Went to church

St. Boniface. Pretty little church. They opened with "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today," and after the end of the service, the organist played the "Hallelujah Chorus." Sadly, no one but me stuck around to sing, and I tend to get lost in the more involved sections without a leader to follow. But i still got to sing along, which is much of the point.

I do need to stop going to Catholic churches, though. The order of service just feels off to me. Protestant4evah, I guess.

M brought K/S/D back, and we went for Indian food. The camping trip was most eventful.


Today's earrings: dragonflies, other dragonflies

Bedtime reading: Passage, Connie Willis

Collected rug from the cleaners

The dude at the cleaners really wanted me to have them mend it as well. Which, yeah, it could use mending, but no, I can't afford it.

Re-arranged all the rugs for good measure.


Bedtime reading: Passage, Connie Willis

Deposited CA tax refund

Called the rug cleaner: ready for pickup tomorrow



Today's earrings: pineapples, peas

Bedtime reading: Passage, Connie Willis

Checked the mortgage early repayment calculator

Figured out how much I should be chipping off the principal each month to get it paid off before I hit 65, and it's a doable number under current conditions.
=> There are no penalties for early repayment; I checked that before I signed the contract.
Got CA tax refund. :)


Today's earrings: sand dollars, trees

Bedtime reading: Passage, Connie Willis

Played legos with Tiger

Plus, Seder @ M's. Turns out my earrings were thematically appropriate.


Today's earrings: frogs, dragonflies

Bedtiem reading: Passage, Connie Willis

Made up the windowseat as a bed for Tiger

Cute child is cute.


Today's earrings: rockets, other rockets

Bedtime reading: Passage, Connie Willis

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

Tidied everything away

So the stuff is all put away, but some of it I'm going to have to pull out again for final decision making. *sigh*

There was more gossip.


Bedtime reading: Passage, Connie Willis

Re-arranged the left side of the closet

Also, pulled out the linens and pillows and ran the comforters through the wash.

I spent a lot of the day on the phone. There was news. And gossip. Juicy, juicy gossip.


Bedtime reading: Passage, Connie Willis

Yeah, I'm going to have to do two things tomorrow.

Sometimes I miss LA. Just for the dry brown air. Maybe I'll take the train down there sometime, breathe the air, get over the nostalagia...


Today's earrings: mice, pumpkin coaches

Bedtime reading: Passage, Connie Willis

Dropped off the hangers; rec'd angry mobs

The world is good.


Today's earrings: mermaids, manatees

Bedtime reading: Passage, Connie Willis

Shifted the dry-cleaning pile to a less conspicuous spot

To do:
- take hangers back to the dry cleaner
- send silver to be mended
- go through left-hand side of the closet
- wash linens (Sunday)
- shelve everything (Monday)
- entertain guests (Tuesday)
- go through basement storage
- get blender & toaster steam-cleaned
- get luggage? <-- not sure I actually need it
- find somewhere else to stash the games


Today's earrings: wyverns, brooms

Bedtime reading: Passage, Connie Willis

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

Re-arranged dishes & bakeware

Now the the stuff I'm actually using is in front. Seems obvious, yes?


Today's earrings: monkeys, spaceships

Bedtime reading: Blackout, Connie Willis

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

Caroling

This evening we presented our annual Bottle 'O Cheer to the gang at our Friday pizza joint; they responded by presenting us with pizza and wine. Then we presented each other with Christmas presents. (They say you can't always get what you want. But if you tell your BFF, you might get exactly what you want. To mix a pop-culture reference, I love it when a plan comes together.)

After, we went by Gump's to look at the shiny objects. There was a spouting-whale ornament, and I made one of the employees laugh at me for being an obnoxious drunk. We went to the Palace to see the gingerbread sculptures and the pretty tree. We caroled Market Street on the way to our several public transits. We knew the same arrangement of "Carol of the Bells," so she sang soprano and I sang alto. The alto part is easy to remember, even when boozed up: Ding, dong, ding, dong, ding, dong, ding, dong...


Today's earrings: compasses

Bedtime reading: Miracle, Connie Willis

Office Party

It was oddly archetypal. I arrived last (pleading work), got some pretty decent food from the buffet, donned a silly hat in response to peer pressure, watched the boss's boss present stuff to senior staff, and was the first to slip back to my desk (pleading work). From my desk, I heard the music get louder, and the woman I don't like cried, "Karaoke!" Later refugees told me there was dancing. One of them stayed and talked to me for twenty minutes because his office was at Party Central and, he said, the woman I don't like kept insisting he dance with her. Around 1pm, my boss announced a half day, and people started wandering off. I left at 3pm (lots of work) and went to Green Apple.


Today's earrings: turquoise, turtles

Bedtime reading: Miracle, Connie Willis

Here lizard, lizard, lizard

Today's earrings: lizards, rocks

Bedtime reading: Miracle, Connie Willis

The Blue Dog

October

loss of one of the senses

weltschmerz

unnatural vice

disorders of the knee

diseases of the tongue

disturbances

miscarriage of a child

an accident in a garage

dementia

fraud

a quarrel

wispiness

-- Edward Gorey, The Fantod Pack, or, The Awful Vista of the Year

Today's earrings: skeletal fish

Bedtime reading: To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis

Rediscovered

Got in to work this morning to find an email from HF (the one who called me out of the blue last Monday). Thanks for the email info, he says, but can he have real addresses? Spent the day trying to come up with a polite way to say, "Of course not." I shall think about it tomorrow.

Just as I was about to go home, I got an email from K, forwarding a note from a guy I knew all the way back in C'ville. He didn't find me on the web, he said, but he remembered meeting my mathematician sister once, so he took a chance that K was her, and she is. I just sat there and gaped at the screen. I haven't seen him in about 15 years. I wonder why he's writing now.

I wonder who'll find me next Monday.


Today's earrings: turtles, shells

Bedtime reading: To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis