I'm not dead yet.

Last night, I started feeling a little off. Not grievously so, just general aches & pains and generally not myself. At the time, I attributed it to a lack of food as I had skipped lunch and dinner was running very late. This morning, I awoke to a raw throat, mildly elevated temperature and a headache: it's definitely a bug of some kind, albeit a low grade one. Bugger.

I've just finished dashing off a round of e-mails and telephone calls to various colleagues to tell them I won't be in today, updated my voice-mail message at the office and updated the pager lists appropriately. In doing so, I discovered that our Unix primary-point-of-contact had already left me a voice-mail message this morning asking me to cover him until 11 AM EST while he tends to a family medical appointment. Ah, well, I should be able to keep myself vertical/useful at least until 11.

At least I have plenty of little activities to keep me entertained while home.

• I can finally get the extra new inkjet printer connected to Kent's workstation... this will make him happy.
  
• If it ever stops raining, I could deliver the civic association newsletters dropped off yesterday; my delivery route covers 54 homes along my street.
  
• I can inventory my square dance records, typing the label, number and title of each piece. It will be useful the next time I go music shopping.
  
• Ever since queernet.org bit the dust, I've been hoping that the data recovery might rescue the lgbt chorus mailing list I've been administering for 15 years. Alas, it appears not. Still qnetter rebuilt a basic list structure for me overnight and I'll now use an April 2005 copy of the membership list to start the reconstruction. I'm still a little frustrated/annoyed that there's not a single backup, nothing, nada, zilch, of the queernet system or that no-one tested the backup process periodically, but there's no point in wasting further angst: there's nothing we can do to undo past errors so I'll just have to get over it and move on.
  
• I've been meaning to clean the inside of my car windshield for, oh, two months now. Perhaps it's time.
  
• There's always laundry.
  

I'm not dead yet.

Last night, I started feeling a little off. Not grievously so, just general aches & pains and generally not myself. At the time, I attributed it to a lack of food as I had skipped lunch and dinner was running very late. This morning, I awoke to a raw throat, mildly elevated temperature and a headache: it's definitely a bug of some kind, albeit a low grade one. Bugger.

I've just finished dashing off a round of e-mails and telephone calls to various colleagues to tell them I won't be in today, updated my voice-mail message at the office and updated the pager lists appropriately. In doing so, I discovered that our Unix primary-point-of-contact had already left me a voice-mail message this morning asking me to cover him until 11 AM EST while he tends to a family medical appointment. Ah, well, I should be able to keep myself vertical/useful at least until 11.

At least I have plenty of little activities to keep me entertained while home.

• I can finally get the extra new inkjet printer connected to Kent's workstation... this will make him happy.
  
• If it ever stops raining, I could deliver the civic association newsletters dropped off yesterday; my delivery route covers 54 homes along my street.
  
• I can inventory my square dance records, typing the label, number and title of each piece. It will be useful the next time I go music shopping.
  
• Ever since queernet.org bit the dust, I've been hoping that the data recovery might rescue the lgbt chorus mailing list I've been administering for 15 years. Alas, it appears not. Still qnetter rebuilt a basic list structure for me overnight and I'll now use an April 2005 copy of the membership list to start the reconstruction. I'm still a little frustrated/annoyed that there's not a single backup, nothing, nada, zilch, of the queernet system or that no-one tested the backup process periodically, but there's no point in wasting further angst: there's nothing we can do to undo past errors so I'll just have to get over it and move on.
  
• I've been meaning to clean the inside of my car windshield for, oh, two months now. Perhaps it's time.
  
• There's always laundry.
  

More shopping!

I had a few spare minutes last night between e-mails so on a whim, I checked on eBay to see if there were any square dance music lots up for sale currently. There were a number, but with 30 minutes left to one particular auction, I submitted a low-ball bid of $20 for 25 new 45rpm records and won! I'm still looking to expand my repertoire of singing calls; with a little luck, there may be a couple out of the small stack I can use.

There were several other auctions, including lots of 25 of Bogan Records, Mountain Records, and of Rockin' A Records. I hadn't heard of either and could find no online sources to listen to samples to see the house style is something I like. I've learned there are some publishers which I needn't bother listening to: I do not touch Lore, Sets in Order or Windsor, although I'll selectively test-drive Hi-Hat, ESP and a few others. If anyone has pointers to or general descriptions of either Bogan, Mountain or Rockin' A, please let me know!

More shopping!

I had a few spare minutes last night between e-mails so on a whim, I checked on eBay to see if there were any square dance music lots up for sale currently. There were a number, but with 30 minutes left to one particular auction, I submitted a low-ball bid of $20 for 25 new 45rpm records and won! I'm still looking to expand my repertoire of singing calls; with a little luck, there may be a couple out of the small stack I can use.

There were several other auctions, including lots of 25 of Bogan Records, Mountain Records, and of Rockin' A Records. I hadn't heard of either and could find no online sources to listen to samples to see the house style is something I like. I've learned there are some publishers which I needn't bother listening to: I do not touch Lore, Sets in Order or Windsor, although I'll selectively test-drive Hi-Hat, ESP and a few others. If anyone has pointers to or general descriptions of either Bogan, Mountain or Rockin' A, please let me know!

chorus list back on the air!

The chorus mailing list for lgbt choruses has been officially reconstructed, at least in a minimal sense. The list has been populated with an old membership list, I've updated the welcome & info messages and traffic is now flowing. There were about 10 bounce messages from old mailboxes but the list management software will take care of those on its own.

At least I kept archives of past digests of the list. Membership lists can be rebuilt but the past conversations cannot. I'll take count this as a blessing.

It occurs to me that the list is now 15 years old, as of last month. I used to house it on the servers I maintained while working for the University of Toronto but transferred it to queernet.org for continuity when I moved to the US ten years ago. While the past month has been frustrating, it has been the first seriously major issue in at least that time so it's overall a pretty good track record. Especially considering it's free of charge and doesn't include auto-inserted advertising.

If you're interested in joining, click here.

chorus list back on the air!

The chorus mailing list for lgbt choruses has been officially reconstructed, at least in a minimal sense. The list has been populated with an old membership list, I've updated the welcome & info messages and traffic is now flowing. There were about 10 bounce messages from old mailboxes but the list management software will take care of those on its own.

At least I kept archives of past digests of the list. Membership lists can be rebuilt but the past conversations cannot. I'll take count this as a blessing.

It occurs to me that the list is now 15 years old, as of last month. I used to house it on the servers I maintained while working for the University of Toronto but transferred it to queernet.org for continuity when I moved to the US ten years ago. While the past month has been frustrating, it has been the first seriously major issue in at least that time so it's overall a pretty good track record. Especially considering it's free of charge and doesn't include auto-inserted advertising.

If you're interested in joining, click here.

Laundry disaster

I put a load of towels & sheets into the washing machine, then headed upstairs to warm up some soup. When I returned, there was a half-inch of water throughout the basement laundry/furnace room. Not good.

The mystery is that there is little evidence of a machine malfunction, yet I can't see any other possibility. There are no visible breaks in pipes, all other appliances are working well and the washing machine itself seems to be operating correctly. The water itself was clean and odourless, indicating it was either a rinse cycle or fresh water rather than drained or waste water.

On the good side, the soaked areas all have tiled floors rather than carpets so clean up has been easy. I was tempted to dash out to buy a wet/dry vacuum but it seems now unnecessary. We are however going to be shopping for a new washer & dryer. This isn't the first time and I'm getting a little tired of mopping the floors in this way.

Anyone have any recommendations (or warnings) about various models of front-loading washers?

Laundry disaster

I put a load of towels & sheets into the washing machine, then headed upstairs to warm up some soup. When I returned, there was a half-inch of water throughout the basement laundry/furnace room. Not good.

The mystery is that there is little evidence of a machine malfunction, yet I can't see any other possibility. There are no visible breaks in pipes, all other appliances are working well and the washing machine itself seems to be operating correctly. The water itself was clean and odourless, indicating it was either a rinse cycle or fresh water rather than drained or waste water.

On the good side, the soaked areas all have tiled floors rather than carpets so clean up has been easy. I was tempted to dash out to buy a wet/dry vacuum but it seems now unnecessary. We are however going to be shopping for a new washer & dryer. This isn't the first time and I'm getting a little tired of mopping the floors in this way.

Anyone have any recommendations (or warnings) about various models of front-loading washers?