Completed tax returns

This itemizing thing isn't nearly as complicated as I was led to believe. Kind of like transubstantiation.


Today's earrings: owls, brown glass beads

Bedtime reading: The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan

So, Survivor

It's "Heroes" vs "Villains" this time out. Which is to say, previous players beatified by the editing staff vs. previous players vilified by the editing staff. Some of the "Villains" seem to be genuinely unpleasant people, but then, so do some of the "Heroes."

The editing staff tends to beatify overt leaders, while they tend to vilify backstabby strategerizing types. So the "Heroes" all have their egos tied up in being team captain, while the "Villains" have their egos tied up in plotting how they will backstab the guy who's taken the team captain role. Result: "Villains" 2, "Heroes" 0.


Today's earrings: owls, estrogen molecules

Bedtime reading: Freeze My Margarita, Lauren Henderson

Punch

There was an old owl lived in an oak,
The more he heard, the less he spoke;
The less he spoke, the more he heard,
O, if men were all like that wise bird!

Today's earrings: owls, trees

Bedtime reading: Driving Force, Dick Francis

Getting ahead of myself

I want to listen to Christmas songs now. But if I do that, I'll be all Christmassed out by early December. *sigh*


Today's earrings: owls, crows

Bedtiem reading: A Hat Full of Sky, Terry Pratchett

Zeitgeist

Last night my toilet started blowing bubbles. This morning while I was in the shower it really went to town. Google suggests the cause is likely a partially obstructed sewer line. I put a call in to my landlord. What time is it? Time to move!

In other news, tonight's episode of Sons of Anarchy passed the Bechdel Test in the first half hour. Hey, neat! I thought. Then I remembered that, while I like some of the actors, I don't like most of the characters, and changed the channel.


Today's earrings: owls, trees

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

If wishes were owls...

I'd be nocturnal, and it wouldn't matter that the people next door kept the party going until 4am yesterday morning. I hate having to knock on the neighbors' doors.


Today's earrings: owls, wishbones

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

Cheese

http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2008/06/03/282-a-cheese-map-of-canada/


Today's earrings: owls, Sts Bridget and Clare

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

Saw the new Harry Potter

Draco Malfoy is growing up quite nicely. Quite nicely.


Today's earrings: owls, wishbones

Bedtime reading: The Ozark Trilogy, Suzette Haden Elgin

Dinner in the Berkeley hills

Dinner was quite nice, lovely wine. I told them about my dream apartment, and they did what I should have expected they'd do, which is apply their considerable expertise to an analysis of the proposed purchase. I wasn't prepared for the examination (I ought to have been; I have met them before, after all), and I didn't do a very good job with some of their questions. Like, why I want to move, and why I want to move there. The location seems self-evidently desirable to me, so I didn't have a good counter for their low opinion of the neighborhood, that sort of thing.

It was nice evening. I just wish I'd prepped more.


Today's earrings: owls, estrogen molecules

Bedtime reading: Longitude, Dava Sobel

Tomorrow's to-do list

- Call landlord about the dead bird outside my window
- Clean house
- Collect dry cleaning
- Do half a day's work
- Chip at the weekend a little and see if an agenda emerges, like a lion from marble
- Watch Survivor; hopehopehope that The Bad Man gets voted out; discuss with b2

I feel like I'm forgetting something.


Today's earrings: owls, estrogen molecules

Bedtime reading: Howl's Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones

Eye Exam

That puff of air is startling, isn't it?

The eye doc was pleasant, very professional, and younger than me. She pronounced me officially nearsighted, and said I didn't need bifocals quite yet; my current glasses will do as reading glasses until my next exam. My new glasses - Now with DistanceVision! - should be ready in a few weeks.


Today's earrings: owls, lighthouses

Bedtime reading: Glass Houses, Jane Haddam

They painted my door, sloppily.

Got home to find that my door has gone from browny-peach to battleship gray. Mostly. When I opened the door the edges were still browny-peach, which turns out to be a singularly unattractive frame for battleship gray.

They left blue tape on the knobs, too.


Today's earrings: owls, lighthouses

Bedtime reading: Hare Sitting Up, Michael Innes

[/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

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

Plus, it's good for my karma

Hoping to get to see another video of Sarah Bunting dancing around in a tomato costume, today I threw some money at the Tomato Nation fund-raising drive for Donors Choose. It's, like, totally an excellent cause, and if they make their fundraising goal, she'll go Tomato the White House. Who could resist a pitch like that?


Today's earrings: owls, rabbits

Bedtime reading: Feet of Clay, Terry Pratchett

Thinking of the children

Last week, I contemplated the overflowing shelves in my closet, and asked myself, "Self, why on earth do I have so many sheets?" Myself obligingly began to explain at length the roots of my packrat behavior.
"Enough!" I cried. "Can't you recognize a rhetorical question? Don't answer that. These sheets must go!"

Friday, I had lunch with Cricket, and I told her of my determination to rid myself of redundant linen. She replied that one of her first tasks in the coming school year will be to set her minions making little sacks for pinto beans, and if the sacks were made of castoff bedlinen, all the better for the budget. (If someone were to provide 100 pounds of pinto beans, she would have nothing left to wish for.)

Today, I presented Cricket with two sacks of the aforementioned bedlinen. It was frabjous.

Now I have to figure out what to do with all the extra pillows. Ah, well... next summer will be soon enough.


Today's earrings: owls, kangaroos (w/joeys)

Bedtime reading: Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

Smart Money

Today's earrings: owls, coins

Bedtime reading: Modesty Blaise, Peter O'Donnell

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday dear sisters,
Happy birthday to you!


Today's earrings: owls, koi

Bedtime reading: The Appleby Files, Michael Innes

Another Pleasant Valley Sunday

Lazed late. Hung about. The guys went canoeing. After lunch we bundled everyone into the car and drove to Princeton, where we had dinner with Aunt C. She seems tired. Tiger displayed his expanding knowledge of the Roman alphabet and cardinal numbers. We drove into the city and have arrived. K has just offered me a cookie, and so I must go.


Today's earrings: owls, liberty dimes

Bedtime reading: _L. Frank Baum_, Katharine M. Rogers

Tomorrow, I take flight

Fluttering off to Tigerland...

Though I hear he has lately acquired the ability to be more than one kind of cat, and also a boy.


Today's earrings: owls, crows

Bedtime reading: The Daffodil Affair, Michael Innes