Hi, remember me?
Aug. 8th, 2010 07:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunchofgrapesWow, I haven't done an LJ update since May 23rd? Say what?! This is definitely going to be a lot of catching up. It's funny because the other day I was thinking how many on my f'list seem to have disappeared (they aren't really gone; they just don't post any more) and here I'm guilty of the same thing. That made me wonder what changed? Were we all a lot less busy in previous years? Did we have more to say? Has the popularity of blogging declined? Has Twitter changed the way we communicate? No one has to tell me that priorities change but I do miss the days when LJ was popular and posting was prolific.
Since I haven't done an update in a while, this is going to be long but I'm going to do some fic pimping above the cut so even people who don't read behind the cut will see it. There aren't a lot of Brass fics out there and some of them quite frankly are dreadful. There are a couple though that I have to put in a good word for because they are excellent:
By Design by Sorsha711. I've pimped this one before and I'm at it again. It's an all hands on board casefile (serial killer) that is incredibly detailed and it's Brass and a very well-written OFC who stays nicely in the background and lets Jim be the heroic man. If you're looking for something to read over what's left of the long, hot summer, give it a shot. And if you're so inclined, leave her a review. It's pretty sad when fics not written nearly as well garner a lot more reviews. Oh, and while this hasn't been updated in a couple of months, I do know that she has every intention of updating. She had a little computer set back but once that's resolved, she'll be back at it.
Next up for fic rec's is an awesome Brass ficlet by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
scullyseviltwin. A while back she was looking for prompts, I tossed out Brass and hockey and she came up with this gem The Blue Line. It's short but packed full of amazing Brass goodness. Check it out.
Now on to all the other stuff.
First of all, I think I’ve missed at least a half dozen birthdays. Not sure if I can remember all of them but I’ll try. Let's see, there wascincoflex, airforce_chic, unwrittenkitten all in June and tos_lover in July. I hope you all had wonderful birthdays!
Kitties are doing very well. We went 3 whole months with no vet visit and then Tucker had a little flare-up of his idiopathic cystitis (FIC) last week. Turns out he had a urinary tract infection that was causing the inflammation so he got the two week antibiotic shot. If you have a cat that hates to take pills or liquids, this stuff is wonderful! Not sure if it's available for dogs but as I recall, they aren't as hard to trick into taking a pill. They think that part of what triggers FIC is environmental stress. If that's what triggers Tucker's, then he's probably going to have another episode shortly because the house has been invaded by workmen. As a precaution, I've given him some of his pain medicine. The idea is that if he's not in pain, he won't strain when he tries to pee and then he won't irritate his bladder. More than you wanted to know, right?
As I mentioned, the house was invaded by workmen. This started on Monday and they just finished up yesterday. I have to say for as irritated as I was with them on Wednesday, they redeemed themselves because they really did do a very good job. I bought my townhouse back in '93. My goal was to buy a place before I turned 30 so I started to look around and fell in love with the floorplan of this place. It has one huge master suite with a large balcony off the bedroom, a big walk in closet and a bathroom. Downstairs are two more bedrooms and another full bathroom as well as kitchen, living room and dining room. The staircase and upstairs hallway look down over the living room. I loved the openness of it and the layout, especially since I had to have a roommate when I first bought the place (that’s a post for another day). It has a fenced patio off the living room and since I’m an end unit, a nice side yard and a big (for a townhouse) front yard. I’ve also got a lovely view of the common grounds and since these are older townhouses, I have mature trees that buffer me from the neighbors in the back. Seriously, during the spring and summer, I can barely see the back of their houses. In the front is the massive Willow tree that I planted back in 2002. It’s kind of a pain because of all the branches I have to clean up after a storm but it really is a beautiful tree and I can’t tell you the number of people who stop to comment on it when I’m working in the yard. It got hit pretty hard during the blizzard, as did the rest of the shrubs in the yard, so I had the tree people out in the spring to prune the tree and the bushes, making everything look that much nicer. So, what does this have to do with workmen invading the house?
The house was built in 1974 by a company that used to build houses then quit the construction business and focused on paper: Boise Cascade. There’s a reason why they quit the business. They did crappy construction. Compound that by a previous homeowner who DIY’d a lot of the home improvements and besides doing shoddy work, cut all the corners they could, by a lousy home inspection, and by a naïve first time home buyer and you’ve got some major fixes to do before you can even consider selling. I had to replace the roof down to the studs three years ago. I knew that was coming because the previous homeowners had to replace the roof as a condition of the sale and did it themselves. Instead of replacing, they just another layer, which was sufficient but meant the roof only had 10 – 15 years instead of 20+ with a new roof.
At the time I bought the house, it still had the original aluminum windows. They were horrible! They were extremely drafty and in the winter, they’d get condensation on the inside, it would freeze because of the cold air outside and I’d end up with chunks of ice on the inside of my windows. I knew they had to go as soon as I could afford it so a few years later, I bought vinyl replacement windows. After I got my new windows, my electric bill dropped by hundreds of dollars (yes, hundreds) and the place looked great. A couple of years later though I noticed some wood rot in the sill of the upstairs window. I mean it was significant enough that if you pressed on it, you’d poke a hole in it. I knew that was a big problem and the problem wasn't limited to one window. I started to notice it on all the windows. Well, turns out it was wood rot. When that ice melted on the old windows, it had to go somewhere and it went into the wood and in some cases, the drywall. I assumed that when they installed the new windows, they would have replaced that. I was wrong. And that's what I had to have repaired and let me tell you, it was a dirty, expensive (but not as expensive as I thought) mess. In some windows the wood rot wasn't very significant but what the contractor found was that they weren't insulated very well so in a couple of the windows, I was either getting water inside the house or it was running down the inside of the wall. I knew about water getting in because during the couple of hurricanes we had, I had water leaks in two of the windows – the two that were the worst. It took them six days to do the work (they had to pull out all the old windows and replace the wood) with Friday and Saturday being the worst of it. I have two windows that run the length of a cathedral ceiling and the wood between the two windows was completely rotted out. This caused my house not only to sag but the contractor pressed on the wall and the wall moved. While I was out on Friday, he jacked up the house about three inches. Glad he did it while I was gone because it would have freaked me out. Anyway, it's all done and it's something I had to have done before it got worse and before I could sell the house.
Can't say this went smoothly though. I hate having my house destroyed and coming home on Tuesday last week to see the mess was kind of shocking but bearable. Coming home on Wednesday to see not one window completed, every room in disarray and outside plants (worst casualty was a newly planted azalea) trampled into the ground got me completely spun up. It didn't help that a crew of men had depleted two rolls of toilet paper in two days. Men. Two full rolls of toilet paper. WTF? It took me a good couple of hours to compose a civil email to the contractor but he promised to get my bedroom windows done and tell his crew to be careful of the plants. I didn't mention the toilet paper. But I also didn't give them a new roll for Thursday so someone was SOL. Literally.
I took off Friday afternoon and after meeting a friend for lunch, stopped by the credit union to get a home equity loan. I got one several years ago and only had a small balance left but this new one, which will be for more money, will actually be $7 less a month so this worked out pretty well. Next on the list is to get the whole house painted and then carpet. I might have to wait until next year to do the kitchen. I need time to recover and so do the kitties. They've been sooooo clingy ever since the guys left.
I generally hate the summer. Spend almost 25 years in Northern VA in July and August and you’ll hate it too. It’s freaking hot, stiflingly humid, and there are swarms of giant, biting gnats, not to mention the mosquitoes. Btw, does anyone else remember a time when mosquitoes only came out at dusk? When did the rules change? Obviously, someone missed a memo. Anyway, I have discovered that Off thingy that you can wear to ward off the little pests. It does seem to work. Apart from the mosquitoes, this summer has been particularly horrible because of the heat. It’s not uncommon for NoVA to hit 100 or have 90+ degree days but +40 days? And with high humidity? Ugh. However, there are a couple of things I do like about summer: farmer’s markets and nothing much to watch on TV.
Summer means no hockey and no regular programming so I get to catch up on my Netflix queue. First I finished watching The Wire. That will always rank #1 as the best show I’ve ever watched. Ever. It was unbelievably excellent and if you haven’t seen it, do it. DO IT! So many amazing actors, such great writing. It’s one of those shows that will stay with you the rest of your life. It’s just that good.
After The Wire I moved onto Season 5 of Lost. I had a hard time getting into the first season but I'm glad I stuck with it because it's gotten so good. I limit myself to one episode a night because I watch it on the treadmill and I want to make it last. However, I just finished S5 and unfortunately, S6 doesn’t come out until 8/24 so in the meantime I might have to start the first half of S1 of Glee. Or maybe Deadwood. I’m open to suggestions. I’ve also gotten hooked on Ken Stott, a Scottish actor of Rebus, The Vice and The Messiah fame. Anyone who knows my taste in men will take one look at him and know immediately why I like him. He also kind of reminds me of Paul Guilfoyle.
And speaking of Paul Guilfoyle back in 2005, I bid on and won his signed, game worn jersey from the Denis Leary Firefirghters Fund charity hockey game that was featured on The Apprentice. It has been in one of those plastic clothes bags but I finally decided I wanted to display it so Saturday I took it over to this frame shop to get it custom framed. Holy crap is that expensive! But I did it anyway and as I was about to leave, I started to feel really anxious. Like what if they mess it up or something. I mean, this is definitely irreplaceable. So as I was leaving, I told the girl, "if the store catches on fire, make sure you save this". She laughed but I was dead serious.
Well, that was a very long post. I need make myself update this at least once a week so I don't have another one of these massive throw-up entries.
Since I haven't done an update in a while, this is going to be long but I'm going to do some fic pimping above the cut so even people who don't read behind the cut will see it. There aren't a lot of Brass fics out there and some of them quite frankly are dreadful. There are a couple though that I have to put in a good word for because they are excellent:
By Design by Sorsha711. I've pimped this one before and I'm at it again. It's an all hands on board casefile (serial killer) that is incredibly detailed and it's Brass and a very well-written OFC who stays nicely in the background and lets Jim be the heroic man. If you're looking for something to read over what's left of the long, hot summer, give it a shot. And if you're so inclined, leave her a review. It's pretty sad when fics not written nearly as well garner a lot more reviews. Oh, and while this hasn't been updated in a couple of months, I do know that she has every intention of updating. She had a little computer set back but once that's resolved, she'll be back at it.
Next up for fic rec's is an awesome Brass ficlet by
scullyseviltwin. A while back she was looking for prompts, I tossed out Brass and hockey and she came up with this gem The Blue Line. It's short but packed full of amazing Brass goodness. Check it out.Now on to all the other stuff.
First of all, I think I’ve missed at least a half dozen birthdays. Not sure if I can remember all of them but I’ll try. Let's see, there was
cincoflex, airforce_chic, unwrittenkitten all in June and tos_lover in July. I hope you all had wonderful birthdays!Kitties are doing very well. We went 3 whole months with no vet visit and then Tucker had a little flare-up of his idiopathic cystitis (FIC) last week. Turns out he had a urinary tract infection that was causing the inflammation so he got the two week antibiotic shot. If you have a cat that hates to take pills or liquids, this stuff is wonderful! Not sure if it's available for dogs but as I recall, they aren't as hard to trick into taking a pill. They think that part of what triggers FIC is environmental stress. If that's what triggers Tucker's, then he's probably going to have another episode shortly because the house has been invaded by workmen. As a precaution, I've given him some of his pain medicine. The idea is that if he's not in pain, he won't strain when he tries to pee and then he won't irritate his bladder. More than you wanted to know, right?
As I mentioned, the house was invaded by workmen. This started on Monday and they just finished up yesterday. I have to say for as irritated as I was with them on Wednesday, they redeemed themselves because they really did do a very good job. I bought my townhouse back in '93. My goal was to buy a place before I turned 30 so I started to look around and fell in love with the floorplan of this place. It has one huge master suite with a large balcony off the bedroom, a big walk in closet and a bathroom. Downstairs are two more bedrooms and another full bathroom as well as kitchen, living room and dining room. The staircase and upstairs hallway look down over the living room. I loved the openness of it and the layout, especially since I had to have a roommate when I first bought the place (that’s a post for another day). It has a fenced patio off the living room and since I’m an end unit, a nice side yard and a big (for a townhouse) front yard. I’ve also got a lovely view of the common grounds and since these are older townhouses, I have mature trees that buffer me from the neighbors in the back. Seriously, during the spring and summer, I can barely see the back of their houses. In the front is the massive Willow tree that I planted back in 2002. It’s kind of a pain because of all the branches I have to clean up after a storm but it really is a beautiful tree and I can’t tell you the number of people who stop to comment on it when I’m working in the yard. It got hit pretty hard during the blizzard, as did the rest of the shrubs in the yard, so I had the tree people out in the spring to prune the tree and the bushes, making everything look that much nicer. So, what does this have to do with workmen invading the house?
The house was built in 1974 by a company that used to build houses then quit the construction business and focused on paper: Boise Cascade. There’s a reason why they quit the business. They did crappy construction. Compound that by a previous homeowner who DIY’d a lot of the home improvements and besides doing shoddy work, cut all the corners they could, by a lousy home inspection, and by a naïve first time home buyer and you’ve got some major fixes to do before you can even consider selling. I had to replace the roof down to the studs three years ago. I knew that was coming because the previous homeowners had to replace the roof as a condition of the sale and did it themselves. Instead of replacing, they just another layer, which was sufficient but meant the roof only had 10 – 15 years instead of 20+ with a new roof.
At the time I bought the house, it still had the original aluminum windows. They were horrible! They were extremely drafty and in the winter, they’d get condensation on the inside, it would freeze because of the cold air outside and I’d end up with chunks of ice on the inside of my windows. I knew they had to go as soon as I could afford it so a few years later, I bought vinyl replacement windows. After I got my new windows, my electric bill dropped by hundreds of dollars (yes, hundreds) and the place looked great. A couple of years later though I noticed some wood rot in the sill of the upstairs window. I mean it was significant enough that if you pressed on it, you’d poke a hole in it. I knew that was a big problem and the problem wasn't limited to one window. I started to notice it on all the windows. Well, turns out it was wood rot. When that ice melted on the old windows, it had to go somewhere and it went into the wood and in some cases, the drywall. I assumed that when they installed the new windows, they would have replaced that. I was wrong. And that's what I had to have repaired and let me tell you, it was a dirty, expensive (but not as expensive as I thought) mess. In some windows the wood rot wasn't very significant but what the contractor found was that they weren't insulated very well so in a couple of the windows, I was either getting water inside the house or it was running down the inside of the wall. I knew about water getting in because during the couple of hurricanes we had, I had water leaks in two of the windows – the two that were the worst. It took them six days to do the work (they had to pull out all the old windows and replace the wood) with Friday and Saturday being the worst of it. I have two windows that run the length of a cathedral ceiling and the wood between the two windows was completely rotted out. This caused my house not only to sag but the contractor pressed on the wall and the wall moved. While I was out on Friday, he jacked up the house about three inches. Glad he did it while I was gone because it would have freaked me out. Anyway, it's all done and it's something I had to have done before it got worse and before I could sell the house.
Can't say this went smoothly though. I hate having my house destroyed and coming home on Tuesday last week to see the mess was kind of shocking but bearable. Coming home on Wednesday to see not one window completed, every room in disarray and outside plants (worst casualty was a newly planted azalea) trampled into the ground got me completely spun up. It didn't help that a crew of men had depleted two rolls of toilet paper in two days. Men. Two full rolls of toilet paper. WTF? It took me a good couple of hours to compose a civil email to the contractor but he promised to get my bedroom windows done and tell his crew to be careful of the plants. I didn't mention the toilet paper. But I also didn't give them a new roll for Thursday so someone was SOL. Literally.
I took off Friday afternoon and after meeting a friend for lunch, stopped by the credit union to get a home equity loan. I got one several years ago and only had a small balance left but this new one, which will be for more money, will actually be $7 less a month so this worked out pretty well. Next on the list is to get the whole house painted and then carpet. I might have to wait until next year to do the kitchen. I need time to recover and so do the kitties. They've been sooooo clingy ever since the guys left.
I generally hate the summer. Spend almost 25 years in Northern VA in July and August and you’ll hate it too. It’s freaking hot, stiflingly humid, and there are swarms of giant, biting gnats, not to mention the mosquitoes. Btw, does anyone else remember a time when mosquitoes only came out at dusk? When did the rules change? Obviously, someone missed a memo. Anyway, I have discovered that Off thingy that you can wear to ward off the little pests. It does seem to work. Apart from the mosquitoes, this summer has been particularly horrible because of the heat. It’s not uncommon for NoVA to hit 100 or have 90+ degree days but +40 days? And with high humidity? Ugh. However, there are a couple of things I do like about summer: farmer’s markets and nothing much to watch on TV.
Summer means no hockey and no regular programming so I get to catch up on my Netflix queue. First I finished watching The Wire. That will always rank #1 as the best show I’ve ever watched. Ever. It was unbelievably excellent and if you haven’t seen it, do it. DO IT! So many amazing actors, such great writing. It’s one of those shows that will stay with you the rest of your life. It’s just that good.
After The Wire I moved onto Season 5 of Lost. I had a hard time getting into the first season but I'm glad I stuck with it because it's gotten so good. I limit myself to one episode a night because I watch it on the treadmill and I want to make it last. However, I just finished S5 and unfortunately, S6 doesn’t come out until 8/24 so in the meantime I might have to start the first half of S1 of Glee. Or maybe Deadwood. I’m open to suggestions. I’ve also gotten hooked on Ken Stott, a Scottish actor of Rebus, The Vice and The Messiah fame. Anyone who knows my taste in men will take one look at him and know immediately why I like him. He also kind of reminds me of Paul Guilfoyle.
And speaking of Paul Guilfoyle back in 2005, I bid on and won his signed, game worn jersey from the Denis Leary Firefirghters Fund charity hockey game that was featured on The Apprentice. It has been in one of those plastic clothes bags but I finally decided I wanted to display it so Saturday I took it over to this frame shop to get it custom framed. Holy crap is that expensive! But I did it anyway and as I was about to leave, I started to feel really anxious. Like what if they mess it up or something. I mean, this is definitely irreplaceable. So as I was leaving, I told the girl, "if the store catches on fire, make sure you save this". She laughed but I was dead serious.
Well, that was a very long post. I need make myself update this at least once a week so I don't have another one of these massive throw-up entries.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-08-09 12:23 am (UTC)And my first summer in FLorida has been hot, expecially June, but at least I expected what I'm getting. Doesn't mean I like it any better, but thank God for air conditioning and Tug's pool :-)
And hope the shirt framing turns out well. I moved with my Johnny Bench 1970 baseball card in my safe compartment of my luggage, along with my great-granmother's diaries. No way was I trusting that card into the movers' hands. But I know you will love showing that off. Wishing you cooler days over the rest of the summer (although I know the forecast isn't pretty for the next week).
no subject
Date: 2010-08-09 12:32 am (UTC)Missed you!
no subject
Date: 2010-08-09 02:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-09 02:25 am (UTC)As hot and humid as it's been here, I can't even imagine how it's been in FL. Blech.
The frame won't be ready for three weeks. I'm going to be anxious every day until then.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-09 02:35 am (UTC)So how are you? All better now?
no subject
Date: 2010-08-09 02:56 am (UTC)I really hope it is an LJ summer slump because there are a lot of people I miss.
The painting and carpet will be a pain but I'm dreading the kitchen remodel. That's going to be nasty.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-10 01:09 pm (UTC)I haven't been updating as much because I don't know...I do the same thing every week. I go to work, I read, I pay bills...yes so exciting.
Maybe once I have a little more money and can do things I'll post more again.
God your workmen...*shivers*
I hate the DC area this time of year *nods*
I adore The Wire. It is am awesome show.
So glad to hear from you.
We should do lunch/dinner some time this year.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-19 01:49 am (UTC)I'm glad you're not leaving yet! Even if Oregon is said to be lovely.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 12:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-31 12:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-31 12:50 am (UTC)You know, when I had a lot less money, I had so much more time to do things I enjoyed - like write. I look at my life now and sometimes wish I was back in those days. I appreciated what I had then, which wasn't much, a lot more than I appreciate it now. And the bills? They never go away.
I have been watching Deadwood and while I do like it very much, I still like The Wire more.
And yes to lunch/dinner some time this year (though please, not in
GuamSilver Spring). I need to get withno subject
Date: 2010-08-31 01:16 am (UTC)I definitely read more and write more.
I really appreciate what I have right now. I have my own apt - liek woah!
I never wanted a lot of money I still don't.
I just want enough so I don't have to worry about being able to buy food or having to check my bank account before going to the movie theater.
I actually really love to cook and can't really do anything exciting because I have to budget all the good I buy.
Maybe enough to go on a vacation to England once a year.
But really right now I just want enough for food, going to the movies and saving a little money every month.
I think I might like The Wire more as well. They are just very different shows. I just wish more shows were made as well as The Wire, Deadwood, Farscape...
Oh good. I was talking to VR and I will be setting up another lunch meet up once DragonCon is over.
Is meeting in DC okay? Or is that too far for you?