Squishing Sylvia

Schematic by Sean E. Woods

Sylvia, for some unfathomable reason, loves doing the laundry. Unfortunately, this is a dangerous love, for roughly a quarter of the volume of our laundry room is full of comic books, in long cardboard boxes piled precariously to the ceiling.

Fortunately, the heavy boxes are reinforced in such a manner that the odds of a catastrophic collapse are low. A long, heavy coffee table, tilted on its side, acts as a bulwark against disaster, shoring up the comic boxes.

My brother is currently in need of a coffee table, and at first I thought perhaps I could loan him the one in the laundry room. But after Sean and I examined the situation together, we realized that to risk the structural integrity of the precariously positioned collection of funnybooks - not to mention Sylvia's structural integrity - was foolish. Sean's detailed schematic of the situation (above) should make our problem clear.

How long will the coffee table keep the boxes safely in place? Who knows? Sometimes I worry that I'll come home one day and Sylvia's limbs will be sticking out from under a pile of torn cardboard and scattered comics. An ironic end for the girlfriend of a geek, to be sure, but one cannot go about risking human lives willy-nilly for the sake of an elegant dramatic turn.

Looks like I may need to build some shelves.

Unburied Treasures

Earl Woods, Wayne Reti, Phil Cresswell, Stephanie Gillis, Ravinder Singh, and Jason Taylor-Collett at the end of the 1988-89 school year.

Years ago, Wayne Reti loaned me a package of film negatives, pictures he'd shot during his time at Lister Hall. Much to my consternation, I quickly lost the negatives - or thought I had. I just rediscovered the envelope a few weeks ago, and so naturally I rushed over to McBain Camera to have the pictures processed. There were plenty of gems in the pile, at least if you're Earl waxing nostalgic, and the above shot is one such gem. As my second year at the U of A drew to a close, I spent much of my time taking photos of my floormates of Main Kelsey - and so did Wayne. I really like this shot - I cared very much for each person in the photo, and I hope they're all doing well today. Maybe I'll see them at the Lister reunion being held this spring.

In other news, Sylvia continues to spoil me, work continues to become more and more stressful, and I'm getting regular exercise. So it's a mix of good and bad. Isn't it always?

My wheelbarrowful of gifts now includes new shirts and underwear, handy office items such as Post-It notes, batteries and a new photo album, and far too many goodies.

Sean came over on Friday for supper and a round of Zombies - you can catch his very entertaining writeup here.

Later this week (I hope), I'll post my analysis of two movies in a very small but fascinating genre, and my brother's incredible schematic of a home dilemma I have yet to solve.

Stay tuned!

Happy Birthdays to Me

I've been a little stressed over my job situation recently, so Sylvia has decided to ease my pain by giving my birthday a temporal extension. Starting at the beginning of February, she started giving me a gift a day, each designed to appeal to one or more of my interests, obsessions, or weaknesses. Here's the lowdown thus far:

Day 1: A LAVA LAMP! I've always wanted one of these, and it's in Kryptonite green. Most excellent.

Day 2: A bag of peanut M&Ms. Yummy!

Day 3: SILLY PUTTY! I love Silly Putty, and I haven't had any in years. This batch is metallic gold.

Day 4: The latest issue of Laptop magazine. Hmm, there's some cool stuff in here - an interesting read.

Day 5: A package of Reese's Swoops. They're tasty little chocolate thingys.

Day 6: A new memo pad! Fantastic - I needed one of these.

Day 7: A can of mixed nuts. Delicious and nutritious.

Boy, I'd better figure out something good for Valentine's Day...suggestions gratefully accepted.