Sorry for my extreme radio-silence lately. I’ve been mostly sort of keeping up with other people’s LiveJournal posts (albeit with more skimming than usual), but I haven’t had time or brainpower to post or do much commenting. Anyway, since I’m sure you all are wondering whether I’m still alive, here’s some of what I’ve been up to lately:

Home repairs: Just after cathijosephine moved out, the bath surround (the panels on the wall around the bathtub) fell off. Well, large bits of it did, anyway. It had never been all that convinced it wanted to be attached to the wall, and it gave up. I had been thinking for a very long time (since before I moved in, come to think of it) of pulling it off and repairing whatever damage it had been put up to cover, but had never gotten around to it, in part because it involves not being able to use the shower for extended periods of time due to wating for various bits to dry. Anyway, since I didn’t have a housemate for a bit (anybody want to move in? Quincy’s got lots of history and lots of yummy restaurants! Won’t be available for a bit yet, though.) I decided I’d go ahead and try that. As is the way with these things, it quickly became a much larger project than I expected it to. It was just three days ago (after starting the project about a month ago, although of course I’ve been working on it in spurts) that I finally had a day where I left the bathroom looking better than when I started.

This has all taken a lot longer because of not having a working car any more, so when I discover I don’t have the right tool or I didn’t get enough tile adhesive, I need to either carry stuff on the T (and on the walk home from the T) or rent a Zipcar. (I have to say, I’m really enjoying using Zipcar. But still, it means having to plan stuff in advance.)

Theater: As I did last year, I’m rehearsal-assisting for plumtreeblossom’s show in the summer one-act festival at Theatre@First. Unlike last year, I’m also going to be on the run crew, which I don’t think I’ve ever done. Means I can’t sit in the audience for the actual performances, but it means I get to be on stage, albeit with the lights dimmed. Also unlike last year, the show plumtreeblossom is directing is one she wrote herself! My darling is having her début as a playwright! I’ve read a bunch of short stories she got published before I met her and really enjoyed them, but this is the first substantial writing she’s done since I’ve known her, and I’m thrilled to see her getting back into it. It is a really funny show being put on by very talented actors and it’s going to be a blast! Many of the other one-acts are also really funny too, including the one being directed by surrealestate (who is directing for the first time, if I’m not misremembering). I am really really looking forward to this and you should all come see it.

plumtreeblossom: Things continue to be delightful in my relationship with plumtreeblossom! We have lots of wonderful dates and delightful times. Tomorrow we are going to see Up for the third time. :-) Her cat Rowley who had been frighteningly skinny for a while has been putting on weight, which is really encouraging. We’d already been mentally preparing to lose him. Not sure if the subcutaneous fluids the vet has her giving him are what made the difference or not, but he’s doing a lot better.

Work: Work is busy, but rewarding, and I feel like I’m accomplishing stuff (although projects in IT, as in homeownership, tend to take several times as long as you think they should).

cathijosephine: I’m delighted that I’m still seeing lots of cathijosephine despire her having moved out. We’ve been trying to have dinner together once a week (often with darxus and m_c_t if he’s in town, and sometimes with xmelancholia). Chickenfinger (her cat) has adapted really well to moving back to her condo; we were both worried she’d be upset about moving back to a much smaller space, but she had no trouble adjusting at all.

(Other than seeing a lot of plumtreeblossom her housemate and cathijosephine and her partners, and the Firsties, I’m feeling a bit undersocialized and missing my friends. Have been popping my head in at some lovely parties though, at one of which I got to catch a glimpse of the delightful weegoddess during a visit this side of the pond.)

I feel like there’s been other important stuff over the past few weeks, but I’ve run out of brain so I’m going to stop for now.

Happy birthday dan4th!

(And I’ve already wished majes a happy birthday in person, but here’s a belated LJ Happy Birthday as well.)

My home server is down due to a neighbourhood-wide power outage. (Probably a blown transformer.)

All better! Now I can take a shower with warm water!

(Thanks to everybody who answered my David Paterson question!)

There’s a great podcasting app available for my new phone (an Android Dev Phone, the unlocked version of the T-Mobile G1, about which I could write an awful lot if I had the time and energy), so I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts. Most often, I’m listening to On Point. (It’s two hours every weekday, so that’s a lot to listen to even if I don’t listen to every show.)

Tonight, I listened to yesterday’s segment “Everything, Incorporated”, in which Douglass Rushkoff talks about the ideas in his new book Life, Inc.. I found it really really interesting. He talks about the origins of the modern corporation and of money, about railroads and corn and hiring a lactation consultant to teach you how to breastfeed so you don’t have to impose on mothers you know to talk to you about it and about being criticised by his neigbours for posting about a mugging because they thought it would hurt their property values. It’s a fascinating scratch-the-surface but very interesting examination of how we ended up with the social and economic structure we live in. It touches (briefly) on an idea I’ve had rolling around in my head for a long time and wanted to post about (but never collected my thoughts enough) about how money distorts our priorities and our notions of sacrifice and benefit, because some kinds of value and importance are much more easily measurable with money than other kinds.

Anyway, if any of that sounds interesting, I would encourage you to listen to it. The page linked above has a big “Listen to This Show” button to stream it, or you can download he mp3 here.

(This is something I’ve wondered for a while.)

Following the national media, I know basically four things about David Paterson:

• I know about his succession of Eliot Spitzer, and the biographical stuff about him that was reported at the time.
• I know about his appointment of Kristen Gillibrand to fill Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat when she was picked for Secretary of State.
• I know about his active work to legalize same-sex marriage in New York State.
• And I know that he is desperately unpopular.

What I don’t know is why he is unpopular. I have the impression that the Gillibrand selection pissed off some people in inside-baseball sorts of ways, but that can’t be all of it. But in Massachusetts, I don’t hear about the day-to-day running of state government in New York. So, those of you who know, why is Paterson so unpopular?

Thanks. We now return you to your regularly scheduled friends page, already in progress.

Lots of fun lately!

Friday after work, I met plumtreeblossom after work for fried chicken. The Popeye’s in Kenmore Square where we’d been planning on eating was insanely crowded due to a ball game, so plumtreeblossom suggested we turn it into an impromptu picnic. We walked a few blocks with our food to the Esplanade and had a lovely dinner by the Charles.

From there we walked to the Charles/MGH T stop, and on the way we saw a family of Canada geese with three cute little goslings! Pictures on Flickr (scroll down a bit).

After stopping at plumtreeblossom’s house to dump off our stuff and get cleaned up, we went to a combination birthday (yay!) and going-away (boo!) party for Theatre@First stalwart and all-round sweetheart big_jewfro. We were unfortunately too tired to stay very long but we had just a wonderful time. plumtreeblossom managed to drag me into the karaoke room, which I thought I wouldn’t enjoy, but I had a fabulous time. It was a truly delightful party. I hope the Boston area ends up getting big_jewfro and his sweetie back eventually, but wherever he settles will be a big bright spot visible from orbit.

When we got to plumtreeblossom’s house (fortunately only a few blocks from the party) we collapsed right away.

Saturday morning we had breakfast at local favourite The Burren and then went to Earthfest, an annual eco-themed music and marketing event on the Charles River Esplanade. I’d never been before, but plumtreeblossom’s been several times and said this year’s was the most crowded she’s seen. This is a free concert with an associated vast stretch of marketing tents, all with some connection ranging from direct to very tenuous with ecology. Oh, and food vendors, of course. We had a lovely time, but the crowd was very dense and it was a lot of walking and waiting. Lots and lots of cute dogs to look at! And the weather was spectacular. I’ve put a few photos on Flickr.

Saturday evening I helped eisa unload at her new apartment. Due to the large number of people and the relatively small amount of stuff it was very quick, and the traditional pizza was yummy. I’m delighted to have her (and her dogs) back in the area.

Now, I think, it’s time for bed.

PS — During the course of the weekend, plumtreeblossom and I discovered that the longest of the three escalator flights at the Porter Square T stop is exactly one hundred kisses long.

Today when I got home from work, I was too tired and low-brain-function to do anything actually useful. But repetitive stuff involving pictures was not beyond me, so I uploaded some of the photos I took when plumtreeblossom and I went to see the Big Apple Circus in April to Flickr. You can see them here.

(Partly for my own reference, so I don’t have to Google image search again:)

So the first flowers to come up and blossom in my yard this year are perennial lupine, with lovely conical clusters of purple flowers. This is the first year they’ve come up, but they must be from the mix I planted two years ago.

I also have some coreopsis getting tall, although that hasn’t started budding yet. And a few days ago plumtreeblossom and I planted a bunch of seeds, including lots and lots of baby snapdragons, which are already a green carpet of little sprouts.

I love my darling, who brings flowers and love into my life.

So yesterday, while cathijosephine and m_c_t were borrowing my car to run errands, the muffler fell off. Oops! So I guess the sound I noticed the other day was not exactly a hole in the muffler after all. I'm very glad it happened after they got back to Quincy from Costco, but it's an expense I wasn't quite expecting.

Anybody want a slightly used 1983 Diesel Mercedes? Almost like new?

As usual lately, I’m too busy living life to write about it — I haven’t even really caught up on reading LiveJournal since my New York trip — but here are some recent highlights.

On Friday, plumtreeblossom and I got together with our LJ-bereft friend J. at Namaskar for yummy Indian food and catching up. We really like him, and we hadn’t seen him in ages, so that was great.

On Saturday morning, we took plumtreeblossom’s cat Rowley to Angell for training on giving him subcutaneous fluids (and in the process giving him his first administration of subcutaneous fluids). He did not like being put in the box and travelling — he had an even harder time with it than last time — but he had no problem with the actual procedure, which plumtreeblossom performed like a pro, and he seemed to perk up afterwards.

On Saturday evening we went to a fabulous delightful party with lots of wonderful snuggly people. A cute woman quite justifiably admired my honeywuzzle’s legs. Got to catch up with a few friends I hadn’t seen in a while. Thanks so much to our wonderful hosts who created a spectactular party!

On Sunday morning, we got together with zzbottom and library_sexy at a new-to-us Portuguese place in Union Square, the Neighborhood Restaurant and Bakery. The food was very very yummy, and the catching up was great. Afterwards we stopped into a nearby comic-book store, where plumtreeblossom got an Obama action figure (yes, she’s a serious fangirl; so am I) and I got another zombie-themed board game to add to my collection.

And on Sunday afternoon I did some yard work and a little bit of tidying up in the house, and finally got around to posting something to LiveJournal. :-)