On The Funway

Hugo Voting: Under the Wire

gfs@toad-hall.com — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:21:25 GMT

I just submitted my Hugo ballot, finally conceding the point that I just wasn't going to get enough reading done to vote knowledgeably in several categories. So much for my plan to fill my convalescence with Hugo reading.

Reminder to all: the deadline is tonight. If you're eligible and having voted yet, now's the time.

Kudos to Anticipation for sending out multiple reminders, including one today. Even more kudos for including my my membership number and Hugo PIN in each reminder email.

It was 20 years ago today....

gfs@toad-hall.com — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:14:09 GMT

Love, joy, and congratulations to fredcritter and Susan on this, the 20th anniversary of your wedding day.

I remember so much from that day, and from the days and years that followed so swiftly, swiftly. I treasure those memories. Even more, I treasure the two of you.

Added bonus prize: Jeff Healy's BBC performance of the song written by John Hiatt and Fred Kroller, and from 1989 no less.

Using Twitter?

gfs@toad-hall.com — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 04:00:57 GMT

A trustworthy frind of mine says someone trustworthy says:

For those on Twitter: Set your location to Tehran and your time zone to GMT +3.30. Security forces are hunting for bloggers using location/timezone searches. The more people at this location, the more of a logjam it creates for forces trying to shut down Iranians' access to the internet. Cut & paste & please pass it on.

Okay, this was enough to get me to sign up for Twitter. I'm gerifsullivan there as there were already four other Geri Sullivans. My bio shows me as the Geri Sullivan of Toad Woods. Location and timezone as above; I'll reset it when it's no longer productive to have it as is.

I can't resist, either

gfs@toad-hall.com — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:02:49 GMT

dragonet2 just posted a different link to this. Her subject line? "I can't resist" and neither could I. (I clicked through her Slashfood link to the blogger's original post. Thanks, dragonet2!)

Excuse Me, Waiter...? There's a Large Bird of Prey in My Soup."

Read through to the end.

Not FOMS

gfs@toad-hall.com — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 07:46:30 GMT

This isn't Fear of Missing Something, it's Fear of Missing EVERYTHING.

Click through the EVERYTHING to the Thursday night reading of Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Night Dream photos that dd_b took at Fourth Street Fantasy Convention.

Look at the pictures; look at the people. Friends and loved ones going on 25 years now, some I've met more recently, and others I so, so, so want to meet RIGHT NOW. (Well, okay, in the morning, over coffee and bagels in the consuite. This is Fourth Street. Please tell me there are bagels in the consuite. It's canonical.)

Look at the program that skzb and casacorona put together. Imagine the conversations that will come of that.

How can I not be there? How can any of us not be there?

dd_b, thanks a kazillion and more for the photos! I look forward to seeing more (and more and more) throughout the rest of the weekend.

For those who are there, and those who will be, I hope each and every one of you has a fabulous time. I certainly would if I were there, and I wouldn't wish you any less.

(Does anyone reading this believe I'm really, truly going to bed now?)

State and Country Collectors: What happens when we flip 'em?

gfs@toad-hall.com — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 07:22:21 GMT

jcbemis and fla_sunshine are visiting right now. I'm thoroughly enjoying their company and tonight, just before going up to bed (I thought!), I added the header to a new page in the Friends of Toad Woods Register so they can both sign the book before heading to Worcester for ConCertino on Friday.

I left the book open on the table and started to head upstairs. Somewhere in there, I realized, wow, I'd just picked up another state. They're my first visitors from Florida since I moved here just over five years ago.

Soon I was tallying the rest. So much for going to bed right then.

In the last five years and one month, I've had visitors from 12 U.S. states (AL, CA, FL, IL, MA, MI, MN, NH, NY, PA, VA, WA) and two foreign countries (Poland and Canada). Given there are only two countries, I wouldn't have predicted that Poland would be one of them.) The repeat and multiple visitors from those states and countries is pretty impressive, too, with the numbers being eight and nine, respectively.

In all, 77 different people have visited Toad Woods. Thirty-eight of those have come back again, for a total of 57 repeat visits (from eight different states). Some visitors have signed is as many as seven different times; there are a few loved ones who have undoubtedly visited more frequently -- when someone is a regular visitor, I don't always pull out the book.

Of those 77 people, 40 of them stayed overnight, 17 of them from seven different states staying over repeatedly. Those numbers come as a welcome surprise. I moved to a rural area. While it's proven to be a convenient stay-over location for some of my visitors, more often it's been friends and loved ones coming to visit. It takes long enough to get here that staying overnight is usually a good idea. :-)

The biggest change from the 20 years at Toad Hall is that I've only had 3 large parties here, and all three were in the first 16 months I lived here. That's primarily due to the financial disaster that was 2005 and the fact that I've never really recovered from it. Hosting large parties was one of the early budget cuts. I miss them, but I miss publishing Idea, too, and budget dollars for that went away even before I moved to New England.

Another big difference from the Toad Hall years is that some visitors come for a week or even two, repeatedly, in addition to the shorter (weekend) visits that were more typical in Minneapolis. Again, the rural setting plays a part, as does my distance from midwestern loved ones. I totally adore and treasure the fact that Susan and Gavi have been out for three visits each lasting longer than a week and that they'll be back again next month for their fourth. elaine_brennan and carnyjack are the other loved ones who spend a lot of time here, much to my appreciation and enjoyment.

If memory serves, during those same five years, I've stayed overnight in 19 different homes of friends and family in nine states (CO, IL, IN, MA, MI, MN, NY, PA, VA) and two Canadian provinces (ON and MB). From memory, again, I've made repeat visits to nearly half of those, and a similar number have been extended visits (1-5 weeks, and if we total the number of nights I've stayed in debgeisler and benveniste's home, they'll either start charging me rent or I'll have the frequent stay equivalent of a Premier Exec for life on United.) So much for thinking I'm not traveling much these days.

I of course now want to look through the Friends of Toad Hall list that Karen Johnson compiled for me as part of the house cooling festivities and see how many more states and countries my "visitors from" map collects from that. There's England, Northern Ireland, Russia, Romania, and Australia for sure, and at least one more Canadian province, I think. I've had visitors from a lot more countries than I've been to.

But I'm on my way to bed, remember? I do. The rest of the map will wait for another time.

NSFW. So NSFW.

gfs@toad-hall.com — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:04:43 GMT

See subject line. Not Safe For Work. Totally Not Safe For Work.

I'm behind the times; I'd never even heard of air sex.

Now I find out the so-called Air Sex World Championships are currently underway. So-called, because the performance art was reportedly invented in Japan, but all of this year's competition are in North America.

The competitions in Austin, Atlanta, DC, NYC, Toronto, Chicago, and Kansas City were earlier this month. All of the remaining competitions are out West: Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, Bellingham, San Francisco, San Diego, LA, and Tucson. Wednesday night's competition on Salt Lake City has been canceled: "Apparently the Alcoholic Beverage Commission felt that Air Sex constituted a lewd act and threatened to pull the license from our venue if the show went on."

Well, yes, it's lewd. Totally lewd and oft times crude. It's also joyously funny, in a fun, laugh-at-ourselves sort of way. Air sex is enlightening, educational, amateur, sex-positive, occasionally hot, and frequently bewildering. Even air partners would become discombobulated if they tried to switch positions as fast and dramatically as some performers' actions indicate.

Air Sex is Safe Sex, at least in the video clips I saw. (Although the guy in Austin with the spurting fruit and the can of whipped cream clearly didn't get the air part of the equation.)

A 1970s advertising lesson comes to mind

gfs@toad-hall.com — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 05:22:39 GMT

So, car makers need to move cars. They really need to move cars.

Add to that the fact that we live in the future, and we come to a letter I received in Monday's mail. Balise Toyota in West Springfield sent mail offering a "100% of the factory full base model MSRP" on my trade in if I upgrade to a "new 2008 or 2009 Toyota."

(Please note that I bought my 2003 Toyota Matrix in June of 2002, so they're working to sell new cars from not just the last model year, but the previous one as well).

Of course there's an asterisk on the bold-faced offer. Even the standard roman face says "All customers will receive 100% of the base model MSRP* in trade on a new Toyota." No, they'll receive a trade-in allowance based on that amount less deductions for equipment failure, body/interior damage, reconditioning costs, and mileage adjustments." As in, no customers will receive 100% of the base model MSRP.

Still, they're trying to move cars. And they really got my attention with the gradient-screened call-out in the middle of the page. The headline (and the largest type on the page other than the Toyota logo): GeriSullivan.ToyotaUpgradeEvent.com

Then there's a paragraph about how they've set up a convenient online service for me to find out how much they'll offer for my trade-in. Yep, my very own web page, complete with a personal access code. Okay, I'm impressed. Or I was until I tried to log on. There was a little implementation problem. The case-sensitive access code was printed in bold face, all caps (on the letters, that is), and underlined. I typed it in as shown, and received an error message in response. I tried again with the same results. So I tried lowercase on the letters. Sure enough, that worked. Hey, folks. Access codes/passwords tend to be case sensitive. It's important to pay attention to that when preparing the direct mail materials (and/or database fields) that contain them.

I hope the web gurus are tracking the number of log-in failures in response to the personalized marketing effort, and that they learn from it. I forget whether it was Advertising 205 (Intro to Advertising) or Communication 420 (Message Design), but the number #1 rule of any sales campaign is that if the product isn't on the shelf when the consumer goes to the store, it doesn't matter how good your ad is. All of the details that can be bollixed along the way deserve just as much attention as the ad itself.

benyalow explained the technology for the individual web pages to go along with however many letters they sent out. It isn't really of the future; it's solidly 20th century tech. Ah, the wonders of data bases. As you'll see if you go look at it, the web page picks up my name and the fact that I have a 2003 Toyota Matrix from the database before we even get to the access code. It's only after login that they both provide and collect more information. Even though it didn't work correctly, it certainly got my attention. Guess I'm not so jaded after all.

I'm curious to see what they offer in terms of a trade-in. I'm far more inclined to keep my current car running as long as I reasonably can as that's likely to be the most cost-effective approach in the long run. But I'd already noticed the O% APR financing offers and those combined with anything resembling a sweet trade-in offer could be interesting indeed. If you've got the money and/or income, it looks like a good time to buy a car.

Speaking of living in the future (and the illusion thereof), I'm not sure which scares me more: the fact that I remember department codes and course numbers from courses I took 30-37 years ago, or the fact that I can confirm my memory with a couple of clicks -- MSU's online archived course descriptions go back to 1970, two years before I became a student there. The online information was faster, easier, and more complete that walking to one of two filing cabinets here in my home, pulling out a transcript, and giving it a quick once-over to double check the course codes.

My friends find the greatest links...

gfs@toad-hall.com — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 02:04:51 GMT

Thanks to madrobins and the wonders of Cake Wrecks, I point all at R2-D2: Beneath the Dome. Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. Or, as Mad so entertainingly puts it, The Can from Bollocks.

I've been home....

gfs@toad-hall.com — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:06:31 GMT

...for a full 9 hours now. It hasn't stopped raining since I got here. This is not as welcoming as I would have hoped. Mostly, it's just plain wet.

Outdoors only, thank ghu.

Preserving the Virtual Town Common

gfs@toad-hall.com — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 08:39:40 GMT

I usually throw spam directly into the trash, rarely bothering to open it. When I do open it, and even when I take a close look at the headers, just to see what they tell me, the trash is the usual destination. About once or twice a year, I forward the message to abuse@domain_name. Typically it's to someone I have an account with, when the spam message is even more pernicious than the usual lot.

All I've ever received back is an automated note acknowledging receipt of my message and elaborating on basic computer security matters. Until now.

Pretty much all that comes into the Science-Fiction Five-Yearly email address is spam, and there's not much at that. A couple of bog-common messages a week, nothing more. Until the last couple of days, when SFFY received a couple of notices that its World of Warcraft account was being sold or traded in violation of the user agreement. I ignored and trashed the first one, then took a closer look when the second message showed up Thursday.

I forwarded the message to the abuse team at the domain supposedly originating the message...and also to the abuse team at the web host for the URL the "please verify your identity at the following web page" was actually pointing at (not what it appeared to be pointing at).

A few hours later, I received the following message from a support rep at the web hosting service:

"Hello,

"We have suspended the reported account immediately. Thank you for the assistance.

"Best Regards,

Now, maybe they actually suspended the account, and maybe they didn't. I'd never heard of the place before today and have little sense of how reliable or trustworthy they are. Online reviews seem to point both ways. But I do appreciate having heard back from them and hope very much they took appropriate action on the account in question.

(And I hope they looked at more than just my message -- while I suspect the real url pointer when to a bad guy, it would be all too easy to attack a legitimate account this way. Not as lucrative, mind you, but still...)

Safely home, sans gallbladder and gargoyle

gfs@toad-hall.com — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 01:26:44 GMT

The 85-mile trip home took most of 5.5 hours today. I built in several breaks, stopping for a half-hour or more pretty much every half-hour of driving. First at the NESFA Clubhouse, then at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, then a welcome visit with nesfan, and finally at the Charleton rest area, just for good measure.

The frequent stops proved to be a good strategy. When I arrived home, I had enough energy to move sixteen packed bags plus two bags of groceries from the car to the first floor of the Zeppelin Hangar. Sorry, fringefaan; it wasn't 3x3, but rather 4x4. (The ants go marching....)

The house is standing, but the window box was somehow knocked mostly to the ground while I was gone and my beloved not-a-gargoyle is now a scattered mass of shards. I suspect a deer came in close to investigate the romaine lettuce growing in the window box, then had the bejeesus scared out of it when it knocked the window box loose from its rack. I supposed it could have been some other animal larger than a squirrel and smaller than a deer, but deer seem the most likely suspects.

I've just started reading Jim Butcher's Dresden Files books. Perhaps magic or wizardry are responsible, instead.

It sure was a good gargoyle. I'll miss him.

Still, it's good to be home.

I took the bag of dirty laundry downstairs and started the dehumidifier -- the basement really needs it. I suppose I should carry a bag upstairs and make sure everything is okay there, too. There's only one problem. If I do, I may well just fall into bed and sleep the sleep of the healing.

Bunny First

gfs@toad-hall.com — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:55:46 GMT

Back at Easter, my sister Sue sent a unique basket my way. Foiled-wrapped eggs and Russell Stover treats were nestled between skeins of cotton yarn sent in anticipation of the babe our elder niece and her husband are expecting in early September.

The tasty chocolates are long gone. I've finally turned my attention to the yarn and book of baby washcloth patterns that came with it. I started the first washcloth last night finished the blue baby bunny pattern today. Next up? The yellow ducky is calling my name....

The washcloths are ideal instant gratification knitting. Thirty-seven stitches to a row, 56 rows of knitting and you're done. Knits and purls form the pattern so there's enough variety to keep it interesting for a couple of hours.

After the ducky, I'll probably do the frog. It's in the Garden Washcloths pattern book also by Melissa Burgland Burnham. I picked it up a couple of years ago just for fun and am glad to finally be putting it to good use.

Little Gallbie's Adventure Stories

gfs@toad-hall.com — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 04:27:44 GMT

In a mere 4 hours, debgeisler will be driving me to the hospital where I will say my final farewell (and good riddance) to Sir G. Bladder, aka Little Gallbie.

Both names were granted this past week by Mr. Improbable, Marc Abrahams. They make me smile.

We have to be there at 5:30 am; surgery is scheduled for 7:30 am and should be done by 9 or so. If all goes according to plan, I'll won't be staying there overnight. Some people end up staying one night and coming home the next day. If they have to do it the "old way," I'll be in the hospital for 3-4 days and have a much longer recovery period, too. I'm rooting for things going according to plan.

The hospital reportedly has wifi. Deb will be posting some friends-locked entries here, and both she and elaine_brennan are likely to post one or more updates on Little Gallbie's departure, my use of the Comfort Penguin, and other amusements along the way.

If you don't have access to my friends-locked posts and would like updates emailed to you, please send a note to Elaine and ask her to add you to the email distribution list she's managing for me for the next few days, or however long it takes for me to be reasonably back on my feet again.

Elaine's address is elaineb at gmail dot com.

Thanks for all your thoughts and good wishes. Much appreciated!

Bye-bye, Little Gallbie. I'm glad you were happy living here for so very long, and appreciate the clarity and speed with which you made it apparent you're ready to leave. In just a few hours, we'll both be the better for that.

Sex with Ducks!

gfs@toad-hall.com — Sun, 31 May 2009 17:19:21 GMT

Three huzzahs and thanks to Dr. Paisley for posting this to his LiveJournal:

The Very Bad Lawnmower

gfs@toad-hall.com — Sun, 31 May 2009 00:51:51 GMT

My lawnmower must have killed somebody in a past life, and it couldn't have been an accident. Oh, no, my lawnmower must have been truly evil and have a long, lawnmower's life to restore karmic balance in the lawnmower universe.

Six summers ago, I bought a shiny, red Craftsman lawnmower with a 6.75 horsepower Briggs & Stratton engine. "MRS" the engine says. That stands for "Most Reliable Start"; if the lawnmower is married, her spouse must be off-planet or something.

There's a lot of grass to cut at Toad Woods. Much of it is on slopes. There are rocks and branches and divots and all sorts of things that are considerably less than friendly to lawnmowers. I'm also slovenly in my mowing habits, all too often letting the grass and meadow flowers get knee high before stumbling on a workable combination of 1) being home; 2) having the grass be dry enough to mow; 3) being awake; 4) enough daylight for mowing (I've pushed that one rather a lot); and 5) space in my work schedule to spend time pushing a mower across my yard -- the total distance traversed is close to a mile.

I'm sure there are other factors, but you get the idea. It's arduous mowing under the best of conditions.

But I'm a lawnmower abuser. I don't provide the best of conditions.

In a fair world, my lawnmower would have refused to start at least 3 summers ago. The only thing I do is pour gasoline into it. Even that is full of fail -- the gas is often a year old and I think there was one time when a single can of gas lasted from the end of one season, through all of the next year and the first few mowings of the year after that.

I say, "Here, have some 2-year-old gas."

My mower says, "Vroom. Vroom."

Last year, at the beginning of the season, I bought and installed a replacement cap of "Fresh Start." I also bought a quart of oil, intending to at least drain the original oil and replace it with new, but the bottle still sits on a shelf in the garage, unopened.

That is the extent of maintenance I've done on my lawnmower. The showers and cascades of sparks that fly when I slice the edge off a rock might conceivably be sharpening the blade, but that's not the way to bet. The mower still has the original, 2004 spark plug, oil, filters, and air cleaner. You know, the things all PDFs of lawnmower maintenance schedules tell you to replace every year, and more often than that if you use the mower a lot (or even an ordinary amount).

Which brings us to today. Dealing with gallbladder issues and deadlines kept me from mowing the lawn two weeks ago, back when just the first blades of grass were spurting knee-high seed heads. Then came more work, and most of a week of rain, and I realized I was about to be in a lot of trouble. I can't count on being able to push a mower when I first come home, and I don't even know for sure when that will be. The yard was already more meadow than lawn, and as much as I love that look, the general effect when spread across the entire lawn is that of an abandoned, unkempt property. There's a limit on how much of that I can comfortably tolerate and I'd already been pushing that limit for the last week.

I pulled the mower out, checked the "Fresh Start" cap. "Replace when empty," it says. Nope, not empty, but the gas tank was. Bone dry. Yes, I remember deliberately running it out of gas last fall, thinking I would finally get around to draining and replacing the oil.

The gas can was somewhat less than a quarter full, but there was still plenty of last year's gas to fill the mower's small tank. Or did I last fill the gas can two years ago...?

Frankly, I didn't deserve for the mower to start at all.

I pushed the primer button a few extra times for good measure, but not too many for that can flood things. Hold the dead man's bar, give the cord a swift, steady pull...

"Vroom Vroom."

First try.

My lawnmower must have been very, very bad in a previous life. Many previous lives, maybe.

Not only did it start right up, it restarted without difficulty every time the engine seized and quit when I inadvertently buried the blade in soft soil on the hillside, something that happened far more times than anyone would wish. The groundhogs may be the source of the problem...or maybe it's the sinkhole.

The mower cut each and every blade of the knee-high grass I pushed it over. It chewed up and spit out branches I couldn't see in the thick grass. The blade cried out in horror as it became reacquainted with the reality of my lawn and mowing sensibilities. As daylight moved steadily toward darkness, the mower and I finished the job.

The part of me that is my father's daughter is ashamed. Tools deserve respect, to be properly used and cared for. The part of me that recognizes I'm not a small engine person and I likely never will be is simply amazed that the mower still starts when I pull the cord, that the blade still cuts grass.

I don't deserve this mower, and it certainly doesn't deserve me. Life isn't fair, but that means every so often it brings 6.75 horsepower of sheer luck our way.

Optimist, Pessimist, or Realist?

gfs@toad-hall.com — Sat, 30 May 2009 11:12:41 GMT

It's May 30th.

I just took the snow brush out of my car until next winter.

Additional information that may or may not be pertinent and/or useful:

-- Three weeks ago today, I removed the coal shovel that's so useful when one needs to dig one's car out of a snowbank, especially the snowbanks along the edge of one's driveway that a certain driver has been known to get stuck in...repeatedly...when backing down for a second or third attempt at getting up the curved slope.

-- There are at least three ice scrapers still in the car. They don't take up any space needed for other things and live there year round. Why three? It makes it much more likely that one will be found when it's needed.

-- I've lived in Massachusetts for five years and two weeks.

-- It is entirely possible that those 25 years in Minnesota are still in my bloodstream.

A babe is born

gfs@toad-hall.com — Fri, 29 May 2009 03:54:41 GMT

Welcome to the world, Elisabeth Vivianne Perry! We're so glad you're here.

Congratulations to lollardfish, buttonlass, and buttonfish, and to all of your friends and family, too.

Rubberduckzilla

gfs@toad-hall.com — Wed, 27 May 2009 23:01:07 GMT

frostfox posted this link so bohemiancoast can show it to her son, but I know that it will amuse or horrify far more people than that.

Friends and fans, Rubberduckzilla!

Sorry, hummingbirds

gfs@toad-hall.com — Tue, 26 May 2009 13:28:12 GMT

Last week, I cleaned and attempted to refill the hummingbird feeder. Alas, I didn't let the heated sugar syrup cool enough before pouring it into my glass feeder. I really didn't let it cool enough: the feeder broke into seven different chunks of glass and also left more glass shards than I would have expected in my kitchen sink. Damn. I really liked that feeder.

On Sunday, elaine_brennan and I stopped by Lowe's on our way to Naugatuck. The primary reason was to stock up on salt to fill the water softener before I'm limited to lifting no more than 10# at a time. As we were checking out, I remembered the broken hummingbird feeder. We put the five 40# bags of salt in the car and returned to the store. They of course no longer carry that model. It was a little arty and this year's offerings in arty feeders didn't appeal to my sensibilities. But there was one comparatively plain glass feeder at a tolerable price, so I bought it.

Last night, I made up a quart of sugar water and put it on the stove to heat. "I'm going to be working for quite a while yet," I thought. "It will be easy to leave the syrup on the stove to cool for a few hours."

I returned to my desk and promptly became totally focused on the layout I was working on.

"Why am I smelling roasted marshmallows?" I attributed the odd aroma to sleep deprivation and kept on working right up until the time the smoke detector went off.

Oh. The syrup was never going to cool if I didn't turn off the burner it was sitting on. Oops.

I turned off the flame, then headed for the smoke detector. After disabling it, I opened the patio door to the deck and returned to the pan on the stove.

Hmm. I don't think I've ever seen sugar syrup that dark before, but I was most impressed by the fact that it was still at a full rolling boil even though it had been off the heat for a couple of minutes at that point. Wow, what little liquid was left was forming some really big bubbles, too.

Using a potholder on the handle, just for safety's sake I carried the pot out to the edge of the deck and christened a weed tree and ground below with the still-boiling, now-blackened, liquid sludge. It's water and sugar; it will dissolve eventually and I don't have to worry about it being reported as a toxic clean-up site in the meanwhile. (Obligatory Minicon Oobleck Reference.)

I thought the pot was probably a goner, but great, gromping gallons and gallons of running water kept foaming and turning dark brown, so I kept rinsing the pan out thinking that as soon as the color lightened enough, I'd add some soap and set it to soak. More and more brown foam slowly yielded a few small stainless steel spots on the interior of the pot. Hmmm. Okay. I kept the water running. Anyone who's seen the Grand Canyon knows the power of running water.

The pot is now surprisingly clean, but it may still be a goner. It looks okay, but running my hand over the bottom reveals bumps and buckles that weren't previously there. It wouldn't work well on a glasstop burner at this point, and I doubt that it will continue to conduct heat as evenly as it did before. The Revere copper-clad saucepan served me well for most of a decade beyond it's 25 year warranty. And I have another one just like it, so I don't have to buy another right away. I'll just have to wash dishes a bit more frequently.

I am however, a tad reluctant to start another quart of sugar syrup right now.

Sorry, hummingbirds. I trust you're having a good time chowing down over at the neighbors' feeders and will continue doing so for however long it takes me to fill and hang the new feeder here.

Friends...

gfs@toad-hall.com — Sun, 24 May 2009 05:19:32 GMT

...research recipes and make you oatmeal-cherry-cranberry cookies with Sunsweet Lighter Bake in place of the butter so the warm-from-the-oven cookies have just a quarter gram of fat each.

And what are those three grams of fat doing in a half cup of dry oatmeal, anyway? Especially when the recipe calls for 3 cups of the grain?

Many thanks, Elaine! For the cookies, for your presence, and for all of the help these last two weeks. Much appreciated!

Live from BayCon: The Virtual Fan Lounge

gfs@toad-hall.com — Sat, 23 May 2009 23:10:10 GMT

Even though I'm home with my bum gallbladder in Massachusetts, thanks to katster and ceemage, I spent a most of an hour this afternoon hanging out in the BayCon fan lounge with Kat, Chris Garcia, bovil, and fans watching from the US and the UK: John Purcell, stevegreen, and others.

Details on tomorrow's and Monday's broadcast are in the Tuckerverse community and the USTREAM broadcast is taking place in The Virtual Fan Lounge. There might also be a broadcast later tonight. That's still very much TBD.

Michael Swanwick, Toni Weisskopf, and me

gfs@toad-hall.com — Sat, 23 May 2009 22:54:43 GMT

The back cover of the ConQuesT 40 program book as an ad for ConQuesT 41. It includes mention of the following guests of honor:

Author GoH: Michael Swanwick
Toastmaster: Toni Weisskopf
Fan GoH: Geri Sullivan

Am I ever honored, both by the invitation and to be in such company. Nice. Thank you, ConQuesT!

Sensible: Another Word for Old

gfs@toad-hall.com — Wed, 20 May 2009 02:53:18 GMT

I hates it, I hates it I do.

Grumble, grump, stampfoot, and All That Jazz...

The background: I have a bum gallbladder. Same-day, laparoscopic surgery to have it removed is scheduled for Monday, June 1st. elaine_brennan has been keeping me company through all of the medical appointments and tests of the last 11 days. It's been reassuring to have her readily at hand should the need for a quick trip to the emergency room arise. Fortunately, a low-fat diet seems to be doing the trick in terms of avoiding additional attacks.

After surgery, I'll be convalescing at debgeisler and benveniste's.

It's good, so good, to have friends.

I'm not thrilled about the gallbladder problems, but that's not what I'm grumbling about. Not directly, anyway.

The surgeon gave his okay for my trip to ConQuesT this weekend. There are no guarantees I'd be able to stay out of the ER, he reminded me, but if I felt like going, sure, go.

I left his office feeling like I was living the charmed life. Everything is on track for the surgery, and it wasn't going to mess with my trip to Kansas City. Yes, having to be super careful and only have a small taste of Jack Stack's Lamb BBQ and Sheridan's Frozen Custard would be a hardship, but it would be a manageable one. Seeing everyone and enjoying the convention would be well worth it. Having a bunch of fun between the health problems that led to the diagnosis and the surgery to fix it seemed like just the thing. Escapism R Us.

My euphoria lasted through the rest of last Thursday, all day Friday, and even into Saturday morning.

By Saturday afternoon, I was distinctly dragging. Energy, what energy? A restorative bath turned into an immediate need to lay down when I discovered just how wobbly I was on my feet at the end of it. Elaine brought me an English muffin with some whole fruit topping. (1 gram fat total) I hoped it was just a food problem after so many days of a sparse diet. Maybe it was, some, but I had protein later that night and was still utterly wiped all day Sunday. Likewise Monday, even though I was eating reasonably well. malibrarian warned me to expect to feel like this much of the time between now and the time of surgery before I mentioned having any problems with energy levels and the like. Oh, joy. Not.

I gave myself one more day to be sure, waiting until after today's pre-surgery physical to take action on what I knew what the right decision.

lesliet_ma invited Elaine and I to the Garden in the Woods today and we enjoyed our midday stroll through the seasonal blooms. It felt positively decadent to have our own, personal tour guide. Thanks, Leslie!

My energy was reasonable through that and the picnic lunch we shared after our relaxed, mile-long walk. It was even fine through the physical, but it was hard to resist the lure of a nap when Elaine and I returned to Toad Woods. And now, I just want to sleep.

Last week, I figured I'd give myself until the moment I boarded the plane to decide not to go. After the last 3-4 days, I realized that the decision had flipped. Much as I want to go, it's simply not sensible to do so. At this point, there really isn't anything that can change that would make it sensible. Better to cancel now and give npulsifer as much time as possible to find a replacement moderator for the blogs and fanzines panel that looks like such fun. Yes, I want to go to ConQuesT, but I want to go under conditions that simply aren't going to exist for me this year. Flying to Kansas City only to spend the weekend sleeping as much as humanly possible or completely wearing myself out trying to do even the basics would be nothing more than an exercise in frustration and annoyance with myself.

That's the best I could expect. Ending up in the ER and having the surgery in Kansas City or in Detroit would be worse. Catching a cold or flu bug that caused my surgery here to be delayed would be highly likely to screw up both my business and the rest of my summer. Given how run down I am, four flights and a weekend at a convention sounds like a sure recipe for that.

So, yes, I'm being sensible. Sensible is not fun. Sensible feels old. I've never been good at admitting or believing I'm human, that I can't do everything I want to do. Heck, if I had my way, I'd be at ConQuesT and at Plokta.con and at WisCon this weekend. And I'd not need the surgery, either.

As you can no doubt tell from all the whinging, I'm living in my cranky pants right now. I know I'm making a good decision, one that reflects and respects the reality that is my life at the current time. Usually when I do that, a reasonable measure of satisfaction accompanies the choice. Not this time. This time I'm just plain annoyed, dammit.

Onward.

Goodbye, CapitalOne

gfs@toad-hall.com — Tue, 19 May 2009 06:22:26 GMT

CapitalOne's "important notice of a change in terms" arrived in Monday's mail. Decline the terms by 8pm July 28, 2009, or watch my annual interest rate go from 8.53% to 17.9%.

I didn't wait until July 28th, or even July or June 1st. I called Monday evening. The account will be closed in July or August, and I'll pay off the balance(s) at the existing terms. The 6.99% rate that's dropping to 4.99% next spring would have happened anyway, but this way the 1.99% money will only go up to the old purchase rate rather than the new one when its promotional period disappears.

I find myself hoping CapitalOne goes out of business. In my current statement, they're bragging about how they're building "Trust. Worthy. Banking." and paying an entire 2.01% interest on their online savings accounts. Color me not convinced. Not in the least bit convinced.

The whole "here, borrow as much as you want at 1.99% for six months then pay your usual rate on the remaining balance after that time" followed three months later by "we're more than doubling your usual interest rate" certainly reeks of entrapment to me. Especially when the offer is sent to someone already carrying a hefty balance on the account that's under a "until the loan is repaid" interest rate, thus burying the higher interest money so that monthly payments are barely applied to it.

I don't like the fact that closing the account is likely to hurt my credit score.

I'm sorry CapitalOne would rather lose any future business with me than continue offering the sort of rates that both made them money and made them attractive in the first place. And I somehow doubt that my closing my account will slow the almost-weekly arrival of new offers from them for business accounts, personal loans, and similar services. I somehow suspect those will soon be accompanied by offers for new CapitalOne accounts...and at lower rates than 17.9%.

I'll be glad when July 2010 comes and credit card payments have to be applied in ways other than those that only maximize the lender's profits. And even happier when my CapitalOne balance is paid off and they never earn another penny off me.