Good morning!

Woke up to find that the flower_cat had been having a bad night of it, and had been awake for about an hour. Any excuse for some serious snuggling. Before she went back to sleep she suggested making muffins.

Krusteaz muffin mix is really trivial: just mix with water and bake. How much work can that be? The package fails to mention what happens when you pre-heat the oven to 400 after a major spill left over from the previous meal. Which the kids failed to mention. (To be fair, it may well have happened as they were taking the lasagna pan out of the oven, and they simply didn't notice.)

The billows of white smoke were certainly noticable, though; took me three go-rounds to get it reasonably clean. There will be oat-bran muffins, though. In about 4 minutes.

Meanwhile our new Caldera cooktop is working wonderfully; it provided an excuse for me to go out to the Container Store yesterday and buy new spice racks. We'd had an expanding plastic three-tier shelf, but the part of it closest to the cooktop had melted in an incident involving the back burner of the previous cooktop. Picked up a couple of last-minute gift items at the same time, and got in a little walking along Santana Row.

Seems to be the day for house-cleaning

With both me and the chaoswolf in a mood for cleaning, the game of 3D house-tetris has gotten considerably more exciting. And since our recycling bin was emptied this morning, there's actually a place to put the old magazines, cardboard boxes, and packing material.

(Brief digression: one of the UPSs in the server closet is mourning for its dead battery. Sounds like a cricket in heat. It's been ordered, darnit! Shut up already.)

I've managed to clear enough space in the garage attic for three suitcases so far, which gets them out of the bedroom closet. I think I'll take down the old, oversized rolling suitcase and stuff it full of bags and backpacks from my closet before putting it back up.

Helped the Wolfling tetris bookshelves and boxes yesterday, and pick up recycling today -- there might even be room for her fiancé when he comes down on the 15th. Meanwhile, because the Wolfling has been doing her laundry, there's finally room in the front closet for all of my CD inventory and packing materials. So one can finally get to the cookbook shelves. Yay!

And I've been making room in the studio bedroom corner for the recording system. Soon.

OK then

The Big Pile of Luggage[tm] in the bedroom closet has been Dealt With. It's nearly as high, but doesn't stick out as far, so at least it's an improvement. More than that, it's been Organized.

• Briefcases, messenger bags, and daypacks are now in The Big Suitcase, which is back up in the garage attic. The Big Suitcase was originally purchased for a trip to Japan where I had to carry some extra gear for a demo; it was cheap, flimsy, and probably wouldn't stand up to many more trips.
• Totebags, zippered totebags, dufflebags, and small shoulder bags are now in separate containers. More random luggage, actually. They're back in the closet, but stacked up neatly.
• Shoulder straps are now hanging up with the coats, snapped to a coathanger.
• Pants that no longer fit are in a couple of plastic bags. Some of them are in decent enough shape to give to Goodwill; others are better suited for being cut up for rags. A couple of size 40's in good condition have been kept -- I currently take 42, and I'm trying to lose weight. (Of course, that's what I said about the 38's, too.)
• A few items in really bad condition have been thrown away.

In addition, I've done a little more magazine and box recycling.

Giving up on the stockings

Somebody other than me put the Christmas stuff away last year. I think someone helping the flower_cat get ready for the January party. I have no fscking clue where the box with the stockings might have gone.

It sounds like the Cat and the Y.D. are setting up to label some dining-room chairs. The stockings may conceivably show up after the Wolfling moves out.

Party season

We always have people dropping in on Christmas, and in fact during the whole week or so between Christmas and our annual somewhere-around-the-New-Year party. The latter is on Saturday the 29th this year. It's a potluck. You're invited.

And if you're in the area, drop by tomorrow -- we're putting on a pot of Ukrainian borscht. Yum.

Headed for Conflikt: Trip-planning post

Current plan is to fly to SeaTac for Conflikt on Thursday January 24th; I'll probably get in late afternoon. I'll look around for a rental car on Monday so I'll be relatively mobile. Probably head home on Wednesday the 30th unless somebody gives me a good reason to stay through Thursday. I'll be making my plane reservation sometime this week.

Besides the departure date, about the only other things that need deciding are what gear to take. First category is instruments: I need to decide whether to take Plink, my travel guitar, or Ruby, my usually gig guitar. I'm leaning toward Plink, since I'm flying, and she sounds really good plugged in through a direct box.

The other question is computer hardware. I'm leaning toward taking the Macbook Pro and (assuming it arrives when it's supposed to) the OLPC. I don't think I'm quite crazy enough to attempt the trip with nothing but the OLPC or even the OLPC, an external keyboard, and a massive USB hard drive. I might, however, take the OLPC instead of my songbook.

Added: Comments on this post would be a convenient place to discuss trip logistics.