Good morning world

Yesterday i observed both birth and death: a brunch to belatedly toast Christine's new trip around the sun and a memorial meeting for worship for a woman of our Meeting. In listening to the shared narratives about the remarkable woman and doing some math, i realize the stories shared were all of a her life when she was older than i am old.

I should very much like to pull free of the work stress and focus and be able share the self that has been shaped by all that stress. Christine, feeling some solidity under her these days, wants much to offer me some of the support i've been providing. I know the career route she's taking -- teaching GIS -- is likely to be a seasonal labor, thanks to you friends on here who share how you piece livelihoods together from multiple schools. That may be sufficient balance to however a third career might unfold for me.

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I'm sure if i were to focus i would be more delighted with what i could create, but i do enjoy experimentation so much. Christine is experimenting with simple woodworking, and so we've both been investing in the Dremel. I used an Amazon gift certificate to buy a stand for it, and Christine's drilling pilot holes in oak as part of her footrest project (for playing mandola). I am imagining projects for myself. Once upon a time i tried drilling seashells and gave up, but there are documented Dremel seashell drilling projects. I probably just need the correct bit.



I'm continuing to experiment with the new camera, as well. I had become so familiar with our point and shoot, and i know how to use ASM modes on my SLR: the point and shoot options ("scenes") on the new camera puzzle me. A little surfing, and i suspect that there's no extra magic there. Macro mode probably sets a narrow depth of field and so on. I suspect what i should really take the time to learn about are the different ways to set the light meter.

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I hope to be industrious this Sunday. I think if i were to work on presentations for work that would be an engaging yet time consuming project that i could do on a Sunday afternoon to free me for the yams during the scheduled work week. I could interrupt myself for some household chores that are stacking up around us.

Yule decorations are not likely to come down yet. I'm thinking Candlemas would be a good target for decor removal.

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Looking at a photo of my sister's kids, i wonder about preferences. Her daughter is in her pink pink coat and tiara, and her son in his cammo pants. I know just how hard it is to get the princess gear off the daughter, and I know how much my sister tries to encourage her daughter to look beyond the pink, and her son to not limit himself to boy stuff. But were i a random passerby in the grocery, i'd just assume that these were kids who had been channeled into gender roles early.

Yesterday afternoon wasn't as industrious as i wished, but i made the Spanish pancake tortillas of gram flour with crab (and i've saved the recipe somewhere with enough keywords that i can find it again!), vacuumed with a cranky vacuum, and tidied some things. I also looked a little more into python, and that may have been part of my disappointment in the day. I discovered the "learning path" was just a long essay, essentially, and i stumbled across a tutorial elsewhere.