I wasn’t expecting to be working from home this morning — I planned to get to work at a reasonable hour and try to donate blood — but my car had different ideas. I got in, turned the key, and was greeted with a quiet “clunk” and silence. Repeating the attempt just got me the silence, no clunk.

So I dug out the owner’s manual to figure out how to pop the hood (can you tell I don’t do my own maintenance?), found the battery and checked the connections, which seemed amply tight. I opened the door and noticed that the dome light was flickering on occasionally but was mostly off. So I did the obvious thing: I called Saab Roadside Assistance and am now waiting for a tow truck to arrive. If they can get the car started, I’ll be happy; if they can’t, they’ll tow it to the dealer who will make it better, and I’ll still be reasonably happy, since I’m at home instead of out on the road somewhere. Update: the car is on a flatbed truck on its way to the dealer and I’m still at home. With any luck, this will save me the trip to the dealer that I had had scheduled for next Monday to get the oil changed. How’s that for considering the glass to be half-full?

I don’t know if they’d’ve taken my blood today anyway, since I had dental work done yesterday, and I think that’s one of the screening questions they ask. It shouldn’t have been a problem, since I didn’t have any anesthetic (the dentist had to install a permanent crown, which is pretty easy on the patient), but who knows. I did discover that I don’t like the sound of a dental drill, even if it’s several feet away from my mouth!

Wine Notes

I found out the wine we liked so much at the RPI picnic; it was Black Mountain Vineyard
1999 Sauvignon Blanc (California Three Candles) from
Trader Joe’s at $4.99/bottle. We have to visit Trader Joe’s soon anyway, so I’ll pick some up.

Last night’s wine was from Costco: De Loach 1999 Sonoma County Fumé Blanc, Russian River Valley (about $9). It was OK with spaghetti, but I don’t think I’d buy another bottle.

I don’t think I mentioned the wedding we attended last weekend — but while we were trying to figure out what to give the couple, we wandered into Sur La Table in Los Gatos and asked for advice. After a short discussion, we settled on a Screwpull lever model for them — and somehow, we wound up buying one for ourselves, too. It works wonderfully well, and I highly recommend it.

Friday night, we did the Oneg at Temple. Usually, there are others working with us (well, I should say “with Diane” because she’s the official Oneg person; Jeffrey and I are just assistants), but not this weekend; fortunately, the Bat Mitzvah family provided ample goodies, already on platters, so setting up took far less time than it usually does.

Saturday, we went to the Rensselaer Northern California Alumni Chapter picnic in Palo Alto; the weather was fine, the company good, and the food quite pleasant. The wine was excellent, but I forgot to write down its name. *sigh*

Sunday was Father’s Day; we celebrated by having pizza for lunch and going to see Shrek, which we all thoroughly enjoyed. One of the trailers before the movie was for A. I. — I was intrigued to see some Hebrew on the screen (in red) at the end of the trailer. I couldn’t quite make out the letters in the time I had, so today I looked at the trailer on the computer and dropped the Rabbi at Temple a note asking what was up — she said that the word appeared to be Chochmah, meaning “wisdom” and apparently related to the Kabbalah, which is quite popular in L. A. this year.

I also read the second and third volumes in Harry Turtledove’s Colonization series during the weekend; the third volume leaves very obvious room for yet another sequel (in fact, it demands one), but there’s no “coming soon” at the end of the book or on any of the Turtledove web sites I just looked at. I guess I’ll have to practice patience again.

And I hatched a plot to have a Field Day station at a party we’ll be at next Saturday — I started with a one-line note, and now we’ve got at least four hams involved, two of whom are bringing gear. Our goal is to have a respectable score but not make it too much work!

And then today, I spent all day at work. What more need I say?

Today’s link

Gilbert and Sullivan were right!