Ordered brackets

Also looked up the process for painting iron. All the DIY sites say to prime, then do two coats of paint, letting each coat completely dry in between. It can take a week, they said. Wear clothes you hate, because it'll be a mess, they said. And... no. I think instead I'll leave the iron bare and apply linseed oil occasionally. It'll be fine.

Bought laundry detergent with the little tiny HE logo on the side

Why is the logo so tiny and on the side of the box? I mean, this is a selling point, right? So why not make it large and legible, front and center? I don't get it.

Re-arranged the stuff under the bathroom sink

Wasn't really anything to clean out under there, so I just shifted things around.


Today's earrings: flies, amber teardrops

Bedtime reading: Blackout, Connie Willis

Supernatural speculation

I keep meaning to write this down, but I've really got nowhere else to post it:

I think at the end of this season we find out that Heaven is really the Matrix, but powered by human souls instead of human bodies. "The power of heaven" is generated by the souls of all those dead people, eternally alone in their perfect little worlds. (And that's why the dead are kept isolated in Heaven. So the ones like Ash don't get together and maybe decide to put all that power to other uses.) Lucifer's power, and the powers we've seen from the demons over the seasons, comes from the radiant energy of the souls who've sold themselves into Hell. That's why Balthazar bought that kid's soul: he was trying to build himself a captive energy base so he could take himself off the Heaven grid.

I'm not 100% sure about Purgatory, but I think it's where third-case souls go. People whose souls aren't clean enough for heaven to take, but on whom Hell doesn't have a colorable claim. People like Mary Winchester, who contracted with a demon, but didn't actually sell her soul. Or John Winchester, who sold his soul, but climbed back out of the pit. Also angry spirits, who refused to be conducted to Heaven by the Reapers, but weren't contracted to Hell. The Mother of Monsters has been using the scant soul-power at her disposal to make - you guessed it - monsters. The monsters go around turning humans into more monsters (vampires, skinwalkers, etc.) whose souls eventually end up in Purgatory. Now that the Pseudopocalypse has been and gone, and neither Heaven nor Hell won, the Mother of Monsters is making a bid to take control of Earth, so she can divert all souls to Purgatory and have everything her own way from here on out.

It's a theory.


Today's earrings: flies, trout

Bedtime reading: The Light Fantastic, Terry Pratchett

Down memory lane

French toast brunch at M's.

Back to my alma mater, and OMG BUILDINGS. THEY HAVE BUILT SO MANY BUILDINGS.
Like, they've put a new bookstore in the bookstore parking lot. The bookstore is now admin stuff, and bookstore parking is down in the Hahn lot. The Wells Fargo ATM is right where I left it, though.
Quarry: still the quarry
Picnic lunch overlooking the East Field & attendant View. Still a hell of a view. Many squirrels.
L was much impressed by the view from the bridges over the ravines.
The balconies have gone from the top floors at Porter: what's up with that?
SCAdians with vorpal swords doing battle at the IUD. (The view there has College 8 in it.)
Three deer hanging out pathside near what used to be the bus stop.
"Center of the universe" in front of the theater: still echo-y.
What they built as a student union is now an "Academic Resources Center." M said it would be better as a faculty club, and I think she's right. I seem to recall that's what they first wanted to put there... but I may be confabulating. Nice view, so we ate some cheese there.
Fairy ring of redwoods off the path from the library to Hahn.
We took a last turn around campus, and it turns out for L, organic garden = shiny object. So we climbed into the experimental organic garden above Stevenson. There we met a pair of cats named Buster and Posey. Buster followed us halfway to the car.
Dinner at Alice's Restaurant.

I did a lot of fulminating about the BUILDINGS, OMG SO MANY BUILDINGS.


Today's earrings: Flies, amber

Bedtime reading: All Clear, Connie Willis

The Walrus and the Carpenter

The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright--
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.

The moon was shining sulkily,
Because she thought the sun
Had got no business to be there
After the day was done--
"It's very rude of him," she said,
"To come and spoil the fun!"

The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
No cloud was in the sky:
No birds were flying overhead--
There were no birds to fly.
- - Lewis Carroll

Today's earrings: flies, amber

Bedtime reading: Hard Row, Margaret Maron

A feast day of my people

We had brunch. :)

There were many small and lovely things in my stocking. M won at Scrabble (but if we'd applied the proposed 'yule rule' things might have been different). K&S called from Copenhagen - sounds like they were enjoying the Danish. CC and I watched "Sing Faster" in the living room while AL and M watched Schoolhouse Rock in the family room. Later we all joined in watching "Galaxy Quest" and eating cheese.


Today's earrings: flies, amber

Bedtime reading: Brewing Up a Storm, Emma Lathen

M does valiant battle with Sears

M stopped by Sears this evening to collect the stacking kit, as per instructions from the phone CSR I talked to Monday. The sales clerk informed her that a) they didn't have stacking kits at the store, b) since I'd "refused delivery" the order had been cancelled, and c) they'd sold my washer/dryer to someone else and no longer had that model in stock at all. M reports a certain circularity to the conversation, and the sense that the sales clerk had no particular interest in resolving the matter.

So M found a manager, who she induced to grasp the situation. The manager then ageed to replace my now-departed washer/dryer with the next-better washer/dryer (for no extra cost) and have the upgraded replacements delivered on Monday.

M is my hero.


Today's earrings: flies, amber

Bedtime reading: The Ruins of Earth, Thomas M. Disch, ed.

Drinks with Elks

Drinks at the Elks Club with the guys. After, we went down to Market and I pointed out The Apartment. They were talking housewarming presents; I just stared soulfully into its windows...


Today's earrings: flies, fish

Bedtime reading: The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper, John D. MacDonald

More events

I dropped off the paperwork for the apartment. [Begin now an extended period of thumb-twiddling.]

And! my boss tells me that Rick is going to propose to Mindy tomorrow. Again.


Today's earrings: flies, amber

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

So nice when the right dress wins.

I think Shirin won just for that waistline. As she should.

The Models of the Runway are living up to their drama-promise. In this week's episode:

The models were astonished and displeased that Mitchell survived this round, and they all dread getting stuck with him because a) they think he's not long for this competition and b) he didn't exactly charm them with last week's blame-the-model stunt.

We waste a lot of time listening to the models re-recite the rules of the game, and various among them talk about their sucking-up techniques. Fatma announces that her designer Logan is hot.

Finally, we get to model-picking. Shirin surprises everybody by going back to the model she had in the first episode. Ra'mon makes a big production of wanting to switch to Althea's model, but Althea gives him massive stinkeye and he backs off and chooses the same model as this week. Mitchell chooses Fatma. As she passes behind the screen, she dramatically raises her hands to the sky in a "why me, Lord?" gesture (that everyone sees). She begins tantrumming about losing Logan the hottie for Mitchell the loser as soon as she hits the model room, and won't shut up. Out at the runway, Logan chooses someone else. Fatma glares at her when she gets back to the model room. Somebody tries to reason with Fatma about maybe not being so openly obnoxious while the cameras are running, and Fatma turns on her. The rest of the game of musical chairs goes off without serious incident. The one left out is Malvin's model Valerie, who seems to be a lovely woman. Everyone is sorry to see her go. Except Fatma, who's still pouting about losing Logan.

Next week: Fatma, still not getting over it.


Today's earrings: flies, fish

Bedtime reading: Swan for the Money, Donna Andrews

Tonight's theme: Electricity

First, the buyer on Property Virgins was a woman who'd been struck by lightning the year before she went on the show.
Then on Eureka, the crisis of the week spread via electrical transmission.
On Warehouse 13, the MacGuffin electrocuted people.
And finally, Dave Chapelle did the electric guitar sketch with John Mayer.

Spooky.


Today's earrings: flies, fish

Bedtime reading: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling

Fish

Flying


Today's earrings: flies, fish

Bedtime reading: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling

Critique

I've been reading Elgin's Native Tongue trilogy. The first book was depressing - it's set in a near-future distopia where women are legally minors - but pretty darn good, I thought. The second book was longer, more scattered. It felt like the middle book of a trilogy. Then I got to the third book, in which the author loses her mind. Books one and two are about women fighting the power as best they can in a world almost like our own. The third book opens with a new character having a visionquest vision of the now-dead lead character of book one, followed by the revelation that human beings don't need food, but can live on music. No, seriously. There's a middle section that goes skipping about through the next few centuries, and reads like sketches for a bunch of short stories that don't quite all belong in the same universe. Then a denoument in which it is finally brought to the attention of the men "in charge" that a significant portion of the population has stopped consuming food. I am strongly reminded of Margaret Murray's theory that many if not most people in medieval Europe weren't actually Catholics. If there were that many not-Catholics, why did they let the Church run everything? Makes no sense.

It's like she couldn't figure out how to end the trilogy she'd started, so she swapped in the end of some other saga and hoped readers wouldn't notice.


Today's earrings: flies, crows

Bedtime reading: Earthsong, Suzette Haden Elgin

Mostly fixed

The evil pop-ups have gone away, which is nice, but now all google results redirect to various third-party sites. It's annoying. Guess I'll have to go buy something after all. *sigh*


Today's earrings: flies, amber

Bedtime reading: Soon I Will Be Invincible, Austin Grossman

Talked to TL and got the address for Maggie's memorial. Poor guy.

Rally point is M's @ 10am Monday.


Today's earrings: flies, amber

Bedtime reading: Native Tongue, Suzette Haden Elgin

Journey again

On the cable car tonight there were two women sitting outside, singing.

In harmony.

Would have been kind of fun if they weren't singing Journey.
Don't stop... belieevin'...


Today's earrings: flies, amber

Bedtime reading: Pyramids, Terry Pratchett

Channel flipping tonight

I found myself watching a show on how KitchenAid mixers are made. Most soothing.


Today's earrings: flies, amber

Bedtime reading: Fool, Christopher Moore

2nd credit line obtained

After drinking we checked out the windows @ Gumps, then went to Macy's. b2 is a most luck-bringing shopping partner; I came away with a really cute sweater and 4 pairs of stockings.

Sadly, the luck-bringing was not reciprocal. Sorry!


Today's earrings: flies, fish

Bedtime reading: Fragile Things, Neil Gaiman

Extravaganza

First thing this morning, I collected a present from the Wandering Albatross at the post office. A big present; I had to drop it at home before going to work. This evening I opened it, and what wonders I beheld! So far my favorites are the poseable emu and the wind-up cow, but that may change after I read the books and put the Hatching Tortoise Grower in water.

The fold-out dinosaur is definitely coming to work with me.


Today's earrings: flies, amber

Bedtime reading: Smoke and Mirrors, Neil Gaiman