You wake up to find yourself buried underground. Describe what happens next.

First matter of business. I've been reading Dinosaur Comics for a long time, and my opinion on it has ranged from "this is the best thing ever" to "meh" at various points. Today, however, delivered. For me*, at least. I would like to be friends with Ryan North.
*I am amused by both the concepts of "GAY" and "DUDES," in case it was not already clear.

Image: B., summer 2005. Homemade Dinosaur Comics tee shirt.

There hasn't been much I've wanted to say lately, which is why this is the first update in a long time! I've been toying with the idea of visiting Brooklyn (actually, some good friends in Brooklyn), but I might have to earmark the money I'd be spending on travels for other, less exciting things. Like late fees on tax filing. Blrgh.

OH! This terrifying thing happened last night at 3:30am: I woke up in a state of confusion, because I typically sleep in deep and total oblivion, impervious to all outside stimuli (not unlike my usual state at work). Something was making an UNHOLY mechanical whirring-churning-chrrrhcrrrchrrrrhcrrrchrrrr sort of noise, but it took me several seconds to orient myself enough to notice that this was probably what had woken me up. Next to me, Malachy was sitting up where he had been curled next to my pillow, sending me assurances: "Something's going on here. I think. I'm going to sit here for a while, and if anything bad happens, I'll be... over there." It took me clambering out of bed and tottering around to identify the radiator as the culprit of the noise, but then I spent the next 5 minutes wondering if I should call my landlord Peter, or just go sleep on the couch in case toxic levels of carbon monoxide were somehow seeping out of my radiator and would kill me in a matter of minutes. Doesn't carbon monoxide poisoning make you really sleepy? God, I was so sleepy. And it would be so cold and uncomfortable on the couch. Maybe I should just crawl back into bed and hope for the best.

I was not having this dream.

I found out this morning that I had nothing to worry about, which is good, because I gave up after the power cut out and back on a couple of times, and finally came back without the whirring-churrrrhghrghrrrchrrrrrchrrrrrrrrchrhghghrrrrrrring (and then I spent another 5 minutes worrying that the radiator was nevertheless going to explode a couple of hours later and kill me in my sleep). Anyway... we have no heat! Until Landlord Peter gets the pump - seriously why the hell is it so loud is there a good reason for that? - fixed. But the nice thing is, he's a very thorough and attentive landlord, likely due in large part to the fact that he lives below us, and was the one killing and reanimating the power as he fiddled with breaker switches last night. At 3:30am! Maybe closer to 3:45 at that point.

Jesus Christmas, I am tired.

bluhhhhhhhhhhhh

I have had three major activities after work this week:

1) laundry
2) cleaning
3) making food

None of this is, I guess, that alarming, except that it is slightly out of the ordinary for me, since I historically have spent many an evening quality-timing it with my laptop for several hours on the internets. But, I'm tired of feeling bad about not getting things done around here, so this week, for example, I have:

- baked off the last of the Cornish pasty filling with more puff pastry AND a quick gravy concocted of onion + beef bouillon (defeating the "vegetarian" aspect entirely)
- cooked up a vodka sauce + artichoke/red pepper pasta pastiche
- made Thai peanut-sesame noodles with carrot and green onion
- baked a half-batch of banana-chocolate chip bread, which finished off my flour stores
- vaccuumed the shit out of the furniture in the sunroom
- scrubbed the stovetop
- washed a load of laundry
- re-washed that load of laundry
- started altering a button-down plaid shirt into a tunic/dress with pintucking (currently stuck on how to treat the top half)
- ironed a stack of very wrinkly clothes
- probably some other stuff

It feels like more than that because I am currently Ladycurse Exhausted, which means the only activity I truly excel at right now is trudging, and all of my toils seem like a major accomplishment given that they were conducted entirely without the assistance of lower-back-massaging-gnomes. However, my bank accounts are embarrassingly low and I cannot afford to buy lunch this week, PLUS I was an idiot who let her delicious Thai curry sit out and spoil all Sunday night into Monday [actually, this may have been a subconsciously intentional murder on my part, because the vegetables were already overcooked and I never loved that curry like I should have from the start]. At least I sent the lion's share of it home with Brock, who, being a sensible boy, actually put it in the refrigerator. Clever turnip, that lad.

Anyhow, to cut off my rambling, I will just note here that I am equal parts excited and apprehensive about the next several days, as they will involve extended interaction with people whom I love dearly, but rarely see - that alone is enough to make them more draining than usual. The fact that two of the people I will be hanging with are my parents ratchets the stakes up a few hundred tickets. I'm jazzed to see my pal Sara, though, and on the itinerary for parental bonding are GARAGE SALES and WINERY VISITING so I am truly excited for those excursions, too. All in all I expect it will be turn out for the best.

hrggg blrrrr

Bluuuuhhhhhh. I don't even want to spend the mental energy crafting an update, and yet I have 10 minutes to kill before I can escape home to bother/snuggle with my cat.

Also, ugh, someone turn down the temperature outside. We had an over-eager winter; let me enjoy my spring in all its dreary, shy grey glory.