November 2003 Archives

Well, I haven't done one of these in a while, but today's seemed particularly apropos.

1. Do you like to shop? Why or why not?
Yes, I have the shopping gene, though I do find that I tire much more readily now than I used to. And my sister puts me to shame. She's never forgiven me for the time two years ago that she and some other family members came up to the DC area to shop at Value City. I didn't realize when they came with a map to all seven (relatively) local locations that they truly intended to visit all seven; after spending several hours just getting to and shopping at the first two, I pleaded hunger and cut the buying short for the day. She brings this up every time we're together.

She and my mom also are QVC junkies; I don't ever expect to go that far, though my one-time eBay addiction came close.

I generally really enjoy shopping with Jeff. Our tastes in most things as well as our preferred stores are so similar that it's rarely a burden to shop with him, though I have to admit that I've never known anyone who could spend that much time at the Gap; there have been times that I've gotten rather bored and tired waiting for him to try on every piece of outerwear in the store.

2. What was the last thing you purchased?
Earlier today Mom and I went to Wal-Mart to pick up some things for decorating my sister's house for Christmas (the trees--yes, plural; in addition to the 10-foot one in the great room, she has six others in her house and on her porch--already were up and waiting for me to arrive to help decorate them); I bought some soda, which like most food products is significantly less expensive here than back in DC; the Finding Nemo, Matrix: Revolution, and Bend It Like Beckham DVDs on sale; and three computer games, also on sale.

While that would have been my most recent purchase, I then came home tonight and took advantage of Apple's one-day only 10% sale on iPods and accessories, and finally bought myself an iPod (thanks, Gene).

3. Do you prefer shopping online or at an actual store? Why?
Unlike Jeff, I do a great deal of online purchasing. As much as I love going to brick and mortar stores, I tend mostly to window shop in person. But I've bought just about everything online: from the usual books, airplane tickets, music and tickets even to such items as widescreen TV, my computer and even my refrigerator. As I noted above, I just ordered an iPod online. And I've bought a fair amount of stuff, particularly collectibles but even shoes and other clothing, from eBay over the years.

I tend to believe that I can find better deals online, and especially in terms of comparison shopping, which is just so easy to do on the web.

4. Did you get an allowance as a child? How much was it?
I did, but I don't remember how much.

5. What was the last thing you regret purchasing?
While I'm sure there are things since then that I've regretted purchasing, nothing really comes to mind, or at least nothing that can compare to the regret I sometimes feel about my Saab, for reasons detailed again and again throughout this journal. And even that is not unmitigated regret, as I really loved the car for the first several years I owned it, and part of me still does; I don't regret any of the enjoyment I had with that gorgeous convertible, but I do hate the trouble and expense of the past two years.

I took a 30-minute break from work this morning to pick Jeff up at my condo and drive him to the airport, where half an hour from now he'll be flying out to the Bay Area for the Thanksgiving holiday, returning next Monday. In comparison, I'll be at work today--though it's likely that we'll be released at least a little early. I have a 6:00 reservation to pick up a rental car, and then I'll get up very early tomorrow morning to drive down to the mountains to be with my family through Sunday.

This is the first major "family" holiday since Jeff and I started dating, and we both already had planned to spend it, as well as Christmas, with our birth families. While I'm definitely going to miss him, I'm okay with spending the holidays apart this year. Holidays aren't particularly important to me, in any event, but they're very meaningful to my mother, and I think it's especially critical for me to be with her this year, our first Thanksgiving and Christmas without my father.

My freshman year of college I missed my first Thanksgiving with my family, spending it instead in Brooklyn with a friend from my dorm; my sophomore year my sister came up and spent Thanksgiving with me, at Harvard (though that's a story for another day's blogging). At that point my mother told me that while I might miss other holidays, my attendance at home for Christmas was non-negotiable. And in 41 years I've yet to miss one. It's also been the case in my past relationships that my partners, for various reasons, were willing to spend Christmas with me and my family, so it's never yet been an issue.

I was discussing this with my sister just a few weeks ago, though, and pointed out that in future years Jeff and I would probably want to spend the holidays together, and that as he also has a close relationship with his family, we might have to miss an occasional Christmas, perhaps alternating Thanksgiving and Christmas from year to year. She was adamant that it was unthinkable, that my first duty would always be to my birth family and not to my partner. My sister's husband has long been estranged from his own family, and my sister and her family live practically next door to my mother, so there's never been a conflict for her, but she said that she'd leave her husband behind alone and come home--insisting that the kids would also have to come with her--at Christmas if there were such a conflict.

Jeff and I have decided to see in the new year together, though. While New Year's has never been a really special holiday to me (though I did particularly enjoy First Night back when I was living in Boston), and spiritually I tend to recognize November 1 as my own New Year's Day, there's still something symbolically appealing and romantic about being together for this first calendar new year since we've become a couple.

By now, Gene should be ensconced in his new Prius; I've got my fingers crossed for him. And on that front, I made the call today to my salesman to let him know that I'd decided to wait for the options I want, even if that means I won't see my own new Prius until February, rather than settling for something less desirable sooner.

I'll admit that a part of me was hoping that enough other people who'd been contacted had decided to go with the reduced option package, leaving me with a better shot of getting a fully loaded model sooner after all. But the salesman reported that nearly everything has said much the same as me.

My boss's reaction, though, has been different. She hasn't yet heard anything one way or the other from her dealer, but she said that if she's told she'll have to wait until February, she'll tell them to cancel the order and she'll get a Honda Civic hybrid instead. She wants a hybrid primarily for the ease of travel it will provide to and from work, because of the Virginia policy that treats these cars as "special clean fuel vehicles" not subject to HOV restrictions, and for her it's a more critical, immediate need than for me; my car has problems, but given that my driving consists mainly of very short in-town hops, I can continue to use it for that--and rent for longer trips--while waiting for the Prius.

In fact, given the possibility that the new energy bill will include significant tax credits for hybrid purchasers rather than just the current tax deductions, a part of me would just as soon wait until the new year--and the new policy--to take possession. (Yes, I feel like a hypocrite, considering how little I like the overall energy policy, and truly I'd prefer it not pass, even if it were to mean I'd lose any deduction or credit; but if it's going to pass anyway, then I wouldn't mind some personal benefit.)

After a quiet two days at home recovering from some sort of mild bug--affecting stomach, gut and sinuses--I was really feeling stir crazy, so yesterday Jeff and I went out for a very late lunch and some shopping at Bailey's Crossroads. We strolled through Storehouse Furniture, where Jeff remarked--and I agreed--how nice it is that we seem to share a decorating aesthetic and tend to appreciate the same styles and colors.

We then hit Staples, where the technology displays whetted our appetites such that we decided to go to Circuit City, where we drooled over the televisions, LCD monitors, PocketPCs and iPods, among other gadgetry, as I continued to try to decide upon a replacement for the ailing Toshiba projection TV.

Afterwards, we made it to Marshalls just as they were coming to close the doors, but still managed to squeeze out 15 minutes inside, where Jeff eventually left with a great deal on a beautiful Kenneth Cole briefcase/shoulder bag.

The only store still open by then was Borders, for which I had a 10% coupon, on the basis of which we went on quite a spending spree. I bought two DVD collections--the extended version of The Two Towers and the four-disc set of the Indiana Jones films and bonus material--as well as five books and three boxes of greeting cards, while Jeff bought Madeleine Albright's autobiography and a couple of nice calendars. We also spent some time browsing the children's and young adult section, and reminiscing; I still think some of the most innovative and intelligent fiction unfortunately is classified as "juvenile," tending to make it less desirable and/or accessible to adults.

According to the free no-obligation quote at WWYS®, the current value of my soul is £19,488 (about $33K), and 49% of the population has a purer soul.

Bart Simpson definitely sold his to Milhouse too cheaply.

Friday, Gene reported that he'd been notified that his Prius was on a ship that had docked that day in New York. Yesterday, while home sick from work, my phone rang and when I saw that the caller ID said "Alexandria Toyota" I became a little nervously excited, thinking that maybe I was going to get the same news about my own car; the salesman had told me last month that while I'd almost certainly get my new car before the end of the year, it was possible that it could come in the large shipment they were expecting in November.

No such luck, of course, given my track record. Rather than the good news I was hoping to hear, I was told that the dealers are receiving far fewer of the fully loaded model Prius than they were expecting, and that I have two options: 1) downgrade my choice, in which case they can "probably get me one sooner" (notice, though, there's no commitment to a specific time frame even if I choose to take this path), or 2) expect to wait until at least February for the car I originally ordered. The salesman told me I didn't have to make a decision right away, but to think about it a couple of days and call him back early next week to let him know.

I was pretty disappointed for most of the rest of the day, though by this morning a part of me is bemused--after my run of bad luck over the past few years, I almost have to laugh whenever yet another thing goes wrong, and while I wouldn't call myself pessimistic about life, I do find that these days there is a part of me that suspects things will go wrong more often than right. And while it's a disappointment, it's not like it's life-shattering. It's just a car.

And really there are only two downsides, besides just the disappointment of the dashed expectations. First, if I wait until next year to take delivery, then the federal tax deduction of $2,000 drops to $1,500; but, as Gene points out, I have the significant tax benefits this year from the refinance, so why not move this one to next year, even if it's a little less than it would have been (and it's not like a $500 change in deductibles means more than a few dollars in actual tax savings, after all). Second, it also means that I'll have to rent a car at Thanksgiving and Christmas and for any other trips out of town, and that I'll probably need to garage the Saab again--I had begun using it for short in-town hops and to and from work again, since I thought I'd be trading it in very soon--and go back to walking and using public transportation over the winter.

So I guess I'll call the dealer today and tell them that I've decided to wait; I'd rather get just what I want, and wait for it, then to settle for less--and what's more, I'd still have no real guarantee, only vague assurances, that the other trim level would be here any sooner.

So maybe there's even some kind of lesson in here for me. Or maybe I should stop looking for meaning in this completely random series of events we call life. Shit happens.

Last night, Jeff and I went to the grand re-opening of the Kennedy Center Opera House, featuring simultaneously sung and signed excerpts from DeafWest Theatre's Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; a solo dance performance by Homer Avila, who has only a single leg, having lost the other to cancer; and excerpts from Mass, the Leonard Bernstein theatre piece originally commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy for the opening of the Kennedy Center, and which premiered in the Opera House in 1971.

I first was exposed to Mass in the late 70s by two high school teachers and good friends--the Bartleys, a married couple who also introduced me to the comedy of Peter Schikele and his alter ego, P.D.Q. Bach. I was blown away. The piece had a profound impact on me and was, I believe, at least partially responsible for my conversion to Episcopalianism my freshman year of college and my eventual decision--though never followed-through upon--to enter seminary and become a priest. Later, my repeated listenings to this piece depicting a crisis of faith was helpful in recognizing my own such, my realization that I was a spiritual but not a religious person, and my resultant exploration of non-Western and non-Christian belief systems, culminating eventually in my self-identification as some combination of humanist, pagan and Unitarian-Universalist.

Over the last couple of months, I've found myself thinking of Mass again for the first time in several years, and eventually found the CDs buried in a box in my closet. I got them out and listened to the work again, and found it every bit as powerful and evocative as I'd remembered.

So it was a nice synchronicity to discover, when Jeff got us tickets to the performance last night, that excerpts from Mass were to be included in that event. And I found myself emotionally swept up all over again, having to wipe my glasses several times to clear the mist and salty deposits left by my tears. I really want to listen to the full piece again sometime in the next few days.

A part of me naturally is exultant at today's 4-3 decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Court striking down a state ban on same-sex marriages [link is to the Washington Post article], ruling that the right to marry includes "the right to marry the person of one's choice," and requiring the state legislature to take steps to comply with the ruling within 180 days.

Whether and whom to marry, how to express sexual intimacy, and whether and how to establish a family--these are among the most basic of every individual's liberty and due process rights. And central to personal freedom and security is the assurance that the laws will apply equally to persons in similar situations.

But the cynical, pessimistic side is convinced that this will be the impetus for a successful federal constitutional amendment permanently barring marriage--and probably even any near-comparable civil unions or other legal status--between same-sex partners in the U.S.

[Full text of the decision, from FindLaw] (Adobe PDF)

Add one more big item to the list of things that need to be replaced: in addition to the refrigerator and computer monitor replaced last year, the dishwasher still waiting to be replaced, and the heat pump and car due to be replaced in the next few weeks, my 40" Toshiba widescreen television has been showing signs of failure. The money I took out of the refinance practically is spent already, and I only just deposited it today.

So I've been salivating over potential new televisions. CircuitCity.com this week is offering to give a gift card worth 10% of one's purchases, and many of the large projection and flat-screen televisions there already are on sale and offer additional rebates; shipping and setup also is quite low. The Sony KP51WS510 51" widescreen HDTV monitor there, for example, has been reduced from $2000 to $1800, with an additional $100 mail-in rebate and just $40 for delivery and in-home setup; that would also give me a $180 gift card to use at Circuit City--not enough for that iPod I want, but it would make a start.

Over at Synaptic Discharge last week, Kevin wrote about his brand-new Sony KF-50WE610 50" Grand Wega™ HDTV-ready rear-projection LCD TV, which looks really pretty sweet, but I just can't justify to myself spending over $3K for a television, another $300-$600 for a stand and an additional several hundred for an HD tuner (though, granted, the KP51WS510 I'm looking at doesn't include an integrated HD tuner either).

Sigh. Nine months ago I didn't watch even ten hours of television a week; now I'm a couch potato actually thinking about spending a couple thousand dollars for a new television. I blame it all on TiVo.

When I got home from work late this evening, tired and frustrated and feeling sorry for myself, I found three packages waiting for me: two from the loan agent, one of which included a check for the cash I took out with my refinance, and a box from Amazon.com.

The first two certainly were welcome, though expected; the latter was completely unexpected, and a very pleasant surprise that really lifted my spirits. Cornelia of Pixie with a Crash Helmet, following in the footsteps of Buzz at Buzzstuff.net, who in turn had received a gift from his wishlist, had chosen to send a gift from the wishlist of someone on her blogroll--and that someone turned out to be me.

So I'm sitting here itching to dive into my new copy of The Fall of the Kings, by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman, set in the same world as Kushner's Swordspoint, itself a wonderful, witty and wicked take on the Regency novel.

Cornelia, you're a gem. Thank you so very much.

And so I've also decided to keep the chain going. I've just completed an order for a couple of items from one of the folk on my own blogroll (the list of possible selectees is not a large one, since very few on my blogroll have included a link to an Amazon wishlist, unfortunately for those who have not). By the middle of next week, someone should be receiving a treat.

When I first got this job at the Department of State, people kept telling me that the State Department was a great agency for which to work, and that the Foreign Service Institute was the best bureau within the agency. And I felt a certain sense of homecoming, given that my first real-world job was a summer clerical position at the State Department between my sophomore and junior years of college.

And, to be fair, there are some benefits to working here. For example, the commute really can't be beat: it's a mile and a half door-to-door, and that's against traffic. By car it takes about ten minutes during rush hour, on foot about twenty.

It's a fascinating place, in many respects, feeling as much like an academic institution as a government facility, and with a beautiful 70+ acre campus. And my co-workers, by and large, are an interesting, intelligent lot; the language instructors, especially--all of whom are native speakers--come from an amazing variety of personal and professional backgrounds.

And, while my salary is half what it was in the private sector, at first I thought it was a worthwhile trade-off because I was working only about half to two-thirds the number of hours I was putting in at the dot-com. More recently, though, I've been putting in ten, eleven and twelve-hour days on a regular basis. The workload keeps increasing and shows no sign of slowing down, and along with the lack of recognition, bureaucracy and the overweening, unmerited self-importance and sheer idiocy of a certain percentage of government employees is increasingly frustrating, stifling and stressful.

Earlier this week, the Partnership for Public Service and the Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation published rankings of the "best places to work in the federal government," based on surveys of federal employees. Out of 28 cabinet departments and independent agencies, the State Department came in at 19th place, with a score of 61.9 (the highest rated agency, NASA, scored 71.4, while the lowest, FEMA, scored 58.0). Even the Air Force (number 7), Army (10) and Navy (12) were deemed better agencies for which to work, though at least we were deemed better than the Marine Corps (25).

Currently, I have an application in for a position with the Department of the Interior, which is tied with Commerce for 8th place. The particular subagency at which I'm applying--the National Park Service--itself is tied for 45th place in a field of 115 separately identified subagencies. Among subagencies, NASA again took the lead, with the top four subagency slots--and half of the top ten--coming from that agency. EPA had three of the other five top ten spots, with Treasury's ATF and the GSA's Federal Supply Service rounding out the top ten.

On the other hand, State was ranked 7th in terms of lowest turnover rate, with only 4.7% separations in FY2002. I wonder if that means I'm more or less stuck here.

Neither Jeff nor I have said anything explictly online about this until now (he isn't typically as personal in his own journal as I tend to be here), but you can probably read between the lines. He and I had begun discussing the prospect of moving in together some time ago and, although we've taken no formal steps, on a practical basis we're pretty much already doing so, little by little.

For example, I've cleared out drawers for him in the bathroom (he's taken Kyan to heart and has lots of product) and the bedroom, and bought extra coat hangers (of course, in that way we have, he brought over a bunch from his apartment the same day); this weekend we may tackle cleaning out the spare closet where I have a lot of junk stored so he will have someplace specifically to hang some of his clothes. His laptop is now a node on my home wireless network. He helps with the dishes, the dusting and feeding Alex, especially when I'm away visiting my family, among other chores around the condo.

But most telling, perhaps, he's just added two of his own Season Subscriptions to the TiVo.

Federal agencies are closed today for the Veteran's Day holiday, so I have the day off. It's the largest chunk of uninterrupted time I've had to myself since before my father died, really since he went back into the hospital in early September. Since then, I've been at work, with my family, or here with Jeff. Don't get me wrong; I love my family and I love Jeff--and Jeff has been really great about recognizing my need for some alone time, and offering to indulge it if I but ask--but for this moderately strong Myers-Briggs I, having so little "Thom time" has sometimes been stressful and difficult, and today is turning out to be a wonderful, well-appreciated opportunity to recharge.

For a while, I'd been telling Jeff that I had been thinking about maintaining a list of GLBTQ (gay, lesbian, bisexual, homosexual, transgender, queer, etc.) folk in the DC metro area (DC; Northern Virginia, including so far Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax, Herndon, Montclair, Vienna, Woodbridge; Maryland, including so far Baltimore, Gaithersburg, Hyattsville, Laurel, Silver Spring, Upper Marlboro) who maintain blogs or journals. Today, with the day off, I finally had some time to put into it and, for what it's worth, here it is. If you know of others not included, please drop me a line or leave a comment, and I'll update the list. If you have other suggestions for making this more useful, please let me know those as well.

Last updated: 13 March 2004
Total sites listed: 122
Sites with XML/RSS feeds: 91
Get the OPML file for these RSS feeds.

Ok, I admit it. I'm technologically and culturally spoiled. I like my conveniences and my gadgets.

Today I rented a compact car from Enterprise to come visit my mom, and I got a Ford Escort. It has no cruise control, no CD player, and the mirrors and windows are manually controlled. The engine is loud and the entire car starts to vibrate even at just moderate speeds.

Earlier this evening, my mom, sister, youngest nephew and I watched Finding Nemo. Mom does have a DVD player, at least, but her television is a smallish set with standard 4x3 resolution, so we had to watch the movie in full frame (pan and scan), with sound coming from the TV's built-in tinny speakers, rather than the widescreen and Dolby 5.1 surround sound to which I'm accustomed. And while Mom had the news on earlier in the other room, I heard a feature on tonight's lunar eclipse; I got up and ran in there to see the segment, but it had just ended. No TiVo to immediately jump back and catch it again.

And now I'm surfing and posting from an America Online dialup, to which I'm never able to get connected at higher than about 33kbps; it's so agonizingly slow. It's like driving backwards in time as I head from Arlington here.

On the other hand, there is one benefit to being here. The night skies here are so relatively unpolluted by light that the quantity and quality of stars visible during moonless nights and eclipses--which I did observe live from the sun (moon?) room, as the moon cleared the trees in the woods in which Mom's house sits--are just breathtaking. I don't get starry skies like that back at home ("Mac" discussed something similar in her entry on Go Fish about tonight's eclipse).

I'm becoming obsessed, as is often my wont, with the Prius. I visit the Prius website almost daily, scour the news for articles, google the web for mentions in other blogs and online sources, carry around my printed brochure, etc.

Today, for example, Gizmodo (one of my regular reads, linked from the "interesting & cool" section in the right column), "the gadgets weblog," included an item about the "gadgety new Prius."

Earlier this week, Motor Trend published a very positive article. Interestingly the only slightly negative comment by the reviewer was that "a bit more of a traditional look might have been more appealing. The exterior design is one of the few things I don't like about the new Prius." Conversely, I think that the sleek aerodynamic styling of the 2004 model adds significantly to its appeal.

In an article entitled "Leaner, Meaner and Greener," the Washington Post also reviewed the Prius this past Sunday, noting that:

First impressions were bad. The cues were wrong.

The Smart Entry ignition key wasn't a key. It was a square electronic fob inserted into a dashboard slot -- something more useful for punching a time clock than starting a car.

I pushed the power button but felt no life. I looked for the gearshift lever but found a joystick instead. It was my first hour in the 2004 Toyota Prius gas-electric sedan. I didn't like it. But my distaste was short-lived.

The joystick became a joy, the easiest transmission-selection device I've ever used.

The reviewer went on to summarize that "[t]he 2004 Prius goes to the top of my list for best city cars. It has a practically unbeatable combination of good mileage, low emissions, power and scootability."

Both the Post article and a feature in GEICO's quarterly magazine, however, noted that one may need to drive more defensively in a Prius, because it's so quiet in battery-mode (as when cruising a parking lot, or coming out of a garage) that pedestrians don't hear it coming.

I've also become a bit of a Prius evangelist (similar to my earlier experiences evangelizing the Macintosh and the Saturn, and my current experience singing the praises of TiVo to everyone I know); in addition to my boss, who ended up placing her order for one even before I did, I've talked several other people at work into strongly considering the Prius.

Hallelujah, brothers and sisters! Release yourselves from the shackles of the gas pump! Breathe deeply of the clean air of Prius! Let me hear you shout!

A little past 1:00 this afternoon, the lawyer/notary public arrived at my condo building. About 20 minutes later, he handed me the last piece of paper for my signature, from the two large stacks with which we'd begun, and I commented on how easy it was--and almost scarily so--to recommit myself to owing such a large sum of money.

So the refinance is done, the papers are on their way for processing, and I should have my cash-out check by the end of next week or early the week after. And as the first payment really is included as part of the financing process, I'll now skip a month, so I won't have to make another mortgage payment until January, which will give me a little extra cash for the holidays.

The most direct walking route from work home leads me through some quiet (amazingly so for their proximity both to Arlington Boulevard and Columbia Pike), pleasant neighborhoods. The problem is that these neighborhoods, for whatever reason, have almost no street lamps. On a rainy evening like tonight, due to the combination of the return to standard time, the steadily diminishing days and the aforementioned lack of adequate lighting, is that one can't see where the sidewalk drainage is insufficient.

And hell must hold a very special place for the drivers along the major lighted routes which I cross and follow for parts of the walk; one driver tonight actually changed lanes in order to hit the standing water along the sidewalk near me, sending up a torrent I had to fend off with a deft sweep of my umbrella, and immediately changed back after passing me.

So I'm here at home, clammy and wet, with a very good pair of shoes and the bottom foot of a favorite pair of pants soaked through and muddy, wishing for my Prius to arrive soon, very soon please.

Woo-hoo! Mt-Blacklist kills spam dead!

I'd posted before about the occasional spam comments I was receiving here on elf-reflection, and then I read about those who were having much more serious problems with spam comments on their blogs and journals; Mike, for example, had about 50 of them one day last week, while poor Cornelia had over 100 just the other day.

Last night I installed the mt-blacklist plug-in for MovableType, and I just saw that it already had blocked a spam posting this morning. I'm very happy.

If you're using MovableType for your blogging software, I definitely suggest you install mt-blacklist--specifically recommended by Anil Dash over at MovableType.org--for preventing spam comments and trackback pings.

Less than two weeks ago, on Thursday the 23rd, I posted about my decision to refinance my condo. Four days later, I posted that I'd signed the initial paperwork and had sent it to the loan agent, who told me that an appraisal would follow over the next few weeks with a closing by the end of November.

Well, I nearly have whiplash. Two days later the appraiser called and set up an appointment for yesterday; he was in and out of here in under ten minutes. Today the loan agent called to tell me the appraisal report already is in, I've been approved, and a notary will meet me at my condo this coming Friday afternoon to sign the papers. I'll have completed this refinance from start to finish in somewhat less than two weeks and a day. Three business days later--next Wednesday--I'll receive my cash-out check.

In addition to replacing the broken heat pump and dishwasher, and the car, an iPod really is starting to look like a really sweet possibility.

One of the benefits of working for a federal agency bureau responsible for training diplomats in more than 60 foreign languages--especially considering my specific responsibilities include management of the multimedia language labs and the recording studio where we produce the digital audio for our language courses--is the exposure to and, theoretically, learning of additional languages. In practice, I've been much too busy to apply any time or energy to picking up new or even brushing up my old (French and Russian) languages. I had hoped to enroll in an early morning Spanish class last month, but wasn't able to make that happen. However, I'm hopeful that now I may actually be able to take advantage of some opportunities to at least familiarize myself with Spanish and Portuguese.

For the Spanish, we've just released our new online Spanish Express course, so I'm thinking about using the CD to teach myself.

Meanwhile, the Portuguese section is working on recording the audio for a new Continental Portuguese Basic course; I had volunteered months ago to assist by recording the English instructions. I hadn't heard anything in the meantime, so I assumed they'd found someone else. Last week, however, I ran into the course coordinator in the hallway, and asked her about the course and discovered they were just about to begin recording and were still looking for a male English speaker; they hadn't asked me because they'd assumed I was too busy to help out. I told her that I'd be willing to make the time. So today the project started with the section's supervisor doing the English for the first unit; on Thursday I'll start recording the audio for unit two, and have offered to do as many of the future units as they'd like. Just from overseeing the recording today, I've heard my first initial dialogs, and can say "good day," "how are you," "fine," "it's a nice day," and "yes, it is."

Coincidentally, Jeff--the namorado--is enrolled in a Portuguese language course right now as well, albeit Brazilian Portuguese. So he'll be able to help me practice the Portuguese I pick up as I work with the native speakers to record the Continental Portuguese Basic course. We'll just have to stay aware of the subtle differences between the two regional variants.

I ended up staying two hours late to cover for the time I'd spent in the recording studio--though I can also rationalize that time in the studio by noting that as the manager for that area, this is an opportunity to be more aware of how the work there is being done--but I really don't mind. The recording adds some novelty to break up the mundane and somewhat boring--albeit stressful merely from the pace and sheer amount--tasks that usually fill my day. I had also offered to do the same for the Russian section when they produce their new Ukrainian and Russian courses this quarter, and this has reminded me that I need to follow-up and make sure that section still knows of my interest.

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Because of ongoing difficulties with the Saab, and my reluctance to drive it for great distances, I'd been borrowing Craig's car to visit my mother on weekends. Last week, however, I decided to rent a car, so early in the week I reserved a compact car from Thrifty.com; Thrifty, along with many car rental companies, maintains a location just south of National Airport, not far from my home.

Friday evening Jeff and I went over to the rental facility to pick up the car. The man behind the counter pulled up my record and after a few minutes asked me if I'd like to upgrade to an Intermediate or Full-Size. I told him I would not. He then continued to enter my information, and a few minutes later told me that he didn't have any cars, only minivans, to which he'd upgrade me for the same price as the compact. At first I wasn't sure I wanted to use a minivan, thinking it was likely that they got horrendous gas mileage on the order of an SUV (a co-worker has since told me he thought it probably would have performed nearly as well as a car), but then I agreed to take the minivan. Then he quoted me a price two and a half what the original reservation had been. When I protested, he said that it was because of the insurance; I told him I already had insurance and didn't need any additional coverage. But by then my frustration took over and I told him just to hand back my driver's license and credit card and to forget the whole transaction.

To be fair, I didn't really want to go home for the weekend. I was tired and stressed, felt like I needed to clean and organize the condo in preparation for today's appraisal, and would have spent four hours driving there and four back, just to have a little over 24 hours there.

Before I left, I asked the guy why they even took reservations, if such were essentially meaningless (and I'm wondering now why he asked me if I wanted to upgrade to an intermediate or full-size, if they didn't have any of those, either; if I'd said yes, would he then have offered me the minivan at the same price as that upgrade, or for the original compact?). He said that other drivers don't always return their cars on time. But you'd think that a company and facility that deals with the kind of volume that they must would have formulae to account for that fact, and to have the extra cars to cover for those that they can estimate won't be returned.

So this coming weekend I'm in the same boat, but will make reservations at multiple rental car companies all along the same stretch of road--excepting Thrifty--in the hopes that one of them will come through. With any luck, I'll have my Prius before I have to deal with the rental car companies too many more times.