Actual Information This Time
Jul. 27th, 2003 07:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
omorkaFriday was a little weird. The stuff from Amazon arrived a day early, and the time on the door tag gave a time when I should have been awake, or at worst half-asleep between alarms. I never heard a knock. I strongly suspect the UPS guy didn't actually knock on the door, just left the tag. So I spent half an hour wrangling on the phone so I could pick it up at the Sweetwater station. Fortunately, they let me do that - but I had to be there between 7:30 and 8:30 p.m.. Now, it turns out that I can get to within 5 blocks of there by bus relatively easily, but not with anything resembling a real sense of timing - and not in a way that lets me get to Cost Plus before it closes (the entire sequence would have me passing through downtown three separate times, the last time well after 10 p.m.). Fortunately, the MIL agreed to drive us instead (she rarely turns down an opportunity to go to Cost Plus).
While I was working on this dilemma, water started leaking through the ceiling again. There's one leak in the laundry room now, and the leak in the bathroom started up again. I pointed out to the Spouse, once he got home, that the light fixture on the ceiling in the bathroom (which has never worked) was filling with extraordinarily filthy water (it had shed droplets for about a week after the last time the ceiling leaked, too). The Spouse decided to try and fix this on the spot. Unfortunately, this meant he was trying to unscrew a painted-over screw by reaching over his head in a poorly lit room, while I tried to hold a flashlight for him. Once he'd successfully done this, we discovered that the glass bowl of the fixture was held on by a rubber gasket, which we couldn't remove. However, in one of the moments when the Spouse had to wipe his glasses, it decided to remove itself, and came crashing down, shattering (of course) all over the floor. I wasn't wearing shoes, naturally. We cleaned up the glass and mopped up the filthy water with rags as best we could, and added a Target to the list of stores for the evening, to pick up a sponge mop.
I bought too much stuff at Cost Plus, including a new beach towel (the old one is getting very worn, and these were on sale) and a box of Pocky for AH. Fortunately, picking up the package from the UPS station wasn't difficult, once the MIL found the correct turn-off from the freeway feeder (it's not well marked) and we managed to get past the peacocks running around in the ditch next to the road. I bought a new hat that I didn't need either at Target, and was once again disgusted with the state of their hosiery section (but we did get the mop). We also swung by Kroger and I picked up enough cream cheese for the cake.
After we got home, I mopped the floor in the bathroom twice. I found a little more glass we'd missed the first time, but not much. Using lots of Pine-Sol got rid of the weird, rusty-stale smell from the filthy water from the fixture, but it also brought me back to serious memories of doing work-service at MSMS - I suppose all pine-scented floor cleaners smell exactly the same. Made the water cloud up and everything. I wondered if having done work-service at MSMS made the scenes in anime where the kids are cleaning the classroom more familiar (or at least less strange) than they would be to someone who didn't ever have to do that sort of thing in a school setting.
The box from Amazon had three books in it - two for me, and one as part of DM's birthday present. I sat down with Post-Porn Modernist by Annie Sprinkle, and pretty much read it straight through. I could have done with more text and fewer photographs, but all in all, it's an interesting meditation on the sex industry and how it interacts with other industries and with politics.
Yesterday, we woke up to the sound of the leak resuming. The Spouse got up, cussed a lot, and called the landlord, who came out at about 10 am to take a look. He said there was already a plumber working on the problem (apparently there's a major structural flaw in the plumbing for the washer hook-ups), but that he would also send someone to paint over the water stains. We reminded him about the broken window, and he said he would try and get that fixed soon, too.
Yesterday was also DM's birthday, and I wasn't about to let it slide by without a notice (and, for that matter, neither was the Spouse once he got his head around the idea). I made a chocolate cheesecake; the cake itself turned out fine, but I burned the crust a bit. DM and AH showed up around 5 p.m., and DG showed up a little later. We hung around and chatted for a while; the Spouse and I gave DM his solar return gifts, and we watched in high amusement as AH sucked down the entire box of Pocky. The cheesecake was eaten without fanfare; AH asked if we had any candles, to which (of course) the answer was "lots, but none that will fit on the cake." (Reminder to self: get 2 white and 1 blue 7-day jar candles for the Galveston trip.)
We all went out to dinner at a local restaurant, at which we were met by a pair of other friends of DM's. The music at the restaurant was unimpressive, and they tried to seat seven people in a booth, which was uncomfortable. One of the two friends was rather ditzy; the other seemed rather nonplussed by the whole situation. I didn't end up eating very much.
Once we came back to our place (the two friends ditched after dinner again), AH and DG and the Spouse managed to have a thirty-minute conversation about Evangelion. I finally suggested we play a game, and we ended up playing Fluxx for most of the rest of the evening, which both AH and DM seemed to find rather amusing. I also managed to discomfit DM somewhat by asking him whether he had any female friends who aren't ditzes; he and AH determined that the answer was "no," but it took rather a lot of searching to find one other than me who they both agreed was not a ditz. I also broke out the bottle of peach melomel that's been sitting in the fridge since Samhain, and DM, DG, and I all had a glass. (AH apparently doesn't drink.) It got me and DM far more looped than it should have; I was only tipsy, but that's about as drunk as I've ever been. I seem to cuss more when I'm tipsy. (DM had had a margarita at dinner, but at this point that had been several hours ago.)
DG stayed around and chatted for a while after AH and DM left. We wandered around the topics of altered states of consciousness and some of the social weirdnesses of his last couple of months at college; I probably shouldn't have asked about the latter, as it seemed to embarrass him a bit. He also mixed himself a couple of rum-and-colas with the Spouse's key lime cola and the rum I've had around since Yule. (Alcohol doesn't get consumed here very fast.) He said it made a fairly good Cuba libre. I didn't try the Knudsen's as a pina colada, as I didn't want to get any more drunk than I was already.
Bagels today was me, the Spouse, DM (who the Spouse offered a ride to!); DB, MB, and little RB; PB; KG, MG, and little SG; and Scary R. PB handed out flyers for his art show this week, which badly misspell his name. (DM's comment, on reading the misspelling and gesturing at all the B's: "Gotta catch 'em all!" PB then threatened to lock him in a Pokeball.) Afterwards, we went by a CD shop, where I picked up a trio of Indigo Girls CD's in used, and a very odd electronica CD that I bought for $2 solely because of the title: "Every Man and Every Woman is a Star." Thelemic dance techno . . .
We're having dinner with DG in a little bit. This next week is going to be interesting (I did call the drop line for the Monday session, but I'm still going in Tues/Weds/Thurs). We'll see how things turn out - we may have as many as eight people for the Galveston trip, or as few as four. Then I start at the end of the following week - and I still haven't moved my room . . .
While I was working on this dilemma, water started leaking through the ceiling again. There's one leak in the laundry room now, and the leak in the bathroom started up again. I pointed out to the Spouse, once he got home, that the light fixture on the ceiling in the bathroom (which has never worked) was filling with extraordinarily filthy water (it had shed droplets for about a week after the last time the ceiling leaked, too). The Spouse decided to try and fix this on the spot. Unfortunately, this meant he was trying to unscrew a painted-over screw by reaching over his head in a poorly lit room, while I tried to hold a flashlight for him. Once he'd successfully done this, we discovered that the glass bowl of the fixture was held on by a rubber gasket, which we couldn't remove. However, in one of the moments when the Spouse had to wipe his glasses, it decided to remove itself, and came crashing down, shattering (of course) all over the floor. I wasn't wearing shoes, naturally. We cleaned up the glass and mopped up the filthy water with rags as best we could, and added a Target to the list of stores for the evening, to pick up a sponge mop.
I bought too much stuff at Cost Plus, including a new beach towel (the old one is getting very worn, and these were on sale) and a box of Pocky for AH. Fortunately, picking up the package from the UPS station wasn't difficult, once the MIL found the correct turn-off from the freeway feeder (it's not well marked) and we managed to get past the peacocks running around in the ditch next to the road. I bought a new hat that I didn't need either at Target, and was once again disgusted with the state of their hosiery section (but we did get the mop). We also swung by Kroger and I picked up enough cream cheese for the cake.
After we got home, I mopped the floor in the bathroom twice. I found a little more glass we'd missed the first time, but not much. Using lots of Pine-Sol got rid of the weird, rusty-stale smell from the filthy water from the fixture, but it also brought me back to serious memories of doing work-service at MSMS - I suppose all pine-scented floor cleaners smell exactly the same. Made the water cloud up and everything. I wondered if having done work-service at MSMS made the scenes in anime where the kids are cleaning the classroom more familiar (or at least less strange) than they would be to someone who didn't ever have to do that sort of thing in a school setting.
The box from Amazon had three books in it - two for me, and one as part of DM's birthday present. I sat down with Post-Porn Modernist by Annie Sprinkle, and pretty much read it straight through. I could have done with more text and fewer photographs, but all in all, it's an interesting meditation on the sex industry and how it interacts with other industries and with politics.
Yesterday, we woke up to the sound of the leak resuming. The Spouse got up, cussed a lot, and called the landlord, who came out at about 10 am to take a look. He said there was already a plumber working on the problem (apparently there's a major structural flaw in the plumbing for the washer hook-ups), but that he would also send someone to paint over the water stains. We reminded him about the broken window, and he said he would try and get that fixed soon, too.
Yesterday was also DM's birthday, and I wasn't about to let it slide by without a notice (and, for that matter, neither was the Spouse once he got his head around the idea). I made a chocolate cheesecake; the cake itself turned out fine, but I burned the crust a bit. DM and AH showed up around 5 p.m., and DG showed up a little later. We hung around and chatted for a while; the Spouse and I gave DM his solar return gifts, and we watched in high amusement as AH sucked down the entire box of Pocky. The cheesecake was eaten without fanfare; AH asked if we had any candles, to which (of course) the answer was "lots, but none that will fit on the cake." (Reminder to self: get 2 white and 1 blue 7-day jar candles for the Galveston trip.)
We all went out to dinner at a local restaurant, at which we were met by a pair of other friends of DM's. The music at the restaurant was unimpressive, and they tried to seat seven people in a booth, which was uncomfortable. One of the two friends was rather ditzy; the other seemed rather nonplussed by the whole situation. I didn't end up eating very much.
Once we came back to our place (the two friends ditched after dinner again), AH and DG and the Spouse managed to have a thirty-minute conversation about Evangelion. I finally suggested we play a game, and we ended up playing Fluxx for most of the rest of the evening, which both AH and DM seemed to find rather amusing. I also managed to discomfit DM somewhat by asking him whether he had any female friends who aren't ditzes; he and AH determined that the answer was "no," but it took rather a lot of searching to find one other than me who they both agreed was not a ditz. I also broke out the bottle of peach melomel that's been sitting in the fridge since Samhain, and DM, DG, and I all had a glass. (AH apparently doesn't drink.) It got me and DM far more looped than it should have; I was only tipsy, but that's about as drunk as I've ever been. I seem to cuss more when I'm tipsy. (DM had had a margarita at dinner, but at this point that had been several hours ago.)
DG stayed around and chatted for a while after AH and DM left. We wandered around the topics of altered states of consciousness and some of the social weirdnesses of his last couple of months at college; I probably shouldn't have asked about the latter, as it seemed to embarrass him a bit. He also mixed himself a couple of rum-and-colas with the Spouse's key lime cola and the rum I've had around since Yule. (Alcohol doesn't get consumed here very fast.) He said it made a fairly good Cuba libre. I didn't try the Knudsen's as a pina colada, as I didn't want to get any more drunk than I was already.
Bagels today was me, the Spouse, DM (who the Spouse offered a ride to!); DB, MB, and little RB; PB; KG, MG, and little SG; and Scary R. PB handed out flyers for his art show this week, which badly misspell his name. (DM's comment, on reading the misspelling and gesturing at all the B's: "Gotta catch 'em all!" PB then threatened to lock him in a Pokeball.) Afterwards, we went by a CD shop, where I picked up a trio of Indigo Girls CD's in used, and a very odd electronica CD that I bought for $2 solely because of the title: "Every Man and Every Woman is a Star." Thelemic dance techno . . .
We're having dinner with DG in a little bit. This next week is going to be interesting (I did call the drop line for the Monday session, but I'm still going in Tues/Weds/Thurs). We'll see how things turn out - we may have as many as eight people for the Galveston trip, or as few as four. Then I start at the end of the following week - and I still haven't moved my room . . .
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Date: 2003-07-27 07:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-28 12:09 am (UTC)