Llyfr madness

Or, new and old and new again…

I have a new laptop! World, meet Llyfr (Welsh for “book,” both because I write books on it and because it’s a black 13.3-in MacBook).

See, when I took over as Kingdom Chronicler, as shiny aluminum 17-in Apple laptop came with the job. As much as I coveted that laptop, it’s just too big and heavy for me to be schlepping around. It would be fine at home, but when I travel, especially lugging my laptop bag through airports…not so much. So Ken is going to use the 17-in for two years, and I’ve now been upgraded to the MacBook he’d been using, replacing my beloved Afalwen (“white apple,” pronounced Avalon). Afalwen was fine, but she was getting full (this one has at least 3x as much memory), and her wireless connection wasn’t quite up to par. Plus this one has the upgraded, clearer screen.

It took me a while to find a name for Llyfr (which could have been Llyfr du, for Black Book, but that had the downside of us exclaiming “Leefer DUUU!” at random intervals, not to mention the Little Black Book connotation), and I already miss the vinyl decal on the back of Afalwen. I’ve spent way too much time yesterday looking for one for this computer. At first I wanted a silver one, but now I’m thinking white, since the Apple on the cover is pretty white. I don’t want a full skin, because those cover the apple; I don’t want something trendy, no matter how much they delight me (the Snow White, the Iron Man, the Dharma logo, the Battlestar Galactica logo).

What decal do you think would be perfect for me and Llyfr? If you find one and I like it enough to buy it, you’ll win a prize!

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In other news, we have a new door!

Well, an old door, but we live in an old house, so…

Briefly, for the uninitiated: We live in a 1911 Craftsman-style bungalow that we’re slowly fixing up. The bones are fine; most of what we’re doing is cosmetic. (Except for the fact that it’s sinking into the Oxnard silt on one side, thanks to the 2-story chimney, so we’re saving up money to get it properly jacked up, because that is not cheap. And eventually we’ll have to get the original knob-and-tube wiring replaced, because more electric sockets would be A Handy Thing. And some of the pipes are still pretty old. Hey, at least we don’t have to tear down walls!)

Anyway, all of the doors and door hardware in the house are original, except for the door between the media room and the kitchen, which was put in later and was a basic hollow-core door, whereas the rest of them are the five-panel type. When the Realtor was showing the house, she apparently pointed out this door to everyone, which got the owner so cranky that she went to the salvage place in Pasadena and bought the right door. Which we never put in, until last week, when Ken’s dad visited to help with some house projects. Ken even found the right doorknob in a bin of house stuff.

However, the paint is all peeling, so we have to take it down, strip it, and stain it (everything got painted white in the house, so stripping and staining will be a many-years’ project), and then we have to clean all the hardware (knob, strike plate, and hinges) to get the paint and dirt off of them. But the door is currently hung, and that’s what matters!

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There’s much more I could write about, and hopefully eventually will, but I am crammed up tight against a couple of deadlines now (three external and one of my own stubborn making), and I’ll be taking Friday and Saturday off (Friday to go to the Cat House and thence on to Ridgecrest with Morgana and Lareej, where we will meet up with Brian; and Saturday for Kingdom Coronation. We’re not staying for Crown Tournament on Sunday, though.), so now I’m off to workity workity!