Busy days...

Well, Saturday was a doubly busy day. Omaha and I rose early, woke up Kouryou-chan, and had quick breakfasts before we loaded up the car with gardening tools and headed over to Kouryou-chan's school to put in the 20 hours of work we're supposed to offer as part of our membership. As a two-parent household we were able to provide double the work time, which was nice; school hasn't started yet and already we've fulfilled a quarter of our requirement.

Omaha tackled the back garden area, the worst of the four open spaces about the school, which was weedy and just in terrible shape. I took the roof, sweeping off the pine needles and cleaning out the gutters. In the three hours that the work party was running I only managed about a third of the school's gutters, maybe more. Odd that I should find myself yet again on someone's roof, cleaning out. I used these fabulous blue gloves Omaha found for me at one of the kitchen places near Southcenter mall and I was grateful for them; I damn near nicked myself on a zinc line someone had lain poorly.

Afterwards, I headed home where Omaha and I showered together, made lunch for Kouryou-chan, and then headed out again, this time for Oloteas (Our Lady of the Earth and Sky). I had decidely mixed feelings about going to Oloteas, not being terribly pagan in much other than my love life.

The Longhouse, as it's called, is both impressive and intimidating. There seems to be a very sixties sensibility to the main building itself-- the colors, the carpets, the overall feel of the place is vaguely washed out as if one were seeing through an architectural magazine around the start of `70s. It's on a huge area of land, has a covered swimming pool, and is dotted here and there with pagan shrines (usually a semi-permanent tent of some kind), status to various goddesses, and bridges to connect marshy areas that aren't quite underwater.

Because we spent an extra hour longer at the school than expected, we missed the opening circle. Nobody seemed too put off by that; when we got there, a lot of people we knew had already shown. It was quite nice to run into shemayazi there, along with her partner. My ambivalence was heightened by the presence of Der Ex, along with Yamaarashi-chan, who was happy to see me unless her friend was around, in which case my presence was an embarassment. I ran into a couple of other people there who I shan't out unless they want to out themselves.

I can't say much about the event. The terrain was beautiful, the weather gorgeous, even the people were lovely to look at for the most part. The dinner was a potluck to which Omaha and I contributed some store-bought things; at the next, we'll know what to bring and bring accordingly. The ritual itself was interesting, a celebration of Autumn more than an invocation of powers, and I felt better after it was over. Spoke to some very interesting people and then, after a while, we headed home.

Water... hot water...

Sunday, we got the water heater and, so we thought, all of the equipment needed to make it go. We shut down the power, cut the old relief tube off of the old heater, disconnected the cold water feed and the hot water out-line, and prepared to move it out. Omaha decided that the floor under the tank was "too gross" to leave as-is and, we discovered, we needed more stuff, so it was a trip to the hardware store for us.

We picked up everything, then started to run into a series of annoying snags. First, the relief tube was cut close to the wall, but we needed to solder a new adapter to it. We couldn't work the old adapter off, so we had to cut it even closer to the wall. I was terrified that we were going to set the house on fire soldering the new one on, but Omaha convinced me to try and get it on, and that worked pretty well.

We also tore up the linoleum and put a new vinyl flooring in its place, which was a pain in the neck, which chisel, scraper, and mallet. My arms hurt after all that. But after getting everything assembled, we finally had to put the water heater into position.

And dammit, we had the wrong connectors still. I had to run back to the hardware store, where the incompetent buffoon I'd talked with that afternoon had been replaced by a competent salesperson who gave me exactly what I wanted. Note: the white silicon anti-leak tape you can buy for $0.57 is okay, but the tape used for sealing threaded gas lines that you get for $1.97 is much better and will save you much time avoiding re-taping leaky lines.

After everything, including the new "thermal expansion tank", was hooked up... we discovered that the tank itself leaks. Omaha and I were quite gentle with it, so it wasn't anything we did. The intake and relief lines leak. They weren't taped correctly at the factory, dammit.

I really wanted my hot water. Omaha and TygerEclipse made fun of me because, rather than take a cold shower, I heated up a pot full of water to something comfortable and bathed with it, only to have to submit to the chilling shower when I didn't have enough for a proper rinse. They laughed cruelly at my squeal of indignation, but what would you do if your testicles tried to crawl back up into your body to stay warm?

I read some of Wind in the Willows to Kouryou-chan and then headed off to bed myself.

God's Own Party

The Republican are meeting in New York, and the first group to cause a stir are, apparently, the Iowa caucus. They are all wearing buttons that read "God's Official Party" or "God's Own Party".

Quick, if you translate "God's Own Party" into Arabic, what would the name of the party be?

Hezbollah

[Anime] Maria-Sama ga Miteru, episode 5.

Note: This is in regard to Season one, and contains spoilers.

( There ought to be a mood, 'sentimental'. )