torrilin

*runs around screaming with glee*

The project has moved forward.

And a local news site put something together that just makes me incredibly happy. "Today is November 9. On this date in 1989 communist-controlled East Germany opens checkpoints in the Berlin Wall allowing its citizens to travel to West Germany. People start demolishing the Berlin Wall."

I lived through it, and I didn't realize what a wonderful day my birthday became :)

Bugger. Just realized I forgot to get flour tortillas for lunches.

I do have a nice spindleful of light grey shetland, so I'm getting close to being ready to do up some two ply. I think with a bit of work today, I'll be all set. I know I can cram more onto both spindles, but I'm not sure how much I can cram on in *plying*. So better to stop when they're just getting to the tricky stage and see how the plying turns out. If I can get the plying ball done today, I'll have two low whorls free so I can spin up a spindleful of moorit and get *that* plying ball ready.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what a full skein looks like. Need to focus on that.

I would like to note for the record that when the documentation references kernel documentation that apparently was last used in the 2.5.x series... this is not a good sign for the documentation being up to date.

When the house white hat asks you why you haven't installed Wireshark to diagnose your internet troubles, I think that counts as a bad sign.

Sock continues being sockish, but longer. I've begun doing calf shaping. I'm hoping to get a pair of over the knee socks outta this cone, so we shall see how long I continue amused. It is very helpful at the bits of Rome where we're busy having a war with someone and I am not much use. Sock is living in the study. I also have a small shawl going in the living room, so perhaps I can stop dragging projects hither and yon?... No, I am not holding my breath either.

I have convinced Rhythmbox that there is so music on this computer, and it should *play* it. Now I need to go to the bank, so there is more money in my account and I can get us a new CD. Unfortunately Rhythmbox wants to EAT MY CPU so it's running at 1.6ghz over 40% of the time. This eats battery. A lot. Need to figure out if there's something else I can use that doesn't eat battery. There's pretty much no earthly reason it should take full CPU to play mp3s when we could multitask and play mp3s back in the days of 200mhz computers.

I made stock out of the leftover roast chicken. Now I need to figure out what soup to make. It is a problem.

I've now got a hard drive install of Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10. Basically, if you've got a netbook you've got two good choices... xubuntu is meant for older or low power machines, has a very clean UI, and has a cute mouse as their mascot. Netbook Remix is meant for machines with tiny screens or touch screens, has a fairly fancy UI, and doesn't have a mascot yet. I like them both.

For 9.04, I had a wubi install of xubuntu. I didn't do a ton of fiddling to set up for a total conversion. I just used it, and would reboot into windows if I wanted to game. I tried a 9.04 Netbook Remix install, but due to a bug in graphics driver that almost all netbooks used, it ended up eating battery. Xubuntu didn't eat batteries, and I liked not having my battery eaten. I got everything I use daily (Flash for RockBand vids, mp3s, wireless internet) working. The big thing the wubi install taught me is how to use powertop for diagnosing what stuff is busily eating my battery.

So moving up to a full install was easy. I knew my hardware was decently supported, and the battery life was pretty good. For 9.10 I'm trying some experiments. I've got a Wine install, so I can fool around with my games and see if there's a way to make them work. I'm not hopeful, because Tiny is pretty marginal for gaming. I'm trying to duplicate Bill's work environment, because that's a big deal to him. Like most programmers, he's got a setup or two he likes, and anything but His Setup makes him very sad. But one of the ones he likes is kdevelop... which is for Linux. I also need to fiddle with the printer, but printer problems make me curse and feel helpless because printers do not have keyboards.

I'm pretty sure there's something odd going on in my video/Flash setup. Not sure what yet, but some YouTube videos that I know are sharp in Windows are blurry under 9.10. Other videos are sharp in both, so I'm not quite sure what's going on.

Still, I've got hope. I may not ever have a machine with Windows 7, and that would be pretty damn awesome.

I am weaving in the ends on my Pi R Square shawl. It's done it's done it's done!

Rome is eating my brain. This is ok, the Rome game we found is a *lot* of fun. The Selucid Empire tried to eat us last night tho, and that was not so fun. We had made some *very* early mistakes that made it way harder than it should have been.

So I plied yarn and tried not to angst, because you don't want a panicky logistics person interrupting the strategy guy while his head is exploding. Eugh. But now I have lots of plied yarn, so I guess it's not all bad.

So, there apparently is a heron hanging about Wingra creek. adsartha, ghent_the_cynic and I saw it on our way to the butcher shop today.

I am pleased :). Herons mean the ecosystem around here is not in as horrific shape as I'd feared.

Herons!

I love goldfishies a lot. The kind that are actual fishies, with gills and tails and that grow up to be huge. I had no idea herons eat goldfishies! Now I see some small point to having a yard, mostly so there can be a pond with goldfishies.

Abby Franquemont has a book coming out, Respect the Spindle. She's a really cool teacher who grew up in the town of Chinchero, in the Peruvian Andes, and learned to spin there. She's taking preorders for the book, ending TODAY! (Oct 22) After today, you have to hunt her down like a wounded wolf to get a signed copy. And she's a cranky bitchy elder-geek, so you do not want her injured. She might bite.

There are over 250 preorders with her. I am sad. I want the book to be so successful she thinks her hand is gonna fall off signing.

Compared to cramps, this is a no-brainer. I *might* have hit as high as a 5 on a pain scale during insertion. It's a big might. After was definitely a four, and it stayed a four for about an hour. My doctor was really kind and apologetic about having to hurt me... but on the whole, 20 intramuscular injections at the same time probably would have hurt worse. I'd definitely be in more pain right now.

The bleeding I've had strongly suggests I do not have a uterine lining. Very light, and clotting started within 2 hours. This is good. Apparently, Mom does have a lining, despite having been in menopause for over 10 years, so I was a trifle worried. No uterine lining means even if I should ovulate, the embryo *can't* implant and would miscarry in an entirely normal way. A lot of women ovulate at weird times when they don't have a uterine lining. If you regularly do Kegel exercises even a little bit, some of the sensations after the procedure will feel familiar. Most of my pain was in my lower back, which is where I normally start to experience menstrual cramps. I also had some bizarre pain under my kneecaps, but no sign of the spreading pain that has always characterized my cramping.

The staff was also really great. They warned me when I made the appointment that it is not unusual to faint afterwards, so I should be sure to eat a good meal beforehand. I did. I was lightheaded after, but it was the normal lightheaded that goes with hot and cold flashes from my body being Very Upset. It was not the bad lightheaded where I am likely to black out. (ironically, the bad kind *feels* eversomuch nicer than the good kind) They also warned me that the procedure is painful, and you should take an anti-inflammatory dose of ibuprofen beforehand. Tylenol was also on the OK list, but they preferred the anti-inflammatory. I did that too. Now I am due for my second dose of ibu. I may choose a 3rd at dinner, or I may not, it will depend on the pain levels. Right now I suspect not.

If you can stay at home the day of insertion, I would. Yes, I *could* work through the pain I've had. But you will feel weird, and your body will be very upset. Feed your body food that it likes, and be nice to it. I did crave soup afterwards, and I made myself some very simple chicken and rice soup. But I don't feel like I'm going off my food, and solid stuff sounds lovely in fact.

Why you too want google scholar to suck less.

Even if it does mean less laughing.

Trash cans are bleaching.

Sink is bleaching.

Mop is bleaching.

Lamb is roasting (coated in sate seasoning).

Endpapers 2.0 are about 1/4 knitted.

I am back to working on my sock.

World of Goo eats my brain.

I need a plan for lunches.

We found a way to make it not suck.

Cook the tilapia in butter. Salt, pepper, garlic and basil are good. Brown edges and fond (browned bits stuck to the pan) are good. When the fish is browned, fish it out and set on a plate. Add flour to the cooking fat, fond and juices mess, and stir til it's properly incorporated and forming a fizzy white roux with that good slightly toasty scent. Add small splashes of white wine until you have a thick sauce, then switch to water. Continue adding water until you have about a milk consistency liquid. Add finely minced feathery tips from a fennel bulb to the sauce, and check the seasoning. Let it simmer til the sauce thickens and the bigger parts of the fennel are cooked through. If you like, you may add the fish back to the sauce so you have something more like a soup.

Other things with a green/anise note to the flavors would be good. Green onion or browned garlic would make a fine garnish. I also had some of the sauce on my arugula to make a salad, which I found yummy. It would have been even better if the arugula had a more pepper kick to it. If you think arugula is too bitter, spinach or other sturdy greens might work well.

So... the creature broke a shoelace this morning. On his really good comfy dress shoes. Ok, no big deal, and they needed a spit and polish run anyway. So I set off to hunt shoelaces, bearing the unbroken one with me. No joy at the nice ladies' who sell me Danskos. No joy at the nice gents' who sell mens dress shoes. No joy at the shoe repair shop on Regent St. I did at least find shoe polish, tho not the nice buffing rags to go with. Nor the brushes that work best with polish.

I did find boxed wine that showed signs of drinkability, so that was something of a win. To counterbalance it, I totally forgot to buy x-crate points. And I forgot to haul along library books to return them.

I also found Seanan McGuire's book, at the feminist bookstore. I'm not exactly sure how urban fantasy is feminist, but...

I need breakfast. I thawed some bean with bacon soup, but I need to actually *eat* it.

I still have my band aid, but my finger was almost back to normal last night. The hole was there, but not painful at all. The shawl is definitely past the halfway mark on the edging. It's also at that fun stage where the needles aren't really supporting the weight, so my wrists aren't liking it. They like DPNs tho, so I am almost done with the ribbing for an Endpaper mitt. No socks today, I will get loomed at. I should probably fish out keys, detergent and the laundry and set it to go.

The Lock and Lock containers are working out well. The round pints make for one serving of soup, curry or other neutronium caloric density stuff. The two square boxes make for nice traditional bentos for a Bill. They freeze. They nuke. They go in the dishwasher. They don't bloody LEAK. That last is exceedingly charming. So far, worth every penny. Having food stored away in single servings is making us a helluva lot more likely to eat leftovers, even if they're frozen. Even if you think bento sounds unbelievably precious, you want these sorts of containers. It is hard to argue with a freezer full of your favorite soups.

Break time, there's a little muscle in between the carpels bones in my hand that is Mildly Annoyed. I have been Loomed Over because I am knitting again and the hole in my finger isn't fixed. But there is a bandage on it, and I've swapped to needles that aren't sharp enough for stabbings... the 4s I'm using for the shawl are pointy, but not stabbity pointy. I've gotten about 1/3-1/2 way around the shawl, and I still have yarn. No need to do a mad dash for plying.

Very, very very stupid.

So, I hate knitting continental. At least I hate it forwards. And I thought I didn't know how to knit backwards. I can *purl* in backwards continental (I thought), but I can't knit.

Except, well, I'm looking at my nice knitted on garter stitch edging on my Pi R Square shawl. I have two inches done. And um, it's not garter stitch. It's stockinette. Which means I was in fact knitting backwards. AND I WAS TOO DUMB TO NOTICE FOR TWO INCHES!!!

At least I'm noticing while it's still easy to rip?