In which I am an idiot

I got a few calls when I was at work tonight from neighbors who were concerned about my burglar alarm going off. I assured them I was fine, and then I told them it couldn't be my burglar alarm because it's disconnected.

Anyway, I arrived home to find the carbon monoxide detector going off and urgently flashing "GAS." (Unplugs carbon monoxide detector and slowly backs out door.) Turns out I left one of the burners on the stove on for, oh, about 11 hours. Sadly, this is not the first time I have done this. I had a similar episode at my place in Portland a few years back.

After throwing open the windows and turning on a fan full blast, I am now left with this problem: Having watched far too much TV, I am hesitant to turn on any lights, the TV, etc. (Though apparently I was OK with firing up the laptop. Eh.) Also, I am a tad reluctant to go to sleep, lest someone discover me pink and bloated a few days down the road.

Exciting way to kick off the ol' birthday, anyhow.

A Smart decision?

Some weeks back, when I was searching for a restaurant hidden away in the recesses of a suburban office park (I never did find it), I happened across the local Smart dealership.

The Smart cars were parked in a row in a lot slightly below the dealership's main lot, which held a fleet of gleaming Mercedes sedans and SUVs. I'm not sure if the juxtaposition was intentional, and if it was, were they going for: 1. Look how cute and sensible theses Smart cars look next to these luxury behemoths. 2. OK, here's your tiny cars, cityfolk, but check out how we suburbanites roll in our Mercedes.

Anyhow, if I didn't need to schlep out of D.C. and into office park hell every day for work -- and if I hadn't just gotten a new (used) car in February -- I'd probably consider a Smart car. I'm also not sure I'd take my chances on the Beltway or any other Interstate, although the car apparently did quite well in crash tests.

In Smart bandwagon news, our mayor just got one.

And even those jaded New Yorkers are impressed.

Odd definition of sports

If you run a news Web site, you have to let automation take care of some things. But it also means stuff like this happens:

Technological setbacks

For some reason, there was a lot of phone-slamming at the office today.

"Must be the end of the week," one of my co-workers commented.

And then I realized that for most people, the office is really the only place left where you can slam your phone.

I mean, most people have cordless phones at home, and no matter how hard you mash that on/off button, it's not going to beep any louder at you.

Same thing with cell phones. And even if you have the clamshell variety, they only give a moderate snap when you close them.

Phone-slamming: another victim of progress.

At 11:15 a.m. ...

I'll admit I was making fun of the local media outlets the other day for their breathless reporting on this heat wave. (Like it's never been hot and humid in D.C. before.)

But we could use a break after last week's fun storms, which featured the heaviest rain I've ever seen. And I was lucky enough to be out driving in it.