Lakeshore

Came home last night to find the gas had been cut off while I was gone. Seems Northwest Natural decided to swap out my meter while I was out of town. They did not cut the gas back on because no one was home to check the appliances. It's 52 degrees in here this morning, and there's no hot water. My repair time is "somewhere between 8 am and 5 pm" today.

Now that's customer service.

At least it's today, as after today I won't be back until the 3rd.

Don't miss the new ARC contest — Limericks and haikus.

Weird theme parks — (Thanks to danjite.)

EVOL — A very cool short film. (Thanks to willyumtx.)

Cell phones on the moon? — Not to mention this.

Caffeine: A User's Guide to Getting Optimally Wired — Jolt Cola and chocolate twinkies, baby!

Swimming kangaroos — With a bizarre piece in comments about a shark attack on a kangaroo.

World Wine Map Changing With Climate — Man, even grape vines have a liberal bias. Clearly, conservatives should stick with beer.

Barack's Prosody Problem — In which I learn the word "trochaic". frankwu, are you paying attention? This piece is about another of those intangibles which correlate to electoral success.

When I make love to my wife... — Political snark from Ted Rall. (Thanks to goulo.)

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2/20/08
Time in saddle: 18 minutes
Last night's weigh-out: 275
This morning's weigh-in: 273.3
Currently reading: The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image, by Leonard Shlain [ Powell's | Amazon ]

There's a small linguistic tangle here. Perhaps some kind soul deeply enmeshed in the world of dactyls, spondees, trochees and iambs can offer guidance.

the_flea_king asks for some help with Latin.

Gas is back on at Nuevo Rancho Lake. There was much rejoicing.

I am packed for South Carolina, Omaha and Seattle — three very different climates at this time of year. A truly heroic amount of clothing seems to be required for an 11 day trip with multiple wardrobes.

At any rate, I'll be hanging with the jeffvandermeers tomorrow night, and doing the whole book festival thing over the weekend.

Meanwhile, the_child will be home soon from her winter sports adventures, so we can spend a few hours together before I hop to the other side of the continent.

Don't forget the total lunar eclipse tonight, around 10 pm Eastern / 7 pm Pacific.

Fugly sentence of the day: "They were answered by patterned toots from the steamers."

Thank god for revisions...