Oh yeah, and...

My roommate, who's been in Peru for a month, bought a carbon monoxide detector since she was feeling tired and tingly Saturday. She had to take out the batteries, because it won't stop beeping.

My roommate called the fire department. They told her not to call 911 since she already aired out the house so the reading won't be as sexy as before. Let me emphasize that: his best advice is to wait for the levels to rise again so the fire dept. can rate their job satisfaction higher. Perfect, just great.

Here's what the alarm user's guide says:

WARNING: Activation of the CO Alarm indicates the presence of Carbon Monoxide which can kill you. Immediately move to fresh air - outdoors or by an open door/window. Do a head count to check that all persons are accounted for. Do not re-enter the premises nor move away from the open door-window until the emergency services responders have arrived, the premises have been aired out, and your alarm remains in its normal condition ... never ignore the sound of the alarm!

Thank God I'm a fresh-air coveter and often keep my window open. Carbon monoxide builds up in your system, causing you to feel more nauseous, headachey and dizzy as time goes on. It may have been in our house for a month now, ever since we turned on the furnace on that fateful October day.

Maybe it's a good thing I spent the weekend tracking down futile story leads out of the house.

I'm not leaving the house this afternoon, though I threw open my window. I have an essay presentation in two hours and the works cited is going to include my forgetfulness caused by CO inhalation which caused me to forget my binder in the Montreal Metro yesterday (it's plausible isn't it? Makes me feel better). As an aside, I called the Metro lost and found today, and they told me to call back this afternoon to see if anything turns up then.

I'm going to go treat this headache now.