Boing!

It occurs to me that I haven't updated in a coon's age, so here goes.

The new job is going well -- they like my work, I like having something to think about for a change, Dana and I can carpool most mornings and get together for lunch. Getting used to being out of the house for 10+ hours a day is taking some getting used to, though. I'm trying to start a load of laundry every morning so it just needs to be dried and put away when we get home at night.

We found a marvelous butcher AND a store that specializes in fresh pasta, so we're feeling a lot happier on the food front. The pasta place isn't the most convenient place in the world, but it's a damn sight better than buying up at Dean and Deluca in DC and schlepping it home.

Haven't heard anything about Hagen in a bit. I emailed Conny last week to see how he was doing, and whether she would be having a birthday party for him with a silly hat next month. :) I miss my big black nose.

I'm writing this from the rescue squad. Dana and I pulled duty Wednesday night and Thanksgiving day, plus our normal Friday night shift, and we're staying over until 5pm today. He's outside with his rescue team, going over what is on the truck and what should be on the truck and where, and putting things under the dumpster to make it lean, and fun things like that. *I* am entering sweepstakes and staying inside where it's warm. Tomorrow, I want to sleep in. :) But I must finish decorating for Christmas and cleaning -- yesterday I got most of the tree up and situated, so now it wants trimming and the house decorations scattered appropriately.

The Symphony Chorus is coming up on a big performance weekend next week. We'll do Handel's Messiah on Friday and Monday nights, and then a Christmas pops concert on the Saturday inbetween. The symphony conductor is sidelined with a detached retina until at least January, so we have no idea who will be conducting. It could be a different person for each concert -- should be exciting.

Sweeps-wise, I haven't won a thing all month. I got a coupon for a free Armor All product yesterday, but I won that back in September. I haven't had a lot of time to enter them, but I would have thought that the wins would trickle off over the next couple months, rather than precipitously. Perhaps it just means that I'm due for something nice. ;)

Tonight is my 20th HS reunion, which I will not be attending (as it's in Bethesda and I am here). I didn't mind missing it in the least, but last night I got an email from my tennis partner/gym buddy, who is going and pretty much only wanted to see me. It was lovely to hear from her, and I'm looking forward to catching up.

I think that's all I've got. I'm reading some of you on a regular basis, and the rest of you when I can, but if there's something you desperately want to talk about, drop me an email at my normal address. Love love love.

This morning, dfilove mowed the entire front lawn and did the trimming as well! This is the first mow of the season, and the grass has really greened up nicely.

While everything looked so nice, I snapped a couple quick photos so you have a point of reference for my planty ramblings. ( photos back here )

Call me an optimist -- I schlepped the laptop and accoutrements out onto the screen porch today, in an effort to hasten Spring along her merry way. Expected high today: 74. Current temp: 53, with a breeze. My mouse hand is a little stiff from the chill. :)

But the dog is happy, being able to smell things and hear things, so he is a big sleepy pile. Sleepy dogs are the best.

So. Last night was my first on the ambulance. In a 12-hour shift, we got SIX calls.

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I have an eNORmous red-headed woodpecker out my back window, flitting from tree to tree looking for sustenance. I love watching him slam his little face into the tree.

dfilove and I went to see a stamped concrete installation by the people we want to have redo the Ugliest Patio Ever. The house is over in another golf-course/lake community -- we'd driven through it before, and decided we liked ours better. I'm pretty sure the house we saw is the largest one there -- I swear I expected Carmela Soprano to come out. Enormous gates at the driveway, full-time gardener, pool, pool house, dock with pavilion, huge huge huge. And two very sweet Weimaraners and three kitties, one of whom was kind enough to let me scoop up and pour some love onto. Oh, and really really spectacular concrete (next to some less-than-spectacular work done by other companies before she found these guys).

But I think we've definitely found our concrete people -- after we see what the builder is going to do. We had an offer from them to refund the money that we'd spent, which covered most of the cost of having most of the patio jackhammered out and replaced -- the part they weren't removing would be covered by more concrete, giving us a two-layer effect. We got a letter from the president of builder, who wants to make us happy (and have the less-than-happy web coverage go away), and he suggested that they would replace the patio themselves, only they're afraid we wouldn't be satisfied. I suppose at this point we see if they'll use our concrete guys as subs, since we've seen what their sub is capable of.

Is it a sign of the season that I now read "Cialis" as "Claus" when I scan through my spam folder?

thatliardiego, you have email from me at your liesofbrian account (in case I got caught in YOUR spam folder).

The choir's first Mass was horrid. We were under-rehearsed, although we may as well not have rehearsed at all, given that the director threw new things at us just before service, and again mid-service. I'm going to see if I can meet with him independently, or whether we can perhaps rehearse more regularly. We're not scheduled to meet again until just before next week's Mass, and we haven't looked at that material at all -- I think he plans for us to sing "the Rossini," which sounds complicated to me but is apparently standard. I'd prefer not to wing it if possible. But hey -- I'm meeting people! :)

We woke up Sunday morning to discover a short in one of the three phases coming to the house. We had complete power in some rooms, and in others we had either no power or some power that flickered on and off. Dominion Power's automated system registered my call, and then I got a call back within minutes. At first the guy said he'd make a note of my call, but when I mentioned that it didn't look like our neighbors had power either, he sent a team out right away. Good thing too, because it *WAS* just our problem. The whole thing was completed within an hour and a half from my call to them. :D

That is all.

Well, another week has gone by here at Foolish Pleasure South. It's been quiet on the Random Subcontractors Showing Up To Fix/Install Stuff front -- today we had the sprinkler guy finish the heads in the beds and set up the rain sensor.

In other exciting news, I spent many hours on the phone trying to solve printing problems, and we can now print IN COLOR from three different computers to one printer (which involved installing a driver for a completely different product). Now I just have to get the fax component up and running and we'll be golden.

We continue to unpack boxes bit by bit -- the recycling pickup is Monday, so if we can get through a few more by then, we can get rid of the empties! The house looked so much better after getting rid of the ~80 last week. I have learned which shoes to use for spider smashing, and keep them handy in areas we've seen the leggy bastards. Dana's mastering the new kitchen equipment, and I'm delighted at how easy it is to move around while we're cooking together (or rather, while he's cooking and I'm getting a headstart on the dishes).

Right outside my office window is a tree (okay, there's lot of trees, but most of them are pines) that's changing color as I watch. Even though I had a window at my office in Arlington, it was 11 stories up overlooking the city; I'm so happy to be able to watch the seasons change. :D

This weekend: a visit to the local farmer's market, and we'll get some of the art on the walls! Have a marvelous weekend!

::emerging from my dark hole, blinking at the sun::

We are now Virginians! We don't have the papers to prove it yet, but we'll head over to the DMV to get licensed and registered to vote (deadline for the November elections is today).

The house is mostly fabulous, with little problems we're tracking for our GC to fix -- he's supposed to be here sometime today. We jerryrigged up drapes in the bathroom and bedroom, so the neighbors aren't getting a free show; looks like hell, but we figure that's incentive to solve the window covering problem sooner rather than later. (Though not for lack of trying -- we've been to blinds places four separate times, and keep getting stymied by our GREAT BIG GIANT bedroom windows. It's going to be spendy to solve that, so if we're dropping the cash, we want to do it right...and therein lies the delay. Neither of us have had brain cells enough to spare to make those sorts of decisions yet.)

I think we've got about 90% of the unpacking done, and most of what's left are books that we're not unpacking until we've got a better final solution for them. We did an assload of unpacking while the movers were still here Thursday and Friday, and they took a LOT of boxes away, but we've got empty boxes stacked up in several different places. Time to find the local dump, I guess!

Thank you for the birthday wishes! I wish I could have been out playing at faire or elsewhere with y'all; I spent the day at home while our lives were being packed. 4 guys, 6.5 hours, and we think they've still got a couple of hours left with the packing before we load the truck on Wednesday. I figure that would have taken Dana and me at least 80 hours of work, plus all the stress involved -- ick.

After the packers left, we went to Expo to talk window treatments and get faucets...very exciting. Only managed to handle the faucet part, as Grumpy Window Guy was all by himself and working with another customer when we got there. 30 minutes later, we opted to set up an appointment for this Tuesday.

For dinner, we had yummy ribs and alcohol and an ice cream sundae -- it was a great ending. :)

MANY thanks to snarkymarcy for Trekkies 2! Holy crap, is this fabulous -- Dana hadn't seen the first film and was dying right along with me, but I do recommend seeing them both. There's so much -- a few highlights include:

• Bad dental work!
  
• Bad dental non-work!
  
• Gabriel! Having sex now! With a woman! Who is creepy!
  
• Star Trek quiche parties!
  
• Golfing with bat'leths!
  
• An enormous subculture of Trek-inspired bands! Playing nearly unintelligible music! Sometimes in Klingon!
  
• "I outrank thith teddy bear by sixth rankth"!
  

Anyway -- we head to Richmond with most of the wine after Mass today. I'll be out of pocket until late tomorrow night -- play nice, y'all!

So...apparently the 5.5 hour walkthrough was a record for Waldron. I ascribe that to me being anal-retentive as much as anything else.

I took copious notes, and measurements of windows, and...promptly left my notepad down there. ::doh:: Gary's going to call me today with those measurements (if he doesn't find the notebook itself) so we can order window coverings for a couple rooms.

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And that's all *I* know.