Currently frustrated as can't get to previous post to ad a 'v' into moving. I think it must be the keyboard...it can't be that I sit and type whilst looking the other way can it?
Finally finished sorting out the kids rooms. They are tidyish, well tidy enough. The new home office is full to the point of near explosion, mostly with stationery, but it does at least look tidy to the untrained eye.
George is has acquired some new friends at school, small insects that live on his hair. Which I could do without! So we are trying the Harvard Olive Oil Method of removal, which combined with a combing regime is meant to kill everything within 3 weeks. I hadn't realised how tiny they are. Apparently nits have evolved into smaller insects because they keep getting eradicated and only the smallest survive...wow..what a joy that is to know when you have to go looking for them.
So lesson for the day, nits are now smaller so cutting most of your hair off makes them harder to get rid of. And there was me about to shave his head.
Pics of George covered in olive oil and wrapped in clingfilm to follow.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Four days of moving (spelling fixed hooray) stuff and I still haven't tidied it all up!
We started re-arranging the house on Saturday. Figuring that as we now have a proper office we don't two office rooms in the house. Having spent the last 8 months promising the children completely separate bedrooms (their old ones were adjoining and they only ever slept in one room despite the fact that there were at least 4 beds up there), we finally got round to taking some action.
Saturday involved a lot of heavy lifting as all the office cupboards got moved downstairs. Sunday saw the beds being moved and Monday and Tuesday were mainly devoted to sorting things. My love of stationery and stuff has been revealed. Things that had been in boxes and drawers for years had to be opened and re-sorted. I could easily open a stationery shop with all the things I've accumulated - or I would do if I didn't like it all so much.
I think I still have at least two more days to go to sort out the kids' stuff. Then there is the garage....and then Ebay. I have amassed an incredible quantity of packaging materials in anticipation of selling off surplus stuff. So much that it is taking up half a shed on its own. I did spend half an hour sorting it, so it is now boxed according to type.
To prove how much this is all appreciated the kids had moved a sleeping bag into Elinor's new room tonight as George was going to sleep on the floor. They have only been apart for one night. I expect they'll get used to it soon.
We started re-arranging the house on Saturday. Figuring that as we now have a proper office we don't two office rooms in the house. Having spent the last 8 months promising the children completely separate bedrooms (their old ones were adjoining and they only ever slept in one room despite the fact that there were at least 4 beds up there), we finally got round to taking some action.
Saturday involved a lot of heavy lifting as all the office cupboards got moved downstairs. Sunday saw the beds being moved and Monday and Tuesday were mainly devoted to sorting things. My love of stationery and stuff has been revealed. Things that had been in boxes and drawers for years had to be opened and re-sorted. I could easily open a stationery shop with all the things I've accumulated - or I would do if I didn't like it all so much.
I think I still have at least two more days to go to sort out the kids' stuff. Then there is the garage....and then Ebay. I have amassed an incredible quantity of packaging materials in anticipation of selling off surplus stuff. So much that it is taking up half a shed on its own. I did spend half an hour sorting it, so it is now boxed according to type.
To prove how much this is all appreciated the kids had moved a sleeping bag into Elinor's new room tonight as George was going to sleep on the floor. They have only been apart for one night. I expect they'll get used to it soon.
Saturday, March 18, 2006
I've noticed a couple of things today.
1. I bumped into a couple of folks today in Durham who I had not seen in a while and commented to both sets of offspring along the lines of 'haven't you grown'. It occurred to me that this is exactly what my great aunts used to say to me when I was little. At the time I remember thinking what a silly thing to say, but then children don't notice growing. As an adult bumping into children I now understand that height is the first thing you notice; especially if a child happens to be behaving him/herself, and as it is usually quite a striking difference it is very hard not to comment. Which I suppose means that I have finally grown up myself!
2. We are moving things around in the house becuase the kids are in desperate need of separate bedrooms. In theory they have this already, but because the rooms adjoin there is no real separation. Now the move is underway I am staggered by the sheer volume of stuff that we have. Jason always comments on our stuff quota, and it is true I have a pretty good hoarding instinct. I would like to point out though that so does my husband. So we are currently buried in boxes of stuff.
1. I bumped into a couple of folks today in Durham who I had not seen in a while and commented to both sets of offspring along the lines of 'haven't you grown'. It occurred to me that this is exactly what my great aunts used to say to me when I was little. At the time I remember thinking what a silly thing to say, but then children don't notice growing. As an adult bumping into children I now understand that height is the first thing you notice; especially if a child happens to be behaving him/herself, and as it is usually quite a striking difference it is very hard not to comment. Which I suppose means that I have finally grown up myself!
2. We are moving things around in the house becuase the kids are in desperate need of separate bedrooms. In theory they have this already, but because the rooms adjoin there is no real separation. Now the move is underway I am staggered by the sheer volume of stuff that we have. Jason always comments on our stuff quota, and it is true I have a pretty good hoarding instinct. I would like to point out though that so does my husband. So we are currently buried in boxes of stuff.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Well that is another 2 hours gone. Lost my links, got them back. Changed the template about 10 times. With any luck I can find a chapter in one of my new 'teach yourself technical things' books that will let me use an attractive template...with links. (they were the missing links...goodnight...oh dear terrible pun). Trouble is Amazon has yet to deliver so I will need to do that another day.
Playing with the Blog This! thing to see what happens.
I'm looking at other people's blogs (yes all those lovely scrapping ones) and wondering how you get such great layouts. I'm going to have a go at changing the layout, which might not be a good idea...
justbloggin
I'm looking at other people's blogs (yes all those lovely scrapping ones) and wondering how you get such great layouts. I'm going to have a go at changing the layout, which might not be a good idea...
justbloggin
Monday, March 13, 2006
Thought I'd take a picture of the office plants, we walked into a very fragrant room this morning as the hyacinths have had a busy weekend growing like little triffids.
I seem to be forever installing software at the moment. Skype and something called Pentaho this morning. If it isn't downloads then it is ordering more stuff from Amazon. I even found a book that may just interest me in programming...'Learn to Program' by Chris Pine. Apparently the book teaches you do program by getting you to do useful things like sort out your digital photo collection or get your webpage to send you emails. I can just about cope with that kind of thing, everyone I've worked with so far tends to stare at pages of minute text muttering about triggers and joins, and I nod and kind of think I might understand a bit of what they are saying. I never really got over the computer programming course that I did at university. So long ago that we used a VAX mainframe computer (not a model of vacuum cleaner, although today's vacuum cleaners probably have the same IT capability as the mainframe computer had in 1986). Anyway I was mystified by DOLOOPS and other jargon stuff, it all started to get very mathematical and I decided to blank out anything technical from then on!
Still here I am working in IT. Just goes to show what can happen if you don't make any kind of conscious career choices.
I seem to be forever installing software at the moment. Skype and something called Pentaho this morning. If it isn't downloads then it is ordering more stuff from Amazon. I even found a book that may just interest me in programming...'Learn to Program' by Chris Pine. Apparently the book teaches you do program by getting you to do useful things like sort out your digital photo collection or get your webpage to send you emails. I can just about cope with that kind of thing, everyone I've worked with so far tends to stare at pages of minute text muttering about triggers and joins, and I nod and kind of think I might understand a bit of what they are saying. I never really got over the computer programming course that I did at university. So long ago that we used a VAX mainframe computer (not a model of vacuum cleaner, although today's vacuum cleaners probably have the same IT capability as the mainframe computer had in 1986). Anyway I was mystified by DOLOOPS and other jargon stuff, it all started to get very mathematical and I decided to blank out anything technical from then on!
Still here I am working in IT. Just goes to show what can happen if you don't make any kind of conscious career choices.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Elinor has been off school poorly today. Jason stayed home to look after her and when I made a couple of calls to check progress during the day it seemed that all was well, and Elinor hadn't moved much beyond the telly.
Still appearances can be deceptive, on returning home Elinor still claims extreme poorliness but it is Jason who has retired to bed ill. Elinor has found the time to bath the dog, and I have sniffed him and he does smell very fragrant, and has clearly had both shampoo and conditioner.
Elinor has also exhaustively tested the bounce on the sofa bed during a home disco for her and her soft toys. She also escorted the dog on a walk round the block. Now George is pushing her around the house in her dolls' pushchair because she is too ill to walk!!! Good job her brother isn't more of a detective or he'd have spotted the fact that all the pink panther wafer biscuits went very quickly once Elinor openend them - another tell tell sign of a serious illness? (maybe not) Methinks she will return to school tomorrow.
Still appearances can be deceptive, on returning home Elinor still claims extreme poorliness but it is Jason who has retired to bed ill. Elinor has found the time to bath the dog, and I have sniffed him and he does smell very fragrant, and has clearly had both shampoo and conditioner.
Elinor has also exhaustively tested the bounce on the sofa bed during a home disco for her and her soft toys. She also escorted the dog on a walk round the block. Now George is pushing her around the house in her dolls' pushchair because she is too ill to walk!!! Good job her brother isn't more of a detective or he'd have spotted the fact that all the pink panther wafer biscuits went very quickly once Elinor openend them - another tell tell sign of a serious illness? (maybe not) Methinks she will return to school tomorrow.
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Just spotted a typo on a previous post and just had to correct it!!!! And I wonder why I don't get anything done.
Meanwhile more gizmos are on order for the office. We are getting a Skype phone, as I'm too averse to paying line rental charges for a proper phone when we hardly call anyone at the moment. It has a speakerphone, so should be useful for telephone conferencing (ie Jason ringing me at home). I also noticed that webcams are now very cheap so there is one of them on the way as well. It means we can videoconference...and more importantly I can leave it looking at the office when I'm away and sneak a peek from home.
Jason is off to Henley for an SME Conference at the end of the month. I really must get on with the marketing info for that as we could do with generating a bit of business.
Meanwhile more gizmos are on order for the office. We are getting a Skype phone, as I'm too averse to paying line rental charges for a proper phone when we hardly call anyone at the moment. It has a speakerphone, so should be useful for telephone conferencing (ie Jason ringing me at home). I also noticed that webcams are now very cheap so there is one of them on the way as well. It means we can videoconference...and more importantly I can leave it looking at the office when I'm away and sneak a peek from home.
Jason is off to Henley for an SME Conference at the end of the month. I really must get on with the marketing info for that as we could do with generating a bit of business.
Monday, March 06, 2006
Success...wireless networking is officially a doddle. I think this shows the benefits of taking a break and not having access to the IT kit for a couple of days over the weekend. I actually had a chance to calmly check out the options for fixing the problem but couldn't get at the stuff to try it until I got back into the office this morning.
This has saved me loads of time because the solution I decided to try first worked!!! And I didn't get tempted to try all the other weird and wacky suggestions that other people had posted on troubleshooting forums, one of which was to completely reinstall XP! Pleeaasse.
Jason is looking at black screens with small type in a very technical kind of way. I'm just pleased I can connect to the internet without wires. Each to his/her own.
This has saved me loads of time because the solution I decided to try first worked!!! And I didn't get tempted to try all the other weird and wacky suggestions that other people had posted on troubleshooting forums, one of which was to completely reinstall XP! Pleeaasse.
Jason is looking at black screens with small type in a very technical kind of way. I'm just pleased I can connect to the internet without wires. Each to his/her own.
Friday, March 03, 2006
Ah the joys of wireless networking (being cynical again here). We're on our second set of wireless kit for the office - ordered the wrong bits first time so the slot wasn't the right type for the wireless card!! Unfortunately opened both packets so can't send them back.
The new cards are the right ones but will they install.......follow the instructions and get the mystical message 'Device cannot start (code 10) as with all Microsoft error messages this one is completely useless at actually explaining what the problem might be. So did the troubleshooting thing on the Netgear instructions....nothing. 1.5 hours later gave up and plugged in ethernet cable!!!
Turns out that there are a lot of irritated people with the same problem. As I found out once I got back onto the internet and did a bit of googling.
I will resume again on Monday by downloading the latest drivers, reinstalling then putting back the wireless card. All of which I will do with the router off so that it can't get its little wireless brain all confused. Grrrrrrrrrrrr
The new cards are the right ones but will they install.......follow the instructions and get the mystical message 'Device cannot start (code 10) as with all Microsoft error messages this one is completely useless at actually explaining what the problem might be. So did the troubleshooting thing on the Netgear instructions....nothing. 1.5 hours later gave up and plugged in ethernet cable!!!
Turns out that there are a lot of irritated people with the same problem. As I found out once I got back onto the internet and did a bit of googling.
I will resume again on Monday by downloading the latest drivers, reinstalling then putting back the wireless card. All of which I will do with the router off so that it can't get its little wireless brain all confused. Grrrrrrrrrrrr
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