Month: April 2013

We are deeply involved in garden construction right now.  Thank goodness, Mother Nature looks like she’s going to be helping out by giving us another cool weekend to get heavy digging and building done.

I’m also trying to put together boxes of stuff to take away to the thrift store or resale place.  We have entirely too much stuff in our house.  I’m hoping to get rid of a load tomorrow, although I did promise the Woobs we’d stop at a huge yard sale as well.  I’m trying to only get stuff that can be used outside.  I’m not sure what his ideas are.

He really had fun with his new sand and water table. He was so intent, moving everything back and forth between the sides and sections.  Thanks so much grandma and grandpa.

At work, still stuffed up and coughing, but I’m hoping the improved HVAC in the building will help to protect me from the deluge of pollen that I think is exacerbating the cold symptoms.  I also have an antihistamine, so I’m hoping to get through the day.  Woobs wants to do some gardening tonight and get his bean teepee planted.  I’d like to get some work done as well, but we’ll have to see how I feel.  

So, the Woobs took Nat to day care and then came back home to spend my sick day with me.  Since he was here and we had the car, we wound up going out and getting all the stuff (like medicine and groceries) that we had put off over the weekend.

We also stopped at Lowes for dirt and play sand so we could set up Nat’s sand table.  He didn’t like the drill noise during the assembly, but I think he liked the sand, especially as he poured several shovel-fulls of it down his front as he was playing.  I had hoped that the fresh air might have helped to mitigate my cold a bit, but no such luck.  So I’m staying home alone tomorrow and getting more sleep.  

Until you actually turn the darn thing over and LOOK at it.

For example, we bought a nice new, PC compatible digital microfilm scanner for the library which was somewhat fiddly to set up and use, but actually allowed us to scan the microfilm directly to PDF…except everything came out too dark.  So I futzed with the settings and bought a lamp that was not very much help.  And then I had the brilliant idea of getting some kind of small light and installing it under the glass of the scanning platform to provide a light box effect.

After much searching I found exactly what I was looking for, paper thin LED panels that can be shaped and glued to pretty much any surface.

So I go back to the scanner to measure the area I’d need for the panel…and I notice a little square of plastic-y material with a wire coming out of it in EXACTLY the right place to put a light…if one wanted to have such a thing.  So I picked up the entire unit and turned it over.

And there was a little door.   Upon opening the door I found the connectors for the EXISTING LED panel which had most likely been disconnected for shipping (in my defense, nowhere in the instructions does it say that the light is not functional out of the box, you’re just instructed to turn on the light, which is kind of hard to notice if you don’t know what a flat panel LED looks like).

So I plugged the light together and it did exactly what I wanted, illuminated the bit under the camera.  Now if only I had noticed that about 14 months ago…oh well.  I guess you learn something new every day.

So true to form, I finished off the hubbs’s chunky knit scarf/cowl thing last night, just in time for what will probably be the final gasp of “winter” weather for the year, a cool and rainy front that is unlikely to require any serious bundling up.  Oh well, there’s always next year.

Let’s see.  I’m not used to updating anything regularly, but it’s probably good for me to get back in the habit.  The Woobs is suffering through a head cold that has been passed around his office.  He’s tired and snuffly, so we’re attempting to let him get lots of rest.  I think Nat is happy to be back on schedule after a long weekend and big driving trip for Easter.  We did enjoy seeing the ‘rents and little sis and her new hubby, though.  We’ve hidden all the Easter candy away so he doesn’t get too obsessed with it.

We’re hoping for a few nice nights so we can get some more garden prep done.  I’m also determined to get all the stuff from the house that has been marked to go to the Salvation Army actually away to the Salvation Army at some point in the near future.

Work continues.  We’re reducing our collection a bit in anticipation of a move to a new space in June.

It has been pointed out to me that I never post here anymore.  That’s true.  Mostly it’s because Facebook is a bit easier to use and most of the people I’m friends with here are also there.  However, I do not like to leave people hanging, so here’s an update.

We did indeed get a foster child placement.

Here he is.  We call him Nat.  We’re in the process of adopting him, that’s going slowly, but smoothly.  We’re obviously quite busy being parents, taking care of the house and working.  We have cooled off on a lot of our time-consuming hobbies as it is very difficult to be away from home for a whole weekend right now, but we do enjoy day trips and excursions as well as having folks over for play dates and such.  We plan to put in a bit of a garden this year.  We’ll see how that goes.

I will try to keep up here as things develop.