one font at a time

The other night, my dh and I were reflecting on how his nephew would be starting university.  We contemplated how he would fare considering he was taking an old laptop to university which likely would be sufficient for word processing but not for research.

As we furthered the discussion, we recalled how we dealt with university essays:

My dh hired a typist to type his papers (and, as a child, I vividly recall my mother going into the basement to type up papers for a fee as a way of earning money; I can still hear the tapping of the electric typewriter!).

I recall borrowing a fellow dorm-mate's typewriter and having to pay for typing (ink) ribbon (which seemed expensive!).  In my 3rd year, I purchased a higher-tech typewriter/printer (~ a Canon Typestar, I believe) which permitted me to correct one line at a time before printing the line.  What luxury!  I still had to proof-read and correct my paper by cutting and pasting and photocopying the corrected page!  My roommate had a superior Canon Typestar which was capable of holding enough words to fill one full page before printing!

It wasn't until 1990 when I was really forced to encounter a computer for the first time during summer student employment.  I recall entering into a federal Ministry and being shown a laptop.  When I indicated that I didn't know how to use WordPerfect, I was told that I would be learning that task that summer!  Computer research was just starting to be taught at law school!  We did most legal research manually.  (In fact, just this week I was trying to locate the Statute of Elizabeth (circa 1571!) and will have to get a hard-copy from the library!)

bending backwards

Yes, I know I've been neglectful.  Worse, I haven't even been away travelling.  Instead, I took K and N to see Cirque du Soleil's

which was very good.  However, I saw Cirque du Soleil in the early 1990s (before it became an international phenomenon) in its circus tent which hosted a smaller audience and was a more intimate experience.   (I recall tickets were extremely expensive to attend Cirque Du Soleil in the 1990s as a result.) Although Alegria was very well done, I missed the circus tent feel to it!

My dh and I also saw Bryan Adams on his Bare Bones tour.  For the Bryan Adams' fan (me), it was a delightful concert.  He encouraged us to sing along and interacted with the audience.  It was a lot of fun!  I was a bit disheartened that he didn't sing, "Cuts like a Knife"!  He's had a lot of hits!

Last weekend's excuse for not blogging was that we had a storm Saturday evening which knocked out television and internet capacity until Monday morning.  What a step back into the 1980s that was!  So bored with nothing to do, everyone got lots of shut-eye that weekend!  The weather on Sunday evening was awful and we actually had to listen to the radio to determine whether there was a weather watch (although we could have phoned the weather hotline).

Also, I've had the opportunity to test-try my kitchen which was deliberately made ergonomic because of my chronic back issues.  (I've had 2 series of back issues in August, more recently last weekend when my back went out.)  This is what I loved about the kitchen last weekend because my back wouldn't permit me to reach lower than my upper thighs:

I love my Liebherr fridge!  Everything that I needed from the fridge was within reach; the freezer is located below the fridge but was basically unaccessible by me because of my back.  (Our fruits and dairy products are in the other identical fridge adjacent to this fridge.) Brilliant!

My back hasn't recovered fully by this weekend yet so I enjoyed using my Mixer Lifter to make cookie batter.  Even if I didn't have a poor back, I would still install the Mixer Lifter (which could be used for any heavy appliance such as a food processor as it accommodates up to about 60 lbs) in the kitchen.  My mixer is about 18 lbs and I know, bad back or not, I wouldn't be bringing it out regularly to use because it is too cumbersome to get out of a lower cabinet.  Now I bring it out just because I have the Mixer Lifter!  If you have it, use it!