Today's recipe: Red Pepper, Onion, and Potato soup

It's still unseasonably cold here. I had decided the house needed a thorough cleaning today. A full hoovering, not just the floor but the furniture and woodwork. Then dust all the furniture and polish the wood with orange oil. Scrub the bathroom and kitchen including getting all the fingermarks and smudges off all the kitchen cabinets. I also did all the laundry and dishes. So a busy and tiring day. I needed something warm and comforting to eat for supper.

I thought potato soup would be a nice idea, but then I wanted a bit more flavour. So I dreamed up a new recipe.

I sauteed 4 chopped medium onions in a mix of butter and extra virgin olive oil. While the onions were gently cooking away in a soup pot, I diced up half a large ripe red pepper and tossed that in. Then I peeled a pile of new potatoes. They weren't the really tiny ones, sort of medium size new potatoes. I would guess I used about a pound or so. All amounts are very approximate here. Then I added salt and freshly ground black pepper and a load of dill, a good amount of basil, and a few shakes of cayenne pepper. I added water to cover all the vegetables- and enough to reach and inch or two over that. Then I covered the pot (the cover has a steam vent) and when it came to a boil, I lowered the heat and let it slowly simmer for a couple of hours.

After about two hours- I'm guessing here - I was still cleaning and let it simmer till I was done- I turned off the cooker and got out the blender. I blended the soup in 4 small batches; using the lowest speed I let it blend till it was smooth. The puree was dumped from the blender into a new smaller pot. (That's so you don't have to dump the puree back into the pot with the unprocessed soup)

Then I brought the puree up to a boil. It was perfectly (strongly) seasoned so I didn't have to add anything except a good swirl of full cream (that's heavy cream for you in the states). A reasonable amount of cream just smoothes the flavour and texture and makes the soup perfectly creamy. Voila. Soup.

Oh yes, it was delicious. I had a bowl of it with ruchbrot and butter. This soup can be frozen. I set aside the portion to freeze before I add the cream so it keeps longer. When I want to use the frozen soup, I reheat it and then swirl in fresh cream before serving.

I know this is more information than most people want, but I figure if Adam or Andrew wants to make this, I might as well give them the details now.

One major difference between the Swiss and the Germans is, while they both have the most incredible collection of rules for society that must always be obeyed precisely, the Swiss manage to make you feel that they are soooo sorry, that they would make an exception for you if they could, that they understand your frustration and pain and anger, and if only they could. The Swiss will also try to help you by thinking of alternatives to make the situation less miserable for you. That's what makes the insane mountain of rules here bearable, gracious caring. People really care, there's no sense of that pervasive German shadenfreude. And that makes all the difference.

Kill Bill

Have you seen Kill Bill? It's a Quentin Tarantino film. I just saw it yesterday and I was impressed. I don't usually watch kung fu films or very bloody films, this isn't the style film I would watch at all. But I did- bored to death and it was the only thing on cable in English.

So I fixed a nice drink and sat back on the sofa with drinkie and cigarette in hand, feet up all comfy on the hassock and watched.

Wow! Uma Therman is hot and the action is fast and tense. Ok yes, it's also rediculous and over the top. But QuentinTarintino does it so well.

Definitely worth watching.

I suppose sometimes it sounds like all I do is cook, watch films, and visit museums. I'm actually also working very hard on Fed2's game and business development. Sometimes it feels like an uphill battle. Hell, ot always feels like an uphill battle. But better to live in interesting times than boring ones, I suppose.

Film: HOLES (2003)

I highly recommend a strange and gently charming film I just watched. It's called Holes. Well worth putting on your Netflix list.

duxelles tarts

douxelles tarts, originally uploaded by Curved Space Lab.

Puff pastry with a filling of duxelles, chopped tomato, whole fresh cream, topped with shredded ementhaller. Baked 20 min @220C

It was cold and overcast today and then it rained. Something warm and tasty was called for!

History Museum of Basel - Chapel

History Museum of Basel - Chapel
Originally uploaded by Curved Space Lab.

The rear chapel of the History Museum.

History Museum of Basel

History Museum of Basel
Originally uploaded by Curved Space Lab.

This is the entry hall of the History Museum, a former medieval cathedral. The view is looking back towards the entry doors.

View from Museum in Basel

View from Museum in Basel
Originally uploaded by Curved Space Lab.

Last week I went to the History Museum in Basel. This is the view from the terrace in front of the museum.

I planted herbs today. Asti had some brightly coloured glazed ceramic pots sitting on a shelf on the terrace - doing nothing but holding some dead flowering plants. So today it was out with the old and in with the new. I tried to buy proper potting soil at the plant area of the supermarket/mall but when I opened the bag at home it was so sort of compost mix. Better than reusing soil from potted plants anyway. So I planted 2 pots each of peppermint, dill, and basil. Green thumbs crossed everyine - lets hope something grows. It's still so cold here I have to keep the pots indoors.

Tomorrow I have to go down to the post office and send out Adam's birthday present and an end of term present for Andrew. I hope they like them, the presents are small but I think they are rather nifty.

I'm tired of the cold. Where's the warm weather? We had about 3 days of heat a couple weeks ago and now it's gone back to winter.

Happy Birthday Adam!

Yesterday was my son Adam's birthday. I "talked" to him via IMs late the night before to wish him a happy birthday. Tried to phone but couldn't connect to his cell phone in the states and he said his father had "cleaned up" and misplaced the reciever. I won't comment on that. Anyway it was frustrating not being able to phone him.

Regardless, I hope you had a great birthday. Love you lots.

Oh my god it's SPRING here! Yes, the sun finally came out today and its 72 degrees already. Whew! At last.

I cheated the other night and instead of apple streudel I made apple/almond danish. It was great, too. Last night I made bananas in rum custard pastries. It's interesting trying out new flavour combinations in tiny batches. (Yes, that's right, I only make a very tiny batch of each, just enough for us for 1 dessert each)

Right now there's a pot of beouf bourginon simmering away in the kitchen - well, I had no choice really. There was half a bottle of excellent red wine left over from yesterday. I had no choice.

Anyway, the monstoon level downpours have done their damage here. A downspout, which wasn't routinely cleaned for the past few years by the realty company, overflowed into the roof/ceiling and ultimately the living room floor here. Since it happend while we were sleeping, not sure if it actually dripped out of the ceiling/wall above the window where we saw 12 feet of water stains or from the edge where wall meets floor. The water was flooded all over the top of the parquet flooring and after we'd mopped it all up, more water was seeping up from underneath the wood floor for several hours. Yes, of course it got worse, the parquet strips swelled and buckled. Then they started to dry and warped and buckled some more. The livingroom floor currently looks like the Alps - after an earthquake. Very ugly. The realty manager came by and then returned with some craftsman who discovered the stopped drainpipe. She returned today with another craftsman who inspected and tested the roof, the attic, etc. Waiting to hear when they will return to replace the fllor. The entire livingroom floor is ruined. A dangerous buckled and warped mess.

I'm going out to walk about in the sunshine. Perhaps take some photos.

Apple Strudel

It's been cold here. And wet. And windy. Ugh!!!! And I do mean cold as in 40's F during the day and pouring rain and wind so strong it drives the rain horizontally at times. This is Not a Good Thing.

So today Asti & I went grocery shopping in that brief period interval between cloud bursts. Not having had breakfast first you can imagine what that was like. And that's why we succumbed to the temptation of strudel dough ready made in the chiller case.

So, I'm about to make homemade apple strudel.

Photos of Basel

Photos from Friday's walk, see previous post for some details.

Friday took the tram to the farmers market in the cobbled square in front of the Rathous. It was right out of Julia Child dreams. I bought some freshly baked bauernbrot to take home for supper. Tasted samples of cheese and dry sausage. Had a grilled bratwurst with mustard and a hunk of bread for lunch, especially tasty because I'd had no breakfast. The sausages were grilled on an open grill which gave them a gentle smoky taste. They are served bare on a plate, a big dollop of sharp mustard on the side and a hunk of excellent bauernbrot. People stood around several nearby tables to eat their quick lunches. Well dressed businessmen, mums out with the kiddies, ladies in flowered dresses and hats! All eating their choice of grilled sausage - with their fingers. Yes, no forks, no rolls. I watched and copied. You snap off a section of sausage about an inch or two with your fingers, dip it in the mustard, and then nibble or bite the bit. Bread is eaten separately, torn off the hunk in bite size bits. Delicious. A quick wipe of fingers with a paper napkin and off you go.

I'll post photos I took of the market.

Then I strolled down to the Rhine and across the bridge, taking photos, walked down crooked old streets, taking photos, and over another bridge taking me to the Kunstmuseum (art museum). A modest collection compared to the Met in NYC or MOMA, or the Guggenheim, the British Museum. But, this was quality over quantity. Each painting or sculpture was a gem. A treasure. I lingered here, staring, my eyes loving it.

You may add the following to my wish list for Christmas:
Hans Holbein -Organ stall painting (mural) 1528, Basel Munster
Franz Marc - woodcuts ( I didn't like his paintings, the woodcuts are wonderful)
Max Ernst - Father Rhine
Paul Klee - Ad Marginem 1930
Giorgio de Chirico - The Enigma of Fate
Any of the Kandinsky's, the Braque's, the Picasso's.
Any of the Modigliani portraits of girls.
The Rodin scupture in the courtyard of the Burgers of Calais - check out my photo of this one.
Yum, what a wonderful collection! I finished up my visit with an excellent coffee at their cafe.

Another stroll, taking more photos. Then a tram ride home the roundabout way. The tram passed through a nearby forest! Yes, a nature preserve close by. With a Rudolphe Steiner shule. And acres of wild raspberries. In a few weeks I'll return and pick bucketsfull to make into preserves.

Exhausted when I got home. But a great day.

I used to think Barney was the worst children's TV show ever. But then, I watched it in German. Nightmare!

The stuffed cabbage came out gorgeous. The meat filling was moist and dense and intensely flavorfull and the sweet and sour tomato sauce for it was perfection! Yummy! Oh my god it was good! And the Basel bread? It's heavenly. A crusty white loaf, a sourdough I think. It's so good you could live on it.

Dessert will be crepes with strawberries.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that something wonderful will go just right and work out for a best friend of mine. In fact, I'm pulling out all the stops and wishing on a star for him as well.

Ramble, Ramble, I'm off to torment myself with another dose of strange continental television

I risked the stairs this morning when, after an endless wait, it was apparent the elevator just was not coming. I had a hunch it was an issue with the exterior door somewhere not closing properly or something to do with the signalling.

Anyway down all 6 flights I trudged. And they are loooong flights even going down. I walked to the bakery by the train station. Yay! I actually knew where the train station was (guesses correctly from memory), so score 1 point for me on orientation.

Bought a loaf of fresh Basel bread and a cinnamon pastry then headed over to a discount supermarket that's basically caned and packaged products, not fresh food, to get the tomatoes and flour, etc I need for today. I'm making stuffed cabbage in sweet & sour tomato sauce. Dessert is crepes with strawberries, bananas and whipped cream or ice cream. I've sliced and marinated the strawberries already.

Lucky for me, my guess on the elevator was correct. When I got back to the house with my heavy shopping bag, the elevator was waiting on the ground floor and worked just fine. Someone needs to sort out the door signaling circuits, tho.

My coffee should be ready now. Ahhhh first coffee of the morning!

What a monumental downpour here! It's been raining on and off all day, often severely with gusts of high wind. But about sunset the sky cleared and it warmed up and we had a sunny end to the day - or so I thought.

Just now a load of lightning and thunder and massive storm rolled in. The rain is so loud you can hear it thru the double or triple paned glass. The entire skyline flashing with lightning and massive rolls of thunder. Wow! I closed the terrace doors. I presume the cats have sense enough to be inside. If not, I'm sure they'll make the fact known soon enough.

I'm going into the livingroom now. Going to turn off the lights and watch the storm. The livingroom here has, essentially, a glass wall onto the terrace. The view looks out over the city onto the Jura mountains. We're on the 5th floor (by European style counting) or the 6th floor (by American style counting). Yes, we have an elevator.

Rosti - Swiss National Dish

How was I to know that I've been making the Swiss National Dish for most of my life? I see all this nonsense about "rosti" on the news here, on cooking show discussions, at the supermarket. Loads of anxiety from the women on the cooking shows about their abilities to cook this mysterious "rosti".

Being curious, I finally checked it out at the supermarket. (I know, I should have goggled it, and I finally did today) What do I find but that it's just a big old potato pancake like I first learned to make by watching my Great Grandmother many, many years ago as a small child. Instead of making the pancakes in small 3-5 inch diameter cakes, the Swiss make a large pan-filling thick cake. Big deal, that's exactly what my Great Grandma used to make to plop on the table when there were a houseful of my Great Granpa Izzie's friends. They'd cut it in wedges and eat it along with glassfuls of Balentine's Ale.

So what is the big deal about that? It's a nice simple peasant dish. Warming and filling and tasty. But for god's sake, a national dish? That you get all aggravated over? Wow.

Anyway it's storming here; massive downpour and high gusting winds and cold. Quite a change from the bright blue sunny skies and almost hot weather yesterday. At times the rain came in almost horizontal waves. Severe enough that I had to close the windows even though we are surrounded by covered terraces.

I'm not going out in this awful weather. Tomorrow will do for a trip to the supermarket to buy tomatoes for the sweet and sour stuffed cabbage I planned for Wednesday's supper.

My First Solo Excursion in Basel

Not a very exciting or extensive excusion, I'm afraid but quite enough for the first time.

I really needed to get groceries. Asti drinks cream in her coffee. I'm a coffee with milk sort. Also I needed some bread or rolls and a modest assortment of fruit, veg, and meat so I could prepare normal meals rather then nibble on junk or eat out. Luckily, being a New Yorker, I had a large canvas tote bag one could stuff with groceries to carry home. No worries about the paper or plastic decision on the continent. They simply bypass it by not providing ANY bags at all. You bring your own. Period.

I have a transport pass so I planned to take the #14 tram down to the farmers market. Great idea. I go out, walk down the block to the tram line where trans stop going in both directions. Very convenient. Except, which way did I want to go? Hmmm. No idea. I was totally disoriented. No map, of course. (Note: get city map of tram routes!)

Giving up on taking a tram at random with the certainty of getting thoroughly lost in a city where I din't speak the language, I decided to walk to the local supermarket. That at least I remembered from a walk with Asti when I first arrived. So down 2 blocks to the supermarket.

Reasonable enough. Of course I only had a 100 swiss franc note and no change so no shopping cart for Barb. I grabbed a small plastic handbasket and perhaps that was just as well as it reminded me clearly to limit my purchases to what I could reasonably pack in my tote bag and carry home.

Prices are shockingly high for one accustomed to NYC supermarket prices. They are evn high for one accustomed to Waitrose supermarket prices in the UK. Try almost $8 a pound for chopped meat! Insane, eh? How about $2.40 a pound for the lest expensive apples? And $6.25 a pound for peppers. Ok, so we're not going to have stuffed peppers for supper this week, I'll make stuffed cabbage. (I have to go back for tinned tomatoes tomorrow, too heavy and bulky for today.)

I thought I was doing pretty well though. I even braved the meat counter and spoke to the butcher. I managed to make myself understood when I ordered some great looking bratwurst. Hands held apart the length of bratwurst I wanted. She lifted the long coil of sausage and eying my hands asked something in a burst of incomprehensible to me, German. I nodded and said, "alles", she nodded and twisted off exactly the length I wanted. Success! I managed to order 100 grams of Swiss farmer salami as well. It looked really lean and beautiful.

It was interesting wandering about and trying to figure out which were the equivalents of the products I'm used to, which new products looked interesting and appealing. From years of shopping at Waitrose in London, I'd gained the false assumption that supermarkets everywhere were basically the same since Waitrose is almost exactly like a better class NY/NJ supermarket. The one here wasn't. It was geniunely alien. Not bad, it was actually qiuite lovely. Just very alien.

The total for the small basket of groceries I bought was shocking. It was 57.75 swiss francs which is $48 US. I guestimate the same basket of groceries would cost me about $35 in the US. Ah well, I'll get used to it. At least it gives me a good guideline on what sort of salary I need to target here.

So, enough for now. It's noon and I'm ready for a roll and butter and a bit of that lovely farmer's salami.

Sipping coffee this morning in front of my computer, outside it's glorious spring in Basel. I can hear early morning birds and looking out the room-wide windows in the home-office, it's bright and sunny and warm and the sky is a pale blue right out of an impressionist picture.

I am falling in love with Basel.

Yesterday, Asti said lets knock off this computer thing and get out in the sunshine. What a good idea!

We walked to the tram and took that down to the Rhine. It was really very warm and sunny, summer weather, almost sultry. We walked across a bridge over the Rhine and on through crooked, narrow streets - many of the houses, perhaps most, dating from the 14th century. We ended up at Ueli-Bier stube in Kleinbasel. This bier stube brews their own well esteemed biers on the premises. We sat in the rear garden and had their specialty brew Tut Ankh Ueli. http://www.lupi.ch/ex/tutanchueli/tutanchueli5.gif
This beer's recipe is based on the analysis done on residue found in drinking flasks in an ancient Egyptian tomb. Probably the earliest known actual beer. This brew was excellent, and those who know me and that I don't normally drink beer, will understand that that means a lot.

The smell of saurbraten was driving us wild with its warm yumminess so Asti and I shared a platter. Oh lordy, lordy! That was good!

After a while we continued our day out walking along the Rhine to the next bridge. There are fountains everywhere. Basel loves water and they are very proud of the quality of their water. As we approached the next bridge over the Rhine we saw an area taped off with people and police standing about watching for something. And suddenly Zoooooooom! there they were and there they went...it was the annual Basel rollerblading marathon. So of course we watched the skaters zoom by for a bit, then continued on to the bridge and over the Rhine again. This time we walked all the way home, stopping here and there along the way. We detoured briefly at the Kunstmuseum (art museum).

In the front courtyard of the Kunstmuseum is The Burghers of Calais by Rodin. (You can read about the story behind their sculture and see photos of it here: http://www.answers.com/topic/the-burghers-of-calais)

We window shopped and stared at architecture the rest of the way home. By the time we arrived home close to 9pm, we were hot, tired, desperately in need of huge diet cokes with loads of ice, and very pleased with our day out.

Asti had a mad packing session as she was off to Belfast on a 6am flight this morning. From Belfast she'll drive to Cork and then back to Basel on Wednesday. Thursday it's back to London for a day.

It's May day here - and they actually celebrate it. There are May poles in the parks. I'll go out this afternoon to watch the dancing and celebrations.

I returned to Basel on Friday from 10 days in the UK. Asti and I flew over from Mulhouse airport to London City Airport. Then a mad 100 mile journey accross London from the extreme east to the west in a massive arc to avoid the 5 quid congestion charge. Arriving at Alan's we drank his coffee, gobbled up some really nice cheese salads, and off we went to Oxford for the ACCU spring 2005 conference. Both Alan and I did presentations and they went very well. Asti and I were also on a panel on Women in Computing. It was really an excellent discussion, too bad they scheduled us directly opposite Bjarne Stroustrup's keynote talk. Despite that, those who did attend enjoyed the session. A highly successful conference on all fronts including networking and deal-making.

We also discovered a really great and really cheap noodle house just around the corner from the Randolph Hotel. Yay!! The Singapore noodles were the best I've ever had!

I didn't walk around Oxford very much aside from a few short strolls with Alan to look at the Colleges and drop in at Blackwell's. The weather was cold and drizzling. Lucky us had a suite at the Randolph Hotel tho - courtesy the lovely ACCU organizers.

Anyway, we drove back to London on Sunday morning. Asti was off then to Surrey and returned to Basel on Tuesday. I stayed on in London with Alan till Friday. Besides a IBgames business meeting on Tuesday, we just wanted a few more days together.

I'm in Basel. Definitely somewhat culture-shocked. My over 10 years commuting to London simply didn't prepare me for this very German and in many ways, very old fashioned culture. There's a great deal that is lovely here and I'm enjoying it. But it is definitely alien.

I just watched The Last Samuri. I really enjoyed it, was very impressed. Of course, it was shown with German sub-titles.

The cable here is premium but still shite for all that. The English channels offered are limited to BBC world service, some crap called BBC prime that shows the cheapest/crappiest of old BBC shows, ESPN, CNN-some special inferior edition. It's really awful. German TV/cable seems to be focused on sex. Perverted sex, depraved sex, bizarre sex, more sex, weird sex, sex sprinkled into totally inappropriate shows, sex. And that's the regular channels, not the porn channels. I'm certainly no prude but the obsessiveness of it is a bit distasteful.

My project to revive Federation II is going well. Last night we made the Top 10 list at The MUD Connecter. Starting to get more new players checking us out already! Yay! In fact we're #9 at the moment and moving on up.

On the home front, I'm at the end game of my move to Switzerland. Exactly 24 hours from now I leave for the airport. I actually packed the first of my suitcases this morning. I have 1 more large suitcase to pack and then my carry-on bag which has to hold my extra laptop and some fragile stuff as well as things like jewelry and cameras that can't go in the checked baggage.

The 2 "large" suitcases I have are not really very large at all. Not by any definition. I really wish I could have managed to get 2 really big ones, the ones I have aren't anywhere near the size the airline allows as standard.

So I'm sitting here juggling things in my mind. Triage. Trying to figure what to take and what to leave behind. Anything left behind goes in the garbage. So it's a very final and draconian choice I have to make.

I'm still grieving over my books and CDs. I had to leave all those here in New York. My son took them and will store some for me to retrieve later, but most will merge with his collections and well, such is life.

But I'm grieving over the loss of so many of the little things that had meaning to me. I can only pack and take with me so many things, the rest must all remain behind.

And in the end, well, insert some profound quote here. I can't think any more. Just so tired and want this to be finished.

Oh yes, to add to my delight in this process, my housemate has been more than his usual inconsiderate self lately. I've been suffering from bouts of massive abdominal pain both Sunday and Monday. Symptoms seemed like classic food poisoning. But from what? Nothing I could think of. Today I figured it out. I sniffed the milk carton and there's a faint scent of decay. Arrgh!!! It was fresh milk when I bought it Saturday. Absolutely fresh, just delivered and icey cold and I rushed it home and into the fridge. So how did it spoil so fast when it was stored under good conditions? Ah ha! Idiot housemate late Saturday night put a large boiling hot casserole next to it in the fridge. I have told him not to do this. And especially not to put hot stuff next to the milk. But, he never thinks about anyone other than himself and always what is absolutely easiest for himself. So, the milk had a jolly nice warming. Since my 2 episodes of pain followed drinking a large cup of coffee with milk, that was a lead. Today, discovering the funny smell of the milk, I discarded it, bought more and today so far, I'm fine. Looks like spoiled milk was the source.

I will not miss Mars (my housemate). He has been an unreal experience. I can well understand now why his housemates don't last longer than 6 months, most only 3. The other housemate here had his fill of Mars a few weeks ago and simply disappeared. Left. His room is intact. He simply walked away. He's found a new life elsewhere and just decided not to every return to this place.

How sad. I was so joyfull when I moved in here before Christmas. But I was also ignoring that I was spending unreasonable amounts of my time and energy cleaning up after Mars. All the filth and mess he left in the kitchen and bathroom every day. When I realized what I was doing and stopped, that's when the true proportions of the situation became clear. Things like washing all my dishes and cookware before I went to bed. Then in the morning, going to make breakfast, discovering that Mars had used it all, and left it strewn around the kitchen all dirty and greasy, or worse, it had disappeared - he had taken it into his room and it would be weeks before I saw the item again, and then usually because it had broken. He didn't use his own stuff because that was already filthy and unwashed, piled up in the sink or on the stove. Besides, he liked my things better than his. Well, of course he would. My kitchenware was top notch, the dishes were really lovely ones from Finland, the cups slowly collected and large and well balanced and comfortable to hold. His pots were cheap sheet metal or discards from former housemates. Mine were heavy, t-fal lined, glass lids, carefully chosen. It was a constant battle in the kitchen, a losing one. Always losing because he simply didn't care, simply had no respect at all for other people or their property.

So, enough of all that. I must get back to packing and discarding.

I'm moving to Switzerland next week.

Those who know me either already had an email about it this morning or can email me directly.

Last Sunday I went to Central Park to see the Gates. WOnderful. I'll post some photos. Perfect weather-sunny and 58. Perfect winter day. The park was mobbed. Paper says was almost 1 million there - the Gates are drawing everyone. They're worth it.

Went to another 2 job interviews on Tuesday- back to back. Nothing from either of them yet. Anther 2 bite the dust. I have another interview scheduled for next week. Friday I'll send out more resumes and set up next week's interview schedule.
It may be that I am just paranoid. Tho one rational point is, I seem to be the first person they interview most of the time. And I've read several studies that say the first interviewees are almost never hired. It's the last 2 or 3 that get picked. But how do you change interview order?

The Federation relaunch continues sucessfully. Not easy, I have to kick Fi and Alan back into line constantly. I'n determined the game will succeed.

I need coffee and it's so cold.

I'll play catch up for a moment.

I spent Christmas in New York. Blech! I usually spend it in London. I love London. I love Christmas in London. I love going to the Christmas market in Covent Garden with Alan and poking about from booth to booth- especially the German ones. I love meeting friends for a jolly Christmas Eve dinner. Even nicer is the quiet Christmas day walk to the pub for lunch with friends. How deliciously scandalous and decadent that feels to an Amercian, sitting in a pub on Christmas day. I love New Year's Eve with my friends, listening to Big Ben strike the hour.

But not this year- well Chistmas 2004. It wasn't my idea either. It was one of those sort of bullying decisions Alan makes without consulting me. At least this time I let him know how unhappy about it I was. His excuse was he needed to get to the Data Center in NJ to upgrade several of the servers' OS. My take on that is, that's even worse. That turns it from Christmas together into a business trip where I am a side issue. Frankly it's also much more expensive in NYC because Alan always weasels us into going out to eat constantly. I don't like this, not just the insane expense, but I don't enjoy all this outside dining. I like eating at home, especially now that I'm in the new apt and I cook and bake exceedingly well.

At least Christmas Day we had a nice dinner. I made a large succulent duck with all the trimmings. Andrew joined us for dinner. It was quiet, good food, good conversation. Lots of warm affection. Then dessert, a very boy's dessert. Dark chocolate fudge brownies with vanilla bean ice cream on top and that topped off with candied orange peel - all homemade, even the candied orange peel. The peel was a surprise hit- it was nibbled away entirely in very short order. Good thing I made 2 batches of it. I used the leftover peel and all the pulp to make homemade orange marmalade. Bottled sunshine.

Alan bought me a magnificent slipcased edition of an archeology book on the Inca.

It was a very close 2 weeks but in some ways a remote time. There were questions and answers that needed to be said but weren't. And then Alan left 2 days before New Years to go back to London. That was very miserable. I spent New Years alone. Well with friends online. But no matter what people say, they are lying. It's not the same.

I've made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that next Christmas will be spent in London. Period. Or Else.

So that was my Christmas hols. Pah!

After New Years I had expected to go back to work for the Tech firm. The Manager had assured me of it, several times. But I waited and nada. It wasn't just me. The others emailed and asked if I knew hat was going on. Delays delays delays in the contract. Who knows. Instead of right after New Years, it's the middle of February now and we're still waiting. End of February he's saying now. Ha We'll see.

I'm getting loads of job interviews but no job offers. I guess they hate me when they meet me. Who knows. It's depressing. At least I get lots of quick responses to my resume even if they only interview me.

So January has passed. Now February. I spoke with AQlan on the phone for almost 2 hours on Valentine's Day. End of January, Federation launched. My new business plan is looking successful. Slowly turning the tide. Definitely on the way up. Fingers crossed.

I did get one job but it lasted only 1 day. Very BOFH situation. The money from that 1 day's work was gone immediately in paying 1/2 February's rent. It was a very long 11+ hour work day with no lunch or breaks. I'd probably have gotten ill between the stress and the long hours but the money would have been terrific. Ah well.

So here we are at the brink of the President's Day long weekend. And that is 2 months trimmed and condensed into 1 post.

Astrid is back safe - almost

This morning's news is that Astrid is back safe from her amazing adventure in the East - almost. She phonedme from Berlin airport this morning to let me know she was safe and waiting for her Swissair flight back home to Basel. She's had some amazing adventures on the Trans Manchurian Express and the trip back was not uneventful - she had to reschedule and wing it all from Irkutsk when eveything went pear-shaped at the border and they ended up with Russian Border guards surrounding them with Kalishnikovs.

I'll leave the rest for later or a link to her blog when she finally gets settled in, unwinds from the trip, and writes up her tale of adventure on her blog. (Or phone me for details- assuming the reader knows me)

I'm not the Phoenix Church of God

Really. I am not now and never have been the Phoenix Church of God. So why do people from Phoenix keep calling me on my cell phone saying thAat's the number of the Phoenix Church of God.

Damn, if I was an evil person I could tell them sure, I'm the Church secretary, just send your cash to me.

The calls for the church are driving me nuts!

I'm not even a Christian. Never have been.

So I'm moved into my new apt. Even bought a new bed - and very comfy it is. Alan and I have been relaxing, set up some bookcases in the living room and unpacked all the books. Next project will be to move the bed around to the other side of the bedroom to maximize free space. Then when I go back to work, I need to buy some storage units and get all the clothes and stuff stored away neatly.

But it's really lovely having a genuine kitchen again. I made crepes for breakfast a couple of days ago. Also made beef, mushroom, and barley soup - yum! Last night I picked up a duck for Xmas dinner. I wanted a goose but none at the supermarket. I probably will ask the manager if he can get one for me anyway if it's not insanely expensive.

This afternoon we're going out to New Jersey to the Lunarian's Christmas Party. Hopefully a nice day. We went to the Museum of Natural History this week. That's always sort of like going home again. We just looked at the meteorites and the hall of minerals and of course the orgami Christmas tree.

(Note- any of you who are reading this blog- I'm job hunting! Email me for a copy of my resume if there's any work available at your company.)

Moving Day

Moving Day- words to strike terror into even the hardest heart. All went relatively well, however. We went out for a Rreally excellent meal afterward at the fabulous chinese/japanese restaurant on Broadway & 100th Street. I managed to get the laptop hooked up to the cable modem and working - obviously since I'm online now.

Now I have to set up the bookcases, unpack, scrub down the refrigerator, etc. And buy groceries. And most important, buy a bed.

Profound thanks to Adam and Andrew for interrupting their lives to slave away at a miserable task for me when they had so many other important things to do. Also thanks to Tom for helping with everything.

I have to transfer my landline here on Monday but meanwhile my cell phone does it all quite well. This place has connectivity unlike my other place which was in a completely dead zone.

I'm still feeling very happy about my birthday Friday as family and friends surprised me with a stream of phone calls and flowers. Definitely an excellent cheerer-upper.

Today's my birthay.

The good news is that I found a new apt. Adam and Andrew will help me move on Saturday. I'd really, really like to get started bringing over the small stuff today tho. I tried yesterday, packed a shopping cart with stuff. But when I got out the door, it started to rain, icy stinging rain. I had to turn around and go back inside. What a bummer!

Still job hunting. Asti helped me polish up my resume so fingers crossed that will help.

Books- I just finished reading, "The Bookseller of Kabul". Excellent book, highly recommend you read it. A view of post Taliban middle class society thru the life of a bookseller's family. Fascinating.

When does the Christmas season start?

Growing up in New York City, I always knew when the Christmas season started. It started as you stood, shivering in the cold, on Central Park West, watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the moment the Santa Clause float passed by. Period. End of question.

Then you stopped for hot chocolate with your family before you all piled into the subway to go home for your Thanksgiving Day turkey dinner.

Viewing the Santa Claus float go by was like the figurative flipping of some celestial switch that started a clockwork mechanism that initiated an orderly progression of events. These events continued in proper sequence, year after year for decades, culminating in the day we all returned to school in January.

Part of the clear and visible seasonal protocol was that christmas carols were not played or broadcast, decorative lights were not turned on, and season window displays were not installed in windows till AFTER Thanksgiving.

And it was good. Very good.

After the parade ended, the lights suddenly switched on, carols were broadcast on the radio stations and in stores and public buildings. All along 5th Ave the stores vied to offer passersby the most opulent, gorgeous, amazing Chistmas themed window displays.

A week later the lights were turned on on the giant Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. That signaled the start of ice skating.

Each familiar traditional event triggering the next -

The Nutcracker Suite at the NY State Ballet, Ahmal and the Night Visitors at the Brooklyn Acadeny.

Orgami classes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and decorating their orgami tree.
A visit to the Central Park Children's zoo to feed the seals and look at the polar bears.

Weekend visits to Central Park to go ice skating at the Wollman rink, ride the carousel - the moving horses on the outside for us kids, the stationary sleigh seating for the parents.

Buying roasted chestnuts, freshly spun cotton candy, or red candy apples from street vendors.

Strolling down 5th Ave looking at the marvelous window displays. Neidermyers for hot chocolate.

Visits to F.A.O. Shwartz's. Macy's toy dept and then a session with the real, genuine, Santa. (Macy's Santa is THE real santa - see Miracle on 34th Street)

And yes, watching the Wizard of Oz starring Judy Garland on TV on Thanksgiving day - it was always broadcast. And then watching the original B & W Miracle on 34th Street, which imho is still the absolutely best and perfect and defining version of the story. (And please note this- they NEVER showed that horrible piece of crap It's a Wonderful Life -ever- during the season. That film all by itself can kill every last shred of holiday spirit and good will towards men within me.)

Going to Philharmonic Hall at Lincoln Center to sing the Halleluia Chorus - audience and stage singers, all together, a cappella. Glorious! If you've never done it, do it!

Christmas day we all stood on line for the (CHEAP cheap cheap) matinee show at Radio City Music Hall - usually another magical Disney animated film and the wonderful Rockettes, a ballet, the Christmas spectacular with a live nativity, and the awesome Wurlitzer panzer-organ. Well, this was the tradition in MY family for Christmas day since we were not Christians. I had no clue what Christ was, what the religious part of Christmas involved, untill I was 9 years old I had only the vaguest idea what Christians were to begin with and if you had told me what it was I'd have thought you were winding me up, that no one could possibly believe such obvious nonsense.

New Years Eve meant crowding and squashing together in Times Square to watch the ball drop. Kissing the one(s) you loved was absolutely required ritual. Regardless if it's family or as you grew up it was your romantic partner- if you didn't kiss the one you loved on New Year's, the whole year was somehow ruined.

I've left a lot out of this, but you get the picture.

When did/does the Christmas season start for you?

Thanksgiving Day

I went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Hadn't planned to. Just one of those things. Tom emailed me asking what I was doing for Thanksgiving. My reply: nothing. He said he had no plans and was wondering if I could think of anything interesting to do. I suggested the parade. Shortly thereafter Adam calls to say he's coming into NYC and wants to go to the parade with me. So 8:05 am I was standing on the corner of 66th St and Braodway waiting to meet up with Adam to watch the parade. His dad came along with him. Late, as usual. However, we were still early enough to find a good viewing space on 65th and Broadway. I've watched the parade from that corner almost my entire life.

It was nice being with Adam for a few hours. After the parade we strolled back to Broadway and settled in at a cafe with tables outside. This meant we could smoke with our coffees, so of course we lingered. The weather was quite warm, in the mid-60's at least. Adam gave me a new cell phone and switched my sim card into it. I'm in the process of rebuilding my phone addressbook so anyone I know who is reading this, please send me your preferred contact phone number to add to it.

It was early on a warm summer's evening in the 1970s, as I stood in a palm plantation high on a green hillside in western Java, that I saw for the first time, silhouetted against the faint blue hills of faraway Sumatra, the small gathering of islands that is all that remains of what was once a mountain called Krakatoa.

-Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded by Simon Winchester

Two interesting web sites recommended to me by a friend.

The Pilgrims of Russian-town 70 Years Later, Stephen Scott

Linguaphiles' Journal

Two product warnings -

The US post office. Don't be mislead by their fraudulent so-called Priority mail. There's nothing priority about it except the name. Mail sent this way costs 20 times First class and doesn't get there any faster. In fact, it often gets there slower.

Second warning is Firefox. I'm very sad to say that while I tried Firefox and really liked it when it was in Beta, when they recently released the final official version 1.0 what they released was complete CRAP. I have no idea what happened but the nice program that did what I wanted it to and was fairly stable has turned into a complete and utter pice of crap. Of course, like most open source software, they think they are doing you a favor and therefore can be arrogant and rude and not supply any documentation. They can also not supply any help or tech support or explanations.

On a nice note, Andrew's in Vienna. I hope he has a fantastic time. I have 5 days off from work and plan to catch up on sleep. I've been suffering from major fatigue due to too little sleep and the disruption of my entire day/night activity cycle. I had intended to walk a bit today but it's raining so that's a great excuse to slob around the house instead.

Andrew is off to Vienna today. I hope he has a wonderful time there, takes loads of photos. I loaned him my digital camera. I was very excited about that camera when I first got it but it's amazinghow fast things change and now what I want is a really small thin one.

I'm listening to the Dresden Dolls, "Coin Operated Boy". I need to get more of their music and see if it's as good as this song.

Night work is still messing up my energy/sleep cycles. I'm off for 5 days for Thanksgiving. I'll be working on my resume and looking for a new job. I really need to get back to a normal day job.

I can see I'm babbling. I had something I wanted to blog about but I've forgotten.

Awesome, awesome solar video website!

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/spaceweather/lenticular/96_01seq_new.mov

You MUST see this! Simply must. 'Nuff said.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDREW!

Yes, today is Andrew's birthday. He's 21; an interesting milestone in life.

So, we met this morning and went off to have a birthday brunch (with a small side trip to the bank to deposit my paycheck which FINALLY arrived - only 2 weeks late).

Amyway, a pleasant morning meal with Andrew - and he will stop by again in a few days to pick up his birthday present. I also loaned him my new digital camera for his trip to Vienna next week. I look forward to seeing the photos he'll take.

I won't go into any philosophical outpouring about Andrew's birthday. He and I had a very nice conversation over breakfast this morning and I'm not particularly inclined to share with outsiders. It's not that kind of blog.

One thing we did talk about, and agree about, was people who live too much of their lives on the net. We substitute the net for a life and think that that is functional. It's not. The internet is not now and never has been "a life". Entertainment, hobby, employment, relaxation, distraction, information but not life.

I'm feeling pretty crappy at the moment. I just finished my second full week working installing/migrating/configuring computers and still haven't gotten paid yet. So that's actually the first partial week and then 2 full weeks pay they owe me. We were told so many different stories about when we'd be paid that I've gone thru all the stages of annoyance to anger to despair. The latest story is that they were delayed and rolled the first partial week's pay into the first full week's pay and then after being told several times that the checks were being processed and sent out, finally, in writing, told tthe checks were mailed out Thursday and should be here Saturday. Yeah, right. It's Saturday and the mail came and, what a surprise, no check.

FUCK!

Possibly it will be here in Monday's mail. The post office has been VERY slow delivering mail the past few weeks. My postlady claimed it was the massive amount of Xmas mail starting early. This is also bullshit.

I don't know what it is but it seems to me the bullshit level of life has recently increased to impossible levels. I don't think it's just that I'm looking at things through jaundiced eyes because I'm depressed. I think it's really so. All around me I see people just going through the motions. Doing as little as possible, as slowly as possible, with as little thought or effort as possible. This infuriates me because I sincerely always try to give what I do my best effort. Perhaps I should change my style and start becoming a slacker, too?

Anyway, I'm terribly upset at not being paid yet. Mind you, it's a 90 minute commute to work in New Jersey and the transportation costs me about $15 round trip each day. And this is to work that awful 5pm to 12 midnight period that screws up your sleep and wrecks your day. So my personal and financial costs for this job are a daily strain.

Arrgh, I don't usually rant quite like this. But this is simply awful. Simply awful. I feel like I'm no longer looking into the abyss but IN it. Damn, someone has to help me find a better job, a real job.

The work situation in New York City is really terrible. There are just so many people looking for work and so many companies laying off people. We are becoming a society of migrant cyber-workers. Buy us by the dozen, we're anonymous hands. Buy us by the hour and toss us away when finished. New hands always available. Easy-peasy. No wonder companies are getting away with forcing their staff into unpaid 60+ hour wook weeks. I've lived with that myself. Full time, permanant staff are all classified as exempt (ie no overtime) by a series of sleazy manouvers and ebnding definitions and rules. Snap, people routinely working 9am - 8pm and later, working weekends, working, working, working. So easy for companies to use/abuse workers now. So easy to outsource. Anyone who says outsourcing doesn't hurt the economy, doesn't hurt American workers is not just a liar, they're a damn liar. And they know it.

Yes, I'm ranting again. But the middle class is shrinking. The sides are pulling apart. And the ugly consequences are becoming very visible.

Hope your lives are more settled and positive. We now return you to your own realities.

First night at work went well! Commuting there takes a long time but it's relatively straightforward. Going home, I got a lift to my door from one of the other techs who lives in Brooklyn. Hopefully we can work it out so he'll do that every night. That would be ace.

Friday Andrew came over and we went to my local post office to apply for his new passport. Turned out, my post office had a clueful woman behind the counter. She was careful but helpful! What a shock ;) WIthin the hour Andrew's papers were certified and accepted for processing. He didn't need me at all- which is how his local post office *should* have done it on Thursday. I really hate incompetent civil service people, esp USPS jerks who seems to make a complete speciality of being the biggest jerks possible.

Anyway, having a relaxing weekend. Work starts for real on Monday.

So it's all set. I go in tonight for a training session, then Monday start a 3 week work contract. Get paid for the training tonight and paid each week. I'm a happy bunny.

Just spoke to Andrew. He has to renew his passport and his local post office are not only complete morons but giving him grief about it. He's going to meet me tomorrow morning and we'll go to my local post office instead and he'll renew it there. If there's any aggro, I can legally "identify" him.

Looks like I've got a 3 week temp gig doing an XP rollout for some financial institution. It's in NJ but not a bad commute from the Port Authority terminal. It's at night so my days will be free to continue job hunt and interviews.

My contact for temp jobs says my resume needs redoing. He's right, I haven't been happy with it. I -HATE- doing resumes.

Anyway, this means cash flowing in to Chez Barb again. I'm much relieved. If I could be sure of a steady supply of temp jobs I would be tempted to stick with that for a while. I'm in the middle of making some major life changing decisions - and this would give me some wiggle room untill I know what country I really want to concentrate my job search efforts on.

Ah well, we shall see. First I need to do this work successfully. I've already googled the specific tasks involved and done some serious refresher studying.

No need for flu shots here

When is a cold not a cold? When it's the flu. Well, lucky me, no need for a flu shot this year.

Four and a half hours - yes, 4 hrs and 30 min- WASTED by bastard ad/spyware crap program silently(invisibly) installed without my permission. Worse, without the permission or knowledge of the owner of the original artwork package I was trying to download. So now, 4 1/2 hours later, my PC is once more clean. HijackThis confirms it. And even more important, the horrified and mortified artist is now on the phone with her hosting service asking them what the hell is going on. Then she says she intends to change hosting services over the weekend.

What a nightmare.

Hello World.

Very strange...I get a call on my landline phone late this afternoon, about 4pm. Man says, Hi, This is Giovanni, is this Barbie? Nice, polite, well modulated voice but not familiar. And err, I never call myself Barbie. But, I meet a lot of people and who knows what name they may think of me as? So I say, This is Barb but I don't know any Giovannis so where do you know me from? He says, but we've talked so much on the chat line.

Bzzzt!

No, wrong answer. I've -NEVER- chatted on a phone chat line. I tell him, sorry no way. Never use them. He insists, very politely, that he recognises my voice. I don't think so.

I tell him someone must have given him my name and number but it's not me and I'm not interested. He says lets chat anyway. Jeez, what is this, some new pick-up technique? (This is all the shorthand version obviously) He's very apologetic and extremely polite, sounds as if he thinks this is weird, too.., says he's so sorry, please excuse and we end the call.

Now I'm doing a paranoia-instant replay and wondering if it was a simple mistake or some new scary criminal ploy? Like identity theft set-up or some deviant sex thing.

Arrgh! I know I should have just said - sorry, don't know any Giovanni- and just hung up. I didn't give out any info except yes there is a Barbie/Barb/someone at the number he dialed. But still, it's freaking weird.

Back in the old USA

A relatively decent flight. Saw two very amusing films: Saved, which is a excellent little send-up of the whole evangelical jesus-is-your-personal-saviour nonsense and the remake of The Stepford Wives. Stepford Wives didn't have the taught dark horror of the original. We've moved on and such topics are now simply more comedic fare. Be that as it may, the film wasn't particularly funny, at least not in the intended bits. Lots of unintended humour for me, I assume so from the fact I was laughing when others weren't. However, Bette Midler was great, she was so perfect and so funny. She made the film for me. I seriously think Bete Midler is enormously underappreciated as a great comic actress. But then we don't really like great comediennes as a society. Perhaps we allow Lucille Ball the honours but we're very unforgiving of others. A damn shame.

Anyway, Newark airport has a relatively painless Immigration and Customs set-up. Bravo Newark Airport!

Arrived to cold drizzle. Today is cold drizzle. Dark, gray, wey.

Cashed my damn check, paid phone bill and rent. All's right with the world. Kinda-sorta. Back to the job search.

Actually ended up speaking up at the last moment in London about some serious issues - got the usual frustrating, "why didn't you tell me yada-yada. I had no idea yada-yada." We'll see. More needs to be brought up and discussed. It will be.

On my way back home, I'm on my way home

The cab will be here in about 90 min to take me to Heathrow for my return flight. A nice time here but frustrating as we didn't settle the issues I came here to settle. So, I shall consider that an answer and act accordingly; not much choice otherwise I suppose.

I just keep thinking it's another case of "you don't know what you've got till it's lost" ...

Ah well. Ave atque vale, London and all that.

Holiday* in London still going well*.

* For the set of definitions of "holiday" that include business as usual, previous commitments, unfair practices, house cleaning, etc.
* For the set of definitions of "well" that include having a pleasurable time but exclude serious talk.

Yeah, yeah, having fun. The seamed black stockings and 5" high heels getting lots of milage.

Also, setting up job interviews for next week.
Going to pick up some goodies for Kate this weekend. Already got stacks of books and goodies for others to bring back.

Yesterday we went to the National Portrait Gallery to view an exhibition on Women Travellers. Small but remarkable exhibit of their portraits and their associated momentoes, sketches and work. Well worth trekking into town (and more of the endless long walks) to see. And another long walk after to have dinner at Cafe Pacifico. And then another LONG walk back to the train (I'd have been more than happy to take the tube - we passed 3 stations along the way!) and another long walk home from the train station at our destination. I like walking in nice weather. Not in cold wet windy weather.

I have a fairly nasty cold and today the weather is cold and drizzly -quite miserable. As we walk a lot here, this does not make it easier on me.

We're going into town shortly to meet for a marketing session. This is going to be a less than pleasant experience as I'm not going to play the nice, sweet, every obliging, optimist I usually do. Frankly, I've had it and intend to be blunt. I need a quid pro quo from now on. Btw, this is NOT my idea of what to do on a romantic or relaxing holiday.

Have I whinged enough yet? Just wait till tomorrow. That's been screwed up by a Labour party meeting in the evening. Thursday? The plumbers are coming for the annual maintenance. Friday? Pre-comitted to a dinner out with a bunch of friends. Saturday is actually FREE I think. Sunday is a ACCU meeting . And Monday I go back to the states.

Coming down with a stinking cold. Just figures, doesn't it. I'm determined not to let it spoil my time here in London. In about an hour we're going in to central London to the National Portrait Gallery. There's an exhibition on about 300 years of Women Travelers, not just their portraits but journals and objects they collected. Sounds good to me. Then dinner after at Belgo or Cafe Pacifico. Tomorrow's a marketing meeting. I don't really expect anything brilliant out of it. Same old people, same old crap.

Have I really been here almost 4 days? It's been nice. Very nice. Very, very nice.

From the secret fortress in London
OK, it's not a secret and it's not a fortress. But, it is London. And despite a long list of nightmarish obstacles , I've made it here safely.

And I having fun yet? Ummmmmmm yes!

Oh yes, and one more thing- I couldn't reach the other half by phone either. So I couldn't even moan and cry about how miserable and nightmarish my day was.

So there.

I suppose the next thing tha will happen is my flight will be hijacked or bombed.
I can just tell this is not the end of it all.

When a day goes bad, it goes right to hell!

Today was one of the genuinely worst days of my life in terms of things going wrong. FUCKING EVERYTHING WENT WRONG. This is beyond the laws of mere chance, this is beyond random. This is diabolical. I planned carefully, made arrangents, orgazined, and set up everything so carefully for today..and son of a bitch, each and every thing that was supposed to happen today was totally screwed up. None of the packages that were shipped, all sent overnight special air, UPS, extra cost to absolutely positively arrive today, arrived. All are mysteriously delayed. Each in a different way and for a different reason. My check didn't arrive. Another packaged sent US Post priority mail didn't arrive. I could go on and on. And to top it all off, the supreme treat, I had no cigarettes and couldn't leave the house because I was waiting for the deliveries.

Bastards. Kill them all!

Bored, bored, bored. I'm wasting my time today waiting around the house for things to be delivered. It's driving me nuts. This is my last day in the US before I fly off to the UK at 8:20 am Thursday morning. I'll be back - but not for 10 days. Meanwhile I'm waiting for stuff to be delivered. And it's all so time critical.

I need the packages and my check to be delivered. I need the damn packages delivered reasonably soon so I can take the check (assuming the postman delivers it) to the bank and deposit it so I will have money in the UK. And what's more there is another package waiting at the post office for me to pick up - but I can't go there untill the packages have been delivered. So I'm hoping everything will be here by 3pm so I can leg it over to the post office.

I was hoping everything would be here by 10am so I could run down to Chinatown and pick up some tea from Ten Ren to take with me. Ain't gonna happen. This is sad.

And worst of all, I'm out of cigarettes.

Arrrgh!

Did the time at the TechXNY Expo yesterday at the NY Women in technology booth. It was good because I need to professionally network more. I also met an old collegue from AboveNet who may be a good contact for a new job.

If you love something let it go free. If it doesn't come back, you never had it. If it comes back, love it forever.

-Doug Horton

This is shaping up to be one hell of a week.

Sunday I did my good deed and helped the Lunarians move their boxes and shelves and stuff out of their old storage room in Connecticut and then into their new storage room in New Jersey near Newark airport. Quite exhausting for me, I'm still in one of my episodic, seriously anemic stages. My dieting doesn't help either, but that's how it is. I was supposed to call and arrange to meet my older son Adam afterward. However, by the time I got home, I just flopped down on the bed and slept. By the time I woke up it was 7:30 pm and he had left for home. I hope he had a fine time in the city shopping for food goodies.

Then I went online, and I was gobsmacked to find an email waiting for me from my old friend Bo. We hadn't spoken in so long. Can it be almost a year? Time passes too quickly. We parted at the time with the friendship in tatters. And then suddenly Sunday I get the email. Subject: From the dead. With a very familiar, "Hi Barb". I posted a brief reply, saying how lovely it was to hear from him again and hoping he was well. Even better, I then went into Fed2, and there he was, waiting for me. It was really lovely talking again. I really missed him. He's a very special person. I hope we can rebuild the friendship. I think we both want that.

Tomorrow afternoon I'll be helping staff the NY Women in Technology booth at the TechXNY Expo at the Jacob Javitz Center. Hoping to do some networking, make some contacts to help get a new job. NY WIT is a great group.

Wednesday is shaping up to be complete madness.
1. I have to get down to Chinatown and buy 2 special kinds of tea at a marvelous tea shop called Ten Ren. They have branches in several countries but nothing in the UK. So every time I fly to London I check if we need a resupply.
2. I also have to buy a liter of Sapphire gin. I have an early flight on Thursday and Duty Free won't be open. I know Virgin sells it at their in-flight duty free cart but they usually sell out in First Class and are all out when they get to the cattle class seats.
3. I have to take my check to the bank and deposit it so I'll have money in London.
4. i have to pay my phone bill. Luckily I paid the credit cards last week.
5. I'll pray to the internet gods that the cigarettes arrive with the mornign mail. If not I'll have to buy some crappy English ones from in-flight duty free. I'm such an addict.
6. Sort out my transport to the airport, check the reservations. I have an 8:20 am flight so I need to be at Newark airport sometime between 6:30 am and 7 am.
7. Pack my bag. I usually pack just before I leave but not with such an early flight.
8. Do all the other stuff I'm just not going to mention.
9. Clean the house and give Andrew the perishable stuff like steak.
10. Get Andrew to close and lock the bedroom window for me. That window is cursed.

Thursday I'm off to London for 10 days. It was supposed to be a long overdue relaxing holiday. Ha! Six out of the 10 days already have business commitments. Somehow I'll try to showhorn in some private time and visits to the 2 exhibitions I'd planned to see. It's really getting to be time to move over and end this silly constant commuting.

Job Interviews and Broken Promises

What a surprise, the company I interviewed with that promised to contact me and let me know one way or the other, that asked would I be reachable by phone until 8 pm or as early as 7am so they could set up a final interview on basically no notice and would I please hold Friday's schedule open so they could call me in....didn't even bother to send me an email saying thanks but no thanks.

Perhaps they don't put a high value on professional courtesy. I could understand not responding to resumes they were not interested in after the first eyeball review. But this far into the evaluation process, after a preliminary phone screening, a formal phone interview, contacting professional references, an in-person interview, and telling me they would let me know, that does surprise me. I'm glad I had the professional courtesy to promptly send them a post-interview thank you letter. I maintained my professionalism even if they didn't. Cold comfort, but there it is.

Well, I'm back to actively sending out resumes and looking for job ops.
It's a real bitch that the job offers I've had have all been from the UK. Can't get a work permit there for love or money.

Search Order
by Raúl Rivero

What are these gentlemen looking for
in my house?

What is this officer doing
reading the sheet of paper
on which I've written
the words "ambition," "lightness," and "brittle"?

What hint of conspiracy
speaks to him from the photo without a dedication
of my father in a guayabera (black tie)
in the fields of the National Capitol?

How does he interpret my certificates of divorce?

Where will his techniques of harassment lead him
when he reads the ten-line poems
and discovers the war wounds
of my great-grandfather?

Eight policemen
are examining the texts and drawings of my daughters,
and are infiltrating themselves into my emotional networks
and want to know where little Andrea sleeps
and what does her asthma have to do
with my carpets.

They want the code of a message from Zucu
in the upper part
of a cryptic text (here a light triumphal smile
of the comrade):
"Castles with music box. I won't let the boy
hang out with the boogeyman. Jennie."

A specialist in aporia came,
a literary critic with the rank of interim corporal
who examined at the point of a gun
the hills of poetry books.

Eight policemen
in my house
with a search order,
a clean operation,
a full victory
for the vanguard of the proletariat
who confiscated my Consul typewriter,
one hundred forty-two blank pages
and a sad and personal heap of papers
—the most perishable of the perishable
from this summer.

Note: Cuban poet and journalist, Raúl Rivero, is serving a 20-year sentence. He is one of the dissidents Václav Havel and Elena Bonner are supporting in their campaign of solidarity. The police confiscated Rivero's books and papers at the time of his arrest, but the poet's wife, Blanca Reyes, was able to rescue the manuscript of a poem describing an earlier police raid on his home. Letras Libres published the poem in Mexico.

SHAUN of the DEAD

This film is fucking hilarious! It's the absolute perfect send up of all the George Romera Night of the/Dawn of the Dead films. A warning, it's very anglocentric humour. But, if you get the Brit lifestyle thing, you will be creasing up as you watch and screaming in laughter by the end.

I'm not a horror fan, but this film is just brilliant.

GOODBYE LENIN

Go see it! Awesome film. Awesome. Thank you, Andrew for loaning me the DVD. Awesome film. It brought tears to my eyes. Awesome.

The Strange World of Job Interviews

As if the agony of the whole job seeking/interview process isn't ugly and horrible enough, the bullshit you sometimes get from interviewers has the capability of making it infinitely worse.

Case in point, I responded to an inquiry posted on my women in technology list for a position that looked interesting and a good fit. I phoned the woman who posted the letter and check that the position was still available. We chatted briefl and she urged me to send in my resume, which I did.

About 10 days later I get a phone call from her saying they will be doing phone interviews and would I be available the next day. We set an appointment and I rearranged my afternoon schedule for the next day to accomodate the call. The phone interview seemed to go well and she said they would review all the phone interviews and decide which they would like to schedule for in person interviews. I would get an email letting me know what decision they'd made about me sometime the next afternoon, a Friday. Friday came and went and I assumed I was not their choice. Life goes on, tho I was a bit disappointed they had not sent me the email as promised, letting me know it was no thanks.

Monday, no email from them, I put them out of mind. I arranged to meet Astrid for lunch before she left for home in Switzerland. But, checking my email one last time before I left the house, I recieved an email asking if I could meet them on Thursday afternoon for an in person interview at their New York offices. Of course I could. I don't know if they were running late, if their first choices had declined, or they simply had no time sense about their commitments.

Thursday I showed up for the in person interview. I thought the session went well. They explained they would be interviewing all their semi-final picks and then selecting the final choices for an interview with the actual Director the position would direct report to. I was asked if I would be available to return on Friday and told they'd phone me between 7 & 8 and let me know either way. I said there was no problem, I'd be available, just phone and let me know. It was all smiles and a pleasure talking with you.

This morning, I sent them a polite post-interview thank you note. So far, no call to let me know either way. I can't imagine they meant next Friday. I'm sure they meant today. I've written them off but it's annoying they didn't bother phoning to let me know as they said they would. When I've been on the other side of the equation, I was always careful to email the applicant and let them know we appreciated their interest but had decided to select someone else. It's a simple but very important courtesy.

Perhaps I will be surprised and get a call from them yet. I won't bet the farm on it.

The Drowned and The Saved by Primo Levi

I'm reading The Drowned and The Saved by Primo Levi at the moment. Very engrossing book, lots to think about. Not at all the usual view of the death camps. More devastating for all that.

Asti's New York Holiday

Asti arrived in NYC on wednesday afternoon. I had a somewhat hectic day cleaning house before she arrived. But, even with a slightly delayed flight, her cab picked her up and she was soon here. It was great to see her again. She is gloriously attractive, as always and witty as ever. Since she was tired and starving, we grabbed a cab to my favorite Chinese/Sushi restaurant on Broadway and 101 street.I phoned Andrew before we left the house so he could meet us at the restaurant. Perfection! The food was drop dead wonderful.

We had delicate gyoza and 3 kinds of sushi for starters. Then we had crispy beef with orange flavor, sublime general tso's chicken, and beef chow fon for our mains. I should have taken a photo of the platters. They are huge slightly off round plates with vegetable flowers decorating some of the absolutely best chinese food I've ever eaten. Their general tso's chicken is truly sublime. And this is the ONLY place I ever eat chow fon, they make it so well. Usually I can only barely contrain my shudders even looking a chow fon. They also make the crispy beef with orange flavor correctly here! It's tender, juicy, rare slices of steak with a crispy sweet/hot coating. Oh man, this was such a perfect meal - and the company and conversation were as excellent.

After the meal we stood outside under the awning for a smoke break. Andrew and I were mourning that in a civilized city we could smoke in restaurants and linger over after dinner coffee but not in NYC any more. I said it was a pity there were no cafes with outdoor seating (and an awning to protect from the rain) where we could go for coffee and dessert and a smoke and just sit and chat because this evening was just so nice, much too nice to end it now. And praise be, Andrew said...let's go to the Hungarian Pastry Shop! So we grabbed a cab and were soon up at 113th ST and Amsterdam. In a giddy fit of indulgence Asti & I had double espressos and Andrew had a hungarian coffee (mountain of whipped cream on top). They also picked out about 6 dessert and we settled into a comfy little outside table with our goodies. We must have spent 3 hours sitting there in the cool moist night, sipping coffee, smoking, and talking. It was past midnight when we finished and waved down a cab back to my house. I loaded Andrew with a few packs of cigarettes since I refuse to support NY State's tobacco extrotion tax and after a bit more chat, we called a cab to take him home. Then Asti and I unwound a bit and finally got to bed.

What a terrific evening.

Thursday was a bit of a nightmare. Asti successfully dropped off her laundry, found a nail/wax/massage place and had some well deserved pampering, and made it back in time for us to have a late (1pm) breakfast of vegetable and chedder omelets. Then she phoned her hotel to verify check in time and address. And that's when the nightmare started. The company admin had neglected to make a room reservation. And of course, for reasons no one seems to know, there are NO decent hotel rooms available in NYC this weekend for under $500/night. Most places in fact are totally sold out. It was a genuine comedy of errors. I finally located a room for her at a rather posh east side Omni hotel but it was almost double the price she wanted. Her boss came through and said the company would cover it- afetr Asti waged suitable psychological warefare. So late Thursday evening she cabbed over to the hotel, checked in, and surrendered to luxury and room service for the night.

I slept very late this morning. I'm suddenly terribly anemic again and weak. So Asti's call at 11:20am woke me up. We arranged to meet about 1pm for lunch - so I had time to run out and retrieve our clean laundry. I dropped mine off a thew house and zoomed down to the hotel. We did the Carnegie Deli fora classic NYC lunch, pastrami on rye and Dr Brown's diet celery soda. What a hoot that place is. Then a stroll over to Lindy's for coffee and cheesecake (1 slice shared) in their lovely little outdoor area. Lot sof great people watching ops. Finally Asti wandered off to get cheap discount tickets to a Broadway place and I took the subway back uptown to my neighborhood and walked back to the house.

Firefox

I updated to Firefox 1.0 (preview release) ie They really, really, really wanted to release 1.0 FINALLY! but....they weren't confident enough to stand behind their work so they hedged their bets and called it "1.0 preview release" so if it's really fucked up or everyone hates it they can claim it's not really the REAL 1.0, it's the preview.

Umm, funny but we used to call that beta and stick with a 9.something release number. When we go to v1.whatever it's because we've drawn the line, taken a deep breath, and presented the item as The Real Thing. Of course we'll issue further releases as we correct bugs, add new features, etc.

So what's with the weasily 1.0 preview release nonsense.

Anyway I downloaded and installed it. Frankly Firefox is crap without the extensions. Loads of potential that's NON-FUNCTIONAL without the extentions tha put all that potential to actual use.
We'll see how it goes. If they don't open up a load of utility extensions real soon I will just go back to SlimBrowser.

My useless baysian email filter

I've always used and like MS Outlook and Outlook Express. However, the increasing avalanche of viruses-worms-malware, what have you, combined with the ongoing vulnerability of Outlook and OE to said criminal crapware pushed me to try an alternative email application.

In the past I've tried others that friends and collegues have highly recommended. I've given those an honest try -usually 3 months because my dear ones would always cry, "but Barb, you have to give it a real chance, have to stick with it , get used to it a bit, it'll grow on you!" No, sorry , 3 months is way more than enough to confirm that crap software is crap. Not just lacking functionality but distinctly unpleasant to use. The following are my Two Lousiest Email Programs I've Ever Used-

Eudora
Pegasus

Absolute shite. My dear ones who use these applications have a million excuses why they use it. The truth is, they are willing to put up with poor usability and lousy functionality just so they don't have to use an MS product.

Btw I have dear ones who do the same thing with MS Project. There is simply no substitute for MS Project yet. But these dear ones still keep trying pathetic open source wannabe-MSProject-clones that are shite. And they know it, and they even admit it. Idiots.

Sorry, I don't work that way. That's too stupid to even discuss.

Anyway, I was playing around with a alternate browser called Firefiox. It's rather nice, I like the tabbed window thing,. Firefox is one of those very cool, tres nift applications that just not quite ready for prime time yet. But it has enormous potential. I quite like Firefox except when it unexpectedly digs its heels in and does something dumb. But I'm still using it- for now, because it simply has so many EXCELLENT features. Firefox is an evolution of Mozilla. Funny enough, I loathed Mozilla. Still don't like it.

Anyway Firefox has a companion email program called Thunderbird. Yes, I'm tired of the silly names, too but what can you do? Anyway, since I was looking for a safer alternative to Outlook Express, I tried Thunderbird. And it's raher nice. I don't think it wins any prizes yet tho. It's still very crude. Its formatting system for composing mails is so bad, so irritatin, and so time wasting tha I will probably soon go back to Outlook Express.

So, what's all this got to do with baysian filters? Ah ha, well, Thunderbird uses that for its spam filter. And I have been trying to "train" this so called spam filter for almost 5 weeks now. Hopeless, useless, doesn't work. It's as if the filter ignores me when I keep clicking "not junk" day after day on the same exact emails it keeps marking as junk.

Now the program is supposed to automatically classifiy any email coming from addresses listed in your addressbook as "not junk". So I make sure these emails are listed in my addressbook. The filter still marks them as junk and sends them to my spam folder.

5 weeks and it hasn't learned? No way, this filter has obviously decided to ignore me.

I'll give it a few more weeks and then I think it's back to good old reliable Microsoft products.

Build me a more functional, intuitively usable mousetrap and I'll happy use it. Till then, I'll stick with MSMouseTrap, thank you very much.

Useless knowledge of the day contest

What is linen water?

I was out today doing various weekly chores. As a treat for myself I stopped by a little local close-outs shop. This place is definitely legit since it cycles through all sorts of luxurious and posh items that I've drooled over at their original prices. Of course, these luxurious products are usually sold in posh shops in trendy areas. I guess the ends and leftovers get sent off to cheap little stores in marginal residential areas, there to salvage their last bit of value by selling for 99 cents.

Today, to my delight, the shop had a rag tag assortment of natural French traditional scents products ...including a case of elegant bottles of linen water. Yes, I do know what linen water is. The shop owner had no idea tho, as I discovered chatting with him while I waited on line to check out. I explained to him the concept and use of linen water and he was thoroughly horrified at the decadence of it. Clearly a holdover of the Raj. He denounced it loudly.

So, your mission if you choose to accept it, is to explain what linen water is.
I'll provide the answer next week.

RAIN-RAIN-RAIN-RAIN

Blech- it's been raining here all day. Not gentle rain. Pouring rain. Flooding rain. Cold and clammy rain. Flood the subwats and low lying highways rain. Our little gift from Hurricane Frances rain.

Rain, blech.
On with the rain coat. Out with the umbrella.
Into the rain.

New Events in my so-called Life

1. I've made reservations on VirginAtlantic to fly to London Oct 7th.

Alan's been nagging me about this for a while now. I've put it off because I couldn't financially justify it when I wasn't working. Finally Alan called and told me to just put it on his frequent flyer miles and use his credit card to pay the fees. So voila, I'm off to London. I'm just waiting for them to send the e-ticket so I can pick my seats

2. I'm looking for a job.

I know, I know, I've been looking for a new job for a while now. But I've moved myself into high gear now and I'm working very seriously at it, really truly looking. And no, going to London won't screw it up. The last 3 jobs I got were all within a week of making reservations to go to London. It's almost like some good luck talisman. They were all fine about the scheduling, too.

3. I've gone back on my serious diet again.

I guess this is all part and parcel of putting my life back together again. I was really pleased how well the dieting went last year. So I expect similar results this year. Perhaps even to the point of reaching maintenance. We shall see.

I couldn't get to the gym today. Not that I didn't try. I walked all the way there, a pleasant brisk walk in this cooler weather. When I arrived at the nearest corner I was blocked by police lines. The street was filled with - wait for it- The Media. Former president Clinton had checked into the hospital and the media was hovering outside desperate for a photo op or a chance to rush someone, anyone with "face" or "name" to comment.

So I was turned back. Bad Barb - no ID to prove to the secret service who I was. All I had on me was a house key and cell phone. The local NYC cops would have let me thru but the secret service dork insisted that ANYONE could be a terrorist.

Uh huh, yeah, right.
Hmm perhaps they will blame the disaster in Russia on me, next.

Seige at the Russian School

Of course, everything is still in chaos as surviving chidren and other hostages are rushed to local hospitals and emergency centers in Beslan, Russia. But the media spin is starting already- putting the blame for this brutal and inexcusable atrocity on the Russian RESCUERS instead of clearly and squarly where ti belongs - on the Ilamic and Arabic TERRORISTS.

I'm just waiting to see how long before the figure out a way to blame Israel and the Jews for it. This is the New World Agenda. Look how brilliantly appeasement is working in Iraq.

Welcome to our brave new world where cold, calculating terrorists take a schoolful of little children and their parents and teachers hostage - hold them in high heat for 3 days with no food or water, surround them with shrapnel filled mines, shoot them, torture and murder them and then .....the blame for this is placed on the rescuers and we are asked to understand the pressures that caused the terrorists to do what they did. Does this include the 10 Arab mercenaries in the hotage-taking terrorist gang? Probably, it'll even give the media the opening for blaming Israel - and probably the US as well. Why shift the blame?

Ah, there's the rub. The West MUST shift the blame. If we ever stop shifting the blame, we might be forced to look at the facts. To place the blame on the terrorists themselves. To admit there might be other cultures that do not define peace as we do, who do not want the sort of peaceful, tolerant civilization we want. We might have to admit the lessons history should have taught us.

My take is we need zero tolerance for terrorists. Zero tolerance for hostage takers.

When it rains it pours - as I sat at the keyboard, sipping coffee, and typing about the new mouse capture, another one stepped onto a glue trap. So, a most successful morning.

Ode to Mouse

I was so deeply and pleasantly asleep this morning. I know this because when the sounds started I didn't actually wake up. I just silkily drifted up to that floating, warm, comfy dream state which is very lovely and relaxing. There's no real time sense in that state so I have no idea how long it was before my brain interpreted the sounds as being the frantic cries of a mouse caught in a trap. At that, I was instantly awake. And that's how I knew how mavelously well I'd been sleeping since I was alert, well rested, and feeling great. Full of energy. Which I haven't been for weeks now.

A quick peek revealed the trapped mouse. Stuck to the glue trap. I'll dispose of it later. Of course now I'm completely wide awake.

So glad I was wrong!

My hat's off to the leaders/organisers of United for Peace and Justice. They did a magnificent job of keeping the march peaceful and controlled. And considering there were probably 500,000 people there, that is an amazing feat!

Bravo!

What a pity, the early forcasts called for serious thunderstorms on Sunday afternoon. Now it will just be hot and humid. I was hoping the downpour and lightning would dampen the idiot/protestors who planned to illegally rally in Central Park and destroy the Great Lawn.

Having spent a great deal of my childhood playing on the Great Lawn and most recently helping to raise money to finish its renovation after years of abuse by massive groups, I take this issue rather personally.

Anyway, today I need to go downtown and brave the chaos of the ciminals/anarchist/professional & recreational protestors. I have great respect for the genuine legitimate organizations which plan orderly, civil demonstrations. I belong to several myself and that's why I'm going downtown today. But my goal is not to disrupt innocent people's lives. I'll be part of a mass voter registration drive.

Tomorrow's goal is more crass. Andrew is meeting me to carry home the TV I plan to buy. Yes, I'm going to break down and buy a TV. After 18 months being TV-less, I'm giving in and bringing one into my house again.

The Arrogance of Protest

It's the start of a week of massively, inexcusibly, arrogant recreational prottests in NYC. The disruption to everyday life for city dwellers is inexcusable but the arrogance of those causing the incidents makes is all the worse and not surprisingly, very devisive.

For the most part these people are not locals. Their protests are really aimed at causing as much chaos and general disruption to the city and its citizen's lives as possible.The point of this escapes me as New York City is most definitely not Bush Country. Want to punish the idiots who voted for this little tin pot hitler? Go to Arizona or Kansas.

Tonight's treat was a cute little circus act of about 1000 bicylces weaving their way through the friday night traffic - the wrong way, ignoring lights, ignoring pedestrian crossings. They are very lucky that NYC drivers are actually quite courteous. Elsewhere they might find drivers a lot more hostile and less willing to give up right-of-way to some arrogant little bastard on a bike. Traffic, as you can imagine, is a mess. I decided it wasn't worth going down to 23rd st to meet friends for dinner. That seems to be an area of focus for the 2-wheeler moron set.

Happy Birthday Asti 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASTRID

The Joy of Cell Phones

I just got a new cell phone yesterday, a Nokia 6200IM. With this phone, I've finally fallen in love. It just does things so right. All the countless little annoying things about previous cell phones have been corrected. Even the address book is reasonable to use.

Mousetime again

Sometime during the night another mouse was caught. I thought I'd gotten them all before but I suppose this wil be ongoing. The original total was 5 I believe and then I got another 1 last week but nothing since. Foolishly I was thinking of dumping the glue traps. Just as well I didn't.

Andrew is returned from his holiday at Walt Disney World. I loaned him my digital camera and I'll be downloading the photos from it later this afternoon. Other than the camera, Andrew planned and paid for the entire vacation for him and Kate all by himself. He said they had a great time- he'll fill me in on the details today.

I've decided that my Hispanic neighbors on this street come equipped with volume controls with only 3 settings.
1. Very Loud
2. Soundblasting Loud
3. Excruciating Loud

This is not just their radios and CD players, it includes their children. I routinely see families standing in the street chatting, a small child with them screaming at top volume and being completely ignored. Obviously the "being ignored" bit has something to do with this. However, there's definitely a different definition of acceptable noise levels.

I really -HATE- gMail.
The service itself may be great but their customer service is in the toilet. I had one of the first gMail accounts and it was fine. Butthen one day I tried to log on and couldn't. After monumental efforts I contacted a human at gMail and they confirmed I was using my correct username and password. I assume they sorted something internally because suddenly I was able to log on again. For a week.

Then I could't log on., Still can't. Can't reach anyone at gMail or Google to help.
Can't start a new account either.

Bastards!
I hate companies who arrogantly trash their users.
I HATE gMail.

Andrew and Kate left for Orlando, FL for their holiday at Walt Disney World today. Andrew called from Orlando airport to let me know he arrived safely...and that it was a very turbulent flight. No doubt, with the remnants of Hurricane Charley still around.

Anyway, it's an exciting time for him- his first grownup vacation. Planned and paid for all by himself. I'm hoping they have a fantastic time and get some great photos to bring home with them.

Mouse status report

So far 4 mice caught. Luckily they are stupid little creatures. I just put a glue trap by the hinge side of the door and they keep marching in there to die. So far the total is 4 mice. I just threw out the most recent kill. Fresh trap is waiting.

The World Is Too Much with Us

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.---Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathéd horn.

-WIlliam Wordsworth

Tales of the mouse

About 6 weeks ago I bought myself what I thought would be a productive treat - a wireless optical mouse. But it was neither productive nor a treat. The mouse had a mind of its own. The pointer would dissappear and go skidding off into a carnor and I'd be clicking away and tapping the mouse and cursing. I tried all the sensible, logical things like making sure there were no machines or sources of interference nearby, bringing the sending unit closer, checking the USB port, etc. No joy. Finally, in deperation and with my mousing hand beginning to ache, I gave up and bought a wired optical mouse.

And what did I find? The wired optical mouse did the same crazy things! This time I knew it couldn't be hardware failure so I started checking out the software. I tried updating and reinstalling the s/w and the drivers and the device manager. No joy! Yes the mouse was clean. It was brand new but I checked anyway.

Today, by accident something I was reading triggered something way, deep in the dusty vaults of my mind and I suspicously tucked away my new and stylish SuSe Linux mouse pad. I got out a sheet of paper towel and started mousing on that.

Problem solved.

::sigh::

The other tale of a mouse concerns the other sort of mouse, the nasty little furry ones. We've had so much rain lately that the mice seem to have migrated to drier spaces. Being on the ground floor and with a lovely convenient space under the front door of the apt and god alone knows what other little cracks and openings in the walls in closets and behind appliances, I started hearing suspiciously familiar noises at night. Then yesterday while I was online, I saw a small, dark body scurry from under the sofa across the floor and under the door. I didn't think I was hallucinating. It explained the familiar sounds. So I went to the store, bought some glue traps and set them out. Twenty minutes later the glue trap along the wall under my desk had trapped its first victim! I tossed that out into a metal can in the garbage room. Problem solved.

Not so fast.....later that afternoon I heard those suspicious sounds again, then walking down the hall to the bathroom I saw another furry little body scurry out under the bathroom door and across the hall to the closet.

Ok, back to the store for a bunch of mousey glue traps. My house is now a mouse-mine field. Death to rodents.

Your giggle for the day

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/end.php

How the world will end...very clever and amusing.