Now that I have unpacked my computer and found the cable for my camera…

I often wonder why I have cats. Here is one reason.
(more…)

From the BBC:

Elephants can recognise their own reflection, showing self-awareness

I, of course, have known all along that elephants are smart animals.

Otherwise, how would the birthday elephant have found our house when we moved?

11 Days till my Grandmother moves in!

I hate daylight savings times.

There’s no call for me to be waking up at 5:30 in the morning. 6:10 is bad enough.

I am now, officially, freaking the hell out.

We just got the official date that Grandmom will be here, and I am completely worried that we won’t be done in time.

Plus, I’m tired of living in a house that’s completely torn up.

But mostly I’m just completely tired. Maybe I should just go to bed. As they say, the morning is always wiser than the evening.

Thing I really don’t like: Cutting drywall with a utility knife. If I never have to do this again it will be too soon.

Too bad we still have two more sheets to put up.

Cutting drywall with a jig saw? Much easier.

Thing that I really love: Leather gardening gloves. These are the single most useful object I’ve used throughout this project. The leather is thin enough that I can hold screws when wiring sockets and switches, but thick enough to provide protection from general cuts and scrapes and blisters.

I won’t fuss at all when I have to buy a new pair in the spring because these were definitely money well spent.

Six word stories written for Wired.

I am particularly fond of these:

“I couldn’t believe she’d shoot me.”
– Howard Chaykin

Dinosaurs return. Want their oil back.
– David Brin

I’m dead. I’ve missed you. Kiss … ?
– Neil Gaiman

(via Smart Bitches who Love Trashy Books)

This whole project is making me crazy(er).

I keep going back and forth between, “We’re doing great! We should be done in no time!” and “What on earth was I thinking? We’ll never get this finished in time! Wah!”

But we are making progress. And I have to say I’ve learned a lot more than I ever expected about building stuff.

But I’m still staying away from most of the power tools. Circular saws, miter boxes, jig saws–they all say one thing to me: “Come here! Lose an appendage!”

I’ll just leave those to Michael, and stick with running in to things and smacking myself with a hammer.

We had SNOW!

It was just flurries, and it only lasted for a little bit, but STILL! SNOW! YAY!

About two years ago, after I had a so-so bone density test, Michael and I started to use the weight machines at the rec center. We don’t use a lot of the machines, but we try to hit the large muscle groups for the upper body (since my legs already get a fair amount of use with all the walking I do.)

As I said, we did this because I’d like to stave off osteoporosis and getting any shorter than I already am. (We met me cousin’s fiancee yesterday. Like Eric, she’s tall tall tall. I can see that unless Liz stops growing, I will remain the shortest person in the family, save only Stacie.) I didn’t realize there would be other benefits as well.

Yesterday, we put up walls, with all the requisite cutting and carrying and lifting and hammering. For a break, we emptied a mini-van of Grandmom’s belongings, and filled it with the things that Eric is taking for his apartment (queen size bed, book cases, kitchen table). Then we went back to wall building. (Today should involve setting up electrical boxes, putting up drywall, and starting on the built-in bookcases.)

Last night I took an aspirin, figuring that with all the different kinds of work we did, I’d be ridiculously sore today. However, I woke up, and have to say that I feel surprisingly good. I’m a little tired, but I’m chalking that up to the fact that I couldn’t get to sleep last night, after all the caffeine I had yesterday.

All the aches and pains I was expecting? Not here.

So next time I think that I look stupid working with the weight machines, and that it’s not doing anything, since I remain a huge wimp, I’ll consider the fact that my entire body didn’t ache today, and happily continue.

I’m sitting here thinking that the last time my house was this much of a mess, we were moving in.

Then I realize that it’s about to get worse. In addition to the work we’re doing, my cousin is coming today to bring some of Grandmom’s furniture, and take away some of my furniture that will now be his.

I *think* that the volume of furniture leaving is greater than the volumn of furniture arriving, although this will not be so until the queen size mattress and box springs migrate over to my parent’s house. So that’s something. But still, I’m in the “holy cow what on earth were we thinking we’re never going to get all this done before the middle of November” phase of the project. This is actually a long phase that I am hoping will disappear somewhat after this weekend.

Hoping.

But still, I really don’t understand how we have to much stuff that takes up so much space. I mean, how have I ended up with eight feather pillows? I only have one head. (And the feather pillows are all mine–Michael has non-feather pillows.) What made me think that I would need back issues of Scientific American back to 1997?

And of course every time we move a piece of furniture, we find a dozen or so (toy) mice. I am now certain that we have a greater volume of toy mice than we do cats. Thing is, after Kat / Mr Furry / Mr Pissy has dashed out an open door for the umpteenth time in a single day, I can’t decide which would be better to keep.

Remember the hi-bounce ball ad?

Sony made a new commercial. It’s shorter than the hi-bounce ball commercial, but just as gorgeous.

Click around–they have some photographs as well.

And trust me, it’s worth the wait.

“Without that stabilizer panel, this landing’s gonna get real interesting.”
“Define interesting.”
“Oh God, oh God we’re all gonna die?”

Dear Spammers,

DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!

Thank goodness for spam filters.