Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

• I bought a new iPhone, to replace the old iPhone SE that I'd been hanging onto because it's a good size for my hand. I was hoping to wait a little longer, but dropped it yesterday in a way that left a sharp bit sticking out from one corner of the phone. So, a couple of hours, at the T-Mobile store and then at home, setting things up, re-entering passwords, and such.
• A little more paid proofreading this morning
• ( medical test ick )
• After that, I decided I had done quite enough grown-up things for one day, and my plan for the rest of the day was Scrabble and exercise. cattitude and I played two games of Scrabble, and I did a round dozen of my PT-ish exercises, which probably also counts as being grown-up and responsible.

(tasks for the day, that is)

The big thing is that cattitude and I have signed the lease for our new apartment: the realtor picked us up here, drove us to the management company's office in Allston, hung around while we read and then signed things, and then gave us a lift to Harvard Square, because I needed to go to the T-Mobile store there.

The goal of that was to pick up the warranty replacement for my iPhone. I insisted on having them load the data onto the new one, rather than bring it home and use the backup on this machine, because I hadn't tested the backup. First they had to update iOS on the "new" phone (it's a refurbished and allegedly tested used device), which was taking long enough we went to get a bite to eat.

Then we came back, and were still having trouble getting the apps onto the phone, downloading email, etc. We tried various things (none of it very interesting) before concluding that this phone was worse at data than the one that it was supposed to replace, so they're sending the intended replacement back and ordering another. And I am very glad I didn't bring it home before discovering that.

It was 12:30 or so by then, so we stopped into Tea Luxe to caffeinate me before going to the drugstore. I have my prescription, we got razor blades, and I stopped in our garden on the way home and cut a cucumber. A bit small and slightly pale yet, but having had one fruit wither on the vine, I wanted to grab it while the grabbing was good.

Also, the sunflower is starting to bloom (one plant, several more flowers developing) and I picked and ate two cherry tomatoes while waiting for the realtor.

not only gets the steps-to-miles conversion way off for me (if I look at its "miles" and read the distance as kilometers, it's about right), it doesn't even count the steps correctly. I just did a counted-off 110 steps (for another reason) and they were counted as 88 (starting count 94, finishing count 182).

This is no big deal for me in terms of wanting the data (when cattitude's employer sent him home with a free FitBit, I realized I didn't want to use one, without ever strapping it on), but seems worth noting.

In the last few days, my iPod Touch has started giving the error message "charging is not supported on this device" when I plug it in to my Mac. When I google, what I find is that (a) a lot of other people have been puzzled by this message in the last few years and (b) it's what the device is supposed to say when attached to a FireWire port.

I am not using a FireWire port. I am plugging the iPod Touch either directly into the Mac, or via a USB hub, with the USB charging cable that came with the device. This is how I've been charging it, successfully, for the last couple of months.

The current situation is that the iPod will charge happily when plugged into cattitude's Linux/Windows box. It also syncs to my Mac as it should. And after a couple of days of giving me that message every time I plugged it into my Mac (though sync'ing when I told it to via the iTunes desktop), it now alternates between charging and displaying the exclamation-point-in-yellow-triangle symbol and the error message.

Cattitude has suggested that this may be a result of having, a couple of weeks ago, used the charger that came with his iPad (which plugs into the wall) to charge the iPod and that, if so, letting the battery run down a bit may help. So I am leaving it unplugged for the instant, and will see about running the battery down a bit.

However, I am puzzled. The Apple Website goes no further than "this will happen if you try using FireWire," and nothing else has told me even that much. Thoughts? Similar experiences? Chocolate?

Because the perfect is the enemy of the good, I decided to stop fretting about what the perfect PDA-replacement for me would be, and have bought an iPod Touch. Because I have an old iPod I never use, the software went ahead and loaded music onto the new machine. It's possible that, if I have a reason to carry it anyway, I will find headphones that are a plausible combination of not hurting my ears, and not awkwardly huge* and use the thing as a music player. But for now, it's a PDA† that wants to hum to itself when I don't have it doing arithmetic or tracking appointments or shopping lists or people's addresses. I still need to hand it huge amounts of data; it currently contains one appointment, for Thursday evening. (And if I do solve the headphone problem, I might even start listening to music at the gym, on days I'm not working with Emilie.)

I spent last weekend in Boston with adrian_turtle. We hadn't seen each other in longer than usual, and neither of us was feeling especially energetic, so mostly we stayed home, except for a walk around her neighborhood on Saturday and a trip to the supermarket Sunday morning. We'd been planning to go out for sushi Saturday evening, but the elevator broke at an inconvenient time, and rather than walk down five flights of stairs and risk having to walk up the same number, we looked in the cupboards, and had black beans (cooked with onions and a tofu-based chorizo), rice, and a cucumber for supper. (The elevator was fine Sunday morning, or we wouldn't have gone shopping then; I would have just walked down when it was time to leave.)

I saw the very beginnings of fall color in Arlington on Sunday afternoon from the bus, just a couple of branches of orange on the tree next to the Town Hall that's always early. (The tree that used to be the first to turn red and orange near my house was cut down about a year ago; cattitude and I were not surprised, as it had been ailing for some time, but that doesn't mean we don't miss it.)

Yesterday after work, I went to the gym, as semi-usual.
( cut to avoid boredom )

*Most headphones, definitely including the basic Apple earbuds, are uncomfortable for me. I have a pair that sort of work, for a half hour or so at a time; they are very big, which both makes them a nuisance to carry around, and drains batteries quickly, which wouldn't be a problem at the gym but is for traveling. I am not currently looking for advice on headphones from anyone who isn't in a position to hand them to me and say "try these."

†On the other hand, I am looking for some apps, specifically a good calculator, and a shopping list; I'm open to other suggestions, but not looking for anything in the TV/video direction.

This PC has been hanging, and when I did a scan a little while ago F-secure found nasties that it couldn't remove and suggested I try to handle manually. cattitude did a little research, and basically I'm stuck. So, backups and (re)install the OS. Given that Microsoft is mostly dropping XP support, that almost certainly means going to Windows 7*, which in turn means I need to buy a copy.

And there will be all sorts of unfun things I will ask Cattitude for help with, to make sure that I don't wind up porting a virus with my backups.

I will attempt to maintain normal connectivity (well, except for the part where I'm going to Wisconsin in a few days; I may take the eee, but won't be online a huge amount even if I do), but it may be grumpier.

*I'm already running a certain amount of abandonware, given that I'm not prepared to walk away from either my Palm PDA or Eudora.

I got two things by mail order recently: my handmade boots from Catskill Moccasins, and a power conditioner for my computer.

A little while ago, I sat down with the "care and feeding of your new boots" page open, including the diagrams of how to lace the boots. I followed the instructions, got to the top of the boot, and had about a meter of lace left, and a diagram that seemed to suggest just tucking it underneath. So, instead of putting on my new boots (which are tight at the moment, or at least the right one is, but the company says they stretch a little after a couple of days' wearing) and starting to break them in, I have emailed the company to ask "How am I supposed to tie this?" I'm guessing there's supposed to be a bow of some kind, but the details are not clear. If I don't have an answer to my email in a couple of days, I may experiment again.

The power conditioner (aka uninterruptible power supply), reasonably, requires a three-pronged outlet. This is an old building, so we needed a two- to three-prong adapter, which I didn't realize until after the power conditioner arrived. Last week, in the second store he tried, cattitude got two (2) such adapters. This afternoon, he tried to install it, only to find that the tab faces the wrong way. Both adapters in the package are the same shape. So, we need to shop again, for one that either faces the other way, or has a wire instead of a tab. (We will each be tucking one of the wrong-way ones in our daypacks, for comparison while shopping.)

I am a bit grumpy about this. If we hadn't had a really nice walk in the park, I would be really grumpy. As it is, I'm thinking in terms of melon or berries, tea, and maybe Scrabble. (Neither of these is an immediate problem: I do have shoes, and while I bought this hardware after the power glitched once, that's once in the year and a half I've had this computer).

ETA: I have now rubbed neatsfoot oil into the boots, with only a little difficulty with julian_tiger. (He sat and watched but basically behaved once I tucked the laces under my leg.) I washed the floor when I was done, because of course the oil soaked through a couple of layers of newspaper. More newspaper next time? I would guess that almost everyone who does this is doing it either outdoors or in a barn or mudroom, not a city apartment; whether I do the same when it's time to rub in mink oil for winter will depend on weather/how long I put this off. I used an old T-shirt for the purpose. Given that I will be needing to do this a couple of times a year, and Cattitude has a similar pair of boots on order, maybe I won't clean out the T-shirt drawer, or at most limit it to the tattered ones, not those I'm merely bored with.

We took julian_tiger in for his annual checkup and shots. Julian was pretty cooperative about getting into his carrier at this end, which was unsurprising; not only is he a basically happy animal, he sometimes hangs out in there at random times. We had to tilt it to get him out at the vet's office, though.

cattitude has been concerned about Julian's sweet tooth and weight gain. I hadn't noticed the latter, but the vet confirmed that the boy has gained about a pound and a half in the last year or so. The concern is that this could lead to diabetes. We are supposed to stop giving him fruit, and to try moving him at least partly to canned food rather than kibble, and hope for him to lose some weight. The vet said a bunch of stuff about Atkins. We do not need to stop giving him human food generally: the lower-carbohydrate bits of our meals, like cooked chicken, fish, roast meat, and my morning cold cuts, are fine, as is the habit of giving him dollops of cream when I have my tea. But if breakfast is, say, salami and a wedge of canteloupe, resist the impulse to give him a piece of the melon.

I also have no idea why, when I described my current job, the vet immediately started trying to persuade me that I ought to start tutoring high school students instead.

---

I think I posted that the dial for my snazzy ice cream maker broke last month. I went to the Cuisinart Web site, saw that this part wasn't listed, and sent them email. There was no response for long enough that I was thinking I needed to call again, and then I got email saying that the part had been entered in their system and would be shipped in the next few days. It arrived Thursday. This morning, I tried installing it.

It turns out that they generously sent a piece that doesn't fit, so I'm going to have to take a close look at our machine, and then call them. Fortunately, along with the free replacement doohickey, they sent an invoice showing $0.00 and instructions on what to do if I need to return or exchange it, so it can probably travel with paperwork. Nonetheless, I may be stuck with commercial ice cream a while longer.

This was supposed to be a rest day, which I hadn't really gotten last weekend. (No, adrian_turtle didn't run me ragged, but there were some nice long walks, and carrying bags of groceries and such, and those long bus rides aren't the most restful thing in my life.)

In the sense of minimal physical exertion, it was. (And, on the short wanders outside, I not only enjoyed some fine spring weather, I saw violets and the first goslings of the season.)

However, I've done more cooking than I planned, in part because cattitude wasn't up for it. In addition to making us lunch, I made a batch of lemon ice cream while he was napping, then fish stock (because he didn't have the energy), and then I baked us fish for dinner. So I am well fed, and there are several containers in the freezer with labels that say "FISH" (because confusing that with the poultry stock seems a bad idea, moreso than confusing the duck and chicken would be, though the duck is also labeled).

Somewhere in there, the timer switch on the ice cream maker broke. I wound up turning it off with a pair of pliers (and think I did so too soon), and have email in to the Cuisinart company, because "replacement switch" isn't on the list of parts they offer on their Web site. A new paddle, lid, motor arm, or canister, yes. I'm hoping this is because it's trivial and they'll just say "here you go" rather than that they aren't prepared to handle this issue. (It's plastic, and broke in a way that is almost certainly not glueable, at least not usefully or stably.)

I also did some freelance proofreading, but that doesn't even require me to stand up, let alone lift anything heavy or fragile. So, again, it's work, but feels okay to have done today, though a full day's proofreading would not have been.

The last hardware for my computer—a combination floppy drive and USB card reader—arrived on Friday, and I installed it yesterday afternoon. cattitude provided instruction on topics like which cables I needed and what order to do things in, and I did all the physical stuff. This not only gives me a stronger feeling that it's my machine, it's stuff I might need to know sometime. We tested the drive and the install by pulling some photos I'd taken a month or two ago off the memory card on Cattitude's old camera. (I very much want to have a floppy drive, but had no immediate need for it; it's a combination of having stuff on old diskettes and a vague feeling of insecurity at the idea of being without one.)

I still need to install DVD-writing software, which is more practically relevant to backups and data storage here and now.

In the evening, we joined beetiger for dinner out as part of her birthday celebration (having skipped the perfume-sniffing and karaoke parts of the day). We agreed that we should see each other more often (I think it had been 3.5 years since the last time). Also there were her partners, bardbloom and lediva, their child, and two pleasant, somewhat shy-seeming women whose names escape me at the moment. We ate Chinese food and chatted, including some about Boston-area stuff, since lediva is from up there, and the couple whose names I forget live in Somerville; one of them recommended a place called Mary Chung's in Central Square for dim sum that includes a reasonable amount of vegetarian-suitable; I may try to take adrian_turtle there at some point. (I explained that the constraint there is no shrimp or pork, and she noted that it's not an explicitly vegetarian place, but one with a good variety of vegetarian stuff, and that they also have chicken.)