Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch...

tingler @ 2016-01-02T00:40:00

2016-01-02T06:45:07Z

Moooshieeee!!!!

tingler @ 2015-11-09T00:00:00

2015-11-09T06:02:06Z

Mmmm, Sunday! Actually did get to sleep until I woke up, and then, got to sleep some more. Enough sleep does wonders to fight back encroaching virii and other ailments.

Of course, now I've stayed up way too late, but one step at a time, I reckon.

tingler @ 2015-11-07T22:56:00

2015-11-08T05:28:01Z

Mmm, Saturday! Get to sleep until I wake up--not. Maybe tomorrow?

Still, got a bit more sleep than any night this week, so that was good. Went to a football game, sat on the second row. Kind of intense. *And* "my" team won! I contributed. I did! I screamed my lungs out. *cough cough* Which wasn't really that hard, since the SB and I both seem to be coming down with a cold. Ugh. The dangers of working in an office? Can't remember the last time I had a cold. And I liked it that way!! Felt like sheer lukewarm crap by the time I got home yesterday, but I forced myself to go out to a little thing the arty kids were putting on. Some poetry readings, some music pieces, and some art. Hope it was just my own general crappy feeling, but I was pretty underwhelmed with the whole presentation. The readers may have had some decent poetry, but their delivery, except for two, was pretty limp. The violin and bass duo were brave. I'll leave it at that. The singer was pretty good, though, and I don't even like opera that much. And the jazz quartet did a bang up job. I think I was feeling extra bad by the time I went across the street to the art show, cuz I just didn't "get" any of the photos and all the art except the animations just was not reaching me. Several of the animations were actually pretty cool. The art should be up for a few days, so maybe I'll go back when I'm feeling better and take another look.

Trees are starting to turn here. And with all the rain we had this summer, it looks like maybe we'll actually get some colors instead of the usual green-brown-gone-in-three-days fall fiasco we are usually treated to.

Got to listen to a couple of "Roderick on the Line"s during my commute. Some interesting ideas John and Merlin put forth. Like, maybe *every* body, every person, should have the right to live with a little dignity, a modicum of comforts, and not just the "worthy". Not very Puritan of them, that's for sure.

tingler @ 2015-11-04T22:43:00

2015-11-05T05:10:17Z

EEEK! My Macbook Air is making weird lines whenever I wake it up from sleep. I don't like this. It's still under AppleCare, but the SB just took his in and after making all kinds of nice-nice noises of "oh don't worry, we'll fix it and get it right back to you good as new for nothing" because it was also under AppleCare, they said, "Oooh, it looks like you have water damage. Nevermind. $750 or nothing."

Neither of us remember water getting spilled in it, but they have pictures (with circles and arrows) of *gasp* corrosion!

I am very very very sure I never spilled anything in this computer, but ugh. Why the lines, little 'puter, why?

Okay, sleep now. Sufficient unto the day are the evils thereof and all that.

tingler @ 2015-11-03T22:37:00

2015-11-04T04:45:09Z

Days are very long when you are not sure what to do with yourself. The new workplace is very cool and they've all said how glad they are to have a TW about the place again and that I will have tons of work any minute now, but, just not right now. I managed to scrape up some stuff to work on the last few days, but today, nobody had anything for me. I tried to at least do some research and not just be a bum, but it was long. Then I raced home to look at an apartment that the SB had made special arrangements for us to see and we got there *early* (which is kind of a special occasion for us) and then, nobody showed up. We finally called the "emergency" number and a very nice maintenance guy showed up and let us in, but it was not the "pristine, nobody's lived here since we remodeled" unit and it was *full* of allergens and I'm afraid we're probably off that place.

However, the weather is lovely right now and we've been having some really gorgeous sunsets. Right now I'm seeing sunrises as I leave and sunsets as I get home. As Larry Crowne would say, "Spectacular!"

tingler @ 2015-11-02T23:06:00

2015-11-03T05:13:24Z

So, the phone interviews worked. I have a job in my chosen field--Technical Writer. So far, it's been pretty great. The people are friendly and very in to food. Haven't had much to do yet, but I think that's fixin' to change right quick. The only drawbacks are the long commute (which we will adjust after the Youngest finishes high school) and no time to work on the thesis (which I'm just going to have to figure out a way around, because I really really really want to finish! This Semester!). And much less time with my SB than I am used to. We are having a little trouble adjusting to that. He may even apply to the same place to fix that. I've had to postpone my cello lessons, but with flex time and some serious effort, I should be able to squeeze those back in, just as soon as I figure out a Work on Thesis Time Table. So, piece of cake!

tingler @ 2015-11-01T23:11:00

2015-11-02T05:12:13Z

There's just something about half-price Halloween candy that just makes me so happy.

tingler @ 2015-10-15T22:50:00

2015-10-16T04:03:46Z

The SB and I have been trying to get our hiking thing on. For one reason or another (but mostly heat and ticks), we haven't been out much since last spring, but we made it out last Sunday for a 2 1/2 miler, Wednesday for a 4, and then again Monday for five miles.

Usually, we see nearly no wildlife. Like, barely even any bugs or birds. The trails are fairly well used, especially by mountain bikers (I'm sure that's the wrong term now, but you probably know what I mean), which probably keeps most of the critters away. But these last few times, we saw the many-babies-totin' spider, and a good sized terrapin. Maybe because we got there earlier than usual, but this last time we saw even more. As we were pulling in Wednesday morning, we saw a deer wandering at the edge of the road and not very far down the trail, we came across this little surprise.

She seemed pretty chill. Literally. She just lay there, stretched across the path, and the only thing that she moved was her pretty little head. That she kept trained on us, but she didn't offer to move along, even after I got up the nerve to (very delicately) poke her tail with my trekking pole. Didn't even twitch. Finally, when it became obvious she wasn't going anywhere, we got up the gumption to very carefully scoot between her back end and a tree and went along our merry way, but I can definitely say I was keeping my eyes peeled for what we have come to call "the other one". Seems like any time you see one copperhead, there's another nearby, but we only saw the one this time. By the time we came back through, the day had warmed up considerably and she was long gone. Showed her pic to the local ranger and she asked, a little hesitantly, "Did you kill it?" Of course not! We were in her place. Now, if she comes into our place, we're a little less sanguine! Besides, this picture gives a better idea of her size.

Such a tiny little thing, with a bright green sprout of a tail. This may give some idea of how we got up the nerve to go around. The trail is barely one person wide, so I don't think she was more than twelve inches long. Still not to be trifled with, but not nearly as freaky as a big, lively one.

The SB's camera takes much better pictures, so if I can ever get him to upload them, I'll put those up instead. We saw another big terrapin that day, lots of beautiful butterflies, and one bright green caterpillar inching along the path. Weather's finally starting to take a cool turn, so we should be making it out to the woods even more often.

tingler @ 2015-10-11T11:53:00

2015-10-11T17:02:57Z

So I poked my head up and realized it was October and then I realized it was already the ~~10th~~ 11th and that I had missed tallulah_rasa's birthday! D'oh! Happy many revolutions around the sun, chica! You are truly a light unto my darkness!

P-Values?

2015-10-08T19:24:40Z

Oh, well. That clears it right up!

tingler @ 2015-10-07T22:23:00

2015-10-08T04:02:36Z

While the youngest was off increasing my gray hairs last Sunday, the SB and I made it out to one of our favorite hiking trails. It's been quite a while since our last such outing--the ticks frightened us off again, but we got some hiking clothes treated with permethrin and it seems to be working. Took an easy one to start out with, a little over a mile and a quarter out and, of course, a mile and a quarter back. Doesn't sound like much, I'm sure, but we've done precious little of the sort all summer and it was a good break in. This is not a "hiking" trail with gravel or concrete sidewalk. There's ups and downs and trenches and rocks and roots and ruts and bridges, etc. Bit of a work out. There's a fallen tree along the trail at the point we planned to turn around that makes a perfect bench, so we stopped and drank some water and, as we were about to head back, I spotted this little buggeroo.

If you can't see her, look right in the center of the pic. I only saw her because she was moving. Then, when I looked away to get a phone out and take the pic, I nearly couldn't find her again. I kept thinking, what a funny, fuzzy spider! and then I realized, oh! She's not alone.

Babies!!!!

tingler @ 2015-10-06T22:07:00

2015-10-07T03:13:38Z

Finally, *finally* got to see "Mad Max: Fury Road". I enjoyed it, but I think it was a bit spoiled for me by all the bits and pieces I'd gleaned from Tumblr. Still, quite a ride! There's so much going on in nearly every scene! I nearly didn't recognize Nicholas Hoult. He's come quite a way since "About a Boy," that's for sure! And Max! Not a lot of dialogue, but he got to say, "Hey, that's mine!!" more than once. Charlize Theron was amazing, as always. And, it had audio description! Not the SB's kind of movie, in fact he had me turn off the AD about 2/3 through, but I was kind of enjoying it. It helped me keep track of what was happening!

tingler @ 2015-10-05T21:43:00

2015-10-06T02:51:00Z

Saturday, went to the football game. It was a lot closer than I thought it was going to be, so kind of exciting. Still think football could be 1-2 hours shorter and it wouldn't upset me at all. Some pretty cool plays though. One receiver made this catch that was an absolute thing of beauty--way up off the ground, caught that ball like he was picking a cherry from a tree.

Sunday, the youngest went off with a couple of friends to the City. I was not altogether for this plan, but the driver wasn't completely inexperienced and they made it there and back just fine. (I probably wouldn't normally be so tense, but every time I've been out on the highways and byways of this great state of late, I have skirted death or at least severe damage. Just, wait until you're actually passed me before changing lanes, hmm, people?)

And, this morning, we got up and went over to the DL testing place and she qualified for her license. Eep.

Life is suddenly moving too fast!

tingler @ 2015-10-04T11:34:00

2015-10-05T03:13:19Z

Yesterday I mentioned the Benjamin Bacon Method. For those of you who like bacon, this is the easiest method ever to cook bacon to perfection. Personally, I have mixed feeling about bacon. I mean, I love it, the way it tastes, the texture when it's cooked right, the way it goes with just about everything, but I don't like the way pigs are mass farmed and yeah, they're smart and...yeah. Conflicted.

So, I don't make bacon very often. The pork people are not making bank off of me. But, when I do make bacon, this is the way I do it.

The Dan Benjamin Bacon Method http://baconmethod.com/

Line a pan with the bacon. You can use a glass baking pan, a steel or aluminum baking sheet, or even a cast iron pan.

Put the pan into a cold, unheated oven. I use the middle rack.

Set the oven to bake at 400°F (204°C).

Set the timer for 20 minutes. It may take a bit more or less time, depending on your oven. You can calibrate your oven for even better results.

Remove the pan from the oven. Place the bacon on a plate (or a plate lined with a paper towel if you’re grease averse).

Enjoy the best, crispiest, most delicious bacon you’ve ever had.

Tips: You don’t need to cover the pan, it won’t mess up your oven. Line the pan with aluminum foil or Silpat for easier cleanup. Don’t use a baking rack to "keep the bacon out of the grease." Instead, put the crispy bacon onto a paper towel-lined plate when it's done.

I used this method several times with a glass pan at 400° and it never seemed quite right, but then I used a big aluminum roasting pan inherited from my MIL and turned the oven up to about 420° and it was *perfect*.

PEDTM post dump (TL;DR)

2015-10-04T04:54:30Z

Okay, I fell down on the PEDTM plan. I will sum up.

Let's see. Friday I ended up driving 90 miles so we could help my BIL get some errands done (he has RP like the SB, so he doesn't drive). Ever since my FIL passed last spring, the SB has been making a bit more of an effort to connect with the family he has left. The four brothers are all a little weird (and maybe even a little autistic)(and I'm not just throwing that word out there), but basically pretty nice and I love them all, so this is not really a hardship, just sometimes a lot of driving! Ended up going to Home Depot and picking out some faucets for the BIL's house, then realized that the faucets had weird drain closers, so we went to a furniture store so he could shop for a couch (didn't find one), went to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant, (chiles toreados, yum!!) picked up some flooring samples at a carpet place, went to Lowe's and got some more flooring samples and some different, hopefully better, faucets, took the first faucets back to HD, then dropped him off and drove ninety miles home and were only slightly late to get the youngest from school.

This was all fine and dandy, except that I really needed to be working on my thesis proposal so I was stressing about that and also about getting it scheduled in time because if I waited much longer, I wouldn't have time to actually do the defense this semester and I was having trouble getting the profs coordinated, so I was stressing about that and between the stress and the driving and the going to Home Depot *and* Lowe's (I don't know what it is about those places, but if I'm in one for more than about five minutes, I just get bizarrely tired. It's like there's a tingler-energy sapper in those places.) so by the time I finally got home I was *wiped*.

Okay, Saturday, deliver youngest to high school so she can go on a band competition, then pick up a U-Haul and go back to the BIL's town and pick up our brand new, incredibly expensive but pretty fabulous Stickley dresser that only weighs half a ton and drive it to its new home on the lake. The SB has been mooning over this dresser for at least 15 years and we finally got it, thanks to a really amazing sale. Now we will actually have a place to put all our clothes. If it don't fit in there, we don't need it!

Get home just before dark and managed to unload the thing in time for the neighbors to invite us to their Supermoon party on the beach. They'd built an enormous (like entire trees enormous) bonfire and were supplying hot dogs and s'mores and even margaritas! I don't really eat hot dogs, but I do eat s'mores, so I had a couple of those (which were tricky to make because the fire was so hot, we had to use what were basically rake handles with kabob skewers attached to be able to roast them and they practically burst into flames the second you got them close to the fire) and then, after I discovered their availability, I had a margarita. We stood around in the incredibly bright moonlight and I worked on my moontan and chatted with neighbors I'd never even met before and just generally had a lovely time, but I did not work on my proposal. And still hadn't managed to schedule it.

Sunday, got up and was just really, really tired from the day (maybe even the two days) before, but I made bacon using the Benjamin method and I had bought raisin nut bread from Braum's when I picked up the bacon, so we had a fabulous breakfast of eggs and black beans and bacon and coffee and raisin toast with butter and it was cool and lovely and I pretty much just wanted to sit there all day. Instead, after a short nap, I actually did work on my proposal. Go me!! Then I made us a nice salad for lunch and worked on the prop some more. Then I heated up some leftover fajitas we'd picked up on the way in the day before and worked on the prop some more. And *then* we went down to the lovely moonlit beach with the neighbors again and watched most of the amazing Supermoon eclipse. We chatted and watched and took terrible pictures with our cell phones and watched and oohed and aahed and then, as the brightness started to come back to the left side and I realized that it wouldn't officially be over until nearly two in the morning, we packed it in!

Okay, Monday. I may not have mentioned this, but one of the main reasons for not posting Saturday or Sunday, aside from serious tiredness and very full schedule, was the serious lack of internet. We had grown weary of competing for bandwidth on our old service, switched to a new one that claimed to be fabulous and actually was for about a week and then turned out to be the same old bandwidth squeeze and then turned out to be apparently out of business, so then we had none. Went back to the old provider which was now a new provider because they had been bought out by someone willing to invest in some newer, better equipment and they were coming out to set us up. Which they did. And man, oh man, it works!! We get a whopping 7-9 megs! This may not sound like much to some, but believe me, out in the sticks, it's unbelievable. We watched Netflix that night and it didn't buffer once!! ::Does Happy Dance of Reasonably Fast Internet Access:: (What? It's a very specific dance!)

Also, got to play my cello for a minute! Then went back to working on proposal and attempting to corral three different profs into agreement on a meeting time by email. Fun times.

Tuesday, drove back to school. It was so hard to leave--the weather was perfect and beautiful and the back porch was calling. But so was duty, so managed to wrench ourselves away and drive and drive and drive back and again get there just a little late to pick up the youngest (she stayed with fellow guard member and best buddy while we were gone) and, huzzah, to find an email from the profs agreeing on a time! Yay! For Friday morning! Yay! and Augh! and OMG, this is getting real.

Guess what I did Wednesday? If you said worked on my proposal presentation, you would be right!

Guess what I did Thursday? Mmhmm.

Thursday night, I was so nervous that I kept waking up every hour or so, thinking it was time to get up, until suddenly it was time to get up, so I did. Got up and threw together some apricot oatmeal squares, took the youngest to school, went to office, printed out color copies of proposal, did another run through with advisor prof and SB, set up snacks and coffee and juice and tried not to have a heart attack. Second prof comes in, we chat a bit about, which helps me relax a smidgen, the advisor prof is already there, we wait on third prof. Advisor prof snags a passing student to come in and observe, then goes to see what's keeping third guy. Finally, we're all there. eek.

So very glad my advisor prof let me do a couple of dry runs with him or it would not have gone nearly as well, but it actually went fairly smoothly, though I got a little flustered during the "other works" section. I got a bit crossed up at one point and then everything I was planning to say went out of my head and I had to kind of stumble around and come up with something else. Somehow I got back on track and made it to the end and then the profs sent us all out, had a little discussion, called me back in and said, okay, we'll sign off on this, do it.

Yay! Very cool. Shook hands all around, gathered up what was left of the snacks (roped in student put a healthy dent in them, so at least he got some calories out of the deal--he looked like he could use them!)(actually, the squares were a pretty big hit with everybody. Yay!) Advisor prof took the SB and me out to lunch (the vaunted minestrone soup of glory, yay!!) and then I went home and took a glorious nap. And now I only have to get the rest of the work done in a couple of months and I can finish this semester!! Piece of cake.

tingler @ 2015-09-24T23:47:00

2015-09-25T04:57:39Z

Had second phone interview. Tried not to sound too smirky (I think sometimes I come off smirky even when I'm not meaning to be). I think it went well, but we shall see.

Had my favorite soup again, and it was just as good as always, but I ate way too much bread. With loads of butter. And a glass of red wine. Mmmm. Then we went to a play and, I rarely say this, kind of wish we hadn't gone. I mean, it wasn't terrible, but seriously, how many young white male coming of age stories does the world really need? It was set in WWII, an American family at their summer home just across the border in Canada. There was lots of talk about this young man finding his potential and he tries painting and sculpting and a bunch of other stuff and also just generally acts like a fourteen year old brat (which okay, most fourteen year olds are brats) and then at the end of the play, the young man tells how he tried several other things and then, oh, then, he wrote this play! And the youngest and I turn to each other and say, "He still hasn't found his potential."

tingler @ 2015-09-23T22:24:00

2015-09-24T04:30:59Z

What can I say about today? I did not get a pumpkin bagel, that's for sure. The pretty decent bagel shop (Panera sells things they call bagels, but while they are indeed tasty, I mean, have you *had* the Cinnamon Crunch "Bagel"? they are more like bagelish. Bagelish pastries. Pretty good, but not reeally bagels. Anyway) in town *should* be having pumpkin bagels, but they never came back from their summer hours, so every time I think to check, they're already closed. I don't want no pumpkin spice coffee, that stuff is nasty. The only thing I put in my coffee is, occasionally, frothed milk, preferably half'n'half. But the pumpkin bagels, especially with the Cinnamon Walnut Raisin cream cheese, that's something to look forward to.

Why do they still close at three instead of eight? I don't know. Maybe the college crowd isn't rolling in in the afternoons for a bagel hit. Maybe they just want to go home. I don't know. But tomorrow, ah tomorrow, I'm going to be ready.

tingler @ 2015-09-22T21:05:00

2015-09-23T02:07:04Z

So, yesterday, when I found out I was going to have a phone interview instead of a face-to-face, I thought, well, not enough time to drive home, don't want to be driving during interview, I'll find a coffee place with wifi and have a nice latte or something and have a comfy place to be. However, there were no Paneras conveniently placed and I had other business over by this one place, so I tried going there. I'd been there before, and while not wowed by their coffee, I thought it would do.

Wrong. So wrong. As soon as I walked in the door, I knew it wasn't going to work out. I ordered a breve latte. The painfully hipster guy behind the counter says, oh, we don't make any breve drinks, just lattes. (This is almost always code for "I don't know what that is, so I'm just going to say we don't have that.") The music was way too loud *and* there was no wifi. Then I tried to go to the bathroom, which is a bit of a wander away from the main part of the shop, down a shared hallway, and they had a code on the door! So, ended up taking my so-so latte to go and going back to the car for my interview. Ah me. The only really bright spot of that little visit was the lovely heart that the *other* painfully hipster barista drew in my foam:

tingler @ 2015-09-21T23:36:00

2015-09-22T05:03:51Z

Long day. Drove 80 miles for a job interview and then the guy doesn't show because he's waiting for the police because his neighbor accidentally shot a bullet through his house! At least he wasn't home when it happened! Ended up doing a phone interview. It seemed fairly positive, but I could have *not* driven 160 miles round trip for that! Don't really want to commute, but apparently the team moves around from job site to job site, so that could be kind of interesting. Have follow up interview, anyway, so we'll see how that goes.

Made some actual progress on The Thesis, mostly thanks to my advisor giving me some very specific pointers, so that was helpful.

Now I'm very very tired (see driving, job interview stress). Need to do some more poking at TT, but probably just going to go to bed. Have a cello lesson tomorrow and I haven't even *seen* my cello since the last one. Oy!

tingler @ 2015-09-21T00:29:00

2015-09-21T05:51:27Z

Okay, I actually did make a post for yesterday, but apparently it didn't go and in my confusion, I managed to delete the helpful backup. Oy!

Um, to sum up. Went to college football game. Would like football a lot more if it were a bit shorter. Four hours is a long time to do anything. I enjoy the pageantry, the rituals, even the game itself, but man, it does go on. Anyway, our team steamrollered the other guys. Made me feel a little bit bad for them. But, every time we score, a beautiful young woman rides out on an even more beautiful black horse and we got to see the horse a lot yesterday, so yay!

Managed to not get sunburned even though it was an afternoon game and I count this as an accomplishment. And then we went to one of our favorite restaurants and I had my favorite minestrone soup. Which may be my favorite soup. It may even be my favorite meal at this point. This little Italian restaurant has gone up and down in our estimation over the years but one day I lucked on to ordering this soup (I don't remember why, I don't usually really like minestrone soup that much) and man, oh *man* is it good. Thick, lemony chicken broth base, just the right amount of salt (if you like salt, and I do) loads of many different kinds of veggies, including artichoke, and just enough rigatoni and tortellini to make you feel like you've eaten something substantial. And some really good if not amazing garlic rolls and mama mia, that's some good soup.

Then we came home and I stared at The Thesis until the screen started swimming and went to bed and then ended up reading "The Losers" fic until way past when I should have gone to sleep. But to be fair, it was really good Loser fic.

Today I got up fairly early and chipped away at The Thesis some more, made biscuits, chipped, read more Loser fic, chipped, watched a little Longmire (the SB is zipping through it without me but I'm catching the occasional extra good ep--he says he's vetting it for me), chipped, and did a buttload of laundry (that's two hogsheads, to be specific). Unfortunately, all that chipping didn't amount to much, but it was something. I'm definitely learning to hate Excel with a rather unhealthy fervor, so there's that.

Today I worked on The Thesis (just chipping away at it), watched a little Longmire

tingler @ 2015-09-19T00:54:00

2015-09-19T06:06:11Z

Now for today's post. Went to Las Cafeteras tonight. *Excellent* show. Never heard of them before, but high energy with an activist slant. Blend of all sorts of Latin inspired music. Stunning version of "This Land is Your Land." Wikipedia says "Las Cafeteras is a Chicano band from East Los Angeles, California.Their music fuses spoken word, folk music, with traditional Son Jarocho, Afro-Mexican music and zapateado dancing." They had two small platforms side by side for the zapateado, a form of tap/flamenco like dancing. I meant to ask them what their instruments were after the show and got sidetracked so I had to look them up. They were jaranas. They look like ukes from a distance, but I could tell by the pegs they had more than four strings. I have seen those before with armadillo shells for the back.

Highly recommend!

tingler @ 2015-09-19T00:04:00

2015-09-19T05:54:21Z

Okay, not sure what happened to yesterday's post. I remember coming in after spending THE ENTIRE DAY replacing the AC shroud (obviously there was a leetle bit more involved than just climbing up there and screwing the new one on). I remember thinking that I needed to get my daily post done because I needed to go to bed. I remember sitting down at my computer and then showering and going to bed, but somewhere in there, the post did not happen.

So, okay, spent THE ENTIRE DAY working on the AC. Well, nearly, anyway. See, the *plan* was, get up early, take girl to guard, come home, eat breakfast, get 'er done. But I came back and SB was snoozing it up hardcore still and I was very very sweepy, so I thought, I'll just lie down on the couch for minute...and an hour and half later, we start stumbling around and getting on with the business. First, run to the hardware store and get AC cleaner and an AC comb and a window blind (unrelated). That only took nearly an hour because the only person in the whole entire store who knew where the heck the AC combs were was out on break, so we fiddled around a bit, got the other stuff, then wandered back over and voila, guy was back, took us straight to them. (Seriously. Nobody else could do this. I don't know.) Get back, break out tools, find out the critical 5/16 nut driver, purchased especially for this purpose the last time we had to do this, is missing. Just, gone. Six other nut drivers safely in their little nests, but the 5/16 is bye-bye. After a rather frustrating search, get back in car and go to Sears. End up having to buy $20 set. Oh, well, came with some drill bits the SB wanted. By then, of course, we had to have lunch and apparently the diner downtown--more likely the tater tots--was calling the SB's name, so we had a little lunch. Then, home again, home again.

So, get the ladder, climb up top, first thing find out that while three of the four screws that used to hold the thing on there were still in the frame, one was not. Gone. 'Nother trip to the hardware store in our immediate future. Okay. Take off interior cover--eeewww! Time to do some cleaning. Oh, but the condensation drain is plugged up, remember? So, get too ambitious with the water and it goes pouring inside the Airstream. Not good! Spray it with AC cleaner foam, comb the fins, clean the flywheel dealie which is of course, behind the coils and really hard to reach. Clean, clean, clean. Spray, spray, spray. Comb, comb, comb. Okay, but the drain is not unplugging (theory was the AC cleaner would break up whatever was clogging it. Seemed to work last time.) Run through some ideas, think about shooting some air up the drain line. Ask some fellow RVers what they think. They think it might work but it would probably shoot a bunch of crap up in the air and possibly inside the Airstream. Suggest trying vacuum instead! Brilliant! Works like a charm. Hosannas! No more leaky AC juice inside the Airstream! Yay!!

But by now it's getting dark and I've spent another day not working on The Thesis. But the AC's not dripping any more and that's a serious win. Got the new shroud installed and it looks smashing (whereas the old one just looks smashed. I think one reason it came off in the storm was that it was so old and brittle.) Only had to climb up and down the ladder twenty or so times (you definitely use your leg muscles more on ladders than on, say, stairs!)

tingler @ 2015-09-16T23:30:00

2015-09-17T04:35:48Z

Watched a little bit of the RND while I was making dinner (basil pesto tortellini w/ Porcini Mushroom marinara) but fortunately my SB turned it off before it managed to put me off my food and we watched the fourth episode of "Longmire" instead. Interesting show and I'll watch anything with Lou Diamond Phillips in it (witness-Stargate Universe), but I'm hoping not every single episode is going to have a murder. They'll run out of people! Robert Taylor, who plays the eponymous hero, can tell entire stories with one twitch of a crow's foot and I love the interplay between him and LDP, and him and Starbuck aka Katee Sackhoff, or Vic, as Longmire calls her. And did I mention LDP is in it? (I'm still not over Wolf Lake getting cancelled. Now that was a show!)

New AC shroud showed up today, but it was too windy and hot to try and get it installed today, so the plan is to do it early tomorrow. Unfortunately, the shroud being off has apparently allowed the drainline to get clogged so now we have a steady drip inside. We'll get that cleaned out while we're up top, but in the meantime, it's a mite annoying.

tingler @ 2015-09-16T22:38:00

2015-09-17T04:08:05Z

Watched a little bit of the RND while I was making dinner (basil pesto tortellini w/ Porcini Mushroom marinara) but fortunately my SB turned it off before it managed to put me off my food and we watched the fourth episode of "Longmire"instead. Interesting show and I'll watch anything with Lou Diamond Phillips in it (witness-Stargate Universe), but I'm hoping not every single episode is going to have a murder. They'll run out of people! Robert Taylor, who plays the eponymous hero, can tell entire stories with one twitch of a crow's foot and I love the interplay between him and LDP, and him and Starbuck aka Katee Sackhoff, or Vic, as Longmire calls her. And did I mention LDP is in it? (I'm still not over Wolf Lake getting cancelled. Now that was a show!)

New AC shroud showed up today, but it was too windy and hot to try and get installed today, so the plan is to do it early tomorrow. Unfortunately, the shroud being off has apparently allowed the drainline to get clogged so now we have a steady drip inside. We'll get that cleaned out while we're up top, but in the meantime, it's a mite annoying.

tingler @ 2015-09-15T21:59:00

2015-09-16T03:31:39Z

Well, that didn't work.

Got right into bed as planned, but unfortunately ran across a new author whose TW fics are really hitting my current spots--good writing, interesting ideas, twu wuv, etc. She's a bit sneaky and can really put a crimp in the old heartstrings, but she's also funny. DiscontentedWinter over at AO3, if you want to check her out. Once I start a story, I'm in it to end it (or something like that.) Still it wasn't that late when I finally fell asleep, so I'm counting that in the win column. Because I can, that's why.

Yesterday, I went to the campus post office to check the mail. I like going there. It's small, there's never a wait, they will tape up my packages for me without saying "You have to buy Priority Mail for that." and best of all, they all always seem absolutely delighted to see me. You gotta like that.

One of the women there is actually a little more delighted than the others, but I think that's just the way she is. I like that in a person. Anyway, I went in wearing my Supershirt. I got it for my dad a while back, but he's had some many health issues over the last couple of years that I always end up getting the wrong size and his SO gave it back to me the other day saying it was too big. I don't see why that matters so much if he's just going to sit around the house anyway, but ok. I took it back and I wear it quite often. Fits me pretty good, anyway.

And anyway, I went in wearing this shirt and she says "It's SuperWoman!" and I grin and say, "How did you know?!" and she points at the shirt and I say, "D'oh! I'm not doing a good job at my secret identity."
and she giggles. Then I check my mail and gather up my packages and as I go out the door, I put up one arm and say, "Up and away!" and she giggles again. So, that was fun.

Okay, did no Thesis work today. Bad tingler, no biscuit! But, I had a pretty good lesson with my regular cello prof and she said some really nice things about my Sarabande, so that was cool. Then I went to studio, but they were working on a piece for the orchestra, which I am not in this semester (boo)(but really, no time. Thesis Thesis Thesis!), so I just observed for a while and felt progressively less confident about my own playing because, damn, some of those kids are good. But I sucked it up and appreciated it and resolved to practice more, dammit.

*Then* I went to Ukelele Night and got to fumble around at playing one for a while *and* sing with other people (which I think is at least half the fun for me) and I'm really going to have to break down and buy one soon, but we get together at a music store that lets the ones with no uke borrow a uke and I cannot make up my mind between a soprano and a concert size. (I was just about convinced to go soprano by the one I was playing tonight but there's concert size one with tortoiseshell trim, so, ummm....)

And *then* I got froyo with my boytoy and came home and drank wine and got to watch the new Mindy ep and wow, okay, tomorrow, THESISTHESISTHESIS!