houseguest made it
Oct. 17th, 2009 08:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareinaI spent much of Friday downstairs in the lab, getting the next two gold capsules filled, welded shut. This required some help from my boss, but we think we know what went wrong with the welding of the one I messed up. By the time I was finally done for the day it was after 7pm, so I went home, expecting to find Crian and our houseguest, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
skyemaroc, hanging out and chatting. But he hadn't heard from her. This seemed a bit odd, since she had planned on taking the train from Geneva that arrives in Milan at 16:30. So after a bit I came back across the street, to see if there had been word from her, and to double check that my memory of her anticipated arrival was correct. Yes, my memory of plan A was correct, but this time there was a FaceBook message from a lady I've not met in person, but have heard of, letting me know that my houseguest was on the train which would arrive at 22:30 instead, and that her phone was out of credit. Therefore, since there is a locked gate outside of this building at night, I went home to wait. (She'd said that she'd take a cab from the station to my place). I got involved in a project while waiting, and didn't notice time elapsing, and didn't realize how late it was when she got in at nearly midnight. It wasn't till I looked at my watch before doing our evening yoga that I realized how late it was (well after 1:00 at that point).
Accordingly, I slept in today till after 10:00 and we enjoyed a leisurely morning on line, then had lunch before setting out on a trip to IKEA. Boy, am I glad thatskyemaroc was along for that trip! clovis_t really didn't want to go--he doesn't care for furniture shopping in the best of times, and when the store is that huge... But she and I made an adventure of it, wandering around, looking to see what shelving options will fit the space available for them, and are an appropriate size, shape, and price. She was kind enough to take notes on the things we looked at, and enjoyed the process of narrowing down the selection. Eventually we found an English-speaking employee who was able to confirm that the things we'd chosen would cost what we were expecting them to, and he told us that if we go to the self serve counter downstairs we can get it ordered and delivered tomorrow. Then he said that delivery would be 69 Euros! Ouch! Not liking that idea, one bit. But the list was too large/bulky to manage on the bus/train back home with just the two of us. Then skyemaroc asked if I know anyone with a car. Why yes, yes I do. The shire seneschal has a van. So home we went, with a print-out of what I want. After a yummy meal (home-made egg noodles with a choice of spinach, chickpeas, ground beef cooked in garlic and spices, pesto, grated cheese, flax seeds, toasted almonds for topping--no two of us chose the same mix) we came back to the office, where I could check in via Skype to see if the shire seneschal would be willing to help pick the shelves up. "of course" was the reply. Yay!
It looks like I should have shelves before my things arrive--the boxes have cleared customs in the UK, and should be put on a truck bound for Italy in the next few days. The next experiment is just about ready to start, so now I need to learn how to analyze the results of the first one (including learning how to use Mathmaticia and the routines my research team have devised for making the graphs), get the third one ready to go while the second one runs, work on those papers for publication of my PhD research, and attend my Italian Language course 6 hours a week, all while trying to have a social life and get the local SCA shire back into active status.
skyemaroc, hanging out and chatting. But he hadn't heard from her. This seemed a bit odd, since she had planned on taking the train from Geneva that arrives in Milan at 16:30. So after a bit I came back across the street, to see if there had been word from her, and to double check that my memory of her anticipated arrival was correct. Yes, my memory of plan A was correct, but this time there was a FaceBook message from a lady I've not met in person, but have heard of, letting me know that my houseguest was on the train which would arrive at 22:30 instead, and that her phone was out of credit. Therefore, since there is a locked gate outside of this building at night, I went home to wait. (She'd said that she'd take a cab from the station to my place). I got involved in a project while waiting, and didn't notice time elapsing, and didn't realize how late it was when she got in at nearly midnight. It wasn't till I looked at my watch before doing our evening yoga that I realized how late it was (well after 1:00 at that point). Accordingly, I slept in today till after 10:00 and we enjoyed a leisurely morning on line, then had lunch before setting out on a trip to IKEA. Boy, am I glad that
skyemaroc was along for that trip! clovis_t really didn't want to go--he doesn't care for furniture shopping in the best of times, and when the store is that huge... But she and I made an adventure of it, wandering around, looking to see what shelving options will fit the space available for them, and are an appropriate size, shape, and price. She was kind enough to take notes on the things we looked at, and enjoyed the process of narrowing down the selection. Eventually we found an English-speaking employee who was able to confirm that the things we'd chosen would cost what we were expecting them to, and he told us that if we go to the self serve counter downstairs we can get it ordered and delivered tomorrow. Then he said that delivery would be 69 Euros! Ouch! Not liking that idea, one bit. But the list was too large/bulky to manage on the bus/train back home with just the two of us. Then skyemaroc asked if I know anyone with a car. Why yes, yes I do. The shire seneschal has a van. So home we went, with a print-out of what I want. After a yummy meal (home-made egg noodles with a choice of spinach, chickpeas, ground beef cooked in garlic and spices, pesto, grated cheese, flax seeds, toasted almonds for topping--no two of us chose the same mix) we came back to the office, where I could check in via Skype to see if the shire seneschal would be willing to help pick the shelves up. "of course" was the reply. Yay! It looks like I should have shelves before my things arrive--the boxes have cleared customs in the UK, and should be put on a truck bound for Italy in the next few days. The next experiment is just about ready to start, so now I need to learn how to analyze the results of the first one (including learning how to use Mathmaticia and the routines my research team have devised for making the graphs), get the third one ready to go while the second one runs, work on those papers for publication of my PhD research, and attend my Italian Language course 6 hours a week, all while trying to have a social life and get the local SCA shire back into active status.
