Category: To Occupy my Time

Mork has been a fun visitor

As mentioned before, we’ve had a visitor in our house the last few months.  Mork is my co-worker’s cat.  We took care of her while my co-worker went home for the holidays to visit her family.

Mork is very sweet, and quite small. I think Sentinel is twice the size of her, even with his three paws to her four.  

She really likes to sit on laps and Matt enjoyed having her here for that reason.  Being so small, and such a committed lap sitter, she was content to continually reposition herself as he shifted around.

Hopefully, Mork will be able to visit again soon. (Though Antares would be quite happy if she didn’t)

Walter Scott’s Personality Parade not needed due to internet

Walter Scott’s* Personality Parade is the feature on the first page of the weekly Parade Magazine.  Tradition is that I read the Parade Magazine while eating my Sunday breakfast. However, I did not read Personality Parade for years because of sexist answers.**  I’ve recently begun to skim it again and you know what?  There is no reason for it to exist.

Back in the day, if you wondered something, like, say: “Did Theo James appear in a TV show before starring in Divergent?” you would have a few choices.  You could just keep on wondering, waiting for the information to come to you.  You could ask your friend who knows everything about movies/TV.  You could call the library reference line.  You could make a bet with your friend, so she would do all the research.  You could write to a columnist and hope they published your answer.

But now?  We have the internet.  If you and your friend have a bet, you establish the parameters and then get out your phones and use them to find out that Theo James was Mr. Pamuk in Downton Abbey.    Thirty seconds after the bet is made, you know the answers.  So why are we still reading this column?

I know the answer.  It has to do with promotion of upcoming things. The Wikipedia article tells me that even back in the day the questions were “composites”  of actual reader questions.  I assume they are fully made up today.

*Who is Walter Scott, anyway?  Wikipedia tells me, it’s a made-up name.  Lloyd Shearer was the original writer.  Today Edward Klein is the author.
**There was an answer to a question about Hillary Clinton wearing pantsuits that was the final straw.  The questioner wondered if it was appropriate.  The answer was that her legs were kind of heavy, so it was probably better that she wore pantsuits instead of skirt-suits.  (Grrrr.)

Best Photos of 2016

Every December, I search back through my photos and pick ten to print and display for the coming year.  The printed photos live on the photo collage next to my bed.

This year, I trouble finding 10 photos I really liked.  I guess taking good photos is another of the casualties of the changeover to the 40-hour week.  But here are the 10 I found to be good enough.

Here’s the photo that became the Christmas Card.  I love the Fairlift and I love the bright colors in this photo.

Also from the fair, this goat was nicely framed and had a sweet expression.

Another contender from the fair.  (What would I have done if we didn’t attend the fair?).  This monster truck is completely off the ground!

The vacationing couple, or perhaps important photographer and muse.  I mostly printed this for the memory of the endless photo-ing, but I also like how her outfit stands out against the gray Washington coastline.

Another photo from vacation.  This is Lake Crescent and its very blue water.

On the way to a weekend retreat in Centralia.  There’s actually an Instagram version of this photo that is better.  But this was the one I took with my camera.

The colors and the fog made this one a winner.  it’s also a good reminder that my regular walk across the bridge can be magical.

Usually the top spot in my photo collage frame is a concert or performance of some sort.  This was a panel discussion at Wordstock, so not necessarily a performance.  But it was very entertaining, and the selfie from different angles made me laugh.  It’s also a nice showcase of the Old Church.

Early morning contrails and an alley.  This photo didn’t come out quite the way I wanted it to. It’s standing in for the picture in my mind, which is even better.

Another “performance” photo.  This one was snapped a fraction of a second too late.  During Love’s Labour’s Lost this was musical montage backed with “Theme from a Summer Place.”  This couple made me laugh.

Day of Projects

Today was a day to get things done.  And I did!

I hung the first of two bike hangers on the back porch.  This gets my bike out of our laundry/pantry area.  We have plans to also hang Matt’s bike from above.  But the ladder in combination with my height was not tall enough to do that project, so that will have to wait until Matt is home.

This picture shows off what part of the paint job didn’t get done.  This summer, when they repainted our house, they did not paint the surrounds around the doors, or the doors.  I’ve got it on the project list, but I don’t know if it will ever get done because I hate painting.  Also because anything with doors means leaving the doors open until the paint dries. Which is more complicated with the cats.

The new bike changes the view from my desk. 

Now I just have to put the pantry in order.

I took this octopus hanger out of the closet and put it closer to the washer.  I will hang my washcloths from it.

Our kitchen light wasn’t working.  We were down to one working light in the fixture.  Time for a new kitchen light.

This is not the best picture, but here is the new fixture I installed.  I love that it has LED lights, so we don’t have to change them.  We also gained a light with the new fixture.  (Four instead of three.)

In the fashion of all projects, there was a trip to the hardware store.  I enjoyed coming across this truck, with an improvised–yet decorated–tailgate.

The same truck also had this improvised locking system.
It was a good day of projects.

Date: Portland City Walk. But in Vancouver.

For our date, Matt and I did one of the walks in the delightful book Portland City Walks by Laura O. Foster.  We did the walk that is not a Portland walk at all, but a Vancouver walk.  It was a beautiful–if cold and windy–day.

On the way there.  Traffic.

Crossing into Washington.

This building at Historic Fort Vancouver was decorated for the holidays.  It is available for rent for weddings and parties.

Gorgeous house, Fort Vancouver.

That’s Marshall of the Marshall Plan. He spent time at Fort Vancouver.

View of the I-5 bridge.

Matt, standing in downtown Vancouver’s Sculpture Garden.  I had no idea downtown Vancouver had a sculpture garden.

Pretty church, all dressed up for the holiday.

I liked the brickwork patterns used to block off the former windows.

A mural of old time-y downtown Vancouver.

Palm tree!  Sparkly stucco house!  Red trim!  Very exciting!
After this picture, it became dark very rapidly.  It was a good walk.

Z-A games. Eggs & Empires

We’ve made it to “E” in our Z-A quest to play all our games.  This brings us to Eggs and Empires, a game I enjoy because it’s quick to learn, has a strategy, and also isn’t called Exit Empires, like I originally thought when Matt was first talking about it.

In this game, you play cards attempting to capture “good” eggs, and avoiding “bad” eggs.   I killed Matt in this contest, making this one of my few wins in this project.

Progression in phone service: a visual in three parts

First, there was the phone.  Until 2013, I was a landline-only person.  I loved my phone number, so much so that when I moved from downtown, I called the phone company and told them, “I’m moving and I want to keep my phone number.”  Thankfully, rules had relaxed and it came with me when Matt and I moved in together, and then followed us to the Orange Door.

In 2013, I bought my first cell phone*, skipping over all other incarnations and jumping in at the smartphone period.  I was surprised at how much I liked it.  So this was why everyone was always staring at them.  One thing I didn’t like?  My cell phone number.  It started with 971, for one thing.  Who wants that stupid area code?  I didn’t actually want to talk on my cell phone, so I kept the landline, and my awesome phone number.

Just this year, I learned you can keep your landline number and have it ported to your cell phone company.  I would not have to give up my beloved phone number!  It happened that I was due for a new phone, so instead of upgrading and transferring my cell number to my new phone, I instead transferred my landline number to my new phone.  It was easy!**

Now we are not paying the monthly bill for a landline AND I have my favorite phone number.  All is well.

I realize that cool phone numbers are more-or-less moot.  Once the number gets programmed into someone’s phone they never look at it again.  But I know how cool my phone number is. It’s mathematically correct!  So I’m happy.

*Note that this is not cell phone, version 1, it’s cell phone version 2.
**Porting the number was easy, dealing with the fallout from the landline people was not. We lost internet for a few days, which wasn’t fun, and turned out to have not been necessary.