So at Unlockedgroove's thing, The Appliance of Science, I met a guy who works in the medialab and he hooked me up yesterday with some sheets of 3/8" lexan for the fishtank. Not only that, but he let me use the medialab's giant waterjet machining rig which uses a beam of 50,000 psi water to cut through anything. It'll go through 6" of solid steel if you want it to. So 3/8" of lexan was no problem for it.

Anyway it produced these great-looking mac-shaped side pieces and a center piece to be bent and bonded into position. Now all I need is some methylene chloride and an applicator and I'm ready to go!

So that was last night. This morning, I got up arse-early to go to MGH and do my pre-op testing. I was sort of not looking forward to the blood test because of the needle bit, but otherwise i wasn't too worried. It seems that the routine there is to slowly move you from room to room, where each room is smaller and has fewer chairs and better drinks and snacks.

I started in this room that was huge and empty, with a watercooler and no cups. After about ten minutes there, they moved me into a smaller waiting room with a watercooler, cups, and a coffee machine. This room also had friendly attendants who I chatted with about the supposedly inclement weather that hadn't really shown itself yet.

Finally, they took me from that room and made me put on a dress. I had to do the blood pressure thing and a weird thing on my finger to test the O2 content of my blood, and then my weight. Yes, me weight. I underguessed it by 15 pounds. That's probably not a good thing. Does this dress make me look fat?

And then.... duh dum dumm... the blood test. And I have to say, blood testing technologies (thanks in part to space-age polymers) have come a long way recently. They use this thing called a "butterfly needle" now which is tiny and mostly unnoticable. It really was only the momentary prick they said it would be. Left no bruise, no pain, etc. Didn't even gross me out which is really weird. And I didn't have to sing to distract myself, which is really good for them.

So after the blood they move me to waiting room #3 which is really really small, but has two coffee machines and assorted canned drinks plus cookies and crackers. I couldn't wait for room #4, which I assume would have a personal masseur and prime rib and white russians on tap. But alas they didn't move me again. Just had some people talk to me about how I could end up a vegetable from the general anasthesia and it wasn't their fault, etc. And then some sorta good looking reisident had to examine my crotch which was a bit odd... "This may be a bit uncomfortable," she says while basically punching me in the scrotum. "Yes. Yes you're right." (ok it wasn't a punch, it was more of a poke but yow what the hell was that supposed to do??)

Anyway, they send me home and I'm supposed to arrive tomorrow morning bright and early again for fun and exciting surgery. Woo. On the way home I marvel at the complete lack of inclement weather. There's less than an inch of snow on the ground and it's coming down really really lightly.

I get really annoyed with preemptive freaking out concerning the weather. Evan spent all of last night being really anxious and annoyed with the weather which hadn't appeared yet. Boston closed all highschools before a single flake had fallen, and then when it did snow a quarter inch, the govenor declared the area in a state of emergency! I can't believe what I'm seeing.

And looking out the window, there is zero precipitation and about an inch on the ground. And the forecast for the rest of the day calls for rain and freezing rain. Hardly the end-all "biggest storm of the century" that Evan was harping on about last night. Now I just got an email from MIT saying that "the institute is closing due to anticipated severe weather." What the fuck is going on??

So, predictably, I get a call this afternoon from the hospital telling me that they've gone ahead and preemptively canceled all non-emergency surgeries for tomorrow and they can't tell me when they'll reschedule for because they're had to cancel so many.

Why??