Monthly Archives: April 2007

Good news is the Honda is fixed for only $100 for alignment and replacement tire rim…thank goodness! The BRIATA is still running fine…crossing my fingers it’ll stay that way for awhile…

Bad news is I haven’t felt this sick since I had pneumonia in 1998…blech! Sleeping so much & never feeling rested, coughing uncontrollably, sounding like a frog, waking up drenched in sweat. I’m going on day 6 of feeling horrible, and just started feeling almost human again last night so I don’t think I need to see a doctor, but I still have a ways to go before I’m well. Oh, other good news is I’ve lost 3 lbs from being so sick with no appetite, but I’m not counting on those staying gone when I do get my appetite back…

Here’s an odd thing though…Kylie the Kitty has only decided since I got sick while I’ve been propping myself on a plethora of pillows that she needs to curl up & sleep on my larynx & sternum, between my neck & chest, several times now…a very odd place to sleep, and honestly I was so tired I wasn’t arguing…do you fellow ailurophiles think she thinks she’s Vicks Vapo-Rub Incarnate or something? I’d believe she’s that smart, but she’s not usually so considerate…she is a cat you know… 😉

I’ve been so busy I hadn’t vented about the BRIATA’s 3-week mission to pass smog, which included soaking the entire emissions system in pieces over a weekend to get the check engine light to stop coming on. Since it’s over finally successfully, no reason to go any more into that, even though it was a hassle at the time. Other than that, my 120K mile maintenance & checkup was fine, with a clean bill of health for my 9-year old baby. My 94 Honda Civic is my boring practical car that’s always there when I need it, but not driven much, and only 83K miles on it. What are the odds of having problems with BOTH cars the same day?!?

For whatever reason, yesterday was Bad Carma for me!

I’ve been so busy, plus it’s been a matter of choosing what to say, since so many things have been going on…but when two or more people ask “you haven’t blogged in awhile, are you ok?” I guess it’s time for at least a little catchup!

I guess my last post was about Robin’s lame ER bills. A few generous people contributed, so Robin has $376.36 waiting in her new PayPal account to be used to chip away at a tiny bit of that horrendous bill. Donations can still be accepted of course if you feel so inclined. The odd number is because to accept credit/debit cards, people had to send to my account which took out fees, so whatever was left after fees went from my account to Robin’s as PayPal cash…little did I know it’d be such a hassle!

We had a Choral Project concert up in Santa Rosa on March 25th that went very well, with complete strangers coming up to us raving about how much they enjoyed the concert…which is always nice to hear! We actually sold out our CD stock that we brought to that concert, so that was amazing! Should have brought more I guess! We’re also doing pretty darn well at iTunes sales so far, which is really cool to hear…I’m still amazed that my solo on Mary’s Little Boy Child ended up on the preview clip! 😮

My garden is doing well. I did get irrigation for the new concrete patio installed, just some mini-half-circle sprayers, but some of the baby tears inbetwen the pavers got crunchy before then, so I’ll probably have to dig up some more from the volunteer bumper crop on the north side of my house. My roses started going to town while I wasn’t noticing (hooray for pruning properly in December AND planting red onions between as organic insect control!), so Sunday morning I already deadheaded a bunch of blooms! I also pruned my lilac tree since so many branches were crossing, so I have two giant lilac bouquets in the house now!

Solar might not be the project for 2007, since Nanosolar is an up & coming new technology that should be 10% of the cost of standard PV panels, which sounds worth waiting for. I had an appointment with a friend of a friend “green” contractor last week, who recommended improving the efficiency of my house for the major expense vs. solar right now, especially with Nanosolar already constructing their first plant in San Jose for production in 2007, so he’s getting me leads for new HVAC (including roof-mounted AC and replacement furnace), new polyurethane foam roof (R24 insulation! attic fiberglass gets max of something like R14 only if properly installed, and I have no attic option anyway), and blowing insulation into my exterior walls by punching small holes in the stucco. Unfortunately my gas supply line is too small for a tankless water heater, so my existing functional water heater will probably stay as-is for this year, since it actually fits in my utility closet, and with a new furnace space inside there might be an issue to solve later!

As an excuse for getting some college friends together I haven’t seen in awhile, plus I’ve discovered some more recently-acquired friends are also fans, I had Mystery Science Theatre March Madness, which was a Saturday afternoon BBQ plus two MST3K movies, Hobgoblins (ARGH! SOOO painful!) and the infamous Mitchell! It was a lot of fun, and the majority opinion was to have another one soon…so it’ll just be a matter of fitting it into my hectic schedule!

Speaking of hectic schedules, yes, inbetween concerts and dates (! – yes, still going well with Patrick! 😀 ), I’m already working on the Big Bash, aka Final Festivities, aka Year 7 at Hogwarts for July 21st. Copious supplies have been ordered and/or received, decorations are in the works, my costume is designed, but there is so much to do! I’m putting extra pressure on myself since I’m considering this to be my last chance to do some of the ideas I’ve had since 2000 but ran out of time for the previous parties…like the edible Hogwarts gingerbread castle centerpiece, edible Mandrake Seedlings, edible bugs for Potions, Sugar Quills, Ice Mice, Polyjuice Potion, etc, etc, plus it’s a new location with this house, so I have to figure out the most logical party setup, which will include a new Marauder’s Map too…I hope I can do it all!