Apopheniac

In my ongoing pursuit of a cup of coffee perfectly to our taste, I came across OXO products. I found them because they make measuring cups that allow you to see the measurement from above the cup, rather than holding it level with your eyes as you pour. The first one I got was their 2 oz jigger that measures in oz and tbs. I loved it so much I graduated to their measuring cups.
The Japanese have a concept of rethinking and continual improvement and this American company seems to have brought that concept home as they tweak the design of a number of everyday items.

Posted by apopheniac at 09:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We are hanging out this afternoon watching Mega-Disaster marathon on the History Channel. We are watching this on the tv tuner card on my computer.

When we moved, there wasn't an effective place to put the tv we had in the old computer room, so we elected to put the tv tuner card on my machine. Much of the time I will just have the tv image in a reduced window. When it's something we want to give our full attention to, we watch it full screen. I've got a pretty good sound system on my computer so it actually sounds even better than watching tv in the living room.
So this afternoon I have been watching this string of catastrophes: east-coast tsunami, San Francisco earthquake, New York hurricane, Mt. Ranier volcanic eruption and abrupt climate change. Since I have been watching it on my computer, I have been sitting in my recliner, surfing the net and emailing via wifi on my palm tx.

Posted by apopheniac at 05:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Back In July I got my Viewsonic monitor to remove the ugly breadbox from my desk and make our computer room more attractive.

Jean's monitor has been working perfectly but mine lasted about a week before the internal power supply went out. I returned it to Viewsonic and it was returned to me yesterday. I had not fully realized how much bigger and easier it was on the eyes until it was gone. Welcome back.

Posted by apopheniac at 08:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Last summer we bought a Tuscan cantelope at Market Street that may have been the best melon I had ever tasted. Jean kept the seeds and planted them this spring and yesterday she harvested the first of the melons. It was so sweet that we had it last night for dessert.

Posted by apopheniac at 02:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Since before Christmas we have been working on purchasing, upgrading and financing our new house. We began the process in October, purchased the house, re-roofed and repaired in February, and this week we closed on the 30 year mortgage. I haven't blogged about it because we wanted our energy focused on the completion of the process but now it is done and here is our new home.

Posted by apopheniac at 02:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A gentle summer rain came through this afternoon. We made lattes and sat in the gazebo to watch it pass through. A gentle summer rain is not so common in west Texas as most moisture comes through in thunderstorm cells which had been known for charactaristics other than their gentleness.

Posted by apopheniac at 07:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The gazebo was our spring project and our summer/fall project is the garden room. Right now we are working on the pond, which is just to the right of this table under the west gardenroom window. We particularly enjoy watching the birds at the feeder.

Posted by apopheniac at 01:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I measure out my vacation a nibble at a time. I take one week as a whole week for a deep cleansing and rejuvenation. The goal for the remainder is to distribute my days off and other week of my vacation to yield one three-day weekend a month, which I refer to as my mental health weekends. Just about the time I start feeling stressed and cranky, along comes a three day weekend and I emerge my normal, smiley self. At least that is the theory and this is one of those weekends.

I harvested the grapes and I have interspersed a few grapejuice squeezing sessions throughout the weekend.

We added another goldfish and a chocolate oranda to the fish in the pond. They like to hang out under the waterfall, in the caves and in the space under the filter.
Finally, I find myself in training to be a steward in the union at work, so I spent Saturday night in steward training. Yesterday I scanned the union contract and steward's manual into the computer and made them into ebooks on my Palm so that I could study them and have them available for reference.

Posted by apopheniac at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)