Trivial (or not so trivial) stuff that makes you happy.

[DonM435]

I remember that the short-lived American Basketball League, early 1960s, had a team named the Pittburgh Rens. First time I heard that, I figured it was "Wrens," i.e., like the bird.
Nope. It was named for some "Renaissance Renewal" project, so it was more in the style of 76ers, Astros, Expos and so on.

(Apparently the early pro basketball teams were started by industrial organizations, so the nicknames evolved along those lines: we got Pipers, Tapers and of course, Lakers.)

[KaiYeves]

Wow.

After all these years I only *just* this morning realized that the ren in Miss Gillian's forum handle stood for renaissance as in renaissance fair.

How the hell did I miss that for more than ten years?

It took me about seven or eight years myself. If it were GillianRen or some other way of marking the words off as two words, I would have gotten it sooner, but as one word it just looked like some fancy name I was unfamiliar with.

[ozduck]

Being a Grandfather. This Thursday we took our 3 yr old Granddaughter out for a day trip. We took a bus & th en a train into central Perth and caught a ferry across the Swan River - only about a 7 minute ferry trip. Then we had lunch of Beef Rendang & Nasi Ayam Goreng (Malay Fried Chicken & Rice) at a small cafe. Our Granddaughter only ate a little rice and salad from our meals but scoffed down my Keropok (Krawn Crackers) - the lady behind the counter saw this and then kindly bought out a plate of them just for her. Afterwards we did the trip in reverse, after a break at a playground. Because of our Seniors Cards the transport was all free. Amusingly, even though the meal was a reasonable price by Perth standards we have just come back from Kuala Lumpur and there for a similar meal we paid about the same amount in Malaysian Ringgit - and the Ringgit is about 3.4 to the Oz dollar.

Yesterday we took her to a "Community Fair" put on by her local council. She had her face painted, got a balloon butterfly, saw jugglers, dancers & singers, petted baby animals and went on a spinning ride which she enjoyed but left my wife dizzy for half an hour. Plus she did other activities. Again, all this was free.

It is fun to have her for a day - and then pass her back to her mother for bedtime.

[Gillianren]

Yesterday was Irene's naming ceremony. We got together at my best friend's house. We had a little ritual where her new godmothers agreed to be there for her if she needed them. Then, we had snacks and talked. One of the godmothers had been my best friend in grade school, and she and my sister hadn't seen each other in twenty-five years. That friend also brought along her twelve-year-old daughter, who wants to be a dancer. Apparently, one of the companies she'd want to join is in Seattle, which would mean my friend would visit the area more often.

[Swift]

Nice stories ozduck and Gillianren.

[astrotimer]

It is the first day of spring,

[Extravoice]

It is the first day of spring,

While our Winter hasn't been particularly harsh, I'm especially looking forward to Spring this year.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Gillianren]

We've apparently had one of the worst winters in the US relative to normal--ours has been worse, and everyone else's has been better. I've enjoyed it, but I also like spring quite a lot, so that'll be nice, too. And while I was out showing my friend the neighbourhood the other day, we started seeing cherry trees considering blooming.

In further good news, my new computer has finally arrived. (A friend was building it, and there were issues.) I haven't transferred everything over yet; there's basically nothing on the computer right now. But this means I can actually start the process, which will make building my faire boss's website easier. Which is good, because he's started getting regular orders on it. It's nowhere close to replacing his Etsy account yet, which is the eventual plan, but it's finally paying for itself.

[BigDon]

I'm so glad it doesn't get dark at 5:30 anymore.

[KaiYeves]

I'm so glad it doesn't get dark at 5:30 anymore.

Agreed. It's still light at 7!

[danscope]

" Yes, and with the extra daylight, surely the snow will melt faster !!! " . Hmmmm........

[danscope]

I wish we could just keep DST .

[Extravoice]

I wish we could just keep DST .

The problem is that there just isn't enough daylight in the winter, no matter how you shuffle it around.

[CJSF]

I tried to advocate shifting hours of operation of things one hour (Summer Hours or Winter Hours or whatever), but no one seemed to get what I was saying. Some people really DO think, on some level, that we gain an hour of daylight for DST. I'm more of a purist and think we should keep standard time (and tweak the time zones to be more meridional). Deaf ears, I tell you.

CJSF

[Gillianren]

It's a nice enough day so that Graham is outside--fixing his car. He had an accident I think in August? A minor one, but it means his car hasn't been roadworthy this whole time. He got the part yesterday, literally months after he knew what part he needed, and is installing it. We should be a two-car household by the end of the day. Meanwhile, inside, both kids are asleep, leaving me with time to fiddle more with my faire boss's website--including putting a picture of Irene in our gallery. We took some pictures of her "wearing" some of the merchandise to use as an explanation of why the web stuff hadn't been checked as often as usual lately and why improvements to the site hadn't been continuing. But it means I can share the picture with all of you, as I finally have a decent photo-sharing platform. https://www.redwolfltd.com/gallery?l...aItem-j0pug5m9

ETA--oh, the picture before that one is Simon last summer.

[Swift]

Nice. She looks good in green.

[grant hutchison]

I wish we could just keep DST .

When I was a kid, the UK had an experiment with that. It maybe worked OK in London, but five degrees farther north I was walking to school in the freezing pitch dark for what seemed like half the winter. We were all issued with high-viz armbands, and I can remember how a passing car's headlights would light up a little procession of yellow bands moving along the snowy street towards school.

Grant Hutchison

[Gillianren]

Nice. She looks good in green.

Thank you kindly! I made her dress.

Graham ended up having the wrong part, so the car didn't get fixed after all. But he worked on it, we'll order the right part today, and we had a babysitter last night who let us go see Logan. Yesterday was our fourteenth anniversary.

[Trebuchet]

Thank you kindly! I made her dress.

Cute! You've made a dress, a website, and best of all, a human being! Oops, TWO human beings. Can't get better than that.

[Noclevername]

Happy anniversary, Gillian!

[Gillianren]

Thank you kindly!

[KaiYeves]

Happy Anniversary!

[LookingSkyward]

Grats, miss Gillian!

[Solfe]

In further good news, my new computer has finally arrived.

Hey! I am going to blend some threads, but congrats on the new computer, better photo sharing site and the cute baby (who might not still be a baby now). Once you have the RegrETSY™ account running, let me know. I saw some stuff my wife might like.

In any event, I am have a blast this semester. This is the most laid back and relaxing semesters I have ever had. I am taking 6 class (18 cr) with 5 of best professors I have met. The sixth professor is also a great guy, but I don't know him very well as this is my first class taught by him. He teaches "HIS 300W - Research adn Writing in History Seminar, Writing Intensive". It is basically the first level of academic writing and covers all of the basics and standard expectations of the department. It is a must have class, and the department is serious about it. I have already taken a few other writing intensives at a higher level, so this is kind of "old hat".

The professor is so laid back, his class is an enjoyable riot. Today he sent out an email informing us that he is required to give us a mid-term grade. He decided to enter the letter B for everyone, without bothering to calculate individual grades. He assured us that if we are doing better than a B, everything will be fine. And for those of us who haven't earned a B, he will enter a different letter for our final grade.

Slacker, but funny nonetheless.

I selected all of my professors and classes based on who I liked in previous semesters. With the exception of the professor for HIS300W. He was the only one teaching it at a convenient time for me. What really cracks me up is 4 of my 5 other teachers also teach HIS300W and use that as a guide for planning non-writing intensive classes. The fifth professor is actually the department chair who dictates the standards. The standard is to produce a single, 20 page paper on a focused topic, that is theoretically suitable for publication. And all of these professors somehow have different style and formatting standards. You'd think they would be the same. ::shrug::

With the passing of mid-term, my HIS300W professor is grinding on us to produce this paper. I keep a log of all of my writing - length, topic, sources, etc. For my other 5 classes I have completed 72 pages of writing and have another 75 or so to go. That averages out to better than 29 pages per non-writing intensive class. I am not going to sweat one 20 page no matter how hard this professor tries to scare us. The fact that he is so relaxed makes his cajoling high comedy.

One of my professors assigns 3 or 4 writing assignments a week. Single spaced, 11 point, New Times Roman, one page minimum, two pages max. If it was double space like all of my other classes, every page would almost count twice. So, 84 pages for just one class, and it isn't this professor's writing intensive. If I didn't like writing, if I didn't enjoy this teacher, I'd jump off a roof. This is my third class with her, so I knew what I was getting in to.

[Trebuchet]

I'm looking forward to my niece's (the daughter we never had) wedding on Sunday. This past Saturday, she saw to it that my wife was invited to her shower, with a Breakfast at Tiffany's theme. Wife had a blast, despite being 30 years older than anyone else there!

[ozduck]

Very nice by your niece. She obviously has great affection for your wife & you.

[Gillianren]

Hey! I am going to blend some threads, but congrats on the new computer, better photo sharing site and the cute baby (who might not still be a baby now). Once you have the RegrETSY™ account running, let me know. I saw some stuff my wife might like.

We've got an Etsy, but we're working on shifting to the website instead. For one thing, Etsy charges us a lot more than the website does, and it's per item. We already have more items on the website than we do on the Etsy, and as the website takes over business, it's going to save my boss a very large sum every month. We'll leave a skeleton Etsy up, but mostly to attract business in the first place. Anyway, thank you kindly on all of those! She's still a baby, but--definitely non-trivial--we put her to bed at one this morning, and she slept until seven!

The professor is so laid back, his class is an enjoyable riot. Today he sent out an email informing us that he is required to give us a mid-term grade. He decided to enter the letter B for everyone, without bothering to calculate individual grades. He assured us that if we are doing better than a B, everything will be fine. And for those of us who haven't earned a B, he will enter a different letter for our final grade.

Slacker, but funny nonetheless.

Definitely.

I'm looking forward to my niece's (the daughter we never had) wedding on Sunday. This past Saturday, she saw to it that my wife was invited to her shower, with a Breakfast at Tiffany's theme. Wife had a blast, despite being 30 years older than anyone else there!

I invited Heather's grandmother to my baby showers. She's a neat old lady--ten years older than my mom. (Actually, she lives up in your direction--Hansville, out on the Kitsap Peninsula.) I haven't met your wife, but I just tend to assume she's also pretty cool.

[Torsten]

Coming into a house that is filled with the aroma of baking bread, just as the oven timer goes off to tell me it's done, and then enjoying one or more slices of baking heaven.

(I wonder if anyone has already mentioned this earlier in the thread?)

[LookingSkyward]

Coming into a house that is filled with the aroma of baking bread

Truly lovely!

[Noclevername]

(I wonder if anyone has already mentioned this earlier in the thread?)

It bears repeating.