Closed eTrade account

This is the third try. Let's hope it took this time.


Today's earrings: lizards, rocks

Bedtime reading: Passage, Connie Willis


This is post #900

I have Cheerios

But should I get yogurt, and possibly granola? Inquiring minds want to know.


Today's earrings: lizards, rocks

Bedtime reading: Night Watch, Terry Pratchett

To cable, or not to cable?

Just got a bill from Comcast, so I need to call and browbeat them into not sending me any more bills. Or I could let them coax me into becoming a customer again.

On the "stay away" side, we have the expense, the general evil of monopolies, and the specific evil that is Comcast. Also, Netflix and next-day online rebroadcasts.

On the "go back" side, we have my Thursday night conversations with b2 and the delights of channel-flipping.


Today's earrings: lizards, rocks

Bedtime reading: Rat Race, Dick Francis

Giveaway, Part 2

VHS tapes! Yes, most of them are home recordings of Survivor. But! There's also a copy of Dogma and part of a box set of The Avengers.

Does anyone still pay for vinyl?


Today's earrings: lizards, rocks

Bedtime reading: Hip Deep in Alligators, Robert Campbell

How I spent my afternoon

Note: "brides chaussure" is not labeled on this diagram. We decided to go with "pull tab," though "bootstrap" was a strong contender.

Today's earrings: frogs, rocks

Bedtime reading: Swan for the Money, Donna Andrews

Drinks at the Elks Club

One of my coworkers just became an Elk, and he graciously asked a few of us to have a drink with him in the club bar. It's a very nice bar, right above Farallon. We had several drinks.

On my way to the bus I succumbed to the siren call of the bookstore. They didn't have Repo Man in stock, so I made do with a remaindered copy of Thelma and Louise.


Today's earrings: deer, rocks

Bedtiem reading: Sand Sharks, Margaret Maron

Hot Hot Hot

With puppets.



Today's earrings: lizards, rocks

Bedtime reading: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling

It's a sign

Today's earrings: llamas, rocks

Bedtime reading: Death's Half Acre, Margaret Maron

More computer fun

Got home tonight to find that I couldn't get online. Had a nice chat with the help dude at my ISP, and discovered that it wasn't them; somehow, Explorer and FireFox had gotten set to a proxy server that was refusing connections. Proxy server? huh?


Today's earrings: lizards, rocks

Bedtime reading: "Like Little Ducks Each Day," R.A. Lafferty

On the radio this morning

There was a story about a woman who's been harvesting the trees in people's yards and passing the fruit on to the food bank. (Yes, she gets permission first.)
http://www.kgoam810.com/Article.asp?id=1223871&nId=9&spid=15884

Google tells me that gleaning projects have been going on for years in various places around the country.


Today's earrings: lizards, rocks

Bedtime reading: Lafferty in Orbit, R.A. Lafferty

I blame W.

If the Lame Duck had signed one particular piece of paper any time last week, I would now be on schedule.

I'm not on schedule.

grrrr. arrrgh.


Today's earrings: ants, rocks

Bedtime reading: Soon I Will Be Invincible, Austin Grossman

Here lizard, lizard, lizard

Today's earrings: lizards, rocks

Bedtime reading: Miracle, Connie Willis

Missing Macy's

So, yesterday I was kinda halfway going to go down to Macy's Herald Square and shop. But time got away from me, and what with one thing and another, I didn't go.
"I'll go tomorrow," I told myself. "Definitely."

Today dawned dark and rainy, and stayed that way into the afternoon.
"Huh," I said to myself, "this is an excellent day to stay in and drink coffee." So I did. First I played with K's coffee grinder. It was most entertaining. Then I surfed the web, ate leftover Chinese food, and read a little Twain.

Then everyone came home and we ate pesto.


Today's earrings: pineapples, rocks

Bedtime reading: Life on the Mississippi, Mark Twain

Bechdel Test

Ive been thinking about the Bechdel Test this week. What passes, what doesn't, why I keep watching the stuff that doesn't pass, all that. Tonight channel 54 had on a couple British mysteries, followed by a last season episode of Dr Who, all of which passed the Test. And I wondered, is it that British television just produces more stuff that passes, or is it that only stuff that will tend to pass gets picked up by PBS? Does it matter?


Today's earrings: lobsters, rocks

Bedtime reading: The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett

Decisions

Went to see some more apartments with NRL. This one place... it's a well-laid-out workable size, the price is right, and it's too far from work to walk but there is a direct bus line. It's really close to the freeway and the CalTrain tracks; the noise wasn't too bad on a Sunday afternoon, but I bet you hear it all late at night. It's also hot in there. Lots of windows in the common hallways.

The catch is, the place is only affordable for me if I can get one of the remaining units reserved for the below market rate program. There's no lottery on this place. All I have to do is be one of the next three people to put in an ap and get financing. But if I go through the BMR program, NRL gets no commission on the sale. We didn't know that when we walked in, and the selling agent waited until we were just about out the door before he mentioned it. (I don't think that he was trying to be a jerk about it, but he succeeded anyway.) If I don't go through the BMR program, the price doubles.


Today's earrings: flowers, rocks

Bedtime reading: Feet of Clay, Terry Pratchett

Full day, with serious ick factor.

New Dude started work today. (Yay! Hooray!) I spent a couple hours explaining Turkey. Then I went to lunch with the Cricket. We did not eat turkey. In the afternoon, I got a little work done while fielding questions from New Dude.

Met b2 for wine & pizza after work. We were waiting at the counter for the staff to uncork another bottle so we could have seconds when Hot Guy appeared in search of a quick slice. We invited him to sit with us. We talked tv for a while, then HG told me I'd missed a team-building exercise: after I left, my colleagues had decided to clean the Troll's desk. HG had decided to do something about the mold growing in the coffee cup that the Troll had left half-full when he went on vacation, and I guess things escalated from there. They shook a loaf's worth of crumbs out of the keyboard, chipped the filth from the desktop... but there wasn't much they could do about the crusted yellow stain on the chair. Ewwwwwwwwwwww. Then HG left to pursue his evening plans, and b2 and moved on to less revolting topics.


Today's earrings: lizards, rocks

Bedtime reading: Modesty Blaise, Peter O'Donnell

cover songs

"Wuthering Heights," by the Puppini Sisters
"Smells Like Teen Spirit," by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain
"Black Hole Sun," by Steve & Eydie

I looked for covers of "Rock Lobster," but people kept ruining it by trying to do Kate & Cindy's vocal parts and failing miserably. Maybe the Puppini Sisters could do it justice...


Today's earrings: lobsters, rocks

Bedtime reading: The Appleby File, Michael Innes

Another low-concentration day

Having trouble thinking of things to say.


Today's earrings: diamonds, pebbles

Bedtime reading: The Daffodil Affair, Michael Innes

Honey in the Rock

I've got a home in that rock don't you see
I've got a home in that rock don't you see
I've got a home in that rock just beyond the mountain top
I've got a home in that rock don't you see

Chorus
Oh there's honey in the rock for me
There's honey in the rock for me
There's honey in the rock just beyond the mountain top
Oh there's honey in the rock for me

God gave Noah the rainbow sign don't you see,
God gave Noah the rainbow sign don't you see,
God gave Noah the rainbow sign, no more water but the fire next time
God gave Noah the rainbow sign don't you see

Oh, I'm climbing up the King's highway,
Oh, I'm climbing up the King's highway,
Got old Satan on my track, never think of lookin' back
Oh, I'm climbing up the King's highway

Today's earrings: bees, rocks

Bedtime reading: "Grasshoppers and Wild Honey," R.A. Lafferty

A bit cloudy here

Still trying to process the llama = gun thing. And the spitting.

Ooh, Cricket, if it's story ideas the kid wants, you could point him toward Lang's varicolored compendia. Lots of stories.


Today's earrings: monkeys, rocks

Bedtime reading: Space Chantey, R.A. Lafferty