Writing Wrongs

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.

Almost not worth the typing.

Work started with a 15-minute weekly meeting which two of The Usual suspects drew out past the allotted hour nitpicking over something better discussed off-line. :-(

But it was an hour in which I didn't have to try to find something to do which looked like work.

While in the meeting, the loan broker from the mfg called, I had to let it go to voicemail. She was supposed to have called Friday. She followed it up with email to my home mailbox, which I logged into. Three loan offers from two lenders. Bottom line is all three were more per month than I had been led to believe was a conservative estimate. Two were from a CU which has expanded to be a major mfg homes lender, the other was a Father & Son bank which did the same thing. All three had interest rates higher than they should be in these interest-free times. The CU played this game of offering 3% lower interest for a 5-year loan than for a 15-year loan, but the way that math goes is the monthly pay-out is $200 a month more for the longer-term loan. Boo, hiss. The bank's loan is 20 years, the monthly and interest rate splits the diff between the two CU offers.

There's a medium-term advantage in paying off the loan in 5 years, but I was looking for a bigger immediate advantage.

The email needed rent verification for the last 2 years. Last night I had faxed in a request for the year I have been living here, and got it, so I phoned and asked how to get the same for last year, different address but that company bought the company which owns the place I moved to, so the nice lady gave me my old account number and I faxed that in and they sent that paperwork to me. Twice. I am so happy I kept my nextiva.com fax account.

Next was 2 years' salary verification from the new company. Email to Payroll got me the fax & phone for the HR department which has the form for the lender/landlord to fill out. Too late to phone the east coast, so I faxed a request. With luck they will send the form tomorrow before I get to work.

Work stuff, took a class on IPv6, the new internet protocol standard. After an hour of pretty interesting and mind-bending info, the guy says they are about to run out of tape, so the teacher says change it. End of lesson. Back to the course catalog, there are 5 more sessions. I enrolled for the next one. Will take it tomorrow.

Home, didn't feel like going to BASFA. Probably won't for the rest of the football season.

Watched most of the MNF game, but was disappointed with it being mostly a defensive battle. Points excite me, tackles don't.

Caught up on LJ & FB, went online to make appointments. Domino needs her rabies shot and while I'm at it, she need some serious mat removal under sedation. And I penciled in a follow-up doctor's appointment for my elbow, which is hurting in places more consistent with having banged it than just tennis elbow. Maybe an x-ray is in order. Maybe drugs.

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Plans for tomorrow:
Work
Hearing test @ Kaiser
UPS pickup