Avast ye, matees! there be rough waters ahead!

Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day!! Here be some of my favorite pirates!
Arrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Six Months in a Leaky Boat

Last night, while I was taking my shower, there was a loud banging at my front door. I got out of the shower, still covered in soap, and grabbing a towel ran to the door and shouted through it. It was my downstairs neighbor, whose bathroom was flooding, through the ceiling, from my unit.

The 100 year old plumbing in my unit finally crapped out and is going to need to be replaced. Fortunately for me, this is a common area problem, and the condominium association is going to pay for it. Unfortunately for me, my bathroom floor will need to be jackhammered, and I will be without a tub or sink for the next few days. Looks like my commitment to return to the gym is going to be bumped up by a few days. I just wish that my neighbor had said something two weeks ago, when he first noticed the brown stain in his bathroom ceiling; this could have been fixed before a larger problem (ie. flooding) occurred.

Since this is a common problem in my condo, I am going to suggest at the next board meeting that we get proactive about this, rather than waiting for all of the pipes to wear through. While it is pretty bad being on the source of the problem end, I don't want to be on the receiving end either!!

Just us, the cameras, and those wonderful people out there in the dark!...

I spent the weekend rereading The Time Quartet. I simply cannot decide if the books are just so good that I end up crying, or if I end up crying because of some larger issues going on with me combined with a nostalgia for childhood, ie. growing up sucks. In the end, I think that it might be a combination of both.

I went to see Becoming Jane at the Coolidge Corner Theater. God, I love that neighborhood; I wish that I could afford to live there. They make excellent popcorn at the Coolidge Corner Theater. Real butter. Tasty. I am debating becoming a member. When JR and I used to go to the Brattle on a biweekly basis, we were members there. I should just suck it up and join. The seats are way better at the Coolidge than they ever were at the Brattle. It is obvious that the community really supports the theater, and the restoration of the old Art Deco facade is going along nicely.

I love getting to the movies early; it allows for excellent people watching. It is really interesting to see how people choose their seats in a theater, who leaves a space, empty seats, the like. My pet peeve is when the theater is barely full and someone sits right in front of me! That is SO irksome, even with stadium seating. As I was by myself, I ended up moving one seat over to allow an older couple to sit together. I think that they went to CVS beforehand because they had a stash of candy, cookies, coffee mugs, etc. I bought a popcorn, but smuggled in a soda. The man teased me, after thanking me for moving down, asking me if I would share my popcorn too. I told him that I drew the line at that. And I kind of wasn't teasing back, although he probably didn't realize that. Seriously, the popcorn is THAT GOOD. I know someone from work who will go in the theater just to buy a popcorn to take with her while she is shopping in Coolidge Corner. I have never done that, but I am thinking that is actually a really good idea.

There is such a thing as a tesseract

Dear Madeleine L'Engle,

Thank you for helping me grasp a basic knowledge of the laws of physics and biology. It has helped me in surprising ways. Your books revealed a world where faith, science and imagination could coexist and where love and friendship could trump the darkness of the world. You had a lot of hope.

And it was cool that Meg Murry was wicked smaht. And from Connecticut.

Rock on-

PS. When I am sick, I like to reread A Swiftly Tilting Planet. I can get through it a lot faster now than when I was 11.

Author Madeleine L'Engle Dies

The sun always shines on TV

I had not been having the best summer, but I am going to have a very good fall.

That is a statement. A declaration. It will be so.