Of all the things I don't recommend, I can now say that I'd add "Wake up to find the furnace isn't working" to the list.

OY! Luckily, it was only about 64 degrees in the house; I don't think the overnight temperatures were hideously low, THANK GOD. A cranky furnace coupled with burst pipes would have lead to a complete meltdown. As it is, the hubs and I wrung our collective hands and then called the Sears furnace guys. And then...wait for it...hilarity ensued!

I called Sears. They have an emergency line, but you leave a message then they call you back. Again, it was cold but not bone-chilling in the house, so I was content to wait. Hubs isn't feeling well, so he needed IMMEDIATE ACTION, LIKE NOW and OH MY GOD WHY HAVEN'T THEY CALLED BACK!? He turned the oven on and opened the door to heat the house while we waited. At 400 degrees, no kidding. And it worked.

Women are the weaker sex? [insert MASSIVE eyeroll here]

It had been about an hour with no callback, so I called Atlas Butler. They advertise on TV a lot and have an A+ Better Business rating, so I felt safe calling them. Same situation: leave a message, we'll call you back. After I made the calls I gave The Man the phone, figuring he could take over from there. Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

To make a long and completely unbelievably tangled story short, the spousely wires got crossed. Sears called to give us a quote for coming out. Hubs said, "Cool!" A few minutes later we got another call. Hubs said no, don't come out, we have another guy coming. My ears did that swiveling satellite dish thing, sensing a disturbance in the force, and I asked who had called. Aiiiiii! He thought he was canceling Atlas Butler, but he'd just called to cancel Sears, who had previously called to say they were on the way.

Anyone who's read my previous husbandly entries is probably wondering why I'm still married to this man.

It seemed to take me forever to find the links I'd followed online to get the emergency numbers for both places, but I ended up calling Atlas Butler and saying something completely goofy like, uh, I think your guy might be coming out but we don't want him to because we have another guy coming and my husband may have cancelled the wrong service call, could you check to see if your guy is on the way?

Then I had to do the same thing with Sears, except in reverse. Yes, my husband cancelled the service call that he'd just accepted, because he's a man and is therefore a DOOFUS. PLEASE COME FIX MY FURNACE.

But all ended well, and the right guy came out, the other guy didn't, and we were told that while the furnace is pretty much on a walker (it was old when we bought the house), he'd see if he could get it up and running. And he did! Hooray! We're hoping that it will keep on keeping on until the warmer months, when we can get a new one hopefully on sale, and it won't cost half the price of a new car. I now have the luxury of feeling a little warmish, so I just closed the register in the bedroom.

Ahhhhhhhhh. It's the little things.

Also! The neighbor's garage roof collapsed this morning. Given the two above-mentioned not-fun things to choose from, gimme an old, slightly broken but fixable furnace any day.

Hooray! Friggin' Friday!!! Thanks to the snow, it seemed like the week was about twelve days long. What could be better to celebrate the weekend than fifteen new CDs? Except NSYNC getting back together, or JC showing up on your doorstep for a surprise date or something. Anyway, yes! Cheap music! ( Moosiks! Make the kleek to see! )

I forgot America's Best Dance Battle last night. :-( And how's this for madness: Sugar-free Peeps. Weh? If you take out the sugar, what's left!?

Thanks to withdiamonds, my brain has been broken, classic MTV video-style. BROKEN, I tell you. AJ McLean in a dance battle with a disco full of furries, I kid you not. Go, AJ! Embrace your kink! Let's see if I can embed successfully...



As I told Donna, I don't ever, ever, EVER need to see another cat in pasties and a G-string. My brain has been broken and my eyeballs scorched. THANK YOU, AJ. THERE'S A REASON I WAS AN NSYNC FAN. And! Speaking of NSync, the tune was written (co-written?) by none other than the best judge on America's Best Dance Battle, JC Chasez!

Hmmmmm.

It's entirely possible that the Chasez had something to do with the rather bizarre video concept.

JC!

Update: It's 11:38 pm, and Franklin County is now under a level two snow emergency.

"Roadways are hazardous with blowing and drifting snow. Only those who believe it is necessary to drive should be out on the roadways. Contact your employer to see if you should report to work."

Wow, it's looking like a snow day really might happen. \0/ Then again, this is Ohio. I might wake up to find rainbows, blue skies, and not a flake of snow in sight. ;-)

I think we're under snow advisory until 6:00 a.m. tomorrow. Another six hours of snow...if we're not at level three tomorrow morning (consequently, no driving, which means no work!), I'll be surprised.

I forgot more snow was expected today; I didn't get an early start on my day, so I was reduced to pitifully sitting in my office watching it pile up, getting anxious about leaving. Finally, around 2:45, I couldn't take it anymore. I took two hours of vacation and rolled home early. Good thing too, because the roads were AWFUL. Believe it or not, still no snow emergency until about half hour after I got home, and then it was a level one. It's supposed to snow all night, so it's highly possible that we'll be at a level two tomorrow. Probably won't get a snow day though, but you can bet your boots I've got my fingers crossed. :-D

Hooray for the Olympics! I love the winter games. ::is repetitive::

John Mayer, you exquisite doofus, you make me sad. Still, there are ROFLs a-plenty from hilarious headlines like the following: John Mayer['s] Racist Penis Isn't Interested in Black Women!

Before I even heard about this, my psychic iPod reminded me this afternoon how much I enjoy Mr. Mayer's music, playing - fittingly, as it turns out - the acoustic version of My Stupid Mouth (hahahaha!) from Room for Squares. I made a mental note to see if he's released anything recently that I might want to pick up. Well!

Dear John,

From here on out I'll be purchasing your CDs on a used or secondhand basis. No more dollars for you! How can you write music that I enjoy and be such a juvenile schoolboy when it comes to women? I'm talking about the dish on Jessica Simpson and Jennifer Aniston as well, my friend. Dude! Man up and grow up.

[insert sad face here]

Fox

What the hell led to that Playboy question in the first place? What's he done that would lead to a question about a 'hood pass and whether black women are throwing themselves at him? I'm so confused.

So, the big snow is pretty much over. :-( The snow's still around, it's still pretty, but since 10:00 or so this morning, we've stopped getting new stuff. Waaaaah! Truly, I love to watch the snow falling. So unless something completely unexpected happens, I believe that Columbus' own version of Snowpocalypse has ended. ::cries:: Also, though the snow is kind of deep, had this been a weekday, I don't think I'd have gotten a snow day out of it. The outlying counties all had level one and two snow emergencies, but nothing for us.

Le sigh.

Comments to catch up on, posts to consider...TONS of fannish things to do, but I find myself doing none of these things. I need to take advantage of the feline-free state of my laptop to open my text editor and do some text editing, dammit. Onward!

edited to add: It sounds like someone's stuck in the alley. Woohoo! Any sign of on-going snow panic fills me with glee. I am sick and twisted when it comes to snow, I know this, so stop judging me.

Hubs went out earlier and proclaimed that the our new vehicle has front wheel drive and is light for its size, and possibly needs chains on the tires. That's a little less 'woohoo'. Aaaand it sounds like the stuck guy might have been spinning his wheels a little too forcefully and hit something. Now I feel bad. :-( Wow, he's *really* majorly stuck. Sounds like it's about to turn into one of those videos you see on the news, where the car suddenly breaks free of the snow and plows into someone's house or garage. Like, with my luck, MY garage, the one housing my lovely new Honda CR-V. ::is worried::

edited to add: Hooray! Turns out the the stuck guy was really a pickup truck with a snowplow blade on the front, smoothing out the alley. Woohoo again! I am now guilt free, thank you very much.

ROFL! Cutting so as not to spoil for those who haven't yet seen it... ( America's Hip-Hop Hoedown )

This has been driving me crazy for the last few days...

Does anyone remember a JuC story called "One Hundred Days"? I *know* who wrote it but for some reason, the name won't come to me. I can practically see it, and I know I'm going to be mega-embarrassed when the author comments on my LJ and says, "That was me, you idiot!"

The Plot So Far: Justin breaks up with Britney and goes to live with JC and JC is sweet and understanding and doesn't say anything until Justin is ready and if my crack-addled brain remembers correctly, Justin ends up staying with JC for...wait for it...a hundred days! Actually, I believe that JC's birthday falls on the hundredth day. Ringing any bells?

I loved that story with the fury of a thousand burning suns, and I want to read it again. I MUST! So, help a sister out, yes?

::big anime eyes of doofishness::

JuC!!!

Happy birthday to the younger half of my popslash OTP, La Timberlake! Having no new Justin-centric fic to mark the occasion, I offer instead The Illustrated, Annotated Justin from the Stop the Presses archive. Various pictures of Justin accompanied by snippets of JuC fic from various authors.

So he's 29 now? Holy bejeebus.

JC!