Still Unpacking

We had a week off of unpacking while we were in Portland, Maine. We were hoping it would all be done when we got back. Unfortunately, the unpacking elves must have missed the memo. So yesterday we tackled the spare bedroom which we are setting up as an office and craft space for Debbie. But before we did that, we needed to get all the stuff that is supposed to be hanging on walls out of their boxes and up on the walls. That is always time consuming for two reasons; we have a lot of paintings, drawings, prints, posters, and photos to hang, and we have no idea what the "right" way is to hang the stuff. So we make random holes in the walls and just keep moving things around until we get something that doesn't look completely stupid. But we got it all mostly done, although I got up this morning and immediately made a mental list of all the things that were going to get tweaked today while I should be doing other things. One of those "other things" is to carry all the now-empty bins and boxes out to the storage unit. I've been putting it off because thanks to the snow-then-rain-then-freezing-rain storm last night, the parking lot is a skating rink. The salt truck finally showed up about two minutes ago and the sun is actually shining, so I will do that real quick once I'm done messing around here.

The other job I have to complete is our Christmas letter. I know most of our family and friends have no idea where we live, but the timing of our move made it impossible for us to send anything out early. I'm hoping to get them all done today and out in the mail tomorrow. We finished up the text of the letter last night, so now I just have to format and print them out. Then the real fun; addressing 100+ envelopes. Wheee.

Whenever I want to look up information on a potential purchase, my first stop is always the internet, specifically Google. But I almost always end up frustrated because of the enormous pile of useless information out there. Not useless as in inaccurate, but useless in the sense that for every opinion or experience, its antithesis from an equally-credible source exists. I thought it was just me; that I was somehow mentally deficient or doing something wrong. Well, at least there is one other person who is having the same difficulty I am. Now it may be that both of us are equally stupid, but it may be that Google's search model is going down the same path Yahoo's did, which was the reason for Google. So who is next up to bat and how long will it take for them to be rendered useless?

While us common folk struggle through the recession, it's nice to know our overlords are doing well:

Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession's first 18 months — and that's before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.

Nice. Anyone care to bet that these are not people doing the real work of the federal government, but a bunch of PHB's sitting in endless meetings with other PHB's? The next government-created bubble: Government.

If you want to know what the early-20th-century Wild West would look like in the 21st century, look no further than Sheriff Joe in Maricopa County in Arizona. It seems his antics have now come to the attention of the Federal Marshals. One can always hope that hanging makes a temporary come-back.

I know I said I was going to stop obsessing on the climate, but there was some good stuff on WUWT from over the weekend. First, an animation that puts the Hockey Stick in perspective:

Which assumes there even is a Hockey Stick. I'm sure a climate "scientists" can explain how two years of abnormal cold is caused by global warming. Maybe one these "scientists" currently in Copenhagen deciding our fate. A glimpse of our future?

Enough. This stuff isn't going to move itself out to the storage shed.