1. Still not quite recovered from the New Years Eve Semi-Flu (not all the usual symptoms, which I later confirmed others had also experienced in the last couple weeks)

2. Sorting old stuff like I didn't bother to do after my father died two years ago is causing attacks of Penicillin-Resistant Nostalgia. Did I mention that when I was growing up, my dad was WAY too much like "Red Foreman" on "That 70s Show"? And a few years ago, I'd get stuck watching sitcom reruns with him and he never noticed the similarity himself? THAT is my definition of uncomfortable.

3. While I am otherwise engaged in organization, I have decided to dedicate some of my massive unproductive time in reviving some website ideas I had a long time ago (and registered domains for but never used). First up, a non-wiki-based encyclopedia of Oxymorons I call oxypedia.com. (currently a front-page intro place-holder). Yeah, Oxymoron lists are so-o-o-o 1990s internet, but I'm going to embrace the Old Skool Web (but with better design).

1. I just passed my naturalization test! Oath taking ceremony is next Thursday! Woo!

2. And I did it with some sort of crazy pounding headache which pills and coffee are not shifting. Boo!

3. But mike9322, who hasn't been on mecha in forever, is in town and is coming over for dinner! Woo!

1. I am so done with the cold weather. All I want to do is snuggle up in blankets and read and have hot beverages and food delivered to me in my blanket nest. This is always the time of year when I get super nest-driven, but the supercold is making it an even stronger urge.

2. My dance stuff is so uninspiring right now. I think my brain is frozen. Maybe once I get back into the studio, I'll feel better, but right now, I just don't give a single fuck.

3. My coworker isn't doing much today and I'm trying to avoid getting stuck with the end of day queue check, but I think I'm just going to get fucked anyways.

Congrats gaspode!!!! And sorry Senyar about your car.

1. We fly out tomorrow for Las Vegas for a business meeting. I am looking forward to seeing the people but admit I cordially hate that city and will be counting down to departure.

2. Very, very quiet at work today.

3. I think I finally figured out how to melee attack people and bloodily rip off their virtual heads in Bioshock Infinite with a PS3 move controller last night. With the difficulty level at my favorite, "easy." This has made me very happy, showing yet again what a really sad excuse for a gamer I am.

1. Hard to concentrate today for some reason, but it's the end of the workday so that doesn't matter much now.

2. Looking forward to resuming cake decorating class tonight. The kids have been drooling over my so far undecorated yellow cake on the counter. They know it will come back covered in pretty sugar so they're being patient.

3. That's about it.

Yay, gaspode! Eek, Seynar. Good luck with weather.

1. My life is a g.d. soap opera. Think I'll make a post about it.

2. Am eating tons and tons of Stouffer's macaroni and cheese due to #1.

3. Actually, #2 means that my food bills are lower, which is something I need to work on anyway.

1) I hate my job (actually it's my boss I loathe) but I'm being mindful that I'm damn lucky to have a job. Plus my commute is 5 minutes.

2) Last night I fell asleep playing Candy Crush on my laptop. This morning when I opened my laptop the game was still there. I played one move and even though there were a bunch left and I wasn't even close to beating the level, it said "Wonderful! Level completed." Some people might feel guilty about getting past a level without actually besting it but I don't. I feel quite happy.

3) However I'm kind of embarrassed that I play Candy Crush. And that I have nothing more interesting than that to post.

congrats gaspode!

1. Sympathies for the car troubles, seynar. I started 2014 with a lovely crack in my windshield big enough that I need to get the entire thing replaced. Meh.

2. I don't know why my company is doing agile. They're ignoring everything that makes agile worthwhile (less documentation, less process, less overhead). So we get to spend 4 freakin' days offsite aligning what we're doing to our yearly mission statement instead of doing the work. I so need to get out of this place.

3. This is my new theme song. If I was a sweary-type person, it'd be my new ringtone too.

At least the kid's cute and funny and going to bed without a fight again.

1. I fucked up my back shoveling snow Sunday night. (most snow in more than 35 years and coldest temps in more than 85)
2. Visit to Chiropractor on Tuesday helped a lot.
3. Helped a lot does not mean removed all pain so I haven't done much since except move food from old freezer to new one we bought with a Christmas money gift and find out that we have an eastern screech owl that sleeps in our yard each day.

1. I have a hair appointment at Aveda tonight, and they are hopefully going to help me learn to style my hair for the Edwardian Ball in San Francisco. (Last time I went, in Oct/Nov, they loved my long hair, and the girl told me I could come in and she would teach me how to do different styles. I'm totally up for this because I mostly just put it up in a bun, and I'd love to learn to do more with it.)

2. We're going to San Francisco next week! A little anxious about getting around without a car, but we'll do fine. We may do muni, but we'll likely just walk some and then do uber/taxis. I get to see a friend I haven't seen in almost six years who lives there, too.

3. I took my grandmother to an appointment to learn to self-catheterize yesterday. She was very anxious, but she tried it last night, and she was able to do it! This is great, as it will likely decrease the number of UTIs she is having, and no UTI means no UTI caused memory lapses. hurray!

1. It is difficult not to talk about the weather, which is still cold but warming up this weekend with rain, which I hope will get rid of the sheet of ice on my driveway -- I am tired of putting on spikes to get from the car to the house (a distance of probably less than 20 feet, but perilous).

2. Been reading a lot about Julia Child lately. Also I got this book for Christmas and am enjoying it so far, although it has so much going on at once that it is slow going. It's a book you'd never want to buy used, because it has so many loose items stuffed inside it, how would you know they're all there?

3. Two of my typewriters are in the shop. I miss them.

1) I would like to see an eastern screech owl. Or any owl, for that matter. Except a dead one.

2) I was hoping the fits & starts with business would fade with 2013, but a large project I've been waiting to start for 18 months is still fitting & starting. Realllly tired of the perpetual cashflow crisis.

3) Launching new cabinet line in March that will be for folks that like modern cabinets. Not traditional ones. It's a better quality, slightly higher priced IKEA. I'm nervous.

This is my new pal.

≡ Click to see image ≡

COOL! so he just hangs out & doesn't even care you're right there?

I'm stepping up my blog game in preparation for eschewing my physical existence in favor of a purely digital one.

also, shows

1. Finally scheduled myself for surgery for my back for the end of the month. Not too excited about the idea but I'm pretty sick about being in pain and not being able to do anything.

2. Still waiting on a job offer.

3. In my spare time, I'm fighting with the city about a small water main in front of the house that's been trickling for two months now and is causing a giant ice flow half way down the street. Half the street has been calling the water authority, 311 and emailed our city counselor's office and it's still not fixed. Our next door neighbor's car is stuck in about a foot of ice right now.

1. Congratulations, citizeness!
That must be said with an English playing French revolutionary tone a la Scarlet Pimpernel with Richard E. Grant. Have some ridiculously large portions of mediocre food.

2. Owls have been a surprise recurring theme for about a month, with a George Takei gif of a crowd of there there and one staring at a naked Mindy Kaling there. More random sprinkling of owl, always welcome.

3. There is this chronic air of locked room mystery always lurking about this place, which has it's pros and cons. Pro: there's always a puzzle that needs unraveling. Con: what the what what? I just had that in my hand; where is it? The 32g is in the camera; where's the 1g? Why is this case fully assembled without the electroguts? Why is there a gallon of cold noodle salad?

The call is always from inside the house, I just have to figure out what kind of wacky conversation was going on that left a half made 3 ft wire scorpion monster in one corner and another cleaned to the point of sterility. As whatever crime has already been committed, there's rarely an urgent timetable, and odd things are learned/found along the way.
For instance, old comic panels from the late 80s entitled The Web which is strangely about the internet without being at all about the internet, and others from a story in the early 90s were we'd all have these solid blocks about the size of a book that we carried in cool map bag things that were our computers that we just slotted into available terminals-- i'd still like something like this because it was suppose to be a hardy type of thing you could bean someone in the head with, black box material that never dies, damages or goes obsolete. Since it wasn't dated as having happened yet, it's still possible that technology will hit some leveling off point where there is some type of solid, reliable, non-disposable generic format/ hardware--

Computers have no excuse being fragile AND expensive.

Chewy I was squatting a foot away from him when I took that picture. He is very chill. I believe he has been living here for about a year although I did not know it.

For almost a year at night I have been periodically hearing something that I could not identify as bird or mammal. Over the same period something has been sleeping under a spruce tree at the side of the house and when startled has flown out but too fast for me to see clearly.

The owl has been sleeping against the side door for the last few days and the door is next to the tree.

After identifying him as an Eastern Screech owl I downloaded their sounds and realized that they were the odd night sounds I had heard.

I think he has been here a long time and is comfortable with me around. He is sleeping next to the door because we rarely get snow that stays here but this week we got an epic amount that has clogged the underside of the tree.

"More random sprinkling of owl, always welcome." You are welcome!

Octo, that sucks. We had flooding in our alley a few months ago and I called 311 and they had a truck here to clear the drain in less than an hour. A few months before that we had a bank owned home with months of uncut grass and 311 got them to get a work crew out to clean everything up the next day. I don't feel so bad about our large property tax bill now. So while it's no help to you thanks for that.

As far as I can tell 311 just pipes into /dev/null.

We just got a new mayor on Monday who's vowed to get things working in city government so I have some hope.

Bah. Didn't get the job. Kinda wish that they hadn't taken a month to reject me.

Just found out that a friend of mine got the job so I don't feel as bad. He's a really good guy and is supporting his wife and kids while I'm sponging off of my well-paid wife.

Bummer, octo, but yeah, at least there's a bright side to look at.

Good luck for the surgery!

How great of you to see the bright side, octo! Here's to thawing soon.

arey that owl is so awesome. I've never seen on in real life but I have heard them.

Hmm. "Sponging off my wife" doesn't sound as funny as I meant it to. But our household income was a lot less effected by my layoff then my friend's was since he was the sole breadwinner.

That sucks when they take forever to tell you no Octo. Better luck next time.