Paid property tax

Printed out a 1040, et alia, and brought them home

...but didn't feel equal to actually filling in the forms. So I cleared the miscellaneous paper off the bar. Then I thought about the miscellaneous silver tchotchkes I've got scattered about, and considered curio cases. So far I hate them all.

Today's earrings: coffee cups, chickens

Bedtime reading: The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan

Psst. Pass it on.

Today's earrings: cups, theobromine molecules

Bedtime reading: Thud!, Terry Pratchett

Up with the chickens

...and the jet-lagged. The sunrise was cloudy and pink.

I went to work, and the vacationers went to Ano Nuevo to see the seals. They also stopped to visit the roadside metal tyrannosaurs. In the evening we ate Ethiopian in the company of some pleasant mathematicians & LM. Tiger fell asleep on K in the restaurant.

Tomorrow we Explorator.


Today's earrings: coffee cups, chickens

Bedtime reading: Night Watch, Terry Pratchett

Leisure

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stop and stare?

-- William Henry Davies

Today's earrings: coffee cups, teapots

Bedtime reading: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark

Happy Solstice

Today's earrings: coffee cups, suns

Bedtime reading: Proof, Dick Francis

I signed a lot of paper

...but forgot to call the phone company.


Today's earrings: cups, chickens

Bedtime reading: Clouds of Witness, Dorothy L. Sayers

I'm late I'm late I'm late

When I woke up this morning, the rain was coming down hard. So hard that I didn't hear my clock-radio. Seriously loud rain. My stubbed toe was an arrangement in brown and grey. I left a voicemail for my boss and limped off to work an hour late.

Turns out pretty much everybody was late. My boss got in 20 minutes after I did, listened to her voicemail, and then came out and announced to the department in general that if we'd just kept our calls to ourselves, she'd never have known any of us were late...

I left early to get my crown re-cemented. When I got home I discovered my toe had turned purple. I thought bruises were supposed to get less dramatic as you go along, not more. hmph.


Today's earrings: teacups, rabbits

Bedtime reading: Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

Did the walk-through

The place is a lot smaller than I remembered. I am going to have to do some major pruning. Long term, I'd want to get a carpenter to build shelves above the windows up to the ceiling, and install a library ladder. In any case, there's no place to put my beloved tall bookcase. Anyone want a bookcase that's four feet wide, eight feet high, and shelved for pocket books? Maybe I can stash it in the basement. And what do I do with the books in the mean time? This is going to be a challenge.

But, omg people, did you check out that view?


Today's earrings: cups, chickens

Bedtime reading: Going Postal, Terry Pratchett

Pettiness

Mid-morning, the receptionist came around to say that A had been invited to lunch by the chief consultant guy, and the chief consultant guy had decided to turn it into a pizza party, who wanted in? She described A as our "former office manager." Said everyone really liked him. Not quite. A was the dude sent by corporate to manage the post-takeover integration. By the time I got there, he was mostly making busywork for his assistant. The assistant left; he made petty, time-wasting busywork for himself out of me and my coworkers. There were a few things he might have done to improve how corporate was treating us, but he was way too busy with his busywork... They ended up firing him four years ago.

On the "always postpone meetings with time-wasting morons" principle, I said no, thanks on the pizza.


Today's earrings: cups, theobromine molecules

Bedtime reading: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

I have this inexplicable urge to see Repo Man again

"Nice friends you got there, Otto."
"Thanks, I made them myself."
- - Alex Cox

Today's earrings: coffee cups, tools

Bedtime reading: Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett

The gazebo is no more

We had a lovely brunch, then M won at Scrabble, then we ripped that thing down. Confused Cricket won the post-gazebo Risk game.


Today's earrings: coffee cups, tools

Bedtime reading: Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett

The Guiding Light

My boss spent about 45 minutes this afternoon catching me up on The Guiding Light. It seems that two of the women characters are falling in love, and my boss is part of the on-line chatter about it all. My contributions to the conversation were along the lines of, "Philip's not really a Spaulding, you know," and, "for some reason, I remember the black cloth mary janes Holly wore when she was in jail."

Surprisingly, I finished the work I meant to finish.

Then I went to a class for first-time homebuyers. I found out the names of some of the standard forms, but other than that? Dinner with T&S was more informative.

I got home to a message from b2 that the Bad Man had left the island, and then I watched Sam Winchester break the last seal and set Lucifer free.

It's been a full evening.


Today's earrings: coffee cups, suns

Bedtime reading: Banker, Dick Francis

By popular demand

http://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Francisco/140-S-Van-Ness-Ave-94103/unit-437/home/960155

Much cooler, but way out of my league: http://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Francisco/201-Sansome-St-94104/unit-501/home/18471589


Today's earrings: coffee cups, crows

Bedtime reading: Through Elegant Eyes, R.A. Lafferty

Welcome K & S & D!

United says their plane has landed, which caps a most satisfactory evening:
I succumbed to the siren call of the sale at the SF Center Borders... only to find that the main Borders store on the 4th floor isn't closing, just the newsstand in the basement next to the BART/MUNI station. But it's all right - I found the last stocking stuffer! Hooray! (Don't worry, M, I've still got you covered.) And, since I was in a bookstore and everything, I got a couple things for me. I just caught a bus going home, and then just got to my door as the drizzle started.


Today's purchases:
Soon I Will Be Invincible, Austin Grossman
Six Geese A-Slaying, Donna Andrews

Today's earrings: coffee cups, teaspoons

Bedtime reading: Six Geese A-Slaying, Donna Andrews

Gloss

At the bus stop this morning, I found myself wondering where "to gloss over" came from. Is it to hide something behind a shiny surface, or to explain it away? And how did those two meanings grow out of each other?

Turns out they didn't:

gloss (1) "luster," 1538, from Scand. (cf. Icelandic glossi "flame," related to glossa "to flame"), or obsolete Du. gloos "a glowing," from M.H.G. glos.

gloss (2) "word inserted as an explanation," 1548, gloze, from L. glossa "obsolete or foreign word," from Gk. glossa (Ionic), glotta (Attic) "obscure word, language," lit. "tongue." Extended sense of "explain away" is 1638, from idea of a note inserted in the margin of a text to explain a difficult word.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=gloss

Still not clear on which was the source for "gloss over," but at least I can stop wondering how 'explanatory note' = 'shiny surface.'


Today's earrings: coffee cups, teapots

Bedtime reading: Jingo, Terry Pratchett

Utensia

- - W.W. Denslow

Today's earrings: cups, spoons

Bedtime reading: Nation, Terry Pratchett

Coffee is fundamental

"It was Clement VIII who made a Christian out of coffee," said Hans. "It was considered an infidel drink in Europe till he gave it sanction. And the objections to it were that it was non-alcoholic. It has the social leanings of alcohol but it shirks its responsibility. You can sit and drink it for hours and not have to be carried home; this makes coffee a greater encourager of loitering."

- - R.A. Lafferty, Archipelago

Today's earrings: coffee cups, spoons

Bedtime reading: "Great Day in the Morning," R.A. Lafferty

Another excellent brunch

Yummy, yummy, yummy
I've got eggs in my tummy


Today's earrings: coffee cups, green eggs

Bedtime reading: Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett

Rise & Shine

Woke up this morning with "rise, and shine, and give God your glory, glory; rise, and shine, and give God your glory, glory" running through my head.


Today's earrings: coffee cups, suns

Bedtime reading: Good Omens, Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett