A big hello! and sorry! to anyone who’s ended up here via an incorrect link in the PDF/PowerPoint of my presentation today. A very long time ago we used to use this blog address for our experiments, but we moved it to another address and I just plain forgot to switch it in some of my presentation materials.

Here’s where you want to go: http://blog.click4hp.ca

I bought Maddy the best Halloween costume on eBay. I mean, it’s totally tacky but in the way that’s beeYOOteeful to a four-year-old’s eyes. She’s been all about unicorns lately — it’s a pink plush unicorn costume, with shiny wings and horn and a nice fluffy mane and tail, most of which show in the photo. (Posing for photos is a serious business these days. No smile was to be had.)

I’m guessing that on Halloween it may get worn with a pink ballet tutu and tiara because hey! pink ballerina unicorn beats plain old pink unicorn. Plus, more pink.

(Dear Karma Fairy: whatever I did in my teens to deserve all this pinkness? You’ve made your point. Now please make it stop. Thx.)

Thank you, xkcd, for the clearest and shortest explanation of string theory I’ve yet seen:

Today is:

1. International Day for Disaster Reduction
2. National (in the USA) Coming Out Day.
3. My Mom’s birthday. Happy birthday Mom!

Yesterday:

• Got up, ate breakfast, wished body would tolerate caffeine, read the (very thin) paper.
• Got dressed and headed down to the basement to help D mix up some thinset for tiling the bathroom floor. My role: holding the bucket so it didn’t spin and skate across the floor as it resisted being mixed. Also my role: absorbent surface for a great sloosh of not-mixed-yet-but-still-very-muddy thinset which decided to make a break for freedom.
• Shed muddy clothes. Decided this was as good a time as any to start the laundry. Ran up and down the stairs a few times with laundry hampers.
• Got dressed (again).
• Rethreaded the sewing machine with red thread (it’s still new enough that this is a scary process); fixed two holes in Maddy’s skirt without mishap. Yay!
• Cleaned the bathroom.
• Headed outside. Raked and bagged leaves, with help from Maddy, who likes to stomp them down in the yard waste bin.
• Somehow stepped in cat poop. Happily, Crocs are easily cleanable with a garden hose. Maddy helped by making loud “EW, STINKY!” proclamations.
• Raked the very long grass in one direction. Mowed.
• Moved stuff around in the garage so Maddy could extract and ride her tractor.
• Raked the still rather long grass in another direction. Mowed again.
• Raked in random directions, trying to make the STILL long grass stand up so it would be cut. Mowed a third time.
• Gave up on mowing.
• Remembered we also have grass in the front yard. Mowed.
• Dug great quantities of worm compost into the garden.
• Wrestled the tractor back into the garage. Wrestled sand from the sandbox lid (which Maddy had turned into some sort of sand-and-sea resort for ants) back into the sandbox.
• Beer. Aaaah.
• More laundry.
• Got the bread machine started on a loaf of bread.
• Helped Maddy tidy her room.
• Vacuuming.
• Admired newly-tiled bathroom floor.
• More laundry.
• Embarked on dinner. Shed various notions due to an almost complete lack of food in the house. Ended up with a mushroom quiche and a fruit crisp.
• More laundry.
• Showered!
• Nice dinner with visiting friends.
• Ran the dishwasher.
• Goofed about online for a bit.
• Folded laundry.
• Ran the dishwasher again.
• Packed Maddy a lunch for her field trip today.
• Fell into bed.

Teeter-totter 2

Originally uploaded by morecoffeeplease.

D: Wake up, Maddy. Time for breakfast.
M: blurgh. nnnn. snzzzzzz. ZZZZ. snfffblurgggh.
D: Come on, time to get up.
M: Zzzzzzzzz. Zz.
D: Boy, you’re just a pool of sunshine this morning!
M: No, I am a PINK pool of sunshine!

Collision Detection reports on a Japanese wine-tasting robot with disturbing opinions about its keepers —

Robot thinks people taste like “bacon”

When a reporter’s hand was placed against the robot’s taste sensor, it was identified as prosciutto. A cameraman was mistaken for bacon.