My good winter hat is gone, gone, gone. I dropped it this morning while rushing to catch a train at the Columbia Heights metro station. The hat was warm, soft, and fit me perfectly, so I got off at U Street and got on the next train back to Columbia Heights. This fateful decision caused me to be 20 minutes late to work, but I knew I'd be cold and wet without the hat, and end up spending hours and hours looking fruitlessly for a suitable replacement.

Sadly, even though I retraced my steps and inquired with the station manager and Metro cop, my perfect hat is still MIA. I took it off while rushing down the escalator and thought I stuffed it in my bag, and it must have fallen out while I was running for the train. It could possibly have been mangled by the escalator, but probably slipped down into that narrow gap between the platform edge and the railcar. D'oh! It's going to be so hard to find a plain black knit hat that fits me just as well, is machine-washable, not itchy, folds flat, fits in my pocket, and doesn't have any logos, pom-poms, or other attention-getting flourishes.

I've already started looking, since there are several clothing stores within a block or two of my office. I tried H&M first, and the clerk disdainfully told me "it's no longer winter, we have spring clothes now." I replied, yeah, that's why I shop online, because the stupid brick & mortar stores are always a whole season ahead of reality. I also tried American Apparel, and they did have a nice basic winter hat made of recycled cotton and acrylic fibers, but they only had it in teal. Aargh, I just want a plain black one. Next stop: Macy's, followed by Filene's Basement. In the meantime I have a backup hat, but it makes me look like a Vanilla Ice hip hop artist. Then there's the hat J knit for me, which is beautifully crafted, but way too large. I may have stretched it out with my big head.  

So this is the explanation for the blank screen on channel 50.2, from The Tube's website:  

Dear friend of THE TUBE Music Network, 
We regret to inform you of the fate that has befallen The Tube Music Network. October 1, 2007 The Tube ceased its national broadcast. Viewers, Artists, Music Companies, Investors, Business Partners, TV stations, Cable companies, Advertisers , Friends and our creative partners @Radical Media - your support of The Tube has always been highly valued and appreciated. The collective efforts of this team, fueled by the letters we received from viewers, sustained THE TUBE as it struggled through the financial limitations that ultimately contributed to its incapacitated state.
Thank you for inviting The Tube Music Network into your life.
Sincerely,
The Tube Music Network staff

So, the only broadcast TV channel I really liked, that introduced me to new music, and allowed me to wallow in early 1980s nostalgia is gone. Apparently, the last song they played was Woke Up This Morning, The Sopranos theme song, and then it just went dark. 

Why do Mondays always suck? We had a relatively relaxing weekend, went out to the movies Saturday night, coffee with M on Sunday morning, grilled on the balcony, and so on. But starting at 5:30 AM Monday when M-kitty threw up on the stairs, things went downhill rapidly. It was harder to clean up than usual, and left a visible stain on the carpet, though J tried her best. We really need to get a carpet cleaning service in to give all the carpeted areas a good cleaning.

M-kitty wasn't finished though. She had nasty diarrhea in the litterbox, which I cleaned. It smelled really bad, so I reached up for the baking soda on the top shelf, intending to sprinkle some in the litter. Through a combination of stress and fatigue, I fumbled the box of baking soda which overturned and dumped its contents all over me and the floor. At that point I let loose with a loud series of obscenities that may have been audible well outside the Beltway. This was AFTER I took a shower, of course. On the plus side, the whole area has a fresh smell thanks to the baking soda all over the walls and floor in the vicinity of the litterbox.

Hopelessly behind, I rushed to clean up and get out the door, but I just missed a train and was late for work. Not a good day so far!

Within 24 hours, DC has lost two historic treasures to fire. On Capitol Hill, Eastern Market was gutted by fire last night, and will be closed indefinitely. I'm glad J and I walked by it Sunday, even if we didn't go in the building. I scanned the roofline and facade, noticed much rust and peeling paint, and remarked to J, "It looks pretty shabby, they really need to renovate it from top to bottom." Well, now it will need to be rebuilt, and we can be thankful the sturdy walls and much of the north end have survived. There are pictures of the damage here, from Flickr user Erin M. Over at the Washington Post, Marc Fisher wrote an entry on his blog about the loss to the city. Mayor Fenty has repeatedly stated the market will be "rebuilt 100%" and I'm pretty confident that it will. I just hope the reconstruction proceeds smoothly and isn't marred by inefficiency or neighborhood infighting.

I'm even sadder about the fire at the Georgetown branch of the DC Public Library. Unlike Eastern market, the library housed an irreplaceable collection of rare maps, photographs, documents, clippings, and books related to Georgetown history. They had copies of the Maryland Gazette newspaper from 1775 and 1776, as well as unique Civil War maps. It was one of only 4 "regional" branches, with a larger collection of more scholarly books and periodicals, and the 1935 neo-Georgian building was under exterior renovation at the time. It sounds like the damage is worse than Eastern Market, and I have much less confidence in the timely reconstruction of the Georgetown library by the underfunded and neglected DCPL system. When the time comes I'll certainly get out my checkbook and make a donation, but nothing can replace all the lost, unique historic materials. Though no lives have been lost, it is nonetheless a tragic day for DC.

M-kitty set an all-time personal record for feline havoc this morning, causing me to be late for work, among other things. I noticed some unusual behavior Sunday night and she was acting weird this morning, too. J checked downstairs before taking a shower, and nothing seemed amiss. As soon as J got in the shower, M-kitty threw up in my library/office, making a big mess that I had to clean up, which was quite unpleasant as you can imagine.

After I got that situation under control, J came downstairs in her work clothes, sat down at the table, and M-kitty went into the litter box. This is going to eventually seem funny, but for now it's still blowing my OCD mind... the cat had diarrhea, stepped in it, emerged from the litter box, ran over to J and jumped up in her lap. That's right, she deposited a poopy paw-print on J's nice work pants. Poor J had to change her outfit, then rush off to work. It never ceases to amaze me how much chaos that little 7 pound kitty creates.  

Then again, problems like this and the tax situation don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy, violent world, when compared to the slaughter at Virginia Tech today. All those innocent people, 30 33 dead and a score more wounded? Damn sad.  

The good news is I had another day off from work today, and took advantage of the sunny afternoon to walk around the neighborhood and take some photos (see my Flickr page for the latest). The new 10 megapixel camera is pretty complicated, and I haven't come anywhere near mastering it yet, but it certainly does take good pictures. You can blow them up to a ridiculously large size, and they still look good. Maybe someday I'll upgrade to a full DSLR. I used to have a manual film SLR years ago, with multiple lenses, filters, tripod, flash unit, and other accessories, but gave it to my ex years ago. I actually think a DSLR would be easier for me to adapt to and use, compared to the hybrid digicam I just bought.

The bad news is J and I got a thick, scary envelope from the IRS today. They claim we owe a huge amount in back taxes from 2005! We're fairly certain it's a mistake, and since H&R Block did our taxes, we'll be bringing them the documentation this weekend and hopefully they will take care of it. To cover our bases, we're also writing a letter to the IRS. We're good citizens who pay our taxes, but in this case it appears to be a misunderstanding by the Feds, possibly because the tax preparer left out an important piece of documentation. We're both pretty stressed out about it, and won't rest easy until we hear back from the IRS after they review our case.

On top of that, my computer is on its last legs. I got it in early 2001, it's a Gateway laptop, Pentium 3, running Windows XP. I've kept the virus protection up-to-date, run Spybot periodically, and am obsessive about reformatting, but it's gotten slower and slower lately. The past two days it constantly freezes up, can't get on the internet, won't let me into the control panel to poke around, and won't shut down normally. It lasted 5 years, so it's time I got a new one. I was hoping to hold out until Windows Vista was released, so I won't have to go through the pain of installing that (potential nightmare, that), so I don't know what to do. I have a ton of pictures on my hard drive I haven't backed up, either, though fortunately all my Word docs are on a flash memory chip. Should I contact one of those "Geeks on Call" services, or just do the American thing and throw it away and buy a new one?

I had a rough day, too. When I woke up, I was really groggy, and rubbed my eyes a bit too hard. There must have been some grit in my left eye, because there was sharp pain right on the front of my eyeball, and that woke me right up. I think I scratched my cornea. I tried some eyedrops, which stung badly, and an ice pack. The eye was red and teary all day, still hurts, and my vision in that eye is blurry. Bright light is uncomfortable, but with my extra-dark sunglasses I was able to get all my errands done, so I can go for a bike ride tomorrow.

After J got out of work, we met downtown and had Thai food for dinner. Tomorrow morning, I'm meeting M and E for our customary Sunday brunch, but poor J will be working hard at the Convention Center (it's her association's annual meeting).