Gosh, I'm glad summer fell on a weekend this year.

Last October, I switched from Verizon to T-Mobile because [long, not particularly interesting backstory] and wound up with a one year contract. At the time, I suspected I would only be on T-Mobile for that year before switching to an iPhone, so I bought a refurbished phone that drove me crazy for about 6 months until I figured out how to change its predictive text dictionary from Italian to English. After that, the phone was fine until last week, when the battery appeared to have died.

Fortunately, I had a backup phone from spike, which I had tried to use as my actual phone last October, but there were a couple of things about it that made it significantly unsatisfactory for me for that (thus the refurbed phone). So, though there was no urgency about fixing the dead phone, there was motivation.

Yesterday, through a series of conversations and attempted solutions with Radio Shack (those people are so helpful), it became clear that the answer was going to be some combination of a $30 charger and/or a $30 battery to make the phone work.

I have 97 days left on my T-Mobile contract. Thanks to the sliding early termination fees instituted a couple of years ago by most carriers, if I wait a week, I can pay only ("only") $50 to end my contract early and switch to an iPhone three months ahead of my original plan. Though this makes sense from the money-I-spend perspective (only a difference of $20 to switch to an exciting new phone 3 months ahead of plan), there's still part of me that hates to pay $50 to T-Mobile for nothing.

Thus, a poll:

Poll #1426821
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Rosa should ...

Whenever Rosa gets her iPhone, she should get

Embarrassing confession: I find Keanu Reeves in Speed ridiculously hot.

Does anyone happen to have a spare motorola flip phone that's t-mobile friendly? I only need it for about 100 days ...

Today's wisdom:

I'd rather have the uncomfortable conversation than the uncomfortable silence; the conversation might get me somewhere.

I've decided that my best defense against the misery of this rain is a fun new umbrella or two that will make me happy to be carrying them. Once upon a time, I had an umbrella that looked like it was made of leaves, which I loved, but it went walkabout a couple of years ago. I also love the ones that look like flowers. But there are lots of gorgeous umbrellas out there! What do you think I should be carrying, or should at least know about?

______________________ is delicious.

Hello, 4AM. Do you think you could, perhaps, trot off and bring me your cousin 7:30, please, while I'm sleeping?

Poll #1421117
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

This afternoon, aroraborealis wants ...

That's it. I'm done. I've had enough, and I'm not going to take it anymore. I'm filing the appropriate complaints and saying my goodbyes, because this weather system is out of control and it has to be stopped.

I put up with it when it was in the 60s and rainy at the beginning of the month. But now it's almost July, and my skin is beginning to grow a thin film of algae, and it's time for the sun to come out. I don't care what the weather channel says; it's time for change.

Either that, or I'm moving to Cancun.

Poll #1420030 NOM
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

NOM is ...

Poll #1417121
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

The preferable way to prepare a human arm for eating would be:

What's something that made you smile recently?

It's hard to go wrong with a weekend involving 3 fantastic friends, 26 bottles of wine, a bottle of vodka, a bottle of tequila, a bottle of rye whiskey, and various other entertainments in a house with a hottub, a wood-fired sauna, a beautiful spiral staircase, and a lake.

Well, we didn't actually get to the lake, because we were terrified of the hordes of vicious mosquitos. Seriously, those things were congregating at the doorway plotting to carry one of us away if we stood still for more than five seconds in a stretch.

The house we were in was gorgeous, with big windows full of green, leafy light and skylights and quirky art. The woods of the back yard featured several windows and a door nailed to trees, like a house of airy forest.

I don't remember the last vacation I took that I did so much nothing, and though more would have been overkill, this was just perfect. I got enough sleep, and good sleep at that, and gave my brain a big, long rest, which has, unsurprisingly, set it spinning off in different directions. Good ones, I think. I hope.

The best things this weekend, unsurprisingly, were my companions, the sense of unhurried plenty, gales of uproarious laughter, and the huge smile that may have left my face when I was asleep, but may not.

Yesterday, my big achievement was lighting and maintaining a fire in the sauna all day. I also banked the fire sufficiently to easily restart it this morning for an early morning sauna.

Other highlights include steaming a couple of lobsters, showering in the leafy green rain, and making a perfect s'more.

It's been a very difficult weekend.

Highly recommended: If you're making a large wine purchase, Ball Square Fine Wines is awesome. This month, wine is 20% off. And if you buy 2 cases, they'll be super nice to you.

Actually, they'll be super nice to you even if you're buying one bottle for $7.99, but they'll spend more time being nice to you if you make them help you pick out 20 different bottles.

What are the colors of your flag? (Not your affinity group flags, but your personal flag.)

Here's a piece I just posted on my WalkBoston blog that I feel really strongly about, for those who are interested in such things: The evils of externalized costs and what it means for transportation in Massachusetts

Things that confuse me:

* When people refer to pet owners as the pet's parents. "Aww, is mommy giving you a bit of catnip?" Wha ...?
* When people lay on the horn in standstill traffic. Has that ever helped?
* How much people are willing to give away in exchange for "free" cheap pieces of junk.

What confuses you?

For a treat, I decided to go out and buy myself a couple of bottles of sipping _______________.

Say you wanted to climb to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge (with official approval of the endeavor). Who would you approach to try to make that happen? Or, other big suspension bridges that might be good candidates for such an outing?

Boston-area folks! A query:

As you may know, medyani is in Honduras for a couple-few years. When she left the country last fall, she arranged a home for her two cats, but, unfortunately, that home is going away at the end of June. Wah! So she is now on the lookout for a new foster home for her boys.

Antonio and Gus are great, friendly, sociable cats who I would happily bring home with me were it not for the fact that the UDL local cat really prefers to be an only Kitteh. Perhaps, however, you are not so constrained. If you might be able to take a couple of good kitties until 2010 (and possibly longer if you and kitties are happy), drop me a line! She would happily pay for vet, food, vitamin and other costs!

Poll #1406078
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

...?

Holy crap. What is it about napping that's so delicious??

So, I went to California, and I got back a week ago, and I haven't really succeeded in my goal of writing down some of my favorite or most moving moments of the trip, so I'm beginning to think I might not. Instead of the full posts I'd been envisioning, I want to capture the overall arc of my vacation, which started with me feeling somewhat out of sorts with myself, and ended up with me feeling much more settled in an important way:

On Thursday afternoon, I spent an hour sitting in the sun of the Berkeley farmer's market, with a curious-but-content baby on my lap, listening to folksy buskers and having delicious, juicy produce delivered to me by an industrious toddler and his adult-in-tow. It was one of the most do-nothing hours of my vacation in a curious way, and filled me up with quiet contentment that I love and have been missing.

On Friday evening, I attended a completely fantastic party, during which I would say I grazed more than settling in at any point, and somehow, along the way, reminded myself in a way that carried not only intellectual weight but emotional weight, that I like the path I'm on.

So, there was a lot of other good stuff, because vacation is better than not-vacation, but I brought some good, important things back with me.

I need ______________________.

Where there's ____________, there's _____________.

This morning, while waiting for the train, I developed a sudden stomach ache that rapidly evolved into feeling like I'd been punched in the gut, complete with painful, tense muscles all around my abdomen, and difficulty breathing and all the other unpleasant feelings associated with that. I sat down to try to catch my breath and figure out what to do, and after a few minutes, it subsided, and I was back to feeling basically fine. WTF, body?

Is this a thing that happens? Does it have a name?

Nothing says "end of vacation" like getting up before 6am.

I don't think I can say enough good things about a day that starts with conspiring to bring an extra person from Boston to the Bay Area for the weekend, leads into the perfect Bloody Mary, shopping along Haight Street, Bi-Rite ice cream in Dolores Park, and awesome margaritas in the Mission. Now, down time before a glittery party. Yay, glitter!

I like this place. And vacation. Yes.

I've barely been in front of my computer since Saturday morning and before that, Thursday evening, so I'm not remotely caught up on LJ, and not going to be. I keep wanting to write something about how completely great vacation is, but I don't know where to begin. I'll resort to a vignette:

Last night, contessagrrl and I went to a Mexican food place for dinner. After being seated, we ordered a pitcher of margaritas. The waiter looked startled and asked, "A half pitcher?" No, we clarified, a whole one. We then had a delicious meal (we're in good Mexican food country here!), and at the end, the (different) waiter came up and said, "And would you like another pitcher?" We declined.

Somehow, those brackets are representative of this whole trip. Too much, but not too much too much.