doh

A year ago I transcribed 90% of a set of letters from a great great uncle who died at the Somme.  Then I went back to work & didn't get back to it.  Since then my computer has died, but thats ok, I had back ups.  So I thought I'd pull it up, finish it off and format it this break.  Unfortunately the only back up I can find only has the 1st letter  typed up plus the start of the second.  There's 17 pages of this stuff.  Let all go back to square one.  Pausing now to back up again.

While backing up, I found a backed up folder that was titled "manually backed up files" the date is post the transcribing of the letters....and I backed up the family tree stuff, but not the folder with the transcribed stuff in it - sigh.  

I'm sure I used to make gingerbread houses in 2 days

I still haven't finished.  One is almost done (sans chimney) and I ran out of royal icing.  The other is missing the roof completely.  I have been working on and off on them all day.  (In between swimming, taking my academic dress in to be dry cleaned, shopping and getting a photo with Santa)  Wait, maybe that's the problem.

urge to do stuff...waning

Day 3 of my holiday and I wake up foggy headed, with a dry tickling cough.

Yesterday I went for my first proper "go to the pool and swim (aka flounder, breathe water and powerwalk when my arms give way) for 1/2 an hour"

I then made a couple of gingerbread houses (or at least made the components) and got in a little shopping on the side.  Turducken anyone?  Our local award winning butcher is making them.  They have as of yesterday, a standing order to make over 90 more for next week - I just bought one of the frozen ones, since it was just going to come home and be frozen till next week.

I went to bed with good intentions to swim again this morning and then decided to minimise the chances of turning the cough into something worse.  So, instead today I will walk the strand.

In addition, one more trip to the shops to pick up a christmas present, do the decorations on the gingerbread houses, go to the graduation (I'm in the procession as I have some students graduating).  I'll walk after that, since the graduation is near the strand - though I may change out of my academic dress first.  Somewhere in there I need to list some houses to look at next week.

I think thats enough for a day when I'm only perking up after coffee.  So it won't last.

26oC at 8am - joy.

first day of annual leave

So I had a massage.  I was also going to make gingerbread houses, but the new fridge was turning up, so I didn't want to be doing stuff in the kitchen.  I also downloaded 8 books from Baen books, because I need some holiday reading AND THEY DON'T DRM!!!...hmm I'm sure I did something else.  Oh wait, I mowed the lawn this afternoon - for an hour.  How did that slip my mind?

To do

I came in early to hose out the freezer part of my office fridge before turning it off for the christmas break – berry juice leaked in there when it partly defrosted & if I leave it one and the power goes off while I’m away, magenta coloured  ice will stain the carpet.When I sat down at the computer I found an email with some information that I can now send onto some students (I enquired about this yesterday moring) so now that’s done & now I’m going through my to do list to clear up some more jobs before I leave.  

1.      Discuss some student results (nope, needs someone else to be here)

2.      Hand over some grad student reports (nope, needs grad student to give me one more form)

3.      Write promotion stuff (nope, waiting on some paperwork I need to analyse to grind through someone elses hands)

I’m noticing a trend here.  Now looking on my to do list for stuff that doesn’t require anyone but me.  I really am not a team player.  Give me stuff to do that doesn’t depend on other people.  I’m much happier.

Now finishing this blog post after spending the whole day setting up an online resource for undergrad students.  This didn’t require anyone but me.  Glee and satisfaction.

new rule for my sony ereader

No buying DRM books through the Sony Store till I can figure out how to strip the drm before I put it on my Sony reader.  Sorry bookstores, you're out of luck.

Once again, I've had the waiting circles freeze my ereader mid book, requiring a reset and another sync with the desktop app to get the reader to recognise I have the right to read these books.  Maddening.  And what do I do if this happens on holidays when my computer with the downloaded rights is not available?

I must try a drm book on my kindle and see if it happens there too.

In comparison, I've read 30-40 books on both platforms that weren't drm'd and I've had zero problems.

Go Baen and Smashwords!