zen.org Communal Weblog

I emailed a question to someone about my car (getting a km/h odometer face to replace the mph one), and got a one-sentence reply from someone today. One sentence, their name, then this stuff stuck at the bottom. Kinda makes the old tradition of 4-line signatures burn in Hell:


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Forgive me for making a Jock reference, but recent gridiron football happenings has put the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl. It’s been since the early 80’s that any Philadelphia team has won any major sports title. If the Eagles loose it will be more of the same for Philadelphia.

Yesterday was the first time this season I had a chance to watch an entire Eagles game. After all of yesterday’s snow shovelling I plopped right down ot the couch and vegged.

I called the heater company at about 07:00 EST, the lady on the phone says “somebody will be there between now and noon.” “Now,” thought I, I rushed to the window, but nobody was there. The lady on the phone continues, “remember that the roads are icy so it might take a little longer.” Nobody yet.

I was hopping to leave work a little early today to get to the market as the first snow storm is predicted to hit this area tomorrow. Maybe I’ll be a part of the Saturday morning mad rush. Last winter I went to the store once right when the snow started, the grocery market was empty, and the roads where still fine.

UPDATE: It must be getting cold in my house, the cat is cuddling with my laptop.

UPDATE 2: It’s just about noon and I have heat again!

P woke up in the middle of the night, crying. When I went in, he said “I’m going to miss you Mom,” over and over. I wonder what on earth he was dreaming.

On the cute side, a few days ago I asked him how I looked (I had dressed up a little cause the bookclub was at our house). He said something I didn’t hear, and when I asked him to repeat it, he said, “You look……very distinguished.” Hahahahaha

On the radio today, they had two different reports of someone having suffered “serious sexual assault.” Each reporter went out of their way to emphasize the word serious. So there are some examples of sexual assault not so serious? Just sorta “casual sexual assault” ? Harrumph.

A recent New York Times article (need an ID?) seems to suggest that TiVo is in some trouble. Uh oh. I guess I better get our TV Hack finished.

This morning I looked out the back window to see if there were any cats out there, cause of course the various repellents must have worked.

There was one cat, a real mean one, sitting right on top of the little gel granule things. Right on top. On the wall. FFS.

I am not a cat person. They make me sneeze. I don’t really like their attitude. With that prelude, I have just finished putting down about 4 different kids of cat repellent in our back and front yards. A woman who lives up the road (2 doors) seems to like cats. She says they’re not all hers, but they all hang out there (I guess it’s the cool cat’s house, and they can have a party whenever they want. She probably even buys them beer). So we have a ton of cats–like 15–that go tromping through our front and back yards all the time. And poop. Everywhere. It’s freaking nasty. P, when he was younger, would pick it up and play in it. And our shoes….argh.

So I put down some scatter crystals on the back walls and anywhere that cats walk into our property (they smell like citronella and look like chopped up lime jello). Then we sprinkled a mixture of flour, cayenne pepper and dry mustard where the cats *really* like to poop. Coated that area. And put down some crushed chili flakes in other spots, like under the rosebush that the birds like to hang out in. So we’ll see.

On the upside, it was a gorgeous day today. Sunny and blue sky, and relatively warm (like 7 C.) So we went out for a walk, bought some onions in the market in the park, and had bagels for lunch. Played outside for a while. You can always tell if it’s a nice Sunday cause our street is lined in cars on both sides. We’re one of the closest streets to the park and since the market is today, people park here. It gets a little crazy, but it’s nice to see so many families out for a walk.

Apparently Jimmy is on attempt 670 of quitting smoking. Wanker.

I need to get a few more birth certificates, cause in Ireland they require a birth cert with freaking everything you apply for. While looking online for how to to it, I found the Massachusetts Registry of Vital Stats. What a massive rip off! If I want a certified copy of my birth cert, it’s *at least* $28. Each. Man, Ireland only charges like 6 euro, and even with the exchange rate, it’s not *that* expensive. I’m too scared to go find out how much California charges for a copy of our wedding cert.