Complaints

I hate it when people complain! My friend Joe used to say that, until one of his young sons pointed out that statement itself is a complaint. I happen to agree with Joe, but here I go, blissfully ignoring that fact. I don't mean to complain and all*, but…

• I really hate website pages with black (or otherwise very dark) backgrounds. They bother my (apparently) aging eyes. I follow a couple of blogs that use black backgrounds, and I try to skim over them very, very quickly. If at all.

• Firefox is once again having problems with Google-related websites (yes, blogger/blogspot is owned by Google). The top of the page for this blog is supposed to look like this:

but instead looks like this:

which means it's a challenge to log in. I like the user interface of Firefox, and the fact that it's kept pretty current, but it really doesn't play well with Google or any sites having anything to do with Google. It's greatly annoying me, and possibly forcing me to the Safari side.

• We have too. much. stuff. Still, even with everything as tidy as we could get it in preparation for Erik** and Hessu's*** visit. I'm digging out the things that I ended up just sticking away somewhere out of sight before they came. (Okay, there wasn't much of that, but there was some.) I just opened a drawer in the breakfast area and found a bunch of chargers for mobile phones that I'm pretty sure we haven't used in five years. Oy.

• Erik and Hessu went home. I liked having the company! Granted, it was a little odd those last couple of days. They were supposed to leave Tuesday morning, but ended up leaving late Thursday afternoon. Because of the weather in the U.S., and the volcanic ash from Iceland, flights were canceled and airports were closed, and they kept being bumped back another day, and another day, and another day. When they finally left, I told them (very sincerely) that I hoped they would come back soon — but not that same day.

• All day I haven't been able to decide whether today is a day to get things done or relax. I've been alternating being industrious and taking geography quizzes. (FYI, I love knowing where places are, and I'm willing to waste a lot of time to be sure that I do.) It's been an oddly busy/casual, productive/relaxing day.

Okay, done with complaining for the moment. Back to geography quizzes.

You have a great Memorial Day weekend!


*That's a line from a song from the musical Working, a play from the '70s you've never heard of, but which was directed by Steven Schwartz and featured Patti LuPone, Joe Mantegna, and Lynne Thigpen, among others. You can buy the soundtrack from amazon.com for only $200. I have a copy of it around here somewhere, and I think it's going on eBay pretty darn quickly.

**Those links won't work for you if you're not on Facebook. But, really, sign up. It's fun!

***While you're at it, check out the video Hessu took during the bad weather that happened while they were here. Being European, they haven't much experience with tornadic activity. In fact, as Erik pointed out to me, Finland is kind of uber-safe, natural disaster-wise. No seismic activity, no tornadoes, protected from tsunamis, no hurricanes. Granted, there's the occasional avalanche in the far north (Hi, Saariselkä!), and maybe a flash flood or two, but nothing widespread or anything. We made them sit in a closet for a while during the tornado warning. It was a new experience for them.****

****In case I haven't mentioned it before, I love Finland. Finns, as a group, are admirable and likeable people, and there are many, many things about their culture that I enjoy and respect. And despite what you may have heard on Conan O'Brien, it's a great place.