![[icon]](http://p-userpic.livejournal.com/36832433/159637) |
Susannah Summerrose
|
| | Subject: | I'm turning 23! | | Time: | 12:53 am |
|
| My birthday is a week from today, and to celebrate I'm having a party!
The party will be on Saturday, June 28 from 8:30pm to some time later and will be at Teacozy (and in its backyard) in Somerville near Porter Square. If you don't know where I live and can't get to that link, get in touch with me!
There will be a light meal and some sort of yummy dessert.
Please RSVP so that I know how much food to make! If you don't RSVP in time, please show up anyway, but do try to RSVP.
If you feel the need to bring a present, please bring fresh fruit, cut flowers, or beverages. | comments: 10 comments or Leave a comment   |
| | Subject: | Arisia update | | Time: | 12:37 am |
|
| | So, the one thing I forgot to bring was my cellphone charger. I don't know when I'm going to have a chance to go get it from my apartment, and my phone is almost out of charge. I'll be checking my email and zephyr fairly frequently though, so if you want to get in touch with me, you can reach me that way. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | My neighborhood, let me show you how geeky it is | | Time: | 06:01 pm |
|
| Yesterday in Davis Square, I saw a car with a bumper sticker which read (my other car is a LISP expression)
Sometimes I am really amused by my neighborhood. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Please call your senators | | Time: | 11:49 am |
|
| I got a heads up from this from the blog Pam's House Blend (which incidentally is an excellent way of finding out about anti-queer activity around the country and what you can do about it). The entry I linked to above says:
The U.S. Senate votes TUESDAY on whether Judge Leslie Southwick, the Mississippi judge who signed an opinion that said being gay was an acceptable reason to have your children taken away, will have a lifetime appointment to the Federal bench.
Please call your Senators right away and make sure they don't confirm this man. Tuesday's vote is the only thing standing in the way of Bush's appointment.
Call your senators and make sure they "vote NO on cloture," to stop the nomination of Judge Leslie Southwick because of his track record of biased decisions. You can call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask for each Senator's office. If you don't know who your senators are, give the switchboard operator your zip code and they'll connect you.
(Emphasis is mine)
The Human Rights Campaign has the back story here: http://www.hrcbackstory.org/2007/08/judge-southwick.html.
Please call your senators today! If you can't call during work, do so during lunch or a break. The vote is taking some time today, so the sooner you call, the more likely you are to have called before the vote takes place.
By the way, you don't actually need to tell the switchboard operator your zipcode. Since Senator is a statewide office, just tell him or her your state. You can also look up the names of your senators here: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
If you're a Massachusetts resident like me, your senators are Edward Kennedy and John Kerry. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I found a truly impressive piece of doublespeak, quoted in this article about Arlen Specter's earmarks for abstinence education.
''Sen. Specter recognizes the need for comprehensive sex education,'' Specter chief of staff Scott Hoeflich said in an e-mail. ''Thus, he supports funding for abstinence-only education programs in response to a significant segment of his constituency which he believes is entitled to implement programs most consistent with their values.'' | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Bedding and an odd company name | | Time: | 01:00 pm |
|
| So, I'm shopping for a comforter for riv and me, since it's getting cold and huddling under the twin comforter I brought with me from my parents' house is cozy but not really a permanent solution. One of the providers of soft billowy thermal insulation to put on top of you while you sleep is called The Company Store. Now, I guess the associations with that phrase aren't widespread enough to be detrimental to their business, but here's what I think of: Wikipedia article (and yes, I know, but it provides enough information to know what I'm talking about).
Anyway. It turns out that I'm not allergic to down, my brother is instead, and that in any case, the comforter encasing I have to use anyway because I'm allergic to dust and dust mites would be an effective barrier. Whee! So, where do you suggest getting comforters from? I already know about Land's End and L.L. Bean. Also, if any of you have a comforter that isn't down or a polyester down imitation (eg, primaloft), such as silk or wool, please tell me what you think of them! | | comments: 7 comments or Leave a comment |
| | How do you pronounce 'coulis'? Clarification: I'm asking how you pronounce it, not how one pronounces it. I wish wish wish that it didn't sound stuffy and artificial to use 'one', because now I have to clarify what I mean when I say or write 'you'. | | comments: 11 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | On a cheerier note | | Time: | 04:45 am |
|
| I decided a couple of days ago that as part of keeping my brain from turning into mush, that I'd review/relearn linear algebra and statistical mechanics/thermodynamics, since those were both subjects I really liked when I took them, but which I haven't used much since I took them and have largely forgotten. Ok, that's not actually accurate. I did have occasion to use linear algebra, but by the time that happened, I had forgotten enough that I ended up just doing the calculations mechanically without quite knowing what the hell I was doing. Anyway, I need to dig the books out of wherever the hell I put all my books (somewhere at my parents' house, but where?), but I'd like to work on it every(/every other) day for a while.
For some reason, thinking about this makes me happy. Mmm, thermo. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Somerville | | Time: | 03:42 pm |
|
| So, I think I've mentioned that my town (well, city, technically, but habits die hard) is named after an unsuccessful American suicide bomber (unsuccessful in that he didn't manage to actually blow up what he wanted to) and that this amuses me to no end (it was long enough ago that this probably isn't in exceptionally poor taste).
Well, I just had a dealing with Somerville bureaucracy and it went... well. I love
the City of Somerville's non-emergency phone number. I've never had a smoother dealing with bureaucracy. Fingers crossed though that saying this doesn't jinx me! | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | What to do with baby bok choi? | | Time: | 05:57 pm |
|
| | I have baby bok choi that I really need to use soon. What should I do with them? | | comments: 8 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Asking the Oracle: Pots and pans | | Time: | 01:50 pm |
|
| So, I could use some help finding skillets (aka frying pans). I really really don't like nonstick pans. I hate worrying about scratching it, I hate hate hate the fact that you have to throw them out after a while (I have a definite difficulty buying things that won't last for a really long time), I'm concerned about the long term health effects of the coating, and I really don't like the way that cooking fats (I usually use olive oil or butter) behave in it. They just sort of sit in little pools, which is not what I expect them to do.
I am a huge fan of cast iron. However, in attempting to find cast iron skillets, I've discovered that it's very difficult currently to find ones that aren't preseasoned. I'm pretty squicked by preseasoning; I had a frying pan that was preseasoned (Lodge Logic) when I was at Mount Holyoke and the black gunky stuff on the pan was gross, not to mention that none of the companies that preseason their pans actually disclose what they're preseasoning with, or how ("proprietary).
I know it is possible to find cast iron pans that haven't been preseasoned, but I figured I'd ask you guys about this. Maybe I'll find out about something I haven't heard of before (and cast iron is admittedly really heavy).
If you don't use teflon coated pans, what do you use? Why? Also, if you know of anywhere in the Boston area where I can get cast iron that hasn't been preseasoned, please let me know! | | comments: 17 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Cell phones | | Time: | 03:43 pm |
|
| | So, as some of you may know, I lost my cell phone while on vacation. I'm borrowing riv's non-work cell phone until I get a new one, which I should do any day now (probably this week, or riv and my immediate family are going to kill me). Of course, it never occurred to me to back up the phone numbers stored on my SIM card before this happened, so I've lost all of the phone numbers I've stored on it besides the ones I've been able to ask people for. If you haven't already told me what your (cell or other) phone number is since I got back from vacation and you think I ought to have it, please leave it in a comment here (I'm screening comments, so it won't be seen by anyone besides me) or email me. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Today and plants | | Time: | 03:29 pm |
|
| So, it turns out that the crafting store that I mentioned in this post is not that interesting. It has stuff for a bunch of different crafts, but not very much for any one of them, Porter Square Books has more crafting books, it was really hipsterish, and it had scrapbooking materials, which I can't stand. Oh well. At least the small supply of yarns it has means that I won't have tempting tempting yarns in my neighborhood.
Speaking of which, riv's going to teach me how to crochet! I'm really excited about this, and am looking forward to making my own silly hats.
After I finish writing this, I'm going to go to the Davis Square Farmer's Market. In addition to the tasty vegetables and fruits I expect to find there, I just discovered today that Taza Chocolate has a whole entire booth at it. Mmm.
I'm planning to put together a garden in tubs in the backyard of the house our apartment is in. It's too late really to start from seeds (and too uncertain, since this really is sort of my first garden), but my mother thinks that some of the farmers at the farmer's market in Davis will be selling plants, since there are at the Brookline Farmer's Market, and many of the same farmers go to both of them. If that doesn't work out, I'll go to said Brookline farmer's market tomorrow, and Allendale Farm or Mahoney's. We're thinking of growing basil and/or mint, morning glories, and maybe some other flowers. I've been watering the plants of friends of ours who live in this neighborhood while they were away which has made me really excited about having a garden of my own. | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | ATM Irritations | | Time: | 03:17 pm |
|
| A couple of days ago, I was shopping at Porter Square Books and tried to buy some of their unbelievably tasty Vietnamese fresh rolls, only to realize that I didn't have enough cash on me (the bookstore itself takes plastic, but the cafe doesn't). I dashed across the shopping center to the ATM of a local bank, only to discover that that ATM wasn't part of the SUM network. And then I pushed the wrong button (it was confusingly marked) and was charged $1.50 for using the ATM. So of course, trying to avoid that happening again, I decided to check the SUM Network's website to find the SUM ATMs closest to me. Well, they do have a location search feature. Unfortunately, it's nearly useless. It lets you search by city or by zipcode. Cambridge and Somerville both have a lot of banks and I live near the border between them. If you actually click on the listing for an ATM location, it will show you where it is on Mapquest, so they obviously have heard of online maps services. How hard would it then be for them to let me enter an address and return the nearest locations? I mean, come on. The technology's out there and the usefulness of the SUM network depends on people being able to find locations easily.
Also, irritatingly enough, the bank whose ATM I was bilked by is part of the SUM network, but apparently even if a bank is part of the network, some percentage (possibly 40%?) of that bank's ATMs may be non SUM ATMs, and the one I went to was one of them. How does that even make sense? | | comments: 5 comments or Leave a comment |
| Why do realtors continue to use insane abbreviations even when, such as on Craigslist, they don't have a word limit? Seriously, it took me *forever* to realize that 'Pkng' meant Parking.
Also, 'sleek and modern' apparently means 'has ugly wall-to-wall carpeting, hideous radiators, and seriously low ceilings'. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Apartment names | | Time: | 02:01 am |
|
| So, it seems to be the done thing to name apartments/houses/households. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this or whether I want to do so myself. but while it's on my mind, what do you think of 'TeaCozy' (capitalization and spacing to be determined at a later date) as a name for our (riv's and my) apartment next year?
[The name idea is partially ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ringer's fault, for joking that an apartment lived in by riv and me would probably have teacozy-cozies.] | | comments: 28 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Living by committee: The Rain Boots Edition | | Time: | 12:37 am |
|
| So, I'm going to buy these shiny shiny Kamik rainboots, with a multicolored squiggle pattern. However, there are three "colors" (more properly colorways, but anyway). And all of them make me go "Oh, shiiiiiny". And sadly, since the boots are $50, I can't collect them all™ So, I'm asking you all to help me decide.
( Boots! ) | | comments: 27 comments or Leave a comment |
|
Susannah Summerrose
|
|