Nina Lewis

My department at work has been moved to a new building. Er, maybe I should say ‘different’ building because it was build in the 1930s.  I don’t believe that the 1930s would be considered ‘new.’

I’m fixing up my office and will post pictures sometime next week so you can see what fun I have been up to.

I decided I wanted to take a silk plant to work. It has been snuggling on top of the headboard in our bedroom for some time. Like maybe 10 years. At least.

Ten years is a long time to ignore a silk plant. Granted it won’t shrivel up and die from lack of water because it doesn’t need water. Thank goodness.

But ten years is quite a while for dust to collect and spiders to spin a vast network of webs.

I took it outside to shake off the dust. Easier said than done. The dust was as high as an elephant’s eye. The acres of cobwebs held the dust firmly in place.

I decided that the only way to remove said dust was to give the silk plant a bath.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Picture, if you will, a soaking wet dog. Wet fur plastered to his skin in mangy clumps. Great droplets of water cascading down his face.  Sad, mournful eyes peering out at you. He whimpers faintly.

That’s what the plant was like. I sure hate it when my silk plants whimper.

Question: when you add water to ten years worth of dust, what do you get?
A. 15 acres of mud on each leaf
B. A tsunami of mud flooding into the plant’s wicker basket
C. Plants stem so weighted down that they will never go back to their original state
D. All of the above

Question: when you add water to ten years worth of cobwebs, what do you get?
A. A network that’s stronger than titanium
B. A network that’s stronger than titanium that can support 15 acres of mud
C. A network that clings stronger than ever to the host leaves
D. All of the above

If, Dear Reader, you answered D and D to the questions above, you get a gold star on your forehead. Move to the head of the class. And be sure to take the disheveled plant with you.

The other day I went to the grocery store. A huge display of cereal greeted me just as I walked in. A big sign shouted “Buy me.  I only cost a buck and a half.  What a deal! I’m cheap.  I’m healthy.  You just can’t lose if you buy me.”

The buck and a half for a box of cereal appealed to the skinflint that I am.

I had never eaten this cereal before. Ever.

But. The raspberries and blueberries in the picture looked scrumptious. Any food in a bowl with raspberries and blueberries would  taste wonderful just by mere association, wouldn’t it?  Most certainly.

I liked the colors on the box. Food in such a pleasing box just had to be delicious, right? Of course.

I convinced myself that the cereal (with only 60 calories and more whole grain than any other ingredient) would be a healthy, good tasting cereal for breakfast. Thus was my logic and reasoning. I decided to buy a box.

The clerk insisted that the price of a buck and a half was only if I bought 10 boxes.  I only wanted one.

I bought 10 boxes.

The next morning, I dumped out a big bowl for my breakfast. The cereal reminded me of dried bird poop.  Not a good sign.

I drowned the cereal in milk and took a big bite. Sawdust pellets taste better than this cereal.

I sprinkled sugar over the cereal and took another bit. Five pounds of sugar later, I wondered if the sugar canceled out any of the healthy benefits of the cereal.

If any of you, Dear Readers, like this cereal, please, Please, PLEASE let me know.  I will send you 9 unopened boxes (and one slightly used box) for your dining pleasure. Just tell me your address and they are yours.  All yours.

Things are always changing where I work. The most recent change for me is a change in office.

My previous office was in a building on the north edges of the university where I work.  Here is a picture of my office (at Christmas time with my merry techno-lights).

Here is a picture of my new office that I moved into yesterday.

My lovely desk.

The doors to a closet in my lovely office.

Inside my lovely closet.

This is the supply/copy center.

My office is in a building that is around 70 years old. It used to be a dormitory at the university. Our supply room/copy center used to be the showers.

There are some really neat architectural features to this building and to many of the rooms. Alas, my ‘office’ is rather plain.

My office is directly across the hall from the supply room. It is also by the water fountain.  I’m finding that I see lots of co-workers as they get supplies or copies or when they fill their water bottle. Much of the time, they pop into my office to chat momentarily.

My new office is on the south side of campus.  There is a HUGE hill that I have the opportunity of climbing up on my way to catch the bus home in the evening. My walk to and from work will give my tush a good workout. If this doesn’t give me buns of steel, I don’t know what will.

Last week, I updated my version of WordPress.  Tonight, I updated it again.  Updating it always makes me nervous.  I don’t like it when something goes wrong and then I have to spend hours and hours to fix it.

I was absolutely thrilled with the update.  Of course I made a backup just in case something went terribly wrong.  But it didn’t. The update was quick and  pain-free. I was thrilled to the depths of my little technological soul.

I loved the process and I love several new features.  Let me count them:

1. I love the new drag and drop media uploader.  Just as the name implies, all I have to do is drag any media (document, picture, video) and drop it onto the drop box and it is uploaded instantly.  It has reduced the number of clicks that it used to take to upload stuff.  (My, aren’t I a lazy person when I complain about how many clicks it takes to do something on the Internet?) Still, uploading is so much easier.  Sweet.
2. I love the clean look and feel.  The menu in the Dashboard has been condensed and now has flyout menus. It makes it look crisp, tidy, and not overwhelming.
3. The new design has ‘New’ in the navigation at the top of the screen.  Simply click on that to add a new post, page, media, link, or user.  Again, less clicks.
4. The best thing is that the align attributes really work in Firefox on a Mac.  This is a big deal to me.  I use Firefox. I use a Mac.  In previous versions, I could select the alignment I wanted but it wouldn’t align properly in Firefox on a Mac. But now it does.  That means I don’t have to go and tweak the code.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love coding. But it’s nice when I don’t have to make changes.  Lazy, lazy me. (I have the newest version of Firefox and WordPress.  Now, all I need is a new Mac!)

This upgrade brought glee to my technological soul.

If you use WordPress and you haven’t upgraded to the newest version, I highly recommend that you do. You’ll love the updating experience and you’ll love the new version.

One of the things that I love about this time of year is getting a new calendar. There are generally only two types that I get: ones depicting lush gardens or ones with pictures of tropical islands. I dream of growing lush gardens and of visiting those tropical isles.

At the end of December, I found a calendar (25% off) in the bookstore at the university where I work.  It was of tropical islands and had a picture of one of my most favorite islands in the world — Bora Bora.  (You know, its ranking might change once I visit more islands . . .  like Bali . . . )

I love gazing at those pictures while at work — especially in the deep of winter when the temperature is below zero and ice and snow abound. Those pictures give me hope that the weather WILL warm up. Eventually.

A map came with the calendar. I was thrilled.  For quite some time, I have had the intention of putting a map on the wall and placing pins in all of the places that we have visited.  I think getting this calendar will provide the final push to do that.

Both the calendar and the map was published by the National Geographic which means (of course) that they are of high quality.

While growing up, I was never interested in maps — neither high nor low quality maps.  I wasn’t interested in geography. I was bored to tears when I tried to read the National Geographic.  (My apologies to the National Geographic.  My fault — not yours.)

All that has changed now that I am grown up and mature — and now that I’m traveling.  Because there are so many places in the world that I want to visit, I enjoy finding the country on the map. Maps and geography have much more meaning to me now.

I’ve created a bucket list of places that I want to visit:  Bali, Morocco, Greece. the Mediterranean, Sicily, Iguassu Falls in Argentina, England, France, India, Thailand, and Egypt to name a few.  Later this year, we will go to New Zealand and Australia.  I can’t wait.

So many places and so little time.

If you ever happen to be in the neighborhood, feel free to drop in for a visit and see my map on the wall with all of the pins.  That is if you can catch me when I’m home . . .