2/25/10

Razor-edged metal playing cards make excellent box openers.

Ha-hah, Ms. "But Mike, when are you ever going to use those?" I guess now we have an answer, don't we?

Face

The cleaners sent back our clothes today. Some made it in better condition than others.

Obverse

Part deux.

2/25/10

They also gifted us with a good amount of someone else's property, including a half-dozen handbags, an equal number of oogly hoodies, some shirts and a fuzzy pink bathrobe -- and that's just so far. Also, I wonder what of ours wound up in other people's deliveries?

ETA: More stuff we got that ain't ours: Pair of orange hoochie heels, pair of hiking boots, pair of Uggs, bunch of makeup, monthly planner, Mother's day card, banking documents and a copy of someone's passport. And some baby hats.

ETA2: Not baby hats. Our hats, shrunk like whoa. Apparently, restoration cleaning specialists don't know that wool shrinks? And they dried them in a blast furnace?

ETA3: Whole lot of shoes that we've never seen before. Twelve pairs and counting.

(no subject)

More casualties, brave soldiers all:

Gollancz's UK centenary edition of "Complete Tales of Conan"
Arthur Conan Doyle's "Tales of Gerard", 1903
That Between Books anthology, "The Stories in Between"
My authographed first edition of Neverwhere, or at least the cover thereof. I might be able to salvage the book itself. This one hurts especially because it was actually the first autographed book I ever bought (when I was 15 or 16, at an auction to benefit some kind of youth literacy program, at either LepreCon or CopperCon). I paid way too much for it, and have treasured it well over its resale value.
The slipcover from the Meisha Merlin hardcover of grrm's Tuf Voyaging. Fortunately the book itself did OK, minus some discoloration to the jacket along the spine.

ETA: Man, whatever binding glue Lancer, Ballantine, Berkely etc. used for their pulp adventure paperbacks in the 50s-60s did not agree with whatever remediation method the cleanup contractors decided to use on my possessions. It's not like the pages held up well to the smoke or moisture either, but the covers of these things are just coming right off as I unbox them. Goodbe Conan, John Carter, Tarzan and Retief, I guess.

I won't lie; I'm getting a little choked up here. I've got so many memories invested in these volumes.

ETA2: Ace paperbacks from the 70's not doing so hot either. Farewell Fafhrd and Mouser.

ETA3: Apparently Ballentine used a bunch of different glues, as the 1962 paperback of Philip Jose Farmer's "The Alley God" remains in pristine, near-mint condition.

ETA4: OH COME ON NOW. I was around 70% through finishing a complete run of Fantasy and Science Fiction from the '50s and '60s, and as far as I can tell just one survived, April 1959. It's like... it's like fate is taunting me.

ETA5: Someone was careless in handling my deluxe limited edition of the Game of Thrones roleplaying game (the Guardians of Order one, not the Green Ronin). The plastic cover is off and the cover is torn slightly in a couple of places, and there's some corner wear. Obviously, one of the movers/packers/restorers was a fan. =/ Still, it seems to have survived otherwise unscathed, so blah blah blah gift horses, right?

(no subject)

In happier news, all of my de Lints and Lansdales seem to have survived intact. grrm's Dream Songs, too. And my 1871 Complete Works of Tennyson seems to have beaten the odds again. That book is like a cockroach, I swear. It was the sole surviving piece of my Tennyson collection after the flood I had a few years ago when I was still living with kylecassidy.

Most of the Zelazny seems to have made it through relatively unscathed as well, though I can't find Vol. 3 of the recent NESFA Press collections. I'm only about halfway through unpacking and it's probably buried somewhere in the other boxes, but it's bothering me that it wasn't with the other three (I haven't bought 5 or 6 yet). Similarly, I can only find one of the two new Waldrop collections from Old Earth Books. Still, I remain hopeful that the other will turn up soon.

I was also pleased to see that the 1971 Ben Bova-edited "The Many Worlds of Science Fiction" survived relatively intact. That one's a sentimental favorite, as I adore how of the period it is. There's a (fairly uncharacteristic, IMO) story by Anne McCaffrey in there, and Bova introduces McCaffrey as a woman that writes about "the kind of girl who doesn't need Women's Lib because she's obviously talented... and tough". There's also a gem of a first contact story by Keith Laumer in there. It's a pretty standard 60's ray guns and monsters first contact story, until you get to the very end and the big twist is that the heroic human captain was a black man the whole time.

ETA: Oh, look. Footfall survived. That book is like a cockroach too, though in an entirely different way.

2/25/10

HOLY CRAP what the hell did they do with my underwear? Bad enough they didn't return any of my belts or the vast majority of my socks, BUT WHAT DID THEY DO WITH MY BOXER SHORTS???