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86* outside.
In October!
I effing hate DC.
In October!
I effing hate DC.
"languish locked in L"
Points to anyone who recognizes that reference. :-)
I'm back to blogging on LJ, but my posting may take a while or look very odd, as my N key is playing Hob. And, in trying to fix it, I broke it even more. So I need a new keyboard, which will take several days, and until that I'm dealing with a very jury-jigged typing methos (or using the iPhone or iPad, which are not ideal for long typing. My but English has a lot of Ns in it!
In other news, I think once the government reopens, I need to talk to the folks at the National Weather Service. I think that the shutdown prevented them from booting up October; we seem to be having a rerun of either August or September.
Never mind, a big package came from GMT today, the Greece and Eastern Kingdoms extension for Commands and Colors. And I still have, unpunched, the two new COIN titles, Cuba Libre and A Distant Plain, that I'm itching to try out. If only I had someone to play it with...
I'm back to blogging on LJ, but my posting may take a while or look very odd, as my N key is playing Hob. And, in trying to fix it, I broke it even more. So I need a new keyboard, which will take several days, and until that I'm dealing with a very jury-jigged typing methos (or using the iPhone or iPad, which are not ideal for long typing. My but English has a lot of Ns in it!
In other news, I think once the government reopens, I need to talk to the folks at the National Weather Service. I think that the shutdown prevented them from booting up October; we seem to be having a rerun of either August or September.
Never mind, a big package came from GMT today, the Greece and Eastern Kingdoms extension for Commands and Colors. And I still have, unpunched, the two new COIN titles, Cuba Libre and A Distant Plain, that I'm itching to try out. If only I had someone to play it with...
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oh, here we go...
When I got home at 7 pm: outside 80*F, inside 83*F.
Now (10.30 pm): outside: 73*F, inside 82*F.
All the windows open, fans going.
Summer is coming... (kind of like "winter is coming" but nastier, much nastier).
Now (10.30 pm): outside: 73*F, inside 82*F.
All the windows open, fans going.
Summer is coming... (kind of like "winter is coming" but nastier, much nastier).
oh, *sigh*
I need to eat more veg. One of the easiest ways to handle this duty is salads. I stopped on the way home from work and got some groceries, including some diced ham that I figured would go well on a salad. I made a big salad when I got home: shoots, two kinds of lettuce, mushrooms, blue cheese, sun-dried tomatoes. And ham.
Only, after I'd added it on and poured some dressing over it all, I looked at the package again.
Not ham. Bacon.
Diced Italian bacon (pancetta). With no indication anywhere that it was, you know, cooked.
To the Interwebs! Looked up the product. No positive affirmation, but a page reviewing this and several other brands of pancetta started off with cooking all of them.
*sigh* Into the bin goes my big, lovely salad. Start over. We'll try frying up the pancetta with an egg or two in the morning, chuck it on some toast...
However, I will say, it really does pay to buy real lettuce, rather than the sad stuff in bags. A bit more bother to wash it and clean it, but I'm just finishing off two heads of lettuce that I bought... it must be two weeks ago. And they're grand. The sad bagged lettuce generally rots within 2-3 days of bringing it home.
Oh, and apparently the power went out during the day (necessitating half an hour's arguing with the Roku box to get it to work again--planned obsolescence, I think.). Power drains already? It was over 90* this afternoon, but...
Only, after I'd added it on and poured some dressing over it all, I looked at the package again.
Not ham. Bacon.
Diced Italian bacon (pancetta). With no indication anywhere that it was, you know, cooked.
To the Interwebs! Looked up the product. No positive affirmation, but a page reviewing this and several other brands of pancetta started off with cooking all of them.
*sigh* Into the bin goes my big, lovely salad. Start over. We'll try frying up the pancetta with an egg or two in the morning, chuck it on some toast...
However, I will say, it really does pay to buy real lettuce, rather than the sad stuff in bags. A bit more bother to wash it and clean it, but I'm just finishing off two heads of lettuce that I bought... it must be two weeks ago. And they're grand. The sad bagged lettuce generally rots within 2-3 days of bringing it home.
Oh, and apparently the power went out during the day (necessitating half an hour's arguing with the Roku box to get it to work again--planned obsolescence, I think.). Power drains already? It was over 90* this afternoon, but...
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well, well
We'll be a fair while digging out from this great heap of snow...
or maybe not...
or maybe not...
snow
I went for a walk about an hour ago, and it started snowing more heavily while I was out. It's increased again since then. But it's still well above freezing, so the snow is filling the air like a snow globe, but melting when it comes to earth. It would seem to have the potential to be quite a serious snowstorm--if it weren't so warm and if the ground weren't already wet.
But OPM decided four hours ago that the federal government would be closed to-day, so who am I to argue? :-) I'll have a day of painting little metal men and watching Annika Bengtzon: Crime Reporter (did you like the way I pronounced her name all Svensk-like? I like Swedish. Stockholm looks quite nice, and the countryside even nicer. I wonder if *mousemouseclickckicktypetypetypetypeclickclick* no, Sweden is just as tough to move to as everywhere else i want to go...)
But OPM decided four hours ago that the federal government would be closed to-day, so who am I to argue? :-) I'll have a day of painting little metal men and watching Annika Bengtzon: Crime Reporter (did you like the way I pronounced her name all Svensk-like? I like Swedish. Stockholm looks quite nice, and the countryside even nicer. I wonder if *mousemouseclickckicktypetypetypetypeclickclick* no, Sweden is just as tough to move to as everywhere else i want to go...)
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The goalposts keep moving
First it was massive snowstorm last night. Then it was massive snowstorm overnight. Now it's massive snowstorm,, eventually, somewhere, later today.
At what point does it become, "OK, maybe we got this one wrong"?
At what point does it become, "OK, maybe we got this one wrong"?
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Capitol Weather Gang's latest prediction for Snowquester
Only 3-8" for where I live, but 6-12" for the area I have to drive through to get to work.
I'm betting I'll be taking leave tomorrow...
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(no subject)
Listening to the winds outside the building (yes, I'm still at work), they are massive. I think *I* might be blown away when I step outside!
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Saturday morning
So, it's cold, and grey, and either sleeting or raining outside. I'm glad I have nothing to do that requires me to go further than the basement (where the washer and dryer live) today, unless it's out to pick up some Indian takeaway to eat with friends. I was bummed the other morning when I had to go to work and it was all rainy--not because I'd get wet but just because it was a perfect day to stay home with the kitties. Today is another of the same. :-) Heh, looks like it's raining out front and snowing out back. Well, me and the sleeping cat who is snoring gently and twitching are dry and warm.
The holidays are almost over, and I seemed to have managed not to add the storied 5 to 10 pounds that average North Americans are said to gain between Thanksgiving and Christmas. (More recent research, I gather, suggests that's just *overweight* Americans and that, on average, most people gain only a pound or so--I also seem to have missed that). But I haven't made much progress this year in getting more fit, so that's something I need to look to in 2013. I'm not making (or at least publishing) any resolutions, though. I made a list of ten things to do this time last year, and I've done maybe one of them, so my track record is not good.
OK, looking more like snow on both sides of the house, now. I think I need to make some tea. :-)
The holidays are almost over, and I seemed to have managed not to add the storied 5 to 10 pounds that average North Americans are said to gain between Thanksgiving and Christmas. (More recent research, I gather, suggests that's just *overweight* Americans and that, on average, most people gain only a pound or so--I also seem to have missed that). But I haven't made much progress this year in getting more fit, so that's something I need to look to in 2013. I'm not making (or at least publishing) any resolutions, though. I made a list of ten things to do this time last year, and I've done maybe one of them, so my track record is not good.
OK, looking more like snow on both sides of the house, now. I think I need to make some tea. :-)
not to jinx anything but...
The winds here are dying down (relatively speaking). And every time I look at the radar and satellite tracks, it looks like the most concentrated areas of the storm have passed us.
I hope I'm right about that.
ETA: Oh, of course. I was forgetting that winds in a low pressure cell go counterclockwise. That big orangey bit out in western PA is going to be swinging back this way before it heads north. Still, the hurricane seems to have hit Philly, when everyone thought it was going to hit NYC. Interesting.
(no subject)
Currently reading Dolly and the Bird of Paradise. Very grateful that if I have to ride out a hurricane, I'm doing it in a house well inland with plenty of candles and books and three very cuddly cats, not in a ketch with no sails, no petrol, no radio, no navigation equipment, no charts, in the middle of the night, somewhere far from land, with several injured people to take care of.
(no subject)
Housemate and I tried to clear the storm drain on our corner, but we weren't able to shift what I suspect is a combination of sediment from past gritting and from bulk leaf decomposition. The other two drains on our street are pulling fine, and the creek is not too high, but rushing fast.
Wind has picked up a bit more. Cats are doing a lot of sleeping. :-) Feds closed again tomorrow (no surprise).
Wind has picked up a bit more. Cats are doing a lot of sleeping. :-) Feds closed again tomorrow (no surprise).
what's not to like about autumn?
The weather gets cooler, the leaves turn beautiful colours.
And my electricity bill goes from $180/month to $30/month!
And my electricity bill goes from $180/month to $30/month!
bloody hot!
It is *so* summer now.
Rupert and I went out to the nature preserve up by Ft Meade today, but between my being horribly out of shape and it being even hotter than (I had seen) forecast, we only did 4-5 miles. When I got back to the car, Gainsborough was telling me the car park was 107*F, which he moderated to 97* once we got onto the road out in the shade.
At that rate, my 86* flat is positively balmy! I'm still going to put the AC units in after I have lunch, though...
Rupert and I went out to the nature preserve up by Ft Meade today, but between my being horribly out of shape and it being even hotter than (I had seen) forecast, we only did 4-5 miles. When I got back to the car, Gainsborough was telling me the car park was 107*F, which he moderated to 97* once we got onto the road out in the shade.
At that rate, my 86* flat is positively balmy! I'm still going to put the AC units in after I have lunch, though...
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(no subject)
Ah, humid heat, my old enemy, here you are again. Again we begin our summer dance of hate and loathing. Again I dream of leaving you far behind me. Laugh while you can, oppress me while you can, smother me while you can. We both know your reign is short. In only 16-18 short weeks, your curse will lift and your power will diminish.
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ah, summer, how I loathe the foretaste of you.
Yes, it is currently 91* in my flat, at slightly after midnight on 16 April. If that isn't fucked up, I don't know what it.
(no subject)
Now THIS is what I call Spring weather--hours of drizzly rain, chilly breezes, and cool nights. Lovely!
Watching a sweet little movie called "A Canterbury Tale", about an American NCO who stops by accident in a small town while travelling to Canterbury. He finds a mystery and, with the help of some British friends he makes, solves it. It's (IMO) an odd and charming film, filled with eccentric characters, rapidfire dialogue of a very 1940s type, and wonderful glimpses of a British filmmakers' imaginings of country life in the 1940s (the film was made during the war--1944). It was largely filmed on location in Kent, so it has me thinking of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
blueinva--the only Kentish Man (or is he a Man of Kent--I can never remember) whom I know. And for those of my friends who are of a military history bent, Universal Carriers feature prominently in a couple of scenes! Three of them maneuvering at speed in one scene especially.
The pair who made this, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, made several other overlooked classic films, including The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp,The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, 49th Parallel, and I Know Where I'm Going!, which I saw several years ago and liked for the same reasons I'm liking this one (plus a great starring role for the very young Wendy Hiller!)
Oh, and Phineas decided to sleep ON TOP of Nicholas just now, which was rather amusing. Unrelated to the movie, but funny nonetheless.
Watching a sweet little movie called "A Canterbury Tale", about an American NCO who stops by accident in a small town while travelling to Canterbury. He finds a mystery and, with the help of some British friends he makes, solves it. It's (IMO) an odd and charming film, filled with eccentric characters, rapidfire dialogue of a very 1940s type, and wonderful glimpses of a British filmmakers' imaginings of country life in the 1940s (the film was made during the war--1944). It was largely filmed on location in Kent, so it has me thinking of
blueinva--the only Kentish Man (or is he a Man of Kent--I can never remember) whom I know. And for those of my friends who are of a military history bent, Universal Carriers feature prominently in a couple of scenes! Three of them maneuvering at speed in one scene especially.The pair who made this, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, made several other overlooked classic films, including The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp,The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, 49th Parallel, and I Know Where I'm Going!, which I saw several years ago and liked for the same reasons I'm liking this one (plus a great starring role for the very young Wendy Hiller!)
Oh, and Phineas decided to sleep ON TOP of Nicholas just now, which was rather amusing. Unrelated to the movie, but funny nonetheless.