Word to the wise: don't shop at 1-800-flowers.

They messed up two of our orders on the same day. One was a birthday bouquet... delivered seven days early. The other was a same-day delivery that was supposed to be left outside a door at 7pm (because the recipient wouldn't be home until around 8.) Instead, it was left out in the rain at 1 in the afternoon. In both cases the customer service response was friendly but limited; I get the impression that they make mistakes like this a lot.

Still yuck. Fever all night and dizzy and tired and raw-throated today. Lucky for me that Temple of Doom is playing on cable and a fresh batch of books recently arrived from Amazon. Add plenty of DayQuil and the situation is bearable, though my concentration is shot and all writing is on hold until I can hold a thought for more than four seconds.

Meanwhile, Tony is going crazy tying up the loose ends for CSI. It is ancient tradition in game development that no project can be completed without some eighth-inning drama leading up to the absolute drop-dead delivery date. It's like the end of a James Bond movie; lots of action, surprise reversals, certain doom... but things always work out at the last possible moment. I'm not worried.

Tony is at a meeting in LA today while I am confined to bed with the Sinuses of Horror. He seems to have a budding version of whatever bug I have, so I sent him to the airport with plenty of decongestants so his ears don't explode.

(He had monstrous ear problems two years ago after a non-pressurized flight in Tanzania; he'll never forget the pain, and I'll never forget the terror of not being able to do anything to help him. So now I drug him to the gills whenever he's going on an airplane, even a nice, pressurized commuter flight to LA.)

We went to a graduation yesterday; my sister Jessica graduated from the police academy! A bunch of cops from her new force came to cheer her on, and after the graduation they held a special swearing-in ceremony, just for her, and she got her badge. She starts work next Wednesday! I'm tempted to go hang around on the streets, just so I can see her drive by in her uniform and spiffy new badge.

But in the meantime, we have work to do. Climbing this morning (!), editing the graduation video, and lots and lots of testing CSI. It's in its last phases before release, so we have a cadre of employees and employee spouses combing it for bugs.

New laptop arrived yesterday! It's a slick little Toshiba convertable tablet (the Portege 3500) and is a LOT of fun. Tony played with it for two minutes and decided that he wants one for himself...! I'd better get cracking on that tax refund.

No updates for a day or so while I get this thing set up.

Rust Head: Epilogue

SSSSSssssssssss. When I opened the door to the hot water heater closet to show it to the installer, the heater was hissing like a snake. It had not been making that noise a few hours earlier. The installer was startled. The heater, it seems, would not have waited another day before it bust open. Probably not another hour. And when he drained it, the water that came out was dark brownish red, really frightening. It stained the gutter and the curb outside our house. And we were washing ourselves, our clothes, our dishes in that! Ugghhh!

All fixed now.

Rust Head: Day Eight

Tony is in LA again, recording the last cast member for the CSI game. He'll be home tonight, and with any luck I'll have a surprise waiting: hot water!

Yes, I'm awaiting the hot water heater installer. He should be here in an hour. We already know that our old heater was not installed to code, so I expect complications. The big question is how bad it will be...

Rust Head: Day Seven

We bought a new hot water heater. Now we need an installation permit, appointment and ultimately a safety inspection, but none of that can happen until the installer calls. He hasn't yet. The Hot Water Heater Guru at Home Depot tells us that we'd better hurry it up, because the rusty water is indeed a major sign that it's ready to burst. Fifty gallons of goopy water, all over our downstairs. Just super.

Climbed yesterday (my ligament is finally permitting it again, mostly) and got some private lessons in crack climbing from our favorite resident expert. Very satisfying.

Rust Head: Day Three

The rusty water has seeped into my brain. One of those "I'm-doing-a-school-outreach-project-buy-my-magazines" students just came to the house; he looked junior-college age, maybe twenty. I didn't open the door, just asked him what he wanted and said "No thanks". He started swearing at me. "You're too chicken to even open the door? Fucking bitch won't even do something to help a kid?" So I opened the door -- he asked for it -- and had a huge argument with him on the street. Nasty, swarmy little germ is lucky I didn't kick him in the nuts.

Now I'm in a BAD mood. Time for the gym.

(It's been a rough day. Trying hard to focus on climbing and work and taxes and not disaster kits or Orange Alerts or nuclear missles that can reach California.)

Rust Head: Day One

Still have not replaced or made appointment to replace hot water heater. This leaves us with two choices: shower with cold water only or tolerate brown, rust-filled hot water on body and in hair. I periodically go downstairs to make sure the thing hasn't bust open and dumped itself all over the floor, but other than that I remain in rust-headed denial.

Just to make things interesting, the regular heater has started going CHUGGA CHUGGA CHUGGA whenever it turns on. Not promising.

Oh oh oh oh oh oh. So maybe a Redwood Shores - Palo Alto hike was an overambitious way to start our walking season. We went just under thirteen miles and made it without much trouble, but now we're both having major hip flexor problems and have sworn not to budge again until tomorrow.

It turns out that when the hot water runs brown it means that the hot water heater is preparing to explode. Great.

Tony flew to Austin this morning. A few people have asked if all the travel is hard on us, but it's actually a lot easier than it used to be. He's enjoying his trip (I hope) and I'm enjoying my customary Tony-Is-Away-Writer's-Workshop and we have a good weekend planned, even if I'm not healed enough to climb. We're going to try our first Redwood Shores - Palo Alto hike of the year (twelve or fourteen miles, depending on our route) and see how it goes. It will feel great to put our packs on again after so many months.

Does anyone know what it means when all the hot water faucets run brown?

Lots of movies and good food for Tony's birthday weekend. We had a great time, but now it's Tuesday and neither of us is thrilled about returning to real life. We need another day for drive-through hotdogs and parcourse hikes! Instead, we're having problems with auction payments, the dying laptop, some office headaches, and my injured ligament from Friday is not healing as quickly as we hoped.

Worst of all, we just bought tax software. I have to face it: That Time has come again.

Maybe tomorrow.