Last night I went to bed early. Thus I was sound asleep when the fire alarm went off.

I was still befuddled and trying to figure out what the Loud Noise was when my neighbor came pounding on my door. In shorts and a tshirt, soaking wet, in 20 degree weather. The door to their place was wide open and there was water spraying EVERYWHERE.

My neighbors are post-college guys. One of them managed to set off the sprinkler system in their apartment. So the alarms went off, we had to evacuate into the parking lot, the fire trucks arrived, the on site maintenance people came at a dead run, etc.

Eventually they got the alarm and sprinklers turned off. I'm really grateful that there seems to be no water in my place. The two units under my neighbor aren't so lucky, with leaky ceilings and no power until they get the flooding sorted out. The maintenace guys were running the wet vacs last night and I'm sure the blowers and dehumidifiers will be here today (I don't hear them yet, but it's still early).

I still don't know how my neighbors set off the deluge. Roomate #1 just kept saying "It wasn't me, HE did something stupid." Roommate #2 never showed his face to the cold and grumpy group standing in the parking lot in our pjs. I was really grateful that the snow has melted!

[edit] hahaah, I could at least see the outline on my phone, so really, I uploaded a black box for the day. Awesome.

I'm back from Chicago. Today was (huzzah!) an easy flying day, and the DC snow has politely (largely) melted. After getting another foot out in the NW Chicago burbs over the weekend, it's nice to actually see dead green grass.

It's been a busy few days. Sunday I bought and installed a new printer for my mom, followed by a basketball game (Katie. She's once again playing on the high school's 7th grade feeder team as well as her school team) and pizza with the various Lutzes. Monday Mom and Hans and I took my nieces to the Chicago History Museum. K. did an excellent version of Bored Teenager at the beginning, but eventually let herself enjoy it. The Abraham Lincoln exhibit there was great and Claire got to see *another* Lincoln Top Hat. After the museum, I headed downtown to meet up with the ever-fabulous LK and MC. LK and I spent a very happy hour at Loopy Yarns (Malabrigo Twist! Handmaiden Mini-Maiden!) and then met M for a visit/chat/coffee before I hopped the train back out home.

Work of course tomorrow, but once I go grocery shopping I'm going to settle in for a relaxing winter's evening with popcorn and knitting and TV. I love my mom dearly, but it's a grand thing to control my own remote.

Xmas was great. As per usual aergern and his family spoiled me rotten. I swear his mom has a gift issue. So many packages for the 6 of us that pretty much invaded the whole family room. There is no such thing as presents only under the tree chez The Rosenbergs. aergern got me the camera I really wanted, and some kickass knives. Well, I really wanted the camera in theory until I used it. WTF Sony? This generation of CyberShots blow chunks. Funny, because my boss said exactly the same thing. On Boxing Day I gave my money to Micro Center and crossed over to a Canon. The macro is very good on this one. Hell, I’ve been playing with the digital macro a lot.

See, I take pics of food, nail polish and close up things 95% of the time. The macro on the stupid Sony was horrible. My last Sony was great. I keep on forgetting that brand loyalty is a thing of the past. Camera shopping is soooo freaking hard though. I got something that will work out way better and now I just have to conquer the learning curve. I’m pretty sure I can handle it. I mean, I’m a pretty crappy photographer anyway, so I at least get a few months of blame out of the camera!

I did pretty much work every day but only an hour or so. At least I don’t have to come into the office on the 31st or the 1st! Not bad when in my pjs. We’re catching up on Tivo too. That is really needed.

Yesterday we had a sewage backup which well, sucked. Too much water running in the house and all the wetness outside made things not want to flow like normal. Brentwood has a 24/7 sewer line! Sweet! Our basement eventually drained (it wasn’t a huge puddle, but disconcerting) and when I called them they set up an appointment for someone to call us to come look at it. Free :) I like free! If it was something in the house it would have cost us but the guy took care of it on the outside and billed the city. Yay! That’s worth the $28 I pay in taxes a year for sure. Everyone was really nice. I mean, not that I expect someone to be a jerk to a customer with sewage in their basement but still it was really nice to deal with good customer service.

So yeah, I need to clean up the basement. I think I’m going to go through some of our long term storage tubs and weed out bedding and things we never use. I’m getting through the house bit by bit. I’ve done the kitchen, my office, and my clothes and such in the bedroom. So if I can cut out a few storage tubs downstairs that would be nice. The worst part is getting my ass to Goodwill. Blah.

Cookie Monster is sad.

Ms. D is stuck at SFO waiting for a plane, so she's asked me to post a Who Alert. (Do I make a sort of Tardis-y sound for alerts?)

BBCA is broadcasting this year's Christmas Special tonight, the first of a two-parter that is going to bring big changes. The End of Time, Part I will broadcast tonight at 9 eastern, 8 central.

I'll be recording it, to watch later next week. Haven't managed to convince my mom that she needs even more cable stations. . .

Snowy morning, peace and quiet and coffee and time with my mom and Hans. Life is good. Hans is out with the snowblower. Jack-the-neighbor insists that Hans is too old to be managing the snow himself, but if Jack's not here by 10am Hans takes matters into his own mittens.

Yesterday was a bit of a circus. Two families arrived with thin-lipped parents thanks to Christmas meltdowns from the kids. Hans's family was running late, so we had a flurry of guests and coats and getting drinks just as Mom was getting dinner on the table.

Usually we have turkey at Christmas, but Mom almost always says afterwards that turkey is too much work and she'd rather cook something else. So this year she finally decided to abandon tradition and do a filet instead. Easier to get in the oven, no need to do stuffing, cooks faster, no carving. And she also decided to bake a cake for dessert, the eggnog cake we all loooove that she hasn't made for at least twenty years.

The best laid plans. . .

Something was wrong with mom's oven. I was worried the veg (my contribution) would be raw. Instead the veg was fine; the lower oven seems to heat fine, it's just the temp gauge that is off. The upper oven, otoh, was showing the right temp but didn't heat enough, so the filet was verrrry rare indeed. The eggnog cream cake was delicious but also collapsed on itself sometime between frosting and serving. Mom's rather out of sorts today as a result, since she prides herself on hosting Perfect Dinners. Most of us like our beef rare and were happy to eat slumpedover cake, so we hardly minded. Poor Hans, though, likes his beef well done, and ended up with a plate straight from the microwave :-)

I'm at my mom's computer with the dog pattering around with her new tug toy, my sister sprawled on the couch watching trashy TV, Hans on the phone to one of his (many) brothers, and Mom wearing a snowman apron double checking the Christmas dinner preparations. We're eating late today (4pm. Late by Lutz standards) and the guests haven't yet arrived yet. But we'll have sixteen for dinner and possibly both granddogs as well.

Last night at my brother's we opened our gifts and I got to see the look on Mom's face when she unwrapped the very skinny package from me. We're going to New York to the opera :-))))))

A very happy holiday to you all!

Tis the season. Today was pretty good, and productive. Well, work wasn't very productive honestly. Did get quite a bit done for it being an early day though, which is good. I'll be checking in daily so it isn't like I'm abandoning ship like I did last year. Ah, last year. I think that we should try to travel during the holiday more often. That was a great trip.

So I came home from work a bit early and started cleaning the main rooms. Then, after vacuuming, I decided to tackle my office. See, I just dump things downstairs in my office. So bad. Well, it is done after a few hours of dedicated work so I can't really complain. Good thing it is a small room, let me just say that. So tomorrow I think I need to tackle the bedroom and purge some more clothing. And instituting a new rule: never buy clothing on a fat day. Seriously. I end up with shit that is even to big at my currently "heavier" state.

Yeah, heavier. Not at an OMG I'm going to never eat again state, but the warning bells are going off. I need to get back into a routine. All of this sugar intake is really messing with my body. Do I go sugar-free again? Maybe just fruit sugars? I don't know yet. I need more freaking veggies in my diet, less sugar. Sounds easy huh? I've already pointed out I have a sugar addiction, so kicking it is hard, staying off of it is harder, and getting through the really severe cravings is the worst. Fucking sugar. I need a freaking detox. After I get this shit out of my system I'm pretty good with sugar once in awhile. It is like now though when it is every single day that it becomes a problem. A huge problem. Especially with my moods. Eek. Who would think such an innocent looking ingredient could cause me so much pain? Punk.

Once I stop feeling so lethargic and hungover (from the sugar, seriously) I can get back to working out. I'll have to force it for awhile but I need to keep active. Things have been so busy that I've dropped the ball. Part of my cleaning my office is so I have no excuse not to exercise even if I don't go to the gym. I have a huge dvd collection, so I can do them downstairs. If I'm too lazy to do that, I should be very ashamed.

Wow did I bake. I'm very happy to be done. After a horrible apricot start, things got rolling and I think everything turned out okay. I mean, making basic truffles are easy, so I put those in with everything else. When I first planned the assortment, 90% of it was chocolate. At the end of things only 2 of the 6 were chocolate.

I've been leaning against chocolate for awhile personally. I don't know why. It sure is tasty at times, but I'm digging other flavours more. Hrm. Honestly, right now I'm feeling savory products more. After I finish A's cookies she dropped off. Damn her.