A Professional Dilettante

1) I bought a new computer. At last (the old one is eight years old, still runs XP, and is getting seriously cranky). It's supposed to be here on Wednesday. I paid for it with a gift card that was the result of not knowing my credit card had a rewards program until recently (I've had said credit card for almost twenty years [wry g]). I've still got a lot of points left, too. Haven't figured out what I want to spend them on yet.

2) I found a new park this afternoon, with a really nice walking trail. I need to go back and take my camera.

3) I just bought five bags of compost. So I guess I'll be getting dirty this week. A rite of spring.

Oh. Four things. I'm back in the saddle again, for the first time since about a week before the exhibit opened. 1100+ words today, and almost to the end of Chapter 17. Yay!

Well. That was completely unnecessary.

All of a sudden just now I heard rushing water upstairs. Dashed up there to find two completely fuzzed-up cats and the bathtub faucet running full blast. No, I don't know how they managed it. I'm sure glad they didn't do it while I was in Texas, though, and I suspect the next time I'm gone overnight I'll be shutting the bathroom door.

The exhibit grand opening was this afternoon. I had what appears to have become my usual pre-exhibit nightmare last night, that I was standing in the entrance to the exhibit trying unsuccessfully to keep everyone out because all the panels had fallen off the walls in the night, and every time I tried to put them back up, they kept falling back off [wry g].

Needless to say, this did not happen in real life, and all went well, and my client is already talking about the exhibit she wants me to build next year. For what was supposed to be a one-shot deal, then a three-shot deal, it's starting to show signs of becoming an annual event. Right now that thought makes me want to run screaming. By September I'm sure I'll feel much better about it [wry g].

Oh, and I sent the final invoice off last night, too. Woo-hoo!!!

Spent most of Monday spray-adhering panels to foam core.

Spent most of Tuesday with an exacto knife and a metal ruler, cutting the panels out. Then putting painter's tape on the backs of the panels.

Spent most of today filling exhibit cases and mounting panels on the walls. I swear I'm going to see little white double-sided tape dots in my sleep tonight. Also blue painter's tape. The painter's tape is to a) protect the panels from tearing when they're taken back down, b) protect the walls ditto (double-sided tape is fully capable of ripping holes in drywall if it's taken down after being left up for a year), and c) to give the doublesided tape something with 'tooth' to grip to. Oh, and d) to keep some panels from falling off randomly and other panels from melding with the wall. Even using the exact same tape on the exact same wall surface. You have no idea how frustrating that was when I built my first exhibit for that museum. I've never had that problem anywhere else.

But the exhibit is DONE, DONE, DONE.

And I'm going to go collapse in a corner now. With a sinus headache [sigh] (yes, I was wearing a protective mask while using the spray adhesive).

Oh, if you happen to be in the Tacoma, Washington, area on Saturday, you're more than welcome to the grand opening at 1 pm at the Lakewood History Museum.

From APOD (it's worth the ads to get to this, trust me):

I don't do lightning and thunder any more. Not since I was standing outside of a post office branch in Fort Collins, Colorado, in 1979, when a flash boomed out of nowhere, close enough that I heard the thunder before I actually saw the lightning. You know what they say about your hair standing on end in situations like that? It's true. Trust me.

One of the - many, many, many - things I love about where I live is that if we get lightning once every two or three years, that's an event.

I really didn't appreciate the flash that went off within three alligators of me while I was in the car just now...

I loaded my feeds into the queue at The Old Reader a few days ago. I got an email yesterday saying that I'd reached the top of the queue and that my feeds were now loaded. I clicked on the link and found -- what amounts to the same interface as Google Reader (there may be differences, but so far I haven't found any that matter to me).

The only thing is that because, as they apologized in the email, their servers are overloaded with so many folks moving over from GR, the site moves like molasses in January. If this improves over time, then I, at least, am satisfied. If it doesn't, well, I may have to go somewhere else. For now, though, at least my feeds won't go away when Google Reader does.

I've been looking forward to this ever since the reboot's first movie came out:



Snurched from Heroes and Heartbreakers.

Benedict Cumberbatch is turning out to be one of those "overnight sensations" who's been there working all along, isn't he?

Item the first: My father would have been 92 today. He only made it to 72, unfortunately. I am feeling the need to make spice cake with penuche icing, which was what my mother always made him for his birthday cake (the rest of us always got white cake with white icing, which still seems wrong to me to this day when eaten on a day not a birthday). Unfortunately, I do not have anyone else available today to eat a spice cake with penuche icing, and I need to eat one myself like I need a hole in the head.

Item the second: It's the first day of spring, but unless you're into the subtleties of winter blustery vs. spring blustery in the Pacific Northwest, you'd never know it (there is a difference, really). But Happy Ostara, anyway!

Item the third: After over 400 words this morning I came to the end of Chapter 15, and got about 500 more words into Chapter 16. It was one of those "I'm just taking the dictation" days, where I only wish I could type faster (I already type over 80 wpm, so that's asking a fair amount). My favorite sort of writing day.

And I suppose Item the fourth: Exhibit opens two weeks from this Saturday, and I need to finish creating the big panels today! (the text is written, the pictures are chosen, the graphic design is done -- it's just a matter of plugging everything in now). The photo panels and the timeline panels are done, so the only things left after the big panels are the artifact labels and the acknowledgement panel, and doublecheck that the three or four other panels are really as finished as they should be. Then it's just a matter of physically putting the puzzle all together in the last week. Gods, I can't wait till this is over.

As of July 1st, Google Reader is going away, as I just found out when I logged onto it a few minutes ago.

I don't want to use DW or LJ as my blog aggregator. Anyone have any good suggestions for something else I can use? Preferably web-based and not a software download.

I don't think I can use LiveMail for that, can I? Or that I'd want to even if I could?