Sitting at my desk

Last night I sat at my new desk for the first time.  And I’m sitting at it now.  The cabinets are finished.  The audio equipment rack is finished.  The monitor is mounted and wired.   The computer is hooked up.  And amazingly, the desk fits very well.  The keyboard height, the monitor height and distance, and the speaker placement all work.  (And they’re all non-adjustable.  Yikes!)

There are still some things to be done.  I’m trying to order some prints from Paul Cliff in England.  I found the perfect speaker wire at Jerry’s (Jerry’s is a regional treasure, BTW)  and need to buy it and install it.  The wires behind the computer could be hidden better.  And Jacque and I are still looking for the perfect wall plates for the electrical outlets and Ethernet jacks.  But it’s looking really close to finished.

We’re taking the “official” photos this Friday.

Meanwhile, Jacque posted some new photos on Flickr this week.

Desk photos

Riley wants to be a model.

Jacque came by today to fit the drawer fronts to my new desk.  While she was here, we cleaned up the room and took some pictures.

Lots more pictures after the break.

Jacque’s photostream of my desk

Jacque has been keeping a photo stream on Flickr about my desk.

Here’s the link.

The desk is now nearly installed.  It’s in place in my office and assembled, but it isn’t bolted to the wall yet.  And the drawers are not yet in, and some other details are unfinished.

Jacque intends to enter it into an on-line art exhibit and contestt that a friend of ours is organizing.  We’ll have to arrange a photo shoot to get the best possible images.

Desk delivery

Heave!

The concrete desk was carried up the stairs today.  We’re not sure how much it weighs.  We think it’s about 300 lb. plus another 40-50 lb. of packaging.

The brave and strong men in the picture work for Mayflower Cummings Moving.  They struggled.

Made it.

Concrete instantiation

Fitting a plate

Way back when, I mentioned that I’m getting a new concrete desk.

It’s been a long project, but progress continues.  On Saturday, Jacque set reinforcing plates into the office floor.  There are two plates, one onder each leg.  They are steel, 1/4 inch thick, and long enough to straddle two joists.

Here Jacque is test-fitting one of the plates.

Riley, the Wonder Dog

Riley in repose

We got a new dog! We named him Riley. Isn’t he fine?

Elise in the Ditch

Don't do this.

Yarj!  I drove my Elise into a ditch last night!

The Emberex Holiday Party was at our house last night. I always park the Elise at the end of the driveway so people can find the right house.  (The car’s a celebrity, after all.)  After the party I got a ride to the end of the driveway to get the car.

It was raining (or maybe snowing) and cold, and the Elise was all fogged up.  I couldn’t see forward at all, but it’s my own driveway.  How lost could I get?

Emberex Holiday Party

We hosted Emberex’s holiday party at our house last night.  It was fun.  I found out that one of Emberex’s core competencies is alcohol consumption.  I wonder if there’s a market for custom software written while inebriated…

I got a switchblade mustache comb and a sequined thong in the gift exchange.  Those were truly the perfect gifts for me.  Maybe I’ll model the thong for this ‘blog some time.

We collected some loot — I found two cameras, a pouch, a Leatherman tool, and someone’s bonus check when I cleaned the house today.

It started snowing during the party, and someone put their car into the ditch at the bottom of our driveway.  More on that later…

Too much booze, racy underwear, misplaced funds, and an automotive mishap.  Practically a Convex-level party.

How Not to Be Seen

Woodland creatures hide in the brush.

Haven’t talked about my tractor yet in this ‘blog.  It’s shy, you see.  It always hides from the camera.  Maybe someday it’ll be ready to show its face, but not yet.

No, seriously, I spent Sunday clearing brush from the driveway.  I needed to haul all that brush to the top of the hill, so I came up with the clever idea of making a brush pile on top of the tractor.  Worked great.

Ashland and home

Anne decided to join me in Ashland Friday night, so I drove straight from San Jose to the Greyhound station in Medford to pick her up.  We had dinner in Ashland, then on Saturday we spent a few hours downtown and in Lithia Park.  Came straight home, got here around 4:00 PM.

End of trip.  Don’t want to drive the Elise for a few days… (-: