09:07 – I finished writing the last of the forensic book lab sessions yesterday, although I still have to actually do the lab. It’s the one on using molybdate to assay soil phosphate concentrations. I’m pretty sure it’ll work as written because it’s widely used in the real world, but I still have to be certain.
Barbara and I are building a batch of chemistry kits this weekend so that we can ship backorders Monday. We’ll put together 30 kits, although only 18 of them will be ready to ship because we have only 18 of one of the subassemblies built. Still, that’s enough chemistry kits to fill backorders and carry us probably into next month.
Barbara’s mom should be going home from the hospital today, we hope. She’s doing much better. Barbara was glad to be home, after spending several days and nights away. Colin and I were delighted to have her home as well. Barbara and I had dinner with Mary Chervenak last night at a little Greek restaurant. I always enjoy spending time with Mary. She’s smart and outspoken, so the conversation never lags.
When Barbara is away on vacation, you always mention the wild women and parties when she’s gone. You didn’t mention any such thing this time. Is this because the wild women and parties have to be scheduled well in advance or simply because you were too busy on the book?
This is, of course, of only abstract interest to me. I’ve never been interested in wild women and parties, myself. Oh, all right, all right, you forced the truth out of me. Between my toxic personality and my toxic flatulence, the wild women keep well clear of me. Not that I’m interested in them, of course — I have much better things to do, and anyway I’ll bet those grapes are sour.
I think the difference is Barbara was with her mother at the hospital, and not on an actual vacation. After all, she didn’t actually leave town.
Grapes out of reach always LOOK so juicy.
I’m sure your flatulence isn’t as bad as my daughter’s. In one instance my daughter almost persuaded me to get out of the car and walk. It was so bad my wife and I both thought the daughter needed a diaper change. But it was just gas. I wonder where my daughter could possibly get this flatulence problem from?
Milk.
Three-wheeled Reliants are taxed as motorbikes in Britain. So then why would the second most successful plastic car in the world—just behind Chevrolet Corvette—go out of business? Jeremy Clarkson tries to find out.
http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/clarkson-tips-over-reliant-robin
[Two parts. When part 1 is finished click part 2 in the pictures below the progress bar (left-most pic). If you don’t see the pictures under the progress bar, play the last few seconds of the video again NOT in fullscreen mode to trigger the pics at the end.]
Need a basic laptop for VPN access to work while traveling…saw this one at Costco for $400…any thoughts?
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11759021
Except for the part about Windows, it looks OK. I would have liked to see more RAM though; these days a lot of them are coming with double that. But with RAM prices what they are now, you might wanna double it yourself. If I bought it, I’d format the drive and load whatever Linux right away. But lots of people still need Windows for work-related stuff so YMMV.
Daughters and flatulence. Been there and done that, and, in fact, still going on here, at nearly 20. Also burps/belches that sound like James Earl Jones at the bottom of a grain silo. I really, really, really can’t wait until Prince Charming comes along. Then I just have to, please God, hang on until she has at least one teenage daughter of her own. Oh please God, I will do anything to live long enough to see this. Please, your humble and devoted servant…etc.
OFD wrote:
“I really, really, really can’t wait until Prince Charming comes along.”
Really Dave? You didn’t strike me as that type… 🙂
Heh. I think one of my mom’s regrets is that my one sister has only sons. How’s she supposed to experience the full measure of payback without a girl in the mix?
I dunno, my mom was pretty pleased when I had two boys. She laughed and laughed.
I really miss her.
The guy next door’s female companion of over 50 years died 2 weeks ago. They were once married; got divorced; got back together again, but never remarried the second time. Talked with him at length about it today, and he is understandably broken up. He could not face going to the funeral (neither could my grandfather—dad’s father—when my grandmother died). The 2 next door were/are both in their 80’s. She got pretty bad dimentia the last several months, and she was moved to her daughter’s house. He went to see her regularly, but she did not fully recognize him, and did not want him around. She was in the hospital for the last 2 weeks, and he went daily.
I understand his situation fully. Just before she moved to her daughter’s, she had a birthday. She did not understand that the birthday cake was to be eaten, and refused to let anybody touch it. Now, he cannot bear to get rid of it. I was somewhat the same with the last SMS messages between Jeri and myself. I could not bear to erase them. Fortunately, my daughter did that for me, behind my back, and it was for the best that she did. I have not had the courage to tell him that it will be a couple years before things begin to seem better.
@Alan
Just FYI, that laptop is a generation behind. No multi-core, the Pentiums are still electric/heat hogs, no USB 3.0, no gigabyte LAN support, but Front Side Bus speed of that processor is a nice 1333Mhz—however, no mention of whether the DDR3 RAM supplied will support that speed. I’ll bet it doesn’t. No mention on the HP site of anything about that computer that I can find, however the Costco literature says it will accept a maximum of 8gb RAM. Newer generation stuff supports up to 16gb.
Still, it might be cost effective for you.
Bill wrote:
“I dunno, my mom was pretty pleased when I had two boys.”
And why not? Boys are easier and cheaper to raise. You don’t need to buy them contraceptives, bras and other items of exotic underwear, feminine hygiene products or pay for dowries or wedding receptions. And they look after themselves without going into a tiz at any and every upset.
Also boyz will fight among themselves and then shake hands and be pals again in about five minutes. Grrls will grudge for decades in seething Medici-like plotting and bitterness. And when they grow up and become leaders of States, they rush to prove themselves at *least* as bloodthirsty as male warmongers.
My parents had one grrl and four boyz, and woulda had at least two more boyz but for two miscarriages and my mother has always said that our sister was much more trouble than us four boyz *put together*.
Another gorgeous Vermont day here today; everyone is outdoors and mostly naked, which in a lot of cases is something they should have thought about more carefully. In a couple of towns to the south people walk around naked downtown all the time and no one bats an eye except the touristas. You can be naked outdoors here so long as you are already naked when you make your appearance but you cannot disrobe in public. Soon they’ll be smoking doobies, too, and thus completing the stereotype of this state as a totally fucked-up commie hippie commune where everybody is gay and married and we have no nukes and no MacDonalds restaurants.
The truth is a bit different away from the MSM cameras and “reporters.”
We flipped from normal spring weather to hot and humid yesterday—high near 90 F predicted for today. Looks like we may be in for the same pattern as last year: super-hot near 100° temps with practically no precip from June through September. Next week is supposed to work its way well into the 90’s F. That heat stunted the corn crop last year, and farmers around here need a better crop this year to make up for last.
OFD wrote:
“…my mother has always said that our sister was much more trouble than us four boyz *put together*.”
My mum had a girl, four years later my brother, and four years after that the cream of the crop – me. She said once that she would have had a fourth if she could have been guaranteed a girl.
I will admit that my sister, for all her faults, works pretty hard at helping mum, doing her washing, driving her to doctor’s appointments (my brother doesn’t have a car and I live 1000 Km away) and so on.