Lots of updatey

My street and driveway are, still, a disaster area. My sidewalk has yet to be plowed, dunno if the city is ever going to get to it. My street is narrow, the big snowbanks make it narrower, my driveway is narrow and ditto. It takes two to three back-and-forths to get out of my driveway. Some more shoveling might help, but there is nowhere to put the snow. Not just that the snow piles are high, but the bases are narrow enough (not enough space) that the pile is pretty close to pile limit, cause snow just rolls off instead of staying. And I can't do the normal suburban push it to the other side of the street thing, cause then I wouldn't get out of my driveway at all. And, I think one of our shovel broke last night, too. Not all the way, but cracked across the scoop.

Monday evening I was heading over to ironphoenix's place with gabriel_le to have some port with him and S, and maybe play a game. On the way there, I hit a pot hole on Bronson (the pot holes seem to be especially bad this year) and the car was driving funny afterwards. I pulled over into a parking lot on the next block, and discovered I had a flat tire. I will say that I'm glad I had a couple pieces of bubble wrap that hadn't been cleared out of my trunk, they kept my knees a lot warmer and drier than otherwise while I set up the jack and changed the tire. We had some very nice port and a nice game of Ticket To Ride Europe (which gabriel_le quite likes) with ironphoenix and S.

I had hoped that I'd just broken the bead on my tire and it could be remounted, but it turns out I trashed the tire, and had to have it replaced. Thanks to the road-hazard warranty, it wasn't too expensive and I got the new tire (and wheel) back on the car yesterday evening.

Got out climbing Tuesday. My regular climbing partner from work was supposed to be there, but he forgot to show up. I hooked up with one of the other regulars at the gym who didn't look to have a climbing partner either.

I also ordered a new pair of eye glasses yesterday. They're supposed to be in just after the New Year. Our health plan should cover the checkup (I think) and some part of the cost of the glasses, though not all of it. I've got a strong prescription (-10.25 and -8.00 plus astigmatism in both eyes) so I generally have to go with expensive high-index glass. I also tend to be hard (physically) on my glasses and frames, so generally have to go with strong flexible frames which also tend to be expensive. I chose an optician at which I'd previously had good service with repairs on my other glasses (and told them why I chose them), and they also had a sale (40% off) which helped me. Many opticians do "2nd pair free" type offers, but the "free" pair is always standard glass, and for me that would me an unwearable 2nd pair, so that sort of offer is useless.

I've also got an appointment on January 2nd at the airport for a Nexus interview and to get my irises photographed. Nexus is a fast-track border crossing setup between Canada and the US which should greatly reduce my waiting-in-line time at the border and simplify things. It is good for 5 years, like my passport, and if it works well I'll probably renew it. I do cross the border often enough to be worth the time and effort to set this up.

Christmas shopping is proceeding. I've got presents for several people, I have ideas for a couple others, and one or two that I've got no ideas at all for.

I ordered some more stuff from Harmon/Kardon employee purchase stuff, including some stereo equipment (a new system, plus a sub-woofer for my current system), but the bit of gear I'm most excited about is the GPS navigation system I got. It will really help to have one that I'm familiar with for all my business trips.

Had fun with gabriel_le at our dance lesson last night. We're learning with Lorna of Lorna's Dance Collective and have been very happy with her as an instructor. She teaches well, listens to us, and is also very fun. (She and gabriel_le ended up doubled over laughing for a few minutes during last years lesson, laughing so hard that the another class stopped and stared at them, they got told they were having too much fun. I was laughing, too, though not quite as hard... I was kind of the target of the comment that set them off.)

Now, into the busy Christmas season... Sunday is Christmas dinner with gabriel_le's mom, then Monday evening dinner with gabriel_le's father and partner, drop gabriel_le off with J+A after, and maybe (if not too late) drop by cortejo's. Pick gabriel_le up Tuesday afternoon around 3pm, then Christmas dinner with my parents and my sister (J) and her partner (and her dog, Chili). Then birthday party on the 28th. I'll probably climb afternoon of the 27th, maybe sometime on the 29th or 30th as well.

More update...

gabriel_le did a wonderful job of shoveling out more of our driveway today! It is wider, and I think can even park two cars again! Woot!

The city wheels grind slow, but they do grind... way back, when raynedaze still lived here, we had a problem with our sewer pipe clogging. Some guys from the city rodded it, and determined that there were tree roots in the pipe. Since the big tree in front of our house is a city tree, they decided this was a city problem. Apparently they also ran a camera down the pipe to take a look. About a year and a half ago Nathan from the city called to say they were finally dealing with the pipe -- came and figured out where the pipe went, looked at the tree and the planter, and mentioned that the pipe was partially cracked/collapsed and the city would be fixing it. He said they didn't want to kill the tree or have to dig up/break up the planter. But, that maybe they could line the pipe instead, and that they'd have to look over the video again (or have someone look it over) and determine if this was possible. Earlier this week, he called again, apparently they can re-line the pipe, and can do this without tearing up anything. So, someone from the company that will do it is going to be contacting me in January about this. Cool.

In January I'll be flying to Detroit for Confusion, then from there to Mexico for a week, then to Indiana for a week then home. The last two weeks of February will probably be spent in Albuquerque New Mexico.