This morning we went back into the basement for minor improvements: trenching and water flow planning, cleanup, moving this toting that.

Got the email out to the condo owners and it looks like we finally have a consensus without hissing and snarling. Also got the first draft of a Welcome/These Are The Rules letter for condo owners and tenants. We'll see how many people get freaked out when I pass it by the owners for approval. Most of it references current practice or items written into the condo declaration, but some people seem to have problems actually following those rules so perhaps having them more clearly expressed will help. Others are matters that should never need to be written into rules, but common sense isn't terribly common.

Now it's almost time for beef curry, yay!

Today was a good and productive day. We got up at a reasonable hour and went down into the basement to work for 2 1/2 hours before having breakfast. Then we went over to the home of one of my co-workers so I could diagnose problems with her computer. I found and fixed some things, hopefully her family will be surfing happily now. It was two hours well spent. Then it was back to work on the piping for the sump pump (outside in the dying sun and chill air) and more work in the basement (blessedly warm, but not terribly clean). We've made great progress on the basement projects and now the hard parts are mostly done. The remaining is cleanup and a few minor bits.

Well, one major bit of the basement project is still open, shoveling in 5-7 cubic yards of crushed rock. That will have to wait until spring, so I'm not counting it right now.

In addition, the dishes are done and the laundry is well underway. I'm ready to fall over from physical exhaustion, but it's all good. I was going to write up posts for the condo group (another vote to manage), but I really don't have the brain so it will have to wait until tomorrow.

I haven't said it in a while and I was noticing it specially this weekend, derien is an excellent companion. I like to use that term because it covers such a wide range of things from someone you go to the movies with, to someone you slog through arduous tasks with, to someone you listen to snore, to someone who you do lots of other things with. Like the term, derien is versatile.

Most people talk about relationships being a lot of work. Every now and then, ours takes a bit of effort, but for the most part after the initial bumps of learning to communicate with each other it just goes along. NRE involves work, a real longterm relationship involves more paying attention to the tiller than climbing up to furl the sails. Well, I guess that's if you're doing it right.

One of my favorite bits is seeing her when she's crushing on someone. It's so cute. I must confess, I tend to encourage it. It is a bit sad when she gets over her crush, or worse yet her crush doesn't turn out as good as the initial shine might have appeared. It's still fun when it's shiney. I wonder if mono people recognize that in their partner or if they overlook it entirely.

"Every old sock, meets an old shoe." - Kate Bush

I've spent a goodly portion of the last three days in the dungeon basement. There is much damp, much rotten wood, and much mold. Wood laying on dirt floor is a bad idea. If I had been concentrating on one thing I might have finished it, but I've also been cleaning up stray wiring (mostly cable TV wires), pulling down broken/rusted/unused pipe hangers, reattaching wall insulation, plugging random holes, and putting in sill to floor insulation where that's missing. I built a rack from the joists to hold long construction materials that were laying on pallets on the floor. The cardboard boxes that they were once in are no longer boxes and in fact no longer cardboard, more the consistency of cooked noodles.

Overall, I've got everything mostly done. This is a good time to do the work because it's not too hot working, but warm enough in the basement that fingers stay dexterous. It's also nice that most of the creepy crawlies are dead or sleeping, they like cold weather less than I do.

I finished "The Secret Garden" over the weekend. It was the first time I've read the book. I was surprised how many moral lessons were stuffed into the book. Some of them were a bit heavy handed at times, but I think many of them were well played and multi-layered. I was pleased to see how much depth some of the lessons have, weaving into different aspects of the plot. The approach to race and class prejudice had bold bits and subtler coloring.

Of course, the main plot is pretty hard to miss. It gets a bit to heavy on the treacle at times, even for me, a sucker for a certain amount of treacle. I think the dip into the head of the robin was completely unnecessary and distracting. I also think the end could have been handled better by continuing to follow the viewpoint of the children. However, all said, for a book with so many lessons, it approaches many of them sideways and might slip under kids' radar. Yes, parts are too easy and perfect, but that's what you get in an extended fairytale.

I image the word use will introduce new items and concepts for most kids, although the use of certain words becomes repetitive to the point of mantra. Maybe that was intentional, but after finishing the book I am curious to look up curious in the thesaurus and see what other curious words lurk on the page. I'm a curious creature after all.

2. Frances Hodgson Burnet "The Secret Garden"

It has truly been a week from hell at work. Like any good week from hell, it started over a week ago. I am surviving it. Tomorrow the final results of big project X are being sent out and I can scratch that one off my list. I'm going to do my best to stick to 9 hours or less a day the rest of the week. I've been productive and haven't let stuff at home get out of hand, so all is not bad.

Tonight I have to get the taxes finished up and I really, really need to spend some time looking at flight itineraries.

Laredo, Texas, a city of 250,000 people, no longer has a bookstore. I find that thought so depressing. This society sucks so bad.

Link to article on CNN.com

I have noticed Marian McPartland's recent absence from Piano Jazz. She has been hosting the show for 30 years and she didn't start until she had already had a full career, so it's not exactly a surprise she would like to have some time off now and then.

Marian combines great abilities as musician and interviewer. She makes her appreciation for her guest clear and shows admiration without sending it over into worship. Her long musical career allows her to refer to other performers who both she and her guest have performed with or venues where they both worked. For younger performers, she often talks with them about their mentors, who she worked with and they followed. Marian has a wonderful way of downplaying her abilities in the interview and complementing her guest. But her abilities as an improv musician become clear as she plays with guests of all sorts of styles from all sorts of eras.

I hope this absence indicates Marian is taking a well deserved rest and enjoying some things outside the studio for a while. She is a woman of admirable talent who can teach us all a lot more than jazz. She's got class and style.

I looked at the weather last night and it said something about a little snow, 2 inches or something. No prob, thought I, an excuse to go outside tomorrow. I didn't sleep well, which is always a bad sign. Not sleeping well this time of year means that my subconscious is bothered by the sounds of plowtrucks trolling the street. When I got up and looked at the car, it looked like there was an inch or two on top of the car, pretty, but not a burden.

Then I stepped out and watched my boot disappear into the foot plus of drift. The top of the car is high, the wind had pretty much cleaned it off. Packed powder combines the endearing quality of the wind whipping it into your face with the piquant flavor of a potential coronary event. Round one ended with the space around the van cleared, the space in front of the car cleared, and the deck and steps cleared. I certainly had gotten some good blows in against the opponent. I was winded, my arms were a little rubbery, but had taken no major damage. I returned to my corner hoping to get re-energized with breakfast, but before I could the bell rang (in the form of the plowguy making his first pass across the parkinglot), so I scrambled out of my corner head low, elbows close to my body, for round two.

The forecast for today now says 4-8 inches, we've got that and it's still snowing steadily. It's very pretty out there, but there will certainly be a round three today. I think I'll have some tea.

Didn't manage to get a lot of stuff taken off the to do list this week, but at least I kept up with the everyday stuff.

Today I started back in on cleaning records. I'd been off it for a month or so because of repetitive motion injuries. Manually turning the records was ruining my right hand and arm. Yesterday the new motorized cleaner arrived. I was able to clean 35 records today with no pain! No pain is a joyous thing. It still takes a bloody long time, but once again I can keep working at it all day.

Strange warm weather today. It must have been close to 40F!

I've got a cubic buttload of work to do for work this weekend. I should get after that, but derien is watching "Silver Blaze" on the laptop, so I can't dial in right now. Such a very convienent excuse. :)

Yesterday I sat down to listen to a bit a little music, just for a minute, and got sidetracked. I spent probably three hours tracking down an intermittent problem in one of the big monolith speakers. I'm not sure I've really gotten it, but it's gone for now, so I'll claim credit for a while. Where it sounded like a driver cutting out, or a loose wire, it was actually a cold solder joint in the crossover. It's working now and sounding much better with only a little heat from the soldering iron.

In other news, I've managed to do little of nothing the last two days. Well, other than working long hours. I really need to get a few more things crossed off the to do list.

It's supposed to be cold as a Wall street banker's heart tonight.

I finished Asimov's February 2010 night before last. This was an issue of no conclusion. The feature novella "The Ice Line" didn't do it for me really. I generally like alternate history fiction, but this and it's prequel fell flat for me. "The Bold Explorer In The Place Beyond" left me wanting more, which I think was the idea. "The Wind-Blown Man" finished up with the first sprouting of a seed as did "Stone Wall Truth". Overall, I didn't feel the selections were as solid as usual, but it did have a fair variety in setting and style.

1. Asimov's February 2010

This weekend was the great paperwork purge. Aside from the usual big bag o' recycling there was also a huge stack of stuff to be shredded. It is now four grocery bags full of little bits waiting to go to the recycling. I think the shredder may be on its last tooth, I was having to cleaning it constantly to keep it running and plastic bits were popping off here and there early on. Amazing how much paper builds up around the house.

I'm trying hard to stay focused and pick my way through my to do list from hell. It's actually kind of cool to be able to see my desk again. Alas, now I can see the dust on it too.

I finished "Radiator Days" a couple of weeks ago now, but with the holidays and work and all, I just didn't have the wherewithal to make a proper post and I wanted to make a proper post. First a bit of disclosure: The author is an online friend who I've known for years now, so I'm a bit biased. I think she's a very nice person and amazingly talented.

I enjoyed this book more than "French Milk" because of it's varied nature and because of the progress you get to see in the autobiographical passages. I like Lucy's auto-bio bits because she manages to make them personal enough so you feel they're really auto-bio and still keeps them universal enough so you can empathize. They don't come off as stereotyped characters like a Dilbert or a Cathy, they're more human. But they're still phrased and plotted out so that the reader can participate. They often have humor and irony but don't cross over into mean spirited even when dealing with characters who'd be easy to mock harshly. Most of her non-bio pieces don't have the same pull for me, but I enjoy the variation and think they actually add strength to her work with the thematic and stylistic departures.

I think my favorites in this collection are "My Addiction" and the pages of faces. The whimsy of "My Addiction" just wows me. The funny thing is I don't remember it having the same effect, when I first encountered this piece online. I love the implied motion of the squid tentacles and the playful mixture of scary reality and playful fantasy (the squid at the table versus the hard facts). I liked the pages of faces because I think it shows the joy of thinking about faces, making faces in both senses of the phrase. I am not an artist by any stretch of the imagination, but I can almost feel the joy of being one when I look at all those variations.

Lucy's work is a tonic: like the perfect cup of tea, a conversation with an intelligent friend, or that piece of cheese with just the right flavor.

54. Lucy Knisley "Radiator Days"

We got out to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie with littleredhead and grndctrl tonight and then went for supper at one of our favorite spots. So very pleasant. The movie was a fun romp through pseudo-victorian swashbuckling. I really liked how Mary was portrayed and I liked Jude Law's Watson more than I expected to. Robert Downey Jr was actual more tolerable than I expected him to be in his role.

Now I've had an eggnog cut with rum and the world has a rosey glow. Bed will be calling soon. I really haven't accomplished much today, but I'm ambitious for tomorrow. It's always easy to be ambitious for tomorrow.

Merry Christmas!

When derien got home from work last night I had a hot buttered rum waiting for her. After that we walked around the town looking at the lights and enjoying the quiet. We went into the Bean's retail store, which is open 24/7, but didn't buy anything. When we got home we cooked up a quick late supper.

This morning we got up and opened our presents and had french toast with maple syrup for breakfast. Ah, the sugar rush of all time. Did I mention a pot of tea as well? Yes, tea. We have the big Christmas teapot that has to get used at least one day a year.

So I'm sitting here quietly in front of my computer while wanting to bounce off the walls. I wonder why I can't type!

I'm not sure whether ambition or sloth will rule the day today. Either way, it will be good.

Today, for a change, I was productive. For the last few weeks it's been all to easy to curl up and be lazy. I haven't been depressed, just unambitious. But today I managed to swim against the current: did three loads of laundry, two loads of dishes, went and fetched a packed, bought some groceries, gassed up the van, started back in on cleaning records, did a lot of poking around the house getting things cleaned up. I'm quite happy with the accomplishments so far, but want to do more.

I got my lab test results today. Glucose level is 14% lower than it was six weeks ago, even lower than it was a year and a half ago. Cholesterol is a mixed bag: total is now acceptable, triglicerides now acceptable, HDL still not there basically unchanged, LDL improved but not enough, Chol. to HDL ratio better but not good enough, LDL/HDL ratio better but not enough. Not bad really. I've seen improvement in almost every measure and 3 of the significant numbers are actually back within acceptable range. Now if I could just get my knees happy enough to jump back on the treadmill.

Jonathan Winters doing "A Christmas Carol" is coming on. I love listening to this!

I finished "Odd John" on Monday. It was much easier to read than the previous Stapledon works I've read, but wasn't exactly a walk in the park. It's was odd. In the end it's a strange mixture of utopia with dystopia. I'm not sure there is any other way to describe it.

53. Olaf Stapledon "Odd John"

Home from work with major headache and minor cold symptoms. derien is home as well with more pronounced cold symptoms. It's the coldest day of the year so far, so I'm glad not to have to go outside.

I wish I had the brain to concentrate, but mainly I'm just web surfing.