A damp hero

Last night was mostly a typical Monday night at Casa de Jammies.  Work sucked on toast, it was cold, raining and horrendously windy, and I was glad to get home, shuck out of my work clothes and settle down to read a nice, spooky, vampire apocalypse novel.  The Twelve, by Justin Cronin, if you're curious.   The dogs were both fairly needy, thanks to the wind, and after the third time Little Miss Piggie Pie tried to climb into my lap, I gave up on reading and headed for the computer.

Around nine o'clock, I was sitting at my desk with four programs running on my desktop computer when the power went out.  I waited a minute until I was sure that the power wasn't coming back on immediately, and then I reached over and turned off the power bar for the computer and peripherals before pushing back my chair.  Because the study is at the back of the house, there was very little light coming into the room.  When my eyes adjusted, the first thing I saw was six glowing spots to my right.  After a blink or two, I realized it was my glow-in-the-dark nail polishes!

If you've never tried to navigate a pitch-black house with dogs pressed to your legs, I can't give you any advice, because once I got past the study door to the hallway, I could see the light from the streetlamps.  All the lights were on at the sub-station across the street, so I lit some candles and called my folks to request a wake-up call in the morning in case the power wasn't back on by 6.

Okay, technically, I called my mother, because the only time my dad sees 6 a.m. is from the wrong side.

Then I picked up my knitting and did four rows on The Scarf That Will Take Forever.

At about twenty to ten, Little Miss Piggie Pie started going crazy, running back and forth from the living room window to the breezeway door, barking her head off.  I tried telling her that nobody would be walking or bicycling past her turf on a night like this, but she persisted.  I finished my row, set the knitting aside and walked out to the breezeway and looked out the door.

There was in fact someone out there, a dark shape on foot, with a flashlight.  After a minute or so, I realized that it was the poor city electrical worker who was on call last night, walking between the substation building and the cage full of, um, transformers?  about a house lot away.  And he stayed out there, going back and forth between the two, for the rest of the evening.  Granted, by the time I went to bed at 11:30, he was no longer on foot but taking his truck back and forth, but he was still working to get my power back on.

I read a few more chapters in my scary book, thanks to the LED book light Sherri gave me, then set up the coffee, set the alarm on my cell phone, and went to bed.  When I woke up at 5:30, the power was on, but I thought it was only 3:30, so it's a good thing Mom called at 6.

So tonight I am raising my glass to all of the gas and electric workers, the damp heroes out there getting the power back on and keeping people warm and safe and well-lit.  Thank you all.

Serious Paypal Stupidity

(cross-posted from Bubbles & Baubles)


Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab recently re-introduced single note scents, which change monthly.  This month, the scents are (or rather were) Iranian Galbanum and Rum-Soaked French Tonka.   If you're a reasonably internet-savvy person who doesn't happen to know that these are perfume components, you look them up.

If you're a drooling idiot who works for Paypal, however, you shut down the account of a perfume vendor who is selling a perfume with that name.  Really, Paypal, have you NO employees there with brains?

Wonderful video

The adorable Jack Russell?  He's co-owned and trained by one of my Goodreads pals.  Yay Milo!

Bits and pieces

Dad left for the lake house this afternoon, after staying up until 5:30 a.m., sleeping until 11 a.m. and packing the car/playing on the computer/drinking coffee until 1:30 p.m.  Mom's not going up until after her pre-trial on Friday, but my aunt and uncle arrive from Colorado tomorrow, so someone's got to be there.

Dad just e-mailed Mom and me a list of all the things he forgot to bring, which he wants Mom to bring with her, and closed the e-mail with "All is well here.  Buddy looks happy."  Buddy, of course, is the new golf cart.

Little Miss Piggie Pie just belched, and her breath is so incredibly stinky that the smell of my newly-polished nails is preferable.  That was disgusting.

I have a new floor steamer, a Haan FS20, and I love it!

That's pretty much the news from 'round here.

Ugh.

The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Just ugh.  I give up.  The mention of Victorian perfumery sucked me in, but there's nothing of the art of perfume in this novel and not one likable character anywhere.  While I don't object to sex scenes in my reading, I do object to an abundance of dreary, joyless, sometimes disgusting sex scenes and overblown writing that gets the plot nowhere.


View all my reviews

A Jammies Family E-mail Exchange

Plaid Jammies:  I just bought a really fancy golf cart for the lake house.  It seats six!

Captain Crossword: Wow!

Jammies:  I bought a new coffeemaker for $20.

Jeeves:  SHOTGUN!

Of buying and books and boycotts and bastards

In February, one of my favorite contemporary authors was put through a miserable period of stress thanks to Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  Ms. Seanan McGuire tells her story much better than I would, so please go here to read it.

I stopped buying from Amazon years ago, when they said they'd continue to sell magazines about dog-fighting even though dog-fighting is illegal, and I was glad of that when they unfairly de-rated LGBT authors.  But I've been a Barnes & Noble customer for ten years, and continued to buy from them, reasoning that it was a one-time error and wouldn't happen again.

Well, it did.  In fact, they're doing it right now, and so I am done giving them any of my money.  I pre-ordered the book I want from Books-A-Million, and will happily wait until September 4th to read it.

My discretionary spending isn't much.  It's a drop in the ocean compared to what Bastards & Noble get daily, let alone yearly.  Still, it's my drop, and I will not put it in their ocean until they stop this tactic.  *sigh*  It's very discouraging that they feel the need to put profit ahead of author relationships, but I guess that's the way the world is going.

Quick update

1. I turned down a job in Columbus because I'm not ready to move, but it was nice to have the offer.

2. I ripped off half a toenail a week ago and it still hurts.

3. In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, Mouse got distressingly and messily sick in my bedroom, leading to a 4 a.m. wakeup and much laundry, followed by an excruciating morning as Mom and I worked on an estate where the final balance had to be divided between 14 people in 3 generations.  Ack, fractions!

4. We got it done and out, yay!

5. Apparently, some people think it's okay to send 38 or 57 page faxes.  No, no it's not.

6. I am still alive. :)

Random pic spam!

The ice cream cone piñata that Mom and I made:

Sad Mouse with black eye:

 

 

Sad Mouse with ice pack:

Eventful!

The family schedule for June and July:

June 16th: my parents' 50th wedding anniversary
June 17th: Father's Day
July 4th through the 9th: Jammiesfest
July 13th through the 22nd: My nephews staying with Mom and Dad
July 25th: My father's birthday
July 28th through August 4th: My nieces staying with Mom and Dad

August 4th through August 12th: Most of the whole famdamily staying at Lakeside.

*whew*

Some highlights:

Jay, Sherri and Zeus the Wonder Poodle came for Jammiesfest and rearranged my living room, cleaned all the glassware and alphabetized the books.  Yes, I'm a little embarrassed by letting my friends see the cobwebby corners and work on their vacations, but I'm also thrilled at having a living room I can actually live in!  And I did take them out for Thai food and make yummy lemon pound cake...

On my birthday, I woke up to a dog who looked like a losing prizefighter.  Mr. Mouse had gotten stung or bitten and his right eye was swollen shut.  Two vet visits, two weeks in the Collar of Shame, two steroids, two antibiotics and close to two hundred dollars later and he is fine.

The Awesome Nacho remembered that I like lavender and got me a lovely lavender soap for my birthday, and SuperDoughnut got me an adorable birdhouse.

Thanks to the new working arrangements, I got to see my nephews every day they were here.

For his birthday, I took my retro Dad to RetroDog, which was fun.  My hot dog was good, Dad's onion rings looked superb and Dad liked it so much he and Mom took the girls there.

I got to see Bookworm Mathgeek for a couple of hours on the 28th, which was my only chance to spend some time with her before December, as she's not going up to the lake (and I'm only going for one day this year). 

The girls had a tea party and invited Vegan Lawyer, her granddaughter and her stepgranddaughter.  Cupcakes were decorated and frosted and eaten, fancy dresses were worn, t-shirts and hats and birdhouses were painted and a good time was had by all.

Mom took my nieces and I to the Natatorium, and Princess Mathgeek rode the water slide at least 10 times.  Tinkerbelle climbed all the way to the top of the stairs, only to be told she was too short. :(  So I went up with her and basically bullied the lifeguard into letting her go down once with me.  Then they both jumped off the diving board multiple times and swam with me in the current pool.  Mom took pictures and said the water was too cold.  The next day, Mom took the girls to the outdoor water park and Tinkerbelle was tall enough to ride two of the four waterslides.

My father was so excited about his new tablet that he backed into my car and tore the driver's side mirror loose. 

Despite all this, Mom and I managed to complete and send out three notary subpoenas, many letters, and 270 pages of responses to interrogatories.  Today I am doing laundry and making a half-hearted effort to clean, and then tomorrow I will drive up to the lake for a few hours, spend some time with Captain Crossword and Jeeves, and then drive home.

From "Erk" to "Ewwwwww!" in 63 pages.

The Scroll of Seduction: A Novel by Gioconda Belli





Actual review is after the jump because of spoilers.

Happy Anniversary!

My parents have been married 50 years!

Google Chrome sucks

and Blogger sucks for making me use it in order to upload photos and add links.  I will not be using Google+ any more in protest.  Assholes.

The Valiant Little Oxalis

Mom and Dad went to Dad's 50th college reunion last weekend, then spent a week up at the lake house with three other couples.  They had a good time, Aunt Sarah wore and got compliments on the nail polish necklace I made for her, and she and Mom did some wallet damage at a big nursery up there. 

Today, I went out to Mom and Dad's to drop off the tomato plants I've been coddling for Mom and to get drinking water (since Dad shuts off the house water when they're gone for more than 48 hours).  The house was quiet when I got there, and I figured Dad was still asleep and Mom was outside working, so I filled my water bottles, put them in the trunk, unloaded the tomato plants and then went looking for Mom.  She was doing cleanup in the side yard, but was happy to take a break and have a cup of coffee and talk with me. 

As we walked back to the house, Mom said, "Oh, look at that!" and pointed to the compost heap.  Growing out of the remains of a Boston fern that Mom had put on the compost early this spring was a big, beautiful burgundy oxalis!  Mom said it was a shame to leave it there, and I told her I'd be thrilled to take it.  We got a pot from the shed (which the plant was too big for!) and I put it in my car with the water bottles.  Then Mom told me that the gorgeous purple calla lilies in a matching pot on the porch table were for me!  So after Mom and I talked, Dad woke up and I said good morning to him and Mom had given me her opinion on the nail polish jewelry I brought, I headed back home, short four tomato plants but ahead on callas and oxalis.

Now I have to go do laundry, bleah.

Once upon a time...

I had a job that became unbearable and I quit.  Before I did, though, I had three years of working in an office that looked like a ski lodge and had floor-to-ceiling windows all the way around the first floor.  In winter, it was like working inside a snow globe.

Driving to and from work, I passed a cute little mid-century ranch with a breezeway connecting the garage to the house and sighed over it.  Three years after quitting the job, I saw a for sale sign on the house and bought it.

The daughter of one of my co-workers at the apartment complex replaced me as Mom's assistant when I went to work for Hyphenated Corp.

So there were a lot of complex emotions roiling around inside me when I heard about this:

Fire rips through apartment complex.

And when I saw this:



I sent one of the property managers an e-mail telling her to let me know if I could help, but I don't know if the address is even still valid.  *sigh*

Beautiful day for a road trip

Mom and Dad picked me up at 6:30 yesterday morning for a quick trip to Columbus.  It was my first time riding in Dad's new GMC Acadia, and it's a nice car, but the leg room in the back is really minimal!  Anyway, we made it to Powell in time to see the younger of my nephews test for and get his orange belt in Taekwondo, and then go out for brunch.

My elder nephew has celiac, and because he didn't want to make his brother choose a different restaurant than his favorite, he ate at the house before we went.  This is pretty typical of The Awesome Nacho, who is very considerate of others.  This is in complete contrast to his grandfather, who pitched a hissy fit about how expensive cigarettes are when I bummed one from him and then said he'd like to spend $10/month for a cell phone that would live on Mom's bike just in case she needed it.  He also made us late leaving for brunch and late leaving to come home, because it's all about him.  He was a little surprised and offended when we stopped at Starbucks on the way back and I refused his offer of a coffee.  After the little display in the car earlier, I was not going to spend any of his money!

The important thing, though, is that SuperDoughnut did very well on his test, got his new belt, and got brunch with his family on a beautiful day.  :)

Why I spent every free minute of the last four days...

reading the same book twice.  That book was Blackout by Mira Grant.
It's a sci-fi / horror / political thriller / love story / action movie novel all rolled into one, and it is intense.

Okay, thing one about this review--spoilers.  I'm not going to put them in individual spoiler tags, I'm going to spoil-code everything after thing two and if you keep reading, on your head be it.

Thing two--you need to read these books in order.  If you haven't read Feed and Deadline, stop reading this review, get your butt to the library or bookstore and read them.  Come back here in a week, when you've read both books and then had a meal, a shower and some sleep.  Trust me, you will only take time away from these books with great reluctance.

Spoilers ahoy!

Tomorrow...

will be the three year anniversary of Stormdog's death. This morning, on the way into work, I heard about a couple who paid $155,000 to have their dog cloned. I said three years ago, that if cloning ever became inexpensive, maybe I'd do it. But now I know that I wouldn't, even if it was only $155 instead of a hundred times that. I miss Stormy, I miss him every single day. But he was the dog he was not only because of his genetic makeup, but because of the experiences he had in his life and where I was in my life and the roads we traveled together. I could not be the same person I was eighteen years ago when a half-grown, all-legs, sweet-natured and much too smart puppy came into my life, and I don't want to be that person. Stormy will never be equaled in my life or in my heart, but I cherish his memory and try to be the person he thought I was. Until such time as Stormy and I are reunited, if such time ever comes, I will give the dogs in my life all the love and care they deserve, and honor his memory that way. I would not cheapen what Stormy and I had by buying a replica.

Ouch on several levels

My feet, my calves and my wallet!  After a long week at work, Mom and I had nice dinner out and then went shopping.  We went to two shoe stores with no success, then Burlington Coat Factory, Big Lots and Gabriel Brothers with a great deal of success.  Mom got red, white and blue pillows for the lake house, several cute tops, a pair of capris and a pair of shoes.  I got light summer dresses for wearing around the house, a pair of cute oxfords, three shirts, two pairs of pants, a grapefruit-scented candle, three Godiva chocolate bars and three new cushions for the wicker chairs on the breezeway.

The best moment was probably when I had found the two pairs of pants at Gabe's--one light aqua and one medium purple, both linen-look, for $3 and $8.  Mom said "I need some tan capris" and I reached over, looked at a tag, said, "Size 10?" and Mom said yes, so I handed them to her--$3!  She was thrilled, and called me this morning to tell me they fit. :)  She also liked her early Mother's Day gift, a necklace and earrings I made with nail polish:

The set is based on a lovely spring jacket of Mom's, which is white with pink and orange flowers, but it would also go with the orange shirt she got last night!

On the way home, we discussed our bargains and what new clothing we were going to wear with clothing we already had.  Mom helped me bring in all my bags of loot and then headed home, and I took a quick bath and collapsed into bed.  This morning, I tried everything on and it all fits, and now I have leftover Mongolian beef to have for lunch.

Still boring, but still here.

Spring is definitely here, because mulch is now available at my grocery store!  I'll be getting some next weekend and for a number of weekends thereafter, which may mean that Bubbles & Baubles goes on hiatus, given what I tend to do to my nails during mulch time. :) 

Temptation Nursery is open now, and Mom and I have a date for May 12th to go shopping for tomatoes and to fight about letting me buy her at least one plant for Mother's Day.  I swear, fighting with her over buying her things is as much of a tradition as giving her a card.

I also need to invest in a good spray bottle so I can get my butt outside and deal with the nettles.  I don't mind like dandelions, plus Snoopy mows 'em down regularly, but I will not allow prickly things in my flower beds!

Doc and I also have a date for lunch on the 12th, so I'll have to coordinate that with Mom, but then I get Doc to myself for a couple of hours.  She's had a lot of changes in a short period of time, and while we had a long phone conversation on Friday, nothing beats face-to-face chat over a bowl of white chili con queso and chips.

May is probably my favorite month of spring.  There are seeds and seedlings to plant, weeds to kill, mulch to spread, flowers blooming, lots of sun and the heat isn't usually ridiculous.  I'm looking forward to the next month.