Oh god, call the cops? Really? I felt like I was possibly abusing 911 when I called in a brush fire off the highway near Cape Cod. "Uh, yeah, hello? Um, there's, like, a fire on 6A between exits 3 & 4, I don't know if you care...."

I feel dumb asking, but for a noise complaint: 911 or get the number of the local station?

Skipping do-I-even-need-to-type-the-yet-again?-time to post that, according to Allyson "Sunnydale Press" Mar 28, 2007 6:37:24 am PDT today is Noah's and Grace's *second* birthday.

Happy birthday, Noah! Happy birthday, Gracie! With lots of wishes for Kat and all your family, as well.

Happy birthdays, Grace and Noah!

I second ita on the bad news, from the long-distance Israel.

And JulieBird, wow. Such a nerve-wrecking situation to handle. Unless the door's locked, I'd just go inside. If not, leave the place and go hang out/sleep over at friends' house, so I won't cry myself to sleep. ~mas.

Juliebird, there should be a non-emergency number for your local cops.

Anyone have any experience with on-demand water heaters?

I was reading something about these lately, I can't remember where. But the gist was that their high costs for purchase and installation offset any saving made on in energy and water costs, so they aren't necessarily a savings on a regular water tank. However, that might be different in California (that's where you are?) where water is more of a scarce commodity.

Juliebird, there should be a non-emergency number for your local cops.

For us, it's 311.

Juliebird, a brash and brave friend of mine had a wonderful solution for the occasional too-loud and too-late partying at another apartment in his building -- he'd go down to the common area basement and flip their LR circuit breaker.

They never caught on.

I've written about these quite a bit.

1. The electric ones just don't work very well.

2. The gas ones work and do theoretically save on a per therm basis, but the front-end costs are so high that you won't see a payback unless you plan to live in the house at least 10 years, and probably more like 15.

3. The water is heated as it runs through a heating coil. The faster the water is running, the less hot it can get, so simultaneous use of hot water can be a problem.

4. They're still fairly new to most markets, so it's harder to get a quality installer.

5. You theoretically save water by not running as much water waiting for hot water, but since we're in year five of a historic drought, I catch that water in buckets for the yard anyway.

6. Modern insulated Energy-Star-rated tank water heaters are pretty efficient as it is.

7. If you're a paranoid freak like me, you find it comforting to know you have an extra 50 gallons of water in the house.

8. One big plus for the tankless heaters is that they're so small.

Cereal: My friend Jim has a very informative post up at Making Light on Traumatic Brain Injury that could save your life or a loved one's:

[link]

Ginger, I'm looking at furnace replacement, and my system is set up for forced hot water anyway. Is there any point into looking at combined units that will do both?

Two bits of news from Emily-land:

My best friend is moving to San Francisco. Yes, now. Yes, AFTER I LEFT. Total fail.

And I'm about to go for a two-hour meeting to brainstorm (no shit) how we can better use our time to help our students. I think we get no points for the obvious answer. Wish me stormy brains!