S dnem rozhdenija, tovarisch

Those crypto-fascists at the site I work decided to shut down the heat plant last night, or so it seemed.

Anybody who knows me knows that I'm pretty resistant to cold, and I don't have to be exercising to generate sufficient heat to stay warm, even when it's frosty out.

But normally I'm rather warm, almost uncomfortably so, in the uniform I wear, mostly because I have to wear a t-shirt underneath the white uniform shirt, as the wardobe lady threatened dire consequences if there was any yellowing from sweat on her nice uniforms. :P

I also have to wear a bright yellow jacket over that, but I've unzipped the lining and it's rather thin without that.

Last night I had to put the lining back in, and try to keep moving. I guess with the heat off (and it was an unusually chilly night anyway) the building shed enough heat and retained enough of the night's chill that it was an uncomfortable time. The bike patrol guys that usually hang out in my foyer remarked on it too - they were freezing various anatomical necessities off. The nine days of Christmas that the heat will be off will be fun, I see. :P

My birthday feast tonight - I got some Tostitos tortilla chips and some salsa and ate that. Also some baby carrots and peppercorn ranch salad dressing as dip. Gord left the country before he could experience these chips with the lime juice on them, but I bet he would have dug 'em.

Gord, I might add, is the guy that back in the day had never really had spicy food. His mom is a good cook, but her stuff just doesn't bite you and make you wrestle with it as it slides down your throat.

Anyway, he'd come over sometimes and get to have some curried chicken, or other tasty treats. And that's where he encountered the joy that is hot salsa and chips. He'd only had salsa that I would consider to be tomato sauce previously.

Anyway, I still remember how he was. He took a chip and some of the apparently benign salsa and ate it. Of course, on your first chip salsa has that lovely delay that rapidly dwindles with additional tastes.

He managed another taste or two, and his face turned red. I still remember the strangled voice calling to me up in the kitchen: "Hey, got anything to drink up there?"

Unwilling to wait, I believe he drank directly from the faucet in the sink. :P I got him some milk, as that helps with the burn, and it eventually calmed down the fire in his mouth.

And guess what? He loved it! And, that greedy pig, he pioneered research into the "if you eat another chip really fast, the new salsa will counter the burn from the previous bite and buy you an additional second".

In reality, this translated into him eating all of it and there was nothing left for me. Then he'd drink copious quantities of whatever fire suppressant was handy. Good times. :)

For happy birthday wishes, I've done pretty good this year. The folks called of course, and I got an email from some relatives back in Ontario, and that's about it. One of the sites I admin I visited when I got home from work this morning had a couple of people who offered birthday wishes, but mostly because one of them had her birthday four days previously and so mine is easy to remember for her, damnit. :P

I was suprised that I didn't get a few more, from three particular people. Either they've read my blog more religiously than I thought they would, or my years of effort has finally worked. Either way... weird. :P

I got less than three hours of sleep again today, and I woke up after having a dream in which I was visiting Russia and on the news I saw that the US had nuked Canada. Ridiculous, sure. But still irritating. Where did my harem dreams all go? :(