My Second Week Begins

So my second week of working from home commences today. I must admit my first week went better than expected. I truly thought it would be either one big computer frustration after another, or it would be me doing anything BUT work (I have horrible self-discipline at times). But Bryan got my computer up and working, and the guys back at the office figured out how to log in to the network – so I have actually been hard at work.

Viktor is an issue, of course. He insists on sleeping on my lap ALL THE TIME – which makes typing difficult. But he’s relatively tolerant, so I can usually type around him. Thankfully Naldo has chosen Bryan's lap as her napping spot, so I don't have to deal with both kittens.

I thought Mother would be another issue – I’m right out in the living room, and she does love to clean/move furniture around. But she’s been keeping herself occupied either in her room or upstairs in the craft room most of the time, so I don’t even see much of her.

Being “locked up inside all day” is an issue for life in general: this whole Social Distancing thing is hard to take at times. Bryan and I have tried to get out for a walk each day at lunch, but now the wind has picked up so we can’t go outside. So instead, I’ve been doing “stairs” as often as I think of it. It’s not much, but at least it gets me moving.

My weekend was spent over in the other living room, watching Harry Potter movies and Making Cards. I will probably end up with like a million cards before this is over… I made roughly 40 of them just this weekend! Just let me know if you need any cards: I can easily send a dozen or so your way.

As mentioned earlier, we’re currently hit with a rather major wind storm. Palmer blows pretty much all the time – it has to do with the geography of the place - we’re in between three major mountain ranges, all with multiple glaciers which create their own weather patterns. Right now, we have gusts up to 75 mph – which is, I believe, hurricane force! Bryan had to brave the winds last night to go out and repair the roof over our new catio. It’s a temporary fix, but I think it will hold until the winds die down enough for him to do a real fix. Sleep is almost impossible with all the howling going on all night. I keep waiting for a tree to fall on us!

How has your week gone?

Social Distancing

It’s our new “normal” I guess.

What does that even mean? It’s an oxymoron, really. How can one be social and yet still be distanced.

Mother is having a hard time with the concept. She understands the concept why people are doing it - and yet, her she still goes out visiting and invites her friends over for coffee. AND THEY COME! How can I keep her safe when she won’t keep herself safe?

For myself, I’ve actually brought my work computer home and have an “office” set up here in the living room. When the architect has work for me to do, he emails the red-lines to me. I can log in to our network remotely to get the drawings I need. Then I just put them back when I’m done and email a new set of PDFs to the architect to check my work. 

Bryan has his office set up back in the bedroom and is busily working away back there. His work is a lot easier to do remotely, so he hasn’t had much of a disruption in the work flow.

This cuts way down on our commute time, that’s for sure! And, coincidentally, it also cuts down on my reading time.

But hey, the cats are ecstatic! Naldo had participated in several work conferences already (Bryan is so happy) while Viktor has staked his claim on my lap permanently.

The Big Project

I’ve got a big project going on right now that is rather fun. It’s multiple steps, each one a project in its own right.

Step one: go through all my paperback books and pick out the bare minimum number to keep, then give the rest away. And while we’re at it, go through all the rest of my books as well, and weed them out too.

Step two: clean off the bookshelf that’s in the storage room upstairs, finding a logical place for all the stuff that was on it to go so that we can find it all later. Then move all the paperbacks up there that I’ve decided to keep.

 Step three: get new blank DVD cases to put all of Bryan’s movies into. Make covers for them all using colored papers from my craft room, writing the titles in such a way that they are readable when placed on a shelf.

Step four: reorganize all our movies into the bookshelves in the hall (that used to house my paperbacks). Place them in a logical order so we can find movies easily.

Step five: reorganize all our cookbooks, expanding into the shelves that used to house some of our movies, and clean up all the loose papers into binders.

Step six: get new blank CD cases to put all of Bryan’s music into. Make covers for them all using colored papers from my craft room, writing the titles in such a way that they are readable when placed on a shelf.

Step seven: move the tower that used to house movies out of the living room and into our bedroom (and reorganize the bedroom to suit the new furniture), then reorganize all our CDs onto the new bigger tower.

Step eight: find a use for the revolving tower that used to house some of our movies. Perhaps in the craft room? Whatever, I just don’t want to get rid of it.

Currently I’m in the middle of Step three, and I’m really liking how it looks so far. I may have to dip in to Step four, however, while I wait for more blank cases to be delivered. And I haven’t figured out how to make covers for the CD cases yet. The spine is really tiny… not sure if I can legibly write that small.

My Brother Is Pretty Cool

I had such a good time last night over at my brother’s house. He’s a pretty amazing guy, I must say.

We started out the evening in the kitchen talking about cooking and recipes, then we moved into the dining room where he got out his microscope and we looked at slides of a green algae called Volvox. Next, he got out several of his favorite books to show us, What If by Randall Munroe being his current favorite. Then we all sat down to our pizza and talked about our Grammatical Pet Peeves (his is “irregardless” and mine is “a whole nuther”)

I also got to meet his guinea pig, Ginger = what a cutie pie! He sounds just like a Tribble!

Ocean Blue Card Set

I wanted to show you all this set of cards I made this weekend. They are for two of the scientists I worked with in Costa Rica, Anna and Tamara.

I originally thought to make Turtle cards, since it was a Sea Turtle based expedition – but I fell in love with this set of papers by Graphic 45, so used it instead. 

It’s a lot of cards to make in just one weekend, and I have to admit I was fairly worn out by the time I finished them, but I am very pleased with how they turned out.

I do make cards on order – so if you want some, just let me know the theme or color you like and I’ll see what I can do.