17 March 2003

So I didn't actually finish Sewer, Gas, and Electric yesterday, despite having kept the journal entry short. I did clean the place, though, so that it looked moderately respectable when Evan, Jenn, and Yony came over. Despite the new basin-tub-and-tile cleaner. Yarg. They only had one scent of btt at Target when I was last there, so I bought it, despite the fact that it was pink, which should have been a major danger sign. It's called "Summer Breeze," and evidently the breeze is blowing on some pears, some honeysuckle, and a rotting wombat corpse. It was bad enough in Mark's and my bathroom, where I opened a window and soldiered on. But Timprov's bathroom has no window, and the scent clash with Timprov's freesia shampoo/conditioner was appalling enough that I didn't wash that floor yet -- I just shut the door and hoped that the stench would clear up. So I think we need new btt despite the fact that this was a brand new bottle.

Why do they do this? Why can't they just sell me the original, kinda institutional scent? So far they've also tried to sell me one that smells like Strawberry Shortcakes (capitalization deliberate there: the doll, not the dessert) and one that smells like a Christmas thingy my parents had, where there were salt and pepper shakers in the shapes of a doll and a teddy bear, and there was a ceramic tree with holes to put toothpicks in, and so they let me play with it -- I think it was a gift someone gave them in the late '70s or early '80s -- and the point is, do I want my bathroom to smell like that stuff? I do not.

It would still be preferable to the wombat corpse. Nobody commented on the wombat corpse smell creeping under the door of the hall bathroom, though, so I think it worked out okay. I got rave reviews on the chili, cornbread, mushrooms, and avocado, and I think the mint brownies went all right, too. And Yony brought a tasty red wine, and of course we didn't finish the bottle. We never finish the bottle. But it's all right, because we now have a few glasses of tasty red wine around. Evan brought a bottle of white, so the moral of the story is evidently "write books, get wine." Or else "make dinner, get wine." Hmm.

Anyway, everybody talked to everybody else, which is always good. Evan hadn't met Jenn before, and none of us (except Jenn, obviously) had met Yony, but it was all okay. I forgot to take pictures, though. Timprov said after they'd left that Yony reminded him of Scott (the one who comes sans Michelle). It took me a little bit to figure out why, since I didn't really think Yony said a lot that Scott would have said, and his accent/inflection was not at all the same, and aside from both being white guys in their mid-twenties, they really look nothing alike. But their expressions and gestures and mannerisms were all really similar.

Mark has arrived in City3 to interview with Institution3, and he wrote to say that he was safely ensconced in his hotel room last night. I originally typed that in an e-mail as "safely ensconed," and gosh, I hope so. Scones are nice. I could do with a scone. I'll have to make do with banana bread.

Errr, right. I've wandered off and read the paper and sort of lost where I was going. I think one of the scariest things about this respiratory ailment starting in China is that I trust the Chinese government even less than most other governments, when it comes to telling the truth about how well under control the situation is.

I don't think I have anything to say about the other really big issues of the day. Waiting, like everybody else. Not even a lot of wondering about what'll happen, really, at this point. Just waiting.

(I just got spam with the subject line "Tell me why you are doing this." Is self-justification really a good way to hook people into reading spam?)

I might run some errands, but mostly I think I'll be spending the day with Dwarf's Blood Mead and Sewer, Gas, and Electric. And trying to get my neck to come unkinked. There are worse plans out there. Comments about who is implementing them at this very moment omitted.