...every time I see it, the word "bromeliad" pops into my head. Finally got around to looking it up, and sure enough, that's the type of plant it is.

Why the hell do I know that??

three years ago today...

...a stinky, sick, confused cat landed in California after a long flight from
Ohio. Now he is a healthy, happy, sweetheart of a cat who is getting more loving and cuddly as time goes by. Happy anniversary, Pepper.

not an auspicious start

Sick, darn it. Spent new year's with my friend and his kids [which was a good time]. The bad news is that the youngest was throwing up for much of the 1st [poor thing...not such a good time], and *boom* it hit me a few days later [found out it also hit my friend...ah, the joys of those little petri dishes called "kids" and "school"].

So did you know you can get sinusitis from throwing up? Yup. Even from dry heaves. Some of the stomach acid gets forced into the nasal passages and sinus canals from the spasms...that's why your nose runs when you throw up [cheerful thought, isn't it?]. Too much of it, and it irritates everything and gives you sinusitis and cold-like symptoms: runny nose, sore throat, clogged passages, labored breathing. And if you are prone to bronchitis, it can then blossom into oh, so much more: coughing, inflamed throat, fever, red and puffy eyes, achy joints, trouble sleeping.

Joy.