Happy David Day

The last day of February (in a non-leap year) is time to celebrate again. Happy Birthday, David! We wish you health and happiness and lots of good books for the coming year.

Who's your favorite deceased person?

If you were in a 120 class at Ivy Tech, you would come to one session in the library computer lab to learn about resources. I would show you the catalog, the various periodical databases, demonstrate searches on the web, and so on. Then you would do an exercise, which would include looking up a "deceased person" in the Brittanica Online and finding some interesting fact about that person.

I can count on some names showing up every semester: George Washington, John F. Kennedy, Bob Marley, Elvis Presley, Jim Morrison.

Sometimes I'm surprised - Andrew Jackson? Who thinks about Andrew Jackson? Sometimes it's obvious that people don't understant the word "deceased" - under death dates they write "not dead yet". And then there was the older woman who didn't quite understand about online reference sources - "I've looked up everyone I know who's dead" she said, "And it doesn't have any of them." Nope, your uncle didn't make the Brittanica.

So here's a midweek challenge for you: if you were to pick a deceased person to look up for my class, who would it be?

New computer

The new computer is now computing, thanks to my PCG who spent hours and hours on it. I am still figuring out things - I've lost the scanner somehow, and nothing is exactly where I expect it to be - but a little frustration is a small price to pay for all the fabulous new things I can do. I have a great widescreen display and stereo sound. The challenge now will be to tear myself away from the computer occasionally.Here is my PCG after all the hard work was done, ready to turn it over to me.
I know he is expecting another picture here, but I am NOT posting the pictures he took of me crawling around on the floor trying to remove dog hair from the remote regions under the desk.
I'll leave that to your imagination.

Furry hats and furry collars

A warm group on Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day

A Saturday morning that starts out with flowers.

and continues with chocolates...

Apricot Ginger chocolate for breakfast(the one with pink polka dots)

We could do this every Saturday.

Reality check

The classroom directly across from the library door had a substitute teacher this morning. She was young and was using all the tips and tricks she'd learned in her education classes.
By mid-morning I could hear her voice very clearly.
"We are NOT running around in here!" she announced.
But she was wrong...

Yummmmm

Sunday night found me at the Art Museum in good company, and surrounded by chocolate. It was "The Art of Chocolate" and chefs from all around had created special treats for us to sample. The slanted glass roof of the museum reflected two floors of food, music and activity. If you look closely you can see me at the top of the photo taking the picture.

We sampled hot chocolate spiked with brandy (recommended!) and hot cocoa with orange and cinnamon (okay). We nibbled on homemade marshmallows, triple chocolate truffle cakes and little dark chocolate tarts with mascarpone icing - every table offered a different chocolate based taste. This all went well with some local red wine.

We topped off an evening of indulgence with a visit to Mimi, who was wise enough to not offer us any more chocolate!

Double the pleasure

Two keyboards! Two mice! Two computers! One brand new wide-screen monitor! I could compute with both heads - I mean hands.
Okay, so I'm not permanently going to have two active computers, however tempting it may be and however cute it looks having two keyboards on the desk. It is reminiscent of an organ keyboard. The new computer is running but isn't completely set up yet, and the old one is only temporarily still on line - but by this time next week, I'll have a complete new set up with greatly expanded capabilities (I'm talking about the computer here).
Thanks to my capable Personal Computer Guy, who does in seconds what it would take me days to figure out.

A little known fact

A little known fact about Granddad's sister is that her first name was Thayra.This might not be too suprising if you didn't know that Granddad (the big brother) got the middle name of Thayr. And his dad's middle name was Thayr. What's more, I even know two other people in the family whose middle name is Thayr!
His family obviously thought: "If you've got a good name, stick with it."

The Muppets Easter Island

HoosierKitty was driving along when she spotted this splendid snow figure. She was so impressed, she stopped the car to take a picture. Can you see the twig hair? If it weren't so cold out, I'd be inspired to go create something in our yard.

Six more weeks

It looks like six more weeks of Winter all right. I didn't think so yesterday.

Yesterday the sun was shining as I went to school and dealt with the results of three snow days in a row (lots of returned books! lots of kids needing new books!). I went on from school to the barn. The roads were clear where they had been plowed. There were puddles and mud where the horses had trampled around the pasture gate.
I was anticipating more melting, more warming... sunny Groundhog's Day? mere superstition!

This morning the wind was blowing the fast falling snow so thickly that I could barely see out.
The temperature is dropping so fast that the thermometer looks like a second hand.
The driveway is just a slight depression in a uniformly white yard.

Okay, okay, I believe in the Groundhog! Surely the point could have been made more subtly.

Getting ready for the Groundhog

We've turned over one page of our new calendars.

Granddad has finished his winter puzzle.

The snow is melting. Yes, it is!

Surely it isn't long until Spring.

Tomorrow we'll know...