Month: June 2006

Annette’s broken (okay, sprained) leg

So….

This morning, I was minding my own business in the basement, working away at my desk while Sophie was hiding underneath it because of the cleaning people, whom Sophie is afraid of, were busy upstairs. I was trying to settle in to a day of getting caught up on various projects. While sorting through various blog readings, I heard the distinctive noise of Annette and crashing bottles, followed shortly by her obviously crying out in pain.

Basically, what happened was she was taking out trash and bottles out to the garage, something that she’s done 1,000 times before, when she tripped and fell on the steps out the back door. Now, I’ve tripped on these steps before myself– even fell. The steps are kind of crooked and cock-eyed. But this time, Annette somehow managed to trip and fall and twist her whole leg under her. “God DAMN it!” she yelled,” which immediately attracted the attention of our nice but very religious neighbor.

When I came out, she was on the ground and certainly not happy about it. At first, I thought she had hurt her back or something, largely because of the way she was laying there and also because it just seemed to me that hurting her back was more likely. But no, it was her knee and leg and ankle.

So, after a small conference between myself, the cleaning ladies, and our religious neighbor, Annette and I were off to the emergency room. Fortunately, especially in light of recent news stories about how ill-prepared the US emergency rooms are, things weren’t that busy and Annette got cared for quickly. Ultimately, the verdict was not a break but a badly sprained leg– not just a kneee, not just an ankle, the whole damn leg.

They put on this strange quickly hardening cast thing and wrapped it all up so she has, basically, a “half cast,” which she’ll have for about a week. Ah yes, the fun of showering with a bag on your leg.

Here’s a picture of the damage:

sprained leg

She’s obviously unhappy and in pain about all of this, but I’m guessing that by the end of this week or so, she’ll be okay. It has already required quite a bit of rescheduling of various events both present (including a Steve visit to her graduate class– what a hoot) and near future (Annette will now be accompanying Will and me for a family trip to Wisconsin this weekend since it’s clear that she’s not going to be able to take care of herself with this thing).

And for me, it’s required many errands and some nursing. For example, while Annette was being x-rayed, I was trying to hunt down some crutches. I ask my honey what she wants for dinner, and when she says “lasagna,” I spring into action. And don’t get me started with dealing with dog care for the weekend, car repair, transportation for Will, etc., etc.

But even though it’s my blog, it’s still about Annette here. For example, take a look at this card from Will– click on the images to get some more details:

Will's card, #1

and…

Will's card, #2

Follow the links– they are worth it.

Anyway, get well Annette!

I’m sure these sites aren’t legal…

… and probably won’t be around for that long. But in the meantime, two things I came across this morning:

A directory of each and every Calvin and Hobbes cartoon.

All about South Park, which includes (I think) every episode of the show.

The second one is particularly interesting to me. Given that high speed internet access is coming online fast and given all the other ways that there are television shows online for free or for a small fee, these two different boxes, the TV and the computer, are indeed merging into one. Heck, the stereo is already stuck inside this particular box….

New Hammock!




Hammock 1

Originally uploaded by steven_d_krause.

In our backyard, we have two enormous pine trees– I mean like 5 stories tall– that are just the right distance appart for a hammock. In fact, we did have a hammock back there a couple years ago, but it was inexplicably destroyed in freak fight between squirrels and possibly a raccoon. But that’s a different story.

This story is, partly in honor of Father’s day, Annette and Will bought a new hammock. After the weeding this weekend, perhaps I’ll take a nap back there.


The Beer Watcher II: Wheat Beer

We (meaning me, Bill H-D, and Steve B) started another batch of beer yesterday morning, a wheat beer recipe from “All Things Beer” called “Williamston Wheat.” Compared to the first season of the beer watcher, a recipe that involved moss, grain bags, multiple applications of hops, etc., etc., this recipe was ridiculously easy:

7 lbs Wheat/Barley malt extract
1 oz Saaz hops
Wyeast 3056 or Munton’s Ale dry yeast
3/4 cup priming sugar and caps

Directions:

Add the wheat/barley malt extract and 1 ounce of hops to 1 1/2 gallons of water and boil for 1 hour.

Cool down the wort, put it in the fermenter with 3 1/2 gallons water, pitch the yeast.

That’s it. Compared to last time, this beer practically makes itself.

I was late, and Steve B and Bill H-D already did the most active steps of this beer, which was boiling the water and adding the malt and the hops. So my roll here really was watching, especially since Steve and Bill spent a fair amount of time moving some furniture out to the driveway since there was a yard sale in progress. And actually, I only half-watched; I spent more time trying to figure out a new WordPress set-up.

Two amusing things happened in all of this that are photo-worthy, but unfortunately, the batteries in my camera died. One of the great fears of home-brewing (perhaps the only fear) is that of the dreaded boil-over, which is a danger when you add the syrupy malt extract. But Bill was really not worried about it because he had a new pot for cooking up the wort this time, a five gallon rig. The water wasn’t quite up to temprature, so he put on the lid, and, worry free with the largeness of the pot, we sat around at the kitchen table and chatted.

We heard the boil-over first. Bill and Steve B sprang into action, removed the lid, turned down the burner (we had some debate as to whether or not the electric element of a stove could properly be called a “burner”), and stirred. Tragedy was probably averted, but a lot of the hops boiled up and onto the sides of the pot. So I guess the test will be in the tasting, about a month or so from now (I think about a month).

The other photo-worthy moment involved Bill spilling enough of the ice water we were using for chilling the wort on himself to require a change of clothes before lunch.

Yet another Facebook article

This one in Inside Higher Ed, titled “The Many Faces of Facebook.” I just skimmed it, but it looks like it’s talking about the different ways that different institutions deal with Facebook, it has a bunch of links to various “Facebook event stories” (e.g., how the Secret Service investigated some kid because of GW Bush assissination attempt references made in Facebook), and it might make for good reading in a class next year. Other than that, same old, same old. And it reminds me to check in on my Facebook stuff….

Windows solutions for an Apple (at least a MacBook)

This article, “Guide for Choosing Boot Camp or Parallels to Run Windows on an Apple MacBook” at NotebookReview.com, looks like a thorough and useful discussion about Apple users’ options for running MS Windows, either BootCamp or a software product called “Parallels.” Interesting article with lots of details.

Actually, what might be more interesting if you can wait (as I’ve written about here before, a new MacBook is about a year or so away for me at least) is what will happen with OS 10.5. Among other things (including some very interesting collaboration tools), rumor has it that the new operating system will have “virtualization” built into it. In fact, I’ve heard (again, just a rumor) that the goal is to have an Apple OS where you can just install and use .exe MS Windows apps.

I think I am basically the “ideal user” for these kinds of solutions, both at work and at home. At work, I do 99% of of my work on the Mac exclusively with no problems; but there are some Windows-only software products that might be nice to be able to use (I’m thinking especially of some database software they use at EMU for admissions and such), and it would also be nice to show a confused student how to do something in my office with a computer running Windows.

And at home, the reason why I’d want to do this is probably obvious: games. I don’t play many of them, but to me, it’d be worth the cost of MS Windows to play the few games that I do play.

Of course, if I can run apps designed for MS Windows without having to mess with installing a new OS (and this is what I understand may be on the horizon with 10.5), then that’d be better.

"Nifty OS X Apps"/And back that Mac up, too

Here’s a list of some cool (and basically free, I think) apps for the Mac. I have some of them, but there are some others here worth checking out.

Also, there’s this fine advice on the Mac Observer for backing up your Mac. Actually, this advice is pretty much appropriate for any computer, and really, since PCs are more vulnerable to various viruses and such than Macs, advice on the need to back up is probably more important for PC owners.

I have to say it is not quite the new “the dog ate my homework,” but “my computer has a virus” or something like that is close to does surface as an excuse once in a while. Maybe I need to create some sort of student guide to computer maintenance…. or somebody does….