Weekend!
We have One Of Those Ceiling Fans. This is a ceiling fan that is in the middle of the highest ceiling in the house and situated in such a place (next to the staircase to the upstairs bedroom) that you can’t put a ladder anywhere near the lightbulbs. I seriously think that the lightbulbs were put in the fan before the fan was installed. I had no idea how they would have gotten lightbulbs in there otherwise.
Until today, that is.
So when you explain to the guy in the hardware store that you need to change a lightbulb that is, seriously, 15 feet away he nods and smiles as if he hears that question all the time and then sends you to the grabbers that would be most useful to a grocery shopper on a Rascal ™. So we explain to the other guy and he gets us this tool that extends, like, forever. Give me a fulcrum and I could move the world with this thing. At one end is this tacky springy hand that, tah-dah, CHANGED THE DEAD LIGHT BULBS.
Now, of course, there’s probably a bunch of handymen around here who said “yeah, we totally knew about that sort of thing.” Sure.
But, already, I feel like I’m going into this weekend with a total victory under my belt.
Which is good because despite the fact that it’s a three-day weekend, I’ve got to spend it studying… though I will do my darnedest to make sure that we hang with our dear friends who have recently had a baby at one point and I know that gaming night returns with a vengeance on Saturday. All work and no play makes Homer something something.
So… what’s on your docket?
My mother’s aunt’s daughter’s daughter is getting hitched to her partner out on the 100 acre property that’s about 400 miles from here; Kitty has been sick all week, so she’s staying home with the dogs and I’m picking up the kids from school tomorrow and driving to my cousin’s place in Marysville so that I don’t have to drive the back roads in the dark (leaving at 2:15pm, will probably get over the grapevine before traffic gets nuts, knock wood, but the 5 northbound is always dicey on a Friday, especially on a long weekend).
Get up Saturday, drive about 45 minutes, let the kids go bonkers with the nine trillion other kids who will be there, pitch the tent and drink beer. Eventually make hot dogs. Then s’mores. Then put the kids to bed in the tent, and stay up and look at the stars.
Sunday, get up, have brekke, chew the fat until noonish, then head back to Pasadena. Shower everybody off, go to bed, and have Monday to hang.
I should be able to do the B5 post on Monday 🙂Report
Marysville by Yuba City Marysville?Report
Yep, actually, it’s Yuba City, not Marysville. Marysville is the aunt’s place, Yuba City is the cousin, I got ’em mixed up.
The property is up by Quincy.Report
I thought I might go see the new X-Men film.Report
Cherries are ripe! It’s off to the U-pick and then… Cobbler.Report
I got some CA cherries at the grocery store yesterday, and happily munched half of them last night for desert. Happily happily happily.
Please share the cherry cobbler recipe.Report
I appreciate you reminding me of happy childhood memories of those trips to go cherry picking with our family. I don’t actually recall my mom making anything with them, I just remember eating lots and lots of them!Report
When I was a kid, it was blueberries, but like Johanna I remember those days of picking berries quite fondly.
I also remember the blueberry muffins that came out of it!Report
Oh nice. For me, growing up, the U-pick thing was Saskatoons. You could pay to pick them at a farm with nice wide rows and pruned bushes, or just go down to the river if you knew the spots and didn’t mind scrambling through uneven ground and a bit of brush.Report
Ooh, and Blackberries the year we lived in England. My mom would make us pull over if she saw big brambles by the road, and hand us all bags to collect them. My dad would grumble about the delay in getting to our destination, but we all enjoyed the pies that evening, him included.Report
@dragonfrog we have an amazing blackberry patch in our back yard. During that part of the summer, we go out and graze our meals off the vines. Thorns and all. It’s likely the reason we’re unable to move to a more convenient place.Report
I got some cherries at a fruit stand the other day. Cobbler is a good idea, but I’m doing bourbon cherries. A difficult decision had to be made.Report
Indy 500.
And pondering why Donovan was left off the team.Report
He was just mad about Saffron…Report
I don’t want to live in a world where Chris fishing Wondolowski makes the World Cup team and Landon Donovan doesn’t.
Also, I bought two slots in a random draw World Cup pool. We haven’t had the draw yet, but I’m already cynically looking forward to drawing Iran and Australia!Report
@fish
Pessimism springs eternal.Report
3rd Annual Kazzg Memorial Day cookout. Burgers, dogs, and pulled pork on the menu. Beers aplenty. Looking forward to starting the pork at midnight Saturday to have it ready in time for lunch on Sunday. I live to host.Report
Kazzg
Clever name or typo?Report
Typo. Not sure what would be clever about Kazzg.Report
“Kazz-gee” as in “Kazzy Grilling?”Report
I’m probably going to visit friends in Santa Cruz and their new (and only) baby on Sunday.
Monday, I will see X-men.Report
Next year I hear they are gonna do X-men vs Godzilla. Should be a good excuse to break lots of shit.Report
Where is my damned “like” button?Report
Kiddo’s birthday party tomorrow, in honour of which my parents and mom-in-law will be in town, as of this evening and until Monday.
I just looked up from my computer and contemplated with mild dread the amount of cleaning that will be required by 4 PM tomorrow. Good thing my mom is a cleaning machine of incredible efficiency.Report
I’m pretty sure that we will have 3 days in a row when we don’t have to set the alarm. This is looming large in my consciousness.
Otherwise what Jaybird said. Still amazed that my time is so much my own even when we are busy. Last night I read a WHOLE BOOK (Jo Walton’s My Real Children) after we did all those chores.Report
I used to have a nodding Usenet acquaintance with Jo, and I learned from her how to appreciate C J Cherryh. (Whom I still find hard going, but there’s real depth behind all those dense, difficult, depressing stories.)
I presume you’ve read the Small Change series? If not, highly recommended.Report
@mike-schilling That’s neat to know about you! I’ve read all of her books and am acquainted with her online myself, and I am going to stop there because otherwise I will gush most unbecomingly. Small Change is great, but probably the books of hers I am least likely to reread, because it makes me too sad.
I grew up on C J Cherryh and, at the age of 13 when I started reading her, it was so bloody exciting to have female characters in my sf who felt REAL that pretty much anything she wanted to do after that was okay by me. (It’s also the case that my life was so fished-up at that age that “depressing” generally struck me as “realistic”.)Report
@maribou
You’re second graf? That’s me. Merchanter’s Luck rocked my little world. I need to re-read it; it’s been too long.
It’s odd to me to describe her books as depressive, however. Desperate? Absolutely. But her characters don’t give up in despair and sink to the not-caring of depression; they struggle through. I’m forever amazed at how the ends resolve; from the darkest despair to completed story in just a few pages; there is no gentle let down and wrap up in crescendo.Report
Yes, @zic, that is a very good way of putting it. Thank you. (Although some of her books are more like that than others, from what I remember. Like you, it has been way too long. One of my eventually-projects is to reread Walton’s What Makes This Book So Great and also reread or read every book she talks about in that book… That’ll get me back to Cherryh. 🙂 )Report
Its the Frankie Manning Centennial weekend. 2000 swing dancers are descending on New York in order to celebrate. I unfortunately forgot to buy tickets. They sold out fast. You also need black tie or vintage clothing for many of the parties. I’ll either go salsa dancing or hang out with friends on Saturday night. I’ll probably hang with my parents Saturday afternoon and Monday.Report
Wife came back from being gone all week, so it’ll mostly be 3 days of her & bug bonding, me cleaning the house & getting stuff done, plus gaming (Dishonored RULES!).
Oh, and helping a friend secure his wireless router.Report
Oh, and on Monday, if you feel the urge to thank a veteran, remember to do it at a cemetery. November 11th is for those of us still within our mortal coil.Report
Going to the Japanese Garden downtown tomorrow.
Going to see Godzilla on Monday.
I am not sure what else I will be doing.Report
Man Cub #1 is spending the entire long weekend at the Sasquatch Music Festival in the Columbia Gorge, so it’s just three of us this weekend.
Man Cub #2 asks if we can go see Godzilla this weekend once every 10 minutes.
I’m guessing we’ll probably go see Godzilla.Report
Hey, that’s not a bad lineup. Tell him to bring earplugs for Mogwai or Deafheaven (and possibly Bob Mould, depending on what he’s got planned – though even with an acoustic guitar that guy can be loud).Report
Tell him to bring earplugs for Chance the Rapper, too, so he won’t hear all the drug references (which are basically all of the references).
But man, that is a pretty nice lineup.Report
Regarding X-Men, I found it interesting that Hugh Jackman as Wolverine seems to be the only actor who has played the same role in every movie. And while Wolverine is effectively ageless (at least on a minor scale), making it possible for him in a way it wouldn’t be for other characters, the reality is that Jackman looks ever so much older in movies set in the past when he should really look ever so slightly younger or at least the same age.Report
And yet another reason why the general fantasy genre is difficult for me.
Of course, the intro to his “Origins” movie showed him fighting in the Revolutionary War and looking the exact same age meaning a decade or two in the past should be of little consequence. But he certainly shouldn’t look older.Report
Maybe Wolverine is secretly also MERLIN!!!! Boy, that would make things complicated.Report
…who…?Report
@kazzy , sorry, I probably delved very deep into nerd-dom there. Merlin the wizard in the King Arthur stories is often described as living backward in time. So I was making a really silly joke…Report
This weekend, hmmmm, I need to re-learn Common LISP. And well, other stuff I guess.Report
I need to re-learn Common LISP
Thath eathy. No Thweat.Report
Order some spare parenthese now, before you run out.Report
@veronica-dire
I just caught this.
Why did you need to re-learn LISP?Report
We’re back in Dixieland for my wife’s high school reunion. She went to a public gifted and talented school that pulled smart kids from across the state, so across lot of really interesting folks.
Ran into people who know my brother. It’s a small world.Report
I’m date free this weekend!!! I’ve never been so happy to say that.
Junior’s friend from pre-school is having a party today. My not-so-secret pal and I are exchanging our monthly gifts. Tomorrow I’m hanging out with Junior and Granny around home. I have absolutely no plans for Monday. It feels so good. Maybe I’ll pack for DC…Report
Youn bought a grabber extension when you were handed one of the few opportunities in life that justifie buying a jetpack?Report