Musings

While we’re in the throes of this consumer kick (so unusual for us), we went out today and got a desk to put in this rather abandoned corner of our kitchen, where the breakfast nook banquette was in the original house plan (a room long gone before we bought the house except for the butler’s pantry, now around the corner).

I’m glad to see this “dead spot” reclaimed, and I look forward to have a good deposition destination for an assortment of potential creeping crud items that often accumulate elsewhere (e.g., receipts, paperwork, “real” mail).

Note on the desktop next to the lamp is an oak lap-desk, one of our favorite wedding presents—handmade by Robert to Mary Jo’s design!

We’re experimenting with this being the parking place for the (main) laptop, but I have my doubts that it’ll work. We frequently need it over by the couch.

As is so often true, time will tell.

Posted at 9:33 PM | 2 Comments »

You had to guess that the iPhone capability I’d latch onto with the most fervor would be the camera.

Conclusion: I’ve got to de-zoom my viewpoint.

Final assessment: this “photographer” needs more practice.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on iPhone photography

We’ve hit a wall—or maybe our number can only be transferred during normal weekday business hours. Here we sit with a wonderful iPhone, but only outgoing capabilities. Or maybe that’s actually a good thing!

And what’s with charging us a penny (still, charging us!) for the fancy one-on-one tutoring we got with the phone?

Still, we forge ahead on getting the piles of mail off the dining room table—the obviously important stuff is being processed, and the obviously junque is en route to the garbage, but what’s left is the ambiguous material. Which is not insignificant. Actually, most of it’s junque, too, but you can’t tell until you go to the trouble of opening and reading it.

Sigh.

Posted at 5:00 PM | 1 Comment »

This morning, before the sun really started heating up this city, we made our usual trek to Piedmont Park, where we found the natatorium all closed up—a real marker of the transition out of summer.

iPhone update: The Guru was up until almost 3 am getting AT&T and the powers that be to do his bidding and get the iPhone initialized (plus load all our data, etc.). Apparently it will receive calls—the last step in getting it working—by late this aft.

Whooohoo!

PS I understand that we’re still last-century in that we don’t EACH have our own cell….

PPS For Enquiring Minds, no, this photo was taken with the “new camera” not the iPhone….

Posted at 11:14 AM | Comments Off on Natatorium

Okay. So Steve Jobs announced a drop in iPhone prices, so, no surprise, we finally got sucked in.

Initial report, as we attempted to initialize, was 5-7 days to get our “other” landline switched.

I expect The Guru will find a way to shortcut that!

Posted at 10:22 PM | 5 Comments »

Like these geese we saw veeing up in the UP, we got the migratory bug. Today we made it across Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, to land once again here in ATL.

Gotta get the pasta in the boiling water, or I’d write more….

PS That’s code for “I’m too tired and brain-dead to compose a coherent thought….”

Posted at 7:27 PM | Comments Off on Migration ends

We made a run across southeast Michigan at midday, doing a bounce shot off the TJ’s in Ann Arbor (picking up a near-dead laptop the Guru hopes to rehabilitate from Cousin S), ending up in Grosse Pointe Woodse (seems like all three words should have terminal “e”s…).

Dinner tonight: northern cuisine from Mexican Town. Mmmm.

(And, yes, that’s really what they call it.)

Posted at 8:46 PM | Comments Off on Migration continues

Family day today. Which means a series of meals and snacks, with necessary kitchen cleaning interspersed.

Homemade tomato soup for lunch. Mmmmm.

Pot roast for dinner. With various garden goodies. Including The Botanist’s famous fall raspberries—exceptional with French vanilla ice cream.

Posted at 10:22 PM | 4 Comments »

We were busy busy until 3:30 in the afternoon getting the water turned off, the pump and house drained, the curtains pulled, and all manner of other chores for closing the cottage for (gulp) the winter.

Sigh.

Another year’s passage is duly marked, witnessed by this toad hanging out on the lip of the water barrel.

Posted at 10:22 PM | 1 Comment »

Art on the Lake.

Little ol’ Curtis’ claim to fame.

Busy. Sunny hot. Lots of sales. Including at Gail’s.

These lovely, fun, exotic fish are a new innovation. I should have gotten one!

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Curtis event!