Kevin's Watch

Back to work for me too, but I don't get paid! Came home to find that the hall, stairs and landing carpet had been laid so had to get the hoover out and get rid of all the bits. Still, it all looks great now. May take a picture tomorrow - too dark now to see the colours. I need a picture for a large expanse of yellow wall. Not seen anything I like yet.

Feeling terrible. Was assembling Ikea wardrobes, after mostly nailing on back board realised that it was wrong way round (facing out not in). Can't get the nails back out. Started on 2nd wardrobe instead, was nailing on back board when... I noticed it was upside down (large-ish holes at wrong end). Can't get nails back out.

I'm pretty sure I've just ruined a couple hundred pounds of furniture. (Ikea guarantee doesn't cover things like this.)

Does "Can't get nails back out" include trying a good nail puller and making cuts around the nails? Not too esthetically impressive, of course, but if you need it not upside down, that may do. You can fix the looks with dark lacquer for wood or something else later.

Murrin, I'm sure you can fix it like Eff said.

I had a good day today. Tomorrow I need to get a bunch of errands done and some cleaning chores. But at least I plan to sleep in good and late.

Tired. I hate getting up in the dark (although at least we had electricity this morning, a rare occurrence). There are things I need to do and don't want to do them, unfortunately they are things that I could procrastinate for months without repercussion, so little motivation. They are things that need doing, though. Five months here before "furlough" in the US for 6 months (kind of a joke to call it that, as it ends up being more work than actually being in the field).

Sorry to be so Eeyore-ish. Life is good, and hard, and I have no real cause to complain. I suspect there is a medical test I should have; a woman who works for us was asking me where she could get the same test not long ago. I know if my test came out badly, I could swoop off to America and have it all taken care of. If hers came out badly, she would have to go around begging for money for treatment (primarily from us as her family is mostly ne'er-do-wells; she works her butt off but is a single mom barely getting by) and even then treatment here tends toward the sketchy side.

So like I said, I shouldn't complain seeing as although my life is stressful lots of people deal with much more difficult rows to hoe.

Which reminds me of a good laugh I shared with my daughter. The backs of trucks, taxis and motor-rickshaws inevitably sport a motto, like "No King As God", "No Food For Lazy Man", or "Hustler Boy". Fawn of the Dawn spotted one that said "Hozilla". It likely meant something completely different from what we were laughing about, but it was still great.

julie and i have offered my mother our spare room. she hasn't decided what to do yet.

she is living in Virginia, having moved from New Hampshire last year. and has told me she will consider it, as her situation has changed to a great degree.

it is an odd situation for me, owning ahome and offering to take in my mother. as of late i have been feeling like a real adult. an odd thing.

and while telling my mom about the pros of Texas (she did visit a few years back) i realized again how ingrained Julie and I are in our community.

at 44 and i finally see myself as a real adult...

I like your pic, Murrin.

Today was another of those days -- walked out the front door of the apartment building to see the bus pulling up at the bus stop several minutes early. Couldn't get across the parking lot and down the hill in time to catch it. So I ended up half an hour late to work.

It doesn't help that I got into a discussion with Batty about the next books in my series right before I went to bed, and then tossed and turned for at least an hour while my brain refused to stop thinking about it.

Spent the whole morning looking at old photographs, hundreds of them. I am making a collage of 40 years for our anniversary party tomorrow night. There is a whole packet of photos of a trip to Chester Zoo where every photo (taken with a disposable camera) is of something to the right of what C was actually trying to photograph. Consequently a picture of some Ankole cattle shows a few small piles of poo (some of you will get the joke here - I think he did it on purpose!). Thank goodness my father took lots of good photos of us and the children.

null wrote:as of late i have been feeling like a real adult. an odd thing.

Yaaaay!



and a for deer... amid the oddness of living right nearby & caring about someone whose circumstances are so different... *sigh*

null wrote: at 44 and i finally see myself as a real adult...

You're ahead of me. At 50, I'm not sure I'm there yet.

Thanks for the . I realized one day that if we end up in the same boat, I need to see her fate as one with mine.

Man's fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath... --Ecclesiastes

A (very) belated happy New Year to everyone at the Watch.

Hoping that 2013 brings you and your families health and happiness.

All the best from bonnie Scotland.

So I just bought myself a £90 3D Blu-Ray player. Ex-display model, looks like it's maybe discontinued/replaced (no others on sale, no prices when I searched online), but pretty good quality. Has built in wifi so I can use it to watch online videos and maybe even get netflix (it can do it, but I haven't decided yet). It's more than my TV needs (my TV doesn't do 3D), and I don't even own any blu-ray discs yet, but I figure I might as well go for a half-decent one with all the features so I don't need to replace it when I replace my TV. (My previous DVD player was my PS2, bought back when it was new in 2001.)

Of course when I got home I found it didn't come with an HDMI cable. I'd actually meant to ask about that at the counter but forgot.

I was going to buy an Apple TV yesterday for the downstairs after I got home from work. On getting home though, I found that my cable modem seems to be fried. Internet is down at the house. They won't be able to send a repairman until Tuesday. So I guess it's just as we'll that I didn't get the Apple TV first. Now I'm sitting at Starbucks, enduring coffeehouse music, catching up.

seems my mother will be moving here at the end of the month. so i will have to fly up to virginia and ride down to texas with her. two days drive.

good news i will get to cross off mississippi and alabama of states i have been in.

have a couple of weeks to get prepared. have to put some good music on my music thing.

I had an awesome day hanging out with my cousin. I'll post the details in my blog. I will say that the force is strong in my family. I show up to pick him up at his hotel and I'm sporting my Chewbacca coat and black converse and he shows up in the lobby sporting black converse and a storm trooper sweatshirt. It's also interesting that even though we hardly know one another we just have so much in common and were so much in sync that there was never a single awkward moment. We just had a great time.

CJ wrote:I show up to pick him up at his hotel and I'm sporting my Chewbacca coat and black converse and he shows up in the lobby sporting black converse and a storm trooper sweatshirt.

Okay, that is hilarious!

I spent 2 or 3 hours just playing legoes this evening after I got home from about 6 hours of tutoring people for their Finals.
I think I needed that.

Just now, I finally entered some lessons and sent some tutoring e-mails I've long been dreading dealing with.
It then occurred to me that it could have been made possible by my earlier "lego time"!

I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case Linna. Play breaks are great ways of leading into productivity. Of course, sometimes they just lead to more play But good on you for giving yourself well-earned play time and I'm glad you were rewarded with task completion.

Me, I must have been possessed by the spirit of Muffin as I've been building myself a standing work station. Just need to find an adjustable speaker stand so I can set my monitor further back and then it's time for a trial run.

Went out today to quickly get an HDMI cable so I can hook up this new player. Unfortunately the one I came home with turned out to be far too short.

On the way, not far from my place, I noticed police hanging round outside the door to a flat on the main road, and later there were people in those white coveralls and masks, and a TV camera setting up across the street. Was beginning to wonder if someone had died. Did some digging and looks like they found a cannabis farm in the flat.

I like that, Shaun. Very simple and functional. I usually use my desk that way, but it's been a bit less ergonomically correct since Min took over my monitor shelf.

null wrote:seems my mother will be moving here at the end of the month. so i will have to fly up to virginia and ride down to texas with her. two days drive.

<ali's ears perk up> Virginia? Really? Where?