I got paged out during the night but it was nothing that I really had to respond to.
I found a great picture of an early Genesee & Wyoming steam engine. I have never seen a steam engine on the GNWR so seeing a picture of one is a big odd.
Liesl got me up this morning. Dominica was very tired so I got up with Liesl and walked around with her for a while. We even went downstairs to the living room and visited with dad for a little bit before Liesl decided that she was hungry. So then I woke up Dominica who fed Liesl and then they both fell back asleep.
I ended up needing to work on and off throughout the day today. We had some issues at the office and I kept getting called about them. So I spent a few hours in the basement office working.
Dad and I unloaded the car today. Three boxes of books went down to the basement which I immediately unpacked and put onto the shelves. Dad also brought our three drawer “filing cabinet” unit that matches our office desks which will be very nice as it will provide additional, out-of-the-way storage which we desperately need. Once the rest of Dominica’s desks arrive it will be hidden underneath them. For now it is just sitting by her desk.
Dad also brough our cold air humidifier (the plastic cow) and our good coffee maker that we got as a wedding present and which I have really been missing. Dominica likes the one cup Keurig coffee style but I much prefer the grind and brew style. Dominica likes flavoured coffees, but I just prefer really high quality normal coffee. Dad also brought our good leather “moon chair” that matches Dominica good reclining swivel chair that came some time ago. We are not sure where we will put it, though.
Dad was also able to bring, at the last minute, about twenty of our DVDs from our collection that we have been storing at his house. This will give me additional material to convert to h.264. He is starting to make random grabs from the collection whenever he comes down and then I covert them and send them back on the next trip. In this way we always have something “new” to watch and the converted collection continues to grow and slowly, very slowly, the collection will get converted.
I found a 1.5TB external USB Seagate hard drive on Amazon today that is pretty inexpensive that I think I will get to hook to Dominica’s laptop. That will give it the storage that it needs to be able to really just keep working at the conversions all of the time. Disk space and I/O are our biggest limitations currently.
Dad and I attempted to mount the new Samsung LCD in the living room but even before removing the old Westinghouse LCD from the wall dad had figured out that the mouting bracket that we currently are using is too small for the Samsung’s custom mounting configuration. So once Liesl fell asleep dad and Dominica ran out to go shopping at Best Buy to see if they would be able to find a suitable mounting bracket. I was unable to go out shopping because of work. So I stayed home taking care of Liesl and Oreo.
I am trying to figure out how I can put a model railroad into our small townhouse. There really is no space for one. I am thinking that putting one into the attic might be a doable solution although it would be such a pain to go see, use or work upon not to mention how difficult it would be for anyone else to ever see it. I am considering the possibility of having one next to my desk in the basement, kind of behind me when I work. It would be very small but I might be able to do as much as five feet in length and as deep as two feet or maybe even a little more. Small, but not overly ambitious. I don’t want something overwhelming. Just something on which I can work when the mood strikes me. Having it so close to my desk would make it very easy to connect to the computer which is how I would want to run it anyway.
Dominica finally figured out today where we had put the wireless dongle and memory card for the Nintendo GameCube. They were in the Wii’s travel case which goes in the hall closet. There was an extra pocket in there about which I had forgotten and it had just never occurred to us to look in that case which, of couse, is where they should have been. The case is so so seldom that it was an out of sight, out of mind problem.
As some of you know, I collect Genesee & Wyoming Railroad Model Train pariphenalia. Today I was bidding on eBay on an Atlas Genesee & Wyoming MP-15DC RN 45 in N scale. I do not have one of the MP15DC switchers so I was anxious to win one and getting one in great used condition is a lot cheaper than getting one new. They are about $90. This particular switcher is, in real life, one that I see often either in Retsof or down near the new salt mine. You can often see it moving cars around when you pass by on i390, especially if you are north bound. I ended up winning the engine for just $36.
It took a lot of doing but by eight this evening the Samsung LCD was mounted on the wall above the fireplace. Mounting the 70lbs behemoth was no simple task. It looks great, though, and makes watching shows and playing video games in the living room much more enjoyable. It also cleans up the space in front of the fireplace and makes the living room feel much larger again.
At nine or so we settled down and watched The Dark Knight, the second Batman movie in the new series with Christian Bale who is by far the best Batman ever, on BluRay. It was an awesome movie. Christian Bale has been one of Hollywood’s brightest stars since Empire of the Sun many, many years ago and he never fails to impress. I was not as impressed with Heath Ledger’s performance which, I feel, everyone only raves about because he died before the film released which always makes people appreciate the performance more than they should. He didn’t do a bad job and admittedly the character of the Joker is a ridiculous character and there is very little to do well with it The replacement of pathetic Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes with Maggie Gyllenhaal was an excellent choice and really served to fix cast shortcomings between the films.
After the movie was over it was time for bed. Oreo needed to be walked twice as he sometimes does. Dad is thinking about heading home tomorrow as the weather is possibly going to be pretty bad on Tuesday with the potential for freezing rain. He is going to play it by ear and will make a decision tomorrow morning.