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!
~ ~ ~
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!
~ ~ ~
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!
