Cheryl on the Web

Dear serious blog followers,

I must sincerely apologize to you for the lack of any updates for what is now a very long time. Please blame this negligence on my dedication to my employer combined with my love of hobbies that do not involve a computer and my true desire to lead a life of romance and intrigue.

I have many lovely little stories to tell and I promise to post them here soon. In the meantime, please read Tim’s latest post which is a great story, don’t scroll down too quickly: http://timsymons.com/?p=345

Almost as noble as cause as “Save the Earth”, was for me today “Save the Washing Machine”. We have an Indesit WD104T, bought in Holland in February 2003, for the grand sum of 400 euro. Why, you ask, is all that detail important? First, Indesit machines are made in Turkey, not made to last. Second, the model number starting with 1 should tell you we bought the entry level model. Third, February 2003 is 4 1/2 years ago so the thing is hitting its mid-life crisis (according to this article and this one too, the average life span is around 10-11 years). Fourth, last but not least, 400 euro for a washing machine that includes a condense dryer is a good deal in most any book. Or dirt cheap, depending on how you look at it.
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Every season has a sport, and right now it’s baseball season. This past week was the “all-star break”, where regular games are temporarily suspended and the best players from each team compete against each other. It seems, according to the announcers of the baseball game I’m watching now, that the all-star break can have all kinds of repercussions. Players get “out of rhythm”, their workout schedule is perhaps interrupted, it takes a bit of time to get “back in the groove”.

Give me a break - these are professional baseball players, not Little League sluggers. For once, let’s not start to make up reasons why the New York Mets pitcher just let the Cincinnati Reds score 4 runs in the first inning. For once, let’s not over-analyze poor performance by attributing it to a myriad of psychological reasons. The Mets pitcher has 4 wins straight and has a list of great stats - isn’t it just human not to be 100% consistent? No wonder kids grow up thinking that there’s something working against them when they have off days or something doesn’t go perfectly - they’re taught that there must be some sort of reason beyond their control or in their environment that could explain it.

I say, next time I’m tempted to think up an “all-star break” of an excuse for having a rough time at something, I’ll stop and remember I’m only human.

My favorite pastime is building things. Few occupational tasks in life bring me more enjoyment than the logical process of combining parts in a carefully chosen way and order, applying the necessary manipulation, in order to achieve the desired end result as quickly as possible. It feels sometimes like from the age of two, my brain broke the most common tasks and problems down into mini building projects. If only I had been blessed with a bit more imagination, my favorite toy would have been Lego’s.

Much of this ingenuity is due my parents, in particular my dad whose job it was to design and engineer buildings and design site plans for empty plots of land. As a kid, little fascinated me more than the few times that my dad would bring home one of his engineering plans to work on. Now I think I would have liked being an engineer but all the rules - in particular those from the government - frightened me. I’m glad I became a software architect, I think we have quite a bit more freedom.

Anyway, in tribute of the knack for building I inherited from my Dad, and his special birthday on Sunday, here follows a photo-report of his latest free-time building project:
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Tonight Tim and I tried to make an Italian omelet. I’m not sure how that’s different from a Spanish omelet, but I’m pretty sure the key thing is that ours had pasta in it. Or was supposed to. We sort of neglected to read the directions after we got to the part where half the ingredients were in the pan (I mean, it’s an omelet, how hard can it be?) and after that it went downhill quickly. It didn’t help that we forgot to put in the pasta into the omelet with the rest of the veggies (potato, leek, onion, olives), and putting the pasta in too late created a nearly irreconcilable disaster. If it wasn’t for Tim’s persistence and dedication to the task, that mess would have all landed in the trash can tonight and it would have been bread and water for dinner; I abandoned ship pretty quickly once it stopped looking edible. But thanks to Tim, we did eat our Italian omelet eventually and at least we got a good memory out of it .. I’m sure it’s one of those that ages well with time!

Today Tim and I traded a table we no longer use for a lamp a friend of ours no longer uses. A neighbor of ours spotted us loading the long table into the car (with some difficulty, we drive a small Opel Corsa) and said, “Still cleaning things out?” I answered, “Yes, exactly.” “No fun”, she answered understandingly.

The table is the last of it. The last of everything we needed to clean out after the move in January. Except for the two remaining moving boxes behind the door of my office, containing our old VCR and some related junk (pardon the expression, Tim!). And the lamp is one of the last pieces we needed for the livingroom; we never bought one because we planned to trade the table for the lamp .. but just never got around to it until today!

Pretty good feeling, really, swapping something useless for something useful - and knowing the person at the other end of the trade feels the same! Guess I have a small window into what it was like before currency existed and everything was still a barter-economy.