Barb’s Burblings

On Sunday night and Monday morning, the news was saying that the price of gas would rise due to Hurricane Katrina (and if you want to help victims, donate here or by calling 1-800-HELP-NOW). At that point, my car had slightly over a quarter tank of gas (which would last for a while), but I decided to get gas on Tuesday, on my way home from work. As I drove to work Tuesday morning, I took note of gas prices–most were around $2.69. Fine. When I drove home, they were up to $2.76. I filled up.
Today, the same gas station I filled up at $2.76? Was at $3.09. It went up 33 cents in 24 hours. The stations a bit closer to my apartment were still at a “reasonable” $2.89, but…dang. And according to CNN, experts are saying that prices will “definitely” hit $4 a gallon in the near future. They just aren’t sure whether that will last, or whether it’ll go down fairly quickly.
Current song in my head:
“Breakaway” by Kelly Clarkson

It took me a while after I got home last night to realize that anything was on. Mostly because I went directly into my bedroom and turned on the radio. That worked fine. It wasn’t until my computer said that I had no connection that I started suspecting something was up. I went into the living room and saw that the modem and router were both off. “Odd,” I thought to myself. I flicked the switches; I made sure they were plugged in. Everything looked OK. Then I tried the lamp. It also wasn’t working. Then the tv. Also not working.
Turns out that the electricity for half of my apartment was out. The far wall of my bedroom? Fine. The wall that borders the living room? Out. The living room? Out. The dining room? Fine. The kitchen side with the microwave? Out. The kitchen side with the fridge? Fine. (Thank God.) Carrie’s wall that borders the living room? Out. Carrie’s other wall? Fine. Both bathrooms? Fine.
It was just so bizarre. In looking out the window, I could tell it was similar throughout the complex. Some windows were brightly lit; in others, I could make out people moving around with candles. A couple of times, all the electricity went out, but only briefly. Around 2 or so I woke up to find that the fan in my room was off (yep, the electricity that powers the a/c? out)–the electricity had gone out completely. Again. Swell. But then it all came back on. The a/c kicked in. My alarm clock turned on (I had set my cell phone). And when I woke up around 5, I was chilly. It was blissful.
But totally random.
And in other annoying news, I’m hungry. There are bagels and donuts to be had. But nooo, I have a dentist appointment in an hour and don’t want to ruin the effects of my thorough tooth brushing this morning.
Current song in my head:
“Mr. Brightside” by the Killers

I work a compressed schedule, which means that I work longer hours most days so I can have every other Friday off. I enjoy it a lot, though it does mean getting to work at 7:30. My problem comes when I mark my calendar with which Fridays I have off. Because I invariably mark the wrong ones. I realized this morning that I had messed up yet again, when the morning DJs pointed out that September 9 is next Friday (which, okay, is scary enough–it’s already September?). “Huh,” I thought to myself. “That’s the day after I have jury duty. And I had thought that the day after jury duty is a compressed day. But this Friday is my compressed day. I think, anyway. I was at work on Friday, right?” And so on. Then I realized if I had marked the calendar wrong for that, then I was probably wrong well into the future. And so it was. I thought I was working the full week when I go on the cruise; nope. Compressed week. I thought my compressed day fell on my birthday. Nope. I’m supposed to work that day. (I may switch that, though, so I can have my birthday off.)
Honestly, you’d think that marking off every other Friday was some sort of challenging task. Well, to me, I guess it is.

So I finally got around to labelling my pictures from the camping trip last month when I spent a few good minutes debating whether it should be “campsite” or “camp site.” (I finally went with “campsite.”) You know you’re an editor when you make style decisions for picture labels that probably won’t be seen by anyone else.

My love of Jon Stewart has managed to grow even more. He was brilliant on last night’s show, to the point where I want to carry him around with me so he can articulate my opinions about politics. Here’s a partial transcript, courtesy of Wonkette, of his interview with Christopher Hitchens from last night’s episode:

Hitch: I’m sorry, sunshine… I just watched you ridicule the president for saying he wouldn’t give. . . .
Stewart: No, you misunderstood why. . . . That’s not why I ridiculed the president. He refuses to answer questions from adults as though we were adults and falls back upon platitudes and phrases and talking points that does a disservice to the goals that he himself shares with the very people needs to convince.
[Audience erupts in applause]
Hitch: You want me to believe you’re really secretly on the side of the Bush administration. . .
Stewart: I secretly need to believe he’s on my side. He’s too important and powerful a man not to be.

My parents got me a t-shirt from St. Petersburg on their cruise, and I decided to wear it today. Consequently, I have the song “A Rumor in St. Petersburg” from Anastasia in my head. Man, I hope this doesn’t happen every time I wear this shirt. (Amusingly enough, the shirt isn’t actually from St. Petersburg–it’s from their cruise ship. And part of me wants to add “My parents went to” and “And all I got was this lousy t-shirt” to the shirt. A coworker suggested putting it on the pack. It is a nice shirt, though.)
In exciting news, Carrie and I are going on a cruise of our own. We’re heading to the Bahamas in October on this ship. I’m really looking forward to a week (well, 4 days) of just lying around, doing nothing, and having food and drinks provided for me. Plus, it really wasn’t expensive at all. Mmm, relaxing.
In baseball news, after a lot of soul searching, I benched Brian on my fantasy team. He just hasn’t been doing well lately (except for stolen bases). It hurt. So I went to last night’s game and he immediately leads off the game with a single. I guess he wasn’t too happy about being benched. Although, there are better ways to prove that than by going 1-4 in the game. The game itself was actually awesome. We snapped a losing streak and Rodrigo Lopez got out of some tight jams; the best was probably when he struck out Erstad and Guerrero with the bases loaded. Scary, but fun. And since the game was less than two and a half hours, I was home early!
Current song in my head:
Take a wild guess

The other day, driving along, I was behind a car that on the left side of the license plate had one of those yellow ribbon magnets that say “Support our troops.” I’m not a huge fan of those, but I’m certainly used to them by now. What got me was the one on the other side. It wasn’t one of the normal other ones you see–pink for breast cancer, black for POW/MIA, etc. No. It was white with black pawprints and had the word “Dachshund” in pretty script. I think I would respect that person more if they just had the dachshund one.

In good news for comics lovers everywhere, Calvin & Hobbes will return for four months this fall. Hopefully this means new strips. Hopefully this does not mean that Bill Watterson is strapped for cash.

Are not words I would not use to describe this past weekend. Fantastic probably is, though. Over three days, I had exactly one thing planned. The rest of the time I spent sleeping, reading, or bumming around. (Well, I did run a bunch of errands on Friday.) It was wonderful. I didn’t have to get up on Saturday to tutor. I didn’t have to trek downtown on Sunday for Smithsonian docenting. Mmm. Obligation-free.
The one plan I had was Becca’s birthday party, which was at Great Falls Park. We ate (a lot), we played games, we walked over to the falls (which were a LOT easier to get to and from than Dark Hollow Falls). It wasn’t 100 million degrees out, so all in all, a pleasant afternoon.
I also managed to kick butt in my fantasy baseball matchup last week, winning 9-1. (Sadly, the same cannot be said for my O’s.) Unfortunately, that didn’t move me up in the rankings. Argh! And this week I’m up against the league leader (a matchup I am already losing 7-3).
Current song in my head:
“Just What I Needed” by the Cars

A few weeks ago I received a jury summons. It’s actually the second time I’ve gotten called for jury duty, but I didn’t have to go in the first time. I imagine I will this time, though; my number is much lower. (The day before your assigned day, you call in and enter the number on your summons, then it tells you whether you actually need to come in.) Because I’m a big geek, I’m actually kind of excited about jury duty.
Or, I was. Until I saw that John Allen Muhammad, one of the two men convicted in the Fall ‘02 sniper killings, has been extradited to Montgomery County. He and Lee Boyd Malvo (and again, with the three names for infamous killers) have both been convicted in Virginia, but Maryland wants a go at them, too. Now I realize that the chance of me getting called to sit on that jury is minimal; heck, Malvo’s been in MoCo since May. But, still. It does make me a touch nervous. I wonder if I’d get excused, though, just because of the fact that I (a) lived here at the time and (b) lived pretty close to where the shootings took place. To the point that when out-of-town guests visit, I give them a little tour (”And one of the sniper shootings was at that gas station!”), because I’m driving by a lot of the sites anyway.