This week, we shared the flu. She got sick on Sunday, and just as she was feeling better to go back to work, I was hit hard with the same virus.
I don’t get sick very often, but when I do I don’t kid around with it. My fever was over 102 at one point, and I’ve spent most of the last two days either sleeping or being somewhat miserable at my inability to sleep.
Fever seems to have broken tonight, so I’m hoping I’m on the upswing. I hate missing this much work this early in the year, though.
Nicked from surrdave who got it from maedbh7 who got it from Agnes:
“Everyone has things they blog about. Everyone has things they don’t blog about. Challenge me out of my comfort zone by telling me something I don’t blog about, but you’d like to hear about, and I’ll write a post about it. Ask for anything: latest movie watched, last book read, political leanings, thoughts on yaoi, favorite type of underwear, graphic techniques, etc. Repost in your own journal so that we can all learn more about each other!”
“I’m just pointing out that there’s equal-opportunity ouch in the nude roller derby.”
Having gotten our paperbacks out of their long period of bondage and onto shelves, our attention turned to….the remaining boxes of books, most of which were either hardbacks or oversize paperbacks. Now, I could have built another set of shelving to house these, but you can buy shelving units designed for large books pretty easily. On the other hand, I didn’t want to spend a massive amount of money. And you know what that means….Ikea!
Now, I’ve heard people from more metropolitan and urbane cities sing the praises of Ikea for years. And I’ve heard Jonathan Coulton sing about it too….but that’s another show.[1] But my one trip to the land of flatpacks and meatballs was a frustrating and generally unhappy experience, because they’d only opened the giant store in Atlanta a few weeks prior and the novelty hadn’t warn off. It took us 45 minutes just to park, and by the time I got inside I was already tired and cranky. As a result, I’d never bothered to go back.
However, having the entire day off by virtue of Larissa’s oral surgery, I figured it was a good time to make a quick run over to get the shelves I had found on their website that looked just right. It *was* a much more pleasant experience. I had printed out the page with the item I wanted, asked the first employee I saw where to find it, and got directed straight to it. Once there, another employee (who was absolutely gorgeous, apropos of nothing) explained to me how to locate the one I could take home downstairs, and off I went. pulled the heavy boxes onto a cart, took them to the register, and out again.
One of the corollaries to Murphy’s Law is “If everything appears to be going well, you are obviously overlooking something.”[2] Sure enough, when I got to my car, I found that the boxes did NOT fit neatly. I had accounted for the length of the box, but not the angle at which it would need to slide through. Argh. Luckily, a nice gentleman helped me navigate two of the boxes into the car, leaving the third sticking a foot out the back. I then carefully drove over to the loading area, where free twine was available to tie the trunk down and secure the box so it wouldn’t slide backwards under any circumstance. Those crafty Swedes, they think of everything.
Having gotten the shelves home, i took them out of the car and set them aside, as I had other things to do. So today, I pulled them out of the box and began assembly. Pretty much everything I’d ever heard about Ikea is true — the stuff assembles easily and has very detailed instructions that are simple to follow. We only ran into trouble getting the final piece fitted in, as it required lining up a great many pegs to holes, and it wanted to be difficult. But after much sweating and swearing, two meltdowns and one brief marital spat, everything was connected and screwed down and we set it against the wall and affixed it there.
Of course, rather than sit and bask in the accomplishment, I started putting books on the shelves. Guess which I ran out of first?
kitanzi has an LJ icon that reads “If you have enough shelf space for your books, you don’t have enough books.” We have enough books, but a few boxes still. I think I’m going to pull all the non-fiction off these shelves and make room for the fiction, and then we’ll figure out where to but the *next* set of shelves which might finally complete the unpacking.
Ever since we moved to our new apartment in July, there’s been one important thing missing from our otherwise perfect home: our books. Due to a lack of adequate shelving, our books were all out in the garage in boxes, which made me sad. Unfortunately, when you have the number of paperbacks we do, shelving becomes a problem — you simply can’t buy bookcases designed to provide maximum paperback density.You either have to stack them two or three rows deep on big shelves designed for hardbacks, which offends my library-raised soul, or you can build them yourself. But building shelves yourself is a four hand job, and I preferred to have an extra pair of hands that were good with tools and building things. Fortunately, I know vila_resthal; unfortunately, just as I was asking him about helping me on this project, he was in an auto accident that left him with a broken collarbone. So, we’ve been waiting until he healed up sufficiently to be able to tackle the construction.
Sunday, he and his wife lindsey-cita drove over from Athens, and while she and kitanzi visited, we made ourselves busy in the garage, turning 15 8′ 1x6s and three boxes of 2″ #8 wood screws into the most essential piece of furniture in the house. And they do look lovely!
Because I typically parody pop songs, one of the most common reactions I get to one of my filks is “That’s interesting, but I don’t know the tune.” In the past, I’d kinda shrug and take it as one of the pitfalls of having eclectic and modern tastes in music, and figure there wasn’t much I could do about it other than learn to play the song so I could perform it for people.
But now, thanks the magic that is the modern Internet, and particularly YouTube, I can now provide those original tunes for people who don’t know them. So I’ve gone through my online songbook, and for every song which is a parody and for which a suitable online source for that song is available, I have provided a link. So if you’ve ever looked at one of my songs and wondered how it went, now you can find out! And if you haven’t ever looked at my songs, here’s a good excuse to!
A project for a future date is making scratch recordings available for the few original tunes I’ve done, but that will have to wait for another day.
The songbook can be found at: https://www.autographedcat.com/songs/. Enjoy!
Today is Valentine’s Day, a day set aside for celebrating love. Some people prefer not to think about today for a variety of reasons, some of which I greatly sympathize with. But for myself, I love today, and why wouldn’t I? My cup really *does* runneth over.
To kitanzi: You are still the best friend and sweetie and partner and wife anyone could ever hope for. My life began again when you came into it, and I look forward to looking back on all this in 40 years with you still right there by my side.
To aiela: We were there for each other at our lowest points, and here we are, still there for each other at our highest points. It’s been so wonderful the last few years watching you realizing your dreams, and I was so happy to stand beside you at your wedding.
To sweetmusic_27: One year later, and I adore you more than ever. Your enthusiasm and verve are an inspiration to me, and you’ve helped me hold together at times that I was falling apart. I’m looking forward to another “real date” with you and just plain spending more time being with you.
To cadhla: I can’t actually recall a time since I met you that I didn’t love you madly. You are always a source of joy and wonder to me, and sometimes I’m simply amazed that you love me too, but I never doubt it, because you show me in so many small ways.
To E: We haven’t really had a chance to touch base the last few weeks, but that’s ok. I’m still in no hurry, and we do have world enough and time. You are in my thoughts, and I greatly look forward to the next time I hear your voice.
Happy Valentine’s Day, my loves. You make my every day better, richer, and more meaningful, and I can’t imagine not having you be a part of it.
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