I'll be in town for MB's birthday and will be checking this out.

returning my air conditioner today. there was some high pitched rattle that had developed and it was within the 30 days that amazon would take it back so i swung into action. that primarily involved negotiating for an hour via chat to india in an effort to exchange for a new model at the same price (unclear at the moment if i was actually was successful) and procuring shipping labels, a box, bubble wrap and tape. i was worried about carrying the extra large box on the subway at near rush hour but was gifted with a near empty m train from home depot on 23rd st. 

but now im actively anxious as i await the doorbell as i have since i went out around 1130 when the ups truck arrived. i managed to slide the old a/c down to the ground floor and my new a/c was in the truck but the ups guy didnt want to take it until the truck was less encumbered. and i without dolly hadnt brought the 85 lb package to the truck nor was i interested in carrying away the new one. 

so i am at the mercy of the delivery guy. i assume he will attempt a delivery but im never sure he wont forget or fail in some way. also, i left the a/c by the door and i doubt it will somehow disappear into the bowels of chinatown but there is always that possibility. so lots of unnecessary anxiety just waiting waiting waiting to finish this task which then wont be finished until amazon honors the claims of an office drone half a lifetime away.

Actual Doonesbury cartoon from 1999.

using a pizza oven

Looking good....

all netflix tv series ranked.

my favorite game - whose daughter is that? both parents, now divorced, are actors, the mom being the more notable of the two though she hasnt had a highly regarded film in over a decade.

smoking cheese

http://www.sourgrapesfilm.com

football & 9/11 -- an orgy of american onanism. today on fox!

original star trek series is marathoning on bbc america all weekend.

us open womens final just about to start on espn. interesting matchup but ill take kerber over serena slayer pliskova. really disgusting weather outside. humidity bumps up the "feels like" temp to 96.

more fun with plumbing. i wont complain about how long it took the plumber to engage with the project because he is here now or he was a minute ago. now he is out solving a problem i created for him although admittedly i thought it was the easiest solution and therefore cheapest solution which is turning out probably not to be the case.

all the pipes for my shower are outside the wall and probably pretty ancient. though who knows, maybe they were replaced 30 years ago. im told they are brass painted over with a matte silver finish though the finish has been unfinished for as long as ive been here and undoubtedly much longer. 

the final 3 foot pipe leading up to the shower arm (a term i just learned) and ultimatley the shower head had eroded at the juncture just above the hot and cold knobs. so it wasnt a plumbing emergency since there was no leakage, i just couldnt take a shower or at least not one very well as i found out this morning as i held the broken pipe in place as i attempted a quick rinse cycle. but as far as i could tell the threading on the female coupling was intact and only that the one stretch of piping needed to be replaced. the plumber in his hasty appraisal had just decided it was easier to replace the entire run of pipes including the faucets and the shower head, et al. should i have cared? probably not. was it likely something marginally less asthetically pleasing? i couldnt even say because he never brought it over for me to see, although he complained that he couldnt return it which seems unlikely as it was purchased today and is unopened. 

i never actually complained that he was replacing "an antique" for something lesser, but that is what he decided was my concern. i really was thinking of it as the simplest fix, as i said, and the cheapest. i left him alone to do what he would after he snapped at me for acting like his wife which he doesnt have. but in the time he was disassembling the shower arm from the wall he decided he would give it a go... without any real prompting. so he left and came back with the same poorly painted brass pipe with some fresh new threading on one end. i didnt even know that was a thing. unfortunately, the threading didnt match. he said something about it being female to female. i gave him a 'whaddya gonna do' look, and the answer was look for a connecting piece to join the two. is that a fitting? maybe?

so the buzzer just knocked me out of my stupor. next stage is upon us. im not gonna even bother to look in until he yelps in frustration or triumph.

rumor is the real deal in peruvian.....

the order of things (itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka dot bikini)

don'ts

35 years ago: the tribeca bridge project

use value art (pdf)

anybody see the nice guys?  is there a post that is going to magically appear when im not looking? pretty amusing thus far. russell crowe definitely let himself go. streaming it from my computer with a newly purchased googlecast. not completely won over but pretty good option for $30 if like me you are tired of tripping over cords.

MB have you been here yet for oysters??

im only two eps in but two thumbs up for netflix's stranger things, the retro 80s supernatural thriller.

rest in peace..........

Watching movies again.......

Exorcist.....that was fun!!

Metroplis Restored......painful but brilliant

Star Trek.......still love them

Best buy of the year.....$5.60 each!!

Can anyone ID this?