Unreserved

Happy belated turkey day, to my loyal readers! (both of them)
I've had a most lovely week, as I've been off work since last Monday (using up that last little dribble of vacation). Mostly I used the time to "decompress" from all the stress this fall has been piling on - DH and I declared black Friday to be a do-nothing day. The rest of the time has been used to catch up on random household projects and napping. We have a clean dog, and a clean fish tank. On the one hand I am grateful for having time for a nap here and there (as the parasite is sapping me of all energy), but I feel guity for wasting so much free time that could be spent cleaning, finishing woodworking, quilting, etc. I've got this long mental to-do list that keeps running in my head on constant loop, along with a little clock in the corner of my mind that keeps a running tally of
a) time left until the final exam for class and
b) time left until the evil parasite is due.
The evil parasite, for his/her part, has relented slightly in his/her assults on my internal organs. I believe this reflects not so much a change of heart as it does a lack of room for a sufficient back swing.
Tomorrow I get to enjoy being the first in my class to present my chosen paper (yes, that's sarcasm) and complete my last working Monday before going on short-term disability leave. (can't call it "maternity" leave as that discriminates against men, them not having uteruses (uteri?) and all) I've already had the obligatory disturbing dream regarding the presentation - somehow all my overhead slides reformatted themselves while I wasn't looking and no longer made any sense. Thanks to the joy of the laptop, I'm going to pull up my slides and inflict them on my spouse for practice. I predict a 75% chance of pumpkin pie to follow, and most likely falling asleep on the couch. Oh, the exciting life I lead! Be still my beating heart!

As an appology for a boring post, I leave you with a picture of the movie star we had the pleasure of dining with last Thursday:

PermalinkComments

Happy Tuesday, all! Happy for me, because I am not at work. Am posting quickly here because I had the computer on anyway to print out a birth plan for baby #2. Mostly, the birth plan says, "like last time." If I thought it would change anything, I'd also add, "but faster!" Also, I have time to post because all other members of my household, both two and four-legged, are napping.
36 week visit with the midwife is this afternoon, and while I'm at it I plan on clearing a whole host of completely random errands off my list.

Am trying to finish quilt for Peanut's move to the big bed, but keep miscalculating fabric. Grr.
I did manage to make her the world's cutest hat! Pictures forthcoming. Am working on matching mittens. Just added finishing touches, did a final wash, and a final block on the Christmas project, so if I somehow don't make it Christmas Eve, Mom, your present is finished! Finished one of the evil clog socks, am on the toe of the 2nd. Still to do: finish baby#2's coming home outfit. Now that the exam is out of the way, and I only have a week of work left, let the nesting begin! In addition to all my domestic projects I'm wrapping up, the house is due for a serious scrub-down. There are unisex baby clothes and cradle bedding to wash, and there will be cookies to bake. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to the next four weeks. (let's just not talk about that whole final exam the week before the baby is due, okay?)

PermalinkComments

Hey! I live! Sort of. I relenquished doing anything enjoyable whatsoever for weeks in favor of studying like a fiend for the exam I took today. Nonetheless am not feeling happy about my performance. Now that I've got that out of my system, let's change the subject, shall we?

I am writing this post from our household's "new" laptop. Oh, the joys of having computer people in the family! How we gladly accept castoffs and scrounged things! I've made the kind offer to help them out of any chemical synthesis issues they may encounter in return, but somehow don't think they'll take me up on it. Their loss.

I hasten to add that even free computers are not without their headaches. The computer itself is fine. It's the existing antiquated system and lack of hardware that stood in my way. To wit:
We've had a wireless router sitting unopened in its box for over a year. There was no reason to install it, as there was only one desktop computer in the household.
In the course of my studies, I was having trouble printing out some PDF files (Turns out the problem was ink cartridge related instead, but you can't blame me for assuming it was the pesky PDFs. We hates nasty pdfses.). I got the brilliant idea to transfer the files to the laptop for greater portability.
Right. Just plug this wireless router into....um...nothing. The desktop was ancient enough to not have an ethernet port, nor a wireless connectivity device.
Plan B! I'll just transfer the files onto floppy disks....and figure out how to get the floppy drive in the laptop.
Have I mentioned I'm not one of the computer people in the family? Couldn't get the other drive out to put the floppy in. No problem - we have a cd burner. I'll just burn these pdf files onto a cd and transfer them that way.
Only that's not really possible with said pdfs. They stubbornly refused to allow me to save them as anything but an e-mail attachment. Fine! I've got Outlook! Will burn the E-MAIL files to the cd, then transfer to the laptop. Happy files all burned nice and cozy on their disk. Pop cd into laptop. Open file.
What?! "Outlook has removed the following potentially harmful attachments from this e-mail: thefileyousodesperatelyneed.pdf"
Grumble. A quick websearch (on the desktop computer) revealed that this is a FEATURE! A security FEATURE! Thank you, Microsoft! Quick googling also instructed how to modify the registry to get around the feature. The registry edit didn't work. But I could download a handy fix! If only the laptop was on the internet! Which it wasn't! Which was the source of most of the misery in the first place!

Ended up using a much simpler file transfer device: paper and pencil. And swearing. Much mental swearing.

Here I am today, exhausted from pulling a late night last night (see exam, above), posting away because I'm tickled that I actually got the ethernet card installed, hooked up the wireless router, and a mere four hours (and one chat session with a linksys tech person who tried, but failed, to be helpful) later have everything communicating as it should be. I rock. (Steve - don't laugh at your sister in her ineptitude, and don't ask what security settings she's using just yet. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.)

And since I'm rambling and writing half a dissertation on my pointless computing adventures, I will be more random and change the subject.
Knitting progress: One sock finished (okay, I have to bind off, but I want to finish the 2nd sock first to make sure they come out the same because I was getting awfully close on yarn at the end of sock #1).
Household update: Never did mention that the porch got rebuilt (for the most part - piddly finishing things yet to do, but no one will fall through it now). Must post pictures, am very happy with added curb appeal.
Baby: This baby is MEAN. Mean, evil, naughty baby! Bad baby! The outside of my insides HURTS. Baby delights in torturing me, and appears to be attempting to exit by climbing out the top of my rib cage. If internal activity is any indication of external personality, we're in for it. Seriously - people think kicking babies in tummies are so cute! Yeah? Have someone prod your delicate innards in the same spot as hard as they can for three months and tell me how cute it is. The good news is the rash cleared up, so I don't think it was PUPPs. Just routine hives. 5 weeks (give or take) until eviction day!

PermalinkComments