Words are inadequate

After I found out that the movers weren't coming today I called Erin, who talked me down and through it. Which was very much appreciated. I'm glad I still have Erin.

Aspects exists. I just got an email saying that my ebook preorder has dropped, and my hard copy is en route. (Should be here mid-next-week, so, either it arrives while I'm in Niagara or I have a long-awaited book to read instead.) I am holding off on reading it in ebook; for some reason I want to read it in hard copy first. That seems important. Also I lack the brain and emotional resilience right now to read The Last Of Mike Ford. (mrissa has some impressions of it. I am very much looking forward to this.)

Back in I guess November, when Kelsey came to visit, Erin rediscovered and introduced me to Bengal Spice Tea. Cinnamon and cloves and yum. So now I have a tasty thing to drink in the evenings. And I have my travel hot-water-pot, and the travel mug that my ex-company sent me a couple of years ago when they handed out swag in lieu of paying bonuses. So I have tea.

Laundry two doors down is not the same as laundry in the apartment, but it's a sight better than "laundry at the end of the hall and down a flight of stairs" or "laundry a twelve-minute drive away," which were the last two places I lived. (Technically the last one was "laundry at the end of the hall, also costing $4/load payable only in loonies," which is why it was a twelve-minute drive away instead.)

I went out this evening and bought myself a chair for the porch and a tray-table-thing, so now I have some furniture. The bar stool is good for perching on but no good for actually trying to work or anything. And sitting on the floor was getting old.

On Thursday morning my electric razor popped open and I lost one of the blades. I could order more, and will, but like Aspects they'd get here next week at the earliest. I could buy a new razor but I did that once already, my spare razor is packed and I don't need a third one. I could use an actual bladed razor but that is just an invitation to a whole lot of blood. So I'm experimenting with beardedness. It itches less than last time, at least so far. I doubt I'll keep it but it's nice to change things up from time to time.

The Indian place around the corner does a decent korma. The poutine place over the skytrain (less than a half-mile walk, though coming back is up a Significant flight of stairs) still has a delicious buffalo chicken poutine. River Market exists and I'll get down there eventually and have some barbecue from Re-Up, the only good barbecue I've had north of the Mason-Dixon line.

I have pots and pans. Mya, who came by to check on the place once a week while I wasn't there, found a decent set on Craigslist and left them in the apartment. I've also got an assortment of utensils: cheap measuring cups and spoons, a couple of forks from takeout, some misc stuff from the thrift store. So I can make breakfasts at least, and whenever I go grocery shopping for real I'll be able to make a few other things as well.

I don't like my situation at all, but it is not the worst situation I've been in.

The water in this apartment was terrible when I moved in. It was hard enough that the minerals in the water would bind to the tea and create this weird skin on top. That didn't taste bad but it looked really unpleasant and was hard to clean. So I got in the habit of using self-made teabags and having tea one (large) mug at a time.

Over the summer they did something to the water system and it's ... less bad. I'm still using a Brita but I no longer feel like it's absolutely required. And the tea doesn't skin over anymore. I'm still mostly making tea by the mug, though. Habits.

This morning I made myself a pot of Sikkim, a tea that's been my favourite since I picked it up on a lark from the Teavana in Tysons Corner. I'm slowly drinking it out of a small but gorgeous mug that Ellen gave me when Erin and I visited her on the island in 2019.

It's been a cold week here, down below -30 most nights. My heaters have been working overtime to keep up with the drafty windows, and I've been actually using both the quilts on the bed. I'm generally happy down to around -10 and fine at -20; much below that and I get cranky. Should be warming up later this week anyway. And it's plenty bright outside, which helps.

I'm watching Arrow, which is mostly enjoyable as a spine story for Flash and Legends... but in that sense it definitely is enjoyable. It weaves a complex network of character relationships, mostly for plot purposes but often enough there are interesting interactions there. It's nice to have this larger fictional world to immerse myself in.

Been cooking again, partly because running the stove / oven keeps the apartment a bit warmer. It's good to be back into feeding myself actual food. Later today I'll bake a couple loaves of sweetbread, and tomorrow breakfast shall be french toast.

I picked up the viola again this week as well, first time since July. I am of course incredibly out of practise but at least I know how to fix that. If it turns out to be something I stick with, I'm considering getting a set of octave strings, to make it sound like a cello, because I think that would be neat. Less useful for fiddle tunes, though.

Unrelated to any of the above: I wish the USPS were less hooped, but I've been wishing that for a decade now. Here's hoping last fall's damage is serious enough that fixing it will be something of a priority. (I also wish Canada Post were in better shape, but I don't know enough to even begin to speculate as to either causes or solutions there. Beyond the obvious "throw more money at it," of course.)

I appreciate that Hibernia, the Latin name for Ireland, means "Winterland," and that it shares a root with "hibernate." Dublin's at about the same latitude I am, too. I feel like I'm hibernating, this winter. This past year, I guess. Curious as to what spring will bring.

At eight it seemed like a good idea to have a cup of the tea that Ed gave us for xmas. (It's a flavored tea whose name escapes me but is on the tin, and is rather tasty; so saith the person who normally dislikes flavored teas, so.) At half past midnight it's seeming like a less good idea.

E & I watched Ronin again this evening. I remember going to see it in the Lyric when it came out, probably on a 75cent Tuesday, with Mandy and Vond and whoever else, and thinking, "They made a movie of a Cyberpunk game session." It's also namechecked in Night's Black Agents (the role-playing game of spies versus vampires) as a direct inspiration for the kind of gameplay Ken Hite was going for. It holds up very very well: great car chases, fun but not overdone dialogue, Sean Bean getting ambushed by a cup of coffee. Recommended. (Do not ever watch the "alternate ending" on the DVD. It is terrible and will make you think less of the movie by its very existence.)

My foot seems to be healing up from last weekend; it's just tight and a little sore across the front of the ankle. And my viola has come in at last, and I'll go and get it tomorrow. That will be good.

The weekend more or less improved from Friday morning, and my thanks to those of you who offered sympathy and/or listened to my whining.

( it got better, at least )

I'd like to say "and now it'll be better," but I'm still too washed out from the weekend and the week before. Ask me again on Thursday.

NESFA Press Zelazny Project: "We plan to print a complete collection of Roger Zelazny's short fiction and poetry, in (probably) five hardcover volumes. We expect to include all published pieces we can find, however obscurely published, and a number of unpublished works retrieved from Zelazny's archived papers." WANT.

Computer Randomly Plays Classical Music is clearly the best Microsoft tech note since Barney Not Found. (Sadly, Barney and "Earth Rotates in Wrong Direction" are no longer available on the Microsoft Knowledge Base.)

Why does my monthly expense spreadsheet include $240 for "household" this month? Partly because I discovered the joy of pan-searing salmon, which ain't cheap. Partly because I picked up a few more shirts that fit. Mostly, though, it's because I bought $80 worth of tea for myself and uilos. Granted, half of that is Sikkim that's being air-shipped from India via Kho-Cha Tea Bureau ("minimum order $40; no charge for air-shipping anywhere in the world for orders above $40"). But still. This is a lot of tea. I imagine I should be good for tea for the next several months.

Still haven't been inspired enough to sit back down with Godot and resurrect the hard drive. That's on tap for tonight. Meanwhile I had a most pleasant evening in excellent company, eating tapas and then watching Avery Brooks portray a psychopath at the Shakespeare Theatre, and (except for the aforementioned computer issues) a delightful five-day weekend featuring games, books, friends, and food. Good times.

Didn't particularly want to get up and go to work but that's no real surprise, and reflects more on my desire to sleep more than on any dislike of work. Even if they did try to replace the Bigelow tea (ehh) with Tetley (blecch).

I've been keeping a cashflow spreadsheet for the past several months, in an effort to track and curtail spending. It's worked astoundingly well for tracking purposes. I can now say with absolute certainty that most of the time I do, in fact, spend more money on restaurant food than on books. The 'curtailing' part has been kind of hit-or-miss. I've definitely reduced spending on 'fun' items but haven't managed to get it down to a level I'm happy with. (Yes, that's a well-defined point.)

So, a public bribe. If I can keep the 'fun' part of my cashflow at a point with which I'm happy for the month of March, I get one of these. Probably the nice dark green one, or maybe the celadon. (Annoyingly enough Beehouse doesn't seem to make teapots in 32-oz size, which would be perfect for making four cups. Guess I'll have to settle for a personal teapot.)