Paying It Backward

Mostly dull day at work except for one amusement. I asked a hardware engineer and a software engineer if they could find me a piece of hardware which both had worked with so I could check out a bug. S/W thought H/W had it, H/W thought a third engineer had it, who said the lat time he saw it S/W had it. Bottom line, I didn't run that test today.

Did some work for Automation Guy.

Lunch was at Denny's. Traditional Grand Slam.

After work 6 pm appointment at Sassy Nails. I was 5 minutes early. They were 20 minutes late, and halfway through she got up to schmooze with some waiting customers. Didn't get out of there till 7:15. Boo, hiss. And this was the appointment she had me delay a day.

Home, dinner was smoked turkey leg, with a side of green peas smothered in margarine, crushed garlic and thyme. Domino bothered me for turkey all through the meal. Annoying because it's hard to carve those.

After dinner I took the tripod out, figured out how to use the heavy-duty quick-connect on it. Screwed the quick-connect to the bottom of the telescope and mounted it on the tripod. Flop! Unmounted it, and moved the connect up to the front hole in the scope. Much better.

Took it outside to look at the moon, which was huge and right where I thought it was supposed to be. However the telescope kept flopping down, I couldn't keep it aimed. Turns out the tripod is defective, the handle which is supposed to screw in to hold things horizontal didn't work.

Online, looked up my telescope and ordered the tripod which the manufacturer suggests for it. It's also a good photography tripod, so worth the extra $$.

Brought everything back inside and put it away for now.

Nothing in the mailbox tonight.

Did some laundry - whites. Last night two pairs of Levi's arrived, to replace one fraying pair and one pair of Wranglers which are way cheaply built, possibly counterfeit. The new ones are a size apart, but they both fit.

I have been swapping around people I read on LJ, so if you don't see me leaving comments it's just me rotating the crops. One person I had not been reading is back on my list because he/she/it is an entertaining writer, and I had heard rumors of divorce and a sex change operation which I found hard to believe. Turns out some of that was true, some not so much. Also added back someone who used to write way too much. Added because he/she/it has a very scary small world relationship with me of which said person is unaware. And the spouse's name is a variation on one of my sisters' names. But so far I haven't seen any posts. Maybe they went goodbye or flocked their posts.

Plans for tomorrow:
Be lazy
Attend a 1 pm presentation at the library by master gardeners on the care and feeding of fruit trees.
Buy a pot and rolling stand for the lime tree and relocate it outside.
be lazy some more 

Weird Dream Channel

Dad is having trouble connecting with something online, and I can't get it to come up on my PC. I get the laptop out of my car, find a phone cord and plug it into the modem port. I dial several numbers but never get that modem connect noise.

Kaffir Jaeger

Got up a little before 6 for no apparent reason, took my blood sugar and it was an all time low of 53. Dr. howeird prescribed ice cream with sprinkles. Followed by an egg cream.

Usually those hit me at 3 or 4 am, so going back to bed I slept through the alarm at 9:30, woke at about 10, and it was a chore to get out of the house by 12:30 to be in time for the library 1 pm presentation.

At 12:30 the room wasn't open yet, I had my laptop so I went online and ordered two pairs of briefs, which was on my list. Later I realized I had ordered a pair on Amazon while under the influence of sprinkles. It's okay, I can wear them all.

Also later remembered there were shirts in the washer to switch to the dryer.

The library presentation was on the care and feeding of fruit trees in this neck of the woods, by a master gardener who loved the subject and was a very engaging speaker. At the start of the show she ditched the lavalier mike for the hand-held one, under the mistaken impression that the latter was louder. It bit her constantly because she did a lot of gesturing and used her body to show what parts of a tree to prune. Can't hold the mike your mouth and do that at the same time. There was a lot of good info, and even though I didn't get a chance to ask about my lime tree, she gave all the hints I needed.

As I usually do when in the library, I looked at the books on CD section. Decided it was time, and checked out the Basic Vietnamese set. I ripped it to the PC and it's now on the iPod for car listening.

Inspired by the talk, I went to OSH and bought some stuff. It took a lot of walking around and weighing pros and cons, but finally settled on a 14" heavy tecate pot, not one of the tapered one, but one which is 14" diameter from top to bottom. Also got a stand-off to keep it above the clay dish I also bought, and also got the 14" wooden platform on rollers which was on the original list. And generic potting soil.

The hints I got were this:
- I had gotten the roots too wet
- The plastic bucket which the tree is in needs to be replaced by a clay one which breathes, evaporates water and drains better
- No fertilizer is needed, but soil which drains well should replace the moisture-holding stuff now in the pot
- Lime trees are drought-resistant and can stand temps as low as 30°. They survive frost
A huge part of the talk was about the fruit itself, but in the case of my lime tree, those lime are horrible, it is the leaves which are aromatic and yummy in Thai food.

And from the stuff on the ultimate Kaffir Lime web site:
- Find a way to make the air around the tree more humid
- Don't put it in a bigger pot

I was sort of also looking for a bigger tree, but they just had one smaller than mine.
And from another list, looked for a bird feeder, but their prices were ridiculous. $40 for the one I liked best. Did Amazon's scan thing, and found it online for half that. Almost bought bird seed, but will wait till I have the feeder.

Next stop, Northwinds nursery. They had a 3-year-old Kaffir which was rife with diseased and/or insect-chewed leaves, and they wanted $100 for it. Not a big selection of feeders, nothing to buy here.

Final stop, Home Depot. They had 3 trees, all the same as mine. I picked up some better potting soil marked as "quick drainage" and "for citrus". And also bought a plastic deep dish big enough to put under the pot and hold water to create a humidity field.

Home, unloaded everything, found a spot on the end of the driveway which I think gets enough sun, and staged the new stuff there. It was getting chilly and dark so I made a note to do the re-potting tomorrow before football.

And I wasted the rest of the day online, in front of the tube, and making dinner. Twice. Ravioli from frozen in Alfredo from a jar mixed with string cheese. And 2 hours later a grilled cheese sandwich on Health Nut bread with American Singles and very sharp cheddar. Made in an omelet pan with lots of margarine. Nailed it. Crispy golden brown bread, melty cheese.

Rescued the shirts from the dryer and hung them up. Decided to be OCD this time and arrange them from darkest to lightest, all the ones of the same color together, with the Hawaiian styled ones between the solids and the stripeds. I usually just hang them up in whatever random order they came out of the basket.

Thanks to some FB postings from scendan, went online to see if the Tech Museum is open Monday, it is, so I think I will hobble the three blocks to the light rail station and take the train there to celebrate MLK's massive contributions to the world of technology, especially his influence on Star Wars. They allow non-flash photography, so I'll bring my 50mm f 1.1 and/or my 35mm f 1.8.

Plans for tomorrow:
Take the lime tree outside, shake the dirt off and re-pot it
Watch the Patriots play the Broncos
Maybe tweet rude remarks about it
Watch the Seahawks play the 49ers. Either way I win, but I have to say that I lean toward Seattle because they have the most beautiful logo in the NFL, and I love their colors. SF has, hands-down, the ugliest logo in the league, and the only place Red and Gold belong is in Chinese New Year parades.