Menopause Moments

Though I'd like to deny it, the truth is that I'm officially menopausal, with all of the unpleasantness that implies. I can call 'em power surges, but they still feel like hot flashes. My lack of health insurance means no hormones for me (though I gather doctors aren't prescribing them as much any more). I carry a good old fashioned fan for the hot flashes, but that doesn't help me with the mood swings or the memory loss.

Okay, I've always been a little moody (blame it on that ever-swinging Libra sign), and my memory has never been the best, but this is for the birds. If I don't put things in specific places (keys next to the phone, purse on the back of the couch), then later I can't find them. Worse, I do things and have absolutely no recollection of having done them.

To the point, on Sunday I went out for drinks and appetizers with the ever delightful Vic & Stacey, and my wallet disappeared. When I'm not carrying a purse, I tend to take things out of my pockets and put them on the table near me, so I had wallet, keys and phone stacked together. I paid for my meal, so I knew I'd had it then, and I had my keys and phone, so I thought it would have been odd to have left the wallet behind. But I had no recollection of picking it up. None.

I went straight home after, put in a load of laundry and finished reading a book (Heroics for Beginners, a charming, light, comedy/fantasy). When I went to grab my stuff to go see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (wonderful film!) I couldn't find my wallet. I've spent the last several days searching the house and the car for it, without any luck. I've been watching my accounts for signs of activity but hadn't cancelled cards and such yet, because I was almost positive it was somewhere in the house.

Last night I did more laundry, and there was my wallet, sitting in the middle of the game table in the basement, smirking at me. All of my searching, and it never even occurred to me to check the basement. I still don't remember taking it out of my pocket, and I'm not sure why I put it on the table downstairs.

*sigh* Either my wallet is migratory (and malicious) or I'm beginning to lose my mind. Odds are in favor of the latter. But at least I found my wallet before taking a big trip out of town!

Over the Moon!

As a certifiable space nut with vivid memories of watching that first step onto the moon on a tiny black and white TV set, I find this exciting and amazing.

I am, you might say, over the moon about it. It being Google Moon. Those people at Google are amazing.

If you zoom all the way in, the secret of the moon's composition is revealed.

via BoingBoing
Cow image from http://www.strawberrylady.com

A-Literature-ation

The Guardian has run a contest asking people to write the death of Dumbledore in the style of various famous authors. I have no idea if Dumbledore is slated to die, but the examples are absolutely hysterical.

And yes, of course I'll be picking up my copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince this weekend. Probably from the local discount store, where they're advertising it for $14.87.

In other news... nothing tickles me so much as new clothes, a size smaller... except maybe new tech toys and new DVDs. I bought 4 more of my standard uniform poet-style shirts from Roamans, and they came in yesterday's mail. Now I'm back to having enough shirts to go two weeks between laundry runs, if necessary.

Totally Cool

My air conditioning went out on my trusty minivan several years ago. I've put off having it fixed because my mechanic estimated it might cost north of $400, and for that kind of money I could suffer. Well... so far this has been a very, very hot summer, so I bit the bullet and made an appointment to have it looked at.

Now I have blessed cool air in my car! Yippiee! It only cost $130.

On the bad news front, though, I still have a wobble in the front end, which appears to be 4 tires giving up their all, as in "replace now, or within a month". *sigh* That'll be another $200.

Honestly... cars are kinda like kids. It's always something. Still, the Countessmobile has given me relatively little trouble over the years, and I can probably get another 2-4 years out of it if I baby it.

In The News (and otherwise)

In the news...

• Jack the Ripper is still provoking controversy, with two new books speculating on his identity.
• There's a new TV network coming for gays & lesbians, called Logo. Considering how hard the rightwingnuttery is working to banish them from the public eye, a dedicated channel is a nice idea.
• Got hooked on a couple of good new television programs and one that hasn't even been broadcast - The Closer, The Inside and Global Frequency. The Closer is a police procedural (high profile homicide unit in LA) on TNT on Monday evenings and is remarkably good. The Inside focuses on a special profiling unit of the FBI, and is utterly twisted and creepy - in a good way. In both cases, my first thought was "do we really need another police procedural?"... but I was wrong. The characters, especially the lead, in The Closer really snap, and I am dying to watch the relationships develop. The Inside (already slated for cancellation by terminally stupid Fox) isn't afraid to deal with really edgy topics (like the S&M top suspected of murdering his subs) and the characters are so sharp (and twisted into knots) that you could injure yourself on them.
  
  The standout, though, is Global Frequency, a thriller with a sci-fi edge based on a series of graphic novels by the ever-perverse but unspeakably talented Warren Ellis. Some brilliant individual leaked the un-aired pilot to the Internet, and I have to say, it's an amazing show. The characters are all topic experts (there are a thousand and one people on the Global Frequency) who drop everything at a moment's notice to try to keep the world safe for the rest of us. I think there is hope that with enough fan support, the series might actually get made. I'm doing my part to spread the word...
  
  

In my news

• Plumbing, it seems, should be left to the experts. I attempted to clear out a clog in my 30-yr-old bathroom pipes and instead succeeded in jamming the plumber's snake right through the U shaped pipe. A real plumber, of course, would have had a bucket under there to catch the black, nasty stuff that poured out and proceded to soak 10 year's worth of stuff under the sink. Of course, since I hadn't so much as looked at most of it in that long, having to throw it all away was mostly just a smelly inconvenience. Now I'm a bit poorer, but have all new pipes in the bathroom sink upstairs and a toilet that no longer runs downstairs.
• In the realm of TMI about plumbing, I've had all my lady-parts checked, prodded, squished and examined (including new bifocals for $400) and the verdict is -- not bad for a diabetic fat chick over 50. On the one hand I regret spending all but my last $4.65, but on the other hand, it's good to know things are okay. And if there had been something wrong, well, I might know in time to head it off. And new glasses - I'll be able to read without taking my glasses off and pressing my nose to the book! Yay! I am going to have to find me a doc to see on a regular basis to help keep my diabetes under control, though, because my sugars are slowly but steadily creeping upward, even when I'm pretty darned good.