Marilee J. Layman

Reading Out of Bed

2008-07-18T22:42:06Z

I want to finish Hybrids tonight so I can hand it to whomever wants it at bookgroup tomorrow, but I've had a tough week and got behind. So I sat in the recliner earlier and read 50 pages in 30 minutes. I now know that it's definitely the meds that make me read slower in bed!

I'm just doing laundry today. I finished the baby shower thing and will wrap the presents today. I've been loading my totebag with stuff for tomorrow. I think I'll have to call the librarian's husband, who is usually there first, and see about him carrying the cake into the community room, assuming the icing hasn't melted to bits first. I can't believe I'm so nervous about this -- whatever happens, it will work out.

Off Schedule

2008-07-17T22:24:08Z

I decided I should pop out today and get the cash for next week. Usually I'd do it on the way to the library, since the credit union is just a few blocks before, but I don't want to stop while I have the cake in really hot weather.

I thought of a better combo of beads for the first bidder and photographed those in the living room (Shiva immediately tried to abscond with them and was very unhappy at being not only pushed aside, but specifically out of the way of the light) and she thinks they're gorgeous, so that's it for those.

I'm really tired from yesterday and I'm going to nap now. I'm not doing so well at getting up earlier to practice getting up at noon on Saturday, but the urgency will probably get me up then, anyway.

New Beading Store

2008-07-17T01:32:56Z

I went off to Arlington today, where there's a new beading store. It's not ADA accessible, and their approach for the walking disabled was pretty unstable. Good thing I don't want to go back to the store. They only had a few seed beads and the young women at the counter were having trouble doing straight stringing. I was there long enough to miss the time to get on I66 home, so I took Lee Highway out, the old road for this direction. It was interesting how many things had changed since I'd been there last.

I turned onto 236 to go to the Red Hot and Blue in Fairfax City and have their Pig Squealin' Combo -- pulled pork sandwich (coleslaw to put on top), personal onion ring loaf, and their great potato salad. They have a wonderful peanut butter pie, and if I'd thought of it, I would have brought most of the onion ring loaf home and had the pie there, since it was way too hot to bring the pie home!

When I left, I went a bit further and then turned on Braddock. This is a four-lane road that used to be a two-lane over-used almost-pathway and people are building stuff where there used to be woods. There were four new no-brand evangelical churches on the road.

Then 28 south home, putting up the birdfeeder and filling it, and photographing the bead sets I put together for the live long & marry folks. The person who bid first doesn't have an LJ and was posted by a moderator. She was outbid 25 minutes before the end of the auction and she couldn't have been notified, so I told her if she went up $5 to the winning bid, I'd make her one, too. I sent out the emails with pictures and have decisions back, so things are ready to go when I finish the baby thing for Saturday. It's going to be very hot Saturday, I worry about the cake.

Fledglings!

2008-07-15T22:16:56Z

I was worried because I've only seen two fledglings this year, but today there's half-a-dozen house finch fledglings and two cardinal fledglings!

I spent a few hours in the recliner with the heat and vibration last night and I feel fine today. I have to be more careful about standing/walking too long.

Lucila is here cleaning and Spirit has been brave and watching.

I had two bids on my livelongnmarry custom beadwoven necklace, and the first one was from someone who didn't have an LJ and couldn't know the second bid was made, so I offered to make her one, too, for her donated bid, and she's been giving me color and style elements. I'll have to spend some time in the workroom tonight.

Achy

2008-07-15T00:40:32Z

I had to go get yarn today, which is not something I should really do before getting groceries, but I didn't know I'd have to stand in line for the deli and then wait for the bakery person to be paged back to the bakery (and she must have been smoking because she reeked -- I hope she doesn't bake). I started getting sweaty and nauseated from the pain of standing so long, so I sat on the pharmacy bench for a while until I felt better. Then I finished getting groceries and came home. I pulled a chair into the kitchen to sit on while I unloaded and now I'm washing cat blankies.

The rain made the seed yucky, and I'd washed dishes last night, so I emptied the clean dishes out of the dishwasher and put the birdfeeder in. It just finished and I made up and brought back my rehydration fluid. The feeder won't dry until 2am or so, so I put some seed on the porch and will put it out tomorrow.

While I was at the bakery, I ordered the cake for Saturday (no sage, so it will probably be blue, pink, and yellow) and when I got home, I sent out a reminder to people. I'm beginning to remember why I haven't done this since I got sick, and it's just a little one at bookgroup!

Another Thunderstorm

2008-07-13T23:09:44Z

And my little channel out front got clogged with some more mulch, so I went out and got the outside reacher from the storeroom off the porch and scraped another path which the water followed happily down under my porch, to the drain. Part of the problem is that someone has moved the concrete thing that the downspout is supposed to drain into -- putting the extra water out on the front lawn -- and so the water takes the least resistance to the front of the porch. One of the new renters in the next building stopped by and talked while I was hacking at ivy (I have lots of bruises to show from it!) and asked if I needed help. Maybe I'll ask him to put it back the next time I see him. He just graduated college and is looking for a job in graphic arts.

I have an unusually (Wow! Lightning hit about a half-block away -- Shiva ran down the hall) long list for the grocery store tomorrow, mostly because of the baby shower next Saturday, but partly because of coupons and sales that are interacting. I'll have to try hard to get up at a better time than lately.

Water Girl

2008-07-12T23:12:18Z

Remember the water dripping into the utility room on Thursday? Turns out the drain in Luke's utility room was blocked. I don't know how it got blocked, since I have a litterbox right next to mine and mine isn't blocked. In any case, it didn't do any damage here -- a tiny bit of drywall above my air handler is a slightly different white, but I'm not going to worry about that.

And then last night, the washer stopped working, right in the middle of the pause to soak sudsy clothes. I carried them, a few at a time, in a bucket to the guest bathroom which has a tub and hung them, one at a time, on one of those inverted-V racks more commonly used for drying clothes, and used the hand-held shower to rinse the soap out. Then I wrung them as tight as I could and put them in the dryer. Each time I put a few in, I'd try to make the washer start again, in different places where it does specific things, but no luck. By the time the clothes had been through the dryer twice (I don't wring as well as the washer spins), I had figured out it was the knob on the washer. I got the schematics out and pulled the breaker. Then I took the knob off, cleaned the dust, cat fur, and lint out of it, and put it back in. And it happily finished the cycle. I just put the towels I used last night to wipe up the water I trailed all over plus a couple of other hot water things in, and it ran perfectly. So I canceled the Sears appointment for next Thursday, their earliest time.

Today I went to get money for next week and then stopped for soft ice cream before I went to Tony's. I got there just as they were putting up the dinner specials (which are meals) and I picked #2: chunks of chicken, broccoli, and mushrooms in a light cream sauce over ziti with a salad and garlic bread. Very good. I'm not usually there late enough for specials, and they are more expensive than what I usually get, but they're always very good.

Today, I am covered with bruises from pulling ivy through the rails on the porch, including a couple of symmetrical ones on my forehead. The weird part is a batch of little eraser size bruises on my right inner arm.

For the craftish people: ASS has a lot of sales on craft-like things. Assorted leather bits are items #35664, 35665, and 35666. Modea Dea Ticker Tape ribbon yarn is items 37617, 37618, 37619. Paper automata are 92889. A lot of electronics, lab materials, and tools are on sale, too.

Pullin' the Ivy, Pullin' the Ivy, Pullin' the Ivy Today....

2008-07-11T23:10:50Z

I've got a big mound of detached ivy on my porch. When it dies and dries, I'll put it in the newly-empty new cat food bag and take it to the trash. I had the rice maker make me oatmeal for when I got up, and I planned to eat it after I fed the cats, but then I went out and hacked at the ivy and completely forgot about it until a few minutes ago when I went into the kitchen because I remembered I needed to eat. Didn't remember about the oatmeal until I saw the rice cooker, though.

I got a letter from the private disability company today and it has a new form for my poor primary doctor to fill out, plus forms for me. I'll have to drop by Kaiser next week and fill out a form and hand it over to Medical Records to give to the doc. I'll give him my emergency info sheet so he won't have to write all the diagnoses and meds.

I'm still behind on the WashPost and last night found a cartoon that seemed appropriate:

which comes from the official site.

No More Online Today

2008-07-11T03:55:06Z

I just read email and ran through the bead board since our BFAC deadline is coming up, but since I slept from 4:30-10:30pm (big headache), and that was all I did today, I'm going to sign off in a few minutes and try to get up on time tomorrow and work through the extra day!

The Last Shot

2008-07-10T02:10:54Z

I'm watching DVDs from 2004, so you can see how far behind I got when my queueue filled up!

I wanted to like this movie better. It has Alec Baldwin, Matthew Broderick, and Tony Shalhoub, cameos from Russell Means and Pat Morita, and a small part made fabulously bigger by Joan Cusack.

It's the story of an FBI agent (Baldwin) who realizes he can catch a mobster by pretending to produce a movie. He has to learn how to act like a producer and then find a script, and he finds Broderick's. He never plans to finish the movie, just to use it as a sting, but as the work on the movie starts, it's clear that he really likes being in the business.

There were a lot of little Ha!s and chuckles, but it never quite made comedy. After 45 minutes (halfway through), I found myself looking at the clock. It felt like it needed some stiffening.

Too Short

2008-07-10T01:40:47Z

ETA - As soon as I posted that, I started hearing dripping in the utility room. I went to look and heard the noise coming from above. Drops of water were coming down the pipe that takes air from the air handler up into the condo's pipes. I put in towels and then knocked on Luke's door. He came and I asked if something was leaking in his utility room and he said yes, his air conditioner (air handler) was. He'd mopped it up, turned the AC off, and would call someone to come look in the morning. I told him not to get too hot -- he's 86 -- and to be sure to go to his daughter's if he did. The dripping has slowed and I swapped towels, so it looks like the only damage here might be stained drywall around the pipe or maybe replacing a bit.

I ran lots of errands today: taking trash and recycling out, mailing a book at the post office, getting a phenobarb level at Kaiser, buying cat food and snackies at the Petsmart in the same center as Kaiser (last time -- a new one opens just down the street from me next week), getting my hair cut*, dinner at Uno's (a wonderful new salad -- pears, gorgonzola, chunks of grilled chicken, grape halves, walnut halves, and craisins, on lettuce with a blueberry-pomegranate vinaigrette), and got gas.

* I wanted just the long back layer cut off because I'm getting heat rash on my neck, but she didn't understand and layered the entire back! She was able to blend the longer front in, so it's not too bad, just not what I had in mind. The top layer of the back is only about an inch shorter than the front, so it will grow out fairly reasonably. The next time it hits my neck, it'll be winter.

Shiva was yelling for dry food when I got home -- 7pm, much later than usual, and they usually get dry food at 4pm -- so I gave them that, put more seed out for the birds, and started working my way through the non-forum things I read.

Obliviating the Past

2008-07-08T20:56:05Z

I don't really feel bad about this, it just seemed like a good title. I watched the DVD from Dad's memorial service last night while I ate and boy, was it sappy. No pictures of Mother, and only one picture (when he was a little boy) before Sue married him. I'm included in one picture, I assume because it was the only group picture taken at his retirement. It's a nice picture of me at 20, so I'll use the DVD/VCR's ability to grab pictures to get it. I remember Sue raising holy hell because she thought Rick and I weren't dressed formally enough, but Dad and I were the only ones wearing hats, and she'd never been to an officer's retirement ceremony before.

Hot today, and Code Orange again, so nothing exciting here. I did boil some whole wheat blend elbow mac and drizzle olive oil over it and put it in the fridge for a salad later.

Miracle and Other Christmas Stories by Connie Willis

2008-07-08T00:13:59Z

A lot of these stories were in Asimov's, so I wasn't surprised when I recognized them. Then I read "Cat's Paw," which ISFDB says is new, and I know I've read it before. So I thought maybe the movers had gotten the collection mixed up with the new books and I just didn't remember reading it. That happens, but this is pretty new -- 2000. Last night I read the last story, which is also new, and I don't remember reading it. I dunno.

I think Connie Willis writes best at the shorter lengths and these stories, even the two religious ones, are beautifully written and fun to read. I particularly like the two that take place partly in offices, since the offices are so similar to where I worked back when I worked. I think this is a great book to read, even if you're not a Christian.

News and More

2008-07-08T00:01:33Z

I found another Tom Toles cartoon to put on my fridge.

Today's WashPost has an interesting article on what happened to Michael Vick's dogs. One is now a certified therapy dog, some have been adopted, and others are still in shelters, learning to be nice dogs. It's hard to be a nice pit bull after a bad man makes you fight.

In Op-Ed, Marc Thiessen, who was a spokesman for Helms, tells us how good Helms was and why we're so wrong.

I got groceries today and have started washing cat blankies. We just had a light rain that made it cool enough to open the windows until dark, so Shiva is smelling the outdoors. Miss Girl is still in the recliner. I've found out how to get her to eat enough gooshy food. I almost split a can between her and Shiva (he gets a bit more) and I have to stay at the counter corner until she either eats it all or leaves by herself. If I move, she'll assume I'm going to give her snackies right then, and will head for the living room while Shiva finishes her plate. She's starting to get a little fat back.

I emailed Loren MacGregor last night because I hadn't heard from him for a long time and he had posted on ML, and his wife has come up with a great Cafe Press site!

Live Long and Marry

2008-07-06T22:05:21Z

This is a fannish effort to stop the resolution trying to ban gay marriage in California. People post offers and others bid (rules are in the userinfo). Here's the LJ community and I am out of my mind and offered to make a custom necklace.

Nudity in DC!

2008-07-06T21:22:13Z

My gosh! How could anybody come to DC when there's so much nudity here! Or so thinks Texas GOP delegate Robert Hurt. He was not able to convince the party to add his plank of forbidding nude statues to the platform, but he thinks "You don't have nude art on your front porch," and I think we should help him out with that.

It's overcast and humid here, I'd be happy with some rain. The cats are asleep and I may be soon, too.

Happy Birthday laurel!

2008-07-05T23:25:48Z

I hear it's cooler in the Twin Cities than here -- I hope you're out having fun! Best wishes for a bright year!

Happy Birthday, anghara!

2008-07-05T23:24:02Z

I hope it's been a great day and you'll have a wonderful year!

Great Cholesterol!

2008-07-05T23:20:46Z

I got my lipid panel results back and not only is everything in the right range, it's well on the good side of the range! I haven't had results this good since before I got sick! It has to be the fish oil capsules the primary had me start taking.

I can hear the cars at the Speedway. It's a few miles away, but I've always enjoyed the sound on summer Fridays and Saturdays. Some developer bought it and will start building houses after the season is over, but maybe the housing economy will be bad enough he'll keep leasing it to the Speedway.

I went and got money for next week and ate at Tony's -- Greek salad, garlic bread, and iced tea -- and then came home and noticed the fountain was off. I went into the guest bathroom and the GFCI was off, so I got a screwdriver and pushed the Reset (I found out last year that I'm not strong enough to push it without a tool) in and the fountain started. This happens when it gets really wet, and since I don't use the outlets in the bathrooms, I don't know about it being off unless I have the fountain set up and it isn't running.

The rains yesterday left very wet seed with green on the birdfeeder and I had just a few things in the dishwasher, so I took them out and washed the feeder. Now it's drying, but in the meantime, I put some seed on the porch. I also got out the reacher in the storeroom because more mulch made a big pool yesterday and I made a more permanent channel to the hole down to the drain under my porch. As long as I was on the porch with the reacher, I pulled volunteers -- a lot of them were from my upstairs neighbors begonias. I should probably leave those. The maples have to come up, though. I didn't work on the ivy, though, I'd done enough leaning, so maybe tomorrow.

Shiva is very excited about all the mourning doves eating from the seed on the porch and is flat on the ground in front of the screen door (I opened the windows), just waiting for one to come close enough he can get it through the screen. Spirit has spent the morning in the recliner.

While I was out, I saw two good vanity plates. Here's a reference everyone will get: LTB OHMY and one that some will: IAM LOST.

Horizontal Rain!

2008-07-04T22:09:12Z

We're supposed to have thunderstorms, but I wasn't expecting horizontal rain! Maybe it will calm down by the time it hits the Mall. No ivy hacking when it's wet, so I'm just online and will change back to the Twilight Zone marathon after the news.

It's a day of celebration, but I really shouldn't add Jesse Helms' death to that.

Juggernaut

2008-07-03T21:30:08Z

This is a thriller from 1974 and someone must have recommended it to me. I wish I knew who and why, because although there were some very tense moments, the rest was not so much.

The British cruise ship Brittanic is between the UK and the US when the office receives notice of bombs aboard. The bomber, who calls himself Juggernaut, asks for 500,000 pounds in exchange for how to disarm the bombs. The police insist that the money not be paid, they'll send a batch of bomb experts instead. As the experts work their way through the traps in the bombs, some of them are killed, and there's a lot of damage to the ship. Personally, I think they should have just paid the money. Stars Richard Harris, Anthony Hopkins, and Omar Sharif, but that wouldn't be enough for me to watch it again.

NAAAAAAP

2008-07-03T21:24:13Z

It turned out that the Code Orange was only further in and we were clear, and I passed the neuro tests online, so I took my BFAC and another package to the Post Office. The other package wouldn't have fit into the APC bin tomorrow so I wouldn't have gotten it out until Monday and now that I'd packed it, I wanted it to go.

But now I'm sleepy and I'm going to take a nap. Delayed sleepiness.

Dig Bonus Disk

2008-07-02T22:39:22Z

I considered whether I was going to watch this, after the less-than-pleasing original documentary, but I only had about an hour left on my BFAC project and this was an hour long, so I put it in. I thought finding out that most of the people have matured was very nice. Many of the folks are back in new bands. It was interesting that it won the documentary award at Sundance, but I wouldn't have agreed. And the filmmaker nursed her baby through the interview with her, and it's nice to see women who are comfortable with that in public.

Erranding and BFAC Project

2008-07-02T22:34:03Z

I was very tempted by the bananas on the counter after I got up, so I put them in the cupboard where I wouldn't eat them. I took the recycling to our bins, dropped Humans off at the library, put the giant birdseed box, collapsed, in the cardboard recycling dumpster at Public Works, and dropped a DVD in the drive-by box at the post office. Then I went on to Kaiser to get stuck for the lipid panel. As I left, one of my neighbors drove by and waved, so when she came home after I did, I went out and asked. She's been with Kaiser for one year now and likes it so far; I've been with them and the HMO they bought when they came here for 31 years.

I had planned on eating at Olive Garden because they have that lovely sorbet and fruit dessert, but something distracted me to Red Lobster, next door. I had the lobster pizza, which wasn't bad, but didn't taste much of lobster, and a mediocre key lime pie. Next time I go that way, I'll keep going to Olive Garden.

I finished my BFAC project last night and put the pictures up today. I don't hurt as much today, a lot of the muscles have loosened, but I'll still take narcotics tonight. I have to stay home tomorrow anyway, it's Code Orange. I'll mail this to my friend AJ, who is the board member who's photographing them for the auction next year, on Friday.

Humans by Robert Sawyer

2008-07-01T20:59:59Z

This is the sequel to Hominids, which I reviewed here. A lot of middle books in trilogies sag, but this one not only did that, but offered a 40-page polemic from the Neanderthal about how irrational religion and war were, most of it standing in front of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. I agree with his viewpoint, but I don't like 40-page lectures in the middle of my fiction.

At the end of the first book, the Neanderthal has gone back to his world, leaving the rape victim who has come to love him on our world. In this book, he and an ambassador are sent back here and Sawyer spends almost the entire book telling us how much better the Neanderthals (as he sees them) are than we are. The ambassador brings the top 10 artisans and inventors to the UN and offers all their expertise to our world, the Neanderthal says how irrational we are (his suggestion that if all presidents had to announce war in front of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, they wouldn't, is clearly wrong), and when the woman from our world goes to theirs, she finds it easier to work without men (the way their society is set up). The book does advance their relationship.

The third book (which is not here yet) had better be good.