We're having a housewarming next Sunday night! I set the Facebook event to "private", so if you are (or might be) in the NYC area and I didn't get you added -- or, of course, if you are not ON Facebook and need the details -- let me know.

Also, I designed a new Rosh Hashanah card which I should, assuming they get delivered reliably, be sending out at the end of next week. Thus:

[Poll #1778990]

I posted a locked entry about this last week, but for the benefit of all my dearly beloved lurking readers:

Last Tuesday, I moved out of our apartment. :-/ Email me if you need the details, up to and including new address. I'm not going to post much more about it, publicly, anyway. (I apologize to those who have already emailed or facebook-messaged me and are awaiting reply. Computer and interwebs are not yet set up in the new place! I will try to write or call in the next couple days.)

This Tuesday (tomorrow) is my 37th birthday.

This highly emotional confluence of occasions calls out to be marked with food, drink, and the love and support of my friends. Will you join me?

( Details behind the cut, with clicky-poll for RSVPs! )

Oh, I almost forgot: NO PRESENTS! Really, you needn't. Your attendance is gift enough. I will in fact be trying to give away books, CDs, and other trinkety stuff that needs new homes! If you simply CANNOT bear the thought of arriving empty-handed, please note that I have a kosher home and would be happier with a bottle of crappy kosher wine than of any more fabulous real wine. Hard liquor, though, often requires no kosher supervision. ;-)

Over the past several months, I've had at least three or four people ask to pick my brain about the publishing industry and my (roughly 13 years') experience in it.

It occurred to me at some point that it might be cool to get them all in a room at once so I can hold sort of a "salon" on the topic.

Unfortunately, this was just one of the many "hey, that would be fun to put together... someday... when I have time" items on my back burner. (So was following up to most of the original inquiries, for which I am sorry.)

So now that I HAVE time to consider such a venture, I'm polling to gauge the real scope of popular interest in the topic. (Which is to say, among my friends and friends-of-friends. But feel free to point people I don't [yet!] know at this poll, if you think they would also be interested.)


[Poll #949855]

Lunchtime nattering while I eat bridgetminerva's yummy spicy chili. :-)

Lots going on, of course. Let me explain. -- No, there is too much. Let me sum up. -- No, still too much. Let me skip the recap of recent goings-on (work, shul, social, musical) and make notes about things I'm actually thinking about, instead.

Both bethr and derspatchel now have the Best of The Electric Company 4-DVD set. This should mean I get to see it soon (not the least likely outcome being that ablock will also buy it). Awesome!

Fans of my former employer, The MIT Press, will be interested to know that they have started a blog. They also have RSS feeds (available broken down by category) of their new releases. These have been syndicated to LJ as mitpresslog and mitpress_new (the complete feed), respectively. Go ye forth and enjoy. (Can blog.akpeters.com be far behind? ;-)

After rewatching A Room With A View (one of my favorite movies ever) with Tiger Boy last weekend, I am now rereading it. I'd really forgotten how wonderful it is. Not just in that vicarious-trip-to-Italy way, not just in that lovable-engaging-characters way, but in that mind-and-heart-expanding chock-full-of-Romanticist-ideas way. It actually makes me feel like my old college-era self again, the one who fell in love with Wordsworth and Shelley and Goethe and Emerson. Guess I could add that to lifecollage's call for inspirational reading.

The abovementioned entry has also introduced me to Your Money or Your Life, which I think I now have to read and integrate.

On the other hand (speaking of financial matters), I still want to buy a car, but am finding the activation energy* prohibitively high. (Yes, it'd be lovely to buy a Vespa or a bicycle instead, but I won't be able to take those on the Mass Pike every day, now, will I?) Would ideally have liked to make this happen in time to drive myself to the shul retreat March 3-5, but that looks unlikely. Grumble.

*Here's something I particularly want to know: When I do find someone selling a car I might want to buy, HOW exactly am I supposed to go about "getting it checked out by a reliable mechanic"? Say "Thanks for the test drive, now can I please borrow it for two days before I make a decision"? I am serious, I do not get this at all. Yet another sticking point.

( poll for further car advice behind the cut, because this entry is already way too long )

And now, back to the Cryptoclub.

(Boy, it's quiet here on LJ today. *grin* One would think everyone is outside enjoying the weather, as I was all afternoon. So...)

While ascending the pedestrian walkway past the lovely cool moss-covered walls of the Flume Gorge last Sunday, I said to Tiger Boy,

"What do you use to measure the amount of moss on a rock?"
"I don't know, what?"
"A sphagnum-anometer!"

"..."

[Poll #525630]
... Also, ablock wants me to post something witty about the crazy July 4th house display we saw last Friday night, but I'm not any more up to the task than he is. >:-) I will add, however, that we also found a proper old-fashioned mini-golf course on Rte. 1 in Saugus, next to the Dairy Castle, both of which I hope to return and try sometime, maybe even this month.

In honor of muchabstracted, who recently pointed out the potential release of Fraggle Rock on DVD (although not, sadly, in time for her birthday next weekend)...
I give you the following end-of-workday poll!

[Poll #443153]
BTW, meranthi, this also reminds me that I never posted our Muppet casting of Iolanthe...

How to inoculate ourselves against post-show letdown? I know: Let's plan something fun for next month when we have lives again!

[Poll #385160]

[Poll #286540]

( gender breakdown of partywear poll results, as promised )

An Amazon gift shipment from Mom arrived at work this morning. The shiny silver paper is taunting me! Cards from both Mom and Dad came in last night's mail at home. But I'm scrupulously saving everything to open Monday morning -- in lieu of birthday breakfast :-}

I have a headache. If it's because I had herbal tea instead of coffee this morning... well, best to get it out of the way before the fast. But maybe it's just because things have been So Damn Busy here (which explains exactly why I'm posting, I know). Heck with it -- two more tasks here, and everything else is going to have to wait until Tuesday. The intervening time shall be energetically devoted to prepping, partying, and praying. Not necessarily in that order.

or, What's a straight-haired, moon-faced chick to do?

[Poll #160793]