December 29
[ Taken October 9, 2008 | Burano Lace | Burano, IT ]
Polaroid has stopped making its signature film, and since I have a Polaroid back for my Calumet field camera that I need 4x5 Polaroid film (Polaroid 54, to be precise) for, I decided that I had better go out and stock up while there is still film around left to stock up on.
Both of the local camera stores that I have used in the past are gone. Really gone, as in empty storefronts with “for rent” signs in the windows. I don’t even know when it happened, and I feel like I should, since I drove by both stores on my way to work.
Ouch.
I will hopefully be able to find the film I want online for a reasonable price. (Amazon.com and a couple of other places that I have looked so far all want about $200 for a box of 20 exposures, which I consider to be highway robbery.)
Still. Ouch.
Dayton (as is every place that has historically relied very heavily on manufacturing and the auto industry for economic stability) is doing very, very badly right now…
December 18
[ Taken October 9, 2008 | Blue Windowa | Venice, IT ]
I have been sleeping... oddly... for the past several weeks. I wake up every morning between 2 and 3 am, regardless of what time I go to bed. There is no reason for this, as far as I can tell, unless the cats are waking me up.
My coffee maker chose this morning to die. I ground the beans, loaded it up, added the water, turned it on... and it just sat there, flat out refusing to percolate. Thank god for the backup French Press (generally used for loose leaf teas).
Yesterday I brought some leftover soup (butternut squash soup) in to work for lunch. I only ate about half of it, and put the rest back into the fridge on my floor. Sometime between then and now, someone stole my leftover leftovers out of the office fridge. (This has happened before, unfortunately. Among other items that have "mysteriously vanished" out of the office fridge were leftover Thai curry, leftover homemade pizza, and a ham and cheese sandwich. I try not to use the office fridge very much anymore.)
Can it just be Friday afternoon already?
December 16
[ Taken October 9, 2008 | Blue Gondola | Venice, IT ]
I am festive... sort of.
I have finally finished writing out and addressing holiday cards... though I still have to drop them in the mail and also go to the postoffice to get airmail stamps for the one I am sending to my relatives in Spain.
I have finally finished my shopping. (Thank you Amazon.com for allowing me to do all of my shopping in one "place" and while wearing my bathrobe and flannel pajamas. Thank you also for the swift delivery. The packages arrived yesterday.) I still need to wrap everything, though.
I made cookies. Pizzelles... my favorite. I even brought a bunch to work to share with my group. (I ended up eating most of them... no one wanted any.)
No tree this year ... tree + lights + shiny and enticing ornaments + very playful and curious kitten + pissed off elderly cat = possibly a bad idea. I had visions of coming home from work to find a tree on the floor with half the ornaments broken and the rest scattered throughout the house. I did hang some mini ornaments from the potted clementine tree in the kitchen. Hopefully those won't become cat toys...
December 12
[ Taken October 9, 2008 | Decorative window grate on Torcello | Torcello, IT ]
I was chatting on the phone with a colleague in New York prior to a meeting for a project that we are both working on, and she let slip that she has been working from home all week and has logged 70+ hours of work so far.
Yikes. Some weeks, that's me...
Now, I like working from home as much as the next person... That is where the cats and the coffeemaker are. It is quieter and less distracting then the office. I don't have to get dressed, and can wear my fuzzy slippers and flannel pajamas all day if I want to.
But I think that that little snippet of casual conversation illustrated excellently the seductive danger of working from home. Whenever I have worked from home in the past, I have always found myself working much longer days then I would otherwise. (Granted, I also feel like I am much more productive at home because it lacks the myrid distractions of the office.) There is no transition period (aka "the commute") to signal that one is done for the day. You just work until all of a sudden you notice that "hey... its 7pm and time to start thinking about dinner".
Working from home can "work", and you can do it without putting in crazy long hours... you just have to set yourself some boundaries (and I know that I need to get better at that one) and keep in mind the upsides and downsides to working at home versus working at the office.
December 11
[ Taken November 27, 2008 | The Kitten | Dayton, OH ]
The car. It wasn't as painful as it could have been. It could have been worse. I am now the proud owner of a brand new starter motor assembly and battery, both of which are under warrenty for the next three years. Hopefully I will not need that warrenty... but at least it is there. Just in case.
I am finally feeling pretty much recovered from my last UK trip (got back Saturday evening) and completely operating in the correct time zone. No more waking up before 5am and falling asleep on the couch before 8pm. Now I am back to beingmy normal, mildly insomniac, night owl self.
There are two things that I especially enjoy on the first morning after getting back from a London trip. The first good cup of coffee… since coffee in the UK can be pretty hit-or-miss as far as quality. And a scalding hot shower… since the showers in the hotel where I usually stay tend to be tepid at best.
The trip was pretty standard for the most part, except that I ended up needing to go on a bit of a brief shopping spree. I didn't find out until I was already there that my last evening in town was the same evening as the rather fancy dinner and dancing holiday party for the UK Camden office. My co-workers got me an invitation, and then one of them went shopping with me over lunch in the shops around the Camden Market. You can get some pretty neat stuff there... My co-worker was impressed that I managed to put together a party outfit (top and shoes... I already had a pair of tuxedo pants with me that I could wear) in less then 15 minutes. What can I say... I am a decisive shopper...
I did forget that US and UK sizes are completely different. The UK doesn't indulge in vanity sizing the way that the US does… so a size 6 US is a size 10/12 in the UK. Shoe sizes go the opposite way for some reason. A size 8 shoe in the US is a size 4 or 5 in the UK.
The party was nice. Pretty standard as far as work parties go, but since the office where I am based in Dayton doesn't really do holiday parties anymore, and never did fancy dinner parties (at least not for as long as I have been there) I will take what I can get. The food was good, a traditional British Christmas meal, and the alcohol was both decent and plentiful. The dancing... the vaguely awkward we-are-all-colleagues dancing... that was pretty fun too. I think that there must be some rule that every party that includes dancing uses the same mix of early 80s music. The stuff that the DJ was playing at the party was the same stuff that I used to dance to in college when the club that I went to did an 80's night. The ice sculpture (shaped like a Christmas tree, with some interesting channels carved into the branches) that got used as a beer/hard alcohol bong was slightly less standard... but in some ways the Brits are a little bit more freewheeling then us in the US...
Interesting evening. A good time.
December 8
[ Taken October 6, 2008 | Pigeons and pink lamps in St Marks square | Venice, IT ]
There is no good time for car troubles.
My car died midway through errands Sunday afternoon. One minute it was fine, the next minute, it was effectively dead. When I turned the key, the lights came on, and the radio came on, but the engine didn’t even try to turn over. I tried to get a jump start, but since that didn’t work I figured that the problem was either something in the starter motor, or that god hated me. The starter motor was the more likely culprit, but I wasn’t willing to rule out god hating me either.
It being Sunday afternoon, no one was available to do anything. So I left the car in the store parking lot and walked the mile or so home.
There may be no good time for car troubles, but better for the car to die if I am within walking distance of home. If it had died in the parking lot of the airport (over an hour drive from home) on Saturday evening when all I wanted to do after a nine hour flight was get home and sleep, it would have been a totally different story.
This afternoon I had the car towed literally right across the street to the garage I use.
This evening they called me to say that the problem was the battery… it had just enough juice in it for the lights and radio, but not enough to power the starter. Okay. Put in a new battery. (Relief that the problem was simple, easy, and cheap to fix…annoyance that the attempted jump start in the parking lot the day before didn’t take.) Less then an hour later, the garage called back to say that there was a problem with the starter motor after all, and that it was causing the battery to drain out completely. Okay. Replace or fix the starter motor. It isn’t like I have much choice in the matter.
They won’t get the parts they need until Wednesday. The parts will not be cheap.
Okay. Well… it is still less expensive then a new car…
At least I was right about the starter motor. The jury is still out about god hating me… I may know more about that when I see the final bill for all of this…