When it’s cold out

When it is winter in the northern hemisphere, and the temperature is 7 F (that’s -14 C for those of you using the Celsius scale), the thing to do is to go to an upscale ice cream place like Sebastian Joe’s and order the sorbet that reminds you the most of summer. I chose orange basil, which sounds strange, but it is really quite good. Take a taste and roll the coldness and sweetness around in your mouth and think of sundresses, steamy heat, sailboats out on the lake, and mosquitoes. For extra fun, offer a spoonful to the husband without telling him what it is and watch him make the cat-getting-rid-of-a-furball face at the taste.

For extra credit, when you get in the car to drive away, turn on the air conditioning full blast. Or better yet, roll down the car window.

Cheers,
Peg

The city on a winter’s morning

It was -22 F (-30 C) this morning. The sky was perfectly clear, but the plumes of steam rising from the buildings and the exhaust from the cars made ice crystals hover, shimmering in the air. Just as I passed downtown on my way to work, the rising sun’s angle turned the reflecting windows of the office towers to molten gold. The hovering mists of water vapor wrapped around each tower turned their blaze of light into a shining nimbus of glory.

Yeah. Like that.

I must re-read Connie Willis' story "Cibola."

Hot water!

We both had it our way. I called the plumber, so I got to feel that I had stood up for myself. Unfortunately, the plumber was solidly booked for the next two weeks. Before I managed to find another plumber, Rob finally finished the fix to the hot water heater. I got to take a hot shower this morning. In my own home. Ahhhh.

FYI: Computer problems

Okay, so the hot water heater is fixed, so something else has to go wrong. Rob reports that our home machine hiccuped and seems to have lost all our e-mail account information. I won't be able to access LiveJournal from home and neither one of us will be able to use our e-mail from home at all until he figures out what the heck is going on. Accordingly, we both will be off-line for a while except for quick (surreptitious) status updates from here at work. Will not be able to check my friends page at all. Will keep you all posted. queerasjohn, could you please inform the HP Board?

Oy. Argh.

P.