(no subject)

so...

i've still not really updated on anything this week. i feel horribly lax, but sometimes i don't want to write, i just want to think.

my mother-in-law and i dropped off my car at the garage tonight. this way, i don't have to awaken at an HOUR WHICH DOES NOT EXIST. hopefully it's something small, like the AC compressor belt, but i have a sinking feeling it's the compressor itself. *sigh*

my in-laws are loaning us the money to have the car fixed, whatever the cost. this is very sweet of them and i'm going to insist that boy send them money monthly. they don't charge interest and have a habit of forgiving "loans", but it makes me feel horribly guilty. and it just serves to remind me that i'm too sick to work and provide a share of the household income.

boy and i drove into philly today. i got to drive his dad's car... i miss driving a manual, but i remember how much more pain i was in when i had one... the metatarsalgia and the carpal tunnel are hitting me with renewed vigor (and using a standard keyboard isn't helping, either).

we met up with some friends in chinatown (same folks we partied with last night, including twilight_spirit, at the annual FoJ weekend party another HS friend of boy's hosts). while wandering in and out of shops, i managed to replace my broken fans (bought one silkpaper/wood fan with a bird on it in silver and green and one plastic/fabric one with a dragon and the words "kung fu") and my parasol (black bamboo parasol with flowers and birds on it).

we wandered down to south street, then boy and i bid them all farewell. twilight gave us a ride to our car (back by chinatown) and we headed back to NJ to have supper. Dad always fixes a good spread and grandma was there, too. grandma is my father-in-law's stepmom. she's a sweet and wonderful lady who reads scifi and fantasy. she and i get along well--everyone loves her. the dinner included steak (for everyone but me), herbed string beans, spinach-arugula pesto linguine, and a tomato-basil-mozzarella salad. YUM.

mom and i went down to cvs to buy a fan for the room where boy and i sleep. she also picked up a beach umbrella (i promised to make her a bag for it) and some other stuff. i stopped at border's to pick up an XML book for boy. he was planning on learning it this week, anyhow, since his team is between projects. this way he doesn't have to take a vacation day wednesday.

all in all, it was a busy day, but a restful one, too. boy is tired, but he often is these days. his mom did some reiki mojo on him.

nifty!

twilight_spirit wrote of this, so i had to go dig it up myself. bizarre.

we'd noticed the extreme haziness... like super-smog, without the 100+ degree temps and ultra-high humidity and breathing strain of a normal ozone alert day. from the ben franklin bridge, center city was nearly indistinguishable. and i noticed the odor of burning wood, but didn't link the two.

(pardon the caps, blame the national weather service if you must)
...SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MOUNT HOLLY NJ 950 PM EDT SUN JUL 7 2002
...THE SMOKE SHOULD FINALLY CLEAR BY LATE MONDAY MORNING...

SMOKE FROM FOREST FIRES UP IN QUEBEC CONTINUES TO AFFECT EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA...NEW JERSEY...DELAWARE AND NORTHEASTERN MARYLAND. THE SMOKE HAS BEEN OBSCURING THE SKY AND REDUCING THE VISIBILITY THROUGHOUT THE REGION SINCE SATURDAY AFTERNOON. ALSO...THERE HAS BEEN A PERSISTENT ODOR OF BURNING WOOD.

THE LAST SIGNIFICANT SMOKE PLUME TO AFFECT OUR REGION PASSED OVERHEAD THIS AFTERNOON. A NORTHWEST TO WEST WIND THIS EVENING BROUGHT LIMITED IMPROVEMENT.

DURING THE NIGHT THE WIND SHOULD REMAIN RELATIVELY LIGHT AND AS A RESULT SOME SMOKE SHOULD LINGER. A WEST TO SOUTHWEST WIND IS FORECAST TO DEVELOP ON MONDAY MORNING AND IT WILL LIKELY PUSH THE LAST OF THE SMOKE AND HAZE OUT OF OUR REGION BY MIDDAY.

*glee*

i finished my book (Dale Brown's silver Tower, yes cold war action/thrillers and spy novels are two of my guilty pleasures) a couple days ago. I've been reading various magazines (bon appetit, birding magazings, audobon) since then. i neglected to bring a few extra books to read, which is quite unlike me.

anyhow, just now, i spotted a book on the shelf in here (in-laws' office). It's Journey Through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics, by William Dunham.

ooooooh!

I think I've just found what I'm reading next. I wonder if boy's dad will let me borrow it... I'm sure he will. It's 12 years old, so he's probably read it. It's just odd to see it on the shelf. My in-laws don't keep books around and typically don't store them on bookshelves (an alien concept to me--i grew up in a house with more bookshelves than empty walls).



of, course... boy is reading a pratchett novel at the moment, so i could steal his copy of Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, by Hofstadter. he remembered to bring it along, but i doubt he'd care if i nabbed it.

on the other hand, this dunham is so *appealing* right now, right here. GEB is our own book, so i can read it when boy finishes (or before he finishes). mmmm, decisions.

i could read them BOTH! w00t! not much else to do today...

(no subject)

baobh posted this just for me. 'cause i'm a pirate.

yarrrrr

(no subject)

channeling an idiot

*giggling*

leaving for home soon.

car is done.

my in-laws are angels.

we will be paying them a small sum monthly for the rest of our lives, but the car is FIXED.

and yes, the repairs cost just about two months' worth rent.

eeeeek.