The kitten is practically a cat now...in size anyway. I have to pull her off the screens every now and then, and she has broken several items by pushing them off the windowsills, but I am growing more fond of her anyway...Interestingly, since we got the cat, Zoe's attitude has changed a lot. She was getting quite rebellious/independent, but now, she is very clingy and wants attention. She seems a bit jealous, although she has lots of fun playing with Phoebe.

I have been taking two classes at SUNY Albany for the last two weeks, and it is going reasonably well. The first is on Greek Mythology, and I have the worst professor I've ever had...he is a bit of an ass. But the class should be 3 relatively easy credits. The second is on Photography, and I am enjoying it quite a lot. Other than the surprising expense, which I failed to anticipate, the only thing I object to is the constant presentation of junk as "art." Obviously I am opining here, but she has given us a project which entails the photography of various household items (we have to pick one or more from a list including: toilet paper, trash bags, tin foil...)and we are required to make "art" from that. We shall see. Anyway, I have learned a lot, and ever since I discovered my great grandfather's photography equipment in the attic, I have been interested. I intend to focus on digital photography, but I find myself intrigued by the developing process, and am having fun.

Before classes started, I dug giant pit for Tom to deposit a geothermal heat system into:




Now, three weeks later, the pit is still there, and I'm not sure what we are waiting for. It seems we may have to dig it larger, and that someone else may be contracted to do that. Sigh, It might be finished by Sept, and then we shall have air conditioning!

In my free time, I have been playing Oblivion, in which I have learned enough to decide what my favorite type of character is, and to get that character up to level 27 which is quite high. I have half finished the main quest, and gotten very sidetracked quite often...that's one of the great things about Oblivion.
I have also been playing Mario Kart, on the Wii, which is awesome. I have gotten gold medals for all the cups except for 6 of the mirror cups. I have unlocked most of the characters and karts, and I have beaten Kris's scores in time trials on two of the races...we'll see how long that lasts.

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An Engineer's Guide to Cats

I just found this, and really enjoyed it. Totally hilarious.

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I smashed my finger today...

I smashed my finger today, and somehow it has put me in the right mood to blog, although my typing is rather difficult. If I didn't have a back button, I suppose that this would be unreadable. The bright side is that I smashed it doing something I love, which was working on my lathe, so...hopefully my project is not ruined.





On an even brighter note, our kitten, whom we've named Phoebe, is doing well, and loads of fun. I got several videos of her on my phone, and am trying to figure out how to post them. I know it's bad quality, but It's my phone, and I had to use the Polish zoom etc...

I have one day of classes, before my finals, and I think I have finally got all my classes lined up for the summer and next fall. What a mess! UAlbany made a mistake with the application, and didn't sign me up for one class, so I had to try to find one at HVCC, and the only one I liked was a 2 credit...yesterday I realized that the Latin course I want to take at UAlbany next fall is actually a 4 credit, so I can probably graduate next May with exactly the right number of credits.

Tom (my father-in-law) has big plans for this summer, so on top of the 4 classes i am taking and the two weeks of vacation I hope to enjoy, I am planning to dig a huge pit, so he can install piping for a "geothermal heat sink" which extracts heat from underground in the winter (the temperature at about 6' below ground stays roughly at 54degrees F. year around) and cool in the summer. I am going to be doing a lot of tree cutting, digging (I get to play with an excavator, maybe a bulldozer), laying stone walls, and remodeling part of the house.

I think the thing I am looking forward to the most this summer is the vacation Amy and I are planning...We want to go to Maine. I haven't been there for eight years, and some of my happiest memories of childhood are from there, so I am stoked. We are going to Acadia National Park, and hope to spend a week there.

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A new display...and other news.

 
Amy and I went to Target yesterday and found these little bitty shelvish things...not sure I "get it" but it looks alright. I am happy to have a place to display my new hobby. I was just sticking the pieces on the windowsill and on my desk, and on the kitchen table, which was getting crowded. Adds a nice sort of Artsy Fartsy to our relatively utilitarian home.
I am currently finishing a "rasberry cheesecake" hot chocolate which I just absent-mindedly stuck my fingers into...I'm used to having a mug of Skittles on my desk...Oh well.
Amy and I are going to get a cat. See her blog for pics. I am excited because Bengal cats are hypoallergenic, and because they have personalities which are supposedly more like dogs than like conventional cats...they like to play,(fetch) and are far less independant and skittish. Also, they like water. Not just for drinking either. Oh no, they like to swim, take showers, and play in the toilet. Should be an adventure.

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It seems I remember/feel like blogging once a month. I guess that's pretty good. When I was a kid, I tried at least 4 times to start a journal, and never got anywhere. :)
Amy and I just finished working on this bowl yesterday, It's definitely the best thing I have made yet. The material cost about 40 bucks, and we put at least 8 hours and a little bit of blood into it (cought my finger in the lathe, and got scraped up on sandpaper several times. -I'm ok.) I figure that with one new tool which I can probably get pretty cheaply I can make more of them in a bit less time. Anyway, I wish I had a better picture, as sunlight makes the wood shine. It's amazing.
In other news, I'm reading "The Dragon and the George" and playing a new browser-based game called Ikariam which is totally fun.
School is going like gangbusters. I'm already getting ready for midterms.
Amy just had her week off, so we got some good time together, and she's a little more relaxed to finish off the last part of her academic schooling...then she starts rotations...like a whirling Dervish! Ha.

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1-24-08

At last, it is time for a new post. I have been busy with school, my lathe and a supply of fiction from my friend Ed Greenslit, to whom I am extremely grateful. My puppy has, of course taken much of my time, and is extremely entertaining. I have been giving her carrots as a treat when she is good, which is most of the time, and she loves them. Last night, she slipped on some ice in the driveway at about 20 mph and did a slide over the burm of the...(insert word for pile of snow left by plow here)and was limping for several hours. I kept telling her to relax, and let it heal, as she was all excited to chase the cat, but she kept jumping up and running around on 3 legs...can't keep a good pup down.
Amy and I have been quite excited by the recent discovery of a church called Terre Nova in downtown Troy. (http://www.terranovachurch.org/home.php)We have gone to their services each of the last 3 weeks, and really enjoyed the worship, the messages (presently a series on old testament characters)and the friendly people. Monday night I went to their Theology at the Taproom, in which a group of about 30 people meet once a month to discuss the theology of some historical character (currently Bonhoeffer)as represented by one of his works. Right now we're reading Life Together. I think this is the fourth book they've read in the last two years. Augustines' "Confessions" was one, I don't know the others. So anyway, I'm really excited about this. I have always wanted to be a part of a group like the "Inklings" which is the discussion group that CS Lewis and Tolkien and several others formed. Maybe this will be a start to such good times. I met several, lovely characters, and am considering going out for dinner and a movie with a group this sat. They want to watch Rambo, which I'm not sure I want to see. It looks pretty violent.
School this semester is going well. I am taking two 300 level courses, and a 200 and a 100, so I have more reading than I've ever had before. I am actually trying to keep up as well, which is more than I can say for many of my fellow students...most of my books have yet to come in from Amazon, but I saved a hundred bucks or so...
My lathe work is progressing nicely. I have finished making all the stuff I wanted to give away as christmas presents, so now I am working on putting together a few items to sell at DepARTure, a museum gift shop at the albany Airport.(http://www.albanyairport.com/3/gallery/departure.html)They might sell my stuff on commission, which would be exciting. I have borrowed a drill press from Amy's grandmother, so I can now create vases more easily (I spent an evening at Uncle Andy's shop the other day drilling holes in several pieces I wanted to turn.)I am really hoping that by summer I will have enough pieces that I can rent a booth at a fair and sell my stuff. We'll see. I think I would need at least 40 pieces, and I am currently pumping out about 1 a week. I ordered a new piece for my lathe the other day which will enable me to make bowls. That's exciting.

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