Feast Day

I got to M's about 10:30. We discussed the relative merits of tenting, flipping mid-bake, and swathing with bacon. (Guess which we settled on?) She wanted to hold off on putting the bird in the oven - it was only 10 pounds, and not stuffed - but I urged immediate action, on the grounds that the bird always takes at least half an hour longer than expected. We ended up putting it in just before 11. Then we took wine, cheese, and crackers and sat down to play backgammon in her living room. We finished the bottle not long after noon. The turkey was done about the same time... and dinner was set for 2. My bad.

CC & AL arrived about 1, and were pressed into cooking, as M & I were not inclined to take it very seriously at that point. M had had the foresight to do all the prep work yesterday, so it wasn't too arduous. Then the other guests arrived, and I swanned off to the living room to chat and eat canapes. Eventually I answered the call to make gravy. About then, the Requisite Disaster occurred: the pan holding the potatoes broke in the oven. We got it out, and even salvaged some potatoes.

Dinner was most tasty - good turkey, yummy dressing, and a green salad for me. :) I took a nap. Then there was pie. After, we played the shortest game of Risk ever: AL won in three turns. The other guests drifted off. K&S called. M let me watch the Survivor clip show. (They left out Randy's racist tirades.) And now we are watching Zodiac. I don't think Robert Graysmith was nearly as stupid as they're making out...

eta: the color of the day was BLUE.


Today's earrings: sapphires, bronze triangles

Bedtime reading: Pyramids, Terry Pratchett

Today's big achievement

I bought cheese.


Today's earrings: flowers, coins

Bedtime reading: Pyramids, Terry Pratchett

The Shield

Series finale was tonight. They tied up the loose ends nice and neat, except, y'know, rife with violence and corruption and horrific betrayal. But tidy.
Fun cameo: Clark Johnson talking up the amenities of the greater Baltimore area.


Today's earrings: monkeys, anchors

Bedtime reading: Pyramids, Terry Pratchett

Breathe

Breathe, breathe in the air
Dont be afraid to care
Leave but dont leave me
Look around and chose your own ground
For long you live and high you fly
And smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry
And all you touch and all you see
Is all your life will ever be

Run, rabbit, run
Dig that hole, forget the sun,
when at last the work is done
Dont sit down, its time to dig another one
For long you live and high you fly
But only if you ride the tide
balanced on the biggest wave
You race toward an early grave
- - Gilmour, Waters, & Wright

Today's earrings: scarabs

Bedtime reading: Busman's Honeymoon, Dorothy L. Sayers

Fine night

b2 and I met as usual to drink wine and discuss Survivor. (Excellent episode last night, by the way. A bad person met his comeuppance. It was marvelous.) I had with me a 1,000 piece puzzle of Hicks' Peaceable Kingdom, borrowed from a coworker for a Thanksgiving puzzle, and she had a cake box of food from that afternoon's office party. She suggested stopping by her office later and collecting more of the leftovers after drinks. A lot of food, she said. So we did.

She wasn't exaggerating - even figuring in the entire office's lunch on Monday, there was a hell of a lot of extra food. Mixed veg, mashed potatoes, rice, ham, even pumpkin pie. And also plastic clamshells. Inspired, we assembled some meals from the leftovers and added plastic forks, napkins, and sodas. We gave away three on the way from b2's office to her parking garage, and I gave away the rest near my place after she dropped me off.

Nothing like the warm glow of being generous with someone else's food.


Today's earrings: moose, chocolate molecules

Bedtime reading: Busman's Honeymoon, Dorothy L. Sayers

Committee meeting

I came in, sat down. The office troll came in and sat down directly across from me, and spent the next hour trying to catch my eye while I did my best to only look at him when there was a reason.

Y'know, it's funny... I've heard various women say that as they got older, men ignored them more. For me, as I get older and more apt to ignore people I don't want to deal with, I've found that (some) men get all affronted if I ignore them. They don't want to talk to me, as far as I can tell. They just expect me to acknowledge them. Make eye contact, something. And if I don't - if I sit in the laundromat with my eyes glued to my book and don't look up as they walk by - they act out. They intrude on my peripheral vision. They make noise, and get progressively louder if I don't look up right away. Some have intruded on my space. They let me know that they are ENTITLED to my attention. Funny, huh?


Today's earrings: hands, peppers

Bedtime reading: Busman's Honeymoon, Dorothy L. Sayers

I'm proud of myself. Sort of.

The office troll was at my desk on legitimate business. Then he veered off into something irrelevant, and then something revolting. I said, twice, "I don't want to hear this." He just kept talking. I turned to my computer, put on my headphones, and cranked up the music. He went away soon after.

I can't believe I did something that rude. Usually I say I don't want to hear it and he just keeps talking anyway and I don't want to be rude so I end up listening to him with a tight uncomfortable little smile... which is why I avoid conversations with him if at all possible. This time I said I didn't want to hear it and I enforced that. Go, me! But wow, was I rude.


Today's earrings: elephants, ebony drops

Bedtime reading: Busman's Honeymoon, Dorothy L. Sayers

The Knitters are playing Slim's in January

Who's with me?


Today's earrings: squirrels, teaspoons

Bedtime reading: Busman's Honeymoon, Dorothy L. Sayers

[/Prop8]

What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side
It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
- - Stephen Stills

We met in front of the Asian Art Museum. Lots of people wandering about with signs and a few in costume. M had brought sign-making materials and bagels. I applied sunscreen. We crossed the street into the plaza and found a tree under which to sit. We couldn't really hear the speakers, but clapped along when the crowd up in front cheered. Someone stopped by to tell us that Cinemark Theaters had given money to the Yes on 8 campaign, and would we join in not supporting them? Sure, no problem. There were people with kids, people with dogs, people just going to and fro: very family picnic. Except for the people in wedding dresses and rainbow hoopskirts - that was more like Pride.

After a while we realized that the people going to and fro were performing a promenade around the victory garden in the center of the plaza. We essayed a circumperambulation and discovered a whole lot more people with signs, a pretzel vendor, and a little dance party in one corner (the Jackson Five, being played from bike-mounted speakers). I got flapped in the face by a rainbow flag; it was almost as transcendent as being Touched by His Noodly Appendage. We also found that we could hear the people on stage better the closer we got to the Civic. I attribute that to Bill Graham's influence.

After a certain amount of unintentional walking around and standing in line for change, we were on the Muni platform on the outbound side, waiting for the N train.
An announcement: Fare jumper! Coming down the staircase!

[I turned to look at the staircase.]

Wearing a jean jacket!

[I spotted the guy in the jean jacket as he cussed and started back up the staircase.]

Now he’s come back up the staircase!

[“Ooh! Public shaming!” said M. “If he comes back down, we can all point at him!” I replied.]

Finally the N train turned up and we headed out toward the park. Around Church Street, the woman in the wheelchair got off, and a one-toothed man got the seat set back down and sat on it, right next to Cricket. He chatted with her as he pulled out tobacco and paper and rolled his own. One-Toothed Man had some serious rolling skills – he put together a very tidy cigarette on his lap, in a moving vehicle. We got off at 9th street and walked down to Bistro 9. I had the hummus. Mmmm, hummus. It went well with the peppers off of M’s salad.

We headed off to the DeYoung and saw the Maya Lin exhibit. The sculpted atlases were very cool, and I’d kind of like to have a pin river on one of my walls. We visited the Hearth of Doom, and also dragged Cricket and Lemming to look at the huge painting of the “Polynesian” scene with all the Ancient Greek details. As antidote, we took in the Yves Saint Laurent retrospective. I want the beige Mondrian dress. We ascended the tower for a good gawk at the city. It was a beautiful day for a gawk, too. The Marin Headlands were clear as a bell; the strait was a lovely dark shade of blue you usually only see in movies. Out front we miraculously caught a cab, who whisked us (as only cabbies can) to Montgomery Station, where we parted.


Today's earrings: owls, estrogen molecules

Bedtime reading: Busman’s Honeymoon, Dorothy L. Sayers

Swiss Cheese

Today's earrings: frogs, shells

Bedtime reading: The Girls of Slender Means, Muriel Spark

No news

Tenterhooks. OK, so it's not as bad as all that. But still.


Today's earrings: ants, swirly blue beads

Bedtime reading: The Girls of Slender Means, Muriel Spark

The saga continues...

Talked to the mortgage broker guy - the prospective lender can't possibly make a decision by today, they need to hold a committee meeting; can I get more time? I asked him, do you think it'll be a yes? because if so, I'll go to the realtor and stall my little heart out. He can't tell, he says. Factors on both sides and no way to guess how they'll decide under current conditions. In that case... we said ok, he'll send the lender my file, see what they say - but I'll call the realtor and tell him to move on to the next guy in line, who already has financing.

Called the realtor, said, I can't get an answer today. Move on to the next person. And he's all, oh. ok. When will I know for sure with the lender? I should keep him updated, because there's two units available.
Uh-huh. I get the feeling that he's worried that the next guy in line might flake on him like the first eight people in line, and he's hoping that I'll be there as backup. I also get the feeling that between the difficulties he's having trying to sell expensive units to rich people and the difficulties he's having trying to sell cheap units to poor people, he's getting near the end of his rope.

I thought today would be the end of this chapter, but there will be more! Watch this space for the next thrilling installment of IIII Buys an Apartment!


Today's earrings: owls, citrine drops

Bedtime reading: The Girls of Slender Means, Muriel Spark

Veterans' Day

Which I ought to have spent considering the meaning of patriotism, but actually spent scrambling for financing. And sorting out which provincial taxes are collected by CA customs on non-commercial packages. I feel I've got a better grip on the provincial taxes...


Today's earrings: leaves, crows

Bedtime reading: Comeback, Dick Francis

Looking like worst-case scenario here

Got a call around 3 from the realtor. He wants to know what's up with my financing. I haven't heard, I say. Well, he says, the person in line after me has qualified for financing and he can't just wait around forever. Mmmmkay. What is my deadline? He's all, hem, haw, um, well, Wednesday. I pointed out that it would have been nice if he'd mentioned his timeline before now, and put in a call to the Loan Lady.

She called back around 4 to say "no." Then she spent twenty minutes soothing my feelings before I could shovel her off the phone and go call M's broker's buddy in the city. When I talked to him a month ago, Broker Buddy had found me a not-big-enough loan with highish interest... but it was a loan. I left a voicemail for him, and then called back every fifteen minutes or so, not leaving messages. (I was hoping to catch him in, not be scary-called-six-times-woman.)

Just after five I walked over to my own bank, and told my sad story to one of the loan ladies there. She was good about not wasting my time, I'll give her that - I got a "no" from her right away. The credit thing was just insuperable for them. I went back to work and, surprisingly, got a few things done in between obsessively calling Broker Buddy.

It's... yeah. There's still a possibility of making this work, but... doesn't seem all that likely.


Today's earrings: flies, fish

Bedtime reading: Comeback, Dick Francis

Brunchiness

Today's meeting the the Thanksgiving Planning Committee was quite productive: we almost finished the crossword, and I palmed off a stack of serving dishes on M. Then I got a haircut and did my laundry.

Later, I found a video that I saw once in 1983 and has haunted me since: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5Ac_OBeGWs&feature=related
Um. Yeah.


Today's earrings: pine trees, leaves

Bedtime reading: Comeback, Dick Francis

My boss shared this with me

A sign of the End of Days


Today's earrings: monkeys, alligators

Bedtime reading: A Taste for Death, Peter O'Donnell

For those who were wondering...

I've given all my financial records to a loan officer, who called me this morning and asked if I'd given her the right ssn. Or maybe been out of the country? I managed to convince her that I was sane, despite having no credit rating, and she seems to be letting it be a challenge to her.

No decision yet.

To fill the time, I installed a tag cloud. Now I'll have to reformat the tags, which will fill more time. Score!


Today's earrings: amethysts

Bedtime reading: A Taste for Death, Peter O'Donnell

hover hop flutter

Now that the election's over you'd think I'd be able to concentrate at work. But no. Maybe I just picked the wrong earrings today...


Today's earrings: frogs, hummingbirds

Bedtime reading: A Taste for Death, Peter O'Donnell

That's much better.

I'm not all that enthused about Obama - he's said some things, and voted for some stuff, that I am still way not happy about - but OMG I am SO INCREDIBLY cap-locking HAPPY that he won, in a landslide, sweeping Democrats into office behind him all over the place. Maybe we can start inching back away from the Pit now.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed about Prop 8.


eta: I am totally enthused about Michelle Obama as First Lady. Damn, but that woman has poise. Plus the whole smart & accomplished thing. She's going to be great.

Today's earrings: eyes, liberty dimes

Bedtime reading: A Taste For Death, Peter O'Donnell

Surprise!

Friday I got home and found a packet in the mail from the mayor's office of housing about my application for that BMR unit. I figured it was pro forma - just them letting me know that they'd processed the paperwork. I mean, I didn't do so well in the lottery. I was going to call today and see if the letter meant I'm qualified for the program in general, because that would cut down the paperwork for the next time I applied.

Before I got around to calling the guy from the mayor's office, I got a call from the developer's rep. He said eight of the applicants ahead of me either didn't qualify, or found another place, or failed to get financing. If I can get financing, I can have the place. And would I like to come see it again today? After he reassured me that he wasn't kidding, I said yes. Then I asked M to come along.

We all met at 4. M liked the place. I still like the place. Now I just have to get financing.

Best case scenario: I buy this apartment and promptly get two credit cards so I can refinance at a better rate in a year or two.
Worst case scenario: I stay in my rent-controlled apartment.
I see this turning out well.


Today's earrings: scarabs

Bedtime reading: A Taste for Death, Peter O'Donnell