Today was the day I had planned for a hike in the mountains, but I was rained out this morning, so it's desk work today. (Now, in late afternoon, the skies are starting to lift and a wren is singing in the patch behind the house.) I'm off work this week, trying to get some old projects finished and some new ones started.

I updated my favorite movies page and made it easier to add new items as they come along.

I shopped for a new clothes washer/dryer set online, and I'm running out to Sears tomorrow to make a final selection. The equipment that I have was new when the house was built. There's a cord that's been wrapped around the agitator of the old washer for years, and the water inlets are starting to make noise. Major appliance shopping is a pain: there's an array of models, each of which differ microscopically from similar models that might be priced the same, or might be priced $50 more—and none of the models exactly match the ones that Consumers Union tested six months ago. I wish that Kenmore and General Electric would take a page from the Dell Computer playbook and let the consumer specify the precise feature mix, and then build to suit. For instance, I don't mind mechanical controls, but I want a moisture sensor for my new dryer ('cause CU says I should). I like a choice of three water levels for the washer, but I could care less about having a continuously variable water level selector.

Now that spring is here, the colony of ants is back to exploring my place. Last fall, I discouraged them with extreme prejudice from my kitchen, so now they're in the upstairs bathroom. They seem to be coming up the drain (!?) and I can't imagine what chemistry is attracting them to my semi-maculate privy. Is it the sweeteners in the toothpaste? Why do they like the bathtub?

I drove out to Manassas to drop off my Makita cordless driver/drill to have it fixed (again!) and I called Verizon to change my long distance service. Since I try to remember to use my mobile for all long distance calls, I had been paying more than $5 a month just for a long distance dial tone on the land line.

The stream of postcards from real estate agents looking for listings has slacked off a bit. I had been receiving something from The Kitty Bernard Team fortnightly. Most interesting is the Kremlinology of determining exactly who is on the team, since each postcard features a different photograph of a varying group of three or four agents. It looks like Sue has been sent to Siberia.

posted: 4:55:51 PM