First Geiger and Momiji took a walk. You see, Marsha was working downstairs. Geiger decided to see if he could get the screen door open. He could and when Marsha came up a while later he and Momiji had gotten out the back door, off the deck and were gone. Marsha hunted for something like 45 minutes before she found Momiji hiding under the shed. Geiger on the other hand was nowhere to be seen. Marsha hunted all around the yard, even walked around the neighbourhood looking for him and he was nowhere to be seen. She sent several messages to me so I was prepared for the worst when I got home. Finally Marsha just sat out on the deck reading and occasionally calling and several hours after the Great Escape Geiger, tired and hungry came padding back up the stairs. We haven’t tried to punish him for getting out, Momiji is doing that for us. Ever since his little walkabout she’s acted like she doesn’t always know who he is. She will suddenly turn on him, hiss and growl. Sometimes she even takes a swat at him. It’s like she’s saying “You got out and ran off. You left me lost in the yard while you were who knows where. I’ll teach you to go alley-catting around.”

Geiger on the other hand is clueless why she’s being so mean, like most guys that screw up.

Then we also got a new patio door. The old one was single glazed, aluminum framed, and ancient. Honestly I think a screen would have blocked more cold air and noise. We replaced it with a double glazed, wooden, fibreglass clad, French door. When it’s closed you could set off firecrackers on the deck and we couldn’t hear them. It’s well weatherstripped and seals tight. Best of all it has a normal knob and deadbolt lock so we can use a key to enter and exit the house that way. No need for running through the garage and house to get to the kitchen. We have a bit more trim paint to do and need to put everything on the deck back in place. Marsha already did the lions share of the work though. In fact she spent most of the next day cleaning. Sawdust and sanding dust were everywhere. Now the deck looks great.

At work I’ve built ten computer systems in the last week. Some for office use and some to control robots that we're selling. Two geeky things here. When I install Windows 7, why are there nearly 200 patches? I mean Windows installed in 30 minutes and I then literally spent the next four hours patching each system to make it secure to use. This is nuts. Secondly, why does Windows demand that I install a driver for the mouse? I mean I’m using the mouse to do the updates already. It’s working. Why can’t Microsoft Windows run a simple mouse without demanding a driver, with a license agreement and four other screens of questions just because the mouse is from Microsoft. It's nuts.

One more geeky thing. If any of you are on Twitter, I don’t post myself but I created a profile just to follow this amazingly cool feed. For those of you that AREN’T on Twitter it’s mostly where people “tweet” short bits of information and links to pictures and pages. I found it very uninteresting until I came across a feed called RealTimeWWll. The premise is this: Someone is sending out tweets from this date in 1940. (The plan is to continue it on through 1945.) Day to day information gleaned from newspapers of the time, recently declassified documents, archives on both sides of the conflict and so fourth. Because it’s day by day in real time you get a feel for the huge motions and scale of the conflict. Better yet it also includes bits of information that don’t make it into the history books. Like how the Mussolini government felt obligated to ban Italians from using the frequent blackouts to go on romantic carriage rides. Or the one from last week when UK MP Will Thorpe used Minister's Question Time in Parliment to suggest the war might be solved if "Hitler married a sensible woman”. You just don’t get this stuff in history class. I’m really enjoying it.

Speaking of British things, the Olympics started today. Four years ago I pontificated about how much better the coverage up here is so I won’t go into that again. We’ve been catching a bit of the sports and it’s nice to have multiple channels carrying multiple different events to choose from. From what I’ve been reading NBC has a monopoly on it in the US and is making a serious mess of things, especially the opening ceremony.

Yesterday Marsha was watching beach volleyball. I was in the other room watching kayaking, when I heard them mention one of the Czech volleyball players by the name of Kolocova. I quickly asked Marsha if her partner was Pepsicova.

That got voted the Official Worst Pun of the 2012 Olympics. (At least for now - I am sure Doug can come up with worse before the games are over. marsh)

Doug & Marsha


PIX: Not a mutant. Not a bonsai giant sequoia.  This is how leaf lettuce grows out here.


Patio Doors before and after. Yes the deck is secure. Now even if they go out they can't get down to the yard.




A day at the beach


A blue heron looks for breakfast  among the sea weed.


Geiger exploring. Note the leash.