Yesterday, we finished the arbor. Well, no, not actually finished so much as "finished day 2." This involved a lot of measuring and sawing while standing on a ladder (with a broken bottom foot, mind you). The sawing, by David, was successful. The measuring, by me, was less so. Apparently, I am not so good with rulers. Sigh. Day 3, when we lay cross pieces along the top will probably come fairly soon. And then it will finally be time to move the wisteria from the old house to its new home. Given that the wisteria is over twenty-five years old in its current placement, I'm not looking forward to that particular move.

But until all of that happens, David created another time-lapse movie of our Day 2 work, which you can watch below. You know, just to prove that we do, in fact, work. At least on occasion.

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So far I'm none too enthusiastic about the latest offerings by television networks. The strike last season really messed up more than just shortening last season's shows. However, there are two shows, only one of which is brand spankin' new that I've recently discovered. And a third that is in its second season. What surprises me is that they all star men. Sure, there are a number of them out there, but typically the shows I have enjoyed in the past focus on female characters--The Golden Girls, Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars to name just a few. I also realized that these three shows that I've been watching most recently have to do with murder. I'm not entirely certain what this says about either myself or the state of television, but if you want to hear what I have to say about the shows themselves, then read on.

Continue reading "three* men on tv" »

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Just a friendly reminder.

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Like me, you may have been wondering about Adrien's newest mechanical knee. A few weeks ago, I went with Adrien to meet the doctor and look sagely at some mysterious metal parts in an x-ray image. With all the medical drama in the last week I almost forgot to post the picture:

From Geekery

Does anyone else think it looks a bit too much like a hammer and sickle?

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Chunky bits of snow drifted from the sky today--see:

From Picture a day: Boise

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Last Thursday I was prepared to write a post about how we had completed the second day of the ninth week of the running program. This was significant partly because the last time we had progressed so far through the routine was nearly two years ago. In fact, it was this day of the routine that was canceled due to my unexpected stent placement, which lead to extended recovery and continued with several grave reactions to a heart medicine. Of course, we weren't able to get back on track until after we traveled around the world.

What took the wind from the sails of victory last week started with an abdominal pain I had after breakfast Thursday. (In truth, I had had a mild intermittent pain for the previous few weeks.) I spent all Thursday in bed moaning while waves of pain broke over me. By evening the pain localized in my lower right side. (If you're a doctor, or interested in medicine, you can probably guess what happened next.) The pain had not subsided by Friday morning, when I went to a local emergency room. An exam, confirmed with a CT scan, indicated a bad appendix. The surgery was later that day.

Continue reading "stupid little things" »

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Our original plan, all through the year-long RTW trip, was to spend the summer in Boise, helping Mama and Papa "prep" to move, until about September or so, by which time I would have been offered a fabulous job that would probably involve moving to the East Coast for a couple of years, until we could actually get to Africa. The problem with this plan, is that it would involve moving to the East Coast, which neither of us is at all fond of. But whatever, we're willing to suck it up, sometimes.

But then, after spending about four days in Boise, I realized how much I really do like it: there's so little traffic, and people are so nice. Plus, Idaho has everything we love to do in the out of doors. The politics leave a lot to be desired, but really, other than that, Boise is perfect. So we've decided to stay for a couple of years while we figure out a way of getting to Africa without having to spend a few years back East.

Naturally, however, all of this means we need to be seeking employment. Or at least one of us does, anyway. So as all good decision makers do when making important, potentially life-changing decisions, we played rock paper scissors to determine which one of us has to actually get a job. And sadly, I lost. David wouldn't even go for my best-out-of-three ploy! Can you believe it?

So now, whenever we get around to making the old house presentable to sell, I'll be looking for a job. Sigh. But until then, I won't have one, which is just so much better.

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