Odds & Ends

Still here, doing some computer organizing -- among other things I just put up our wedding photos. You can find them here. Enjoy!

(The music -- on my squeezebox, which I spent quite a bit of time trying to get working again after setting up a firewall here -- just seg'ed from Titus Andronicus's "A More Perfect Union" to M.I.A.'s "MIA." Nice.)

Anyway, carry on. It's still snowing, BTW.

Tuesday Snow

So the Sunday snow morphed into a "wintry mix" as expected. I drove in yesterday and the roads were pretty icy, especially the side streets, but things got a lot better as the temperature climbed and the mess turned to plain rain and wet roads. My carpool buddy asked if I wanted to drive today, since we were expecting more snow -- a real snowstorm this time even if accumulation wouldn't be much -- and I was fine with that, I prefer my own car, and my own driving, to his in this weather. But then...

We both started smelling a car burning oil on the way home. I thought it was the car ahead of me, then some other car ahead of me, but no, it was me. Got home, checked the oil, and there was none. Uh oh...  Googling gave me a bad case of car-hypochondria, and I took today off to bring it in to the shop.

Just got the the estimate. Basically everything I was worried about came true: Subaru's do tend to develop oil leaks over time, and mine got pretty much all the ones my old Outback had (rear main seal, oil pump, head gasket), except all at once instead of happening over a period of years. Bottom line: $2500. Ouch! I'll take the hit this time, the rest of the car seems OK, but I guess I'll have to start thinking about a replacement sooner than I expected.

The snowfall had slowed a bit, but now it looks like it's picking up again. Sure wish I had a car that would drive through this stuff right now...

Sunday Snowfall

Hanging out at home, watching a really light snow fall. It's not expected to last though -- this stuff is supposed to morph into a "wintry mix" (ie sleet and freezing rain) sometime this afternoon. Oh well, maybe they'll be wrong.

So last time I checked in (other than my two two clean-out-the-closet posts prior to this one), I was working through a bunch of books, and since then I of course bought a few more...

We went into Philly with our friends Donna and John last weekend, meeting them at the White Dog Café for lunch, and then hitting Penn Books, which is just around the corner, before checking into our hotel. Anne got a bunch of books, but I limited myself to three: Bleeding Edge, Thomas Pynchon's latest, Nate Silver's The Signal and the Noise, and World War Z. So even though I finished that giant book of SF short stories (also purchased at Penn Books, by the way), I am behind the eight-ball once again, at least in terms of my reading.

(The rest of the weekend: Nodding Head Brewpub and Local 44 on Saturday night, and Sunday brunch at Sabrina's before hitting the Philladelphia Art Museum.)

This weekend we stayed pretty local: we tried Aria, that new Afghan restaurant in Allentown, with Doug & Lori and Scott S on Friday, then met Sally & Joe last night at Black & Blue. Errands and chores in the mornings, naps in the afternoons...

Think I'll go out and stand in the flurry fall, which sadly looks like it's already ending.