Nature abhors a vacuum

but still needs to borrow one on occasion.

I have a crappy little stick-vac that I use between times I shake out and/or wash my rugs. But borrowing the building's HEPA vac was a rather uncomfortable lesson. I'm surprised I've been able to breathe this last month or so.

Did some heavy-duty cleaning of living room and hallway in preparation for having people over tomorrow to watch The Doctor go to 11. Will tackle the kitchen in the morning.

Cleaning was also a way to keep warm as our boiler went out. Again. I woke later than usual, and no wonder I didn't want to get out of bed - it was down to 63 in here! Investigation showed the boiler was going CLICK CLICK CLICK but never actually firing. Got the building engineer over to come take a look to see if it was something simple (it wasn't) so had to have a weekend emergency call to the heating company. Turns out that a control module failed, and we were lucky in that he was able to replace it with a "universal" model he had in the truck. Got down to 60 in here even with the space heater before things turned around, and now it's nice and toasty again. I took off the timers that would ordinarily shut it off between midnight and 5AM so that we could get things warm again - I will reinstall them tomorrow and everything should be back to normal.

Reminder that tomorrow I start with The Waters of Mars at 2, with The End of Time starting around 3:30. If you haven't already RSVP'd here or on Facebook and you plan on showing up you might want to bring a chair - as of now I only have one more chair than people. I'll have popcorn, hot chocolate, and iced tea - if you want anything else, bring it.

Abandoned artichokes

Quite a few people brought food over for my Dr. Who gathering. Hardly anyone ate any of it. And none of them took it home. As a result, I have abandoned artichokes and garlicky things in my kitchen that could use a home. Please apply.

Many thanks to all who attended, and especially to those who helped me haul the two parts of a china cabinet up three flights of stairs before leaving.

As I am only really familiar with Dr. Who since the Eccleston eps I don't know how I would compare this with other exits - although the fan service "let's say goodbye to everyone we know before we explode" went on a bit too long even for sentimental old me. And seriously - how many "death scenes" can one actor have in an hour? But I blubbed a lot. Not sure how well it will survive repeated viewings, but I liked it. I'll post more coherent commentary after I see it again - mostly because we all sat and talked about Who and Torchwood and Sherlock Holmes and Windycon and costumers and furries and moving and Fright Fest and .......so at this point I've probably forgotten everything I decided about it.

So now the Doctor goes to eleven....