Ok, all is well w/ the furnace!The guy said the refill thingy seems ok, but it is old, so is probably more finicky than it would be otherwise, and hey could replace it or bypass it, but he didn't think that was worth doing just yet. But he told me it was ok to just totally shut the system down when draining it, which will prevent the auto refill from kicking in when the water level is low from the draining. And he showed me where the cutoff valves for the feed into the furnace are so that if it does happen again, we can shut the water down instead of running around in circles!

So he drained off the excess water - it totally sounded like a waterfall! But he said that the excess water in the furnace/pipes doesn't hurt anything, even though it sounds like the sky is falling when the heat kicks on, so that was good to know also. Phew.

A3 - Ain't Goin to Goa
Mojo Nixon - Ain't Got No Boss
Clarence "Frogman" Henry - Ain't Got No Home
Mojo Nixon - Ain't High Falutin'
John Prine - Ain't Hurting Nobody
Leon Redbone - Ain't Misbehaving
Louis Jordan - Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens
Dean Martin - Ain't That a Kick in the Head

Six thousand songs on that music machine over there and only eight that start with Ain't.



WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED FROM ALL THIS?

1. You can use the word all you want if you're Mojo Nixon.
2. If you're not Mojo Nixon you can still use the word, but be sure to round it out with a double negative to really annoy the pedants.

I got this e-mail from Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave. in Somerville. Could this be useful to T@F or PMRP or any other theatre group you are involved in?

Wednesday & Thursday, 12/9/09 - 12/10/09: Prop Sale

A truckload of movie props, antiques, art work, accessories, contemporary items, light fixtures, carpets and much, much more from recent Major Motion Picture will be liquidated. Sale of the items goes to benefit Future Chefs.

CASH or CHECK ONLY, NO LAYAWAY

10 AM – 6 PM
DOORS OPEN AT 10 AM
No Early Birds, Please!

http://futurechefs.wordpress.com/

Furnace guy is coming at 4pm to take a look - huzzah! And they already warned us that anything having to do w/ the water/plumbing of the furnace is not covered by the maintenance plan. Whee!!


ETA - I am amused more than I should be by one of my FB friends who always thinks the service guys are going to murder me. I mean, yeah, I suppose he might, but hello, the company knows who they sent, so he'd totally get caught!

Hmm, I haven't heard from DH at all today - I hope the furnace didn't explode when he was home alone after I left...

Mr. BenBen woke me up (for good) at 7:00 AM, caterwauling and pawing at me. He already had food; he just didn't want me asleep anymore. Now I'm up, and he's crashed nice-as-you-please in his cat bed. Remind me why we have pets?

All aboard the Root Canal Train, departing this afternoon at 1:00 pm. Toot toot!

Really not looking forward to this for many reasons, the least of which is that I'm only going in for the procedure today. It'll take a least a full month plus for me to get the cap and crown, since I have to pay for them at the time of the putting-inski session and I can't afford all that at once.

So while we wait to finish the work on the installment plan, as it were, I'll be walking around with a goddamned post in the front of my mouth where once a bad tooth used to lurk. Not that it could make me look any worse, mind you, and not that I've had any previous experience not smiling-with-teeth, but it's going to be a really sore point for quite some time.

Yeah, I'm really really really looking forward to the holiday season.

I just hope the work all gets done before January 17th, since that's a performance date.

As much as I hate the snow, I will say it does make it feel more like Christmas. Sadly, w/ this feeling also comes the feeling that Christmas is OMG SOON!! which is making me very impatient with being in work!

2 weeks and 1.5 days, 2 weeks and 1.5 days - almost there!!

Where did the weekend go?!

We have a lovely time out at Brookfarm Inn in Lenox, despite driving up in the snow on Saturday. It actually wasn't that bad until we were already out there, thank goodness, and wasn't even that bad in the end, despite some slippage occurring when we were driving back to the inn after dinner. We stopped at the Berkshire Museum before check-in, and saw the Festival of Trees, which was really pretty. If I ever upload my Thanksgiving pics, I'll then upload those pics too ;) And the inn! The inn was AWESOME. If you ever need to stay out that way, stay there! It's gorgeous, the innkeepers were really nice (and vegetarian!), and there's TEA AND SCONES in the afternoon! Our room was fantastic, too. So nice.

On the way home yesterday we stopped at Target and I have my mom almost finished Christmas-present-wise, and I bought penguin socks for myself - woot!

And then, then, the weekend went downhill! We have a steam furnace, and as part of the upkeep we have to "blowdown" the boiler once a week to get rid of the sediment that builds up - so basically we lift this little lever, gross water drains into a bucket, we shut the lever, and then hit the refill button to add water back into the furnace to replace what was drained. The refill sometimes kicks on automatically if the water level drops too low while you're draining...and last night it kicked on, and then WOULD NOT STOP. It just kept filling and filling, until the gauge which is supposed to read at half full was WAY beyond full. It did stop, but by that time the furnace was flooded and now makes all sorts of horrible noises when running. Ugh. And I am afraid to try to drain the excess water for fear that the damn auto refill will kick in again - when I was draining it, it kicked in even before the level was low, so even trying to drain it reeeaaaalllly slowly scares me! So DH is calling the furnace people today to see what the heck to do. Blergh.

And this is why I hate Sundays!

Today, I:

* went to the Harvard Book Store warehouse sale, and left with a sack of books. Not that I really need more books, but, c'mon, you *always* need more books, and at least a few of them may end up as gifts

* went to the Bazaar Bizarre, ran into a number of friends, stocked up on my beloved Bunny Butt Apothecary Masala Chai lip balm and indulged in a jar of the same scent body butter, ogled some of the lovely letterpress works, and picked up cards for all the other nifty crafts I want to buy some day when I have money

* had dinner at Ethan and Mia's house, where he delivered on my promised birthday present of a kosher lamb dinner. Mmmm, roast lamb. Not to mention delicious potatoes with thyme from his garden, a spinach and cherry tomato dish that was good enough to give up some lamb stomach-space for, and homemade almond macaroons for dessert. <Les>Macaroons!</Les> And Mia even packed up some leftovers for me. Mmmmm, lamb leftovers. And then we played with his Wii sport -- my arms are going to hurt from the boxing tomorrow -- before he kindly drove me home.

Books, shopping, design, meat, friends -- yep, think I about covered them all. Except maybe sleep. Pardon me while I go do that. :)

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

Anyone have a really good coffee cake recipe?

FYI, The next ConCom meeting will be Sunday 13 December (a week from today) at 2 PM at MIT, building 66, first floor. There will be a Div Head meeting at 11 AM that day nearby.

Tentative Agenda:
Division Reports (including staffing, upcoming deadlines, and dependencies)
Finalization of the Thursday night event
Hotel Resume

The final ConCom meeting will be Sunday January 3rd at 2 PM at the Hyatt Cambridge (Tentative Agenda: Convention Timeline Walkthough) with a Div Head meeting to follow.

If you have any questions, please send mail to conchair (at) arisia (dot) org.

**********

PS For the remaining ConCom meetings we will be raffling off copies of Ravens In The Library. There is one copy for each of the ConCom meetings. You must be present at the ConCom meeting to win; anyone interested is eligible to put their name in the hat.

RAVENS IN THE LIBRARY:
MAGIC IN THE BARD'S NAME

A Limited Edition Collection of Stories and Art dedicated to the health of S.J. Tucker

This special VERY limited edition has been complied to defray the medical expenses and recovery of musician S.J. Tucker.

It is now out of print.


If you have any questions, please send mail to conchair (at) arisia (dot) org.

**********

PPS And while I'm thinking about it, I have been asked to announce that the first two tagging sessions will be:

Wed 12/9 7-9pm
Sun 12/13 4-6pm (after Con Com)

Here is your opportunity to mark what stuff you want to go to con, throw out junk, or just see what is in storage.

Directions to storage are available at
http://corp.arisia.org/corpdirections-storage

If you have any questions, please send mail to logistics (at) arisia (dot) org.

We had a great brunch in Arlington today at the Arlington Diner on Mass Ave. not too far from Rte. 16. It's not fancy, but sometimes you just need food and they have it. Cheap, fast and good. Eggs, pancakes, waffles, toast...you know. It's about 25% cheaper than our usual haunts in Cambridge and Somerville.

http://www.arlington-diner.com/

The reviews on Yelp are mixed
http://www.yelp.com/biz/arlington-restaurant-and-diner-arlington
( Read more... )
So this is definitely on my list of places to go when I am out that way.

I was wondering what the theme for this year is.
I noticed that the webpage just changed to a black & white theme.
Does that have anything to do with the theme of the con?

40 more days!!!

Kimee

Thank you all for the B Day wishes and love. It made me feel great, was really appreciated, and made my day.
Love you all.
Crys

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

Wow, do I have a short attention span.

Not five minutes ago, after watching a video that involved an actor smelling onions and trying desperately to tear up, I made myself cry on cue just to see if I could. Then I promptly went back to playing around on the computer and forgot all about it.

Just now, I found myself thinking "Man, I feel really sad, I wonder why?"

Oh. Right.

Last night beowabbit and I tried out Eat At Jumbo's, the new-ish place in Ball Square, and we were delighted to find poutine on the specials board. I have never before found it in Boston, though I believe rness once posted about finding it.

What an unexpected treat! When I complimented them afterward, they told me the owner is from northwestern Vermont, where this Canadian dish is popular. I don't know if the cheese was real curd (where would they even get it around here?), but even if it was mozzarella it was very tasty. Note that it's a generous side dish portion, not full meal size. If you're having it as a meal and are hungry, you might want two. Local poutine lovers, go on in and exhibit your demand for it! My hope is that if enough people ask, they'll put it on the regular menu.

They also had limeade. Double win.

UPDATE: Good news! I emailed the owner, and they are indeed adding poutine to the regular menu. It's been extremely popular as a special. Now, watch me gain 100 pounds in 100 days!