Becoming Grown Ups

Someone has stolen our living room and replaced it with an exact duplicate a room of the sort that would be occupied by grown up people. It's so shiny and exciting, it feels a lot like Christmas morning. I got up early on Sunday, just to sit on the new couch and admire the overall affect.

We got the new-to-us couch and club chair in on Saturday, with much adventure. We had by then been forced to conclude that we might not be able to fit the old couch through the door to Hal's office, so instead we rearranged the living room so that it can accomodate both couches. The result looks terrifyingly grown up, and coordinated. And seats about fourteen people if you include the rather commodious arms of the couch and club chair. Yowza. I reckon we really can throw a party.

I'll have to take some pictures of the living room to give a proper idea of the place, but in the meantime here's a picture Hal took of the new couch, while it was still at late, lamented, lost Suburbia. ( Photo under the cut )

ETA: You can see Hal's panorama of the room here. What's interesting to me is the way the paint on the wall here actually looks like it did on the original paint chip, instead of much, much brighter -- the way it normally looks on the wall.

Also, public thanks are due to Jerry and Suzle for answering the call for moving help. Thanks, guys!

Remembering the Dead

Among his various academic duties, my boss is working on a research project; the project entails comparing old census data with the scant personal information on victims of lynching in the South. The idea is to try to find out who these people were, confirm identities, and put a name and a history to each victim. His research assistants have put together a memorial project, based on the research so far. As part of UW's recognition of Black History Month, they've arranged a public reading of all the names. For each victim, we'll read the name, what is known of the circumstances of the lynching, along with their date of death. A bunch of us will take 20 minute watches reading out the list. I'll be there, on the lawn in front of the HUB, at 3:30 tomorrow. But the readings will go from 9:30 in the morning to 5:30 at night, on the HUB lawn. I have no idea if we'll get through all the names.

Think Globally, Prune Locally

I have a pile of books that were coming due at the library. So I went and renewed them all online. (I'm a slow reader, okay?) All but one, anyway. There's a hold on it, so I can't. Now, out of a batch of books that includes recent entries by Charlie Stross, Elizabeth Bear, Sherwood Smith, and Jo Walton (all of which can be slow to get hold of because of holds in the system), which book had a hold on it already?

That would be Cass Turnbull's Guide to Pruning - 2nd Ed. Sigh. Same thing happened last time I checked it out. I guess it's time to buy my own copy.

(Cass Turnbull is a Seattle-local gardening expert, and founder of PlantAmnesty, an organization focused on "putting a stop to mal-pruning by providing accurate information about pruning and garden maintenance." I'm guessing I'm not the only person whose fancy has turned to working on the garden as the weather turns fine. Or who wants Seattle-specific advice.)