Teeth, Tiles, Movies, Lights

Another two weeks have passed in the life of Me.  Evelyn and I helped our friend Ian install composite floor tile in his basement.  I’m proud with our results, and it taught me to Embrace the Professional Within… I was surprised at what I can accomplish!

Chris also spent an afternoon sharing his movies with us.  We watched Zorro, the Gay Blade and The Professionals, the former of which shows the lighter side of the Zorro legend as told by George Hamilton, and the latter a very technically-accurate western set in 1910s Mexico.  (Speaking of movies, we caught the new Bond film, Casino Royale, and it’s got my thumbs-up!)

Hannukah starts tomorrow night!  The above photo is from last year’s Hannukah.  My mother had found a box of candles that had partially melted, the softened wax curled around each other in bizarre contortions.  She saved them for me, rightly knowing that my reaction to using them would be ‘that’s really cool’!  Evelyn and I lit two menorahs that year, one with straight candles, and the above-depicted Warped Menorah.

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Evelyn is having her two remaining wisdom teeth removed on Monday.  The silver lining to this is that she’ll be on the All Ice Cream diet for a few days until she fully recuperates.  Our freezer is stocked up and ready to go.  But I had a realization while shopping for ice cream… almost half the ice cream aisile was lowfat or fat free now.  And I didn’t realize how many flavors have chucks and solid bits in them until I went to avoid such things.

I still have all four of my wisdom teeth, and I tried to have them removed six years ago.  Tried to… during one of the consultations with the oral surgeon, I had what he described as a seizure right in his office.  He didn’t want me to repeat that involuntary performance under his knife!  He then refused to operate on me until the cause of the seizure could be identified and prevented.  So I had a whole round of medical tests done to me, and consulted a neurologist.  Inconclusive… they can’t tell if or when it could happen again.  Then I went off to college and those wisdom teeth have been lurking behind my molars since then.  I’m very nervous about trying for a wisdom-teeth-ectomy again.  Having that procedure done has become one of my greatest fears.  My hands are getting clammy just typing about it right now.  Hopefully seeing Evelyn go through the procedure will give me some courage to do what should have been done last decade.

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Nifty Wikipedia Thing: I’ve been on the Western hemisphere’s longest escalator!

Music of the Moment: "If you Tolerate This Then Your Children Will Be Next (David Holmes remix)" by the Manic Street Preachers

What I’m Reading:
"Lost Chance in China" by John S. Service
"Life, the Universe, and Everything" by Douglas Adams

18th Century houses, 21st Century cars

It’s been a busy two weeks!  We visited Gunston Hall (pictured above), home of George Mason, the framer of the Virginia Bill of Rights and godfather of the National Bill of Rights.  Thanksgiving was held at my sister-in-law’s; the best part was the fruit salad.  We attended the Alexandria Scottish Festival, where I learned how to dance the cantigall.  I found a 40% silver half dollar at the bank.  On Sunday, Evelyn and I are helping Ian install carpet tile in his basement, and we also expect to see the new 007 movie this weekend.

For those of you who think that electric cars are chronically wimpy wussmobiles, then you should check out this car.  It’s performance curves arch above those of the finest European roadsters and at a third the cost.  And it does it silently; no shifting, no vibrations, no emissions.  This car is a labor of love by a concordance of Silicon Valley tech gurus and engineers.  They’re doing it for the technology, not the money or glamour, so you bet they got it right the first time.

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Nifty Wikipedia Thing: the man who invented sulfuric acid

What I’m reading:
"Lost Chance in China" by John S. Service
"The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" by Douglas Adams (I’m reading the Hitchhiker series to Evelyn).