• goodbadi

    Meaning

    My electoral relief in spite of my personal vote’s insignificance as only 1/1,191,420 of the Libertarians’ 1% that needed to be 5% in order to bring about any real change didn’t mean my computer problems went away. 


    In fact, the new monitor I ordered, as our old one had fallen into a state of compulsive self destruction, very quickly highlighted the fact that the video card I just installed to free my world of green tint doesn’t support high enough resolution, and isn’t really supported by my version of Vista, either: I’ve sent away for an upgrade to my video card upgrade.


    I’m also awaiting the new hard drive that I ordered as a replacement to one that I had ordered to replace my original; that first replacement, according to a computer lackey relative, seemed to be defective, so I coughed up the $2.80 to mail it back. Thankfully the price on Amazon for a new one had dropped enough so that even with having to pay shipping on the return, I’m getting a new one for, all told, a bit cheaper, by twenty-one cents. 


    And in the process of continuing to fiddle with my current hard drive, I realized that the original drive probably wasn’t very defective after all–I was able to recreate its most notable problem on my own, with just myself and my original drive, which I then had to restore from my backup for about the fourth time, twenty-hour process though it may be.


    In the midst of such noteworthy events, National Geographic sent us a ridiculously tempting offer to subscribe for a year plus freebies for just under $16, our now gravel-covered driveway courtesy of my grandparents makes coming to our house less an economic boon for the local Land Rover dealer and more cushy-cushy, and a furry little friend chose somewhere in our upstairs bathroom wall or ceiling to rest once and for all, perhaps knowing that only in such secluded death could its presence in our house be both noticed and unharassed. 


    Of course meaning in life comes less–if at all–from any such things, and more from moments such as these:


  • goodbadi

    Reader

    She pretty much always has known how to handle a book, and so of course so has her little sister:

    But last weekend she took the whole idea to a new level, to the tune of 70+ pages:

  • goodbadi

    True Transcription

    At work I receive voice messages and texts using Google Voice, which records and transcribes messages. Here’s a transcript I got from N this week, followed by the recording:

    Hey screening time. I’m gonna get through and now Yeah your way spending time in and seeing if you are. When you say hey. 19. For Enron say. Sam, Connie junior. Hey Guys Hello. Hey Miles. Yeah miles an hour. Yeah, Rod. You are Frank, I need to have okay and I was gearing hang on a nice day.

  • goodbadi

    Of Note

    The derecho earlier this summer has left N quite anxious about any breeze or sign of weather or possibility of sign of weather, and our dog has been affected similarly.

    When thunder rumbles, she cowers and even worms her way inside if we open the door, despite our stern admonitions to stay outside. When she came in a couple days ago, I put down a sheet for her to rest on, and the girls quickly outfitted her like the Buddhist monk she’s always been meant to be:

    Last night we had a picnic on the kitchen floor, since everything was in disarray in anticipation of the kitchen move that was slated for after the girls went to bed.

    M and I worked until about one o’clock this morning to get things in pretty good shape. Not quite everything’s done, like trim and such, but at last we’re using our new kitchen. Here’s a silent tour:

  • goodbadi

    4.5

    “I see a cloud that looks like the keys of a piano, lower and higher to the ground.”

    “H and I are possible ears of corn. That means that we’re sweet and precious to our grandpas and grandmas and Grandmommy and Grandaddy.”

  • goodbadi

    A Great Date IKEA Idea

    On a recent Friday, while the four of us were visiting my little big-city brother, he and a friend escorted us to IKEA to scope out kitchen options and eat the trademark lunch they offer for $3.99 (fifteen Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, and lingonberries).

    The following Tuesday found me puttering along in a borrowed truck to a less distant location of the household superstore, where I loaded up a sink, cabinets, a microwave, and more–about 148 items, plus the requisite fifteen Swedish meatballs, which I am still assembling into the promised kitchen of our dreams. 

    As soon as the day after my travels, even though I was still reeling from the PISD (Post-IKEA Stress Disorder) I’d picked up along with our dreams fulfillment, I knew I’d someday go back. There are always more household outfitting needs, after all, and so at the breakfast table I laid out a Great Date IKEA Idea.

    I said, “Let’s save up $500 and go to IKEA and buy–.”

    N’s interjected ending to my sentence was immediate: “Eighteen hundred meat balls.”

    N in her uncle’s Ivy League Statistics PhD-candidate office.  She wasn’t too far off: At $3.99 for a plate of 15, 1,800 meatballs would cost $478.80.