quick update

Xmas good, family good, love presents - lots of clothes - family trying to tell me something?

Jon's here - 120s reunion - still caking - Hakeem won the Wii tennis tournament - Stan needs to practice

electrological dig

What do you think this is?

Yeah, I had no idea either, but it was permanently attached to the side of my house, in this little nook where we keep our trash cans. The same nook serves as the only entrance point to the basement for the time being, so every time I need to go downstairs in the dark, I have to stumble across the trash cans until I can reach the door - there's no light there.

Curiosity finally got the best of me, and I decided to investigate (the neighbors, I'm sure, were curious in their own right as to what I was doing outside in the middle of a snow storm). After tracing the wires, playing with the fuses, and miraculously not electrocuting myself, I have a theory.

It seems that the original owners put in a very nicely-designed switch for the light, just in the right spot for the basement door. They probably had it installed professionally when they were putting in the addition, as all the wires are tucked away inside weatherproof boxes.

Then the next owners had the crazy idea of building their own sprinkler system. They took apart the light fixture, and ran a wire to the water control valve. That green garden hose in the picture is actually a conduit; it's anybody's guess where it was supposed to go, as it's been cut a long time ago.

So after some huffing and puffing (and nearly freezing my toes off), I restored the light to its original grandeur, and removed the water control thingie, garden hoses and all. I now have a clean-looking switch that actually does something, and the wires that I removed are just what I need to finish installing an exhaust fan in the bathroom.

It's amazing that things like that make me really, truly happy.

the international man of mystery

George W. Bush: "Who throws a shoe? Honestly!"

ice - not so nice

Thursday night, we saw nothing but rain in Burlington. Everywhere to the north, people saw rain too - unfortunately, with the temperatures below freezing, the rain froze over just about everything. Apparently, that was enough to bring down a cr@pload of trees, some of which hit the power lines.

My parents lost power for about 30 hours, which is not the most convenient thing when you're living in a house with electric heat. Kenny and Laureen, who live in New Hampshire, still don't have power. Their house dipped to 37 degrees, a little too close to "pipes bursting and other bad things happening" point. I gave them my parents' kerosene heater, which worked well - until the kerosene ran out. We then found that it is illegal to stock kerosene in Massachusetts stores. Who knew. Not surprisingly, almost all the places around New Hampshire are out of kerosene. And generators. And heaters.

hello... kitty?

Bank of America has really got to get its stuff together. Susan thought it would be cool to get a customized card. A month later, after the bank managed to send it to the wrong address, the card arrived.

Only they managed to screw up the name on the card, too.

Needless to say, I was thrilled to receive a "Hello Kitty" card:

moving on, part 2

I ran MoveOn's picture-taking idea by a few of my friends, and instead of the expected "sounds kinda lame" response, all of them were very excited to participate. So, I figured I'd go digital with this baby.

Here's the idea: download and print out one of these pages, "I stand with Obama on clean energy", "I stand with Obama for an end to the war in Iraq", "I stand with Obama for health care" - or the crowd favorite blank form that you can fill in with anything. Sign your name and home town in readable letters.

Take a picture that shows you holding the printout, and email it to me (stan at netlegion dot com).

I'll forward the pictures to MoveOn.org, where they'll deliver them to your congressmen - and also post them all over DC for the Inauguration Day. The idea is to encourage the lawmakers to cooperate with Obama's progressive agenda.

Does that sound like something you can do?

yup, we're in recession

Days after the sh#t that we're in was officially labeled a recession, my mom found out that she was laid off - along with half of her company. That just sucks. She started there three months ago after working diligently at another place for thirteen years. Now the new company found itself in such a hole that they could barely cover the last payroll.