My roommate cannot get over the size of my mutant death squash. I need to figure out what would make a good scale picture.

Does anyone have recipes for excellent salsa? I've got loads of tomatoes and hot peppers and sweet peppers and onions.

Take it back, I've got one leak in the basement. Oddly, in a place that has never leaked before and none of the old known leaks are leaking. Not going to fuss about it. Especially since I apparently bought the wrong extension cord for the shopvac, and all my current extension cords are powering the ac, and I'm leaving it that way tonight.

I talked to my Mom outside of Philly a few hours ago, and she says the wind is howling pretty good. Her "independent living community" (don't call it a retirement home, please) has emergency generators at the ready, and have assured her that there will be power for her supplementary oxygen machine. She even has a go-bag packed (with medication et cetera) if they have to move the residents, or go to a tornado-safe shelter.

The worst thing I'm worried about is my basement flooding, though we have a sump pump now. Though if the power goes out... ah well. Only so much you can do, and everything within a foot of the floor is in water-tight containers.

I think we're losing bits off the grid. Power is doing that weird thing accompanied by flashes, indicative of the grid trying to compensate.

Does anyone have recipes for excellent salsa?

I really should read here before DW...

My mom, who lives in southern NJ about 45 minutes east of Philly, was telling me that the wind and rain were pretty bad. She's had some flickering lights, but nothing more. Her dog, however, refuses to go outside in that rain, so she's thinking about putting one of those puppy pads in the garage so she can go out there where it's dry, but still technically outside.

Whoa, that's eerie. It just got totally quiet outside after raining hard for the past, I'm going to say ten hours. Spooky. I should take the window of silence to go to bed.

Frickin, frackin insomnia fairy. Go the heck away, would ya?

Light rain and wind here in the Boston area -- sounds like we'll see the real action by noon. Slow-moving hurricanes do as much damage as faster-moving higher rated ones, because they pound and pound on you!

Fuck. The nurses here think I'm double-dipping and going to another hospital during the week. The nurse who said so is hard to read, so I don't know if she believes the truth now. But two others say they see me at Cedars.

This is upsetting.