A Geek in Beantown

What I've been up to!

I've been making beaded jewelry and trinkets in my unemployed time. You can check out my work at Trinketwerks. My store is through Etsy.

Friday Fill-ins - The end of the year

1. Wait, wait _what a year this has been_.
2. _Life_ is a little different.
3. In addition, _I'm nervously looking forward to the Arisia Art Show (where I'll be displaying my jewelry, etc)_.
4. _With a smile_ is the way we do it here!
5. At the end of the year, I like to _wish the old year good riddance and welcome the new one in with hope_.
6. _A new job_ is one of the things I'm looking forward to in 2012.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _dinner with friends_, tomorrow my plans include _celebrating that NYE thing_ and Sunday, I want to _drive to VT for lunch_!

Happy New Year's, Janet! <3

My phoenix

I haven't been here much at all lately and am not sure that I'll be back. I'll keep the domain, etc because the hosting is free (yay, former 6A benefits) and I've paid for the domain, but I tend to post snippets to Twitter or Facebook and longer things elsewhere.

Thank you for reading me all these years!

<3,
Lisa

My brand new phoenix tattoo.

RIP, Bill

William Desmond Nelson -- Born February 25, 1925 and died at home of cancer on April 2, 2011, at the age of 86. He lived a full and rewarding life.

Right after finishing high school, Bill served in the mechanics corps in the Philippines and Japan during World War II. As part of the Cornell Class of 1950, he studied mechanical engineering on the GI Bill. His working life was diverse. In the late 1960s he enjoyed running the day-to-day operations of Applied Logic of Princeton, NJ, a pioneer in the computer time-sharing field.

In 1973, Surfing: A Handbook, by William Nelson was published. It remains the definitive book on surfing that includes a technical chapter on how waves actually work to support a surfer. 

In 1972, Bill moved to Cape May with his family; bought and repaired a hundred year old apartment house on Jackson Street. Later the Nelsons purchased one of the Seven Sister houses on Jackson Street and converted it into a profitable guesthouse that they ran for 16 years.

His next career move was to become a boat builder. He proceeded to build five skiffs and various rowing boats in his basement workshop. Nelson also built a twenty-five foot sailboat in Cape May/West Cape May. It was launched shortly after his 75th birthday and was the largest boat built in the Southern Cape May area for generations.

Bill loved being on the water, building boats, reading about boats, thinking about boats: he was a Pisces who was truly at home around water. He lived the life he wanted to live and loved living in Cape May.

Mr. Nelson served on the Lower Cape May Regional School Board for more than twenty-three years. His wide interest on every subject made him a valuable resource to staff, administration and students. Bill took great joy in helping people discover current events, trends, and research on all topics. His service to the school and community will be sorely missed.

His immediate family includes Meryl Simon Nelson, his wife of almost forty years and six children: Miles Nelson of North Wales, PA, Alexandra Anthony of Crumpton, MD, Charles Nelson of Raleigh, NC, Alan Nakashian-Holsberg of Westford, MA, Lisa Holsberg of Malden, MA, and Debby Nelson, of Palm Coast, FL, three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

According to Bill, "I have had a good run during incredible times. I have seen so much." Bill Nelson was not a local but he was a fixture of the Cape May community. Family and friends will miss him greatly.

A memorial service will be held in the Lower Cape May Regional Theater lobby at 687 Route 9 on Monday, April 11, 2011, from 3 to 5:30 pm. Come celebrate a life well lived with coffee and dessert, conversation and music. In lieu of flowers please send donations to the Hope Cancer Center in Marmora, NJ.

Not sure what to do with this blog...

I don't post here very often anymore. I either leave comments on other people's blogs, post to Facebook or sometimes to another forum. But I am not ready to shut this down yet.

I changed the theme to something more spring-like in the meantime. Who knows, maybe the coming of spring will awaken my urge to write here.

I accidentally found a kitty!

I got home from work and was sitting in my room when I heard insistent meowing outside. I thought that was pretty odd so I meowed back. To my surprise, the kitty got louder! So we meowed a bit and then I put my shoes on and headed outside to look for said sad kitty.

I looked at the downstairs neighbors' windows, which were closed. I looked at the basement window and LO! one black fuzzy sad face. I asked Jenn to throw me the basement lock key and then I went to find the kitty. Poor thing must have been locked in the basement from when we got the trash cans out from when we hid them for the hurricane that didn't show up.

The scrawny little thing let me pick her (him?) up, carry her outside and then pet her a bit. I carried her in the house and grabbed a can of tuna to feed her and then went back outside. After taking a couple pictures, I moved the tuna can over away from our house and came inside.

I can still hear her meowing around. :( Poor kitty. I hope someone takes her home.

 

I has tuna on mah face!

 

We don't need no steenkin' water!

Friday Fill-ins #191

From Janet...

1. You do your thing; I do mine and sometimes _we'll do things together too_.

2. _James' sekrit plans for tomorrow_ is what's been on my mind on and off all day.

3. Remember when _we held hands on the car and just drove in companionable silence_.

4. _Books, music and World of Warcraft_ are three of my favorite obsessions :-)

5. During the last year _I've learned a lot about myself and I hope that I continue to do so_.

6. _Knowing that I'll see him tonight_ puts a smile on my face.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _bday dinner for Jenn_, tomorrow my plans include _sekrit plottings for my bday_ and Sunday, I want to _curl up with James_!

Hope you have a great weekend, Janet!

Busy days

Last Friday, a contractor showed up at our door after work. He said that he was there because there was lead in our apartment and they were going to put new siding on the house and work on the inside. The siding part would start ASAP, but the inside work would mean we have to move out for a week. At the expression on our faces, he asked if our landlord had told us. Nope (though he did stop by before he left the country for 40 days).

So, we've had a work crew at our house every day since Saturday. They tend to arrive around 7 am (though they showed up later on Sunday) and stay until around 8 pm. Busy busy! Yesterday, the actual siding was delivered. It's a non-exciting clay color. That's fine.

We found places for the 4 of us to be for the week we have to move out, but we have to move everything off of the walls/windows and into the center of the rooms. Fun. This coming week will be lots of packing type activities for me. I'm going to get boxes from friends and put as much as I can into boxes that can be sealed up (and then stacked in the middle of the room).

Dad and Cathy visit the first weekend in August. That Sunday we finish "packing" and move out for the week.

Thankfully, the guy who is at the house the most is really friendly. He's helped us clear out areas under the porch so the siding could be stacked there and he moved the siding there when the people who delivered it left it in the driveway. He even tried to tell the parking ticket giver that we were only parked on the street because he was blocking our driveway, but they gave us tickets anyway.

So that's my life of late. Feel free to send thoughts that this is all done soon.

Tattoos and life

I had an idea for my next tattoo. I wanted a yin-yang that had fire and water in it. I found this on the internets:

That was the right idea, but it didn't resonate with me. I talked to friends and they referred me to another friend who they thought might be able to help. Well, she did! This is what she came up with for me:

 

That resonated with me (plus I had her add some mountains to represent earth).

I feel strongly drawn/part of both water and fire, as well as earth. Earth is where my Zodiac sign falls. So this is how I represented it.

From Wikipedia:

"Water personalities tend to be emotional, deep, nurturing, sympathetic, empathetic, imaginative and intuitive..."

"Fire personalities are believed to have good leading qualities, and also tend to be extroverted, rebellious, passionate and enthusiastic..."

Fire represents the creativity and passion that all intellectual and emotional beings have. It is an active force that has the passion to create and animate things. The element is also very rational and quick to "flare up" as is the personality of many "fire-children."

"Fire in many ancient cultures and myths has been known to purify the land with the flames of destruction; however, it is also capable of the renewal of life through the warmth and comfort of those very same flames."

"Earth personalities tend to be calm, practical, hard working, wise, stable, patient and sensual..."

Yes, I do have some of the negative qualities of each of these signs as well, but I'd rather focus on the positive aspects.

And just to be complete (and because I also am made of air): "Air personalities tend to be kind, intellectual, communicative, social, and helpful."

So that's the story of my new tattoo. (Earth is oriented so it faces down.)

(I'll get a better picture in a week or so. The swelling has gone down since last night and it's must less sensitive to touch, but it's clear that SOMETHING HAPPENED THERE and my wrist lets me know if I bump it accidentally.

Bronchitis

Dear body,

I'm sorry that I didn't more aggressively react to the sudden attack of post-nasal drip and that made you angry. And then I got a sinus infection followed up by antibiotics. That dried out my ears and my head, but 1.5 weeks later I was still coughing. The doctor decided that I have bronchitis+asthma so now I'm drowning you in Prednisone and Augumentin for 10 days. I'll also be eating a lot of yogurt to try to avoid the possible side effects of antibiotics. :p

Anyway, I hope that you're happier in 9 days because I'm tired of coughing.

Love,
your caretaker

PS: It's not time for a nap.

Silly blog!

Why do I have you still because I don't post very often? No idea.