Lots Of Places To Sit

Finally, the loveseat that goes with my new (or, by now, new-ish) sofa arrived!



I'm delighted to at last be able to send the old the old, saggy, cat-shredded one off to the dump with its sofa companion. They did well by me, back in the day, but they had well outlived their time.

Although with both pieces in place, my living room now feels a little too small. Not only are both the sofa and the loveseat bigger than the old ones, but the loveseat, unlike the old one, doesn't fit underneath the protruding windowsill, so it sticks out into the room more. And I had to move the end tables around into slightly less convenient positions. On the upside, though, people sitting in it will no longer bang their heads on the sill if they lean back. So that's good.

In other household news, I did get an electrician to come and check out the power supply to the dryer, and he said it was fine and the no-heat problem is definitely internal to the machine. Which is actually good news, since it's under warranty. But I think it's going to have to wait until I'm off night shifts for me to worry about that.

How Not-Dry I Am

For more than a decade, I've used a clothesline to dry all my laundry, or, occasionally, when I really needed to, I've gone across the street to the laundromat to use their dryers. I tell myself that it's cheaper and more environmentally friendly, which is true. But finally -- finally -- I decided I'd had enough. I'm tired of planning my laundry schedule around the (often highly unpredictable) weather, and then having to wait hours for it to dry. I'm especially tired of it this month, when we've had rain, or the threat of rain, pretty much every single afternoon. And, for various reasons, I had a goodly amount of extra cash in the ol' checking account this week. So I finally said "screw it," and went out and bought me a dryer. Yaaay!

Except... Except, while the thing comes on just fine, and air flows through it just fine, there's no heat whatsoever. Sigh. It's possible the machine is defective, but I strongly suspect it's an issue with the electricity supply, especially as I've never had a reason to use the 240-volt outlet before. So now I'm going to need to call an electrician. Which is going to be fun, because I'm just about to start on two weeks of night shifts. Why is it every time I try to make an improvement to my house and/or life, it just ends up causing me extra headaches? I think the world is extremely unfair this way, and someone really ought to have a word with it,.

Some Of Us Go Around The Sun, Some Go Outward Away From It.

I am 44 years old today, which, as far as I can tell, may actually be about the age where you stop caring much about how old you are.

I would, however, like to thank NASA for the awesome Pluto mission they got me, even if it's not going to be fully unwrapped until tomorrow.

The Sky Is Angry

Where the hell is all this hail coming from? This is the third time this week!

Ooh!

Ooh! New Doctor Who trailer! Complete with a date for the start of he new season. (Sept. 19. Mark your calendar!) I'm getting all flaily-hands excited, now.

July Currentlies

July has been slipping away from me fast. Here it is, time for this already!

Current clothes: Blue shorts and a white t-shirt that says, "The angels have the phonebox." Because I am just that much of a Whovian dork. Also white socks and brown boots, although I should take those off, because my feet are kind of hot.

Current mood: OK, although mostly right now I'm wondering where the hell this day went. I intended to get a bunch of stuff done, and then suddenly I looked at the clock and it was 4 PM and I'd barely even done anything. I'm trying to make up for that now, though. (Yes, "update blog" was actually an item on my to-do list.)

Current music: Nothing much at the moment. I'm once again trying hard to get caught up on some of my podcast listening.

Current annoyance: Oh, mostly just the usual "Why do I have to be a responsible adult?" crap.

Current thing: I cannot stop myself from obsessively watching random episodes of Shark Tank. This is all my sister's fault.

Current desktop picture: Still this bookish image. Maybe one day I'll change it again.

Current book: Shovel Ready by Adam Sternbergh. I'm not very far into it, but I'm already enjoying it a lot.

Current song in head: Nothing at all at the moment. Huh. That's a little odd.

Current refreshment: Orange spice tea.

Current DVD in player: Most recently, the original Mad Max. After seeing and loving Fury Road, I figured it'd be interesting to revisit the original movies. Or, in this case, to visit for the first time. I never saw any of them in the theater, but I had remembered catching random pieces of them on TV, back in the day. But, while I'm pretty sure I caught at least some of The Road Warrior and maybe a decent-sized chunk of Thunderdome, it turns out I hadn't seen any of the first film at all. Or at least, it seemed entirely unfamiliar to me, watching it now. And... Well, unlike Fury Road, I don't think it can be described as a good movie by any reasonable set of criteria, even if it does maybe have a few moments of some sort of cheesy, violent charm. But I do feel more pop culturally literate, I guess, having finally watched it.

Current worry: Everything will go wrong with everything!

Current thought: I am starving. It may be time for a slightly early dinner, very soon.