wink     ; )

Yummy

I'd like to take this moment to say that Tree's pumpkin cheesecake is the best dessert ever.

Finalization

Today we finalized Sparks adoption. All that it officially involved was a judge signing a piece of paper. But Spark's travel buddies (the ones who came home from Korea with him) were there and we all went into the judge's chambers and they each got a toy. Then there was a signing and lots of pictures. Then we went out to coffee together and then to OMSI for a couple hours of toddler heaven.

20 months from start to finish. Spark is finally officially ours! Huzzah!

Autumn into Winter is the best time of year

Alex writes:

When it snows and the roads are glazed over with danger. When cars turn timid and creep down the road like careful old housecats. When scarves cover misting mouths and I walk ungracefully with a waddle like a crippled penguin, because I dressed for autumn.

I like it best then, because everything is draped in a city-sized hush, because it is like Nature has shot us a stern look, and we are all on our best behavior.

P.S. Don't forget to read "Zeno's Cup: A Different Sort of Drinking Game", which appears directly underneath the above quoted post.

New Monitor

I was working on a paper for Hebrew last night when my monitor suddenly dripped to half brightness. An hour later, it dropped to 1/10th brightness. (It is darn hard to see what's going on at 1/10th brightness.) My monitor then switch between full, half, and tenth brightness every n seconds (where n is a random number between 5 and 30).

I knew that my computer was fine, but my monitor was apparently about to go. Knowing that though my paper would be fine even if my monitor died, it would be exraordinarily difficult to work on it without a monitor, I quickly saved it to removable media. Then for good measure, I backed up my entire system, since I hadn't done that in a while. My monitor was flicking from one brightness to another the whole time, making it very difficult to accomplish even these simple tasks.

By now it was 1 AM, so I went to bed.

Today, my monitor was still acting up, and the 1/10th was now down to about 1/50th. And the now it was almost never at full brightness--it would just flick between half and 1/50th.

So I went shopping. My old monitor was about three years old. I bought it cheap at Frys and it was a noname brand. The refresh rate was slow and the colors were dim and it was only 14".

I now have sitting on my desk a brand new 17" crisp bright monitor. Sooooooo nice.

Plural of sheep

From the comments of a Slashdot thread:

In Europe, of course, the plural of Lego is Lego. Like sheep.

The response:

The plural of sheep is lego in Europe? You guys are wierd.

Birthday the 30th

Thanks to all who left me birthday wishes.

I had a fun time on my birthday. Tree hid 30 (mostly small) gifts around the house for me to find. It took most of the day to find them all. It added a sense of wonder to the day. Then we went out to dinner with some friends (who unexpectedly paid for the bill-- thanks guys!) Today, we had another birthday dinner, this time with my sister and her family. Lots of fun and lots of good food.

It seems that an inordinate number of people have birthdays this week. Including some bloggers like Lisa (who also celebrated her 30th) and Neil Gaiman. Gaiman writes:

When I was a kid I used to ponder the nature of existence on the day before my birthday. "I'm six," I'd think. "I've been six practically for ever. I know what it's like to be six. And today is the very last day I'll ever be six. I'll never be six again." This would always be followed be a feeling of let-down on the following day, as I'd walk around thinking "I don't feel seven. I mean, I know I am seven. But it doesn't feel any different at all. It feels just like six. I wonder if I'll always feel like this? What if I feel like this when I'm eight?"

I woke up this morning and thought, "this is my last day of being forty-three. I'll never be forty-three again." But I bet I don't feel forty-four tomorrow. I bet I still feel twelve.

Just like Neil Gaiman, my mental age stopped advancing some time ago. I felt like I was 17 until I turned 23. Then I felt like I was 23 until last week or so. But in the past year, I've bought house, brought home a kid, aquired a minivan. Meanwhile, I'm attending a school which has a fair number of 17 year old students. I'm keenly aware that I'm no longer that age. And I'm increasingly arware that I'm not 23 either. This week, I looked in the mirror and said to myself, "Yup. I'm 30."

I wonder if I'll still feel 30 when I'm 45?

End of an Era

These are my final hours in my 20's. And instead of being out and partying, I'm working on Hebrew homework. Sigh.

Bummed

Well, that didn't go as I'd hoped. Sometimes four years seems like an awful long time.