Who the heck do I think I am?

It's been a busy dang weekend.

Yesterday morning, etakyma and I went to the Museum of Science to take advantage of a Groupon offering the chance to tour Cambridge - by Segway. Segways are totally, totally cool.

And wicked easy to use. Amy had a little trouble just after we left the training paddock, but within a few minutes we were both zooming around like pros. We had a fabulous time with our tour guide (Evan), who was Our Kind of Geek. And there were bits and pieces of Cambridge that I had never really known much about. The tour took in the park that was installed as part of the Big Dig, went down along one of the canals built in Cambridge (which I'd actually been to before, but it was at night and I was actually trying to find a restaurant and had taken a wrong turn), and then down to MIT. It was cool to tootle down to MIT again, though I have to say that my perception of MIT's campus and buildings is forever coloured by participating in Civilite.

We freely admit, though, that the real reason for taking the tour was simply to gain the experience of riding a Segway! Which was SO COOL! And I can now state for the record that Quidditch on Segways would be completely awesome and totally safe.

We also saw a Planetarium show (which was marred only by the rather fractious child next to us, but her mother finally took her out), and then wandered a mere half-mile away to the site of my boss's wife's art show, which was good.

A took a nap and then went home, leaving me to fend for myself for supper. More adventur ensued when I decided to have A Beer with my pizza. I chose (unwisely) to use the bottle opener on my all-purpose kitchen shears and when I had finally pried the cap loose, the beer exploded all over my PJs. I swiftly set the beer down in my kitchen sink (thank goodness I had just washed the dishes) and ran to the bathroom to strip off my now beer-soaked PJs and leave them in the tub to dry before adding them to the laundry. Except that when I go to toss the PJs in the tub? THERE'S A SPIDER IN THERE!!

A big one, too.

Yeah. Well, he was down by the drain, so I dumped the discarded clothes at the other end and proceeded to put on fresh PJs - and shoes. Because gods know, I can't be expected to KILL A SPIDER barefoot (let alone naked)! I grabbed my trusty spider-swatter and thus armed, proceeded to Battlefield: Bathroom. He tried to run into the pile of clothes, but I got him before he was able to hide in their beery folds. Terror! But I prevailed. Then I ate - and drank what was left of the beer. Half a beer is better than none?

That was a pretty full day by itself. But then I added today to yesterday.

NEW GLASSES! Ouch. $500 of new glasses (though that's both regular and a pair of prescription sunglasses). No, they were NOT very expensive frames. In both cases, the lenses were way more expensive than the frames, in fact. And guess what? LensCrafters does not accept EITHER my health insurance OR the vision care insurance I took out expressly because I knew I would be replacing my glasses! Well, I understand that I can submit claims directly to both and see what I get reimbursed. But... PITA. All-around PITA.

And of course, had to spend two hours malling while waiting for the glasses (because sunglasses take two hours, not one). Which is okay - I had a birthday present to shop for and I needed new 'intimates' - but zoicks. Those little errands (plus a couple others) set me back another couple hundred (literally). I was in the mall for 6 hours, altogether! And then I still had to hit Target for a couple other items.

Man, I'm tired.

And broke.

But I do like my new glasses. I especially like being able to see properly.

I just want to go on record: grouchyoldcoot occasionally does very, very good things.

I received my combination birthday/Valentine's/anniversary present today. Yes, he's totally allowed to combine them because they all fall within a fortnight of each other. Especially when he hits it out of the park. Which he did last year with the all-in-one wireless printer. And then again this year.

He sent me a Wii!

Yayz. I called him and was pretty speechless. And crying a little. I'm still chuffed. Wow. Whee! (or Wii!)

I will have to get the balance board, but hey, that's not so bad. And I have Amazon GC's that I haven't used. If I can remember what I did with them.... But I haven't committed them yet and, well. Media goes on sale ALL THE TIME. This stuff doesn't.

Yeah. He's a good boy. Ours may be a really weird and imperfect relationship, but I appreciate him very much when he demonstrates generosity like this. I am excite! (Of course, now that means I must acquire games. And a place to put them. But one step at a time.) It also means once I hook it up (which will be after the weekend because HPEF is in town for our retreat), I should be able to watch Netflix on it. Huzzah! I can multitask while watching movies and TV episodes instantly (instead of having to halt progress on the computer because a movie is playing)!

I have a feeling that the improvement in my quality of life will be significant, between getting the Fit attachments and being able to Netflick and all.

Still need a job, though. But HOORAY for this major lifestyle shift!

(Also, how sad is it that I have no "happy" tags? Hm. I guess I don't post "happy" much. Sorry about that!)

I'm watching Tim Gunn lose it on Project Runway ("animal wooly balls" vs "real balls" - yeah, if you don't know what I'm talking about you're probably better off).

I have dried out the sleeping bags, but the tent probably needs to at least be set out on the other side, probably better to actually set it up (oy). And I need water seal for the seams.

So the quick ( Pennsic Update )

I went to the grocery store today for milk (yay!) and more cheese (my open cheese got moldy while I was away) and will do a "real" full grocery shop tomorrow or over the weekend when the new flyer prices go into effect. (Need soda, yogurt, dinners.... but have a coupon!) I also got QUARTERS so I can do my laundry! I did a load of whites (with bleach) but needed more change to continue.

Have decided not to pursue Aflac. I've contacted them a total of 3 times now on separate occasions and apparently they can't be arsed to get back to me. Screw'em. The guy at the bank suggested I apply there. Hm.

I also need to go to Macy's to see about the perfume spritzer (yes, the saga continues!). Short version of story: It definitely leaked while at war, the temperatures were hot enough to sort of "bake" the ester and I have visible proof that the bottle leaks. A little pointed questioning of Joel resulted in his not only remembering that he bought it at Macy's, not Sephora as previously believed, *but* that his receipt was still in the bag in his bedroom. From 2 1/2 years ago!!!! Frightening, but not a bad thing in this case. So I am armed with the receipt now, too!

I must re-motivate to start looking for work again. I can't seem to get up the energy. I've been sleeping a lot.

And I must clean. Oy. Really, really need to clean. I currently fear that I accidentally returned the unused high-capacity black toner cartridge instead of a used one. Sigh.


I'm caught up on Project Runway, and I'm ready for tonight's new episode. I watched last week's Burn Notice but I think I missed one in there. But USA shows it all the time. I also watched last night's new The Choir but BBC America does not, apparently, repeat the old episodes as much as I would like, so I missed one there, too.

Way behind on White Collar and others. Meh.

I did get an order from Amazon that I ordered with gift certificates: A Little Princess (the good, BBC / Wonderworks TV version); Chronicles of Narnia (ditto, the BBC / Wonderworks one), Snoopy (replacing the CD stolen from my car about 4 years ago), Season 2 of The Closer, and The Addams Family - the musical. Turns out etakyma bought the same soundtrack! Wish I'd known, but oh well.

But I am also loving Top Gear on BBC America. OMG, these boys are SOOO funny. And they are boys. They constantly play tricks on each other. It's like if Moony, Padfoot and Prongs grew up and had a car review show. Seriously. (Jeremy is Moony, Hammond is Pads and James May is Prongs, of course.)

And Alternity? Man, it's awesome. I love that even when there are issues behind the scenes, we work them through and we're committed to helping each other remove roadblocks and at least trying to keep it fun for everyone. We don't always succeed - because let's face it some characters just are harder to play in Alternity than others - but we sure as hell try. Meanwhile, I think the measures we take do improve the game, not just for those characters but for everyone, and offer new dimensions for the readers, too.

So y'all should read it. Really.

Oh, and I found out that somehow I missed the email about the October cabaret thing that Wellesley's doing - but I got to the organizers in time. And I even talked them into a solo! So that'll be cool and rehearsals start at the end of the month. I'm sure there are other auditions to look out for, too. Back to the grind.

And back to job search. Bleah. But there's simply no alternative. I have to get a job.

First off, curling has to be the strangest sport ever. On the other hand, I love that there are sports for regular guys - John Schuster of the US, for example, looks like a computer jockey rather than an Olympian. I kinda like that.

Anyway, moving on.

grouchyoldcoot sent me a wicked cool birthday/Valentine's day present. And he was all apologetic that it wasn't a typically romantic present.

It's a wireless all-in-one printer, scanner, copier. YAYZ. I have been desperately needing a new printer! It's WAY better than roses or chocolates!

I had a little trouble hooking it up but I finally figured out that duh, I was using the wrong WEP for my network. Heh. Oops.

Anyway. It now wirelessly prints, but apparently one does have to connect the USB cable to scan documents. That's okay. The point is that it WORKS. Huzzah! I have placed it on the bookshelf next to the desk and now I need to decide if the other POS printer is worth keeping (probably not).

I still don't know just what happened to the HPEF all-in-one - I packaged it and labeled it to be shipped back after Portus, but it never arrived. Since that was really part of the package deal we got on the computer and the other stuff, it wasn't a huge financial loss, but it was a huge frustration. One of the downsides of having assets that have to travel all over the place.

Anyway. Others have blogged that Orlando was fun, very productive, and OMG, Hogwarts is going to be breathtaking! Lots of momentum, which I hope stays with us for some time to come.

Still unemployed. Still looking for the .1% of jobs out there that fit my criteria. But at least now I can print resumes!

So, I'm in Pittsburgh, a week early because grouchyoldcoot's mum passed away this weekend. We'd been planning to visit her and her husband for Christmas - now that's up in the air. I'm not even sure how long I'll wind up visiting - whether it will be through Christmas as planned, or longer, or what. I may or may not pass back through Rochester on the way home; this is also unknown at this time.

Of course, I had about 8 hours between when we decided I would come and when I left, so my hasty departure meant that a few things were not packed (nothing I can't replace), and a few things were not done (like running the garbage disposal to get rid of the eggshells), and a few things were done ahead of time (like leaving a note and rent check for January for the landlord) and a few things will have to sit until I get back (like my severance check, Dad's SS check, and any bills that come in). I should be able to pay the bills I've received out of what's in the checkbook, no problem, and a lot of my bills are autopay - cable, electric, phone, insurance - so that'll all take care of itself.

I didn't get to clean the house yet (that was a this-week project), and I haven't made room for the other sewing machine. Though I may be able to put it in the car if I do go back through Rochester.

I postponed the lunch I had planned with my friends at the vendor, the ones I worked with closely, and we'll reschedule in January.

Meanwhile, I called unemployment for the first time today to report no earnings. Man, I need to actually get back to looking for work!

One interesting thing was that on a lark, I brought the radar detector out with me, figuring that I could call the company if it still didn't work. But it worked! I don't know why it didn't all the times before when I tried to restore it, but this time, yay. And it's been working, yay. Of course, I didn't know that in the meantime NY passed a ban on them. Luckily, so far, I haven't been stopped (knock wood!). Of course, speeding is also illegal, so... in for a penny, in for a pound, I guess. But I don't need to be caught, in either case. My dad got a ticket in Georgia a couple weeks ago. Bastard got off with only a $75 fine. I've already had two tickets in NY, neither for actually speeding (they were both downgraded), but even without the points or anything, they were over $200 each. No, thank you! There's no need to speed that badly.

As etakyma posted, we went back to HP: The Exhibition on Friday and took our sweet time walking through it. The names are WHACKED. I don't think very many of them were ever meant to be seen close-up, because they are really totally made up, Monty Python types of names (no, there's no throat-warbler-mangrove, but some come close). The frustration of the day was not being able to look at some of the costumes in 360 degrees - which we knew would be the case, the way things are setup - but I think we can look for screencaps of some of the angles we wanted to see. I should have brought a mirror, really. The silly moment of the day came right near the end. We were looking in detail at McG's and Sirius's costumes - they are two of the last things on display - and trying to make out the back of Sirius, to see if it has a riding slit up the back of the coat, or not. We each had mini-mag-lites, though the battery in mine needs to be changed. We were using A's light to try to get a better look at the construction. One of the docents asked what we were doing. We explained ("No, we're not taking photographs, we're not touching, we're just looking with a mini-flashlight"). Where all the other docents had been happy to let us do our thing, once they figured out that we weren't disturbing anything, this guy had a problem. With a 10-watt pocket torch. A few minutes later a security guy comes over and tells us that we can't use the light. Whatever - it was the *last* costume. We'd been in the exhibit for 3 hours already, dude. What on earth is the objection to a teeny flashlight that can't possibly cause fading?

Anyway. Lots of sketches, lots of names and titles and little details. I totally forgot to copy out Umbridge's questionnaire for the teachers, and the O.W.L. papers, but that's okay. There were so many little things on the Common Room notice board that you couldn't read. Man, I'd love to have some time to throw on protective gloves and actually manipulate some of the artifacts.

We each bought a program guide (more reminders than anything), and I replaced my Nimbus hat with an HP: The Exhibition cap, and I also got a wicked cool mug that is heat activated. With hot liquid inside it, a Marauders' Map shows up on the outside. Very nifty. Also noticed HP music boxes from SF Music Box Company, very expensive in the gift shop but very *not* expensive on the SF Music Box Co's website. Not for buying right now, though.


Sunday, while J's mother was busy dying (wah), went to the Wellesley holiday party. Interesting confirmation that my audition for Hodel was *not* pointless, but that there weren't enough other people auditioning within the same age range, so that they had to cast everything younger. Still, I know I'll have fun with the role and was assured by many that I'll be great. Whee.

Monday, when I got in to Mom's, we went out to her pastor's house. It's her pastor's 53rd birthday, but she cooked dinner for 15 people - because she loves to cook. Okay by me! We had salad, beef burgundy over noodles, butternut squash risotto, and two kinds of cake and two kinds of ice cream. Yum, yum, yum. Also, although these are 'church' people, they are the least churchy group I've ever known. Even when I lived in Rochester, I can say definitively that these folks do not shy away from the innuendo and the double entendre. Much blushing was done by nearly everyone as we all embarrassed ourselves and each other. Very fun. (The topics included how quickly one can get drunk on champagne, first experiences with marijuana, the effect of long nails on certain parts of anatomy, etc. You get the picture. Christians with dirty minds!)


Ah. J is now done for the time being so we are going to get dinner. YAY. Food.

The Yay for the Day: grouchyoldcoot is coming to visit!

The BOO for the next several weeks: He broke his arm at fighter practice.

Fighting two-sword, meirwen.

Irony. It's what's for dinner.


Will be posting my Big_Bang fic later, so be prepared for spammage. All behind cuts!

(And I've misplaced my medical center ID - I was wearing it Tuesday, but can't for my life figure out what happened to it. Must check at home more thoroughly. ARGH.)

Joel is here and we've been having a lovely visit. My presents for him were (I think) well received and he got me a cool balaclava and the perfume I've been hinting about (including some anvil-sized hints) for...um, what did we decide, grouchyoldcoot, two years?

We went into Waltham today to meet his friend Jean for lunch, had a great time, then scooted out to Framingham and met etakyma just in time to see The Golden Compass.

Um...spoiler free mini-review: Visually stunning. Stuck fairly closely to the story with the usual allowances for compression, except they end the movie before the final few chapters of the book. Which...huh?

On the other hand, Lee Scoresby is still my favourite character, and Sam Elliott is STILL a damn sexy man, even with greasy hair.

Anyway. Then we all went to get dinner in etakyma's car, leaving mine at the theatre. She dropped us back off at the car... which is DED. DEAD. Gear shift completely will not engage AT ALL - stuck in park and the gear shift is floating free.

Called for a tow and had it towed to my garage. A came back and drove us home, because she is THE BEST FRIEND EVER. Will have to wait until Monday to find out if this is a simple-ish fix or if it really is, as I fear, the transmission dropping out for good.

This is SO not on the list of things I needed to have hit NOW.

FUCK. Fuck. Fuckity fuck.

Okay. Back to writing.

So, roughly two months after he predicted that his sister would inconvenience him right around the time of his birthday party, grouchyoldcoot is off to Athens (Ohio, not Greece, for you new kids around here) tonight - yes, four days before said party - to be on hand tomorrow when her doctors place a feeding tube.

Ordinarily this would not be a huge concern, except that she apparently went and told their mother that she didn't want any heroic measures should things go south during the procedure. Considering her health, this is not an insignificant possibility. And so far, her mother (as her proxy) is adhering to Karen's POV.

I'm fairly certain that this will turn out per routine and there's no cause for stress. But he's understandably both concerned and annoyed, not without reason. It's yet another pearl in the string of wanting to help Karen and being unable to do so. OTOH, the PEG tube is clearly the right action, so there's no question that the risk is worth the reward for success. And failure? Well...hate to say it, but it would solve a lot of problems. Just not sure what problems it would leave in its wake. So yeah, we just don't want that to happen when the likelihood that success would vastly improve Karen's quality of life is so high.

So this is me, giving my boy some virtual hugs from four states away. And hoping I don't have to make arrangements to fly into Columbus this week.

In other news, David overheard me and Robby muttering a little about the need to introduce some structure to Act 2, scene 4, and asked me what we were saying, and I stayed after rehearsal to talk to him about it. And 1:1, he was receptive. I got the "I hate it when people are bitching but don't tell me why, but I also hate it when people hit me with feedback in front of the whole cast." Well, good to know. But y'know, you get very hostile when we "hit you with feedback" in front of everyone, and that tends to make a cast want to hang back and not tell you, wait for you to get around to fixing what needs fixing, instead of hoping that we'll find it on our own. Sigh. But at least he seemed to hear what I was saying about actors filling time in ways that will help the other actors in the scene, not just take up space, and maybe Thursday we'll get him to give people some business that will enhance the scene and make it run more smoothly.

My leg is still giving me trouble, but I have a plan to try the heating pad tonight and we'll see how that goes.

Must go to bed. Not remotely tired.