Update bits

Yes, still alive. Bits off the top of my head:

Needed my wheelbarrow yesterday -- I'm trying to excavate a 1' cement block in the ground that might be a sewer outlet, which would be a good thing. The problem was that our wheelbarrow, not needed very often, sits outside in its corner, on its wheel, and as the wheel is tubeless, any deflation over time distorts the shape enough for the whole thing to deflate. Leave it longer, and the rubber stays distorted, and reflating it is impossible because you need to get the rubber into the perfect shape to have any chance of re-inflating it to fit the contours of the hub. Obviously the customer they're aiming for is someone that uses it more often than we do. Anyway, so I sighed and decided the only option was to go get another tire. Went to OSH, wandered around, found some moth traps, more dove...err, rat glue traps, some weed killer, 2 very enthusiastic pumpkin plants (actually 4, as they're planted in 2s), and 2 (4?) melon vines, both becoming somewhat of a tradition for me. Found a little tarragon plant, too. The pumpkin transport was painstaking, as they're about a foot or so long already, and crisp, fleshy stems, easily broken, and so I had to baby them home. Did that, settled things in place to plant tomorrow (today), and sat back down at the computer...at which point I realized that I forgot to get the tire. Ha.

Back to OSH. Investigated the sizes. After much hrmmming, I ended up paying twice as much to get a polyurethane solid tire (guaranteed not to deflate! Duh.) on the premise that with our usage pattern, we'd probably go through another tire or two in the wheelbarrow's lifetime, and although we -have- caught the deflation in time to re-inflate it once, it took much care and two people. Not worth it. Besides, the new tire is bright yellow, and looks very cheery on our blue wheelbarrow. :-)

What else? Oh yeah...I was sad to see that my friends who run the Wild Birds Unlimited in Fremont, the source of all my birdfeeding needs, have gone bankrupt. The next nearest one is near Westgate, which also works. I was very pleased to hear that the franchise there is honoring the seed records that Fremont customers had had (you can buy a bunch of virtual bags when they're having a sale and pick the seed up later a few at a time) which means that I won't lose the money/seed that I'd paid there already. I probably would have kept going to that 'new' store anyway for my seed, but this is definitely a bonus. While I was there I picked up an oriole feeder as an experiment. What, do you ask, do orioles eat? Hummingbird nectar (although that's a bit rich of a mix for them), fruit, and...grape jelly. Maybe they like grapes? Dunno, but that's what it says. I put it out next to the hummingbird feeder out front that's going down so fast that I think there must be a hummingbird flock somewhere with hidden IVs. Or, as I had wondered, they might be having help from a pair of orioles I've seen around. That would be kinda cool. :-) So we'll see. As I said, it's an experiment.

My backyard feeders are still well-attended by the usual mix. I've set up my solar fountain again for the bird bath, and often see sparrows drinking and splashing about, attracted by the moving water. Fun to watch! :-) Especially when you get a new one who isn't sure how deep it is: they step in, flutter a little, and quickly hop out. Ponder it a moment, go in a step more, hop out. Flutter wistfully. Repeat a few more times until they either lose their nerve or realize that it's actually shallower than a sparrow is tall, and splash about happily. :-)

We're still losing the pool water battle; its refusal to balance may be because of the accumulated water hardness. This is related to the sewer outlet hunt. Sigh.

We've been watching a lot of movies and video recordings lately, though sometimes in small pieces because on occasion I have early work meetings (usually due to international attendees -- things like real-time transoceanic calls and jet planes will, I think, always be a wonder to me). We've watched the recent Superman special -- the history of the franchise and character, in preparation for the upcoming movie. 'Steamboy' had good animation with smoothly integrated computer graphics, and took place near now-familiar sights in London, so it was a better watch than I thought. I also bought a few random used DVDs for $8 each last week (Gattaca, Sneakers, the Chronicles of Riddick, and Hitch) which we've been slowly working through.

Also on the horizon: I've researched and bought my (our) first photo printer (+ extra ink, + paper to play with), due to arrive next week. I'm excited. :-) I'm getting kind of tired of randomly-sized almost-looks-like-a-real-photo color printouts which is what I get printing the rare photo on a color laserjet at (shh) work. The next step will be to steal April's camera -- oop, I mean, research what kind of nice camera I'd like to get. ;-) Don't worry, April, I don't even want to borrow it, I just like the *idea* of having a more powerful, significantly (>3x) more zoom-y camera. I still miss my Mavica's 20x. The Mavica still works, but...its storage medium is a 3-1/2" disk drive. Heh.

I'm enjoying spring in my garden -- I've had the first strawberry (your plant's was the 2nd, thank you, April!), the first white and red raspberries, the first potatoes, and I may actually get grapes on my "new" grapevines this year!! :-0 The potatoes were actually obtained while trying to prep the ground to plant some impatiens, ha. It's great, it's like being on an easter egg hunt!! They were even tasty.

Not so fun is that we're having a re-org at work, and my partner in crime and I will temporarily be reporting to a manager in India until they can hire his equivalent in the U.S. This may be a good kind of re-org, although the jury's still out. Odds are it will involve more responsibility for me, along with a few TBH people for me to be responsible for. I tell myself I'm not big on leading, but...then you hockey people would probably laugh at me. Okay, point taken.

Last but not least, I'm sending good thoughts out to Cheddah & Mary B (Viv, you don't need 'em, I swear you're made of rubber), and huzzahs out to the amazingly growing Val and her hard-working parents. I never thought a kid could change so much in such a small amount of time! :-) If any of you more stealthy folks need good thoughts or huzzahs, I've saved some for you and will send them by hummingbird.