beowabbit

So my last renters didn’t want to use the mattress that was on the bedframe in their room; they brought their own, and we took mine out to the garage. We didn’t get a chance to bring it back up together when they were moving out, and I wanted it back in the room, because (1) it was basically blocking the narrow passageway between cruft piles in the garage, and I needed to get that cleared so I could get to the cruft (and, knowing me, bring in more cruft), and (2) I thought the room looked more appealing for potential renters if the bed looked like a bed, rather than like giving up after getting Ikea furniture half-assembled and leaving it there.

So, after a couple unsuccessful attempts (and on the first day I’ve thought of it when the driveway has been dry so the mattress would stay relatively clean), I knuckled down and got it out of the garage, carrying it somewhat precariously on my back.

As of about fifteen minutes ago, I get it out to the sidewalk and am carrying it towards the front door, and a car pulls up right next to me and somebody yells out asking if I’m OK. Yes, I say, which wasn’t a lie; this was slow and clumsy but working just fine. The voice asks where I’m carrying the mattress. Just in here, I say (the front door already being open); I’m fine. They ignore me, jump out of the car, and carry the mattress in and upstairs for me, not letting me even help. Then they introduce themselves, say they live down the street and I should call them if I ever need help, shake my hand, and are getting in their car again before I have the presence of mind to ask if I can at least give them a couple beers.

So I got a full size mattress carried up the porch steps, up the narrow stairwell, and forced around the corner through the door into the upstairs bedroom for the price of two bottles of Negra Modelo. And I met a couple of very nice neighbors!

Howdy!

cathijosephine, who is currently living with me, is looking for somebody to rent her Quincy Center studio. Her Craigslist ad (with photos) is at http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/abo/1058139649.html, and here’s the text, since it’s short:

$1000 Furnished Studio on Red Line Available Immediately (Quincy Center)
No Fees! Across the street from Quincy Center T Station. ~450 square feet, hardwood floors, 2 big walk-in closets, small dishwasher, full size loft bed and comfy pull-out couch. Heat and hot water included. Coin-op laundry in building. 2 blocks to supermarket and drugstore.
Short-term lease available for $1,100/month.

(I.e., it's $1,100/mo. if you want it month-to-month, or $1,000/mo. if you'll sign a longer lease so it comes back on the market at a convenient time.)

Quincy Center is pretty far out on the Red Line (25min riding time to Park St.), but I can’t emphasize enough how convenient this location is in Quincy; you’d be comfortable walking distance from a supermarket and a pharmacy, less than five minutes’ walk from the T station, and within ten minutes’ walk from lots of great restaurants and shops. And I find Quincy a fun and charming place to live.

EDIT: Bigger versions of the pictures in the Craigslist ad: Bathroom, main living area with couch and loft bed, very large closet, and kitchen.

Had a fabulous weekend, much of it spent in the delightful company of

plumtreeblossom. Among other things, we went to see The Rimers of Eldritch and it was a really, really good production. The acting was great. It was a very difficult and complex show, and they pulled it off beautifully. Congratulations to

desireearmfeldt and her cast and crew. I think I’m going to go back next weekend, and I want to buy a copy of the script.

We had tentative plans to meet

underwatercolor and

minerva42 and somebody whose LJ name I don’t know for dim sum this morning. Unfortunately, I didn’t know until this morning exactly when it was supposed to be, and I had slept too late and was kind of pokey getting out of the house and we hit bad traffic on I-93, so that didn’t happen. Boo. I haven’t seen them in a while.

On the other hand, when we figured out that we weren’t going to get to dim sum in time to eat with them, we decided to avoid the traffic on I-93 north by turning around and going to brunch at Firefly’s in Quincy. They have a really yummy and really meat-heavy brunch buffet, and we had an utter feast. Good biscuits and gravy; I’m really happy to have found a place I can get that.

In other socioculinary news, I got to join

cathijosephine for her wonderful hearty vegetable soup with dumplings twice this weekend, and she also introduced me to my first episode of West Wing.

Full, happy, and well-socialized.

plumtreeblossom and I just had a wonderful dinner at Terra Brasili’s, a Brazilian barbecue (rodízio) place in Quincy Center. It was so yummy! Ever since the Brazilian barbecue place in Kenmore Square that

cathijosephine and I used to go to closed, I’ve been craving it, and I noticed this place before I moved to Quincy, but somehow I never managed to try it before. So glad to find out that it’s just what I’ve been missing! And they sell all-you-can-eat (traditional rodízio style, carved at the table) or by-the-pound (where you ask them to carve what you want onto your plate and weigh it) And the buffet of sides was great.

So, a meat-heavy cuisine I’ve been craving within easy walking distance. My cardiologist is not going to be happy. :-)

I’ve just had a very fun, busy, and full weekend! Much of it was spent in the company of the delightful

plumtreeblossom, with whom I finally saw The Dark Knight on Friday, had a lovely brunch at The Burren on Saturday morning, and went to Quincy’s August Moon festival and had dinner with her at Tú y Yo today (Sunday). We had a wonderful weekend!

I also got together with a new friend (who isn’t on LiveJournal) on Saturday and got to walk a couple dogs with her in the Fells. That was a great time, and my car is now joyously full of dog hair.

On Tuesday, I have my Sweetieversary dinner to look forward to. Wait, didn’t I post about having that a couple weeks ago? Well, yes, but the day of

plumtreeblossom’s and my Sweetieversary was (1) the day of a terrible storm, and (2) in the middle of her cat Rowley’s illness. So between the flooding and her desire to stay with Rowley, we decided it made sense to reschedule, and we’re celebrating it on Tuesday. (Which I just remembered is also my birthday. What a lovely birthday it will be!)

Thank you for two wonderful years and counting, beloved!

Breakfast with my parents

silverlibre and

ka9sqb, as well as

cathijosephine, at a nearby hole-in-the-wall diner. Then came back to the house for a bit. Then my parents and I went off and explored the commercial district near Quincy Center for a while, culminating in a ramble through the 18th-and-early-19th-century cemetery near the T station, before having a late lunch at a Taiwanese booth in a food court. (Actually, it’s pretty much the only occupant of the food court. There’s a sushi place and a little place you can buy beer and wine, but I never see them open.) Very good Taiwanese food, and the charming, friendly, and constantly happy-seeming woman who takes orders there alerted us to the August Moon festival on Sunday in Chinatown. (There’s also one in Quincy the following Sunday which I hope to go to, but my parents will already have left by then.)

Then I had to rush off to get the car and drive to

plumtreeblossom’s to meet her after work and drive her and her cat Rowley to the vet’s. The vet visit went very well; we got seen right away and the vet was great. He was very good for the exam, and he got blood drawn and got subcutaneous fluids since he was dehydrated, and we took him home with some meds

plumtreeblossom is going to be giving him. We don’t yet know what was wrong, but the vet was very helpful and seemed not to think it was terribly urgent, and more importantly, he seemed much better when we got him home! We wonder whether he just got so dehydrated that he was too lethargic to eat and drink, which kept him dehydrated, and the subcutaneous fluids helped a lot. Either that or the ordeal of the vet visit gave him a taste of what horrors might be visited on him if he didn’t start acting like his normal self. :-) Anyway, my beloved

plumtreeblossom is much relieved.

Then I came home to homemade pizza (with amazing roasted garlic!) that

cathijosephine had made using garlic pesto that

plumtreeblossom gave me a few days ago, and which I got to share with my parents. As

plumtreeblossom put it to me as I was leaving her place, I was having my belly filled with love from all directions. And

darxus was here, and while I didn’t get to chat with him before he crashed, it was nice to see him briefly and know he was here.

My life is in pretty good shape, I would say.

After

cathijosephine and

darxus went to bed,

silverlibre and

ka9sqb and I stayed up chatting for a while, and I showed them the photos I posted from the Theatre@First one-acts and

silverlibre showed me that video of lightning in slow motion that’s been going around the net but that I had missed, and I walked them back to their room so we could enjoy the night air together.

Now it’s way before my bedtime, but I might actually go to sleep. I ought to clean and straighten, but it’s been a rich full ~~life~~ day, and some extra sleep is probably a good idea, particularly since I think our plan for tomorrow involves the Aquarium and a tall-ship cruise.

EDIT: And I came home to an enticing package from

sionnagh, which I probably would have waited until my birthday to open if I had any willpower. It had a lovely big very detailed atlas of Hawai‘i in it (a scientific atlas, with lots of information on weather patterns, flora and fauna, and the like, and plenty of text with the maps), a copy of Brokeback Mountain, and a lovely little miniature Japanese calligraphy set! Thank you,

sionnagh!

Wow, busy weekend! Last night was closing night of Festival@First 5, including the one-act that

plumtreeblossom directed and

surrealestate,

wellstar,

missmelissa,

oakenguy, and

brief_life performed in. They all did an incredible job, and it was awesome, and I’m sorry it’s over.

After the performance was strike, which went smoothly, and a great cast party at

hahathor’s stunning house.

plumtreeblossom and I left early (around 1:30am) in part due to concerns about her cats, and collapsed into bed.

This morning we had a lovely breakfast on the patio at The Burren (in the course of which we ran into

ladrescher, who was in the same one-act as

hahathor), and then I came home to do some more cleaning and kitchen reorganization before my parents (

silverlibre and

ka9sqb) arrive tonight. Then

cathijosephine came home briefly to take me to the room I rented for them near my house and show me around. (I hadn’t had a chance to go pick up the keys and take the tour, so she had ended up doing it on my behalf.)

And now I’m going to straighten up for a bit, and do dishes and laundry, and have my first shower since strike which I desperately need, and then I go meet my lovely girlfriend

plumtreeblossom whom I have been dating for two years, and celebrate our two-year Sweetieversary with her at the same dim-sum place where we had our first date! Actually, specifying the start of our relationship is kind of tricky; we met through

surrealestate, but didn’t really get to spend enough time together to get to know each other for quite some time. We did manage to express a certain amount of mutual interest before our first date, but for purposes of celebration, we count our first official date as the start of the relationship.

Thank you for two delightful years, sweetie! I love you.

(Sorry for any sensitive readers who may have gone into insulin shock. :-)

After our Sweetieversary dinner, we’re going to go pick up my parents at the train station and bring them back to Quincy and get them settled into their room. (It’s in a little rooming house just about two real blocks from my house. Very convenient!)

And I have tomorrow and Tuesday off from work, so I can spend the days touring Boston and Quincy with them. Yay!

Friday night and yesterday morning, I did more disassembling in my old bedroom. Slowly, slowly making progress. (I’m moved upstairs, but lots of my stuff is still downstairs.)

Yesterday evening, I picked up

plumtreeblossom from the T and we both went grocery shopping. She loves coming out to the huge suburban grocery stores. We each got a huge heaping cartful. (Oh, also yesterday morning I had cleared out the fridge so there’d be any place to put any of this.) Then, after dropping our shopping loads at my house, we went out to the Finnish steam baths a few blocks away and had a lovely blast of heat in the middle of the winter. After that, we went to the Firefly’s Barbeque (gratuitous Flash/audio warning!) in Quincy for dinner, which is becoming one of our favourite dinner venues.

(I tried one of their hot sauces.

plumtreeblossom asked me how it was, and I said it was tasty, but pretty mild. She had a teensy taste to see, and disagreed amusingly. To me, it seemed milder than Tabasco, although more flavourful; to her, it seemed stronger than Tabasco.)

Then we came back here, and

plumtreeblossom got to stay in my new bedroom for the first time.

This morning, we loaded up the car with

plumtreeblossom’s groceries, and went out to the little hole-in-the-wall diner we like to go to for a yummy breakfast.

plumtreeblossom needed leaf bags, and we went a bit out of our way to a Lowe’s. (I was debating going to the Home Depot nearby, but ① I don’t like their politics or their labour practices, and ② I had this notion that there might be some stuff at the Lowe’s I wanted, too.) This turned out to be an incredible impulse-purchase success; the Lowe’s had porch swings (with canopies) on sale. They had four different kinds out, one which unfolds into a bed, and a very small one. I bought the one that unfolds into a bed for my deck, so I’m going to have comfy seating (and, when the weather gets a lot warmer, maybe occasionally sleeping) out there! It’s getting delivered in a week.

plumtreeblossom had somebody measure the little two-person one so she could check whether it would fit on her balcony. When I dropped her off this afternoon we measured the balcony, and it will, so she’s getting it, and she’ll have a nice covered place to sit out there and have her morning coffee and cigarette. What delightful discoveries!

Oh, and we did find leaf bags. :-)

On the way out of the Lowe’s, I had some weird visual stuff going on in one of my eyes that it later turns out was probably connected with my first ever migraine. It looked like a curved streak in the field of vision of my left eye had kaleidoscope-like flashing lights overlaid over it. The headache, which started to develop around the time the visual weirdness shut off (it started and stopped very very suddenly) was pretty mild and didn’t really bother me, although I did (about an hour later) end up taking some ibuprofen for it. If that’s what my migraines are going to be like; I won’t so much mind having them, but hopefully this was a one-off thing.

After I dropped

plumtreeblossom off and came back home, I had the pleasant surprise of a phone call from

cathijosephine’s father. He had called basically to say hi and see how I was doing and offer his sympathy over last month’s unpleasantness. That was nice!

So so far, it’s been a fabulous weekend. The rest of tonight is going to be about more house reorganizing (and maybe even cleaning and laundry).

Current Mood: happy
Current Location: home

My flowers have started to bloom. Here’s one:

Click the image (or follow this link) for a gallery with a few other photos.

Two of the wildflower species in the mix have really taken off and gotten tall where I planted them. (Some others blew elsewhere in the yard and got a foothold there, I believe.) Thanks to plumtreeblossom’s research, I know that they are Cosmos and Coreopsis, and they’ve both gotten over a foot tall — the Cosmos well over.

Last night I saw my first blooms in the patch I’d deliberately planted, but they were something I hadn’t even noticed among the Cosmos and Coreopsis before — little white flowers maybe a centimeter and a half across. This morning one of the Coreopsis buds had blossomed into a lovely orange-yellow flower. Yay!

Current Location: on the T

This is going to be short because I'm very sleepy, but I had another really lovely day with

plumtreeblossom today. We woke up and puttered around the house for a while, then went out on a couple of errands, including brunch at the little diner near my house, and then spent all afternoon doing yardwork. My sweetie weeded my flower-patches! And machete'd down all the foliage that had overgrown the brick path to my porch, which was a very time-consuming job! And I mowed the lawn, and then weeded a bit as well. (I tried siphoning out the gas in my gas mower and going out and getting fresh gas, in case that was the problem, but it wasn't. So I mowed the lawn with my reel mower, which worked better this time than it had last time. Entirely adequate.)

Then we took the T to the North End (Boston's Italian neighbourhood) and had a very yummy meal and some wine out on the patio at a restaurant called Mother Anna's. I rarely make it to the North End, and I allowed to

plumtreeblossom as how the next time my parents

silverlibre and

ka9sqb come to Boston I should take them there. And then it occurred to me that I was having such a delightful time (I mentioned that it sort of felt like being on vacation) that I should share it with them. So I called them, and

plumtreeblossom and I got to have lovely little chats with them both.

Then we took the T here to her place. Between sun, physical labour, a yummy rich heavy meal, and wine, we are both very very sleepy, and I think (this is utterly unheard of for me) I might be asleep by 10 or 11. It's a very happy tired.

[EDIT: PS -- I'm going to be giving myself half as much testosterone twice as often now, and today I gave myself my first shot at the lower dose. I had been doing 200mlmg every two weeks, and I was kind of manic for the first couple of days and really dragging towards the end. This should even things out a bit.]

I love my house. It has a deck. Nice people come and eat on the deck with me. Some of them cook for me, and some of them bring me food. I love my friends, too, and my sweet chef

plumtreeblossom.

Got to see the fireworks tonight, although in the rain and wind we weren’t sure we were going to last that long for a while.

plumtreeblossom,

cathijosephine,

darxus and I set off for the fireworks over the Charles tonight (after a yummy dinner at Kagawa in Quincy), but due partly to mobility constraints and partly to scheduling constraints

plumtreeblossom and I couldn’t stay with

cathijosephine and

darxus, so we ended up watching the fireworks from the Longfellow Bridge, from which we couldn’t hear the concert, but had a great view of the fireworks.

+: I got to bed unusually early last night, and got an unusually large amount of sleep.
-: Despite that, when my alarm went off I was incredibly tired, and hit snooze umpty-zillion times, and was late using my light box for the first time since I started using it.
(-: And I actually think the light box is more trouble than it’s worth, although I should probably give it a couple more weeks.)
+: Despite getting a late and slow start, I felt like I had a reasonably productive day at work.
++: And afterwards I got to hang out with

plumtreeblossom and

docorion and

mud_puppy at Namaskar and have yummy Indian food.
-: My yummy Indian food was somewhat less yummy than it might have been, because I forgot to ask for no cilantro and no tomatoes.
+:

plumtreeblossom’s yummy Indian food was highly yummy, as was the bread.
+: I got to hear some more of

docorion’s fun stories.
+:

plumtreeblossom gave me an awesome May Day present, an interactive book (not quite a pop-up book, but along those lines, with flaps to open and things to unfold) about pirates! It even has a compass and some jewels embedded in the front cover! Between the compass and the maps I’m sure to find some booty!
+: I got to unburden myself to

plumtreeblossom a bit about my medical concerns (well, vent, really; she’s heard it all before).
++: And tomorrow I have an ENT appointment which I am really hopeful about.
+: And after dinner we hung out and chatted over tea at Diesel.
+: I drank a lot of tea at Diesel. And a lot of water and lassi at Namaskar. This is called “foreshadowing”.
-: This fire sure delayed my ride home. Instead of a train straight through from Davis to Quincy Center, it was a Red Line train from Davis to Kendall (where I could faintly smell smoke on the air), a shuttle bus from Kendall to Lechmere, the Green Line from Lechmere to Park Street, and the Red Line from Park Street to Quincy Center.
-: Boy howdy did I have to pee by the time I finally got home.
-: And I’m too tired to deal with the fridge, which I seem to have been attempting to create life from primordial ooze in.
-: And I think I’m too tired to do laundry.
++: But I’m about to go to sleep!
+++: And by this time tomorrow I might know more about my breathing problems and might even have a plan for what to do about them!

(1) I just got home from hearing (and watching) the first concert of Emperor Norton’s Stationary Marching Band. It was fabulous! I haven’t got the energy to write how fabulous it was, but it was exceptionally fabulous. Besides the awesome tide of music, there were circus-style performances: stilts, clowns, aerial silks, poi, hula hoops, belly dancing, and a couple of human marionettes. I was really tired, but I’m so glad I got myself there.

[EDIT:

siderea has a great review here.]

(2) A couple weeks ago when I was over at

plumtreeblossom’s, her cats were being especially cute and photogenic curled up on the bed, and so I recorded them for posterity.

And speaking of

plumtreeblossom, we had a lovely time together this weekend. She came over on Saturday and made us yummy shepherd’s pie (leftovers of which I am having as I type), we watched The Forgotten, which was very interesting and sophisticated in some ways, and very cheesy in others, but was quite fun.

This morning we had brunch at a local diner, spent a little time along the Quincy shoreline, and then spent quite a lot of time at the huge Chinese grocery near my house that

cathijosephine introduced me to. (And of course this means that we both came home with shocking quantities of interesting food.)

All in all, it’s been an excellent weekend.

Yay! Yummy dinner with

cathijosephine and

xmelancholia. (I made corned beef and cabbage.) And before that I met

cathijosephine at a mall near my house and she introduced me to the most amazingest huge collection of stores — Kam Mun market, which has a department store and a large supermarket and some restaurants and a dozen or so smaller stores. I’d seen the exterior, and it just looked like a concrete box; I had no idea I could get so many different kinds of stuff inside. (

plumtreeblossom, I bet we can find something analogous to the yukata you were looking for there.)

In other dinner news, I met

plumtreeblossom for dinner in Chinatown on Tuesday. (We were both a little low-energy for Diesel.) We ended up at Empire Garden, which was where we had our first date—

CHORUS: Awwww...

—and had a lovely dinner and a fabulous time together.

Tomorrow night I have a second sleep study. I predict that they are going to find that my apnea is much worse, and that the pressure that had been working for me when I first got the CPAP machine isn’t working adequately any more. I really need to get around to making that appointment with an ENT, and y’all should feel free to nag me until I do.

And then I have a lovely and full weekend to look forward to.

Life is good.

Current Location: at home in Quincy

But first the bad stuff: For those of you who aren’t in the area, it’s cold in the northeast! The sort of cold where my fingers in the nice thick gloves

plumtreeblossom gave me hurt by the time I get to the the T station. The sort of cold where the couple times recently I’ve needed to run to catch a train I feel like there are needles in my chest. The sort of cold where my cheeks stay red and painful for a long time after I get to work. After long deliberation, winter has finally decided to come.

Now some good stuff: On Wednesday my lovely

plumtreeblossom and I got together, intending to go to the Finnish steam bath in Quincy, but it turns out they’re closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so we just went to Kagawa for yummy dinner. It had been a very stressful day for her (and a much less stressful but still somewhat frazzled day for me), but we had a warm and delightful time together and the cares fell away. And (as always happens when we see each other on a “school night”, and never happens otherwise) I got in to work on time the next morning. If any of my coworkers had been in, they would have been astonished.

And more good stuff: Yesterday I got to go over to

darxus’ house to help him and

cathijosephine clean (mostly by keeping them company) and have dinner, which was yummy potato pancakes and bacon, and brownies for dessert. I like the way

cathijosephine cooks. Then we watched some Star Trek: TNG before I went home. A lovely and productive evening.

And even more good stuff: I feel kind of conceited telling this story in public, but it made me feel too good to escape notice here. Yesterday at work I got a phone call from an ex of mine whom I haven’t stayed in very close touch with over the past few years, although I still consider her a good friend. She said she was calling just because she’s been complimented a lot recently about how well she takes care of people she loves, and how well she takes care of herself — and she said she feels like she learned a lot of that from her relationship with me! So she was calling to thank me. That made me feel really, really good! We got to do some catching up on the phone, and we’ll get to do some more in person soon.

So I guess I can deal with a little cold weather. :-)

Current Mood: happy
Current Location: at home in Quincy

So, this morning it was pretty nice. As I was getting ready to leave the house, I realized I’d left my coat in the car last night, and vaguely considered not taking it and either wearing just my sweater, or my sweater and a light jacket. I was running late enough, though, that I went ahead and took not only the coat, but the entire car, leaving it parked on the top floor of the parking garage at the Quincy Center T station.

Then I had a reasonably productive day at work, followed by a brief check-in at Diesel (including a nice chat with

dietrich), followed by a pleasant if admittedly slightly chilly walk to Something Something to pick something up, followed by a quick dinner in Davis (by myself, unless you count Terry), since I’d been ravenous before I left work, followed by a pleasant T ride to Quincy, followed by—

Um.

Isn’t my key supposed to go in the lock on the car further than this?

Yes, I’m quite sure it’s supposed to go in further than this. I believe it’s supposed to turn, too. And the door is supposed to open, and welcome me into the car AND OUT OF THIS INSANE FUCKING FREEZING WINDY COLD! I’m completely certain that’s what’s supposed to happen.

That’s not what’s happening.

If the lock on the other side weren’t already broken¹, I could try that door.

So, I can walk home and hope that when the sun comes out tomorrow morning the lock warms up enough for me to get in. [If I had taken the time to check the weather forecast I would have been less optimistic.] Oh! Or I could walk home, and walk to the automotive supply store in the morning and get some of that de-icer you can spray in your locks when they freeze, and see if that works! Yes, that’s a good idea. Too bad there’s no place open now, because I’ll be agitated until I get this resolved. Like, for instance, maybe a convenience store would have it.

Well, there’s actually a convenience store in the T station, and they didn’t have what I was looking for (de-icer for locks), but they did have de-icer for windows, and I figured if it melted ice it was worth a try. Said try, of course, involved wiggling my key in and out of the lock while spraying this stuff at the slot. (I needed the key both to hold the slot open and to help convey the de-icer into the lock, since this stuff didn’t come with the little tube that gets it into the lock. I suspect that’s the major distinction between this product and the kind sold for locks.) And I did this for a long time, in the freezing wind, with the de-icer stuff splashing onto my hands and being blown into my face, occasionally taking breaks to put my hands in my pockets to thaw. And I was just about ready to give up, when the key finally slipped all the way into the lock! Joy! Delight! ~~Success!~~ Er, Progress! The key did not turn, but at least something was happening, which confirmed me in my stubborn determination not to hurry home to a warm bed, but to keep standing there on the windy roof alternately muttering entreaties and threats to the lock under my breath. Actually, I didn’t mutter entreaties and threats to the lock under my breath, but it sounds very dramatic, so I certainly would have if I’d thought of it at the time. Anyway, it might have worked.

So I worked on the lock for another ten minutes or so, with a couple breaks to shelter from the wind in a stairwell, and finally it turned! Joy! Delight! ~~Progress!~~ Success!

Needless to say, the Diesel engine needed some coaxing to start, but that I’m familiar with, and now I’m home and warm and my car is sitting in the driveway. Unlocked. I have no intention of locking it again until the spring, since clearly no good comes of locking my car.

Oh, did I mention that the person who broke into my car a couple weeks ago took a glove? I think it might be time to get a new pair.

But for now, my hands are nice and warm, and my bed will be nice and warm, too.

¹ This has nothing to do with the burglary; the passenger-side lock hasn’t worked since

docorion got the car before me, I believe. Certainly not since I’ve had it.

It’s January 6. I live in Quincy, Massachusetts, slightly south of Boston and right in the heart of New England. I just went outside onto my porch in jeans, no shoes, and a T-shirt, and I was entirely comfortable. If I go for a long walk outside today, I think I might put long sleeves on, but a sweater would be overkill.

I’m glad my house is quite a bit above sea level.

So first of all, I’m at work today, and in my groggy endorphin haze this morning I neglected to bring any of my Precious American Consumer Electronics, so if you need to get in touch with me during the day send me email or comment here.

Second of all, last night

docorion organdized an expotition to Finland Steam Baths, right in Quincy, and it was luxurious and marvellous! It ended up being

docorion, me,

plumtreeblossom,

underwatercolor, and

minerva42, and we had a great and relaxing time. For that many people, it was only $20/person/hr., quite a deal! I predict many more trips there in my future.

(After that we had yummy Japanese food at Kagawa.)

I haven’t been very good about journalling lately. I’m still here; I’ve just been busy. Recent events:

Went with cathijosephine to bearsir’s excellent and well-attended reading at desiringsubject’s house from Bear’s recent book Butch is a Noun.
Went to DC for a con. Had transportation hell on the way there. Had a good time, although being so late started me off a bit on the wrong foot.
Had a fab dinner with cathijosephine at our favourite Irish pub. (Light on the Guinness — we shared one — and heavy on the Meat. Oh, addendum to my previous medical post: It turns out I have mild anemia. Meeting with my PCP tomorrow to talk about that. Nice to have confirmation for my intuitive sense that I’m an obligate carnivore.) Then stopped in at darxus’ place and hung out for a while, so I got to see both of them before their OMFG! TRIP TO INDIA!
Had a lovely date with plumtreeblossom, in which she introduced me to Gargoyle’s, an upscale restaurant in Davis Square, and we pronounced it good.
Had the followup with my sleep specialist, described elsewhere
I’d been feeding and looking in on cathijosephine’s cat Chickenfinger (who formerly lived with the most awesome xmelancholia and treasonx). Well, a day or so after cathijosephine and darxus left for India, signs went up in her building saying that plumbers were going to be traipsing through everybody’s apartments looking for plumbing problems, because evidently the building’s water usage recently tripled. Chickenfinger is both skittish and fascinated by the World Outside under the best of circumstances; I did not trust the management company or the plumbers to be sufficiently cautious with her, so I brought her over to my place. It’s great having her here, although my nose and eyes definitely notice that there’s cat dander in the house. Well, they notice when I spend long enough petting her on my lap, anyway. :-)
Had another fab date with plumtreeblossom, during which we had dinner with a couple nice people I know (one of whom I know from college and hadn’t seen in about a decade), went to a delightful party with a bunch of awesome people (and yummy munchies), snuggled up in bed with Chickenfinger, and went to the local hole-in-the-wall diner (Sam’s Restaurant, on School Street) for perfect comfort-food brunch.
Did a bit more unpacking. Yes, I’ve been living in this house for a year and I’m nowhere near unpacked. At this rate I have to live to 100, beacause I won’t be done unpacking before then.

That’s about what I can remember. Wow, even in bullet points it’s long. That’ll teach me to update more often. :-)

Oh, one PS I don’t think I’ve mentioned: I shaved off my beard in hopes of a better fit for the full-face CPAP mask. Doesn’t seem to have made any difference, but it’s a little less work to maintain than the goatee, so I’m probably going to keep it that way for a while. I am, however, growing my hair out, so this userpic doesn’t look much like me.

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Another former LJer, now mostly on Facebook

Entries tagged with quincy

Wow, I have nice neighbors!

Rent cathijosephine’s condo in Quincy Center!

Fabulous weekend

Brazilian barbecue!

Super few days

Busy full day

Busy weekend!

Wonderful weekend

My flowers! Let me show you them.

Blooms!

Another wonderful day

Food! Friends! Fireworks!

The good and the bad

(1) Emperor Norton’s Stationary Marching Band; (2) Cats

Yay

Good stuff

no subject

This just ain’t right!

PDA PSA, and steam baths

Super-quick summary of recent events

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August 2016

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