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| 2010-01-21 17:16 |
| Bleh |
| Public |
 tired |
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I'm tired and depressed. This might have something to do with being in the emergency room from ten o'clock last night until 4 this morning. They definitively ruled out heart attack and pulmonary embolism, two things that given my family history were a great relief.
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In the interest of good health, I've decided that I need to eat more vegetables. None of us, I think, eat enough vegetables--for whatever definition of "enough" you use. One reason is that veggies as most people make them are boring. I decided that if I was going to eat enough veggies, I would have to make sure they weren't boring.
These are not boring:
Oven-roasted sweet potato fries
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
coarse salt to taste
1 medium sweet potato (yam for the Brits, I think?)
Pre-heat oven to 500F.
Mix the olive oil, paprika, cumin, and salt in a large bowl.
Slice the sweet potato, unpeeled, into french fries.
Dump sweet potato into oil mixture and toss well to coat.
Spread on baking sheet, making sure the pieces don't touch.
Bake for five minutes.
Toss with a spatula.
Bake another five minutes and test for doneness.
Nom nom nom.
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I'm a bit nervous about doing this, but I've decided to participate in the Help Haiti fan auction. My offering is here. Basically I'm offering at least 1000 words of a sequel to any story I've ever written.
Wanna find out what happens after Tosh goes home in Geek Gifts? (Hint: there's sex--eventually.) Want more of the Psmith and Nero Wolfe crossover I wrote for Yuletide? Know where to find my lone Sentinel story? Want to know how Narvi got on in Ost-in-Edhil after "Walls and Gates"? It's all up for grabs.
I'm not guaranteeing a complete story, since some of these sequels want to be novels. But I will certainly try. If you happen on one of the stories where I have a half completed but never posted sequel, I will send what I have immediately, to you and you alone, and then add at least another 1000 words to it before posting for everyone.
If you're interested, bid at Help Haiti, not here.
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I just got a phishing email claiming to be from the IRS, telling me to update my W-2. Need I tell anyone in the US that the IRS barely knows what computers are? They're really, really not going to send anything by email--it's a miracle that they can deal with fax.
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I don't think it's going to surprise anyone to find out that my Yuletide story was a crossover. I was familiar with two of my recipient's requested fandoms, and I couldn't decide which one to write. So I didn't. Fragments from a Novel is the collaboration between PG Wodehouse and Rex Stout that the original authors never got around to writing for some reason, though clearly they should have.
The story features a return of Wodehouse's R. Psmith (the P is silent, as in ptarmigan, psoriasis, and pteradactyl) and Mike Jackson to New York, where they find one of their friends from the previous year events (as chronicled in Psmith, Journalist) in a legal pickle, having been accused of murder. They of course hire Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin to find the real murderer and exonerate their friend.
To do it justice, the story would have had to be a novel, something that I didn't have time to contemplate during the five weeks leading up to Yuletide. So instead I wrote three of the most pivotal scenes, including the climax, as a fragmentary manuscript found in Archie's papers after his death. Unfortunately, the introductory material that would make it easier--or maybe just possible--for someone to understand the plot without knowing both canons was omitted for brevity.
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I just tried to use Apple's iTunes site to order a gift card for my niece. I've been told for years and years that Apple is the most user friendly computer company and that iTunes and iPod are just so easy to use and all.
All I can say is wow. I have never seen a worse designed (commercial) website in my entire life. I went to the main UK page and clicked on "Gift cards" as the obvious choice. It took me down to the part of the page that lauded gift cards as a great idea and an easy gift--yet had no link to anywhere to BUY said gift cards. So I searched on "gift cards" and was finally taken to a page where I could order them--for postal delivery. Ooookay...not exactly what I wanted, but I can deal.
So first I have to create an account, which is normal. Except that for some reason they want my county as well as my state, which is a little weird. Then I wanted a 30-pound gift card, which was not one of their denominations, but I selected two 15-pound ones, which did the job.
Next they wanted delivery information, so I put in my brother's address. The postal code, I was informed, was invalid. The example they gave of the postal code had 7 characters, and his only has 6. Off I go to the Royal Mail website to find out his correct postal code. Which has 6 characters. Eventually I figured out that the space was in the wrong place.
So I completed the order and entered my credit card number--which they said was formatted wrong. So I re-entered my credit card number--which they said my bank declined.
So I went to Amazon.co.uk and ordered an online gift certificate for immediate delivery by email, with absolutely no hassle or credit card problems. Now if only I can figure out how to delete the damn account iTunes forced me to create.
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Meanwhile I have three hours to finish the last scene of my Yuletide story and post it. Oops?
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| 2009-12-21 17:50 |
| OMFG! |
| Public |
 jubilant |
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I just checked the mail a few minutes ago when I got home. Along with a card for Rita and a letter from my dad, there was an envelope from *cue foreboding music* the IRS. First reaction, "Oh, shit." Second reaction, "I finished paying you guys off in July!" Third reaction, "I really, really don't want to open this envelope."
Last October the IRS and I had an argument about how much I owed for a previous year. They won, or at least I couldn't prove that I didn't owe what they said I owed. I started paying more than I could easily afford, but I managed to pay it off in July. The IRS still causes me a great deal of anxiety, though, so this letter literally caused me to break out in a cold sweat.
But I'm trying to mature about the whole tax thing and not let it scare me, or at least not let it scare me into inaction. So I gritted my teeth and opened the envelope while still in the driveway. "Yadda-yadda-yadda refund." *blink, blink, blink* Re-read. "Yadda-yadda-yadda refund of $10,000." *hyperventilate, have asthma attack because of the cold* Rita asked me what was going on and all I could do was hand her the letter.
The thing is, I sent the IRS some documents last January that I thought would prove that I didn't owe the money. They kept taking the money and nothing happened. I assumed that what I sent wasn't sufficient or had been lost or...I don't know. I was so grateful when I finally got the whole anxiety-provoking matter taken care of that I didn't want to stir up a hornet's nest again to find out what was up. And then this, out of the blue.
There's no actual check, not yet, but that's only because the check-writing people aren't the same as the letter-writing people. But still. Holy crap and Merry Christmas!
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Can I just grumble and grouse here for a moment? What I have to do today is not what I wanted to do today or what I planned to do today. Grumph.
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It's amazing how much help four episodes of Red Dwarf and a hot shower are when you need to solve insoluble computer problems. Middle of the shower, shampoo in my hair, "D'Oh!" Impossible problem is a simple matter of changing the order of some code. I just implemented the fix in thirty seconds, after fighting with it all afternoon.
Now to see if my other impossible programming problem yields to the same solution.
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I finally got the pictures of my first (two) batches of fused glass uploaded. ( Read more... )
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| 2009-12-09 14:28 |
| Hymns |
| Public |
 satisfied |
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The problem with hymns is that they are intended as earworms. The older the hymn, the greater the odds of it causing an earworm, and the more persistent the earworm will be, because natural selection over the centuries has eliminated--forgotten--those that weren't good at causing earworms and popularized those that were. We've been breeding for more vicious earworms!
I think this may be the most vivid example of memetic evolution I've encountered.
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My uncle's funeral was yesterday. He was a farmer, had always been a farmer, never wanted to be anything but a farmer. So yesterday he was carried from the funeral home to the church in his hay trailer, pulled by his favorite tractor. I think I first really teared up when I saw the two "funeral" flags on the nose of the tractor--you know, those magetic flags that the funeral home puts on your car to mark you as part of the procession. The tractor is just like the one my grandfather had, the tractor that Bernard first learned to drive before he was ten, a red Farmall.
Bernard's casket was placed in the middle of the trailer, with hay bales behind for his wife, son, and some of the family to sit on. One of Bernard's old buddies drove the tractor and said that it was the only time Bernard would ever have let someone else drive it. The rest of us followed in cars.
The tractor only goes five miles an hour, so Bernard got one last time to snarl traffic with his farm equipment.
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My uncle Bernard died today just after noon. My mother and I found out about it around two, but one of my aunts had called my mother this morning at 10 to tell her that his doctor had suggested "gathering the family." Since we both have colds, however, they wouldn't have let us in the hospital to visit him anyway, so we didn't start up there. (Respiratory infections + pulmonary ICU != good idea.) Given that he died two hours later, we would have only been halfway there when he died.
Although he had two heart attacks, he actually died of a pulmonary embolism. Yes, the same thing my other uncle, his brother, was in the hospital with at the same time Bernard had his first heart attack. There is apparently a genetic predisposition for such things. Of the seven siblings, two have had pulmonary embolisms, one has had blood clots during/after surgery, and another has had a Transient Ischemic Attack. I think genetic testing is in the cards.
Bernard was...a character is probably the best description. Cantankerous, often funny, frequently annoying, never conventional. He was a farmer, but mostly he just "got by" with this and that and the other thing. He was married and divorced--sometimes I think the smartest thing he ever did was marrying Kathy, and the smartest thing she ever did was divorcing him. He had one son, John, who was with him when he died. Ironically, it's his ex-wife who is doing most of the organizing and dealing with things. She also took care of him between his being released from the hospital the first time and his being readmitted this last time. Still a lot of affection and even love, she just couldn't live with him.
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My uncle just died. He had a heart attack a couple of weeks ago, had a second one in the hospital. I don't know the details yet. He was 56, the second youngest of my mother's siblings.
My cousin's son is off the heart-lung machine, off the ventilator even, and recovering. My other uncle was also in the hospital during this time, with a pulmonary embollism. Obviously the family warrantee ran out.
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I have health insurance. I am sick (bronchitis, apparently). I went to the doctor today. You would think that I used my health insurance today, right?
Uh-uh. Using my health insurance would have cost me $22 more than not using it.
I went to an urgent care clinic, because it's the only place in Dayton that I can see a doctor the same day that is covered by my insurance. My regular doctor could see me in about three weeks, by which point I'd either be well or dead. The urgent care clinic does emergency stuff, yes, but mostly it's just doc-in-a-box. Last time I went there it cost me a $20 office visit copay from my insurance. This time the company I work for has a different, cheaper plan from the same insurance company, so I was expecting a copay of $30.
Except no, the copay was $100, a fact that so boggled the receptionist's mind that she walked up to billing to confirm it. $100 copay, for an $89 office visit? Apparently because the clinic provides emergency care, any care at the clinic requires an emergency care copay (an actual emergency room would have cost me a $200 copay, just incidentally). So the nice receptionist tossed the insurance paperwork and I paid her $89. From the last time I used this clinic, by the way, I know that the insurance company would only have paid them $57.
The doctor gave me two prescriptions, which I took to my pharmacy, giving the pharmacy my insurance card. They looked up the medications, then gave me the insurance card back without using it. Under my insurance plan each medication would require a $15 copay, even the one that only cost $4. Since the other cost $15, they figured I would rather do without it. And they were right.
So people are worried about government stupidity in medical care?
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Last year for T-giving I made a salad of baby spinach, dried cranberries, and pecans. Very pretty and even better tasting. I almost always make my own salad dressing, because it's easy and cheap and tastes better than the store-bought stuff, so I figured on putting a simple vinagrette on it. Looked at the oil, looked at the vinegar, looked at the bowl of cranberry sauce on the counter. Hmm.... *grin* The touch of sugar in the cranberry sauce softens the vinegar a bit without adding so much oil, and the color is fantastic against the dark green of spinach.
So:
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 white wine vinegar
1 or 2 tablespoons cranberry sauce (cranberries, water, sugar, it's on the cranberry bag)
thyme, basil, etc.
Whirl in a blender for a minute or so. Done.
I decided to do this again this year, though the greens are field greens in addition to the spinach. In a minute I'm going to have to get up and make the salad and dressing, but I decided to procrastinate by writing it down.
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I took a hot glass class last Saturday, learning how to do glass fusing. My first few pieces, made during the class itself, should be fused now. I have a bowl ready to fuse that I finished yesterday, but I'm going to wait until I have more pieces. The glass studio charges $10 to fuse the first kiln tray, whether it's full or not, and $5 for each additional tray. Bunching up my firings will save a lot of money. I'll try to remember to post pictures when these are done.
We're having six and a half people over for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, the half being a one-year-old who apparently eats anything and everything. We're making turkey, bread stuffing, gravy, roasted vegetables (sweet potatoes, yukon gold potatoes, red-skin white potatoes, rutabaga, parsnips, brussel sprouts, white pearl onions, red onions, and a couple of heads (yes, heads!) of garlic, all tossed with olive oil, paprika, black pepper, and thyme before roasting), two kinds of homemade bread rolls, salad with cranberry vinagrette dressing and pecans, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie and apple-mincemeat pie. Our guests asked if they could bring anything; we suggested "an appetite." The bread is rising now.
And the other thing is that I just got my great, big, whopping paycheck for sixteen hours of work on election day: $111.50. That's almost seven dollars an hour, which is only 25 cents an hour under minimum wage in Ohio. Still, I'd do it for free, so this is a nice little bit of mad money. Probably to be spent on more glass.
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Things I like to hear from my auto mechanic: "No, it's not the hideously expensive problem that would require removing the entire dashboard even to get in to replace the $300 part. It was just a minor leak and we fixed it for $104 and that includes a new thermostat because we didn't like the looks of the old one."
In other news, I've written 300 words of my Yuletide story, and have a vague idea where the rest is going. Theoretically this means that I'm almost a third done with the story, since it only needs to be 1000 words long. Ha! I am, of course, well known for writing Yuletide stories of minimum length. Or not. I'm going to be lucky to bring this puppy in shorter than the original on which it's based. But hey, at least I decided what fandom to write in. For the first time this year I matched on two fandoms instead of just one, which added an extra special dimension of Yuletide panic.
But even better than the start of the story, I actually have the SUMMARY written! I swear that sometimes takes longer to come up with than the story. Two years ago I was staring at the submission form at one minute before the deadline, drawing a complete blank. Fortunately it was only for a stocking stuffer, and fortunately I did come up with something before the minute was up, but it's still reassuring to have this out of the way early. Of course I still need a title, but that's another battle.
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amused
accomplished
rushed
grumpy
creative
sad
blank
shocked
aggravated