Update: Even though it's supposed to stop snowing by tomorrow morning, Loudoun County schools are already closed for Monday and Tuesday.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
The Snowpocalypse
Update: Even though it's supposed to stop snowing by tomorrow morning, Loudoun County schools are already closed for Monday and Tuesday.
Friday, December 18, 2009
For Anyone Wondering...
If you've ever wondered why it is that I hate people, you've obviously never driven in Northern Virginia when there's even the threat of bad weather.
If you have done that and you still wonder, there's no way I can make you understand, because clearly you must be running for Jesus and are practicing your infinite grace and perfect forgiveness.
On another note, to all of the people living in Northern Virginia: You are out of your goddamn minds.
If you have done that and you still wonder, there's no way I can make you understand, because clearly you must be running for Jesus and are practicing your infinite grace and perfect forgiveness.
On another note, to all of the people living in Northern Virginia: You are out of your goddamn minds.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Oh, Right
Oh, right; I have a blog.
So on Sunday I ventured out to Home Depot to check out washing machines, and a good time was had by all.
Well, some.
Okay, there was no good time to be had, quite frankly, but the fact remains that I went to Home Depot and spent more time - which is to say any time - than I wanted to looking at washing machines.
Those fancy steam wash systems were ruled out right away, as they were too damned expensive ($1,100? Do you realize what kind of computer I could buy for that much money?), so I started looking at some of the cheaper models.
While the plan was to get something that would fit in the current location, I did think about future remodelling plans, so I had an eye on the front-loading type that can be adapted to be stackable with a compatible dryer, but they were all pretty expensive.
(Note: as there were no deals, I'm not changing the layout any time real soon, and the old one still works, I didn't look at dryers)
I was, after mentioning that it's just me at home, initially pointed towards some small, cheap machines, but given how long I sometimes go without washing clothes, I do need a decent capacity, so I started looking at more expensive models.
Ultimately I decided that a front-loader probably wouldn't work that well in the downstairs bathroom, and that if I do remodel upstairs I'd have enough room for a side-by-side washer and dryer anyway, so I focused on the top-loading variety.
The girl working there pointed me in the direction of a GE model that was relatively small but, lacking an agitator, had a decent capacity, and was Energy Star-compliant and had some fancy water-saving feature that evidently works in such a way that the agitator isn't necessary for about $550.
She then discovered that there was an identical model for $100 cheaper, though she wasn't sure why it was so much cheaper. After looking at the label I determined that it was cheaper because it lacked some of the complex washing mode combinations, but WTF do I care about any of that?
So that's the one I opted to get.
I'm working from home on Thursday so that I can be here for the delivery, as otherwise I would have had to wait until next year.
I've been assured that the delivery people are required to do whatever they need to in order to haul the old one away, so here's hoping they don't balk at the task of lifting it over the toilet to get it out (and to do the same when it comes to installing the new one).
In the meantime, I had enough clean clothes - with the addition of the new ones - to get me through until them.
So that's that. For now.
I'm still getting used to having the bedroom furniture. I used to keep all of my clothes in the closet, so it's been an adjustment in the morning to remember that my socks and underwear are now in the dresser and that I don't have to immediately go to the closet after showering and drying off.
The dresser has also given me a place to charge my cell phone that's far enough away from my alarm clock that its signal won't cause my alarm clock to randonly let out a blast of static, so I've also had to adjust to not having to put it in the office at night, or retrieve it from there in the morning.
On Friday we had a team (everyone who reports up to my boss' boss) holiday get-together. It was just like the one we had last year, and was even at the same place.
We did this gift exchange thing ($20 limit) in which all the gifts were put on a table, everyone picked a number, and then we went in order to select a gift. If you didn't like the gift you got, you could swap with anyone who had a lower number than you.
I was number 3.
My gift was a Starbucks insulated mug thing and some coffee...the perfect gift for someone who doesn't drink coffee. The mug itself is fine and useful, but the coffee that came with it, not so much.
Still, being number 3, my only swapping options were a CD of holiday music performed by popular artists I don't like and some sort of desktop puzzle/toy thing that looked boring, or lottery tickets.
I decided not to swap in the hopes that someone after me would want to take my gift away from me.
No such luck.
My gift contribution was this 1.3 MP digital camera I found at Target that can also be used as a webcam. The person who picked that opted to swap for the lottery tickets.
When it was my boss' turn to pick a gift, she decided to swap what she'd gotten for the camera.
However, when it was her boss' turn, he decided that he wanted the camera.
So my contribution ended up being the most popular/most traded. Yay me!
As for the lottery tickets that I decided not to swap my gift for, one of them turned out to be a $50 winner.
However, I'm convinced that in some bizarre perversion of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, if I had swapped for the lottery tickets, there wouldn't have been a winner.
That's what I have to tell myself, at least.
Tomorrow night Scott and I are going to another Riff Trax Live event, this time with special guest "Weird Al" Yankovic.
Thursday, as mentioned, I'll be working from home (and no, that's not "working" from home; I find I get more work done when I work at home, actually), then Friday is just a standard Friday, then a weekend that will be over as soon as I blink, then four days at work, and then I'm off for the rest of the year, burning off this year's leftover vacation time.
And that's pretty much all that's been/will be going on.
I've been even more tired than usual lately - went to bed before 9 last night - and haven't had the energy to do much in the way of blogging or drawing or really anything other than getting sucked into watching movies on HBO and Cinemax.
Think I'll see what's on now...
So on Sunday I ventured out to Home Depot to check out washing machines, and a good time was had by all.
Well, some.
Okay, there was no good time to be had, quite frankly, but the fact remains that I went to Home Depot and spent more time - which is to say any time - than I wanted to looking at washing machines.
Those fancy steam wash systems were ruled out right away, as they were too damned expensive ($1,100? Do you realize what kind of computer I could buy for that much money?), so I started looking at some of the cheaper models.
While the plan was to get something that would fit in the current location, I did think about future remodelling plans, so I had an eye on the front-loading type that can be adapted to be stackable with a compatible dryer, but they were all pretty expensive.
(Note: as there were no deals, I'm not changing the layout any time real soon, and the old one still works, I didn't look at dryers)
I was, after mentioning that it's just me at home, initially pointed towards some small, cheap machines, but given how long I sometimes go without washing clothes, I do need a decent capacity, so I started looking at more expensive models.
Ultimately I decided that a front-loader probably wouldn't work that well in the downstairs bathroom, and that if I do remodel upstairs I'd have enough room for a side-by-side washer and dryer anyway, so I focused on the top-loading variety.
The girl working there pointed me in the direction of a GE model that was relatively small but, lacking an agitator, had a decent capacity, and was Energy Star-compliant and had some fancy water-saving feature that evidently works in such a way that the agitator isn't necessary for about $550.
She then discovered that there was an identical model for $100 cheaper, though she wasn't sure why it was so much cheaper. After looking at the label I determined that it was cheaper because it lacked some of the complex washing mode combinations, but WTF do I care about any of that?
So that's the one I opted to get.
I'm working from home on Thursday so that I can be here for the delivery, as otherwise I would have had to wait until next year.
I've been assured that the delivery people are required to do whatever they need to in order to haul the old one away, so here's hoping they don't balk at the task of lifting it over the toilet to get it out (and to do the same when it comes to installing the new one).
In the meantime, I had enough clean clothes - with the addition of the new ones - to get me through until them.
So that's that. For now.
I'm still getting used to having the bedroom furniture. I used to keep all of my clothes in the closet, so it's been an adjustment in the morning to remember that my socks and underwear are now in the dresser and that I don't have to immediately go to the closet after showering and drying off.
The dresser has also given me a place to charge my cell phone that's far enough away from my alarm clock that its signal won't cause my alarm clock to randonly let out a blast of static, so I've also had to adjust to not having to put it in the office at night, or retrieve it from there in the morning.
On Friday we had a team (everyone who reports up to my boss' boss) holiday get-together. It was just like the one we had last year, and was even at the same place.
We did this gift exchange thing ($20 limit) in which all the gifts were put on a table, everyone picked a number, and then we went in order to select a gift. If you didn't like the gift you got, you could swap with anyone who had a lower number than you.
I was number 3.
My gift was a Starbucks insulated mug thing and some coffee...the perfect gift for someone who doesn't drink coffee. The mug itself is fine and useful, but the coffee that came with it, not so much.
Still, being number 3, my only swapping options were a CD of holiday music performed by popular artists I don't like and some sort of desktop puzzle/toy thing that looked boring, or lottery tickets.
I decided not to swap in the hopes that someone after me would want to take my gift away from me.
No such luck.
My gift contribution was this 1.3 MP digital camera I found at Target that can also be used as a webcam. The person who picked that opted to swap for the lottery tickets.
When it was my boss' turn to pick a gift, she decided to swap what she'd gotten for the camera.
However, when it was her boss' turn, he decided that he wanted the camera.
So my contribution ended up being the most popular/most traded. Yay me!
As for the lottery tickets that I decided not to swap my gift for, one of them turned out to be a $50 winner.
However, I'm convinced that in some bizarre perversion of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, if I had swapped for the lottery tickets, there wouldn't have been a winner.
That's what I have to tell myself, at least.
Tomorrow night Scott and I are going to another Riff Trax Live event, this time with special guest "Weird Al" Yankovic.
Thursday, as mentioned, I'll be working from home (and no, that's not "working" from home; I find I get more work done when I work at home, actually), then Friday is just a standard Friday, then a weekend that will be over as soon as I blink, then four days at work, and then I'm off for the rest of the year, burning off this year's leftover vacation time.
And that's pretty much all that's been/will be going on.
I've been even more tired than usual lately - went to bed before 9 last night - and haven't had the energy to do much in the way of blogging or drawing or really anything other than getting sucked into watching movies on HBO and Cinemax.
Think I'll see what's on now...
Sunday, December 13, 2009
New Furniture
I got my new bedroom furniture delivered yesterday.
I didn't have room/use for the chest in my bedroom, so I just had them put it in the guest bedroom for now.
I'm heading to Home Depot today to buy a washer and/or dryer.
I've decided to go with the simplest short-term solution, which is to buy a new washer and just put it where the old one is - if worst comes to worst, I'll throw some money at the delivery guys to get them to put in the extra effort to lift up the old washer and haul it out.
If there are any deals on dryers or washer/dryer sets I'll get a dryer as well.
There's nothing I can do to change the laundry set up that wouldn't involve someone coming in and doing some amount of electrical or plumbing work - even if I did a ventless dryer I'd still need to have the wiring done to bring a dryer inside the house.
Maybe at tax/bonus time I'll see about getting some work done to change it all, but for now, just getting a washing machine is the priority.
I had joked about just buying new clothes every week rather than getting a washing machine ("Hey Jon, I like that shirt." "Thanks, you want it? I'm just going to toss it after I wear it today."), and while it was a joke, I did actually buy a bunch of new clothes yesterday, but that was just because I needed some new stuff.
I didn't have room/use for the chest in my bedroom, so I just had them put it in the guest bedroom for now.
I'm heading to Home Depot today to buy a washer and/or dryer.
I've decided to go with the simplest short-term solution, which is to buy a new washer and just put it where the old one is - if worst comes to worst, I'll throw some money at the delivery guys to get them to put in the extra effort to lift up the old washer and haul it out.
If there are any deals on dryers or washer/dryer sets I'll get a dryer as well.
There's nothing I can do to change the laundry set up that wouldn't involve someone coming in and doing some amount of electrical or plumbing work - even if I did a ventless dryer I'd still need to have the wiring done to bring a dryer inside the house.
Maybe at tax/bonus time I'll see about getting some work done to change it all, but for now, just getting a washing machine is the priority.
I had joked about just buying new clothes every week rather than getting a washing machine ("Hey Jon, I like that shirt." "Thanks, you want it? I'm just going to toss it after I wear it today."), and while it was a joke, I did actually buy a bunch of new clothes yesterday, but that was just because I needed some new stuff.
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