more snow
2006-11-30— Posted by: allegra
There was another two inches of extremely dense snow on the ground this morning. Driving was fine because I live just off major routes, but listening to the radio about how 45 seconds of travel was turning into an hour at some of the on ramps made me glad that Dr. Filk told me to put a shovel in the trunk this morning.
I feel like I’m coming down with something.
On the plus side, the distrust, fear and suspicion which has clouded Katie’s life for the last little while seems to be lifting, thanks be.
More writing
2006-11-30— Posted by: allegra
I wrote some more.
I talked to Paul; he’s suggesting I stay put and he’ll fly the family flag at the funeral and come home Sunday – he’s on vacation for the best part of two weeks.
We tried to work out the logistics of getting me out Friday night and then Saturday morning and none of it looked easy; he’s still going to look into it and the situation is still fluid.
Typing the victim impact statement for Katie was a lot harder than I expected it to be. The very starkness and lack of emotion makes it very moving.
There’s a lot happening in my life right now.
Burnaby Library phoned to say that Keith lost his phone and, possibly, his keys. Hope he makes it home soon so I can tell him, he’s probably already noticed that they’re missing and is pretty choked.
Dr Filk, may he be praised and adored, has shovelled the walkways; it’s still bucketing and cusping on sleet.
A good death
2006-11-29— Posted by: allegra
Frances, beloved mother of my best friend from high school, Liz, and her sister Laura, and beloved mom in law of Andy, grandmother to a tidy few childer, died in her daughter’s home last night. They called an ambulance, but with her classic defiance, she chose to go just as you could hear it beeping as it backed up into the driveway.
She was on the phone with her friends – her best friend Phyllis is my mom-in-law – and relating to her family right up until the end, and appeared to be in no pain after she slipped into unconsciousness after three glasses of water and a nice big supper. She was cracking jokes and ribbing her relatives right until the end.
She died surrounded by family.
It doesn’t get better than this, when we must pay our debt, and she paid it in style, with a curl in her lip, and I salute her. (Liz said, I can just hear her say, “I’m not going into ANY ambulance, thanks.”)
The funeral is the same day as the company holiday party, and I’ve already called Paul to put his thinking cap on about travel arrangements, because the party is trivial, and the funeral is important. Paul’s only an hour away where he is, so all that needs to happen is my heading out Friday night and coming back Sunday night…. I’m sure there’s a bed for me somewhere in London….
Love each other while you can; the future’s uncertain and the end is always near.
A company responds to misinformation
2006-11-29— Posted by: allegra
This is MY idea of how a company should respond to bullshit on the web. Boing Boing said, oh you can buy polonium on the web. Guess what? Maybe you can, but it’s a leedle more complicated than that.
http://www.unitednuclear.com/isotopes.htm
Rob of Nine’s snow pic
2006-11-29— Posted by: allegra
Is now on the home page of the SFU site!! Yes, that’s more or less what work looks like now. gorram snow.
special features………..
2006-11-29— Posted by: allegra
Dr Filk bought the entire 40 DVD set of Buffy, so we’ve been watching special features and bouncing around the seasons.
chatted on MSM w/ Leo, et others, last night. Very bizarre to be texting with somebody who bothers to capitalize the commencement of sentences. But extremely pleasant, thanks Leo.
Boil water advisory lifted as the snow starts to fall again. I think my birch tree is very unhappy. You can’t even see my rosemary bush, there’s so much snow. It’s berloody cold here.
Paul is settled in TO for his course, he says he has a very nice room and hung with his former flying partner.
Keith is providing much advice about the novel, to the point I wish he’d find a project of his own to eat his brain. I am in the process of designing an AI, ably assisted by my complete ignorance of all matters computational.
It’s official, I’m writing songs faster than I can transcribe them. Phwoah!
Off to the airport
2006-11-28— Posted by: allegra
Paul’s off to TO for a course. He’s going to be seeing his old flying partner Per and his sis Ruth and their family, and, ever supposing I can remember how to drive when the roads are this crunchy, he’s left me the car. Wish me luck on the commute!
I helped Katie with her victim impact statement last night. Heavy sigh. I remember looking at the inadequate scrap of paper they give you to fill in and saying, as tactfully as I could, “Why don’t you do a rough draft?” and of course she would have more than filled it. Then she decided to type it, which is also probably a good idea. Anyway our mother-daughter bonding event is completing it and faxing it off tonight. And then a LOT of 6th season Buffy.
Michael Ruppert has emigrated to Canada!!!! He’s in Toronto getting treatment. He doesn’t say on his blog that he was poisoned, but it’s hard not to think of that in the current global climate.
Putin must be smirking. The way Russia is denying the activities of the poisoners is great; everybody knows they did it and now anybody inside or outside of Russia who wants to take them on is just going to die a painful and lingering death – or be terrified by the prospect. Nice work! Ever so much more efficient than lawsuits, one must admit with horrified admiration.
Nanoknife
2006-11-27— Posted by: allegra
Finally, a picture – a nanoknife.
The Guardian Comes Through
2006-11-27— Posted by: allegra
Betty Comden’s obit.
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/obituary/0,,1957719,00.html
Security food for thought
2006-11-27— Posted by: allegra
http://www.simson.net/clips/2003/2003.CSO.04.Hard_disk_risk.htm
Very too much snow
2006-11-27— Posted by: allegra
I am NOT going to post a pic, because it’s too freaking depressing, but there is a LOT of snow here today, and the temperature has dropped, and now…. the morning commute.
I just checked the weather. What a revolting turn of events. Wind chill of minus 18 tomorrow? Who ordered this up? And check out the jet stream pattern, we’re going to get whacked. Chipper is laughing at me, all the way from Ontario I can hear a demented chuckle….
SHout Out
2006-11-26— Posted by: allegra
No pix of the partay yet… hope Rob will get on that…. but it was, Paul and I agreed as we padded off to bed, the most successful soiree ever. We started singing early because Tom and Peggy are opening the church this morning (and in this weather!!!! we have four to six inches of shnow on the ground and it’s coming down with, uh, grim determination).
Big shout out to the Finn Family Moomintroll for bringing the boys, who had a good time AND a snowball fight, woo hoo. Oh and Susanna brought me a Finnish publication of Moominpappa at sea, so there…. Bigger shout out to Maggie-pants for taking them home in her car (having a Jeep and being the very model of sobriety) so the grups could keep partaying on. Also thanks to Jarmo and Susanna to getting up and DANCING to my new tune “Buy me a Beer”. It made the honky tonk feel that much more real.
Enormous shout out to Paul for organizing the garage for the smokers; I came in from trying to make the smokers feel like they weren’t social pariahs (and I bummed a smoke off Tanya, so shoot me) and PAUL WAS SINGING AUTUMN LEAVES when I came back in – with standup bass and other acoustic accompaniment. I thought my heart would explode with joy – and I think Rob, that sly dog, took pictures just as I realized what was going on, so I will be very interested to see my expression. Then Paul said, “I should do more of this” and Peggy just grinned and nodded like a small and happy child. Paul has a very pretty tenor voice. Like really pretty; he sings with intent and awesome phrasing. I think the next time we do a musical soiree we should bring our top five schmaltziest songs of all time and do a Schmaltz Idol. That could be fall over laughing funny, as well as sentimental as all hell.
We opened with “An Evening of Serious Drinking” and closed with that Joe Hall tune that Dr. Filk always sings at the end of the night (the streets are all … lit up tonight…. not one lamppost is sober…). Festivities closed down around 12:30 but we started singing early.
Oh Lexi, that’s one sweet guitar you have! More morosity!!!
Dr. Filk and Lady Miss Banjola were in fine form as well. The Minions of Loki were also in attendance; Mike sang and played a couple of tunes, but left before American Pie, which somewhat irked the Dalai Jarmo; Heather provided very pretty harmonies on I’ll Fly Away.
The Dalai Jarmo instantiated fries (it’s NOT a proper Paul and Allegra party without Jarmo fries) and he was a saintly trooper, because the oil took forever to get hot because the cooker was outside. ANYWAY the fries were awesome as always.
Big shout out to Lady Miss Banjola for bringing me my very own SUPERHERO CAPE. I will try to describe it. It is lined in BRONZE DENIM. The shoulders are turquoise fun fur. The outer shell is a ketchup coloured fabric with zigzagging lines of lime green sequins all over it. It is the most eyemartyring combination of fabric textures and colors possible, and Keith fell on it with cries of glee when he came home and promptly wore it. Of course it looks better on him; high fashion is for the slender.
Thanks also to Maggie for bringing the shower massager, I will be testing it shortly!
I only had three beers. And now I’m off to church, slowly, slowly. Thank you so much to everyone who came and only two people that I REALLY REALLY wanted to come didn’t show, and they likely know who they are. There was nobody in our house last night that Paul and I didn’t want to be there, and that’s a WONDERFUL feeling.
Thanks be to Loki for a fine fine party.
I ran my fingers through Brian’s hair, but only to get the chip grease off my fingers (kidding, just kidding!!!).
Glen thank you so much for coming, the smile on your face was one of the many highlights of the evening……
The evening was brought to us with the able assistance of a banjola, mandolin, twelve string, resonator guitar, six string in d open tuning, six string, standup bass and a large assortment of lusty voices. Happy, happy sigh.
Tone Deaf?
2006-11-25— Posted by: allegra
I got 80.6 %. What did you get? http://jakemandell.com/tonedeaf/
Men in dresses – Bush kisses Putin’s forehead
2006-11-25— Posted by: allegra
Keith’s reaction when he saw this pic, which must have been on the front page of every newspaper in the world, but I MUST repost to this blog was “I’ve always wondered about those two.”
And we’ve gotta thank Putin for adding the expression “peeing polonium” to our lexicon.
At least Stephen Harper has a look of polite attention on his face.
enough sleep
2006-11-25— Posted by: allegra
I wish we had a picture like this of Stephen Harper. I kinda like some of the American political traditions, but I take comfort that we still have the scrum.
You can get anything you want.
2006-11-25— Posted by: allegra
Did you ever wonder what happened to….Alice? http://www.alicebrock.com/alice.html
Sound advice.
2006-11-25— Posted by: allegra
“The time has come to shed all our fears and prejudices; to stand up against all kinds of terrorism: bomb terrorism, mob terrorism and at certain places, state terrorism. We should neither be condescending towards the reactionary element of minorities nor intimidated by the fascist who pretends to be the face of the majority.”
Javed Akhtar, Indian poet, activist, lyricist and scriptwriter.
party
2006-11-25— Posted by: allegra
Katie has brightened the lives of her long suffering grandparents by a) bringing Tom’s blackberry jelly to them across the Georgia Strait b) showing up at all c) demonstrating that despite the best efforts of her ruinously insane mother, she didn’t turn out half bad (okay, let’s give Paul the credit for that) and d) engaging in (GASP! alert the MEDIA!) meaningful adult conversation with them on a wide variety of topics. She’s off her to Unca Jeff’s today to watch movies and chill. Since this is one of *my* all time fave activities, I can only comfort myself with the notion that there will be a PARTAY TONIGHT at the Augur Inn.
And only the cool beyond cool will show up, because despite my having invited half the known universe, only the absolutely most musical or most fun loving people will arrive.
And Brian. Te he.
Some people wanted to come and couldn’t get a hall pass from their spouses. Man, that just sucks!
I found an on line dictionary that explained w00t! Forty-eight and I finally get the freaking reference.
I found all my Christmas gifts on one website! w00t!
See, uses novel technology appropriately. Neophilia is actually a mental illness rather than a survival trait, discuss.
I really wish I could play mandolin better, I can hear a mando solo for “Buy me a Beer” that would probably take 100 years to learn, and I don’t HAVE a hundred years.
I’ll be lucky to be still writing songs in twenty. And since I’m composing (ha, typed composting, same diff!!!) the bleeding things faster than I can actually write them down, I’m in the interesting position of watching my own goal posts hike up their skirts and book it downfield.
This line deliberately left blank.
I keep asking Loki to bring me a drum and an accordion – is this wrong? Paul seems to think so.
By copy to mOm, can you tell pOp that I think Loki has a thing for the Parking Goddess? I should figure out when Loki’s feast day is and plan a party. Another noisy, anarchic, fabled in history partay.
One last thing. I fell asleep last night to one of my all time favourite noises…. three of my fave people laughing uproariously. Yes, my pOp provided a collection of Three Stooges videos SO HUGE that there was stuff in there that the menfolks hadn’t seen. Paul was in hysterics even trying to describe it this morning. Thank you pOp. I think.
I light a candle for the folks breaking up with their long term girlfriends; it’s happening in multiples and some of it is civil and some of it is not, but it’s still sad. I could say more, but I’d need more visual aids, and I’d rather post a Stooges pic!!!
Internet cafe security tip
2006-11-24— Posted by: allegra
http://cups.cs.cmu.edu/soups/2006/posters/herley-poster_abstract.pdf
Excellent editorial about the boil water advisory
2006-11-24— Posted by: allegra
http://www.surreyleader.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=73&cat=48&id=776810&more=
Goodbye to all that
2006-11-24— Posted by: allegra
Well, I was happy, and I’m not anymore, and I was writing, and I’m not anymore. I have to figure out how to get my mojo back. I think I’m going to be making a lot of phone calls over the next few days.
It’s been bally ages since I posted a squid pic
2006-11-23— Posted by: allegra
Stolen from a friend of a friend of a friend on LJ. Oh, and if you want to friend me on MSM I’m u_must_b_joking (you know the drill)hotmail.com, and my screen name is Gelis.
It was hilarious, I friended Katie’s buddy and she came back in my face like a rabid rat, who the f*** are you and whaddaya want. Fortunately she and I go way back…. I mind a wonderful evening when I’d been recording and was higher than a kite on adrenaline and harmony – and nothing else, thanks! – and not even the spectacle of her puking up three days worth of food and alcohol all over my back deck could so much as put a dent in my mood. I waited until she was between heaves and forced Katie to take her into the can to hose her down, and Katie tossed her clothes in a trash bag and laundered them. I wasn’t touching them, that’s what friends are for!
Happy Thanksgiving to all my relations south of the line.
In other news
2006-11-23— Posted by: allegra
I’ve been introduced to the joys of MSM Messenging. My interlocutor pronounced it “the lowest form of communication” but I can certainly understand now how it’s addicting. When you remove the social cues, communication becomes very … anarchic.
More verses
2006-11-23— Posted by: allegra
I’m up over 17K words on the novel (if I already said that, I wrote more last night, anyway) and added two verses to the song last night. I <3 November.
Happy family news for a change
2006-11-22— Posted by: allegra
Katie has a job interview at 6:30 pm tomorrow…. wish her luck!!
Where’s the pickup truck???
2006-11-22— Posted by: allegra
So… anyway. New song.
Buy me a beer
Make it cold one
Buy me a beer
or maybe, two or three
I may get to like your face
when the goggles are in place
Buy me a beer, or maybe, two or three
Tell me a joke
make it a funny one
Tell me a joke, or maybe two or three
My heart’s been torn in half
I could really use a laugh
Tell me a joke, or maybe two or three.
Instrumental break….
Tell me a lie
and not just any lie
Tell me a lie
Made up just for me
There’s a lot of truth around
Lying scuffed up on the ground
Tell me a lie
a pretty one…
for me.
slowing down to take a breath
2006-11-22— Posted by: allegra
A week ago I was looking at Katie’s closed bedroom door and grinding my teeth, because she wasn’t behind it. Now I look at it and sigh. Just because she’s home in her own bed doesn’t mean I get to stop worrying. But she paid for sushi last night!
All the preliminary legal stuff has come and gone; the ex boyfriend is out after half a day in jail and he and Katie both know the terms of his release. There’s a wrinkle, but there always is – essentially that he lives a few blocks from the school so it’s hard to make him not go near the school. Mitigating this is that the last time he went, two of the teachers upended him over a table and held him there until he accompanied the cops out of the building. Or so I heard, and I have no cause to doubt it.
Katie went to the cop shop by herself to file the report. I know my childrearing style has been characterized as one of benign neglect, but when they are eighteen and neither stupid nor lazy, parents are no longer obliged to wring their hands about what they did wrong, and how raising kids has been a long siege against their sanity and exchequer.
Yeah, yeah, I know. When we went five years ago to a class on raising your teen, the woman looked around and said, “You know why you’re here? Cause you had a baby and decided to keep it.” A ringing endorsement of personal responsibility, eh wot?
Work is wonderful right now. I have the best worksiblings on the planet.
I am very much looking forward to the company collective consciousness crasher on December 2, the potluck on the 8th, holidays on the 4th and 5th (to bake, you know) and the partay here on the 25th, which will be musical…. ah yes. Now I must clean. Damn, how’d that happen?
Okay, HERE’s the Dandy Warhols Link
2006-11-21— Posted by: allegra
Not safe for work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vjlx3AbLhqU
bLAH bLAH bLAH hOUSING bUBBLE, BLAH BLAH BLAH
2006-11-21— Posted by: allegra
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15689.htm
Got up, wrote some more
2006-11-21— Posted by: allegra
Went to sleep at 1:30, up at 6:30. I’m possessed, I’m possessed. The characters pwn me. He is SUCH a schmuck, and entirely irresistible by my standards. SHE’s just a cow, but sort of like a commando raid kind of cow. Now it’s time to pull back, get godlike, and start to move the pieces across the board to the messy, ultra-penetrated by media, finale. Oh, and I need to talk tech to the guys at work… that should hurt! NOT, so NOT!
Nobody has to watch this Dandy Warhols video, but as the comments said, EVERY rock video should have a hot boy twirling a hula.
What, another addiction
2006-11-21— Posted by: allegra
Oh, man, like I don’t have enough calls on my time. But I’m up to 16,750 words and it’s still got me by the scruff of the neck.
Katie’s home
2006-11-20— Posted by: allegra
Finally got to wish her a happy birthday. Helluva birthday, hey?
Ah, married life
2006-11-20— Posted by: allegra
Finally got hold of Paul. Paul has known since 9:30 last night that Katie was at her buddy’s place…. and he didn’t tell me. He says that he forgot.
I must refrain from offering honest comment on this minor lapse, of course; failure to do anything else will earn me sternly worded emails from his legion of fans.
In more driving news……
2006-11-20— Posted by: allegra
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/6157800.stm
This item is about how traffic cameras are being ‘necklaced’ in Britain. Necklacing is when you hang a tire around something or someone’s neck and torch it. I feel a prank comin’ on…..
You’re like CROSS TOWN TRAFFIC
2006-11-20— Posted by: allegra
OMFG. Check this out. http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,448747,00.html
The gist is that if you remove traffic signs, assholes magically convert into good drivers. I’m looking at this brave experiment and thinking, Holy Crap. It would never work in Vancouver. And Jeff, if you’re reading this…. I’m thinking about you and your driving blog!
6 am, still no Katie
2006-11-20— Posted by: allegra
Can’t raise Paul on the phone.
Keith and Dr. Filk got home okay via their separate routes (they came on two different buses from Seattle and Portland).
Katie probably needs to sleep, wherever she is.
Came home, no Katie
2006-11-19— Posted by: allegra
Rushed home, to no point. Katie’s not here. I have no idea where she is. I talked to my mOm, and that helped, but life is pretty bleak right now.
From happiness to misery
2006-11-18— Posted by: allegra
Katie was assaulted by her boyfriend and lost her cellphone. I requested the men of my household to kick his teeth in should he be so foolish or mad as to set foot on our property again.
I have not spoken to her since it happened – I am nearly crazy with grief and rage and questions. Paul couldn’t get us a flight out tonight. So I have to paste a smile onto my face and not put a damper on everybody else’s happy time.
The only bright spot in this maelstrom of idiocy and violence is that I have friends like Tom and Peggy, who have staunchly stood in loco parentis.
The rest I can’t say, but I’m sure you can interpolate. And I don’t have my cell, so nobody can reach me….
whatever
2006-11-18— Posted by: allegra
So I’m at Orycon 28 at the Waterfront Marriott in Portland OR and having not too shabby a time atall atall. The scotch afforded by Arthur in the fanzine room and the two beers (one of them on the house!) at the sports bar are definitely keeping my mood clipping along at a good rate of knots. I’m loving Fat Tire beer. Can’t find any of my peeps – poked my head into the Buffy singalong and nobody ta home, nobody in the hotel room, nobody in the games room. Just me in the Horspitality suite trying to figure out how to access the internet.
Had a simply lovely chat in the sports bar with a gorgeous woman of a certain age who’s an IT professional checking out the job scene who has nothing to do with SF. She’d like Portland if a house in Indiana wasn’t 150K cheaper. And she’s really liking a consulting gig, rather than being a wage slave for a hospital. I think she was relieved when I was able to throw around words like ERP without undue strain…….
I was singing the Tapioca song while Jem of Pondside and Shaddyr were registering, and we ended up singing 4 part harmony in the downstairs lobby when Jem’s hubby came along and sang too. Then poked my head into the Harmony workshop and billy be damned if *they* didn’t end up harmonizing as well. Well, I’m going to make one last attempt to find Keith and then go find the Bardic Filk track. Worked on the novel today too but only good for about 100 words and it’s not going where I want it, it went really dark for a while. BUT I am learning more about Parkour and I’m hoping to integrate my new knowledge in the book. Up over 12K words, anyway.
Paul’s off to see the Spruce Goose tomorrow, can you credit it???
Spent $60 in Powell’s. US, I hasten to add. Powell’s is the kind of bookstore that’s more like a religious pilgrimage than a mere place of mundane commerce.
The costumes are awesome. I’m sitting next to a full bore Klingon. And there’s a Xena here that would bring tears to your eyes.
Much love to all, and to some piggies more than others…..
Happy Birthday to Me
2006-11-16— Posted by: allegra
The rest of you can go eat your livers, because MY BOSS phoned me at home before 10 am this morning to SING THE HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONG TO ME. I justabout died of happiness. And, of course, I’m up to 11,000 words so you can all just eat your livers some more.
The Minions of Loki fed me last night and I had such a wonderful evening, and I sang and played some, and massaged folks for a long long time. I really enjoy doing bodywork on people. It’s all part of my friendly service, you know, who I am. I am a human switchboard, a song writing machine, and I like singing harmony and doing bodywork and making people laugh and working on folks’ resumes for free. The rest of it is kind of up for grabs….. Well, not like that. But it’s changeable. It is written in the water…..
To recap. I am having a really good time, and it’s going to get better.
I’m off to Portland for Orycon. Full report on filking and other stuff upon my return, although I may hit an internet cafe in the meantime.
I haven’t been this consistently happy in so long that I think I have changed phase from being cheerful to just being nuts. However, I know what will happen when I’m not feeling like a Lab puppy on meth any more, and frankly, it’s better to enjoy it while it lasts than worry too hard about where I’ll be when it’s gone. Trouble, clear my door….
Fed Casey and Unca Dave and Dr Filk bbq’d salmon last night, so here’s a pic of a salmon crossing the road. Sample dialogue from last night, “How do you get rid of harpies?” “Plucked if I know.” (Okay, you had to be there.)
Homemade Russian sub.
This is an illustration from a medical article entitled, “Acute Management of the Zipper Entrapped Penis”. This just seems to be a riff on how I feel right now, and yes, I’m identifying with the entrapped organ.
Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald Day. This is the ship’s bell before the restoration.