playing and singing

Yesterday, Jeff posted about his recurrent bouts of the “drama bug,” whereby he periodically gets nostalgic about his theater experiences in high school and college, and begins to think about auditioning for some local community theater. For my part, I have two activities–singing and gaming–for which I have a similar chronic affliction, with intense cravings […]

farces of nature

Last week there was a mild (magnitude 4.5 on the Richter scale) earthquake centered about 30 miles west of Richmond, Virginia. Many people here in the DC area also report having felt it, including one of the Admin. Assistants right outside my office; jealously, I admit, I didn’t notice anything. Saturday night we had a […]

feel the heat

Yes, we have heat again in the condo. So far the new heat pump seems to be working fine. The new digital thermostat, which allows us to program four set points for each day of the week separately, is an awesome change over the previous model, though its thermometer appears to be miscalibrated; Jeff and […]

someone left the cake out in the rain

For nearly a week, I’ve found nothing to say here. Sadly, last night while Jeff and I were at dinner, I came back from the rest room announcing that I had (along the lines of) the following opening for a blog entry: “Just because they’re called urinal cakes doesn’t mean they should smell like buttercream […]

the heat is on

Well, almost. My heat pump–on September 9 I reported that the previous unit had failed and on October 23 I wrote about placing an order for a replacement–finally has arrived. The technicians are coming on Thursday morning to begin the installation, so by Thursday evening Jeff and I should have more than our love to […]

‘vo, get off my back!

For those poor souls among you who haven’t yet accepted TiVo as your personal time savior, you probably at least know that TiVo is a personal video recorder, a device that allows you to digitally record television programs for later viewing (and pause and replay live TV, as well). TiVo’s software also has a feature […]

don we now our *** apparel

According to the ACLU, and reported yesterday in The New York Times, among other sources, a seven-year-old boy in Louisiana was disciplined by his elementary school last month and was referred to the school’s behavior clinic a week later for “using foul language and behaving inappropriately.” The assistant principal who described the young boy’s actions […]

looking two score

The other Jeff (that is to say, not my Jeff, though I will confess to having had a blogcrush on the former as well) has added a countdown to his 30th birthday to his blog, reminding me of something I’d meant to write about several weeks ago when I first heard the following news: On […]

have jukebox, will travel

Last night I installed the new PCI card with USB 2 and FireWire ports. Once I had the computer open, I discovered that it appeared that I already had three IEEE-1394 (aka i.Link, aka FireWire) ports, which hadn’t been reflected in the information available online at Dell for my service tag number. The reference material […]

technophilia

My new iPod arrived last night. I love the packaging, the hinged square box with the matte finish that opens up into two compartments, the way in which some of the components nestle within others, even the little strips of plastic tape that are used to lift some of the pieces out of the styrofoam […]