Found out who's on the third floor across the street

http://www.nlrb.gov/region/san-francisco
http://www.hoteltonight.com/

Ordered coat rack

It is not the One True Coat Rack. It is, however, reasonably priced, and looks capable of fulfilling its function.

Paid property tax

The line at city hall was shorter than I expected. Later I picked up the linens from the dry cleaner, as intact as they ever were.


Today's earrings: scarabs

Bedtime reading: Hundred Dollar Baby, Robert B. Parker

Mailed taxes

So, ok, the taxes got spread out over three or four days, but they're DONE, and three weeks early, too.

I made myself salmon chowder to celebrate. :)


Today's earrings: scarabs

Bedtime reading: The Android's Dream, John Scalzi

Collected dry cleaning; emptied dishwasher

So that's two things, really.

In other news, a teenager jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge today and walked away. The surfers who fished him out gave him a good tongue-lashing, though.


Today's earrings: scarabs

Bedtime reading: The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan

Thirty-seven minutes

Or, how long it takes a Kansas jury to convict a confessed murderer. :)

In other news, the endodontist says he'd like to wait a month and see if the tooth doesn't pull itself together before he starts recommending root canal.


Today's earrings: scarabs

Bedtime reading: Hard Row, Margaret Maron

Land of the inappropriate cover tune

Road to Nowhere.


Today's earrings: scarabs

Bedtime reading: Driving Force, Dick Francis

On my lawn

Some kind of teenage class trip occupied the back half of the bus this morning, and they chattered the whole way downtown. I wanted to turn to them and shout, "HEY! We do not talk on the bus! SHUT UP!"

Fortunately for everyone, I hadn't had my coffee yet.


Today's earrings: scarabs

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

Y'know, I gotta ask

WTF is up with Round Table Pizza's consistently creepy advertising? If they aren't sending the souls of vegetables through the pearly gates, they've got a guy earnestly entreating a pizza to "put on a topping." Does this crap really sell pizzas? Because I find it more than a little off-putting.


Today's earrings: scarabs

Bedtime reading: Bad Monkeys, Matt Ruff

In which we discover that my priorities are not all one might hope.

Yesterday, I checked the real estate section on Craigslist (as I do on a Sunday) and found a posting for that apartment I wanted so badly and couldn't get financing for. It's been relisted. I was having trouble breathing, so I called M and said "ohmygodohmygodohmygod" for a while. She was very soothing. With her help, I managed to read the post carefully enough to figure out that there's no lottery this time: the first application complete with mortgage pre-approval gets the apartment. Which means... ohmygod... I have a credit card... this could work... OH NO WHAT IF SOMEONE ELSE GETS THERE FIRST! M did that soothing thing some more. I called the selling agent, and he said yes, I'd have to complete a new application. He also pointed me to the list of approved lenders and the list of additional hoops I'd need to jump through. I tried calling a couple of the lenders, just in case, but it was still Sunday. This morning I tried again, but didn't get far. I joined the crew at M's, and we headed off to Walnut Creek.

Maggie's memorial was packed. The parking lot was full, the big banquet hall was full - we brought in extra tables, and there were still people sitting in chairs lined up against the walls. T spoke, Maggie's friends and coworkers and neighbors and fellow travelers spoke, and everybody told lovely stories of Maggie being fun and happy and kind with a cigarette in one hand and a glass of wine in the other. Nice lady, our cousin.

After, I went home and got a banker on the phone. She was a little dubious about my shortness of credit, but not discouraging. I also made an appointment to jump through some of those other hoops. I'm not trying to be zen, because, well, yeah. Instead I'm going with a "magical thinking has no effect on outcome" stance. Either I can get financing, or I can't; either I will be the one to submit the first complete application, or I won't. I have taken all the actions that I can take for right now. And the rest of it I can't control.

But wish me luck anyway.


Today's earrings: scarabs

Bedtime reading: Strong Poison, Dorothy L. Sayers

belated Pi Day song

http://pi.ytmnd.com/


Today's earrings: scarabs

Bedtime reading: Glass Houses, Jane Haddam

Rain, rain go away

Dear Rain,

Please stop falling on me and go be snowpack in the Sierras instead.

Pleadingly,
iiii


Today's earrings: scarabs

Bedtime reading: "Sunbird," Neil Gaiman

Stacey's is closing

Which is awful. However, there is an associated sale. Anyone want to come into the city for bookshopping purposes this weekend?


Today's earrings: scarabs

Bedtime reading: "Sunbird," Neil Gaiman

I have a posable emu

Just wanted to share that with you all.


Today's earrings: scarabs

Bedtime reading: Smoke and Mirrors, Neil Gaiman

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

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

Busy day

This morning, I
- got back my copy of Serenity from a coworker. He finished Firefly last week, and is a convert to the Browncoat Cause. I have urged him to watch Dr Horrible, and plan to start feeding him Buffy this winter.*
- sent the last of yesterday's updates to publish.
- got an errata slip for the book I've been working on off & on all summer; fixed it.
- got as an offer of source materials (for another update I made yesterday) from D. Said I'd already done the update.
- printed up & handed off a different (1757 page) book to be proofed in depth and at length. 1757 pages take quite a while to download, in case you were wondering.
- finished proofing the book I've been working on all summer.
- got an email from D explaining that what she meant was that yesterday's update hadn't posted correctly. Checked & found that the update had not posted externally. Sent note to IT about the publish delay.
- went and talked to the lead programmer about whether he could re-write the logic for this one thing, or if I'd have to spend the rest of the week doing it by hand. He came up with a third alternative, which won't solve the problem permanently, but can be done by tomorrow without further effort from me. Love that dude.
- answered a customer question about sugar quotas. Verily, they are most weird.
- got another email from D explaining that what she really meant was an errata slip for the update I'd done yesterday, which had posted internally. Fixed it. That woman loves to waste my time.
- checked the primary sources for the the book I've been working on all summer and found the announcement of more changes, but the details are TBA. I could hold off and wait for all the details to be published... decided to finally get this @%$!*#% thing off my desk instead.
- got the written part of my performance review, which said I'm all competent-like and make the office a shinier place just by showing up.
- went to have lunch with b2 in an excellent mood.


Today's earrings: scarabs

Bedtime reading: Nation, Terry Pratchett


________________
*Mua ha ha ha ha! Ha ha!

The Girls of Slender Means

Long ago in 1945 all the nice people in England were poor, allowing for exceptions. The streets of the cities were lined with buildings in bad repair or in no repair at all, bomb-sites piled with stony rubble, houses like giant teeth in which decay had been drilled out, leaving only the cavity. Some bomb-ripped buildings looked like the ruins of ancient castles until, at a closer view, the wallpapers of various quite normal rooms would be visible, room above room, exposed, as on a stage, with one wall missing; sometimes a lavatory chain would dangle over nothing from a fourth- or fifth-floor ceiling; most of all the staircases survived, like a new art-form, leading up to an unspecified destination that made unusual demands on the mind's eye. All the nice people were poor; at least, that was a general axiom, the best of the rich being poor in spirit.

- - Muriel Spark

Today's earrings: scarabs

Bedtime reading: The Girls of Slender Means, Muriel Spark

Finis

When you have shot and killed a man you have in some measure clarified your attitude toward him. You have given a definite answer to a definite problem. For better or worse you have acted decisively.

In a way, the next move is up to him.

- - R.A. Lafferty

Today's earrings: scarabs

Bedtime reading: Golden Gate, R.A. Lafferty

Farmer's market today

There was preponderance of stone fruits and a dearth of properly joyful tomatoes... *sigh*


Today's earrings: scarabs

Bedtime reading: The Appleby File, Michael Innes