just a little humor on Thursday

What do I love about this comic? That it's hippie-knowledge crossed with geeky history crossed with a pun like my dad would make.

And then we'd all groan.

From xkcd the best collection of geek-math-love humor that I've ever seen.

Rube

I'm such an intense geek, I adore Rube Goldbergs. We had to make on in fifth grade, and I say "we" but really for the most part, it meant a kid and their parent. I wish we got chances to do creative stuff like that again. I tell you, if I taught AP Physics, this is what I'd have kids do for the month after the exam. I'd say, "the only requirement is you have a regulation golf ball go one meter, put out a candle, set off a mousetrap, be airborne at least once, and end in a paper cup." And just let them have at it. That'd be a cool class.

Bumbo

CBHQ

Craft Room, aka: a Saturday well spent.
Originally uploaded by karijean

I just wanted to post a link to the coolest found space I've ever had. For zero dollars last weekend, I made myself a bitching Crafty Bitch HQ.

Click on the picture to see more.

With summer officially TWO DAYS (!!!!) away, I can. Not. Wait. I already have one new project underway (we'll see how it goes--I may have harvested the lavender too early) and have a binder full of ideas for more.

Sometimes I'm mildly embarassed by how Crafty Bitch I am--it all sounds so like a woman whose username would be ZacksMama231. But then I realize that what I really prefer, what I really love, is to give gifts that I've had my hands on. That I put together thinking, I can't wait to hear what Gail thinks of this. Or, I wish I could see Lee's face when she opens this. As gifts, they're so much better than just another thing.

Added to the fact that to give meaningful gifts to the people I really love, there's not much I can purchase. I've pretty much exhausted the Only in Oregon gift plan--there's only so many times you can give marionberry jam before you're just weird. And for people like my parents--Lord love 'em--they will buy anything they want, need, or momentarily covet. They will buy it better, faster, and more expensive than I can. So short of finding that mythical, mystical gift They Didn't Even Know They Needed And/Or Wanted That Is Still Forty Bucks, I just end up buying them more Stuff.

So I like to make a gift. I give less Stuff that way, and what I do give means more. Plus I get the joy of planning and anticipation. It's win-win-win.

...and so it goes...

In an ass-crap shitty week that started with the dildo-cam doctor's appointment (that included this phrase: "...and that's... well, I don't know what that white spot is. We'll... huh. Need to test that."), proceeded to four nights in a row with five or fewer hours of sleep for various reasons, had a dining room chair finally collapse, just unfortunately while I'm sitting in it, and decide to take a big chunk of my quad with it (hellloooo, tetnus shot!) and ended with some really mean accusations that I was unprepared to field, there's a wee bright spot. A 7 pound, 11 ounce bright spot.

Mateo Andrew, born June 13th at 12:12 a.m. I'm an aunt! And he's a wee peanut with the cutest fingers this side of the... huh. It's actually the other side of the Mississippi. And Atlantic.

But really cute fingers. And nose. And everything else. That's what I'm getting at.

I'm an aunt, 2007! (part 1)

I have a nephew! 3.5 kilos, which teh interweb tells me is 7.7 pounds, so approximately 7 pounds, 11 ounces? ish?

No word on a name yet.

More deets as they come.

View out my back door.

View out my back door.
Originally uploaded by karijean

Some days are better than others.

Yesterday was a very fulfilling day. For once, I was glad it rained ("What do you call two days of rain in Portland?" "The weekend."). We've had a gorgeous June so far (want proof? go to flickr and see my camping pictures!) so I can't begrudge a day of rain. Moreover, I'd promised myself that THIS was the weekend to clean the basement.

And oh, did I.

Other reasons I have to be happy:

It's nine school days till summer.

Nine.

The sun's out today.

Andrew's nearly done with his book. Three chapters left and then I get to see my husband again! At least until his revisions are due.

Did I mention it's nine days til summer? Okay, technically, I suppose, it's like 11 days, but really, weekends don't count. And nine sounds so much smaller.

Nine. 9. neuf. divyet. nueve. 9.

I'm baaaaaaack!

AAAAAhhhhhhhh. Internet connectivity at last.

Our wireless access point had been slowly dying for a while. We'd be connected--then we werent--then we were--then we weren't. That was frustrating.

But not nearly so frustrating as when it'd died altogether.

Which led to lots of conversations that went like this:

"I can stop by Best Buy and pick up a new hub, but which one should I get?"

"Here, I'll go find one for you on the... ARGH!"

or

"Can you write down where we're going?"

"Yeah, I'll just go look it up on... ARGH!"

or

"You haven't uploaded pictures in forEVER!"

"I'll do it right after camping then... ARGH!"

Yeah.

Apparently our household is stupid dependent on magic invisible pictures that fly through the air to appear on our computer screens. And I found exactly which sites are blocked at school (YouTube, updating on blogspot, the comments sections of any blog) and which were not (blogs themselves, THANK GOD! I kept up to date on Go Fug Yourself!) and that I severely missed my RSS feeder.

But it's all better, all reconnected. There's nothing like going to your RSS feeds and seeing, oh look! Melissa's updated! TWELVE TIMES!

So stay tuned for new pictures on Flickr--soon, I swear--and other stories. But it's 11 and I've put off my usual Saturday morning chores to get re-updated on Pink is the New Blog and so now I have to go do some of the crap I've been saying I'd do all along.

Besides, now that I have the internet again, I can listen to NPR while cleaning the basement. So I'd better do it before our WAP dies again.