old man winter

This was the scene at my parents' house in northern Virginia this morning.

We had planned to drive there on Friday, but our path through southern West Virginia and southwestern Virginia was supposed to get up to 20 inches of snow. I believe it. So yeah, camping out in Lexington (where we're getting some "wintry mix") until it calms down a bit.

Quite exciting for someone who hasn't seen any real snow in years.

fire in the disco

I took this picture of the Jesusita Fire from the high school near our house at about 7:30 tonight. It sounds like it's gotten a lot worse since then. Constantly hearing aircraft and sirens outside, and the local news is reporting that the fire has jumped Hwy 154 and is rapidly moving west towards Goleta.

Below is a very useful Google map showing the affected areas and evacuation zones. We live near the intersection at Hollister and Turnpike, across the 101 from the fire, so other than the smoky air, we're doing fine.

Or not. I just heard the sheriff say that people living south of the freeway to Patterson should be ready to evacuate because there's a strong possibility that this fire could cross the 101. Hmm...time to panic?


View Jesusita Fire map in a larger map

frozen ants

There always seems to be an influx of ants in the house after it rains, and it's been raining here quite a bit. A couple of weeks ago, I came home from work and noticed that I was walking all over a trail of ants coming in and out of our trash can in the kitchen. Shudder. I bleached the heck out of everything and have tried to make sure that nothing remotely edible is left in the trash, which seemed to work nicely—no ants ever since.

Then yesterday night, I found them in the freezer.

THE FREEZER. WTF?

Not the pantry, which is like unsealed food paradise, but the freezer. There were piles of them in there. It looks like they might've gotten in through somewhere near the door and made it about two inches in before freezing to death. It was disgusting. But we bleached and wiped them away and hoped for the best.

This morning I opened the freezer and lo and behold, another frozen ant graveyard.

So why the freezer expeditions? You'd think that maybe they'd eventually realize, hey, no one is coming out of there. Maybe we shouldn't go in and warn everyone else of the potential danger. Or maybe that's the problem: they're hard-wired to follow each other, so they keep on following each other inside the freezer and by the time they figure out that it's not the best idea, it's too late. No one survives to tell the tale to the rest of the brigade. But whatever—I'm not an entomologist, just someone who wants the crazy ants out of her freezer. Any ideas on how to stop them?

shake shake shake

5.85.4 earthquake rocks L.A. area

Initially I thought the rumbling was the result of coworkers stampeding into the break room for leftover cake. Then my mom sent me a text that said, "Did you feel the earthquake in LA?" Followed shortly by, "Are you hiding under your desk?"

The LAT is reporting that the jolt was felt in San Diego and Las Vegas. Definitely felt it here in Santa Barbara—I'd say it was a mild, rolling rumble that lasted about 10 seconds.

Thinking of songs for an earthquake mix as I type this.

fire it up

Well, it's day four since the Gap Fire started and it shows no signs of letting up. The Santa Barbara Independent reported earlier this evening that the fire has spread to almost 6,000 acres, and orders for mandatory evacuation has expanded to include 1,700 homes. We live across the street from a high school that's serving as an evacuation center, and the parking lot definitely looks more full than it did a couple nights ago.

Besides the power outages we've had every night since then, we've been doing okay. It was pretty scary driving up the 101 on Wednesday night and seeing an amazingly huge stretch of mountains ablaze...and I got kind of worried on Thursday night that our house was going to go up in smoke (probably didn't help that our neighbor was being slightly hysterical and packing up her stuff to leave because she heard this and that, and the power was out so I couldn't connect to any source of real information). The worst thing is the air quality, though...I looked outside last night and the blanket of ash on the rooftops made it look like it had snowed here. We've also had to leave the windows shut to keep the smell of smoke out, so it's been extra warm and stuffy inside our apartment lately. I guess it's good that that's the worst thing we've had to deal with so far, though.

And just like every other notable holiday and/or special event in our lives, we made a mix dedicated to the Gap Fire of 2008:

1. "We Didn't Start the Fire" - Billy Joel
2. "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" - The Arcade Fire
3. "Volcanoes" - Islands
4. "Trimmed and Burning" - Built to Spill
5. "El Scorcho" - Weezer
6. "Keep on Breathing" - Delgados
7. "Strawberryfire" - The Apples in Stereo
8. "Fiery Affair" - Figurines
9. "Cinder and Smoke" - Iron and Wine
10. "Natural Disaster" - Headphones
11. "This Heart's on Fire" - Wolf Parade
12. "Streets of Fire" - The New Pornographers
13. "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes" - Modest Mouse
14. "Smoke" - Ben Folds Five
15. "Promise" - Pedro the Lion
16. "Ashes of American Flags" - Wilco
17. "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" - R.E.M.
18. "Freakin' Out" - Graham Coxon
19. "Waitin' For a Superman" - The Flaming Lips

Let us know if we can burn (heh) you a copy.