kareina

We are making progress on settling into the new house--our biggest challenge at the moment is still the internet access. Yesterday clovis_t managed to get the router working, sort of. It is now sometimes possible to connect our computers to the network, and even more rarely through the network to the internet, and even more rarely yet the connection is good enough that I can log into the Uni computer. I did manage to log into the uni computer this morning around 06:30 and as a result was able to access ArcMap (the program is only sort of on my computer--unless I'm connected to the uni computer where its licence is stored, I can't use the program, and it is essential for some of the tasks I still need to do for the thesis) and so I managed an hour and a half of uni work. Yay! Then it was time to head out the door to run errands, and I've not managed to get back on line that completely since, though I did manage a bit more uni work this evening despite not being able to access ArcMap. However, I forgot to make a note of how many new words I've written, and I'm not near my computer at the moment (since mine wouldn't log in, I just gave up and walked down the hall to the house computer to check in here), so the rest of the progress report will have to wait.

Today's accomplishments include getting my passport application turned in, picking up a loaner hearing aid (yesterday's errands included dropping one of mine off for repair, and since it won't be ready till after Christmas they called this morning to let me know they had another one available for me to use in the meanwhile), buying more ingredients for my mix-it-myself muesli, finding a decent second-hand suit coat for clovis_t to use for job interviews now that he's finished his degree, and finding a potential storage option for our boxes of stuff. We also attended the geology department BBQ, which was quite nice (other than the fact that the salad, which was lovely and green, had been poisoned--I will *never* understand how the rest of you can ingest vinegar!) I also determined that the shortest possible loop "around the block" in this neighbourhood takes 20 minutes to pedal around. Given that one of my tires was flat when I went out for the ride, I thought it a good idea to do only a short loop after re-filling it, on the off chance that it has an actual problem.

Today's failure was 1 hour, 20 minutes on the phone getting transferred from one department to another with Telstra/Bigpond (phone/internet company)trying to find out if it is true that the line to this house (which clovis_t's dad says was replaced recently) is really not suitable for ADSL, and if so, what it would take to replace it with something which will work. Every department was very willing to deal with me, until they finally transferred me to someone who could, I'm told, actually help. Then she refused to deal with me because I'm not the person in who's name the phone bill is listed--never mind that if the line does require replacement to work for ADSL I'll be the one paying for the upgrade! So we get to try again tomorrow sometime when the correct person is home to speak to them. Sigh.

Today I managed to start doing uni work promptly after finishing breakfast, accomplished several hours, then ran some errands in town, yet managed to return to doing uni work fairly promptly after returning home. This is a very pleasing achievement for me--those of you who actually follow the progress report part of my journal will have noticed a reoccurring theme wherin heading down the hill, for whatever reason, tends to be followed by several hours in which I accomplish no uni work at all. It was rather nice to *not* come home and be a slug after the errands. Particularly as the errands involved the thing I'd most like to avoid doing: shopping. I, like both of my parents before me, am not a shopper. I prefer to look at the positive side of things, but it is difficult to think positively of the experiance when, as so often happens, I have a clear idea of what it is I want/need, and it ( can't be found (warning TMI and a bit of a rant, click at own risk) )

Today's work involving learning a new Excel function (standard deviations), and then playing with the various spreadsheets I've got wherin it can be applied. I also did a hint of writing, only 280 new words and 1 new figure.

Today I slept in, it was after 10:30 when I woke up, and considering that I went to sleep at midnight, I'm thinking that I must have needed the sleep. When I went to sleep the world outside my window was a lovely winter snowy-wonderland. It actually snowed heavily enough to cover the ground with a blanket, and the tree branches all had thin piles of snow a couple of inches thick. It was beautiful, and made me very happy to see. *That* is how winter-trees are meant to look, not those dreadful leafless brown skeleton things sticking up out of green grass. Alas, by the time I awoke the wind and rain had washed the trees bare again, and most of the snow was gone from the yard.

I accomplished one long-delayed errand with my morning--I did my bulk food shopping from the healthfood store, which, alas, is located in the city centre, with no nearby parking, which means that I put it off till absolutely necessary. But since my prefered breakfast is a bowl of muesli, and I like to mix my own, and I emptied the container for this morning's breakfast I could put it off no longer. ( for anyone who cares what I think is the perfect combination of nuts, fruits and grains for breakfast )

I also needed to stock up on a number of non-breakfast items, so a huge thank-you to baronsnorri for driving me into town and helping me carry it all to the car!

As always, shopping took too much energy, and I wound up falling into a book & a bowl of popcorn to recover, and so didn't actually start doing my uni work until after 5pm, yet still managed to write 1,051 new words and do 8 new figures and tables. Bit by bit, the thesis progresses!