Just as the pain and swelling from the one tooth subsided, another tooth elsewhere in the mouth started making trouble. In a lovely little bit of placement, though, this one is on the jaw itself and has a sharp edge that scrapes up the left side of my tongue. Scraped-up tongues tend to swell, and that has made the sharp edge even more difficult to avoid, which causes further scraping, further swelling, etc. Swollen tongues also make ordinary speech very difficult to understand, so I’ve had to get wildly exaggerative with my facial expressions and the non-lingual bits of consonants.

A friend of ours gave Fred a great suggestion for a temporary fix, though: melt candle wax, let it partially set, and pack it around the sharp bit. It’s an odd taste and an even odder feeling, but it works, as evidenced by my mostly-coherent speech and my renewed ability to chew and swallow without pain. I’m being extra-cautious about the temperatures and textures of my food, though, as I don’t want to melt or mangle my improvised crown.

I see the dentist tomorrow morning and again next Wednesday. Hopefully we can work out something a little more permanent.

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Nigel is still out of service; apparently his tires would have to be ordered from a warehouse, which delays things somewhat. I don’t really mind riding the bus to and from work, but it would be nice to Just Go sometimes without all the extra planning for transfers.

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Speaking of work, it was eerily quiet these past few weeks, but now that the winter break is over it’s picking up again. The quiet was kind of nice — made a bunch of patch cables and got a few other large-ish projects done — but it’s even nicer to stay busy with “real work”.

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Did the bulk of the whole Yule thing with Fred’s family on New Year’s Day. We had had a preview showing a few days earlier when my father came by to have me check out a computer issue (isn’t that how it always is?); he brought a couple presents, including a Roomba, which will be the first member of my robot army once it finishes the living room rug. Fred’s folks outdid them, though, giving us (among other things) a bread machine and electric grill which will need to find a home in our crowded kitchen.

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The Powerbook named rupaul got rebuilt with the Gentoo “hardened” toolchain and a different file system. Unfortunately, hardened is very very shaky on PPC, so I’ll probably go back to the regular toolchain for now and switch again later once the herd stabilizes a bit. Sticking with XFS, though, as it mounts faster and seems to perform better on this hardware than reiserfs.

I have a PCMCIA USB 2.0 card and an external hard drive enclosure en route. Once they arrive, the old server (”pangloss”) will be going down, and all of its data will be backed up off-site (woo-hoo rsync and a fat pipe) before the big drive gets re-partitioned. Since pangloss manages DHCP and DNS for the local network, though, the transition will require a little more reliance on the sometimes-flaky VOIP router (which is going to get replaced soon, just you watch). Since pangloss also hosts a local mirror of the portage tree, the transition is also going to stall some tree updates on my work box until I can get rupaul settled.

Also, I’m very tempted to sing “you bettah WORK!” every time I reboot rupaul to try a newly-modified kernel.

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Chorus rehearsals started Monday for the spring show. We weren’t there for the big chorus, but we will probably be doing the small ensemble again once that starts in a couple weeks.

School also started again Monday. This semester I’m taking a sociology class and a short fiction class. I’d much rather be taking something more major-specific, but there was nothing available that I hadn’t done and for which I had all the prerequisites. (boo.)

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So, caucus and primary season is upon us. I find it fascinating that the turnout so far is a smidge higher on the Republican side and a whole fucking lot higher on the Democratic side, yet all our “liberal” media can talk about is “HILLARY WAS EMOTIONAL THEN SHE WON OMGWTFBBQ”.

That said, it is extremely tempting to look into being a delegate to the DNC this summer, if only to see for myself how it all goes down.

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More later, I think.

Where to start…

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Had the chorus show. It turned out a hell of a lot better than I expected — apparently a lot of guys had been cramming lyrics ‘n’ tunes all day both Friday and Saturday — and the audience was very responsive. The snowstorm kept a lot of people home on Saturday night, though.

We won’t be able to sing with the full chorus for the next show, though we may be able to go with the smaller ensemble. The same interim director will be conducting, though, which should help stabilize a few things.

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Nigel had a flat on the way home from the chorus dress rehearsal! We managed to make it home (it was very late, the streets were slick with rain, and we were very close anyway) and got him in his usual spot that night. Then it snowed 8 inches or so, and things were unpleasant enough that we delayed changing the tire even further. When we finally got to it, we discovered that the tire had multiple large-ish breaches and would therefore need to be completely replaced. At this point, between shop closures and year-end financial obligations, Nigel is going to have to wait at least another week before he gets a new tire. It continues to make me sad.

In the meantime, I’ve been getting rides from Fred or taking the bus or train to work. I haven’t done that regularly since the pre-Nigel days, and I have to admit I sort of missed it a tiny little bit. If I catch the right bus, it takes roughly the same amount of time to get to work; it gives me a chance to unwind afterwards without having to deal with too many idiot drivers; and the University sprang for a Metro pass for me, so the bus/train doesn’t cost me anything. Finally, running for a bus is wonderful exercise — I get lots of cardio, and my motivation is built right in — and at this time of year a morning jog is invigorating.

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As of the day of the chorus’s opening night, though, Fred drives a slick 1997 BMW, in gorgeous condition, with purple leather seats. (It’s a very dark purple, such that it appears black except in direct sunlight.) This is not the first car we were eager to buy, but in retrospect it’s better that we got this one instead: it’s cheaper, it’s in better shape, and unlike the first one that was too insulated for my tastes this one lets the driver feel enough of the road to respond accordingly. As we discovered the night of that snowstorm, though, the new car (named “Klaus”) has rear-wheel drive, and though it does beautifully on virgin snow, when it hits ice it fishtails rather nastily until somebody sits in back.

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Said snowstorm was more wind and fury than actual precipitation. That said, we still got 8 inches. (Actual inches, not gay.com inches. cue that rimshot.) Most fell Saturday evening during the chorus show, so while the roads were so-so on the way to the theater, they were atrocious on the way home. (This is mostly because the city didn’t plow anything until Sunday morning.) The extra-sucky part about our trip home from the theater was that all of our available routes involved some combination of bridges and long uphill grades, which are rough going in any sort of wheeled vehicle. We insisted that Fred’s mother stay the night

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Had finals in both classes, and nailed ‘em both. I kinda sorta broke the curve in the programming class (101%, sorry). Didn’t do quite that well in physio, but I won’t complain about that. (Physio was one of those “lecture four hours straight” sorts of classes, which I actually enjoy in a perverse way. It’s the virtual labs that made me groan in disgust.)

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The departmental holiday party was the night of the programming final, so I didn’t get to stick around. The food looked amazing, though I couldn’t eat much of it (time was short, also the tooth was starting to flare up), and it was refreshing to see everybody there with their spouses and partners et al. and kids. The music was a little interesting, though; one of the postdocs from the dept chair’s lab (who bears a striking resemblance to Justin Timberlake, no fooling) and another postdoc who had once been in our department sang and played guitar. Apparently they switched to karaoke later on, once the booze kicked in, but I’m not sure how I feel about that. Great moment, though, was attempting to explain the Violent Femmes’ “Blister in the Sun” — WHICH THEY ACTUALLY PLAYED AT THE DEPARTMENT HOLIDAY PARTY, this obviously still blows my mind — to those unfamiliar with that song.

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You know about last Wednesday. Swollen cheek, broken tooth, new gay dentist, etc. Been on those meds ever since, and though the antibiotic occasionally gives me a headache (especially in the presence of fly food) I haven’t had any further problems. I can chew again, which is a relief even if I do have to go easy on the left side of my mouth.

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Thanks to the dental condition, we postponed holiday observations until at least after the New Year. Don’t ask me what I got, because I really don’t know yet. We spent both the Solstice weekend and Christmas Day at home, putzing around and watching “Labyrinth“, “Elf“, episodes from season 2.0 of “Battlestar Galactica“, and snippets of “A Christmas Story“. (No vacation time for me yet, so I had to work on Christmas Eve. I did cut out a bit early, though, because nobody was there.)

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Food and geekery posts to follow.

So. Thanksgiving weekend was mostly consumed by a road trip to Oklahoma City. Here’s the ten-minute recap, which undoubtedly leaves out something important.

Thursday was deliberately low-key. We had been planning to attend dinner with Fred’s family, but backed out when we learned that there would be members of his extended family there. Instead, we slept in, did a little housework and a lot of laundry, and cooked a frozen veg lasagna from Trader Joe’s.

Thursday night, we started to head to Alton to exchange vehicles with Fred’s mother. However, on the way up, we noticed that Fred’s car’s engine was knocking so severely that it was causing the car to shudder, so we turned around and made it home. Fred’s mother then came down to us to see how she could manage Nigel’s manual transmission — if she could re-learn a stick shift in one night, then we’d temporarily trade her van for Nigel, otherwise we’d drive Nigel to OKC. Happily for our plan and Fred’s sanity, she and Nigel got along just beautifully. Spent the rest of the night gathering clothes and such for packing the next day.

Friday, we drove. For the most part it was an uneventful trip — no precipitation, light traffic — though we did sort of graze a large red-tailed hawk that swooped in front of us. (The hawk slid off the windshield and flew away, apparently startled but uninjured.) Arrived a little later than anticipated, but the rest of my immediate family was just returning from dinner as we arrived. We had a nice Mexican meal, supplemented with mojitos (which, we know, are not Mexican, but which are quite nice anyway), then went back to the rather swanky hotel for a quick shower before sinking into bed.

Saturday was the reception itself. Breakfast buffet with the family before I went to my younger brothers’ room to run through the musical contribution. After that, we had a couple hours free, so we perused the botanical gardens (indoors, w00t) and Oklahoma City National Memorial (solemn and tasteful). Aside from the memorial, the city was deserted; turns out the University of Oklahoma was playing Oklahoma State University in football, so the ENTIRE STATE was enthralled.

Reception was beautiful, if smaller than we had expected. It was held in what had been an insurance company HQ just down the street from where my father and his siblings had grown up; they had recently renovated it into a museum, and whoever did it was a freaking genius with frosted glass.

We mingled with the guests, many of whom were longtime friends of either my cousin or my grandmother; we had tasty hors d’oeuvres; we mingled more; we had cake; we mingled; I sang with two of my brothers, and those two also played a song with our older brother; more mingling; coffee. As the reception wound down, I casually mentioned a plan to take Fred by the old house; somehow this ballooned into a full-fledged tour, as the matron of honor is the one who bought said house from my grandmother. While waiting on everyone, though, Fred and I walked around the neighborhood, taking a few pictures of cool houses and observing that the mistletoe was not yet fruiting (dammit). The old house is now gorgeous, thanks to some heavy work in the kitchen and bathroom and some judicious work elsewhere.

Took my grandmother home, taking a rather convoluted route and seeing that her housekeeping skills didn’t get changed in her move. Drove back in the general direction of the hotel, with minor detours through the gay ‘hood (RIGHT. NEXT. to where the other grandmother always went grocery shopping. I had no idea it was all right there!) and past where my mother’s parents once owned an antique shop (it’s now a club or something). Got back, begged off dinner with the family, and putzed around a bit while recovering from the day. Dinner was at a kitschy Italian place nearby; the steak was excellent, even if the lights were really bright.

Sunday morning, we met for breakfast again, a little earlier this time as some nasty weather was threatening. Picked up a power adapter for Fred’s iPod and got gas before hitting the road. The highways were much, much busier than they had been on Friday, so the return trip seemed to take much longer than normal. The bad weather never quite materialized, though.

Back to work on Monday, in time for the fire mentioned here previously.

This blog is not closed; it is not closing; it does not anticipate closure anytime in the near future. It’s just sporadic as always. And, as always, there are many things that are the same, and a few things that are different.

Same? I’m still alive; so are Fred and the cats and the fish. I’m still married to Fred, and the state of Missouri and the United States of America still think that it’s a dangerous dangerous thing. My job still sucks, only more emphatically now. My classes are still rolling right along, one term into the next. I still help answer e-mail for the Wikimedia Foundation, and we still get a lot of silly questions like “I found an error, could you get one of your staff to fix it?”. (stock answer: “You can edit that.”) And I still work out and cook and drive a Mini.

Different? Fred’s done with this round of school; he should get his provisional licensure veryverysoon. (The graduation ceremony was a raucous affair; thank goodness we didn’t sit near any screamer-clusters.) Nigel’s driver’s-side window got replaced; next up is his windscreen. The gay men’s chorus’s artistic director resigned; bit of drama there, but I won’t go into it because frankly it’s played out, so instead I’ll just say that I’m eager to see how the interim director does.

There is now a deck off the back of our place. It replaces the quick hack of a railing and gives us a chance to grow our own herbs and tomatoes. Basil and chives apparently love the strawberry jar out there now; rosemary not so much.

And the snail in the aquarium died. Alas, poor Norbert; I knew him.

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Finally getting into my major courses in school, and even then I’m bored silly. Introductory-level courses are aaaaalmost done, though; once I can convince my advisor that my transferred calculus credit should meet the college algebra pre-req for some higher-level courses, then I should finally get to something moderately challenging.

That said, the history class I took in the summer session? Fuckin’ A, that class was awesome. No homework, just quizzes and tests; lots of engaging lectures; got done two hours early every night. Hope I get the same instructor for the other half of history.

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Some days, I’m tempted to learn Lisp, just so I can wax poetic about parentheses.

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Trying to find someplace inexpensive for a vacation. We did Toronto over the winter and loved it; if things work out then we’d love to go back. I’m open to suggestions in the meantime, though.

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I have a couple posts brewing about Wikipedia internal stuff, so non-junkies should brace themselves or skip past them.

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I can’t say that I’ve been good at keeping this place up; when I have the motivation, I don’t have the time, and when I have the time I don’t have the motivation. Sorry. However, I need to remind everyone of the glories of RSS (feed’s on the right side); just subscribe to the feed and your newsreader will catch updates as they are posted.

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Finally: I should take this opportunity to plant songs in people’s heads, because I can and because I’m apparently quite good at it. So only click this link if you want to see what is currently haunting my dreams. (This link haunts my dreams too, though in a strange a capella version [if "a capella" meant "the only instruments are voices and slide whistles" (the second tenors get the kickin' guitar part)]; these songs occasionally make an entrance as well, especially that fourth one on the list.)

Let’s get past that and on to the real content, shall we?

Since mid-March… hrm. Concert with Ann Hampton Callaway at the Roberts Orpheum fka the American Theatre. (I was giddier about the balcony on stage right where Eddie Vedder swung around in the video for [I think] “Alive”.) Managed to appear for roughly 3.2 seconds on NBC Nightly News; video and story are still online. (That one stupid sentence appeared in a Parade Magazine classroom-related bit too, apparently.) Somebody tried stealing Nigel, but failed miserably; we missed this year’s gay rodeo as a result, but the good news is that the insurance will handle all costs beyond the deductible (to include new driver’s side window and door handle and key lock, shroud for steering column, and some newly-surfaced dents on the door proper). Had appointments with our nurse practitioner (last week) and optometrist (today); everything is peachy keen on that front, though my eyeballs still hurt a bit (student optometrist + first day of clinicals with real patients = NERVOUS and a wee bit rough). Looking at houses with 4+ bedrooms, as ye olde clock is ticking. Been working out pretty well, doing squats et al. for legs and using the Perfect Pushup (as recommended by Jocko) for upper body; legs are progressing as normal but I am completely loving the P.P. bars even though (and perhaps because) they kick my ass. Got my mother hooked on Lush by giving her a gift assortment thingy for her bday.

Work… uh, well, I’m still employed, even though some days it is VERY TEMPTING to call somebody a vapid self-absorbed fuckwit. Still in the market for something else, if any of you know of anything.

Fred’s good. He keeps up with his classwork better than me (cough, cough), and is in the thick of clinicals. Sometime in June or July he’ll receive his provisional license for massage therapy, and can start seeing actual clients rather than those who swing by the school. (He already has a couple lined up…) However, he is a bigger blogslacker than I, hint hint.

My ten-year high school reunion fast approaches. Honestly, I don’t care. In the prepwork I found quite a few people on MySpace that I’d rather avoid, and only two that I’d actually want to see again (one of whom I’d only want to see because I had a notable crush on him in HS). Better to stick to electronic means as far as I’m concerned, because that way I can be much more selective.

That’s all I can think of. Please ask if you want to know anything further. (can’t guarantee that i’ll give you the answer you seek, but you are more than welcome to ask.)