Theo's House o' Squee

• Supposed to hit 61F today, but I'm still going to acquire space heaters et alia.
• Yay! Tags in Porter Square does have some space heaters and they're open now!
• Two space heaters achieved, and they actually work, too. My day suddenly seems much brighter and less frustrating!
• Visited a kind and generous friend who is lent us a space heater, and the roommate procured electric blankets, so we are set!
• Heat is a wonderful thing. I highly recommend it.

The long-term solution isn't set yet, but at least I have control over the short-term stuff, like immediately being warm.  The long-term stuff will be fixed with $MONEY$, one way or the other, either by depleting the remaining savings I'm holding onto (and what are they for, anyway? Yeah, broke furnace surely counts as An Emergency), or it will turn out that I can get some money from my house insurance, or I may qualify for some energy-abatement funding, because a New Furnace will be very much an energy-saving improvement, or I will be able to re-finance the mortgage, which is still, even with the housing market dropping so much, still for much less than the house is worth, even with a broken furnace.

So, I've got Options, and with the acquisition of space heaters, I've got adequate remediation for the shorter term so that I don't have to rush into hasty decisions, which is always a good thing.

Plus, in terms of improving the value of my house, a new and efficient furnace (and the disposal of the asbestos-clad old furnace) is a plus.

• ION, I'm wondering if I have any orange clothes to represent for my Scotch-Irish ancestry.

Hey, they deserve some love, too.  I think of them as smart people who moved on from Ye Auld Sod when they figured out they weren't welcome....

• @markos The tea-baggers aren't taking into account that Scott Brown is Indeed Very Right Wing... for the People's Republic of Massachusetts.

Seriously, in some ways I was relieved that Martha Coakley didn't win, because I think she's made some weaselly decisions as the Commonwealth's Attorney General.  Brown, at least, is starting out as that rare breed of "liberal" Republican, which is actually well into the ultraviolet spectrum of actual Liberal stances, but still far to the left of the Tea Party.

• Ugly Overload: Eye Orbits ow.ly/1nu8p -- What a big-eyed Tarsier's skull looks like, for real. Nature is weirder than I can make up!

This was just a WOW! for me, because it looks almost like a cartoon alien skull.

• RT @metrozing Nothing official but I've noted, thru client work, an association between intense feelings of loneliness and extreme clutter.

I think she -- she's one of the clutter experts on the Hoarders TV show -- is onto something there....

• Weakened and joined Netflix last night to watch Dexter S1, which I can stream to my TiVo.
• Have now watched 4 episodes of S1 Dexter. Will restrain self from watching 4 more immediately....
• Finished another two episodes of Dexter. I like Doakes and La Cuerta quite a bit, even if I wouldn't want them as bosses/partners.
• • I'm not sure what I expected -- I'm interested in CSI type stories to start with, and police procedurals like The Closer, but am finding the Dexter characters very involving, as well as Dexter himself.
  • Also really loving Miami/Florida as depicted here, which is as much a character in and of itself as any actor on the screen.
  • This Netflix deal is sweet -- getting a wide variety of "instant play" choices that I can stream to my TiVo.  This quite makes up for the current dearth of My Shows that are around over the holiday season, damn it!
• #snowpocalypse -- It's blowing fine snow all around, but realistically it's only an inch down maybe. It may not be over, but so far so good.
• • I think in the end we got four inches.  Hardly a Snow Emergency at all!  It doesn't stop me from feeling sorry for those who got majorly, historically dumped on -- because been there, done that, including the Blizzard of '78.
  • Which reminds me... have to go un-snow the car this morning.  It's not likely to melt out in the next couple days according to the forecast... and then there's that pesky "driving down to relatives" scheduled later this week....
• Note to self: knees object violently to hunkering down, but getting up via Down Dog yoga position is painless!
• • KNEW all that yoga had to be good for something.  The remaining problem with my knees is related to weight-bearing bending. I can touch the back of my heel to my butt OK, but a squat-thrust is a very very bad and painful idea still.  Hadn't thought that through when I squatted down to get some
• RT @sparkymonster Oh mah gawd cute. Bo Obama vs. Snow! jezebel.com/5430628/snow-for-bo // Awwwwww!
• RugBuddy Portable, Plug in Area Rug Space Heaters ow.ly/NZJe // Solution for my cold kitchen tile floor?
• • Links of awesomeness!  Bo Obama in the snow!  More importantly for my future consideration, something that could mitigate the gawdawful, insane coldnessof the ceramic tiles in my kitchen floor, at least in the winter -- take it up in the warm weather and get the rug covering the heater cleaned, because, HEY, it's the kitchen floor with attendant higher possibility of soiling accidents (not to mention the kitties probably taking it as a Vomit Magnet).
• Researching WWI maps and propaganda posters for website project. So much period loveliness to chose from!
• Made a pretty thing. Maybe I will watch something on TV to celebrate!
• • Making over a website for a friend, getting to choose artwork and design therefrom.  Of course, if the next book she does involves robots and novas, it'll be obsolete, but that's how it goes.  ;-)
• Out of my deskside window, the predawn horizon is a luscious shade of rose-orange blending to rose-purple. I hope my camera can capture it.

Considering the possibility that Spare Cat is actually some kind of deformed monkey. Checking long tail for prehensility.

Then again, Cece may be some kind of monkey-rabbit hybrid. Observation continues.

Yesterday she actually came down the stairs briefly and walked a few steps into the living room before retreating, chased by bearsChumley.

YouTube - Tommy T's First Lure-Cincinnati Zoo ow.ly/4Os8 Baaaaaby Cheetah!

Speaking of things chasing other things -- watching a baaaaby cheetah learn to chase a lure, which takes about two tries before he's completely hearing the call of the wild. You know? They should completely try him on Frisbees!

About this project | The Davis Square Tiles Project ow.ly/4OMM -- I love these tiles every time I'm not running to catch the train!

They're tile-sized tiles, set into the walls leading to the main platform, done by local grammar school kids back when the station opened in the early 70s, which is one of the most fun public art projects I've yet to come across. I do hope this project is able to track down the now-grown kids!

100 days of Barack Obama's Facebook news feed. - By Christopher Beam and Chris Wilson - Slate Magazine ow.ly/4OQH

I totally love epistolary stories, and finding that sort of thing done in the medium of a social networking site is meta-cool. Not to mention this is funny but also, in its way, historical.

Oh crap -- literally. Toilet overflowed in bathroom. Floor was due for a mopping anyway. Feh.

Can't say that I didn't get anything done yesterday, though. Always a silver lining, you know. The floor got mopped TWICE, with plentiful Lysol, too, so it's barefoot-safe again.

went to a couple Somerville Open Studios today, including friend Julia's. I like my city a whole lot, and sometimes I utterly LOVE it.

farwing and her roommates had a wonderful selection of hand-decorated patches and clothes, knit shawls, prints, and more. It was a glorious spring day, the whole city was abuzz with studios open, and people walking around with brochure-maps showing locations. There was also a shuttle bus between major locations like artist lofts. Did I mention that I love my town?

• 07:44 Spare cat played with feathery-toy-on-a-stick last night for a minute before remembering she was scared and closet-retreating. #

  CeCe has been here nearly a week now, so it may be time to start introducing her to the Resident Cats, who have been sniffing suspiciously at the door, not to mention being frustrated there's a Forbidden Room (no doubt with the corpses of previous cats on display....)

• 08:28 LivingSocial's PickYour5: "movies you grew up on" tinyurl.com/d2dc6x #

  For the record: Silk Stockings, Wizard of Oz, Planet of the Apes, Robinson Crusoe on Mars and Fantasia!

• 09:32 Looking at: Lawyers, Guns and Money: "A Fool And His Money" tinyurl.com/daeqlq #
• 12:17 Just noticed that the decrepit, unimproved pink house behind me is having an Open House, and toured it, seeing the original setup mine had! #

  It's on offer for 265K, which considering it's got obvious water damage and original kitchen fixtures from the 30s and 40s, horrible linoleum floors and so on, makes me feel much better about how much my house might fetch. Also, it gives me some idea of what my house looked like when it was built -- window-pane doors between the kitchen, dining room, living room, hall! Beams on the ceiling, light fixtures, door handles! Tile walls in the kitchen, which I actually rather liked! And the bathroom was arranged so the toilet was under the eaves, which makes more sense to me!

• 15:44 Went to Time Traders orientation, a time/services barter bank, you can get gardening in exchange for web design or tutoring or whatever. #

  Sounds very cool and there were people eager for web site work, too, but they also will "trade" car trips. I'm such a lousy gardener, it would be good to even get weeding help! It's a time BANK so you don't have to trade tasks only with the person who does for you.

• 19:16 working on rehabbed resume. Counselor told me it's OK to be truth-adjacent. #
• 19:17 I think I'm going to have macaroni & soy cheese, plus ice soy-cream, while watching TAR after this. #

• 09:20 Crisis of the day: roommate says that the furnace is off at home. She's now calling plumbers to get somebody to relight it for her. #
• 10:00 roommate also can't figure out how to get the furnace door open, says it's "stuck". #
• 11:11 Back from shopping expedition, I now have bagels and Tastee Kakes and Taylor Ham, which makes everything feel better. nomnomnom #
• 13:49 Roommate is laying out 100ft phone cable to basement so I can talk her through relighting the furnace pilot light. #
• 16:48 Relighting didn't work. Expensive weekend plumbers have been called. It's $$$, but still cheaper than frozen, burst pipes. #
• 22:29 Expensive weekend plumber says the boiler is cracked but still operative, and got it running again. Furnace replacement in my future?! #