Arguments
with
Furniture

At least we didn't win it and then give it away...

My life seems to be full of people who are getting kicked in the ass by the universe.

Cancer, with major surgery, chemo, and another major surgery. Lingering problems from a previous health crisis and escalating diabetes complication. Both of the aforementioned, and their spouse/caregiver, close and beloved family members. All living in other cities a couple of hours away.

And now my closest friend, whom I've known since elementary school and whose children are as unto my own children, had to leave her dying mother's bedside because her husband collapsed at work in cardiac arrest. Not a heart attack, mind you, but some mystery problem that he's still hospitalized and being tested and monitored for.

Then they had to come three hours by ambulance to my city for a day of tests that has turned into five days. She has no vehicle, one and a half outfits and my hide-a-bed. She spends the whole day, and most evenings, in the Cardiac ICU with her husband as they test and hypothesize. Their children are back in their city at their grandmother's house with their two aunts (one from out of province, one from overseas).

We picked her up for supper last night in the brutal cold, and she was worried and torn because her mother was doing worse. She was back at hospital when, around 10, her sisters called to tell her that her mum had died. I cabbed over with the rest of her things so she could spend the night in her husband's room, and bring my car home so that it wouldn't freeze solid in the hospital parking lot.

My family, both blood and created, will get through this. I have spoken.

I may not have reached this level of fangirliness, but William Gibson is totally rocking my world.

Robert (Bob) Thirsk will not travel into space again. He's now 57 years old, and last year spent six months on the ISS.

Dude is a total hardass and has earned some time in a hammock. Someone get him a beer, willya??

Holy fuck, am I getting old...

A Canadian company will be building a Mars rover prototype

And they've built a spectrometer that'll be deployed on the next rover mission to determine the elements present in rocks.

Sweet.

Colonel Chris Hadfield will take command of the International Space Station in 2013!!1!

Why yes, since you ask, we did meet him once -- he was at the Science Centre, and the kid helped him put a pennant (that he'd taken with him into space) into the glass display case. He gave a sweet talk and answered all the kids' questions.

!!!!!!!!

from the names on these envelopes, parents in Manitoba? Do not love their children.

We're doing a huge mailout at work, thousands of items, and the envelopes they got are crap.

You can't get anything into them, because there's a tab on one side that folds in when you try to stuff it, and about a third of the envelopes are sealed part way down on the inside. I dubbed them the Bashful Virgin envelopes.

For a job like this, what you need is the Cheap and Nasty, Open All Night, Over Here Boys model envelope. I guess Staples was all out.

and I'm tired.

Finished a project that's been in my brain since just after SIL's diagnosis. Heard Springsteen's "No Surrender" and had to do something inspiring for her, so put together a slideshow. It took forever; sent the disk on Saturday. Included a bonus mini-slideshow for my niece with a song we sang for her last time we were visiting...if I ever figure out how to export from iDVD I'll post it here.

Now I'm getting serious about Photoshop; the last version I learned was, no shit, ten years ago (!) so got the latest Classroom in a Book from the library. We used it back when and it is fantastic, with lesson files on the cd and everything. Sweet.