Friday

tip-o-day

If you work on a computer all day like I do, and find yourself experiencing neck, shoulder or back pain you may want to readjust your seating vs. keyboard position.
Try a keyboard tray, or raising your chair height. Be sure your shoulders are not hunched.

In all cases, typing all day is a rather unnatural position to hold your arms and torso in... so do try to get up often, stretch... maybe take a little stroll around the office.

Weekends in Italy

It seems Ferris is adjusting to dorm life in Italy just fine.
He called us a couple of times... from various locations around the country.

This weekend they took a long train ride north. One of the guys was sick, and got much worse on the train... but they got him to a doctor in Milan who gave him antibiotics and sent them on their way. So of course, they threw the guy on a ferry boat up a lake in the Alps to stay in a hostel for the night.

He called the next day from stands of the Milan vs. Roma soccer game. No clue how he found it... let alone got in.

patiently waiting

I just saw the street cleaners on the side road across the street.
That means they will come to my street soon.
I get very excited about the street cleaners.
Think about it... its like the biggest industrial vacuum ever.

Of course I ran right out there to sweep out the end of my driveway.
I mean hey... none of that sand and gravel out there is mine. The way I figure it is I bought those street cleaners with tax money.
It's the least they could do for me.

reflections

Over the many years we have lived here we've been giving more and more of our large suburban lot back to "The Nature". Our deep backyard is now overgrown in stages. It spans from a young forest farthest from the house to a blooming meadow in the latest section we are naturalizing - ie. not cutting anymore.

As I was out on the tractor over the weekend I noticed a large gopher hole in this newly overgrown swath of lawn.
Of course... I worried a little. Holes like that can be dangerous.
Then, I remember we had an old reflector on a post in the garage and so I installed it at the site of the gopher hole.

I was very pleased with myself.

The next morning my nature-loving wife and I were sitting on the patio enjoying a cup of coffee.
I proudly pointed out my ingenuity.

weese: "Look...waay out there in the back yard. Look what I installed to protect the wildlife."
my curious wife: "Yes... I thought I noticed something out there."
weese: "See, now the deer won't break their little legs romping around back there."
my wiseguy wife: "Yeah, because deer have headlights."

hmm.

Friday

tip-o-day

This just in...
Ferris has arrived safely in Italy.
He is participating in a study abroad summer program.

Here are some views from his Italian dorm room.



I gave him some tips on the way to the airport.
We reviewed some of the material in the parents pamphlet, where it talked about being safe and smart while out on the town. Especially for the American girls traveling with the group -- European men may misinterpret their friendliness as an invitation to intimacy, or that accepting a drink from a man may be an acceptance of such an invitation. It also talked about how to drink responsibly and maintain a high level of decorum. All good advice for the young twenty-somethings...

Also on the long ride to the airport he practiced Italian phrases from a little book he bought.

"Where is the bank machine?"
and,
"What do you recommend?"

oh and...
"Can I buy you a drink?"

Friday

tip-o-day

I once read that a goldfish will grow to adapt to the size of its environment. In other words, if you put your goldfish in a larger bowl it will grown larger. If you keep it in a smaller bowl it will remain small.

In keeping with this same theory - it's important never to buy larger pants.

I have been remiss...

It's a good thing Ferris doesn't read my blog.
Because it might upset him to know that I didn't tell you how he went out to H OO Ters of all places on a Monday(school) night to have a couple beers with his friends.

He bought his beers.
Cuz he is a stand up guy ...who likes to pay his own way.
And he can...
Cuz he's a man now.

Happy 21 baby boy.

Friday

tip-o-day

Remember that book someone wrote a while back about how we learned pretty much everything we needed to know in kindergarten.

Sometimes its just a matter of applying the knowledge.

Do you remember pencil rubbings? You know... where you take a sheet of paper and lay it over something that's textured. Then you hold your pencil flat and rub it across the page. The shading then picks up the texture onto your page. I remember running all over the school grounds to find interesting things to rub-- trees, rocks, the engraved sign on the entrance...

Well that same principal works great when you need to make a template to mount something to the wall.

I used this method in my home office to mount modems and power strips to a peg board tucked behind the chimney.

I just flipped over each device, lay a sheet of paper on it, and rubbed with my pencil over the mounting holes. Then I just lightly taped the sheet to the wall and drilled a small pilot hole directly through the paper.
After putting in the screws each device fit like a charm.