Below are the 14 most recent journal entries recorded in hillarysherwood's LiveJournal:

Sunday, January 10th, 2010
12:12 am	Arisia roomshare request Crossposted to the MASSFILC list. Apologies to those of you who are seeing this twice, but I figured it couldn't hurt to post this request here to pick up anyone I've missed. I know I'm posting this a bit close to the con. I missed getting into the main hotel by literally a few hours -- by the time I got back from the Harpers' Escape it was sold out. I was hoping to get into the main hotel through the wait list but it is looking like that's not going to happen. So I would to like to find someone to share a room with in the main hotel. I don't smoke or snore (that anyone has complained). I would like my own bed, but a roll away will do if necessary. If you are interested, please either e-mail me or leave a comment (which will be screened). Thanks in advance. Current Mood: hopeful Current Music: the baseboard heater (Comment on this)
Friday, January 1st, 2010
11:41 pm	Happy New Year! I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year, and new decade too. (Yes, I know that technically the new decade starts next year :) ) May 2010 be a better year than last, and may this new decade be an improvement on the one just past. Current Mood: hopeful Current Music: sports radio coming from my mother's bedroom (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, May 22nd, 2009
12:25 am	Changing Seasons I finally put most of the snow stuff in the trunk yesterday. Not that I've been expecting snow the past couple of months. At one point a few weeks ago the tree pollen on my car was so thick, that I had to brush off the windows with my snow brush in order to see out of them. Being allergic to tree pollen made the job even more fun. (sigh) We turned off the heat for the season on Monday. And I made my first pitcher full of iced tea today. Even if I didn't have a calendar, I would know that Memorial Day and the start of summer are fast approaching. Current Mood: sleepy Current Music: the dishwasher downstairs (Comment on this)
Monday, November 26th, 2007
11:11 pm	Catching up from Thanksgiving I spent most of last week at my brother and sister-in-law's in Aurora, IL, and before that I had a funeral to go to, so the pants are experiencing moderate cash flow problems. :) I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Probably more later. Current Mood: tired (Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 28th, 2007
12:31 am	Back from FKO I got back from FKO yesterday afternoon. Everything went smoothly on the trip back, except for the storms we flew over which produced a lot of turbulence. Between unpacking and running around as Mom's taxi service, I've just gotten online now. FKO was a lot of fun. I was glad to see everyone I saw. nMc was wonderful. I hope I'm able to go again next year. Off to retrieve my laundry and then get some sleep. Current Mood: tired (Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007
6:22 pm	Rudolph, the red-nosed SUV A little humor, for those of us who need it. Seen in the Shop-Rite parking lot, Rochelle Park, NJ: one honking big SUV sporting antlers and a Rudolph red nose attached to the front grill. (The antlers clip onto the doors.) Better be careful where you drive that during hunting season. Current Mood: amused (Comment on this)
Monday, January 1st, 2007
8:34 pm	Wishing you a Warm Happy New Year! Literally. I think it's been in the low 50s most of the day. I just wanted to wish all my friends a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. May you all have/find day jobs that don't drive you crazy. Current Mood: hopeful Current Music: TV from the next room (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006
3:35 pm	Now it's even hotter Yes, we've officially joined the "Century" club. No, that's no relation to the "Mile High" club. ;) It hit 100F here yesterday, and it's officially 100F outside now as I type this. (38C doesn't sound quite as hot, or record-breaking.) Fortunately the central air in our building seems to be coping with the heat without any problems. So, any bets on how high the temperature is going to go today? Current Mood: working Current Music: Heatwave (in my head) (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 1st, 2006
2:37 pm	Did I mention that it's hot? It's definitely hot here. Hot enough that I went for my midday walk around Noon, while the temperatures were still in the double digits. That's an hour and a half to 2 hours earlier than I normally go out. We're expecting triple digit temperatures here. The predicted high for Hackensack, NJ is 102F/39C. The way things are going, we just might make that. It's already 97F/36C and the heat index is 108F/42C. I like warm weather, but this is overkill, even for me. At least I have a window air conditioner to go home to, although it's kind of wimpy. If things get really bad, I'll go to my mother's. She has central air conditioning. I wonder if it's hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk yet? Current Mood: hot Current Music: whirr of my computer fan (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, March 2nd, 2006
4:27 pm	North Jersey Suffers Outbreak of Cosmic Dandruff HACKENSACK, NJ: North Jerseyans awoke to the heartbreak of cosmic dandruff this morning. The outbreak began after dawn, and is expected to continue until later tonight. Crews coated the roads last night with Head and ShouldersTM and SelsunBlueTM, but this has had little effect in ameliorating the outbreak. Complained one crew chief, "It just sticks to everything." An accumulation of 3 to 5 inches of flakes is expected. Crews will be taking sterner measures to the flakes throughout the day. It couldn’t have done this last night?!? Current Mood: cranky Current Music: the hum of the office radiator (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, December 23rd, 2005
4:00 pm	I'm dreaming of a wet Christmas... Well, not really. But that's what we're going to get, a wet Christmas and beginning of Hanukah. At least according to the weather predictions for northern NJ and southeastern PA. At least it's going to be warmer than the past couple of weeks. A dispatch from the war over Christmas. I noticed again last night that the Baptist Church in Hackensack doesn't have "Merry Christmas" on their signboard. They have "Happy Holidays." It's a church, so "Merry Christmas" would not have been inappropriate. So, maybe there's some hope for civility here. I'm going to my sister and brother-in-law's in the exurbs of Philly for the weekend. They're practically in Amish country, out past King of Prussia and Valley Forge. My mother has already left; my brother-in-law came and picked her up around noon. Since I may or may not have access to a computer there, and I won't be back at work until Tuesday, I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Good Solstice, Joyous Yule, and a hearty Bah, Humbug! for those of you who just want it all to go away! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 27th, 2005
12:15 pm	Technology with a dose of irony This weekend I went up to the local Apple Store in Woodcliff Lake to check out iPods and laptops. My home computer is a Performa 6300 that I bought around 1996, and I wanted to actually type on and use some laptops before I decide what to order. Well, guess where they built this Apple Store? In a former apple orchard. It's located in what's now Tice's Corner, a strip mall with delusions of grandeur, on what used to be Tice's Farm. This is really strange for me since, while I was growing up, my mother used to take my siblings and myself up to Tice's Farm around this time of year. She'd usually buy a bushel of apples and peaches, and whatever else looked good, and we would get some cider and a freshly baked donut as a treat. The smell of freshly baked plain cake donuts still brings back those memories. I guess it's the Northeastern version of Proust's madeline. Believe it or not, there are still some working farms left in Bergen County. I would estimate it's about a dozen, or less. This is remarkable considering just how close we are to New York City. When my parents moved to NJ in the late 1960s, much of the northern and western part of Bergen County was still mostly rural, with farms and the like. Even Glen Rock, the town they originally moved to, had just finished putting in sewers at that relatively late date. Development has really taken off here in the last 10 to 15 years. The last horse farm in Paramus was sold to developers 5 or 6 years ago. They put a McMansion development on it. Current Mood: nostalgic (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 7th, 2005
4:44 pm	Road trip entertainment This is probably not original, but I thought I would pass this along for your road trip amusement. This only works on roads with billboards on them, like the Northern portion of the NJ Turnpike. Last weekend Gary and I went to Mark Mandel's housefilk in Philly, which was fun, but I digress. Sunday, on the drive back from staying at my sister's, Gary noticed that if you take the first line of one billboard, and combine it with the first line of the billboard right after it, you sometimes come up with amusing combinations. The combination that stands out in my mind (which Gary pointed out) is: The Reverend Billy Graham | provides the cure for NJ drivers. I know that NJ drivers have a bad reputation, but I don't think that Divine intervention is necessary. NY drivers on the other hand.... :) (The second half of that line is from a car insurance billboard.) They were also advertising a new Fox reality series on the billboards. I think it was called something like "The Interrogator" or "The Prosecutor." The billboard shows a metal chair in a prison-like cell. Anyway, the caption on one of the billboards was "We know you're guilty." Anything that comes after that has some humor potential. Think of it: We know you're guilty | Shop Rite. What are they doing, putting spy cameras in the ice cream freezer? (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 25th, 2005
12:11 pm	Exploding universes? I didn't think I was going to be making entries in this Journal when I registered, but I guess I am. Lately I've been dragged more and more into proofreading aricles and reports here at work. We must be coming up on a Newsletter deadline, because I was given a book review to edit this morning. The review was written by one of our lawyers about a handbook for complying with global privacy laws. One paragraph started as follows: In this exploded political and legal universe... If I weren't returning this to our managing editor, I would have written,"What does the Big Bang have to do with implementing privacy policies? That's the last time I know of a universe exploding." a little Instafilk (tto On the Road Again): I'm proofreading again. Deadline's approaching and I'm proofreading again. Time to get out my red pen, and wade through lawyer's "prose",'cause I'm proofreading again. Yeah, I know, the scansion bites. (sigh) (9 Comments |Comment on this)