Orb Designs

  • Nothing to see here

    Then why post, might you ask? Well you might. But sometimes, “nothing” is good. For instance, I’ve nothing to report from DoD for the week past. That’s good – no reported casualties.

    There’s been no frost, so none of the veggies I’ve planted are dead. That’s good. Also, I made the lawns flat this weekend, and got a bit of work done at the office on the virtualization infrastructure … neither of which is “nothing”. But lawns are boring, and by policy I can’t discuss details of work. So … pretty much nothing to see there.

    *      *      *

    Someone wants lots of flashing lights near schools for child safety. Sigh. Virtually everyone I grew up with was safe, and we didn’t have much in the way of flashing lights, or school buses with 10 mile visibility exclusion zones. Much better to do two things: one – teach kids to pay attention again. Two – kill a kid on purpose or by accident: Death penalty, fast lane. Result: safety and road courtesy. Seriously. It wouldn’t take too many public executions, well publicised with cheering parents all round to bring most drivers to their senses. The rest would end up victims of Papa Darwin.

    This is nothing new from me. I’ve been a crusty, get-off-my-lawn type since I was 4 years old. Enough nothing. Ciao!

  • 0x35

    Another birthday done. Whew. I “celebrated” by taking the day off, aka working in the garden: planting and fettling.

    2014 garden 3/4 planted
    2014 garden 3/4 planted

    It was a good day for working in the yard, about 15°C. Three quarters of the plants are in. Lots of tomatoes, some cucumber and zucchini, and habañero peppers. More peppers are needed, and potatoes need starting. The herbs are still pending in the small bed near the house. I got the watering system setup and running, and finished up by getting some bird discouragement netting over the snow peas and young cherry tomato plants. The birds have been slaughtering my snow peas, and they’d have done the same to the cherry tomatoes, too.

  • Ishtar. Easter. Spring.

    It is said by historians that the ancient celebration of the Sumerian goddess Ishtar was co-opted by Christianity to wean the pagans from their happy sex and fertility holiday. All I know is that I couldn’t do the weekly food shopping because the store was closed for Easter Sunday. Hmmm.

    Still a chore-filled weekend, though. Mostly yardwork and car washing yesterday, with dusting, vacuuming, and laundry filling the Sunday. Pretty damn boring, truth be told.

    *      *      *

    Our condolences to the family and friends of Specialist Danyluk.

    • Spc. Kerry M. G. Danyluk, 27, of Cuero, Texas, died April 15 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, of injuries sustained April 12 when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire in Pul-e-Alam, Logar province, Afghanistan.

  • I ain’t Rocky…

    Stallone’s director made getting in shape look like a snap in the Rocky movies. Me, I’m doing well with the elliptical, and for a moment over the weekend I was below 230. I’ve not been that weight in better than a decade. Today:

    A good run
    A good run

    A good run (for me) – 6000 strides in under 50 minutes. Ciao!

  • This is my belly …

    Would you scratch it for me? Lexi is *such* an attention hound.
    Would you scratch it for me?

    I’d trade her in on a working dog, especially one that does house-cleaning. But Lexi is so darned cute.

    *      *      *

    Today, shopping, and more yardwork. I finished dismantling and bagging the junk on the concrete pad. I’ll arrange for a “large item” pickup from the trash provider sometime later this week. Very happy to have that done. I also dressed all of the garden beds with manure and leaf compost… and turned over three of them. I’ll knock out the rest later this week. Overall, I managed about 12 hours of yardwork, and that pleases me.

    Preparing for veggies
    Preparing for veggies

    *      *      *

    In the last week, DoD reported no casualties.

  • Spring Chores

    Spring cleaning extends to the outside of the house, too. I had a pile of stuff from the dismantling and rebuilding of the front fence last fall.

    Front Fence Demo Pile
    Front Fence Demo Pile

    Y’see, by the time the fence had been rebuilt and the stain on the front-facing portions of the fence … well, ice and rain were falling out of the sky. So I left the pile for Spring. Now, it’s the time, so I took that pile, and amended my mulching/composting box. Now it looks like this:

     

    Mulching/Composting box
    Mulching/Composting box

    I constructed that atop the old, low (10″) box I’d previously used for the purpose. Now it looks like it has been here all along, since the fencing material used … has been. I’m pleased with the re-use of the material. However, all that was left has to go. So I broke it down and bagged it, leaving the space empty:

    Concrete pad much cleaner
    Concrete pad much cleaner

    At which point, broken but still dragging myself around, I remembered that I’d had a thousand or so pounds of bagged goods delivered into the driveway, and that needed moving in and stacking until I get around to working the garden beds and dressing the front beds. So I got out the wheelbarrow, and moved all the stuff in. Um, yay?

    Bagged red mulch, leaf compost, manure compost.
    Bagged red mulch, leaf compost, manure compost.

    I’m rather tired now. I think I’ll take the evening off … except for remote work: system patching tonight at 10. Ciao!

  • Elliptical Progress

    Pushing harder on the elliptical - 6000 strides this evening.
    Pushing harder

  • Sprung

    At least I think Spring has sprung. Of course, there was frost on the grass and rooftops this morning, and we have two more of those mornings in the forecast. But I did do some significant yardwork yesterday, clearing the winter debris and die-off from the front yard. I also did the early Spring fertilizing on the lawns.

    Also accomplished: not too damn much. I finished playing Bioshock Infinite, which was fun, even though I saw the ending coming from about a million miles away. Fun game, good story. Nice drive by on Rapture, right near the end, too.

    In celebration of TableTop Day yesterday, we played Scrabble ™ in the evening. Herself came very close to beating me both times. Lexi helped, too:

    Lexi helps with Scrabble
    Lexi helps with Scrabble

    *      *      *

    After  a wonderful month and a day without a casualty, DoD reported on April 4 that Capt. James E. Chaffin III, 27, of West Columbia, S.C., died April 1, in Kandahar, Afghanistan, of a non-combat related incident. Our condolences to his family and friends.

  • Spring #WTF

    Yesterday: chores and such. Today: shopping, chores and such. And along with those and exercise, a startlement. I was just getting into the groove on the elliptical, when I looked up and out to see … snow. Sigh. Really? Yup. Wasn’t much, didn’t stick to roads or sidewalks, but seriously I’m officially tired of snow. I want a couple of months of high 50’s to low 70’s. What I’m a’feared of is a direct transition to summer mode. That’ll have me wishing for more snow in less than a couple of days. Here’s what it looked like out the back window:

    30 March 2014: Snow
    30 March 2014: Snow

    *      *      *

    Another week with no casualties announced. I’m glad. Ciao!

  • Whoops…

    Frankly, I don’t know what happened on Sunday. It wasn’t a particularly stressful day, I got some stuff done, but not much. Not much at all since I managed also to forget to post, and continue forgetting until Marcia reminded me just now. What’s been going on? Today:

    Yeah, more snow
    Yeah, more snow

    You wouldn’t guess it was Spring already, eh? In other news, I’ve been a much better boy when it comes to sticking to the exercise routine this year. I picked up in earnest in early February and have been improving as I went along. Today, along with sit-ups and a few push-ups, I managed this on the elliptical:

    Today's elliptical workout - 845 calories & 5000 "strides"
    Today’s elliptical workout

    So I’ve got that going for me.

    *      *      *

    Good news, no new casualties reported by DoD (none announced since March 3). Ciao!