A seething mass of turgid drama.

I've been fighting a cold (and losing). Not major, but a dry cough and now some congestion. Last night I took cough syrup, and when I woke myself up with a bout of coughing, the wife persuaded me to take an additional half dose since it had clearly worn off. This meant that I was slow getting up - which I knew was likely to be the case, but was probably a good tradeoff for not sitting up in bed coughing for a few hours.

Anyway, I moved slowly enough that I actually missed the backup bus that gets me into the office slightly early instead of significantly early. (shrug) Then I discovered that the wife had borrowed my transit card and not put it back. One upside to missing that bus: I had plenty of time to walk the block back to the house and get the card.

In other news, a couple years ago I bought a single malt advent calendar. It was great fun and I even bought a bottle of one afterwards. I didn't repeat last year but I did this year, and apparently that was a mistake -- I am still enjoying the 1 oz bottles, but I have fallen a week behind with the cold and general malaise and I may not go back to it until January. This goes in the file of "do not repeat unless/until you are genuinely excited about it".

Our compliance firm sent us an early holiday present -- a 40-pack of Rice Krispie treats. Points for corporate present, but zero them out for appropriateness. There are two of us who regularly go to the office. Even if I wanted to eat them, this is way too many.

The other guy offered the box to me. I told him to take them to his church.

Cow-orker: "(Client) tends to out-wit himself."
Me: "He's half right."

I got my long-awaited Laurel scroll in May '23. A couple months later, it was framed and ready to go on the wall of Diffidence*. But to make room, I needed to take my AA off the wall, put the Laurel there, and then put the AA above it. And because this is on the side of the stairs, the height is quite high and the base surface is uneven.

So I put it off. The Laurel scroll stayed in the study, mocking me for my inaction. Maybe six months ago I got my act together and figured I would at least remove the AA and swap in the Laurel. I did... and the hangers failed utterly. It felt like there was metal inside the wall blocking the nails. I couldn't deal with it, so we left the blank spot alone.

Finally the wife suggested we just bloody hire a handyman to do it. Genius! The first one I tried had good recommendations, but didn't want to deal with the stairs. Disappointing but fair enough, that is why I mentioned them. Sunday I actually used Yelp and put out a request. We got back several comments and one is scheduled to show up tomorrow afternoon.

I think I'll come into the office, though, so I don't have to deal with the inevitable noises while I am trying to be on calls. And that way it will hopefully be up and done when I get home.

*As jokingly compared to Hirsch & Aldith's "Arrogance wall".

We saw Hot Fuzz last night at the local theater. We'd seen it before, of course - we have it on DVD and re-watch every few years, because it is a well-done action film/buddy cop satire. It's also really tightly written, which I appreciate. But we had never seen it on the big screen.

Anyway. This was billed as a "party movie night" so they allowed you to interact with the movie, presumably much-lower Rocky Horror style. It didn't really work. I think we were the only ones who yelled out "The Greater Good!" each time it was chanted. But it was fun, and of course the explosions and gunfire were much more over the top on a professional sound system. They also gave us aviator glasses, a fake moustache to look like the Andys, and a police badge. No one put them on during the show but the wife and I will take a picture later today.

I did catch a Doris sex joke that I hadn't noticed before - at the village fair she is standing with two men, looking at a roast pig, and says "That'll be me in a few hours." Because it's spit-roasted. I laughed.

Tired because we got home later than I usually do on a work night, but I had planned to work from home today to at least give me a bit more time in the morning.

My alarm didn't go off today. I didn't wake up much beyond when I usually get up, but... with the wife on the other coast things are a bit disjointed. I decided to work from home today rather than rush to get out the door.

Miss Bea was willing to give me a few cuddles in the early morning. (I am hoping that loneliness and desperation make her willing to sit on me during the week.)

I didn't sleep well. A combination of work brain and play brain. Re: play brain, the worry over my lines should be unfounded as I can rattle them off during the week. Then I drop a couple particular ones in rehearsal...

We have what seems to be an intermittent electrical problem in the office. We paid to get new outlets installed since there were only two when we moved in - but they did not update the existing ones, and they are extremely old. (Our building is over 100 years old and has radiators but no thermostats.)

There are two UPC boxes plugged into one of the old outlets, feeding a number of things including the all-important router. There isn't room to plug them in anywhere else. Unfortunately, I have had several occurrences of the boxes beeping when I get in the office. We think it's because they aren't drawing enough power to charge. Last time I reported it, I ran an extension cord across the room to one of the new outlets so that we could have internet (i.e. I could actually work) while not having the annoying box beeping. By the time the electrical guy showed up he couldn't find a problem; perhaps being off for several hours had cooled the wires down enough to work again. He left his number for me to report the next time.

This morning one of the boxes was beeping and I immediately called him. That was 90 minutes ago and it's been beeping continually ever since. But if I turn it off, he won't be able to see anything when he does show up.

In the meantime, beep. Beep. Beep.

I was somewhat surprised that calling the plumber yesterday produced an appointment for this morning. Not going to question the gift horse's (potty) mouth, though - while this isn't an emergency toilet repair, we would like to get the replacement done as quickly as they can. Having to manually tip the tank stopper every time is, if nothing else, a waste of water.

However, I realized that it would be better if I came into the office today. That way I am not bothered by installation clanging... and I have access to a working toilet. But I did decide to wear my usual Friday work-from-home clothes: a T-shirt and tennis shoes.

The wife and I have been suffering lingering colds for the last two-three weeks. Or possibly two separate ones, as the symptoms had gone away and allowed us to go to WCCS. But ever since then we've been sneezing, coughing, and hacking.
COVID tests have been negative. The wife even got a chest X-ray to make sure it wasn't pneumonia, because that was how it started. That was negative too. So it's either a low-grade flu that didn't get vaccination protection, or a really bad cold.

I stayed home from work last week. No one else is in the office right now, but I didn't want to make the trek. I am (knock on wood) feeling better today and came in, but I am trying to take it easy anyway.