Mugs

 Sarah came over with presents today. She gave us both coffee mugs with our names on them. Mine was really nice, and it was green and had a baseball on it along with my name. I didn't notice that it said Grampa Ivan until I found an ultrasound picture in the mug.

Record

 

I was asked to give a presentation at a Colombian conference on energy. It was a virtual conference, and I was supposed to record a video of my presentation. They would post it on the conference Slack page. So I prepared my slides and text for my presentation, and then I did it, but I forgot to press the record button. So I had to do it all over again. I did it better the second time.

 

Lifehacker

 I get a newsletter from Lifehacker every day, and I find out many great things like how to reheat leftover pizza to make it nice and crusty. Anyway, today I found an article about how to fix an Android update that had screwed up all my Apps. What a fabulous newsletter!

Library

 

My sister needed help getting an audiobook out of her library. So she gave me her card number and password so I could do it for her. Then one day, I was looking for a new book, and I looked on her library website, and it was there but not in my library. So I put it on hold, worried that my sister wouldn't like me to use her library account. But when I emailed her, she said she was okay with it.

Thought Experiment

 I mentioned to a team I was working with that I felt that the simulation we were working on was like a thought experiment. I meant it well because I thought the computer enhances our thinking and makes it more precise. My team members had never heard of the idea before. One of them looked it up on Wikipedia and found out that Einstein's Theory of Relativity was a thought experiment. Another of my team members thought it was a good term. But one of the team members took offence and said she didn't want to be part of a thought experiment, and she wanted to do social science. We went back and forth a few times in private emails, and then suddenly, I got a lot of cancellations of our future meetings.

Rob Brown

 This guy Rob Brown walks around the park in the afternoon and stops and talks to everyone he meets. Something about him just seems a little off but he appears very gentle. Anyway, he gave Barb an iPhone4, thinking it was an iPhone7. Of course, I couldn't do anything with it. But it was nice of him to give it to us.

iPad

 

Barb got an iPad from a lady in the community who didn't know how to reset it to factory settings and gave us access to all of her stuff so we could do it.

Facebook

 

Barb has been putting requests on the Morningside Facebook page and is getting a lot of good stuff from our good neighbours.

Stake

 We have a stake in the garden to show the people who plow the snow where our garden starts. So they don't plow away all of Barb's perennials. Today Barb was pulling the stake out and almost gave herself a black eye.

Surprise

Laura sent us a picture of something I had never seen before but had always feared would happen. She went to Mr. Lube for an oil change, and the guy directed her into the shop, and her car fell in the pit. That must have happened before because somehow, they knew how to get her out.

Power Surge

 We had a power surge in the house, the CD player started changing CDs, and the radio in my office went off. Then when I turned it back on, the volume was really high.

Spy

 

Barb's Yahtzee family has a special agent the sneaks into other families to spy on them. This is serious stuff.

Caught in the Act

 There is this one lady on Yahtzee that hates Barb for cheating. She has written to Barb and told her she will report her to the Yahtzee App makers and get her account removed. Barb blocked her, and Barb said she should just learn how to cheat too. All's fair in love and Yahtzee.

iPod Touch

 I walk sometimes and like to listen to music. But I put audiobooks on my phone in the Music folder. So I thought they would get confused. I have two iPod Shuffles that I have music on, and I like that music and didn't want to remove it. So I was looking for another device with different music on it and found an old iPod Touch. It had a baseball cover, and when I charged it, I found out it had Barb's email account. I don't know how Barb got an iPod Shuffle with a baseball cover.

More Phones

 Barb now has four phones, two Androids and two iPhones. She uses them to cheat at Yahtzee. She has learned that you can submit two games simultaneously, and it will double your score. She is now trying to triple her score and even quadruple her score if she can find a way to push four buttons on four phones simultaneously.

Phones

 I gave my sister audiobooks to listen to, and I gave her an MP3 player to listen to them on. But my sister was now interested in getting one of my old phones to listen to books on and be able to turn it off and not lose her place if she is interrupted. We have many old phones, and we don't even know where they came from.

Glasses

 I have difficulty seeing many things close up with my glasses for distance. Today, I was filing some papers and took my glasses off and put them on the floor beside me while I was on my hands and knees because I only have a low two-drawer filing cabinet. When I stood up, I stepped back and didn't step on my glasses.

Shortened Walk

 I was up until 6 am working on a presentation for the next day. But I have multiple meetings on the same day, and between sessions, I like to go for a walk to clear my mind. Today, Barb joined me, and we were walking around the park for the second time, and she asked me how far we had walked. So I looked at my Fitbit and saw the time. Then I remembered suddenly that my meeting at 6 pm had been changed to 5 pm. So I rushed home and was 10 minutes late for the meeting, and they were all waiting for my presentation. I am really lucky Barb asked me how far we had walked or I would have missed the meeting altogether.

iPad Alarm

 I keep forgetting about my meetings or getting the time wrong. So Barb told me to set my alarm on my iPad. Half the time, Barb hears my alarm, and I don't, and she brings me my iPad from another room with my alarm going off. Today my alarm went off at 5:15 for a 5:30 meeting, but I thought it was a 6 pm meeting and turned off my alarm. Then I was late for my 5:30 meeting. It is not a perfect system.

Straw

My dentist told me that the Diet Coke I was drinking so much was causing problems with the enamel on my teeth. So I asked what I could drink instead. She said water and milk. Well, that wasn't a great answer. So I asked her what else I could do, and she said I could drink my Diet Coke with a straw and not swish it another my mouth. So I started using a straw. And Barb bought me a whole pack of straws. But Laura thought straws were terrible for the environment. So she bought me a package of metal straws for Christmas. But I keep misplacing them. Today I searched for my straw in the morning in my pyjamas and couldn't find it. Then later, when I got dressed, I discovered the straw under my clothes on the chest.

Barb's Bic

 Barb is always amazed how I can finish all the ink in my Bic pens. She has never met anyone who finishes a Bic pen, and everyone she ever met loses their pen before it is finished. Anyway, today, Barb was so proud she finished her first Bic pen.

Scarfing

 

Barb was scarfing down some pretzels from the counter and accidently ate some of my medicine capsules.