anna_dannir

First Real Snow

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 18:15:45 GMT

Thursday we had the first real snow of the season. 7.5 inches. Nice fluffy stuff. Of course, by the time we got out there on Friday afternoon we could have used it to build a (very melty) igloo with it, or maybe a snowman. But then it was 49F at 3pm on Friday. Such is December in New England: neither fish nor fowl nor good red meat, meteorologically speaking, that is.

Today it is in the high 20s and clear. But tonight and all day tomorrow we're supposed to get 'wintry mix'. That translates into snow and sleet turning to freezing rain. The Monday morning commute around here is going to be 'interesting', I'm sure.

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I finally figured out how to do pot roast without far too many extra steps. I know most people would think this was elementary cooking, but I don't do roasts (of any sort) all that often and so this is a big thing for me. I've always had a problem with the gravy and keeping everything else warm while I'm fussing with the gravy. Finally figured out that if I stuck everything on the serving platter and stuck it in a warm oven then I wouldn't have to rush the gravy and it would come out right for a change. (And no, the meat did not dry out. We're talking about 10 minutes in the oven: just long enough to warm the meat thru.)

Of course cooking the pot roast sans veggies on Thursday and putting it in the fridge overnight to let the fat in the broth congeal, then cooking the veggies in the semi-defatted broth yesterday probably helped a good deal since its much easier to cut cold meat than warm.

Whatever. It worked and that's really the only thing that matters.

Martin is a speedbump.

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 20:58:37 GMT

Yep. My dog has once again tripped up someone just by laying there.
This time it was me and not Grandma (so, hey, it could be worse), in the computer room, yesterday morning.
Lessee...
I tripped over the dog, knocked over the CD rack, landed on either the dustpan or the comet cleanser 6-pack that still hasn't found a home and slammed my head into the corner of the wall next to the closet.
*
My glasses are messed up (not broken: the left side hinge and screw piece is bent out at a 60 degree angle instead of the 90 degree angle it should be at, but they're still wearable in the short term),
I've got a large 'egg' that's purpling nicely on my left knee,
I've got an impact line/scrape up my left cheek, to the left of my left eye, and up into the hairline that doesn't appear to actually be going black and blue,
Another impact spot on the other side of my left eye where the nosepiece hit on the way by.
I hit the wall pretty hard, but I think my knee took most of the kinetic energy.
No dizziness, no nausea, no momentary blackout (as far as I know).
Just really irritating.
*
I'm thinking of hitting Lenscrafters on Monday and just getting the checkup out of the way at the same time as I'm replacing my glasses.
*SIGH*
I feel like such a clumsy oaf.

Some things that will make me drop a fanfiction story in a hot minute.

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 18:04:55 GMT

subtitle: I know this is silly compared to a lot of other stuff but.....
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1. Opening lines that are too dumb to live.
(e.g.: "[She] literally walked into the bar...." I mean NSS. If she figuratively did so, she'd be daydreaming, right?) I mean, where was their beta reader? Where was their muse? On vacation?
And no, from context the author clearly did not mean that the character came into contact with the bar by accident while entering
the establishment (or ran into the doorframe while entering the bar, or...) If she had then people would have been laughing and pointing. This was not the case.)
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2. Improper sentence construction. I don't mean the occasional its/it's/its' issue or even sound-alike replacements, misspellings or anything that's simply the result of nor proofing well enough, but sentences that make the author (and his/her characters) sound like an ignorant space alien. (Most of these authors are supposedly native speakers of English. I've only run into two who were obviously NNS. One was from somewhere in the Balkans and the other was, IIRC, from France. I give them props for even trying, but everyone else I just groan at and go on to another story as fast as possible.)
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3. For well established characters (i.e. belonging to someone else, used with the standard promises to put them back in good condition when done), not paying attention to diction. Diction is a very important part of some characters. Some characters DO NOT USE contractions. Ever. Some others use compound contractions (e.g. wouldn't've for would not have),drop the 'g' off the ends of words all over the place (e.g. hangin' out, fishin') and utilize other non-standard constructions.
This can get a bit tricky sometimes: some characters start off speaking very formally but over time they unconsciously learn from those around them who don't and there is a sort of 'wearing away' at their speech patterns, so you have to pick your season and pay attention to what they are doing then and not what you remember them doing later.
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3a. American characters do not speak with a British accent (and vice-versa). If you're on the other side of the pond from where the story takes place and you can't personally get your mind around the differences then, for the love of all that is holy to you, get a beta reader who speaks the language and let them guide you.
I can't remember how many stories I've read where where the setting and characters are in America, it has not been established that this is some AU universe where the Brits won the war, and yet there are jumpers being worn all over the place and people go around sounding like they've just come off a weeklong (and apparently sleepless) Jeeves & Wooster/Upstairs-Downstairs/My Fair Lady/Blackadder/Dr. Who marathon (especially irksome is when the show is SG-1 and two of the characters are Jack O'Neil and Teal'c.).
And the reverse is true too. A lot of American Dr. Who and HP authors out there need to pay better attention.
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Okay. That's it. That's my rant for the day.
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I will admit that this is the result of spending the better part of the weekend reading the SG-1 stories over on fanfiction.net.
There was this one story that just put me over my limit for stupid junk (Hammond was not in the story that specifically sparked 3a, above, but having the dissonance of the Texan accent I know he speaks with overlaying the v. british dialogue would have probably left me bald by the end of it). I was willing to slog through it, but I kept tripping over the dialogue and falling out of the story. In the end I found myself more irritated than pleased by it even though the plotline itself was top notch.

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 14:20:58 GMT

LIVE EARTH CONCERT

So I'm watching/listening to streaming video of Live Earth (currently the London Concert).

London opened, literally with a bang. About 50 drummers on stage. Japanese drums, Pakistani drums, African drums, an entire regiment's snare-drummers, at least three concert drum sets, a bunch of rain sticks, metal 'thunder' sheets, etc. The crowd, relatively small yet (Wembley was about 1/3 full, but the concert's been sold out), went completely nuts.

And then Genesis came out. Unlike, say, John Mellencamp (who was at the July 4th concert in Boston), Phil still has all his chops. Don't get me wrong: Phil's sounding a little bit weaker (vocally) than he did ten years back, but he can still hit it out of the park.

The only thing I can think of is that everyone in the line-up agreed to pull numbers out of a drum and go with whatever order the numbers indicated (lowest number goes first), because Genesis was followed by Razorback and by a jazzy-rock (sort of) fusion group called Noon Attack (apparently made up of climatologists(?)), who were actually quite good.

Next up in the line-up is Snowpatrol. They're okay. Not sure how to classify them, though. Kind of 'indy-ish', and the lead singer's wearing an argyle sweater, which has to be a British thing 'cause it just doesn't do anything for me.
(Yes, I know that's snarky. But the sweater's butt-ugly.)
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Part of me wants to believe that this will accomplish what it's trying to do: encourage people to reuse/renew/recycle/reduce(their carbon footprint). But I'm not sure how well it will work. I mean, unlike similar concerts in previous decades (like Live Aid, for example), this is just not something you can toss money at and feel like you've accomplished something/done some good for someone else. This is going to be a long hard slog no matter what you'd like to think, and people historically haven't been all that keen to put in for that sort of thing unless it's obvious that they have to (like during WWII, for example).

Besides, even if every individual in the 'first world' (starting today) did everything they could to reduce their carbon footprint to as close to the 'minimum' as possible for the rest of their lives, that doesn't do anything about the industries and governments who aren't doing anything (or much of anything), and just don't seem to care one way or the other (or worse, like our own government, have their heads firmly buried in the sand).
I mean, look at China for example. The general feeling I get from reading stuff about their economy is that they just don't give a flying.... Of course they've got all sorts of problems over there (more immediate problems, like melamine in pet food and all sorts of other recalls, than the tons of CO and other things spewing into the atmosphere from their foundaries and factories which don't have the scrubbers and filters required in N.A. and Europe).

Still, it is a start.

But it is a late start.

It will take two more generations being forced to reduce/renew/recycle (much more than is done voluntarily right now) before such things will become ingrained and 'normal'. Before there is enough of a push by the public that those offending industries find it more economically viable to employ all the things in their own businesses that is being asked of individuals. And by then it may be too late.
Or not.

I mean, exactly how bad it is going to be or how fast it is going to happen is still up for debate even if the overall 'there will be/is Global Warming and it is going to be bad' isn't.

*Sigh*

(Stopping now 'cause I'm depressing myself)

Wed, 02 May 2007 12:47:30 GMT

Last night I got a flat panel monitor.
(Whoo hoo! Yeay me!)

...And I realized how incredibly frelled with my old one was.

Part of the disparity can be accounted for by the fact that the old monitor was, well, old.
I mean, Joe and I bought a pair of cheap ones about five years ago when they were on sale and five years is about the lifespan of a cheap monitor. Heck, I'm pleased mine lasted as long as it did before it started giving all the classic signs of having an electronic stroke: unrequested screen resizing at odd moments, resolution going off....that sort of thing. I mean, if it was human it would have been on epileptic meds if not actually on life-support already and the prognosis would be dismal for any long-term survival.

But the rest (color mostly) was my own fault. I'd been trying to fix the problem I was having with it and, of course, as usual, I made everything worse. The shocker was when I got the flat panel up and running and had installed the drivers and everything and went to an oft visited website. It was then, looking at the background of the website, that I discovered how really off my old monitor had become.
Old monitor: background color a somewhat odd but restful peach
New monitor: background color a shade of lilac. Almost mauve, but a shade more blue.
Me: eeeeek! (laugh)

Anyway, playing Sims 2 is much more vibrant now....

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:08:25 GMT

What the hell?

March was pretty glorious: we had temps some days into the 60s and it was entirely too sunny and too warm for this early in the year.

Now it's April.

Tomorrow's forecast: High of 39 with 1-3 inches of mixed precipitation.
Outlook for the rest of the week: mostly gloomy with highs below 50 degrees, some showers should be expected.

Joe's starting to regret ordering the live plants because until it warms up enough to where the overnight lows aren't freezing he can't put them out. Right now we have nine plants sitting in front of the fireplace that should have been planted last week.
This does not include the tomato and hot pepper seedlings Joe's growing (they're not going out until the end of the month at the very earliest).
Nor does it include the carrots and lettuce I should have been planting this week.

*sigh* I hate New England springs.

Happy Solstice!

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 13:07:22 GMT

I know that the sun's official transition was about twelve hours ago (sunrise, GMT or 7:22pm EST), but it just rose here where I am a few minutes ago at 7:25am EST, so this was when I decided I would post.

The longest night(s) is over. The sun has returned. The Oak King is born. The world has tilted on her axis once again and all is right and fit and proper.

It is finally cold enough here so that it feels a bit like it is winter. To me it is just too surreal to be able to wear just a long sleeved t-shirt and a windbreaker yesterday as I went hither and yon around the town getting last minute things done. This time of year I expect to be wearing my winter coat, albeit open, but with this wierd weather I find I am still constantly moving things from the pockets of one to the pockets of the other depending on the temperature. I mean this sort of thing should have been over sometime in November at the very latest.

I guess it is another sign of global warming. Y'know that climatic change that our government in its "infinite wisdom" (eye-roll) sees fit to ignore and declare a boogeyman concocted by the Greens and tree huggers. I suppose they don't believe the reports coming out of Spain yesterday that the freaking bears in the Pyrennees have stopped hibernating. Yep. They bears have stoped hibernating in Iberia. I suppose if there were any bears in Hybernia they would have stopped hibernating there too.

Oh well. Just saying 'it ain't so' doesn't mean it is going to stop. I mean, what's next? GWB travelling to a beach on the Atlantic ocean standing below the high tide mark and commanding the water not to wash over his toes? Beating on it with a sword and then declaring 'Mission Accomplished'? Who does he think he is? Caligula?
He certainly is no Canute.
At least Canute had the brains to use the ocean as a abject lesson for his fawning courtiers.
http://www.inspirationalstories.com/0/91.html

Wow. (gross out warning...)

Tue, 05 Dec 2006 13:16:35 GMT

Last night I had the first real sleep in months.
Only four hours, but I feel better than I usually do with eight or nine.

First off I finally went and got some more Claritin-D (I hate the fact we have to jump through hoops at the pharmacy and they **STILL* won't sell you more than 15 of the 24 hour ones and had been putting it off), but I also remembered to buy some Breath Right strips.
And the Gods as my witness, they make all the difference in the world.

I really wasn't expecting all that much to be perfectly honest because the first Claritin usually doesn't pack that much of a punch for me. It really just stops the allergens and that stops more gunk being added to my system. It still takes days to get rid of what's already there. And, I mean, all the BR strips are is just a little reinforced 'bandage', right? For the life of me I couldn't figure out how the heck that was supposed to keep my nasal passages open, but it does. I think what they really do is prevent 'suction' and thus promotes drainage and that is a good thing.

Anyway, although I kept waking up (and shoving the cat over so I had some room for my feet), I feel like I slept really well.
We'll see how tonight goes.

Whaddaya know....it worked!

Wed, 14 Jun 2006 11:32:34 GMT

So I flooded the keyboard last night and used canned air to blow most of the excess water out of it and let it dry overnight.
And the keyboard is mostly dry this morning (there is some condensation under the keys but it isn't critical), so I stuck the batteries back into their compartment. The battery compartment did not get wet at all because it is discrete and besides, there is a membrane under the keys: only full immersion will generally ruin it and neither the initial incident with the iced tea nor the efforts to remove the sticking-ness of the single key I was having problems with qualifies as 'immersion'.

So. Now I'm back in business.

Figures: my muse has gone of freaking vacation this morning.

Story of my life, I suppose.

SIGH

Tue, 13 Jun 2006 16:46:12 GMT

So this past weekend I accidentally spilled iced tea into my keyboard.

This is not as bad as it sounds. The keyboard is a wireless with a membrane under the keys so I figured what I mostly needed to do was turn it upside down and let it drain for a while. This plan actually worked surprisingly well. Except...

The quote key is sticking. Pretty much have to hammer on it if you want a quote or an apostrophe.

And I write fanfic.

Fanfic with lots of dialogue.

Imagine my frustration levels...

Joe suggested that I get some distilled water, take the batteries out of the keyboard and pour a little over the sticking key.
Which is what I propose to do. Tonight. Once Joe is home.

We'll see how that works out.

Hopefully I will be able to post about how it worked.

At the very least I'll come back with the long sad tale of how I had to spend $100 at Staples to get another keyboard.

Word Of The Day

Fri, 02 Jun 2006 03:54:07 GMT

URSPRACHE

(German) Literally 'the lost speech of Ur'

It is the proto-language (or lost 'parent' language) which has to be reconstructed by comparing the known members of the language family of which it is a part to uncover common roots.

For example: 'Proto-Indo-European'.

Update on Lost Season 3

Fri, 02 Jun 2006 03:53:10 GMT

Apparently they are going to start season three in late September, run through the end of November without any reruns, let another show have their slot until February and finish out the season in a straight shot of new episodes untilmid-May. Not start airing the season three episodes in November and running straight through as I had first thought.

The Fall episodes will mostly revolve around the mis-adventures of Jack and Sawyer and Kate among the Others with some sort of mini-climax in the last episode.

The Lost Season 2 Finale

Thu, 25 May 2006 04:45:21 GMT

My head hurts.

No seriously. It does.

I mean, watching LOST is kind of like trying to solve a Rubik's cube that's actually in 6 or 8 dimensions.

And this 2 hour finale answered some questions (or at least gave clues that people can run with and feel somewhat certain that they're on the right track), but it posed as many of not more than the ones they answered.

We're no closer to finding out what the 'Dharma Initiative' really is than we were before, although apparently all the logs from the Pearl bunker (the observation bunker) end up in a field in the middle of the island unopened and ignored. So what was the point of having anyone do that? Because they wanted to see how many people they could sucker into doing mindless stuff? At least pushing the button in Swan had some function even if it was pretty strange and you wouldn't know what would happen if you stopped pushing the button until you did, and then it was far too late.

So Desmond missing the button-pushing window on Sept 22 2004 caused the electromagnetic generator to fire up and that EMP pulse brought down the plane. O-kayyyyy. I'll accept a bit of handwaving and pseudoscience in the interest of moving the plotline forward a smidge. But that means that nobody on that flight was 'targetted'. Here I was thinking it was some sort of wierd Pretender/X-files style conspiracy by a mega-corporation type thing and it turns out (basically) to be that everyone on the doomed flight was a victim of Hurly's extremely bad luck since winning the lottery coupled with Desmond's own apparently bad luck...

And then there's the question of who (if anyone) who was still in the hatch at the end survived, although the only real question mark (from something Charlie said) was Desmond who was down under the floor of the computer room in the Swan bunker using a key to turn off the generator.

Poor Desmond. I do feel a bit sorry for him. But on the other hand he is one giganticly gullible fool, if only because when he was talking to Penny he didn't tell her when she found him at the stadium in the flashback that he really had written her every day and her Dad had intercepted all of them. Not that he had any proof of that: Widemore would've destroyed them after his meeting with Desmond over three years before.

I thought we would have the smoke monster explained, or the polar bears or something, but no. What we did find out was that faux-Henry is probably 'the BMOC' (although he's probably answering to someone higher up elsewehere). Certainly the 'Big Man' is not 'Zeke' or Ted as we know him now. And not 'Ms. Clue'.

We also found out that the Others camp on the beach under the keyhole rock formation is a stage set, especially the doors to the underground bunker there (just an indentation in the rock hidden by the doors and nothing else).

And there's this honking big statue at the waters edge that is just the left shin and sandalled FOUR TOED FOOT that is at once an interesting LOTR reference as well as one pointing to the Lady Liberty sticking out of the sand at the end of Planet of The Apes, and (by referencing both) to the poem Ozymandias.

In the end Sayyid's plan to take Desmond's yacht around the coast of the island and attack the other's camp from the seaward side came to naught (Jack and co were caught well inland by the Others), Michael betrayed his friends to get Walt back and he and Walt took the Others motorboat (like a smallish fishing trawler) out on a heading away from the island that would let them reach civilization, that is if Henry is telling the truth and if the boat isn't rigged to blow up, anyway.
Hurley, who should have grabbed Jack's gun and offed Michael when he found out what Michael had done (killing Libby and Ana Lucia in order to free Henry) because Hurley seemed to be quite in love with Libby, was sent back to tell the rest of his fellow Losties not to come looking for them, and Jack and Sawyer and Liz remained prisoners.

About the only hopeful thing that happened (you have to admit that Locke and Eko (and Desmond) being maybe dead and Jack, Sawyer, and Kate being captured is a huge downer), is that Desmond's girlfriend Penny Widemore is looking for the island and because the electromagnetic/EMP went 'off' two of her guys huddled over a chess board in the arctic/antarctic watching for such a thing, saw it and let her know they could pinpoint where the island is.
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So now we get to see (in FREAKING NOVEMBER!!! ) if Penny can outwit her Daddy and come to rescue Desmond or not (and if she does will she have to stay because she can't get off the island?).
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Y'know, the idea of the last episode being a talking, hookah smoking, orangutan explaining that the entire series was all just a drug induced hallucination is starting to look better and better.
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Or maybe that's just me.

Foodie News

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 03:52:24 GMT

I made the Baked French Toast again this morning. It's mostly gone now except for one palm sized square that is properly Grandma's, but it will probably sit in the fridge for a week then get tossed.
I think I'm going to make it with mixed berries next time. I mean I have this huge bag from Sam's Club that's taking up freezer space, so what the heck...(?)
The only thing is, I'm going to have to mess with the recipe. I don't think the blackstrap molasass goes with the mixed berries as well as it does the apples.

I made coq au vin last night for dinner. Actually followed the recipe, except that I didn't flame off the cognac (I mean, 'Why?' It's all going to cook off when the dish simmers for an hour anyway), and I think I used a little more mushrooms than it called for. But I had the mushrooms and they were starting to get wet (ie: not yet slimey-wierd, but about to head in that direction). They tasted okay though.

Hey, add another strange thing my dog likes to the list: mushrooms.
As of last night the list was something like:
apples (raw, perferrably room temperature and filched out of the bag when he thinks no one is looking)
peaches
yoghurt (flavored or unflavored it doesn't seem to matter)
sushi
wasabi paste (but not pickled ginger)
salad greens
tomatoes
raw carrots
celery
mushrooms

He also really really likes peanut butter, but a lot of dogs do, so that's not especially strange.
Unfortunately it is definitely NOT on his diet plan because it has too many calories and the vet still wants to see him lose some weight.

Wierd stuff

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 03:37:12 GMT

I somehow managed to mung my computer interface just now. By the time I got it back to where I wanted it the text zoom was at 3% and it was doing strange things to itself like half the screen would randomly become a font-size that was readable as I was trying to fix it. *headhsake* I really thought I was going to have to completely reboot.

A loaf of bread, a bottle of milk, and a stick of butter....

Sun, 16 Apr 2006 03:28:14 GMT

Actually it's more like 'a loaf of good italian/tuscan bread in 1 inch slices, a dozen eggs, 2 cups of milk, 4 granny smith apples (peeled, cored & sliced thin), 2/3 cup craisins or raisins, 1 cup of sugar + 1/3 cup of blackstrap mollassas or a cup of dark brown sugar, 2 tblsp. vanilla, 3 tsp. cinnamon and a stick of butter...

Yep. I'm making baked apple & craisin french toast

It's spending the night on the bottom shelf in the fridge. Tomorrow it goes into a 375F oven for 40 minutes then gets well wrapped in foil and gets taken for a ride.

Basically you mix all the ingredients except the bread, milk, eggs, 2 tsp of the cinnamon & the vanilla and spread it on the bottom of a 14.5x10 inch pan and cover it with the slices of bread. Then mix the eggs, vanilla, 2 tsp of cinnamon, and milk together (it should be roughly the consistency of Hood's golden eggnog) and pour it carefully over the rest making sure you get every part of every bread slice wet. Cover it in cling wrap and stick it in the fridge.

Have a smaller pan? How much do you like spicy apple pie? I suppose you could cut back on the apples or split it into two containers, but what fun is that?
Me, I'd just opt for layering in a souffle dish (y'know, those white cereamic things that look like a short chef's toque? One of those.): bread, apple mix, bread, apple mix....all the way up to the top. then pour in the egg mixture, cover it in cling wrap and weight it down with a dish or bowl overnight in the fridge. Bake at 375 for 40-ish minutes.
Problems with this is you can't tell if the eggs in the middle are done until you've cut into it. And then it's too late.

Oh well. Not my problem. At least not this week.

April Snow showers bring May flowers?

Wed, 05 Apr 2006 14:16:56 GMT

It's SNOWING!

Worse, it's STICKING!

I put most of the shovels away last weekend. I suppose that figures.

But it was 70 degrees here on Saturday. I mean, I was working outside and trying to decide if I wanted to put shorts on or not.
Today it's 35.
That's half what it was four days ago.
It's ridiculous. It really is.

The poor plants who stuck their heads up and bloomed and everything. They look kind of pitiful in the snow right now.

The bird are okay. They've emptied the bird feeders on the front porch. I have to go refill them in a while.
But the birds can hide in the bushes and fluff up for warmth and complain about the weather until the snow melts and the sun comes out and everything's green again.

THIS AIN'T RIGHT!!!

Sun, 26 Mar 2006 19:01:21 GMT

Washington Post article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/21/AR2006032101763.html

Basically what's going on is that last month Bush signed into law a spending bill for which the two versions that passed the House and Senate were not in sync. They're saying that it was a typo, but it's a 2 BILLION dollar typo in the House version, which the House duely voted in favor of without anyone catching it. Instead of doing the proper and LEGAL thing, which is to go back and have the whole thing read into the record while highlighting the change and opening debate on this NEW version of the House bill, OR starting new negotiations with the Senate to make both the House and Senate versions eventually match with a new compromise, the House Republican leadership *CERTIFIED* that the Senate version was the right one and that's the one Bush signed.

If that doesn't sound like much to you, then you have your head in the sand. Constitutional scholars are worried that this could potentially gut the Constitutionally created checks and balances that don't allow any one of the three branches of our government to become preeminent. They're in support of the suit by Public Citizen to rule this budget illegal and unconstitutional and make them go back in and do it right this time.

On top of which, do you know what they're cutting out with this bill?
Predominatly Health & Human Services program funding.
Funds to help states track down deadbeat parents -- SLASHED
Student Loans -- SLASHED YET AGAIN
Medicare and Welfare eligibility requirements -- RAISED
Etc
Etc
Etc

The typo? Oh. Yeah. Right. That.
It's the difference between 13 and 36 months allowance for people with disabilities who are renting wheelchairs and other durable things like O2 canisters that they need.
Frankly I think even 36 months is stingy. I mean buying the item is almost always cheaper than renting, right? So why not just buy the things that can be bought and give them out to the people who need them so badly the Government is providing them. If they eventually don't need them anymore have they or their families turn them in, get them refurbished and given to someone else. I mean, is that such a hard thing to do?

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:54:37 GMT

Current weather: Overcast and chilly. Currently just about dead calm and 45 degrees at 8:44am. It isn't expected to get much warmer.
*Sigh*
Yesterday was nice though. I had the windows and doors open. And Joe's Grandmother complained that she was cold. She's always cold (It didn't drop more than two degrees in the house the entire two hours I had things open)"
But I was singing Tom Lehrer's Spring Song (real title long forgotten) "Spring Is Here! Spring is here! Time for skittles, time for beer...' Actually it gets somewhat (ie: tamely*) risque from that point and then seques into 'Poisoning Pidgeons In The Park' so I'll just leave off there....
(whaddaya want? He was doing that one in the late 1950s...)
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Today Grandma goes up to Joe's parents' for a couple of days because there's a family birthday party on Saturday she doesn't want to miss. That means that Sunday I'm doing mad kitchen cleaning. Stuff I can't do when she's here because the stuff I use she says 'smells bad' and gives her a headache. The stuff she wants me to use is useless, but she's 92 so there's no convincing her.
I think she's coming back on Tuesday, which means, looking at the forcast, that I'll be able to air her room all day on Monday when it'll be in the 50s here again.
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You know,when we got the DVR I told myself that I'd have to stay on top of it: not let it get full before I started watching stuff. But....
Anyway, by dint of mad tv watching marathons Joe and I have finally gotten it down below half. I'm quite pleased, actually, with the result. I mean these are not things (for the most part) that we recorded because we thought *someday* we might like to watch them. This is stuff we timeshifted because it conflicted with something else we wanted to watch or didn't have time for at the time it aired. Now we're wading into re-run season and most of the things we've taped during December are watched. Actually, most of January's programs are watched too. And I'm catching up on my daily recorded GH fix.
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On the fanfic front I'm working on a General Hospital (and assorted crossovers) fanfic called 'In Another Life'. It's posted over on the Cassadine Fan Fiction Forum here:
http://p092.ezboard.com/bcassadinefanfictionforum .
My stuff is mainly in the Stables G-I, and all of it is posted under the same name I use here.
You don't have to sign up to read stuff, only to comment. A lot of the other stories are pretty damned good too. In fact I'm in awe of the talent exhibited by my fellow writers there and in some other venues that I frequent.
*
Oh well, breakfast is ready and my tea is getting cold, so that's all for now.

Anna

First post

Thu, 23 Mar 2006 15:56:21 GMT

Well, everyone else seems to be doing this.....

I suppose this is a good place to put the rants. I mean why subject the people over at alt.callahans to all of them?