Hey, Look, More Pictures of Trees!

I went to a Pro/E Technology day today in Wheaton, and it ended at 3pm. Since the weather was so nice (sunny, near but still above freezing) I decided to visit the nearby Morton Arboretum for the first time. I went ahead and joined for the year at the individual membership level. (This also gets me in many other gardens that participate in the American Horticultural Society's Reciprocal Admissions Program.) I had my big camera, warm snow boots, and two hours before the park closed. There is a sculpture exhibit that opens in April, Steelroots by Steve Tobin, but the sculptures were already placed among the Conifer section. Here are some of my favorite photos from the trip:

Papercrafting for Prizes

Did you know it is National Engineer's Week? They celebrate it all week at work. They give us cake, and gifts, and hold competitions with nifty prizes. Today I won a portable hard drive by making the strongest table out of 8 sheets of newspaper. A few years ago I won a laser level by making the strongest tower out of index cards and staples. (I do real engineering, too, where they let me specify aluminum and stainless steel to make parts. But that is all year.) Happy National Engineer's Week!

The Last Inconvenience is Now Convenient

I was as surprised as you were when I turned the corner at the grocery store and discovered from a display set up in the center of the cereal aisle that they now make INSTANT Irish Oatmeal! That means I can have Irish oatmeal whenever I want now, not... never.

I got my introduction to real Irish oatmeal on a horseback riding trip in the Canadian Rockies that I went on with my family a long time ago. I even bought myself a bag of the stuff from King Arthur's Baker's catalog. But then I think I prepared it a grand total of ONCE. It takes a looooong time to prepare, especially for a breakfast food, so I always passed over it in favor of other choices.

Not anymore. I am eating it for dinner right now.

Luxury

Luxury is making beautiful things because I want to, not because I have to.







Top to bottom:
The Irish Eyes motif from The Harmony Guides: Crochet Stitch Motifs: 250 Stitches to Crochet.
The Clover Hat from Crochet in Color: Techniques and Designs for Playing with Color.
Cold Shoulders from Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker.

(Luxury is also new pillows, fresh windshield wiper blades, a good song stuck in my head, and a cat on my lap.)

When Your Grandma Gets Her iPad

please send her over to Ravelry.com. We could use more crocheters to balance out all the knitters who have taken over a little.

Seriously, I didn't bring my laptop on vacation last week, and I got along fine just using my iPod touch for Internet consumption. Ravelry works well on the iPod/iPhone, the only problem at the moment is that it has trouble marking forum posts as "read". That, and the screen was too small - I had to keep zooming in. So, a giant iPod (aka the iPad) would have worked even better.

Will I get one? Ask me again when the 2nd Gen comes out. One problem is I wouldn't be able to carry it constantly like the iPod. First, it doesn't fit in my purse. Second I doubt I could legally bring it into work with me like I can with the iPod. (It is a bit too much like a computer and not enough like a phone or an MP3 player.) I'd lean towards the model with the largest hard drive, but no 3G service. I do like the display specs - it would be wonderful for viewing photos.

Actually, I'd like any high quality, high resolution computer display that had LED back-lighting and good color gamut, interfaced with my laptop, and wasn't gigantic. Unfortunately everything I've seen in that idiom would take up most of the dining room table. Anyone have a suggestion?

Discards

I finally canceled my free Classmates.com membership. They are no longer relevant now that we have facebook, and their most recent privacy policy update was concerning to me.

I also sent in my cancellation notice for my L.A. Fitness gym membership. A new fitness center has opened up at work. It is free, convenient, and I won't fear for my personal safety. (That comment is about the parking lot at our specific L.A. Fitness, not meant to be a joke about the unfortunate murders in a different state.)

I un-joined facebook and Ravelry groups I don't care about much, unsubscribed from marketing email lists, (except for the ones that send good coupons), lightened up my Google Reader subscription list, cleaned out my iPod apps, and cleared some of the mail off the dining room table.

It feels nice, like I'm a little lighter.