What is this about me and updates?

[catsittingstill]

Yet another journal entry that should start with "I'm still alive."

Not because anything Exciting is happening around here (well, plenty of things that I find exciting, but nothing that would make dramatic footage for a movie) but because I let so much time slip by between writing.

So what's up with me? Well, let's see.

You may recall that I was working up to building a canoe. I finished the strongback in early December and was cutting out stations (plywood cross sections) when I went off to Portland for Christmas. The mold is now done and trued, and the canoe is half planked. About half. Having so much time off work really helped with that. Planking is temporarily in abeyance, as the sawhorses I have are so tall that I'm trying to put planks on right under my nose, and it's hard to see what I'm doing with the glue. So I'm building a canoe-lifter. Or arguably a canoe lowerer. I drafted plans for it Sunday (after several major rethinkings of the lever-arm mechanics Friday night), made a materials list, bought the materials, and have made good progress on it. It's going to be majorly sturdy. I'd thought 2X4s were lighter and flimsier than that. One major irritation was the discovery that while 2X4s are actually only 1 1/2 inches thick, as expected, 2 sheets of 3/4 inch plywood do NOT add up to one 2X4. By about 1/8 inch. Damn them. But I think I can make it work with a couple extra washers.

I was expecting to find out in February that I was losing my job in June. Because NIH grant money is really tight this year because so much of it was committed in multi-year grants during the past couple of years, so even though our grant application was really good (I thought) we didn't have much chance. Instead my boss got a great money-saving idea and I found out in February that I was losing my job in March. It was March and not February because I still had three weeks of comp time coming from all the extra hours that I'd worked last year. The department office called yesterday wanting me to return my keys. First I have to find them; I hadn't needed them for a year so I took them off my key ring, because my keys kept eating holes in my pockets. I put them in a safe place; I know I did.

I finshed the socks with the beautiful wool that Callie gave me. Except that my cast off isn't loose and stretchy enough and I can't get the second sock ON. I need to undo the cast off and redo it, but I just haven't gotten to it.

I have figured out how to get my palm pilot to talk to my iBook. I'd really like a map program for it (street maps, mostly) but can't find one that is compatible with my Mac, drat it. Also I put the screen protector that came with it on the screen. Mistake. It makes the character recognition work funny. I found out from Palm how to remove it, but am hoping to find a better screen protector to replace it with first.

My husband got a grant to go to Greece in May. I'm jealous. Though it will mostly be work. I'm still jealous.

Comments

[tnatj.livejournal.com]

Hmm ... will you be able to make it to FKO this year?

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Sure planning to! Looking for rideshare, actually.

[figmo.livejournal.com]

Rand McNally has a StreetFinder program that you can load from a Mac on to a Palm device (guess how I know?).

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

(grin) you've got a Mac too? I seem to recall looking at StreetFinder and thinking it was unsuitable for some reason; do you remember if they have a PC version that's separate from the Mac version? I may have seen the PC one. The other, less wonderful, possibility is that it doesn't work with the Palm TX (the kind I have).

Anyway, thanks for the pointer.