We stayed home and had pizza and Russian teacakes, plus Lynn’s really excellent fruitcake. 😉
In the craziness of it all, and being conservative this year, we bought our Christmas at Lowe’s on Black Friday, after Thanksgiving—and we were really worried that we had lost one of our two gifts (a saw) to pilferage—I mean, we do live on a major street, and it could happen—
But didn’t, as it turned out. Jane remembered that they’d sold out of one item we wanted and they were kind enough to let us have it, to be delivered after the holidays once they had a new shipment. So we bought it—we just didn’t have it in house. Or in the garage.
So no pilferage, just forgetful people. We wrapped the things anyway so we’d have nice things under the tree; and then Jane sneaked a good one in on me: she got me a medicine cabinet. Our bathroom (one) has been a case of stuff all over the countertop and jockeying for the mirror when we’re trying to get ready to go somewhere and get our makeup on—two women, one countertop, one storage. You may imagine. So as soon as we get it up, I get my own cabinet and mirror, Jane gets a matching cabinet: they’re mirrored, and snug up against each other to make one long mirror, and we get the junk off the counter. One thing we’re doing this week is hang those cabinets, which necessitates removing the top row of the splash guard tiles.
I got Jane a doorbell—ours had broken.
And I got her a video game—Skyrim, the follower to Oblivion. It has the worst-ever computer control interface (Oblivion had a good one, and of course they changed it), but the user mods are already starting to roll in, so it’s going to work. And we are taking one week off to rest, hang cabinets, install the doorbell, and play video games.
LOL — a doorbell! So it wasn’t just me “mis-ringing” — it really WAS broken.
See you later today. I hope you didn’t eat all of those Russian Teacakes — Christmas is hardly over!
Sounds very good, and hey, organization and mirrors, and tools and bells, all good.
I have, somehow or other, misplaced something…again. Must, MUST, get my house back in order. (I’m perhaps gaining, but it hardly shows yet.) — So, I reordered the blasted thing (CorelDraw, at a big discount, legit) and hope for it to arrive around New Year’s. If the other one shows up, it lands on my laptop.
This week, I’ll be installing WordPerfect! Looking forward to trying it out — and seeing how it does on HTML export too. The last time I’d used it was back in the old MS-DOS text interface days, whee! But…I can’t stand what’s happened to M$ Office, and OpenOffice, while usable, is a pain for some things or won’t let me at others I need.
Goal for next year: A page layout program, probably InDesign, despite the cost. Sigh.
All in all, an OK Christmas. Kicking around the house today, resting and enjoying. (Some time to write in there also. I’ve promised myself to get in time each day, unless I’m truly dog tired.) Time out today to draw some too, and maybe scan some old drawings (must locate the box).
Dinner yesterday was broiled fish with lemon pepper and a bit of marinara, with roasted Brussels sprouts, and cornbread. — I forgot parsley, or would’ve made stuffing, so that’s on for New Year’s, with (of course) black eyed peas and a vegetable and ham or beef.
Best Wishes for a nice day after Christmas.
Joyeux Noël et meilleurs voeux pour l’année nouvelle!
The people in Redmond did a good job breaking it with the 2007 version. ‘Where the heck is the tab set?’ is one part of my reaction., The other one is that they took all those buttons off the main screen … and managed to make it MORE visually cluttered and harder to use than it was when they started. It’s the flip side of talent and skill. And, of course, they also rearranged things so they aren’t where you’re used to finding them.
InDesign! I use it for a living and it really is the best. Money well spent. There are some great free tutorials on youtube or nicer ones on Lynda.com on subscription to get a person started off. InDesignSecrets.com is a good free website/podcast for it too.
With my gluten issues I managed to have a very lean holiday. I think I lost weight even. I do a weigh in on the 6th so that should be interesting.
The attitude at work has shifted from stuffing faces to complaining about weight gain. It’s like hearing about weather in Florida when you live in Chicago. “Oh, that’s nice.” I feel like I’ve been in an alternate universe from everyone else. I spent all holiday terrified I’d get dust from dinner rolls on me. It appears I am that sensitive. I did discover Patak’s heat and serve Murgh Makhani (butter chicken) and it has become my go-to for actually feeling full for five minutes. And for a time when I can’t absorb nutrients well an easy chunk of calories.
Our contingent of geeks has good reports on Skyrim, so you and Jane will probably enjoy it. A horde of people on Christmas Eve, and another on Christmas Day (the ones who missed Christmas Eve), the house full of good cooking smells, and a lot of Star Trek Online; that was our holiday.
Now then, if you can mount the two with the hinges on the “inside”, then besides having one longer mirror, you could open both to 45 degrees and have double reflections showing the sides of your head/hair reasonably well.
That reminds me, I actually have install disks for WP 8 (16 bit! Win 3.1), WP 10 & WP 11. A friend is selling me his not-to-old Samsung (Win7) for pretty cheap (I need to buy a new keyboard for it, have to use a USB kb), and I could install it. Of course it has M$ Orifice, and I installed LibreOffice just because. I have three web browsers istalled on it (IE, Firefox, and Chrome), why not three word prokkers?
Had my mom, dad, and BFF for xmas dinner this year. It snowed but was warm enough that it melted on the sidewalk, so my dad, who is getting increasingly frail, was able to get from the car into the house OK without risking life and limb any more than usual. I cooked a turkey breast in one of those oven bags(again) and (again) it was moist, succulent, and practically fell off the bone. The store-bought cornbread stuffing was not as good as my mom’s but wasn’t bad, and I didn’t muff the mashed potatoes this year. Managed to pull it off without a hitch even thought I had to work until noon. (working from home means you can nip into the kitchen and put the turkey in the oven and none the wiser!) We shared some good wine, a lot of good memories, and ate entirely too much. Then my BFF I had our usual TV Sunday watching that Peter Pan miniseries thing (Neverland) they had on Syfy, with lap robes and kitties, and more punkin pie.
I went down to my parents’ house, about 6 miles away in town. I was supposed to cook dinner for them, but they called and told me that my younger brother and his family were coming up from Marysville (OH), and were bringing the whole dinner. Off the hook for this year! They brought both boys, as we all had a great conversation. The older nephew is in his last two quarters of Engineering at University of Cincinnati, the younger is in his 3rd year of Engineering at U.C., also. No gift exchange, except Sam and Tamara had made up a calendar of photos of the boys at various ages and various places they’d traveled. There was also a gift card that I didn’t see long enough to know where it was from, and then found out yesterday that the boys had bought a gift certificate for Mom from her beauty shop. All I brought was a lemon meringue pie that I had made the night before – NOT the instant filling, either. But it was a great time, we got to catch up on a lot of things, and Mom and Dad were really happy, and said it had the same feeling as when we were all still at home.
It can be nice to have presents arrive a little late….it stretches the celebrations….which is always fun.
I am going to make Jane’s Russian Teacakes for New Year’s. They sound like the one my mother and her mother used to make…..yum!
We had a pleasant, quiet Christmas. Proge roasted our duck on the grill….very tasty indeed!
Happy New Year to all!
I don’t really know your books but I do now know your Latin The Easy Way pages. I love them. I am old and trying to learn Latin and this really gave me a jump start. But, if you read these comments or if someone will bring it to your attention, where are the lessons past #8? Pray God there are some. I am in withdrawal. Thanks. Walter
I have been so busy with regular stuff I have not gotten to it in years—and there is no reason now that I can’t. Let me see if this next quarter brings a recollection I need to do it, the requisite papers, and my scanner together all at once!
Many thanks for the kind words!
First blush / first brush with WordPerfect X5. Hmm. Wow, I’ll need to get used to the interface and where everything I need is located and what it’s called. But hey, I can type on it. (Hahaha.) I opened a Word document done in OpenOffice. Oh no, conversion issues. Several styles in the stylesheet seem to have bizarre holdovers from OpenOffice’s built-in styles, which oddly seem to have decided to use Chinese-compatible fonts, though including the Western / Latin alphabet. I went in to change a style and discovered, yes, WordPerfect lets you see its tags or codes, good, but hmm, you have to know what some of them mean. I could deduce several right off. No, don’t use that font, use the one I specified. No, don’t set the language for something not English, thanks, it’s English text. Well, except where it’s not English, LOL. “Vadv” I’m taking as “vertical advance”. Pargraph spacing, I’ll need to learn what’s where. When I saw what WP thinks of the options for line and paragraph settings, hmm, rather different, but I’ll figure it out. I’ll give it some time as I change over from OO to WP. Right now, it’s oddly foreign, but some of OO’s things are quite odd too. (Like the assumptions to include non-English options among the base styles, whether German or Chinese, of which, it does both, by default.)
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For New Year’s, there’ll be fresh roasted Brussels Sprouts from an online friend’s recipe. There will also be black eyed peas (for luck) and possibly greens. Probably chicken or turkey instead of ham, for the meat. Stuffing, because I forgot parsley at Christmas. And sweet potato pie that a friend brought over, very good pie, too.
Before then, some turnips, after a discussion at Shejidan made me want turnips. A bit of raw turnip in fresh salad, and cooked for one vegetable.
Sometime before they go bad, I need to use the sweet potatoes I’d bought to use, as you, CJ, had suggested, sliced thin and crisped and used in stir-fry. That sounds really nice. Along with some edamame soybeans and other veggies.
Leeks next week, thanks to the same Shejidan discussion, now that I know how to use them. My English and Scots Gaelic ancestors would be proud.
A quiet day here, which suits me right down to the ground.
Some more time writing and then something science fictional in video tonight.
Oh, by the way, Mike and Mike at Dragon Page Cover to Cover have resumed their podcast after summer break. They are making changes to the show format toward helping writers and wannabe writers, and toward ebooks and publishing, and toward other matters on the business end of the art/craft of writing. They’ve said they will still do interviews with authors, but more about the craft and business of writing, how to write and sell, than book reviews. They feel there are other venues for book reviews. (However, I’d expect they also will give plugs to other authors, which they’ve always done in the past.) — I have mixed feelings on the new format, because I very much liked interviews with authors, such as a certain Ms. Cherryh or Patricia Briggs or others, well known or not well known. The insights and the enthusiasm and the writer’s own take on his or her stories and characters, or on fiction or science, all very fun and edifying. (Including one very famous gentleman who relies more on notes and not much at all on a computer, despite any other technical prowess. That was a surprise.)
Another podcast I like, Star Trek: Excelsior, has finally put out a new episode. The young man in the center seat of the production had good reason: He graduated college with honors and was out getting a real job, and has just now found time to get back to his other love of science fiction.
I may be auditioning for audio roles, Trek fan audio podcasts or other science fiction, in the New Year, now that I think I can find time for such fun stuff again.
Wow, I hope by the time ApolloCon rolls around, I can attend in 2012.
Happy New Year’s!
Re: The medicine cabinet – How nice to find something that is such a perfect solution to a problem. Bravo!!! to Jane for hunting it up!
We have returned from visiting beloved family, so now we get to have Christmas again, at home this time.
Best wishes to all.
readyDaughter played Christmas carols and some Bach on her cello while I cooked the game hens and other trimmings waiting for readySon to arrive from Los Angeles. I guess I must be one of the luckiest people on earth as I have a great spouse, and two great children who continue to amaze me with their gifts, and abilities. I have my health and most of my mobility back, and am getting better every day. Happy holiday to all!
Planes, trains & automobiles….travelling during the Holiday Season is never fun but at least this year the weather cooperated. It was good to spend some time with my father as he is getting more frail as he ages. Had the usual conversations with my mother – as a daughter, I can never do anything right. She now claims I scared my father because I stopped coloring my hair…I think it’s just she can’t handle the fact that I have gray/white hair because it means she’s old. Ah, the joys of family! I really envy those who stay home and relax and recover to start the new year.
I have sworn mighty oaths before Bog that I will not travel extensively near the holidays, just because it is inevitably more stressful than at any other time. Air travel around Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year’s is horrid, even if you are looking forward to your destination. We have go-rounds with MiL, who seems to delight in waiting until the last moment before decreeing we should come visit her or she will come see us, nevermind that at that point all available transport is booked solid, precipitating yet another crisis… Yep, staying home over New Year’s, especially if Christmas was busy, is the ticket.
Second blush or brush with WP X5, I now have a better handle on its basic functions, but not quite up to speed on everything I use daily. Looking good for the most part, just takes getting used to.
Except. Aarrgh, I will have to find how to tweak (or if I can tweak) how it exports HTML. If I can get it to export all (or most) of the stylesheet styling as an actual CSS stylesheet, instead of…individually on every gods-be paragraph, it otherwise looks fairly clean. But styling explicitly every paragraph, ohh nooo. However, it doesn’t appear to add the junk code that M$ Word and OO both love to add. And the HTML output is a necessity for me.
I shall endeavor to persevere….
However, otherwise happy with WP X5 so far. Quirky, odd, but not worse than M$ Word or OO. — And halleluiah, I’ve figured everything out so far without the manual or help functions.