Argh!  This sort of thing is so frustrating!  

Early last week Don asked me to call the company who installed our a/c system four years ago and get someone out, as apparently the 'condensation hole' is clogged and needs to be cleared out before the gathering condensation collects up there in the attic to the point it overflows.  This would be bad.  So.  Fine.  I called and was told it'd be the following Wednesday before they could come out, i.e. yesterday. 

Yesterday I stayed home waiting for him, and at last he showed up a bit before three o'clock.  He climbed up into the attic, then back down again, saying "There's a bathroom down that hall, right?", pointing to our bedroom.  "Um, right.  Why?"

"That's where the a/c drain goes."  He peered under the sink, muttered something about copper, then told me the problem's not with the a/c, it's that there's a clog in the pipes under the sink where the a/c condensation drains into them.  Well, that's what it sounded like.  Main point was, it's a job for a plumber.

He kindly didn't charge me for the trip, since he didn't actually do anything.  Got a recommendation from Mom and Elaine as to whom to call.

This morning here came the plumber, which naturally necessitated clearing everything out from under the sink, and it's truly astonishing the amount of stuff that can be crammed under there over the years.  Why do I possess three blow-dryers?  

He also goes up into the attic to where the a/c is, then back down to the bathroom, then back up to the attic.  He comes out and requests a pitcher, which I supply, then disappears again.  After a few minutes more he returns and asks me, "Who's the air conditioning company that came out yesterday?"

I've been around long enough to know this doesn't bode well.  After telling him, he advises me whoever the tech was that came didn't know what he was talking about, for there's no clog at all....he flushed it and blasted air through it and it's fine, just fine....and the problem is definitely with the unit.  Maybe a rusted evaporator pan?

He gave me the name and number of the a/c tech he himself prefers ("Now, ask for Matt....he's who you want"), collected a check for $96, looked at the water heater and assured me that, contrary to what a plumber had said a few years ago it's not in danger of blowing up, but when it's replaced make sure they don't hook it up like that again and how old IS that thing, anyway? then left.

Well, isn't that ducky? 

I'm out almost a hundred bucks but nothing's fixed.  The person he recommended will be here tomorrow morning...oh joy, a third tech visit in as many days, my cup - or evaporator pan - runneth over...and I sent an uncomplimentary email to the a/c company about this lamentable affair. 

I've been watching Dinner: Impossible, the Food Network show where this chef is given an apparently unachievable task (feeding 4000 people in six hours, etc.), and this time it's my opinion the man caused a lot of his own problems.  He's in a school's kitchen, having been given several hours to prepare a graduation feast for 600 people.

It's not going terribly well.  One thing that surprised me was his being blindsided by discovering there aren't sufficient large buffet pans for all the hot dishes he's preparing.  He's mad as fire at the cook whose kitchen it normally is, but ISTM it was his responsibility to ASK about what the hot-dish capacity is, not just assume it'll be alright.  Ditto for the oven.  He's griping about having just the one oven (though it's large) but I'd think he'd take that into account when planning his menu.  Choosing the menu selection and assuming the required pots, pans, ovens and other cooking paraphernalia to be available doesn't strike me as terribly bright.

Speaking of not terribly bright events in the kitchen, today Dmitry wheedled me into taking him to Central Market (he's a good wheedler....when we left the house my destination was SuperTarget), for he's discovered a Japanese soda of which he's quite fond, and also - to my horrified dismay - the delights of the CM sushi bar. 

Went ahead and bought him some (cooked) shrimp sushi (and they're not giving that stuff away, let me tell you), which he grabbed as soon as we arrived home.  He chomped happily on one of the rolls then, unbeknownst to me, who was unpacking the other sacks, decided to try a finger-full of the mysterious green condiment on the side. 

Oh, my.  

His mouth opened wide, he gasped for breath, then pushed past me to the sink, shoving his head under the faucet and scorning a cup.  HOT!  HOT!  HOT!   

Yeah, well, wasabi'll do that to a person, especially when eaten straight up. 

Y'know, after the jalapeno pizza incident of a few years ago, you'd think he'd learn to be wary of unidentified green foodstuffs. 

This morning there was a tornado that touched down at an unusual time - 6:30 a.m. - and in an even more unusual locale - Brooklyn, New York.  The trees fall in Brooklyn!  As many as 150, according to news reports.   To make a miserable situation even worse (I daresay y'all heard that the heavy storms virtually shut down at least part of the NYC transit system?), in the afternoon the temperatures soared close to 100° with stifling humidity.  When one considers how many people up there don't have air conditioning....! 

Jumping nimbly to a completely unrelated topic, doubtless you're familiar with those ubiquitous ads scattered around the internet offering free ring tones for one's mobile phone?  This evening I saw one that truly perplexed me, and had it not been for the $5.99 per week subscription price ("A joke a day delivered right to your phone!") I'd have tracked it down to hear it.

What do you suppose an "Episcopalian" ring tone sounds like? 

Thai police who break rules to sport Hello Kitty armbands.

BANGKOK, Thailand - Thai police officers who break rules will be forced to wear
hot pink armbands featuring "Hello Kitty," the Japanese icon of cute,
as a mark of shame, a senior officer said Monday. 
Police officers caught littering, parking in a prohibited area, or arriving
late -- among other misdemeanors -- will be forced to stay in the
division office and wear the armband all day, said Police Col. Pongpat
Chayaphan. The officers won't wear the armband in public.      
The striking armband features Hello Kitty sitting atop two hearts.

You know what?  I'll bet that's going to prove to be marvelously effective. 

The so-called "secret ingredient" was opah, a frightfully big fish.

This episode confirmed something I'd suspected, to wit, that those chefs knew perfectly well what ingredient they were going to be working with.  They just happened to have squid ink pasta on hand?  Monkey coconuts?  Seaweed?  What if the secret ingredient had been lamb, eh? 

And when did actually cooking the fish go out of fashion?  I've never seen so much raw or severely underdone fish in my life.  And darned if those judges didn't eat it! 

One thing that made a nice change was the challenger's choice of an Iron Chef other than Bobby Flay, this time Mario Vitalli or however it's spelled.  I really liked him, and hope he shows up more often.

Has anyone here eaten opah?  Believe it or not there were a couple of dishes that I thought looked pretty tasty.

We just received a couple of emails from Svetlana, who has been traveling over the past few weeks, ranging from Saint Petersburg to the sea to Cheboksary and her and Dmitry's home town of Pervomyask.

She came across Dmitry's best friend from the time before he went to the children's home in Shumerlya, a boy also named Dmitry:

He recently took the examination to see if he can be admitted to the Chuvash state university.  Let's hope he made it!

Here are two views of Dmitry and Sveta's home there in Pervomyask; first from the front, then from the side:

Isn't it a darling little house?  Looks like it was built from Legos, doesn't it?  In the photo above, over to the left you can just see the banya, i.e. the bath, where one created steam, got all hot, then ran outside to jump into the snow.  Sounds like a terrific way to die from either hypothermia or a stroke, but Dmitry assures me it was great.  I'm gonna have to take his word for it. 

Here's a picture of the school Dmitry attended; it's in back, and the new school under construction is in the foreground:

Dmitry sighed and said as how seeing that school "brings back memories."  ;^)

When Sveta was at the sea, there was some place where the tradition appears to be to get really, really muddy. 

She included a photo of a family of three all covered in the dark gray mud. 

Must be a Russian thang. 

She also visited what looks to be a petting zoo or amusement park or something of the sort:

Now her vacation time is over, she allows as how she needs to get cracking to find a job to go with her spiffy new diploma.  Prayers toward that end would be appreciated!

Last night at 1:45 a.m. - technically, early this morning - Charles wearily arrived home from work.  What took him so long?

A charming foursome showed up two minutes before the restaurant closed and proceeded to park at the table for two solid hours. 

This meant the cooks had to stay, the busser had to stay, the manager had to stay, and since it was his table, Charles had to stay.

When they finally vacated the premises, they left behind a tip of the munificent sum of $8.  He was complaining about it, but I pointed out that thoughtful, generous people don't show up two minutes before a restaurant closes then stay for two hours, thus preventing several people from finally getting to call it a night and go home, meaning one can pretty much take it as a given that whoever pulls a stunt like that is NOT a thoughtful, generous person and it'll invariably show in the tip they leave. 

We're not letting Beth's being in Japan stop us from having a shower for her, by jingo.  We're going to have a cyber-shower on the 19th/20th (depending upon whether one is in the USA or Japan), with a web-cam link, and Don has taken it to the next level.

He bought a video cable and attached his laptop to the 53" television, then called Beth and Alex to test it.  Worked a treat!  There they were, big as life.  It was marvelous! 

I'm already planning to have a family get-together here after Faith is born so everyone can get a good gander at her, and we can break out the bubbly and toast the newest Ivy. 

There's an Episcopalian church in Arlington, St. Albans, that has had a school for about fifty years now.

The school has been abruptly closed due to poor enrollment, which had dropped to close to half of where it needed to be.  Okay, I can understand that, though I think their timing sucks eggs, what with school set to begin this month around the state.

But the real kicker is that, at least so far, no refunds are being made.  One man interviewed by the Dallas Morning News for this story has paid around $20,000 for his two daughters to attend this upcoming school year, and right now it looks as if he's just out twenty grand with zip-all to show for it.

I'm sorry....this is Christian behavior?  Sounds like stealing to me, to take someone's money in return for a promised service, then pocket the money while refusing to provide what was paid for.  I'm fairly confidant were St. Albans to pay a contractor to fix their air conditioner, for instance, but the a/c repairman cash the check then refuse to perform the service, the church would squawk like wet wicker.  So how come they're not refunding the tuition that's already been paid by the families for an education the church has decided it's not going to provide?

Despicable, that's what it is. 

I've written before about the specific-use small electric appliances there are....hot dog cookers, hard boiled egg cookers, etc....but they also exist in the realm of the manual.

For instance, here's this handy item:

Can you guess what it is?  I certainly couldn't, but then, I don't eat many mangoes.  This is a mango splitter, and it's been marked down to $8.49 from 12.95.  A steal of a deal!  According to the online catalog:  " No need to peel the mango before using this tool.
Just stand it on end, and press the splitter right straight down. It’ll
easily work its way around both sides of the pit, leaving you two
perfect, pit-less mango halves, ready to slice."

[ingratiatingly]  Of course, if I thought possessing one of these would entice Mom to make more of her marvelous mango chutney, I'll gladly have one shipped right to her. 

Maybe you're more of an avocado aficionado?  They saw you coming a mile away:

Tah-dah!  It's an avocado pitter and slicer, marked down from $16.95 to a comparatively mingy 8.49 (as close to half off as makes no difference).    Unfortunately I don't quite see how it works.  The ring at one end is intended to remove the pit "without damaging the fruit", and the other end "scoops flesh from avocado and cuts it in perfect slices, in one easy move."  Huh.  Seems to me if you use the loop up there to remove the pit you're gonna mangle the avocado. 

Maybe that's why it's on sale?

For those who churn out fresh, homemade pasta by the pound, you'll doubtless be entranced by this useful tool:

It's a pasta rack, for air-drying.   Apparently it folds flat for easy storage, which is a good thing.

Moving from lower priced items up to the up-town area, there's the Whip-it!™ Professional Cream Whipper for $64.95:

The Baker's Catalogue assures the prospective purchaser that this device "transforms your fresh-bought cream into a professional-looking topping." 

Personally, a $2 can of Ready Whip works just fine to my way of thinking. 

This actually is one of my favorite places to poke around and sometimes buy something; if you've never checked out The Baker's Catalogue, you should. 

The girl who ran into him had State Farm which, according to Progressive, Charles' company, is accepting responsibility for the accident.

This means Charles is now driving a rent car, since his was towed down to Lynn Smith:  a brand spanking new 2008 Grand Prix, IIRC (though it might be a 2008 Grand Am....I get those "grands" confused). 

Nice wheels!