Holy cow, is tomorrow Friday already?
Indeed it is.
Well, “summer” is officially here. We set up the A/C unit in the bedroom.
We don’t have central air, neither one of us grew up with it. When you don’t grow up with it, it doesn’t seem like that big a deal. I mean, sure, there were some nights in August where we kept a spray bottle by the bed and squirted a mist up into the air to cool stuff off… but you only need to do that a couple of times and you can get some sleep, right?
Our 2nd Apartment was the top floor of a house and the windows of the bedroom faced the sun. Golly, did they ever. It was one of those things where we were cooler outside than inside during the summer. We even measured the temperature and it got over 100 degrees in there… and so we finally broke down and bought an A/C unit to help bring the bedroom down to a manageable 80ish degrees.
And then we got spoiled.
So I’m looking forward to this weekend, sleeping in a cool bedroom with a white noise machine. Heck, last weekend, I was awakened every day by a dog in the neighborhood that had a bark that sounded like basketball shoes squeaking on the court. It is soooooooooooo nice to not hear anything but a comforting whir of a fan.
As such, this weekend’s plans involve little more than “sleeping in”.
So… what’s on your docket?
I’m moving 6,000 lbs of dirt on Saturday. The in-laws are in town for their anniversary/everybody’s birthday, which is nice. I’m trying to pull my blogging head out of my blogging behind.
Taking my son to see Iron Man 3 tonight.
Playing A Game of Thrones: The Board Game with friends tomorrow.
Probably watching some Arrested Development and Doctor Who in there somewhere.
Summer’s here in Ottawa as well, and I just got back from Turkey after a month-long vacation (which was AWESOME). It’s disorienting…when I left, Ottawa had been snow-free for maybe two weeks, and was just starting to get warm. Now, it’s 30 degrees Celsius.
No definite plans for the weekend. I may go to see Star Trek.
When’s the next Babylon 5 bookclub? Are we doing one every two weeks rather than an episode a week now? (I’m actually glad things have been going slowly, because it means I haven’t missed a bunch of bookclubs while gone.)
Dude! Welcome back!
I was actually wondering yesterday where you’d gotten to, I hadn’t seen you on the Sandman recaps.
Turkey, eh? Did you find out why Constantinople got the works?
Heh. (I already knew that before I went.)
Turkey’s awesome. Amazing history, spectacular scenery (the southwest coast of Turkey may be the most beautiful place I’ve been – and considering that I’m from BC, that’s saying something), some excellent hikes, lovely weather, and surprisingly good public policy (lots of windmill, solar panels are everywhere, massive infrastructural development in recent years, very strong use of tourism – some fellow tourists I met from Mexico were envious – etc.). The bus system is better – far and away, no-contest better – than Canada’s. It feels like there’s a wide gap between the way Turkey’s presented in the Western press and the way it actually is when you visit it. (Hopefully that doesn’t veer too close to politics.) I was very impressed.
When’s the next Babylon 5 bookclub? Are we doing one every two weeks rather than an episode a week now? (I’m actually glad things have been going slowly, because it means I haven’t missed a bunch of bookclubs while gone.)
The post is up in draft form. It’ll go up on Sunday night as the Monday post. I’m trying to get ahead of the game this weekend and get the next two in the queue in draft form so that I get back on schedule.
I wasn’t intending this to go “every two weeks”, life has just sort of made it that way. May.
That link was fan-fishing-tastic.
Ha!
I could do some of the write-ups for episodes in June and early July (I go overseas again at the end of July) if that would help lighten the load.
My tricky window is between three weeks ago and now (not this next two episodes), and then again between mid-July and the beginning of August.
So it sounds like our overlap is bad for resource optimization. But hey, any episode you want to do in the first season, please do.
I’ve got the Parliament of Dreams basically done, but anything else in the next five-eight episodes feel free to claim…
Katherine wow so jealous spent a couple a weeks in Turkey years ago it was amazing.
It seems like you chose a good time to leave Turkey.
started the weekend on *wednesday* this week :D. and last night featured setting things on fire. always good.
friday porch sitting tonight, and we have a houseguest (mine, rather than Jay’s). i don’t really have anything planned for saturday or sunday unless I’m forgetting it, and Monday is a concert in Denver (the xx).
Also, this seems as good a place as any to note that as I was poking around the site this morning, I thought, “OOH! Way back this winter! Russell posted something about Downton! That had spoilers! And now I can read it!!!” …. except I just finished season 2. And the spoilers are for season 3. *sad face*
BUT. Next week I will be able to read it, hurrah!
Our first house was a 50’s Cape Cod. It had central air, but the system couldn’t cool the bedrooms upstairs without making the main floor freezing and using our food budget for power. So, I talked Jason into a window A/C unit. I loved the white noise (reminded me of being a kid sleeping at my grandmother’s house in a bed full of cousins). Jason had a tough time getting used to it, but it was a necessity.
We’re flying to New Orleans tomorrow for a week at Jason’s aunt-and-uncle’s. They haven’t met Alice before, but she knows them as the ones who send her a card with stickers in it for every holiday. Like, I mean, Christmas, yeah, but also Halloween and Valentine’s Day. Every. Single. One. We’re all excited!
We’ve had like a week or 10 days of rain, but we should get sun this weekend. I don’t think it will get warm enough the air conditioning though. I will try to take advantage of the weather with Junior by hiking, possible zoo trip, and/or the Starlight Parade in downtown Portland (one feature of the Rose Festival) if I am feeling brave. Last year I went 4 hours early and still had trouble finding a seat for the parade. And of course Junior fell asleep halfway through because it doesn’t even start until 9:30 pm or so.
I will also be binge watching Arrested Development.
No pleasure, no rapture, no exquisite sin greater than central air. I couldn’t go back to the clunking window box (and to contemplate having no cooling at all… my blood runs, well, cold with horror).
I am a lifelong Florida native. AC is a necessity, not a luxury.
I am so, so sorry.
I hope you move before it’s too late.
That was one of the things I took as a shock moving to the Midwest from Florida.
I went outside to look at the air conditioner, and I saw this little, tiny toy air conditioner– nothing at all like the two units on the house in Florida.
In NM, most people use swamp coolers. The desert has its benefits.
Nothing special on the agenda, but we have a cousin in town who plays a little chess and I am trying to get him to spot me his queen and both rooks. He is okay spotting me his queen, but for some reason he is balking at both rooks.
We live a little north of Baton Rouge and lived for 11 years without an AC so I am convinced it can be done. We finally got a new one after Hurricane Gustav blew down all our shade trees and the Ma-in-law bugged us because a nephew was getting married on the property and the groomsmen were changing upstairs. I must say it is better, but not a necessity.
Mess with his mind: suggest putting the back pieces on the board RANDOMLY.
You might end up with two black- (or white-) square bishops. You might have both rooks start right next to each other.
IT COULD BE MADNESS.
How would castling work?
Would a pawn that started on the back row automatically turn into the other color’s queen?
The pawns all stay on the 2nd row. It’s the back row pieces that get placed randomly. (This is one of Fischer’s ideas. He’s a madman. Or a genius.)
I imagine that castling would work using a similar formula to what exists now between the two different ways to castle.
Another option: he moves based on standard chess, but you move based on the Ultima variant.
The madness might be fun but it would not be an advantage. When I said he “plays a little chess” I was being a tad facetious. He plays a little chess the way LeBron James plays a little basketball. I will need a serious spot not to lose in six moves.
The madness might distract him. Mix it up and take away his last two dudes.
If one of them is a king, switch the king out for the third last dude.
Maybe he’ll be spotting you a queen and a rook, maybe he’ll be spotting you two knights. Possibilities are finite but fairly large anyway!
Or don’t have a special rule for the king, and you win at least 25% of the time.
Hrm. That may be a good point. The king comes pre-castled a quarter of the time.
Well, shit. The solution is obvious. One of those two squares *MUST* get the king. Hell, make that random too. Pick that first. Then random distribution of the other pieces.
I plan to finally get caught up on Orphan Black for the season finale.
It’s really hard to see Matt Frewer in anything without lamenting that he never got a chance to play The Riddler.
Hey Will, AvClub had a pretty good interview with Maslany where she goes a bit into HOW they actually shoot all that stuff:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/orphan-blacks-tatiana-maslany-discusses-all-her-ro,98458/
We out ran a tornado last night with four kids,m my mom, and three wet dogs in a suburban. Fun times. Today frantically trying to make up lost time from last night to get Link and Zelda costumes made so we can go to the Renaissance Festival tomorrow (I know Link and Zelda are not period but hey kids what are you gonna do?) Hubby and I get to wear our new outfits newly arrived from Scotland (kilt for him, awesome asymmetrical corset for me)
Glad you were able to outrun it.
Geez, good job. And be careful, Oklahoma is starting to sound like a dangerous place to live.
Hubby and I get to wear our new outfits newly arrived from Scotland (kilt for him, awesome asymmetrical corset for me)
I am so jealous.
Very glad you’re safe.
Wait – asymmetrical corset? How do you make a corset asymmetrically?
Thanks everyone. Tod the front closure is asymmetrical like this http://www.heritageofscotland.com/pictures/g-pic4d5bd4b5f00cb.jpg
Ah! I want that dress.
I know right? I’m saving up for the skirt. Going to copy the pattern of the corset so I can make more.
Yowsa.
That works.
mine is in grey silk wearing it with a purple stem punk skirt 🙂
argh! Steam Punk
If I lived in Oklahoma I would totally raid your closet
Glad you’re OK. (First Russell Westbrook and now this!)
My houseguest and I went on a spontaneous roadtrip to Albuquerque and Santa Fe :). And then we went to see the xx in Denver last night. Good times.
I have a weird affection for Albuquerque. And not just due to the comedic qualities of the word Albuquerque.
Burt’s Tiki Lounge is a good dive there.
Sandia Crest is great. Always liked it there. Alb is fine, sort of a generic sprawling desert city. There are worst places.
And where else do the public schools have Nobel-quality crystallographers teaching freshman chemistry?
Frontier. Flying Star.
I went to the Frontier, but not the Flying Star.
I love Santa Fe.
Jimez Springs was always a favored stop for me when I was in the Albuquerque area. I tend to know the area outside of Alb. much better than the city; Grants, and parts south, the mountains to the east. Alb. did have some of the best college radio, as I remember it.
I hope you had a wonderful trip.