So far, Monday has proven to be a real fire drill at work. Fortunately, I got one of my issues put to bed and look to close on another. Go me! Other thoughts:

Grills

I decided to tell my inner cheapskate to STFU and so I bought this Weber grill. It really is nicer than the Char Broil, and not that much more expensive.

Sad PuppiesI favorably ( Read more... )

Random Thought - Hugos

Marko Kloos and Annie Bellet have both pulled their Hugo-nominated work from contention. I had read the Kloos before this mess - I enjoyed it but it didn't wow me enough for a nomination - and I have never heard of Annie Bellet. In any event, I'm sad that the two of them got caught up in this shit-storm. Sad enough that I ( Read more... )

It's Monday and raining here in Chicago. Rain's actually a good thing - I put down mulch yesterday, so a nice soaking will bed it down.

On the Sad Puppy front, Torgersen's gone full-wingnut and invoked the specter of 9/11. Sayth he: I remember in the wake of 9/11 there seemed to be two camps forming. The first camp devoted itself almost entirely ( Read more... )

In an effort to avoid this blog becoming all-Hugo, all-the-time, herewith are some non-Hugo thoughts. (Hugo-program-related-activities will resume Monday, after the slate is released.)

The First American in WWIIOver at Gin and Tacos, the proprietor has some interesting thoughts on Pearl Harbor. First, he notes that in 1941, before cheap air ( Read more... )

Previously in this space I posted a statement to the effect that my air conditioning at my house was not working. After two repairmen visiting (only one of which charged me) I have been assured that it is functioning correctly. Both asked me to run an experiment, and the results are in ( Read more... )

My AC at my house runs and puts out some cold air, but was unable to pull the house below 75 degrees last night. Of course my parents are visiting as well. Yippee Kay Aye. (At least the repair guy will be in this morning.)

So, last night I loaded up the dishwasher in my house, put in the detergent and turned it on.

Nothing happened. Zip, zero, nada, nilch, nothing. No blown circuit breakers, no other obvious problems, just no washing of the dishes.

Fortunately, I have a home warranty from the sellers, so I opened a claim with them. We'll see what comes out of it

Various odds and ends:

The Joys of Home OwnershipFor the past week or so, my furnace in my house is making a clicking noise.  Turns out that it's a two-stage burner, and the high stage is not working.  Since the low stage is working, I have heat, but it takes a while to get up to temperature.  The repair guy will be back Thursday with parts to fix ( Read more... )

I have to say that I like my new (town)house. First, it's warmer. Even with the heat set at 68, the place feels warmer than my old one. Second, with mostly carpeted floors, it's quieter. The floors at my old place squeaked - these don't. Lastly, my garage is much warmer. It's unheated, but there are (heated) rooms above and to three sides of ( Read more... )

Thing #1

It looks like my Windycon schedule is in flux. More details when I have them.

Thing #2I have a lot of remote monitoring turned on for my work network. Last night, one of the servers monitored had a millisecond-long hiccup which spit out an alert. If I hadn't had the alerts turned on, I wouldn't have known about it. I did so I did, ( Read more... )