Fixing A Hole Where The Rain Gets In

So, I've finally had the new roofer out to take a look at things. According to him, the reason why I'm getting leaks is obvious enough: basically, the roof was installed with a lot of corner-cutting and does not have the flashing it needs. (In fact, he says, the only reason I'm not getting a lot more leaks is because they installed the new pro panel roof over the existing shingles, which are still providing some protection.) Under other circumstances, I'd be a lot warier of "Oops, you don't need a small repair, you need something major installed!" as a verdict, but this, sad to say, is honestly about what I was expecting. Plus, they'd warranty the new work for another ten years, and, just based on a side-by-side comparison of the customer service levels I've seen so far, they seem infinitely more likely to actually make good than the original roofers, whose idea of fixing things appears to be solely limited to applying one more layer of caulk every time they come out. Not to mention the novel concept of actually communicating with me.

And in return, they want... Well, pretty much exactly every penny I could realistically scrape together right now without going too much deeper into debt. Sigh. But if it means I can fix this problem once and for all, and never have to deal with the other guys again, it's probably worth it.

Arrr!

It be Talk Like a Pirate Day! Arrrr! I be needin' the distraction.

I Am At War With The Ants, And My Potential Allies Suck.

Oh, my god, how annoying is my life right now? Because on top of the leaky roof, there's also the ants. Let me tell you the saga of the ants!

Apparently the damned things built a nest right under my concrete slab floor and were coming up through tiny cracks in the floor and between the tiles. I know they were nesting there, because they built a damned anthill in my floor. This is the stuff of nightmares. As in, I have had actual nightmares about this exact thing. *shiver*

So, OK, I kept my cool. I put down baits for them. So many baits. Baits of every description, to tempt any self-respecting ant. I put them under an inverted plastic tub to keep the cats out, which is good, because some of them were liquid baits, and they leaked, and it was pretty freaking toxic under there. The ants, however, did not seem particularly interested. They would wander around and into the baits, but not form the usual tidy ant-lines to haul the yummy poison away. Still, I hoped they were carting the stuff home and dying from it. And, eventually, after a couple of weeks, I stopped seeing so many ants. There were one or two, but I was hoping they were stragglers. So I cleaned up the toxic sludge, and I cleaned up the dirt the ants had carted up, and I sprayed around the inside of my house to keep the ants from coming back, and I sprayed around the outside of my house to keep the ants from coming back, and I sprayed the area where they were coming up, and I saw some dead ants there a few days later, but I was optimistic.

But... Nope. They found another teeny-tiny hole, and they are building another nest. I saw it when I got home from work today. Eeeeeeek!

Clearly it was time to give up and call the professionals. So I called Orkin. They're a big, reputable national company, right? I called them and they were ever so solicitous as they went about taking my credit card info and making me an initial appointment and signing me up for a bi-monthly extermination service (which, frankly, did not seem like a bad idea), and they told me they could have someone out tomorrow. Which surprised me, but, hey, awesome! So I made an appointment. And they I realized, wait, you idiot, you have to be at work at that time tomorrow. And then I played a lot of phone tag with them trying to change the appointment, and finally ended up making arrangements for someone else to cover for me at work so I wouldn't have to change it, after all.

Then, just after all that, I get a call from the exterminator himself. The conversation (shortened and paraphrased) went something like this:

Me: Oh, hi! You're probably calling to reschedule my appointment. Sorry for the confusion about that! Tomorrow will be fine, after all.

Him: Um, yeah here's the thing. I can't come out tomorrow. I'm not going to be down in Socorro until the 24th and 25th. The person who told you someone would be out tomorrow? Yeah, she's in Atlanta; they don't know how far Socorro is from Albuquerque. I travel around the whole state and only get out there a couple of days a month.

(Which, note, is not in itself a problem. NM is a big, sparsely populated state. Waiting for the person to make it down to your area is often how things go, and I wasn't actually expecting someone to be able to make it out right away. What is a problem is being chirpily lied to about it by someone who clearly doesn't have the information she ought to have. Knowing whether the time and day you're making an appointment for is even available seems like pretty fundamental customer service. Don't you think?)

Me: Oh. Well... This... is not filling me with confidence. But all right. We can do it then. Only I have to leave for work by about 3:30 that week, so it has to be earlier in the day.

Him: Um. Well, actually, I'm booked up all day, and I usually try to work in new customers at the end of the day, but if you're working nights... Well. Huh. Well... I'll call you before then. I'll try to shuffle things around. Maybe someone will cancel.

Me: As long as you're sure you can make it that day.

Him: Well, I am definitely making it to Socorro that day. Maybe someone will cancel.

Me: Wow is this unprofessional. I think I should reconsider my choice of exterminators.

So, um, yeah. I haven't officially cancelled with Orkin just yet, but I think I'm gonna call a local exterminator tomorrow. And then see if I can get Orkin to take me the hell out of their system. The guy swore up and down I wouldn't be charged if I told him not to come, but I fear there may be a distinctly Comcast-like snag-the-customer-and-don't-let-them-go vibe here.

Moral of the story: if you live in a rural area, Orkin's clearly a good company to avoid. Which is good to know, I guess. But... Sigh. I just want to live like a human being: dry and bug-free. Why is that so difficult?

Come Again Some Other Day! Preferably After My Roof Is Fixed.

What is this giant blob of green hovering over my state, and why is it not moving? Seriously, I know I live in the desert and we're never supposed to turn our noses up at free sky-water, but for right now, I think we're good.

Sources of Stress

Aargh, there are way too many sources of stress (not to mention expense) in my life right now.

First, there's the cat. A couple of weeks ago, Nova took a giant pee on the bathroom floor, right in front of me. Which is unheard of for him. Fearing it was a symptom of some urinary or kidney problem, I took him into the vet, where they did a bunch of expensive tests and said he seemed all right but had a slightly elevated white blood cell count in his urine, so there might be a touch of infection. They gave him an antibiotic shot, which wasn't quite the antibiotic they wanted to use, but I was worried about being able to get pills or liquid into him, because he can be... difficult. I brought him back in for a follow-up last week, and apparently his bladder actually looked worse, with crystals in the urine and still a higher-than-normal white cell count. So I had to give him pills, anyway. Also, new prescription food. Then, last weekend, he started throwing up all over the place and barely eating. So I took him back in first thing Monday morning. At which point, of course, he suddenly appeared to be absolutely fine. The vet figured his tummy probably didn't like those antibiotics, plus he was throwing up giant hairballs, so they gave me still different (and even more inconvenient) antibiotics, plus hairball medicine. Right now he's sitting here looking all innocent, happy, and fine, but who knows what's actually going on with him? I'm not even 100% convinced the peeing incident had anything to do with his urinary tract at all. I think, at 15, he may be going a little kitty senile. Sigh. Cats. I never asked for any cats, you know. Never.

And then there's the roof. Damned thing has been leaking off and on pretty much since I moved in here. I keep calling the roofers who installed it, and they keep coming by and doing things to it and swearing that this time it's fixed (probably), and it keeps coming back. Now it's also leaking in a new spot, and worse. I finally called some different roofers. They're supposed to come out to look at it and give me an estimate tomorrow. We'll see what they have to say. And, of course, the forecast says it's supposed to rain here pretty much all week.

Also, I have ants nesting under my floor. Or had. I'm not sure if I've managed to finally kill the damned things or not.

Basically, being an adult sucks. Even if it does mean I can eat pizza for breakfast and cereal for dinner whenever I want, some days, I really do not think it's worth it.

September Currentlies

Current clothes: Dark gray sweats. My Star Trek:TOS t-shirt with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy that says "Beam me the hell outta here!" (Really, I should have worn this one a couple of days ago for Star Trek's birthday, but oh, well.)

Current mood: Kinda tired.

Current music: Nothing, really. But I'm finally getting close to caught up on my zillion-hour backlog of podcasts.

Current annoyance: Apparently Nova has crystals in his urine. So now he needs to eat special food for six weeks, and I have to figure out how to get an antibiotic pill into him once a day. Fun!

Current thing: My current thing was meant to be getting some major projects done around the house during my days off this week, but after much productive activity yesterday, I am now feeling tired, and the muscles in my back hurt a little. So I'm thinking maybe today may be less about climbing up on the ladder and cleaning the gutters, and more about lying on the couch with a book.

Current desktop picture: Still this. I may never get tired of it.

Current book: Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee.

Current song in head: Random snatches of some oldie that was playing in the Denny's when I was there eating pancakes a little while ago. I had such a craving for pancakes this morning.

Current refreshment: Just water, at the moment.

Current DVD in player: Disc 4 of season 2 of Elementary. I feel like I should have a lot to say about this show, but I don't, really. Well, I will say that I like the characters, and that the interpretation is different enough from Sherlock's, in interesting enough ways, that I definitely do think there's room enough in the world for both of them. Which is something I wasn't at all sure about when I started. My interest in the mystery-of-the-week plots is extremely variable, however, and it's not really a show I want to watch more than one episode of at a time.

Current worry: I am still only allowed to indulge myself in worrying at specific, designated times, for the sake of my sanity. Although I've been busy enough the last few days that I haven't really had the mental energy for worrying too much, anyway, which is no doubt a good thing.

Current thought: Despite the appeal of that "lie on the couch and read" plan, I still have a whole bunch of little things I need to get done today, even if I'm not doing any big things. Sigh.

Books: They Find Me Across Time And Space

A conversation I had yesterday:

My cell phone rang. On the other end, a friend of mine said, "I'm at Costco, and they have three books here you might like. So I wanted to ask: Do you already have them, and do you want them?"

Turns out it was three Doctor Who-related books, none of which I was familiar with. So I looked them up. Two of them seemed pretty cool, and Costco (of which I am not a member) was selling them cheaper than Amazon. So, "OK, sure," I said. "Pick them up for me, and I'll pay you back for 'em next time I see you."

My first thought after this was, geez, and people wonder why I have this too-many-books problem. I am surrounded by enablers! I am impulse purchasing books over the phone now!

My second, much belated but infinitely stranger thought was that I never would have imagined I'd live to see the day when Who was popular enough with mainstream American audiences that they'd start selling books about it at Costco.

Three Brief Bits Of TV Talk

1. I need not have worried, of course. Peter Capaldi is just as good as we were all expecting him to be.

2. I am deeply bummed about the (surprisingly unceremonious) dismissal of the secondary team from Mythbusters. And not just because I have a terrible crush on Grant Imahara. Although I do.

3. On the DVD front, I've now started season two of Dead Like Me, and I've come to enjoy it enough that I'm feeling miffed that there isn't all that much left to watch. Up until now, I had not realized what a sad deficit of Mandy Patinkin there has been in my life.

Preparing For The Oncoming Storm

I am getting super excited and nervous for the new Doctor Who -- and the new Doctor! -- tomorrow. Peter Capaldi, from everything I've seen, is a fantastic actor, a true-TARDIS-blue Who fan, and a really good guy, and I have nothing but positive feelings about his casting. But right now, some treacherous little voice in the back of my mind keeps whispering, "But... But what if you inexplicably hate him? What then?" I am attempting to beat these unworthy thoughts off with a mental baseball bat (much like Ace using one to smash up a Dalek).

Seriously, I'm sure it's going to be great, and I so am very much looking forward to it. Isn't it tomorrow yet?

No Raccoons Or Tree People Were Harmed In The Making Of This Movie

So, I did finally get out to see Guardians of the Galaxy. And I enjoyed it lots, good, old-fashioned, goofy/awesome space opera stuff that it is. It did maybe leave me feeling a little off-balance at the beginning, because, boy, does it just drop you into its universe without giving you much of a chance to get acclimated. Although I suppose that might be less true for people who, unlike me, are already familiar with the comics. And it's better than bogging everything down in tons of tedious exposition, anyway, so I'm not really complaining.

But, yeah, mostly it was great fun, with enough going on that I'm sure I could easily watch it again without being bored. Whether I will or not, I don't know -- so many DVDs, so little time! -- but I'm already looking forward to the sequel. Also (among many other things) it kept giving me Farscape flashbacks, which is never a bad thing. Seriously, Peter Quill and John Crichton? Tell me those guys aren't long-lost cousins!

Fortuantely It's Not My Job To Defend The Galaxy, Because I Give Up Really Easily.

I'd hoped to go up to Los Lunas today to see Guardians of the Galaxy, since four people so far have asked me if I'd seen it yet, and in such cases there's really not much to do but give in to pop cultural peer pressure and see the thing. Plus, it looks like great fun. But after peering closely at the sky and at the Weather Channel website, it's looking like I'd have a good chance of being caught in a downpour on my way home. And not only can that crap be super stressful to drive in -- "when it rains, it pours" could be an official motto of New Mexico, and I've been caught in storms where visibility was practically nil -- I'm also not at all sure about the current state of my windshield wipers. (Possible alternate motto for New Mexico: The Land Where Your Windshield Wipers Deteriorate Rapidly in the Sun Until They Are Useless Just When You Desperately Need Them.) So I think maybe I'm gonna do it this weekend, instead.

Bah. Stupid monsoon season. Now I've got no excuse not to do the vacuuming this afternoon.

August Currentlies

Yes, it's this thing. Again!

Current clothes: Blue jeans. White socks. Black t-shirt that says, "I'd rather be sleeping" (aka, my Official Night Shift T-Shirt).

Current mood: More or less OK, with some kind of lurking restlessness/annoyance/anxiety hanging out in the back of my brain.

Current music: More random-shuffle stuff from the iPod, while I was doing some housework the other day. I don't remember what-all it gave me, other than that at one point there were back-to-back Stevie Nicks songs, because randomness is interesting.

Current annoyance: So many annoyances. So. Many. Basically, the human condition is inherently annoying, and I am not exempt from it the way I TOTALLY SHOULD BE. Dammit.

Current thing: Playing lots of Zombie Tsunami on my new laptop.

Current desktop picture: Still this one.

Current book: Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. As a Peter Pan prequel, it's a bit odd, maybe in part because it's less J.M. Barrie and more Disney. But, on its own terms, it's a really fun little kids' adventure story.

Current song in head: My brain has mostly been playing medleys of Weird Al songs lately. At the moment, it's mainly "Perform This Way" with occasional diversions into "Living with a Hernia." Which certainly makes for an interesting combination.

Current refreshment: Nothing. I just brushed my teeth.

Current DVD in player: I just finished season 1 of Dead Like Me. I wasn't too sure about it at fist. I think its sense of humor is perhaps a little too deadpan to be easily appreciated. But it really grew on me. I will definitely be watching the rest of it.

Current worry: I have done so much worrying over so many stupid things lately that I am now only allowed to worry during designated periods. Of which this is not one. So, next question.

Current thought:I wouldn't actually rather be sleeping right now, since I only woke up a couple of hours ago. But I would like to go out for some pancakes and then spend the rest of my evening lying on the sofa reading, cuddling my cats, maybe watching a movie. But it's off to another 12-hour night shift I go! Hopefully it should at least be pretty quiet.

I Got A New Thing

I sort of have this mental list of Things That Really Need to Be Replaced, Except I Don't Want to Spend the Money, and for quite a while my laptop had been steadily creeping up towards the top of that list. My mother bought it for me, used, several years ago. It was a bit obsolete, even then, but perfectly adequate for browsing the web, processing the words, and playing the occasional game of Spider Solitaire. But, increasingly, it'd been struggling with even that kind of basic stuff, and I think the last Firefox update was just more than it could gracefully handle. I may have kept on limping along with it, anyway, slow and stuttery as it was, but then, a few days ago, the power button broke.

Actually, it was sort of half-broken for a while, kind of mushy and loose in its socket. But then, finally, I went to turn the computer on, and it just sort of collapsed into the casing, and all my efforts to get it back into place availed me not. You could still power the machine on, but you had to stick a pen or something down into the hole to do it, and that was just... stupid.

So I broke down and bought myself one of these. (Well, almost, anyway. I got the version with the DVD drive.) It's another basic, inexpensive machine, but hopefully it will manage to keep me going at least as long as the last one did. And it has the advantage of not weighing eight pounds. The only annoying thing about it is that it's running Windows 8 -- well, OK, 8.1 -- and it took entirely too much effort for me to get the damn thing to stop behaving like an overgrown smartphone. (I'd do the "Honestly, Microsoft, what the hell were you thinking?!" rant now, but you've probably heard it all before from people no doubt more eloquent on the subject that I am, so I'll forbear.)

Still, yay for shiny new technology!

Science Hilarity!

Still talking about Weird Al -- which, rather marvelously, everyone seems to be doing right now -- I thought I'd share this, too. Because it is currently my very favorite thing on the internet.

Only A Slightly Less Controversial Subject Than The Original

Weird Al has a new album out! I got my copy yesterday, and, as usual, it's great. He's also releasing videos for it. I think there are a couple of prescriptive grammarians of my acquaintance who are likely to appreciate this one:

Happy B-Day To Me

As of today, alas, I am no longer the answer to the ultimate question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Although when I said that to my sister she told me, "I hear 43 is the new 42." So I will attempt to console myself with that.

Keeping Currently

Current clothes: Gray shorts. One of my Rush concert t-shirts. White ankle socks. Brown leather shoes. (Which are badly scuffed up and desperately need a bit of shoe polish, but that's about item number six thousand on my to-do list at the moment.)

Current mood: OK, but I'm having trouble working up much enthusiasm for the stuff I really ought to do today.

Current music: Nothing. I'm still desperately trying to catch up with months (and, in at least one case, years) worth of podcasts, so that's what my ears have been busy doing.

Current annoyance: Weather that's not only hot, but also humid. Which is just wrong in the desert, not to mention a big disadvantage when your A/C relies on evaporative cooling. Also, the fact that my house still hasn't returned to an entirely liveable condition after my surgical downtime.

Current thing: Trying to bring my house back to an entirely liveable condition after my surgical downtime.

Current desktop picture: Still this same bookish picture as last month. As I said last time, I think this one's going to stick around for a while.

Current book: The Dangerous World of Butterflies by Peter Laufer.

Current song in head: "One Headlight" by the Wallflowers, which has been stuck in my head since I heard it on the radio maybe a week ago. This is particularly annoying, since I don't remember most of the lyrics -- indeed, I'm not even sure I've ever been able to properly make out most of the lyrics -- so what's stuck in my head is basically, "Blah blah blah blah blah, da da da da da, da da da da da ONE HEADLIGHT!"

Current refreshment: Diet Pepsi.

Current DVD in player: Nothing at the moment, as I've been doing a lot of streaming lately instead of watching discs. But I just finished season 3 of Arrested Development. You know, when I started watching that, I could not understand what all the fuss was about. Yeah, OK, it was an American sitcom I actually found watchable, which is rare enough... but it took me a while to appreciate just how brilliant it is. Or maybe it took a while to get brilliant. I'm not sure which. But season three is pretty darned brilliant.

Current worry: So, even though the hormone-suppressing drug they gave me should have worn off by now, I'm still getting hot flashes. I asked the doctor about it, and she said give it until November -- that'll be six months after the surgery -- and see if it goes away. If not, I may just have somehow been catapulted into early menopause. "Which would be a shame," she said, "after I went to all that trouble to save your ovaries." No shit, doc. Imagine how I feel! Here's hoping it's just a lingering after-effect of the surgery and/or the drugs.

Current thought: I don't seem to be able to form a coherent thought at the moment. Right, then. Back to the laundry and housecleaning!

I Feel As If I Should Have Run A Betting Pool

For anyone who might be curious as to how many books I managed to finish during my post-surgical recuperation/reading retreat, the final total, from my surgery on May 20 to returning to work on July 10, is thirty.

Unfortunately for any progress I might have made through the TBR shelves, though, I also read a whole bunch of discount book catalogs that came while I was convalescing.

I'm Back, Baby!

Just had my follow-up appointment at the doctor's, and she pronounced herself pleased with my progress. I now have the official go-ahead to resume all my normal activities. And not a moment too soon! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some heavy things that need lifting...

I Got A Matt Smith! I Got A Matt Smith!!!

I was bored. I fell back into an old, dangerous addiction. And... And...



That's right! I won at Doctor Who 2048! I am the rockingest thing that ever rocked!

Exploding Outward

To the Americans among you, a belated Happy 4th of July! I hope everyone survived without singeing any eyebrows or setting anything that wasn't supposed to be on fire on fire.

I actually went out to a get-together with some friends. I didn't stay long -- I think I was home and in bed before the fireworks display finished -- but it was the first time I'd been out of the house for more than an hour or so since the surgery. It's nice, if a bit strange, to feel like I'm easing back into my life again.

More About The State Of Me

It's now exactly six weeks since I had my surgery. Which puts me right about at the point where, although far from 100% healed -- that takes many months, apparently -- one might finally be deemed healed enough not to have to worry about messing up the process any more. That does vary, though, and my doctor's apparently decided to give it another week, because my last follow-up appointment, at which I should get the OK to return to work and various other activities (with or without a few continuing restrictions), isn't until July 7th.

Until then, I'm going to try to continue to take things very easy, and get lots of rest, and give my body everything it needs to keep on doing the repair work it needs to do. Really, I'm very lucky to be able to take this much time off of work without any difficulty, and I should take full advantage of it to get as better as I can get before I have to go back. I gotta admit, though, that I'm starting to go a bit stir-crazy here. Because I'm recovered enough now that that instinctive switch in my brain, the one that makes you not want to do much when you're injured or unwell, that switch got flipped off about a week ago. Now I really, really want to clean my damned house. Partly because my body wants an excuse to get up and move around, and partly because, after a month of neglect, the house has reached the point where you could take pictures of it and use them as illustrations in the entropy section of a physics textbook.

Yeah. I think I might have at last found the limit to just how much lying around and reading I can stand, not because I get tired of reading, but because I get tired of never being able to do much of anything else. But I will continue to be good. For at least one more week.

An Announcement

Hello! I am still alive! (And doing pretty well. More about the state of me later, maybe.) But, more importantly -- or at least, important to a much larger number of people -- the BBC has announced when the new season of Doctor Who will start. Mark your calendars for August 23! It looks like BBC America will be continuing to show them the same day as they air in the UK, which is not remotely surprising. I'm pretty sure if they stopped doing that now, they'd have a Whovian riot on their hands. And nobody wants that. People'd be getting strangled with 12-ft. scarves, you'd have impassioned speeches being yelled at you involving phrases like "unlimited rice pudding," sonic screwdrivers would be shoved everywhere. It'd be chaos.

Anyway. Until then, I will continue avoiding spoilers and attempting not to die of impatience. It's gonna be tough...

An Offer

Hey, look, it's a post that has absolutely nothing to do with me having or recovering from surgery!

Here's the thing: I have this coupon code for a free two-month subscription to Oyster. This is a new-ish service that seems pretty nifty for those who are into eBooks. It's been described as something like Netflix for books: you pay a flat monthly fee, and you get access to any of the eBooks in their catalog, which looks like it has a pretty good selection. I'm not going to use it myself, though, partly because I don't have an electronic device I enjoy reading on, and partly because, well, I have already accumulated 700-plus paper books that I have yet to read, and I'm pretty sure once I start on eBooks, I am doomed.

So, if anybody is interested, let me know! The first person to request it, either by commenting here or e-mailing me, can have the code for the free trial subscription.

Post-Surgical Currentlies

Hey, look, I managed to do this only a little belatedly!

Current clothes: Blue pajama pants, gray pocket t-shirt, fuzzy blue slippers. I'm mostly not bothering with actual clothes these days. Especially as my belly is swollen enough that even my comfy sweats are uncomfortably snug.

Current mood: Not too bad this morning. I gotta say, though, that my morale is starting to flag a bit. I am ready to be done with this "healing" crap and to get back to my life. It's still going to be quite a while yet, though. And probably much, much longer than that before I'm 100%. Sigh.

Current music: Nothing, really. Instead of listening to music, I'm still slowly catching up on years' worth of Radiolab podcasts.

Current annoyance: Three weeks ago, someone sliced me open and cut out an internal organ. Whatever the long-term benefits of that might be, there is nothing -- nothing about the short-term effects that is not annoying. But I think the grand prize for annoyance has to go to my current inability to get comfortable in any position, anywhere. Gaaah.

Current thing: Attempting to see how many books I can read before I go back to work. Current tally is fifteen.

Current desktop picture: It's still the same bookish image as last month. I really like this one; I think I'm going to keep it around for a while.

Current book: I just finished Terry Pratchett's new Discworld novel, Raising Steam, which unfortunately left me feeling a bit "meh." Next up is Starman: The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin by Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony.

Current song in head: "Travelling by Steam" by Fairport Convention, thanks to Terry Pratchett.

Current refreshment: I have lemon-ginger tea brewing. Gotta stay hydrated!

Current DVD in player: Nothing at the moment. I can't find a comfortable position to watch TV in, either. Bah. But I did recently finish watching season 2 of Archer via Netflix streaming.

Current worry: As you can imagine, my current situation is a fertile breeding ground for hypochondria. I have to keep firmly telling myself things like, "Yes, I'm pretty sure the scar is supposed to look like that" and "No, one wrong move in the process of getting off the couch is probably not going to ensure you never heal properly."

Current thought: I actually am showing real signs of improvement. Aforementioned getting-off-the-couch is a lot easier than it was, and I've reached the point where, with great care a little help from my knees, I can reach down and pick things up off the floor. Still, it is all very sloooooow. Where are my tissue-repair nanobots?!

Heal Faster, Dammit!

Hello! I am still here! However sporadically I may be communicating.

I had my two-week follow-up appointment with my doctor, who says that my surgical incision is healing very nicely indeed. It's all taking a while, of course, but that is to be expected. Still, I'm getting there, I guess, however slowly. My mother, having stayed for a little over two weeks taking care of me (and picking up all kinds of things I accidentally dropped on the floor), is finally on her way home, having been at least mostly convinced that I will be able to feed myself and the cats in her absence. (Which I will be, although there are a lot of frozen entrees in my future, I fear.)

Number of books read so far since my surgery: nine and a half. Which is respectable enough, I think. Although I have discovered the flaw in my plan to "read like it's my full-time job" during my convalescence, which is that, well, there are good reasons why I'm not doing my actual full-time job at the moment, and one of them is that healing this kind of damage takes a ridiculous amount of energy. So everything goes very slowly, even more so than it would otherwise, and come the afternoon, more often than not, I need to stop and "rest my eyes" for an hour or so. Still, I at least feel vindicated for all those shelves full of unread books I've accumulated, because when I am awake and not engaged in the basic maintenance tasks of feeding and cleaning myself, lying around losing myself in a book is practically the only thing I want to do.

I fear it's all going to get old fast from here on out, though. Yes, time to lie around and read is great, but, man, I'd trade significant sums of money just to be able to sleep comfortably on my side again. And to be able to reach every part of myself in the shower. And to be able to get up off the sofa without engaging in several minutes' worth of careful gymnastics to avoid using my abdominal muscles as much as possible. Man, you don't realize just how much you use your abdominal muscles for until they're not available! Then again, you don't realize just how much you can do with your feet until you need to.

But the number one biggest thing I think I've learned from this whole experience is that, despite everybody's dire warnings not to because it WILL BE STOLEN OMG!, bringing an mp3 player to the hospital is the best idea ever. I think those back episodes of Radiolab saved my sanity when I wasn't quite up to reading. Because, even when I'm on morphine, I will never, ever be desperate enough for daytime television.

Greetings From Recovery Land!

Hello, internet! Just checking in with an update. I've actually been meaning to do that since Saturday, but it's hard to get around to it with my full, busy days. For new, much slower definitions of "full" and "busy," of course. Mostly what happens is that I think about updating, but, well, Mom is making lunch, and then after that I need to walk around for a bit (because walking is important in my recovery and also makes me feel better), and then when I'm done that, I'm exhausted and need to lie down for a while. And then the entire process repeats with dinner. Along the same lines, my decision to let my online life mostly go hang while I'm recovering has turned out to be a good one. Right now considerations like proper pillow configuration or the detailed state of my bowels are infinitely more important and relevant than whether I'm keeping up with website X or owe a response to person Y, which would merely serve as distractions if I let myself care too much about them. Life has taken on a slow, timeless quality, with a focus on primitive essentials.

Which includes books, of course. While plan Read Like It's My Job has not gotten into full swing yet, I have already finished six books since my surgery. Mostly quick and easy ones, I admit. Number seven is more ambitious and is going to take me longer, I think, but it's actually really nice to dive slowly into a book knowing, as I lie in bed resting and reading, that I very literally have nothing better to do.

Anyway. For the record, everything seems to be going very well, post-surgery. I may have made myself sound pitiful above, with my tiredness and slowness, but that's just what a period of healing is like, and it's abut the pace I want to go at right now. I am not a complete invalid. Just taking it very, very easy. So far, there seem to be no problems, and while the pain was pretty awful the first couple of days, it's not too bad now. I stopped taking the narcotic pills a day or two ago, and that worked just fine.

Sitting here at the computer is a bit uncomfortable, though, and I am not even going to contemplate the logistics of using the laptop -- seriously, figuring out the pillows was hard enough. And posting to this blog from my phone is seriously annoying. (If my last post sounded less like me than usual, it's that, and my lack of energy to deal with it, that's the reason, not drugs or pain or anything else.) So, that's it from me for the moment, I'm afraid. Back to my important slow walking and essential lying-around activities!

Hi!

Hello! Am still mostly incommunicado, but hi and thanks and will get back to you later to those who emailed. Am out of hospital, and all is well, or as well as expected. Abdominal surgery sucks, and I do not recommend it as a recreational activity. But the surgery went very well, and I am more or less up and around. Still don't expect to hear from me regularly for some time.

I'm Still Alive (But Not Doing Science For A While)

This is just a note to say that I'm out of surgery and am still breathing. Well, I probably am. I'm writing this post ahead of time, and have asked my mother to hit "post" on it when she gets back from the hospital on Tuesday -- assuming that I am, in fact, still breathing -- so that I don't have to worry about it while I'm high on painkillers. Hopefully she'll manage it OK. My mother is, um, not exactly tech-savvy, but it should not prove too challenging. (Love you, Mom! Thanks!)

Anyway, since this is a pre-recorded message, I'm afraid I have no details for you, but I trust that everything went swimmingly.

Oh, Just Yank This Stupid Thing Out Of Me, Already.

We're getting very close to my surgery date now. It's scheduled for Tuesday. And the fact that that is still true is something of a miracle. I had yet more awfulness yesterday with last-minute schedule changes from my doctor's office, and the doctor whom I was assured would be around to take care of me if I had problems afterward backing out on me. For a little while there, it looked like they were going to insist on rescheduling for weeks later or that I was going to have to insist on going to another hospital, and I swear, I felt the purest sense of despair I have ever felt in my life. But in the end, things were worked out (and I had a nice, long chat with the practice's manager about their many, many fuck-ups), and we're still going ahead. If I had it to do over again, I would not have this done here in Socorro, but hopefully they will manage not to kill me. (Note: That is a joke. If I really thought the doctors were as prone to screw-ups as the admin staff, I wouldn't be doing it, no matter how many people's schedules or how much of my own life it would screw up. And as surgeries go, this one is very low-risk.)

The real bad news is that the stupid drugs I took to try to shrink the fibroid didn't work at all, so they are going to have to do an abdominal surgery, which means more pain and longer recovery times. Not to mention a three-day hospital stay. Sigh.

Well, hopefully I am ready for it, or will be by Tuesday. I'm working on getting the house cleaned, getting various things set up so I won't have to bend or stretch too much (e.g. to scoop out the cat food), and stocking up on supplies. My mother will be here late Saturday evening, and incredibly grateful I am for her help (and her willingness to stay an extra week if necessary, since I'm having the more invasive surgery). I'm also terribly grateful for everyone who's offered to help out if I need anything once she's gone. Much as I hate to ask for help and am trying to arrange things so I need as little as possible, I may well have to take some of you up on it.

Hard as it is after all the additional stress I've had around this, I'm trying to maintain a good attitude and do things right. I really am incredibly happy every time I think about the long-term results. And as for the recovery period... Well, I'm planning on reading books like it's my full-time job. Which is actually something of a fantasy of mine: just being put in a room with absolutely no distractions, and told to read what I like for eight hours a day. My only worry is that my brain will be too fuzzy from tiredness and pain medication to manage it, and I'll find myself in the shoes of Burgess Meredith in that classic Twilight Zone ep: time enough at last to do all the reading I want, and no ability to actually do it. But worst-case scenario, even that should only last a couple of weeks at most. And I have taken the pain medicine the doctor's prescribing for me before, and it didn't make me groggy. And if I am really out of it for a while, well, I've also got a Netflix subscription, and thus access to all kinds of mindless television.

One thing I have decided is that this time, in general, is going to be thoroughly and unapologetically "me" time. Because I think that's the only way to do it. It's going to be my time to rest and read with no distractions, no little voice in my head telling me I should get up and do something else, no responsibilities to anybody. The rest of the world can do without me for a while. (Some friends, when I mentioned this, commented that this retreat-from-the-world plan made me sound a bit like Thoreau and promptly dubbed it "Nerd Walden." I like it!)

Just for the record, my intent is also to refuse to worry about whether I owe anybody e-mail, or am keeping up with people's blogs, or whatever. Heck, sitting upright at my PC for long periods will probably not be a good idea. I got a bed tray I could put my laptop on, but it doesn't actually fit well over my big, fat belly, even before it swells up from surgery. And doing much of anything on my tiny, slow phone is just annoying. So, come Tuesday, you won't see as much of me online for six weeks or so, either, although I'll no doubt check in once in a while, especially as I start to feel better. I'll at least try to post some sort of "Hey, I survived the surgery!" message afterward, maybe the next day. But don't panic if you don't see me posting here, or if you're accustomed to getting e-mail from me and don't see any for a while.

Books, Man! Books Everywhere!

I went to the giant Albuquerque library sale today, and got two large grocery bags full of books for $5 per bag. I'm not going to tell you how many books that is. Let's just say I, uh, got my money's worth. And exactly how I filled those two bags, I really can't tell you. It's all kind of a blur. I just... walked in, and then things got sort of hallucinatory, and then at some point I emerged with books.

And then I had to fight my way home, through trials and tribulations, like the mighty, heroic hunter of books that I am. Eighty miles home, through high winds and dust storms! And at one point, I came disturbingly close to hitting a roadrunner. Yay, New Mexico. (Note: roadrunners, in real life, are not nearly as intelligent as the one in the cartoons. This one was trying to be less of a roadrunner and more of a highway sitter, which is really not very smart.)

Anyway. It is very, very clear that I am not going to run out of books while I am recovering from surgery. Whether I am going to run out of bookshelf space (again!) is, of course, another matter.

May The Currentlies Be With You

I may not be blogging every day anymore, but there's still always this!

Current clothes: It's pajama-blogging time! Because, really, this is earlier than I should even be up. I've got a red plaid bathrobe, black pocket t-shirt, and pajama pants that I bought at the Seattle Space Needle gift shop, which have Space Needles and other Seattle-themed images on them. Also fuzzy blue slippers.

Current mood: Tired and generally kinda not great. I've been starting to get a little stressed over my upcoming surgery, and my doctor's office is doing a darned good job of undermining my confidence and generally making things more difficult. Yesterday, I got a call from them that basically boiled down to, "Um, your doctor decided to go on vacation a couple of days after your surgery date and wanted to see if you'd reschedule because she won't be around if you need her, but we kind of forgot to call you about it for three weeks. Oops." Which is upsetting on so many levels. I am still recovering from the mini stress meltdown I had over that. I did not sleep super well last night. Sigh. (And, no, I'm not moving my surgery date. Three weeks ago, it would have been difficult. At this point, it is not really doable.)

Current music: Rick Grimes vs. Walter White Epic Rap Battle. I really needed that laugh this morning! (Warning: contains some Walking Dead and Breaking Bad spoilers.)

Current annoyance: Once again, it's the stupid meat body. Waah, waah, I need surgery, I need sleep, I need new eyeglasses, I hurt my pinky finger, these drugs are giving me hot flashes, I've gotten too fat, I need a haircut, waah, waah, waah. Shut up, meat body.

Current thing: Thinking about the zillion and one things I need to do next week.

Current desktop picture: I said last time that I ought to change it, perhaps to something else book-themed, and lo and behold, I did!

Current book: Hey Nostradamus! by Douglas Coupland.

Current song in head: Apparently it is "I Will Wait" by Mumford and Sons. I had to look that up. It's one of those songs that I only know because it's always on the radio. I mean, I listen to the radio maybe ten minutes a week, and I've probably heard that thing a dozen times.

Current refreshment: Coffee. Wonderful, brain-nourishing coffee!

Current DVD in player: Disc 2 of season 3 of Game of Thrones. I fear I have gotten very attached to Tyrion.

Current worry: I really am getting more nervous about the surgery the closer I get to it. But, despite my doctor's office's worrying signs of administrative incompetence, I'm sure it will be fine. Annoying, but fine.

Current thought: Man, I need more coffee.

Oh, Dear, It's All Gone A Bit Wrong.

OK, so, for the record: Homemade chicken quesadillas? Not nearly as successful a culinary experiment as the French dip. Right now, my kitchen kind of looks like a Mexican restaurant exploded and took out the chicken farm next door.

Everybody's Getting Older!

Happy birthday to my nephew, who is thirteen today!

Thirteen.

Thirteen.

I just keep looking at that word and boggling. Surely, surely I am not old enough for the next generation down to be hitting its teens! Except that every time I think that, I find myself remembering that when my mother was my age, I was already well into my college years. And this thought is really not helping.

The Thrilling Conclusion Of Blogs-A-Lot April!

So, we have reached the end of April, and with it, the end of my nearly-month-long blogging-every-day experiment. Whether people who are not me have found this interesting or annoying or anything at all, I have no idea. But for myself, despite sometimes having difficulty thinking of things to talk about and those stretches where all the entries were short enough that I might as well have gone with a Twitter account instead, I did find it worthwhile. Even if the reasons why it seemed worthwhile are surprisingly hard to pin down.

It isn't something I could easily go on doing forever, or even something that I'd want to if I could. But I'm kind of liking the idea of doing it again sometime. Maybe I could even make Blogs-A-Lot April an annual event. April would seem a particularly appropriate month for it, too, since it's this blog's anniversary month. (It's 12 this month! Ye gods, that does not seem possible!) But we'll see how I'm feeling a year from now.

In the meantime, I will at least try not to lapse into silence again too often or for too long. And I'd like to offer up a friendly wave and a "thanks!" to everybody who stopped by and commented this month, whether on the blog or via e-mail. Always nice to know you're out there, guys!

It's What's For Dinner.

I have discovered the easiest Crock Pot recipe ever: one rump roast, a couple of cans of beef consommé, some hoagie rolls... Voilà! French Dip! Man, I love cooking that involves hardly any actual cooking.

Everyone Knows It's...

It was pointed out to me that when I referred to the spring weather in New Mexico as "beautiful" a few days ago, I neglected to mention the high winds and blowing sand. I would now like to formally apologize to the wind for this oversight, and respectfully request that it cease its current attempt to make itself the center of attention.

Once Again, Having Run Out Of Things To Talk About Leads To Book-Related Links.

I don't have every problem on the 99 Book Nerd Problems list. But, hoo, boy, the ones I do have..

Uh... Stuff.

It's probably a good thing that this blogging-every-day experiment is coming to an end in a few days, because I have reached the point where I find myself staring at a blank screen and thinking, "But my life is boring, and I don't have anything I want to talk about here!"

Well, let's see. Things I've been doing with my boring life...

In a break between seasons one and two of Game of Thrones, I've been watching season two of Adventure Time. It is difficult to imagine two shows with a greater contrast. Except that they're both fantasy, I guess. And feature a lot of characters who appear to be royalty. And ice.

On the book front, I am reading David Copperfield. I have been reading David Copperfield for a solid week now, because that sucker is almost 800 pages long, and Dickens, whatever his virtues, is not winning any awards for being Mr. Fast-Paced and Zippy. It is worth reading, though.

I have a very long list of things I need to get done before my surgery, which I keep staring at, but most of it is stuff that I think I should wait until just beforehand to do. Like hacking down the weeds in my yard, because I won't be able to do it again for quite a while, or getting a haircut so that, while I'm lying in bed bemoaning my lot in life, at least I won't have to do it with horrible bed hair. Also, on the topic of lying in bed and recovering, I'm wondering now if I should get myself one of those lap desks so I can use my laptop in bed and bemoan my lot in life on the internet.

This is yet another weekend of working 12-hour shifts. Man, I'm not going to miss those while I'm recovering. Even if, by that point, all the shows I get miffed about not being home to watch on Sunday night will be on hiatus, anyway.

And there you go. That's what's up with me today.

Well, Hey, It's Better Than Owing.

I cashed my federal tax refund check today. All six dollars of it. I think I'm probably going to spend it on candy bars.

It's After Midnight, So This Counts As Today's Post.

I just watched Frozen on DVD. And I enjoyed it. It's got some cute, funny moments, and it ultimately subverts some of the more eyeroll-inducing Disney movie cliches in ways I really like.

Also, Pittsburgh Dad's review of it is freaking hilarious:

And The Planet Keeps Going Around The Sun

I've got my swamp cooler up and running now -- or, more accurately, I've paid someone else to get my swamp cooler up and running so I don't have to go climbing around on the roof -- so I am all ready for summer! Which is effectively here by May, that being about when it starts getting uncomfortably hot during the day. Usually I put off getting the cooler going until about two days past the point where I don't feel like I reasonably can do without it anymore, but given my exciting drug-induced hot flashes, which are aggravated by being in a warm room, I figured having it all ready to go when needed would be a kind thing to do for my poor old self.

I do wish spring lasted longer here, though. And fall, too, for that matter. They're beautiful, but, alas, they are fleeting.

I Was Warned Not To Get To Attached To Any Of The Characters.

I've now finished watching season one of Game of Thrones. And, well. That... certainly lived up to its reputation.

Blasts From The Bookish Past

Apparently when I run out of things to talk about here, my go-to strategy is to post random book-related links. So, here, have some vintage bookstore photos. Looking at these really makes me want to hop into a time machine and go book-shopping.

Hey, Don't Blame Me, I Didn't Come Up With That Pun.

Happy Easter to those who celebrate it!

And, as they say on Skaro, "Eggs-terminate!"

Today's Adventures In Coffee-making

Today's adventures in coffee-making: I set up the machine last night to brew the coffee automatically this morning. Sily me, though, I assumed the timer was still set the same as the last time I used it. Since, you know, I live alone and the cats haven't yet mastered the art of coffee-making. But apparently, sometime in the last three days, the timer clock reset itself. So Mr. Coffee obediently brewed me up a nice, hot, fresh pot of coffee... at midnight. Needless to say, it was rather cold by the time I got up.

Sigh. It's almost enough to make you want to kick the habit.

Naaaah.

I Still Don't Wanna Go Back To Work, Though.

Wow, this having three days in a row off without having to spend any of those days sleeping or any nights struggling to stay awake is nice. I had a very long to-do list for my time off this week, and I think I've managed to either finish or make satisfactory progress on pretty much all of it, with a reasonable amount of time left over for loafing. Now I just need to make time to answer all my neglected e-mail...

Dammed Coffee

Here's a tip: when making coffee, do not leave the carafe sitting on the counter, forgetting to actually put it in the machine, press the "on" button, and walk away. Even that feature that shuts off the flow so you can sneak a cup before it's finished will not hold back an entire pot's worth indefinitely. The result... is not pretty.

Between that and the sinus headache I woke up with this morning, I am not feeling optimistic about the direction this day is going.

I Hear Winter Is Coming.

So, long after the rest of the world, I have finally started watching Game of Thrones. It's always looked like something I'd probably like, so I really should have gotten to it sooner, but I was thwarted by my own indecisiveness. Every time I'd find myself thinking I should watch the TV series, I'd immediately think of good reasons why I should read the books first, and every time I'd consider reading the books, I'd immediately come up with good reasons why I should watch the TV series first. This conundrum apparently being impossible to resolve, I just kept never doing either one.

But a friend of mine recently announced he was planning on starting up a Game of Thrones-based RPG and asked me if I wanted to play. Sadly, between my highly inconvenient work schedule and the fact that it'll be starting up about the time I'm having my surgery, whether I want to or not may prove to be academic. But, regardless, that served as the impetus to finally break my mental logjam on the issue, and I decided to just Netflix the damned thing.

I've only watched the first episode, but so far, it seems like it's going to be pretty decent. There's lots of complicated and potentially interesting stuff going on, some nice visuals, and what looks to be some thoughtful worldbuilding. And the end of the first ep made me sit up and go, "Yikes!", which is always promising. If I'd known there was going to be quite that much in the way of viscera, I might not have watched it while I was eating lunch, but that's not exactly a problem.

My main reaction, though, is, "How am I ever going to keep all these characters and their relationships straight?!" Seriously. I was desperately trying to draw up family tree diagrams in my head while I was watching, but I fear that by the time I watch episode 2, I'll have forgotten it all and be completely lost again.

Zzzzzz

Today has been sort of alternately boring and interesting. But now I am tired. So, relevant to my tiredness, have a video with some tips about how to sleep better, a subject that is always near and dear to a shiftworkers' heart:



Tip #2 startled me, rather. I thought I'd invented that one all by myself, back when I was a kid. Although at some point since then, it seems to have stopped working for me.

Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho

Here I am in the middle -- well, mercifully, slightly past the middle -- of what is essentially a 56-hour work week. The one before that was 64 hours. (That's without overtime, of course, since these long stints inevitably straddle two different weeks for payment purposes. I'm not even counting the meeting on my day off that I did get overtime for.) Sigh. I miss the good old days when we had an extra person, and one person (or even two people!) needing to take off or switch their shifts didn't inevitably screw over someone else. In this case, I confess, I kind of did it to myself, by being far too nice when people ask me if I can swap schedules. But it's not like this sort of thing is entirely unusual.

I'm just getting tired of sitting in that chair. Well, mostly I'm just tired, period. These early mornings don't so much agree with me. I've got more of those ahead of me, too, but the good news is that come Wednesday I have three days off, without having to spend any of it adjusting my sleep schedule around. Luxury!

I Call It The Fing-Longer

I just bought one of these, to save myself unnecessary bending and stretching after my surgery:




It came in the mail yesterday, and now I'm having trouble resisting the urge to just walk around the house randomly picking things up.

Everything I Know, I Learned From Watching Sesame Street?

Another weekend of 12-hour shifts. Sigh. In the absence of anything more interesting going on for me to talk about, I'll offer this up as your random link for today, since the Muppets seem to keep coming up in my conversations lately: Millennials just don’t get it! How the Muppets created Generation X. Does this article overstate the influence of the Muppets? Probably. I suspect a world in which Jim Henson had never lived would not be too fundamentally different from this one. But it would be a much, much poorer world, regardless.

Some Sad News

Some sad news: I heard yesterday that my uncle -- my dad's brother -- had passed away. I can't say that we were close; I hadn't even seen him since I was a kid. But it's a terribly melancholy thing to hear about anyway, and my heart goes out to my dad.

It's Like A Really Unexciting Form Of Time Travel!

I don't think I've mentioned it here before, but a while back, I got a three-month shot of a drug intended to help shrink my fibroid, in the hopes that they'll be able to do a less invasive form of surgery than would otherwise be possible. Basically, said drug works by depressing your hormone levels and putting you temporarily into menopause, so I'm currently getting a little foretaste of what life will be like in a decade or so when I'm going through this for real.

I've always had a completely unfounded belief that while many other women might have a hard time with the ol' Change of Life, it would surely not affect me that way. I'm glad to note that this utterly irrational assumption seems to be proving true. I have been experiencing the infamous hot flashes, but they're mild, transitory, and mostly ignorable. They are happening kind of a lot, though, making them slightly slightly more annoying than they otherwise might be. So I am definitely looking forward to having my uterus gone and my ovaries back . (Or, rather, back at their hormone-producing job.)

In the meantime, any time I'm being grumpy or moody, I think having my hormones artificially messed with going to be my excuse. When it's not the usual excuse of sleep deprivation, of course.

It's A Full Life, If A Trifle Banal.

This blogging-every-day thing is getting to be a little challenging. Because it's not like I do that much that's interesting.

Well, my itinerary for today includes a no doubt very boring meeting at work. On my day off. Sigh. But I am getting overtime for it, and I can really use the cash, so I guess I can't complain. Much.

Then tonight is cheesy British sci-fi night, an irregular and informal event in which I get together with a couple of friends and... well, you can probably figure out the rest. Having finished a run-through of Blake's 7, we're now watching The Tomorrow People (the original version), which I am honestly enjoying a lot more than I expected to. It may not exactly be a crowning achievement of television, but it can be a lot of fun to watch, in its own very 70s kind of way. Although, man, when it's bad... it's bad.

In other news, yesterday's dentist appointment went well. I bought myself some ice cream to celebrate not having any cavities.

And Now It's Time For This Again!

Current clothes: Rush concert t-shirt. Gray sweats. Black ankle socks. Brown leather shoes.

Current mood: Pretty good, all things considered. It's my day off, and I got enough sleep, so I'm rested and fairly relaxed.

Current music: While I was outside hanging up laundry just a few minutes ago, my iPod randomly served up a Muse song and a vaguely techno-y remix of this. Also, a comedy sketch about a version of Survivor featuring cartoon characters.

Current annoyance: Why is my robot body still not ready?! Among other physical complaints, I have to go to the dentist today, and I don't want to.

Current thing: Repeatedly playing the Doctor Who version of 2048 and obsessively speculating about who might or might not turn out to be related to whom on Once Upon a Time now.

Current desktop picture: It's the same rather silly but nevertheless kind of cool-looking bookshelf wallpaper as it's been for the last couple of months. It's probably time to change it now, though. Maybe to something else book-themed.

Current book: Distrust That Particular Flavor by William Gibson.

Current song in head: I've had Weird Al's "White and Nerdy" in and out of my head for days.

Current refreshment: Just finished a Diet Pepsi.

Current DVD in player: Disc 2 of season 1 of Archer.

Current worry: That everything possible will go wrong, somehow. Forever.

Current thought: Wow, this an even geekier "currently" response than usual.

Such Is The Life Of A Shiftworker.

Ugh. Today is that regular occurrence I have mentally dubbed "Transition Day." Meaning that I worked a night shift last night, but I have to be Day Person in a couple of days, so I need to shift my sleep schedule completely around. There are various different ways to deal with this sort of thing, and all of them kind of suck. What I do these days is to get off work at 8 AM and go to bed as usual, but only sleep for four or five hours: enough to function, but not nearly enough to be satisfying. Then instead of fighting the consequent state of sleep deprivation, I sort of nurse it, giving myself a very low-energy, lying-around-on-the-sofa kind of day that, hopefully, will end with a hot bath and a return to bed before midnight. It works surprisingly well, but it's never exactly fun, since it always makes for a short day that feels pretty much entirely wasted.

Still More Books, Yo!

Here I sit in my brief period of downtime between two 12-hour shifts, just trying to suck down enough coffee to stay awake through the night. So, not a lot to say today and not a lot of time to say it, but keeping up with the little book-related theme I seem to have going here, I thought I'd link to what has just become my new favorite YouTube channel, Thug Notes. Each video deals with a different classic book, giving a summary of the plot and some thematic analysis. All of which is delivered in gangsta speak. What really gets me is that this guy frankly does a better of teaching these books in five minutes than most of my English teachers ever managed. Here's a couple of samples:





It makes me weirdly happy to live in a world where this exists. (Just remember kids, there's no substitute for actually reading the book!)

Mmmm, More Books!

I just got back from the local Friends of the Library book sale. I probably wouldn't end up buying very much, I told myself. After all, I have to work tonight, so I'd need to sleep in, meaning I'd get there late and the good stuff would probably all be gone.

Well. I did not sleep as late as I should have. The good stuff was definitely not all gone. And I am now experiencing that peculiar mix of thrill and shame that only comes after a good book-buying binge. Well, honestly, right now it's mostly still thrill. I got books! The shame will doubtless come, however, when I count them all and take note of what it does to my TBR total.

Mmmm, Books.

OK, it is now after midnight, so I think I can count this as day two of what I have begun mentally referring to as Blogs-A-Lot April, because I have never been any good with pithy names.

But today, instead of random thoughts and boring life details, I offer you bookshelf porn.

(What does it say about me that I actually looked at some of these pictures and went, "Nope, that's just not enough bookshelf space?")

Blog, Feet, Music

I really have been shamelessly neglecting this blog of late, and, as always seems to be the case with such things, the longer I neglect it, the harder it is to motivate myself to actually post something. So I'm going to try a little experiment here: for the rest of April, I'm going to try to post at least something every day. Most likely it'll be a bunch of weird, random thoughts and boring details about my life -- you have been warned! -- but at least it'll be something, and it'll get me back into the habit.

So, today's weird random thought/boring life detail starts with my feet. I have flat feet, and for a long time, I suffered from some really awful, and increasingly continuous, bouts of plantar fasciitis. (Aka stabbing foot pain.) I finally went to see a podiatrist about it a couple of years ago, and he set me up with some custom-molded orthotic shoe inserts that helped immensely. Since then, I've had occasional very brief recurrances, but nothing remotely like what I was suffering before.

Except now it seems to be coming back, at least in my left foot. So far, it's intermittent, and mild enough that it's more annoying than debilitating, but the fact that it keeps coming back is worrying. I'm not sure if my foot's changed somehow -- it actually feels like that might be true -- or if it's due to the insert having become worn and cracked and maybe not holding my foot rigid enough anymore, or what. I'm hoping I don't have to go back to the podiatrist, not least because I'm never sure if my insurance will cover this stuff. It did last time, despite my policy pretty much explicitly saying it wouldn't, but who knows if I'll get that lucky twice? I have a slightly superstitious fear of calling the insurance company and checking in advance, for fear that'll make them say no.

For the moment, I'm sort of hoping it's just a weird, random flare-up and will go away on its own. Being off my feet for a while after my surgery next month might help. I also have some stretching exercises that help, but the problem with those is forcing myself to do them. My brain apparently thinks that six minutes of leaning against a wall and stretching while watching the clock to time how long to hold position is the most unbelievably, tortuously boring thing imaginable. Like a kid wheedling for five more minutes before bedtime, some part of my mind keeps repeatedly whining at me to put off doing it just a little longer, pleeeeeese!, often with the result that I never get around to doing it at all.

But I really need to make with the self-discipline and just get the damned things done. Listening to music while I'm doing it helps with the boredom factor a bit, fortunately. Especially when I put my iPod on random shuffle and it comes up with weird, weird things. This morning while I was doing the stretches, it played me a medley of Queen songs in Japanese. Which is kind of weird by itself, but what makes it even more so is that I had no idea I had a medley of Queen songs in Japanese on my iPod. I am, in fact, 99% sure I'd never even heard that before. I mean, I think I would have remembered that.

Well, maybe being curious enough about what it'll come up for me next is enough to motivate me to keep on doing the exercises. I can only hope.

Yaaaaay! *flaily Kermit arms*

Just got back from seeing the new Muppets movie. About ten seconds in, I think, and I was already grinning all over my face. God, I love the Muppets. As far as I am concerned, they are pretty much just pure, distilled joy.

But The Opening Credits Are Exciting!

Today's random link, just because it amuses me: The 7 Most Annoying People To Watch TV With. Alas, I fear I may well qualify as "the overreactor." Let's just say I'm glad there wasn't anybody in the room with me for the last couple of shows I watched. Although I was honestly a little worried that I was making enough noise during the most recent episode of The Walking Dead to attract the attention of the neighbors.

Also... Note to self: I probably should not watch that show before bed. Two zombie apocalypse dreams in two months is really a bit much.

Yes, When I Decide I'm Going To Try To Post More, You Get Complaints About The Weather

It's mostly been sunny and lovely here for weeks. So why, on the one day I had set aside to do yardwork and laundry (which I have to dry on the clothesline), and which also happens to be the day after I finally got around to washing the car, has it suddenly decided to rain? *shakes fist at the heavens*

(Mind you, a friend of mine in New Zealand just told me they're getting hit by a cyclone. So probably I shouldn't complain about a few raindrops, which we could undoubtedly use, anyway. But apparently that isn't going to stop me.)

And I'm Still Here!

I have been (gently and kindly) admonished for my lack of blog-updating lately. It's nice to be missed! But, honestly, this is one of those weird periods my in life when I find that I have basically nothing to say. Well, I could talk more about my medical issues, complete with a rambling anecdote involving a week-and-a-half-long comedy of errors between my doctor's office and the insurance company in an attempt to get approval on some fantastically expensive drugs. But frankly, I don't feel like going into it all at length, and everything is okay on that front for the moment, anyway. (Not that I won't promise you won't have to hear me bitching more about the state of my poor old meat-body later. I think that's probably inevitable at some point. I mean, never mind surgery, it happens every time I come down with a cold.)

But other than that... I kinda got nothin'. My most exciting plan for today is to get a haircut. The same haircut I've been getting for the last twenty years, because I'm dull like that.

How about you guys? Anything new and interesting? Anything you're just dying to hear me talk about? Get any exciting new haircuts? Anything?

Currently, I Am Still Here. Really.

I appear to be in some sort of blogging slump lately. But, hey, there's always this!

Current clothes: Gray sweatshirt from the VLA with a glow-in-the-dark picture of one of the antennas. Blue jeans. Brown boots. Gray science-themed socks with pictures of radiation symbols and Bohr atoms and various pieces of labware on them.

Current mood: Not too bad. At least I got enough sleep today.

Current music: Nothing much. I was listening to some random-shuffle stuff while doing a bit of housework the other day, but I don't now remember what any of it was.

Current annoyance: Not being fantastically wealthy. Or even modestly wealthy. That would be perfectly fine.

Current thing: Playing Organ Trail: The Director's Cut. Which is more fun than you'd expect it to be, somehow. (And, no, the spelling is not a typo.)

Current desktop picture: Still the same books as last month.

Current book: The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken. Which I suspect may be the kind of kids' book I'd have liked a lot better if I'd read it when I was still a kid. But I'm only a very little ways into it, so we'll see.

Current song in head: All is quiet in the ol' brain right now. Mercifully enough, considering some of the stuff that's been stuck in there lately.

Current refreshment: I just finished a light dinner of fruit, bread, and tea. Also a Toblerone.

Current DVD in player: Nothing at the moment, since Netflix keeps not sending me Sherlock. While I'm waiting, I've been streaming Todd and the Book of Pure Evil. Which is a show that is either really stupid or actually kind of brilliant. Either way, it's surprisingly entertaining.

Current worry: I should know better than to google medical stuff. I need to keep reminding myself that the people who experience horrible problems with a drug or procedure or condition are vastly, disproportionately likely to be the ones who go on the internet and talk about it.

Current thought: Um... No matter where you go, there you are?

The State Of Me

Various things:

I still have a cold. The congestion is rather less today, which is nice, because I enjoy breathing. But I still feel tired and ooky. It doesn't help that I keep not getting nearly enough sleep lately for various annoying reasons. Of course, if the cold is (maybe? hopefully?) slacking off, the pollen count is rising, so if my nose is less stuffy, it's also more itchy. Because I really can't win.

So, it looks like I am going to be having the hysterectomy. In May, if all goes well. I am still pretty nervous about it, but... But I do want this troublesome, useless-to-me organ to go away. And I find that when I think about the idea of never having another period again, I am filled with a deep and inexpressible joy. (I could talk more about my medical issues, but that would probably mostly involve me ranting a lot about insurance-related stuff, and that's a tedious subject, even to me.)

I have a new wall heater! One which hopefully will not make any attempts to gas me. So, that's one major thing taken care of, anyway. Now if only everything else expensive can keep from breaking for a while while I desperately attempt to make progress on paying off the medical bills.

And that's the state of me at the moment, more or less. I'm unwell and close to broke, but at least I'm warm and, if I'm very lucky, I might already own a lifetime supply of tampons.

*sneezes pitifully*

Dammit, I have a cold. Again. And no matter how much tea I drink, it never, ever manages to be enough.

Awwwww

I've been pretty terrible about updating this blog regularly lately and do not, at the moment, have anything I particularly want to say. So instead I offer you: children reading to cats.

Wait, We're How Far Into February Now?

Well. Time for this again, I guess!

Current clothes: Blue t-shirt with a diagram of a caffeine molecule on it. Gray sweats. White socks. Brown boots.

Current mood: Good. It's the middle of my weekend, I'm relaxed, I've been getting enough sleep, and I'm getting useful stuff done around the house.

Current music: Nothing much. At the moment, my listening-to-stuff time is devoted to working on trying to catch up on all those podcasts I'm behind on again.

Current annoyance: My living room wall heater started smelling faintly like gas again, so I had to shut it down. I'm just going to leave it off until I can get a replacement in. Fortunately, the weather at the moment is absolutely gorgeous. If anything, I think it feels a little too warm in here right now.

Current thing: Doing housework and playing Sentry Knight.

Current desktop picture: Books!

Current book: Outlaw Tales of New Mexico by Barbara Marriott. Which is a bit meh. But, hey, it's short.

Current song in head: Various things have been flitting in and out of the ol' brain over the last few days, including many repeat performances of Leonard Cohen's "If It Be Your Will," because the last book I was reading kept indirectly reminding me of it. But things seem to have quieted down now. Which is nice.

Current refreshment: Nothing. But I'm kind of thirsty.

Current DVD in player: Disc 3 of season 7 of Burn Notice. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this final season, but I do know that I'm going to miss it when I'm done.

Current worry: Money. Again. It's all about money.

Current thought: Oh, look, there's Leonard Cohen stuck in my head again. Guess I spoke too soon.

What's With This Whole "Need For Warmth And Shelter" Thing, Anyway?

Despite my last post, it is definitely not spring yet. We actually got snow last night. It's mostly gone already, though, which I understand puts us well ahead of much of the rest of the country.

But it is, indeed, still winter. Which means I still need to heat my house. Which turns out to be slightly problematic, because the ancient wall furnace that functions as my primary heat source apparently decided it would be a fun and nifty thing to start pumping gas into my living room. Fortunately, I managed not to blow up or asphyxiate or anything, and the nice young man from the plumbing and heating company came and adjusted it so that it is not at the moment actively trying to kill me. But he thinks the problem is that the gas valve is starting to wear out. And given that they probably no longer make parts for vintage 1960s "Custom Aire" wall heaters, the whole thing is probably going to need to be replaced.

Ah, well. I think I'm starting to get used to the idea that I will just never be able to keep any money in the bank ever again. Really.

And Before You Know It, It Will Be Too Hot.

Today is Groundhog Day, right? I have no idea what the rodent might or might not have "predicted," but I don't think I need to. I can tell the year is starting to turn, because robins have started appearing, presumably on their way north. Hang on, frozen parts of the US! Spring is coming!

Hey There, Have Some Random Links!

It's been a while since I've done a random links post. Let's see what I've got...

How the Media Will Report the Apocalypse: Pretty darned funny stuff. Also, probably disturbingly close to the truth.

39 Test Answers That Are 100% Wrong But Totally Genius At The Same Time: OK, this sort of list has been around since before there was an internet. But some of these are also pretty darned funny.

The Best Astronomy and Space Photos of 2013: Phil Plait's usual year-end round-up of amazing space pictures. The universe, it is a very beautiful place.

lol my thesis: People sum up their theses in succinct and entertaining ways. This may be my new favorite time-wasting site on the internet.

For Some Reason, This Sort Of Thing Only Happens When I'm On Day Shifts.

Last night I woke up at 3:30 after a nightmare in which my mother was attacked by zombies, and I found myself facing the prospect of a post-apocalyptic future with no coffee. Finally, I managed to get back to sleep, only fall into another dream in which I was back in high school and trying desperately to finish writing an essay right before class on the day it was due.

What the hell, brain? What did I do to you?

First Of The Year Currenties!

Current clothes: Fuzzy blue pajama pants with moons and stars on them. My (now somewhat tattered) "Oops, I bought another pile of books!" sleep shirt. Red plaid robe. Fuzzy brown slippers. Perfect blogging attire!

Current mood: Okay, but not fully awake yet. I'm still working on my morning coffee. Well, "morning" coffee. I'm aware that it's 5 PM, but this is my life.

Current music: Nothing in particular. I think the last album I listened to was Still Got Legs by Chameleon Circuit. Because I am a giant nerd. But you knew that.

Current annoyance: I've been working ridiculous amounts of night shifts lately. This is not a great time of year for that. I know I often complain about the giant nuclear skyball as if it were my enemy, but the truth is, when I barely see it for two weeks, I miss it a lot. Maybe we're actually frenemies.

Current thing: Working endless amounts of night shifts.

Current desktop picture: Still the wreath-bedecked TARDIS. I should change that. It's well past being seasonal now.

Current book: The Birthday Party: A Memoir of Survival by Stanley Alpert. The author was kidnapped and held for more than 24 hours by some robbers looking to get money out of his bank accounts. On his birthday.

Current song in head: Last night Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" would not stop playing in my brain. Fortunately, it seems a bit quieter in there now.

Current refreshment: Coffee. Ahhhhhh, coffee!

Current DVD in player: I just finished disc 2 of season 2 of Millennium. And... Eh. I've been told I should keep watching it through the end of season 2 (although no further), that it gets pretty great in here somewhere. But so far, I'm not seeing it. Lance Henriksen is always interesting to watch, and the show is stylishly done in a way that makes it easier to watch than, frankly, it should be. But... But it's mostly just such a humorless, pretentious mishmash of cryptic nonsense, with a worldview I take exception to and no sense that it has any idea where it's actually planning to go. It's like all of the things that annoyed me about The X-Files, minus all the things I really liked about The X-Files. But I am continuing to give it a chance to redeem itself. For some reason.

Current worry: I am very likely going to end up having a hysterectomy, and, while, frankly, getting this damned organ out of me and never having to deal with its bullshit again is a happy thought, the idea of dealing with the recovery period and the state of near-helplessness that involves is worrying the crap out of me. If I'm not allowed to lift anything over ten pounds for six to eight weeks, what the hell do I do if one of my cats gets sick? I'll be physically incapable of taking them to the vet. And, hell, I can barely wrestle them into their carriers when I need to. Forget someone they don't know and trust as well doing it. This possibility is really upsetting to me. I don't ever want to put myself in a position where I can't properly take care of myself and my animals and fulfill my responsibilities, you know?

Current thought: Forget it. I have not had enough coffee yet to go tackling my worries now.

2013: The Year in Books

Happy New Year!

It's become kind of a tradition at this point for me to put up a post about the reading I've done over the past year. And, hey, far be it from me to break with tradition!

You can find the complete list of my 2013 reading here, or, if you prefer a more visual representation, here. I read a total of 144 books this year. That's one fewer than in 2012, but, hey, not too shabby. And I acquired... Well, let's just say "some." Or, OK, "a lot." I don't so much want to look at the numbers on that.

Here's my also-traditional "best books of the year" list. As usual these, like the rest of my reading, are rather varied:

Fiction
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion
Zone One by Colson Whitehead
The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente
The October Country by Ray Bradbury
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Un Lun Dun by China Mieville
The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich
Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon
Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

Non-fiction
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Allison Bechdel
The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution by Sean B. Carroll
Economix: How Our Economy Works (and Doesn't Work) in Words and Pictures by Michael Godwin
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
I'm Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen by Sylvie Simmons
Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy O. Frost & Gail Steketee
Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson

Humor
Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh
Science: Ruining Everything Since 1543 by Zach Weinersmith

Judging by that list, I'd say it was a pretty good year in books! Now to see how much of the TBR Pile I can manage to get through in 2014...

Farewell, 2013

Well, here we are. The last day of the year. Alas, there will be no revelry for me tonight, as I have to be at work at 11:45 PM. Sigh. I'm not much of a New Year's Eve party person, I must say, but I would still much rather be at home watching the ball drop and raising a glass to the new year. Ah, the things I do for science. Well, I do have access to incredibly precise clocks at work, so maybe that will be fun? Even if they do all run on Universal, rather than local time.

Anyway. This would seem to be the time to look back on the rapidly ending year. 2013 was certainly interesting for me, probably mostly in the Chinese curse sense. Significant but less-than-fun events included: The government shutdown. Losing my elderly cat Happiness, as well as Mickey and Newt's feral mother (who really does appear to be gone for good). Dealing with medical issues that, while not terribly serious as such things go, are pretty annoying. And the excitement of realizing that holy crap, water is flooding into my bedroom!

On a much more cheerful note, this was also what I've been thinking of as the Year of Space Tourism, in which I paid a couple of visits to relatives and was able to thoroughly indulge my inner space geek in the process, with visits to Kennedy Space Center and the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, not to mention the chance to get close to a real, live (OK, decommissioned) space shuttle.

And almost all of these things contributed to the other main theme of the year: me getting to watch my savings dwindle and my credit card debt rise. But, you know, I'm still doing OK. I'm still here, still being me, still enjoying the things I enjoy, with a job and a roof over my head, and family who care about me. And 4,000 books. I figure everybody in the world should be at least this lucky.

I hope the new year sees all of you alive and well and doing things that make you happy, too. I'll catch you in 2014!

There Be Dragons

I finally got the chance to go see The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug tonight. And I very definitely enjoyed it. It's got some really exciting parts and some parts that are a bit silly but a lot of fun; the whole thing looks incredible, as usual; and Smaug is sixteen different kinds of awesome. Unlike the first movie, though, this one did feel as long as it actually was. I must say, I am increasingly questioning the necessity of extending this thing out into three movies (and not just because this one ends suddenly at the most annoying possible moment, although that probably does have something to do with it). All the added material is interesting, and I have no fundamental problem with any of it. Heck, when it's all finished, people with lots of time to spare are going to be able to watch all six movies back-to-back and get some kind of coherent, unified story out of it, which is probably pretty cool. But I'm not entirely sure that's worth the all the added length.