At least tonight's guest stars are less poisonous than the one featured in my last post.

Which is not to say that they're all less spidery -- when I came home from work, I walked in the back door, and a cobweb spider (the American House Spider, which is a nice harmless spider) on the stairs skittered away from me up its new little web to hide shivering in a corner. Poor little thing -- seriously, you could almost see it throw up a pair of legs and imagine it emitting a horrified shriek as it fled.

Unlike this morning's unwelcome guest, this one is still there, as far as I know. It can catch gnats all it wants to, and eventually I will shoo it outside. It won't hurt me, therefore I won't hurt it.

After that minor adventure, I ate dinner (without any spiders involved, thanks) and then went outside to water the yard. As I got to the front yard, Neighbor H. hailed me.

"Oh, good, you're home! Your new cat got out and has been sleeping on your porch all day."

Cue a totally mystified look from me.

"My new... but I don't have a new cat..."

Except that just as I got the words out, said cat leaped to the top of the porch rail and meowed imperiously at me.

He's an orange tabby with a white star on his face, well-muscled and well-fed, and before you ask, yes, he DOES have a collar. It just doesn't have any identifying information on it.

What's worse is that he's been hanging around since last Friday, and either hasn't gone home yet or goes home to eat and then comes straight back. He also followed me around the front yard while I watered, then into the back yard when I retreated, and when I set up the sprinkler in the back yard and sat down for a second -- the son-of-a-gun eyed me and then leaped into my lap to be petted.

I am not adopting a new cat, especially not one that has a home somewhere nearby. I can't adopt a new cat -- Talia would never forgive me.

Now. Someone tell me how I explain that to him?

(In the meantime, I'm calling him 'Starbuck.')

Tags: a day in the life, houses and homes, the posting project
Current Location: the upstairs study, AWAY FROM CRITTERS
Current Mood: confused

Sometime late last night I got out of bed and stumbled to the bathroom for a glass of water. I didn't bother turning on the light, as I didn't need it. I ran the glass half-full and started to lift it to my lips.

Even half-asleep, some vestige of self-preservation must have kicked in, or else some guardian angel was awake where I wasn't. I caught a glimpse of Something Not Right and looked closely at the glass in the light from the window.

A yellow sac spider glared back at me.

I dashed the water into the bathtub and fled the room until morning. When I went back in, very carefully, I found it clinging to the ceiling above the bathtub. (Not for long, though. Normally I try to reasonably coexist with things, including insects and arachnids, but I draw the line at aggressive venomous things that first lie in wait in my waterglass and then to pounce on me from above. No way.)

Let me tell you what, though -- adrenaline's a really effective way to get moving when you have to. Believe it.

Tags: a day in the life, houses and homes, the posting project
Current Mood: AUGH SPIDER

Where did today go?

(For that matter, where did this whole weekend go?)

So much to do, so little time -- or so it feels, anyway. To give you an example, I'm looking right now at the draft of a paper that came in on email a couple of hours ago, maybe three, for my revision.

The coauthor will be calling me in the morning to solicit comments. At six AM.

If anyone happens to have a time-turner I can borrow right about now, I'd really very much appreciate it.

(No, I'm not going to have a complete revision ready for comment by six in the morning, because I do need to sleep sometime between now and then. I'm probably going to aim for having one by six in the evening, though. Wish me luck.)

Tags: a day in the life, the posting project, writing

Amazing what sufficient amounts of sleep will do, isn't it? I went to bed around 11 and woke up at 7:45, shortly before my alarm was set to go off -- and even without caffeine I feel bright-eyed and energetic. Stay with me, energy levels! I need you!

It may also help that I've had the fans running upstairs for the last couple of days. Now that I've gotten used to the white noise, it's a worthwhile tradeoff; it's so much cooler up here, and the air conditioning system isn't having to work as hard. Win-win situation! This is especially good since it reached a high of 95 F yesterday and bids fair to do the same every day from now until next Tuesday.

On that note, I think I'm going to walk up the street to pick up weekend coffee before it gets too hot. We'll see how the day goes from there! It looks gorgeous out, though, that much I can tell already. (Hence the subject line.)

Tags: a day in the life, the posting project

Oops!  Looks like a day got away from me there.  I made a post for RP purposes over at Milliways last night, and meant to make a second to this journal before I slept, and somehow never did.  That's okay.  This posting project is meant to be a best effort, not an endeavor about which I feel guilty.

And so far, I think I'm doing pretty well, so that counts for something, right?

Anyway.  Right now I'm waiting on Comcast to show up and check the phone line.  There's something a little screwy with how it connects to the alarm system; frankly, I have my suspicions as well doubts as to whether or not they can fix it, but we'll see.  It'd be nice if they could.  I mean, the neighborhood I live in isn't that bad in terms of crime, but I'd still rather have the option for a properly-working alarm.

It really isn't that bad, you know.  I checked the crime map for this address and my previous one, and the previous one was much, much worse.  It's odd how these things turn out sometimes.  And if any of you reading this is planning a move, I highly recommend looking at the crime map, if your area has one, before choosing a location -- especially if you're headed to an unfamiliar neighborhood.  Here's Denver's, as an example.

I could write more, but I think that I'm going to dash off and make breakfast before Comcast gets here. 

Yes.  Caffeine.

Now that's a good idea.

Tags: houses and homes, the posting project
Current Location: the living room
Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Talia purring

So in my last post, I remarked on the fact that there was a glitch in the Deepest Sender Firefox add-on.  yakalskovich reported the bug, the developer promptly fixed it and released an upgrade, and now it's working exactly as it's supposed to.

It's not a coincidence that I'm writing this post with Deepest Sender, either.  I like that kind of response!

I also like having a fan up here in the study now.  (After yesterday's adventures in sweltering, I stopped by Target on the way home.)  It makes it much easier to work up here, and never mind the fact that I have to use paperweights on everything to keep it all from blowing away, because I can deal with that.

It's a good thing, too, as I have several-many-lots of projects that I really need to finish before I let myself go to sleep Friday night, or before Monday morning at the no-really-we're-not-kidding absolute latest. 

I should probably get back to it, but in the meantime, have an opinion poll:

Poll #1427145 fishy fishy fish
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Should Aspen adopt a betta fish to live in a large fishbowl in her office?

If a betta fish does end up being adopted, what should it be named?

Tags: a day in the life, houses and homes, the posting project
Current Location: the upstairs study
Current Mood: amused

Not too much to write about in detail today.  I got a lot of things done, but most of them were in the nature of items on a task list, rather than anything particularly interesting.

(Yes, I have a task list.  Doesn't everybody?)

They included things like the following: 

• registering for independent study/dissertation credit hours over at the university (and as a side note, the dean of students is awesome, because she offered to take my signed form down to the registrar's herself so I wouldn't have to make an extra trip to campus);
• completing two personnel evaluations at work;
• getting the first-draft outline of a new paper well under way;
• replacing the power supply in the long-broken PC and getting it up and running again;
• installing a new telephone to replace the two broken ones;
  
• finalizing paperwork for the grants and contracts department regarding a recently-submitted proposal;
• returning DVDs and mailing bills;
• mowing the lawn before it turned into a jungle and swallowed the house;
• finally moving an overstuffed armchair from the living room upstairs to the library, with the able assistance of agonistes -- thanks so much!

See what I mean?  It sounds like a lot, and I guess it is, but it's nothing that lends itself to fascinating narrative.

Right now I'm testing out the Deepest Sender Firefox add-on, which I heard about by way of daniidebrabant.  So far I like it, except for the small quirk in which clicking the "insert LJ user" button tries to use a span tag instead of the LJ-formatted HTML.  Oops.  I do like the idea of having a browser window open for post editing that isn't affected by switching LJ logins, but so far I'm not convinced.  I may stick with my non-browser client program for that sort of thing.  Speaking of which, I use Xjournal with the Mac and Semagic with the PC -- anyone have a different recommendation?

It seems as though there should be more to talk about, but my brain feels as though it's melting out my ears.  I'm working in the upstairs study, you see, and it's really, really hot. I do have air conditioning, but the temperature sensor is downstairs, and it's taking me a while to figure out the best balance!  Ah well.  At least I have it to begin with, right? 

Anyway, on that note, I think I'm going to end this post and go downstairs where it's cooler.   Night, all!

Tags: a day in the life, houses and homes, in the garden, school, the posting project, work
Current Location: the upstairs study
Current Mood: hot

Spotted over at wanderlustlover's journal, a book meme! Seriously, how could I resist?

What's the oldest book you own?
Good question. Let me see... after a trip downstairs to verify, it turns out that my oldest book is a 1917 copy of Baree, Son of Kazan, by James Oliver Curwood. Amusingly enough, I was evidently enough of a budding feminist as a child that the book bears a painstakingly retitled cover in my hand, proclaiming it to be "Baree, Son of Kazan and Grey Wolf," so that the mother of the hero dog in question would be recognized just as much as the father was.

What's the newest book you own?
I think it's Elizabeth Lowell's The Color of Death. Most of my leisure reading at the moment tends to be along the lines of candyfloss for the brain.

Name a book that you like to have easily accessible?
Cookbooks. Research reference books. Books of ghost stories and urban legends. I don't usually have trouble finding things, though, because I have a pretty good recollection of where I've shelved everything.

Name a book that you like to have easily noticeable (for reasons of pretension or 'cause it's pretty)?
All the books that I have on my downstairs shelves -- i.e., where I entertain company -- are books I don't mind or would like to be noticed. There are several. Three or four are photography books, showcasing the work of Jim Brandenburg and John Fielder. That last is probably required in Colorado, by some standards, anyway!

What's the nicest book or set of books that you own?
Er. Maybe the first-edition hardcover copies of the Fionavar Tapestry?

What's the most battered, most loved book that you own?
In terms of books that have nearly been read into pieces? My original copy of The Eye of the World.

Have you encountered a book that felt especially nice to hold?
One or two. It depends on the binding. My small, leather-bound copy of the Book of Common Prayer is one.

Do you arrange books by author, title, genre, vibe, color or not at all?
I've tried all of these methods; now I use a combination. Downstairs books are shelved by author within groups by appearance; upstairs books in the study and guest room are shelved by subject; the rest are haphazard based on "does it fit on the shelf? Great!"

Do library / borrowed books feel as nice as books you own?
Not usually. It's something about the plastic sheeting and/or covering.

What format of book do you most like holding? (i.e., paperback, hardback, trade paperback, graphic novel...)
I like the durability of hardbacks, but they're heavy on my wrists. Paperbacks are more easily handled.

Do you have any hidden books?
No. Unless you mean 'hidden' in the sense that there are two and three layers on some of the shelves, so the books in the back bottom layers are nearly invisible by default....

What books would you keep in your (real or hypothetical) spare room for guests to read?
Guests are welcome to browse and read any book they like that they find in my house! However, the spare room is where I shelve my collection of children's books, including the Black Stallion books, Trixie Belden books, Nancy Drew, the Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, Diane Duane's Young Wizards, and many, many more.

Tags: books, memetics, the posting project
Current Location: home
Current Mood: why is there no multitasking mood?

Today I went with anamazonruns, her husband J., and their daughter H. down to the local Renaissance Festival. It was good weather for it; somewhat cloudy and not too hot, which always helps when one is wandering around outside at altitude for hours on end.

None of the three of them had ever been before, which made it more of an event. H. is going through a princess phase right now, and so was delighted to meet the ladies-in-waiting and the "real princess" of King Henry's court. She was quite a hit herself, as she was dressed in a tiger costume (her choice) and declared herself a tiger princess. Throughout the day, we also met multiple pirates, a dragon, and several faeries, and were entertained by acrobats, a "vegetable justice" stand, comedians on a pirate ship, a llama ride, and much, much more.

I love RenFaires, and today was no exception. I probably could have spent the time profitably in work-type ways, and lord knows I've got enough to do, but... when it comes down to it, there are only going to be so many chances to watch the wonder of a Faire experience unfold for a four-year-old and her parents, both.

In short? It was a good day. :)

Tags: a day in the life, the posting project

It's the Fourth of July; it's Independence Day, and I'm about to take a break from my self-imposed work schedule to celebrate. This only sometimes involves fireworks -- which is good, because right now it's raining very, very hard. It almost always involves hamburgers and salad and corn on the cob and watching the movie Independence Day. What can I say? I'm a creature of simple traditions and comfortable habits.

But before I go, I'd like to share with you the letter I received over email just a short while ago, which says so many things so much better than I myself could find words for.

This weekend, our family will join millions of others in celebrating America. We will enjoy the glow of fireworks, the taste of barbeque, and the company of good friends. As we all celebrate this weekend, let's also remember the remarkable story that led to this day.

Two hundred and thirty-three years ago, our nation was born when a courageous group of patriots pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to the proposition that all of us were created equal.

Our country began as a unique experiment in liberty -- a bold, evolving quest to achieve a more perfect union. And in every generation, another courageous group of patriots has taken us one step closer to fully realizing the dream our founders enshrined on that great day.

Today, all Americans have a hard-fought birthright to a freedom which enables each of us, no matter our views or background, to help set our nation's course. America's greatness has always depended on her citizens embracing that freedom -- and fulfilling the duty that comes with it.

As free people, we must each take the challenges and opportunities that face this nation as our own. As long as some Americans still must struggle, none of us can be fully content. And as America comes ever closer to achieving the perfect Union our founders dreamed, that triumph -- that pride -- belongs to all of us.

So today is a day to reflect on our independence, and the sacrifice of our troops standing in harm's way to preserve and protect it. It is a day to celebrate all that America is. And today is a time to aspire toward all we can still become.

With very best wishes,

President Barack Obama

Happy Independence Day, everyone. And to those of you who aren't American, Happy Fourth of July anyway. :)

Tags: history: obama, holiday, the posting project