Behold the new view from my desk chair:

Mmmmm, triple monitors. Yup, I finally did it; I bought a third computer monitor. I picked up the first of these beauties years ago when they were on sale at the PX, and when I got it set up I promptly decided that it was the best, most beautiful computer monitor ever. Clean, clear, glossy and beautiful color with a sleek design all wrapped into one. I went back and bought another for ITMan the next time they had them on sale, while he was out of town. He’d just gotten promoted, and he’d been lusting after my monitor since I bought it.

Then I bought a second one for me, but in a smaller size. That was silly, to buy a smaller size, so eventually ITMan bought me another 19″ one while I was out of town. So then there were four, but one was still smaller. ITMan’s desk played host to the 17″ and one of the 19″ ones, and the other two 19″ monitors were on my desk. One big happy family.

What? What was that? Why do we need more than one monitor per computer anyway, you ask? Having more real estate on my Windows desktop enhances my workflow when I’m programming and web designing. It’s great to put the code editor on one screen and see the actual output on the other. I’m constantly working on more than one thing as well, not to mention quilting stuff thrown into the mix off and on, and it’s great to be able to put some windows on the left and some on the right while I work, and have the basics like Outlook and Firefox up and running all the time.

And ever since ITMan bought the second 19″ monitor for me, I’ve been secretly dreaming of a third. I cased ebay for a month or so until I found someone selling a slightly used one who would ship here, and Voila! I’m in heaven with so much space! Of course, it wouldn’t have been normal for this addition to the workspace to have gone off without a hitch, and true to form, adding a third monitor wasn’t just plug’n'play like it should have been, oh no. Without getting too deep into what’s idiotic about this HP computer I have at the moment, I had to buy a second graphics card to be able to hook up the third monitor. Buying a second graphics card was the work of moments at Tiger Direct, and once I had that installed, it really was easy to get the third one playing nicely with the other two.

That hungry techie inside of me is appeased for the moment. ITMan just shakes his head at me. Just so that I could watch his face, I told him I really needed another one to make an even four, but then I’d have to have a new desk to fit them all. I was kidding. Three is plenty. Most of the time.

Oh, the background you see on the monitors is my favorite from Digital Blasphemy. His desktop backgrounds are available in many sizes and configurations, like double and triple monitor setups and widescreens. Ryan does some awesome work!

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Beaded Spider

How bad is it when I can put my arms over my head and stretch, and tear up the muscles in my back and neck so bad that I’m in pain for days? That was me on Friday morning, and the pain is still making my life miserable.

I’ve never messed up my back this bad before; well, not by just stretching for heaven’s sake! Falling down the stairs maybe, or crashing my car way back when, but not stretching! I can’t put my chin down to my chest all the way, bending it backward isn’t much better, turning my head side to side hurts, and trying to bend my neck toward my shoulder is bad too. I feel like I should be wearing one of those neck things. I feel like I’m old! Or something.

My back is better today than it was all weekend, but it’s probably going to be another week or so before it’s really back to normal and maybe longer than that. In the morning I’m much stiffer and in more pain than later in the day, and sleeping is just awful so I’m not doing much of that right now. That’s why I’m up at 5:45! Hurts too much to stay in bed. I’m supposed to drive LittleOne to her flute lesson today, but it’s probably not happening. Between the garage doors and simply driving, I’d probably be down for rest of the day afterward, if not two.

Interestingly enough, the task that bothers my back/neck least ATM is quilting. Darn. Aside from a client meeting this afternoon, thankfully via telephone, that’s my plan for the day I think. Maybe I’ll make one of these cute beaded spiders! Kimberly and I each bought one at the Arts & Crafts Shop in Stuttgart last week. They are soooo cute! Hers had a big black glass bead with white spots all over it for a body and a red head, if I remember correctly.

Now, you all might be aware that I have a major aversion to bugs, spiders, flying things, etc., but I just couldn’t resist bringing this one home to live here. There were so many cute ones, it was hard to choose! (There were also some that looked a bit too real if you know what I mean. Their bodies were just a bit too much like real spiders, so I passed on those. There are limits.) I’ll have to see if I have some big beads that I could use to make this one a companion. Oh! or maybe little beads for babies!

Have a wonderful quilty day!

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Life is funny sometimes. Since my friend Dawn left nearly three years ago, there hasn’t really been anyone close by that I hang out with or quilt with regularly. During one of our last outings just before she moved, we joked that I should put an ad in the paper for a new best friend, something like “Wanted: New best friend; must like quilting, shopping, chocolate and long telephone chats. No small kids. Cat lover a bonus, transportation not required.”

It’s been a pretty dry three years since then. I did feel a connection with Kristin, but she lived in Heidelberg, and we didn’t really have the time to get together again after our quilt day, and then she was on her way out of the Heidelberg area just as soon as I got here. There have been other quilting friends here and there, but not anyone that I could say I had a real connection with.

Quilt a Travel Souvenir,
by Kimberly Einmo

Enter Kimberly Einmo. Oddly enough, she used to live in Ramstein, and we met briefly when she was teaching quilting classes in Stuttgart years ago. I watched her quilting career with interest; she wrote Quilt a Travel Souvenir, a great book of quilts and patterns inspired by her European travels while she lived in Germany. She’s back here in Germany now and living in Stuttgart, arriving just after I moved from Stuttgart to Heidelberg. Go figure.

Actually, we can blame the timing of all this on our respective husbands: ITMan was just leaving the company in Stuttgart just as Kimberly’s husband was going to work for the same company, and Kimberly’s husband would have been ITMan’s boss had we stayed in Stuttgart! Perhaps the men knew they shouldn’t get us together, because we’ll probably help each other spend money. Well, not that we really need any help with that, I’m sure.

We decided to get together last Tuesday, and it was just the most fun day! We have so much in common, I feel like I have a quilting sister already. And it’s not just quilting things we have in common either, it’s bunches of other things as well. We had so much to talk about that we couldn’t really finish a subject and say what we wanted to say before we were sidetracked by the next thing and off on another tangent. Kimberly has many of those “best friend” requirements from the ad that Dawn and I joked about: likes quilting, shopping, cats, has older kids, and doesn’t care if I always drive. I don’t know about the chocolate or phone chats yet, but I suspect she can deal with those as well.

By lunchtime, we’d decided that there would be many quilting days together in our future, and we’d just alternate back and forth between our studios in Stuttgart and Heidelberg to meet. Kimberly is teaching classes at the first AQS Quilt Expo in Des Moines, Iowa in October, and since I’ve been wanting to get to a quilt convention soon anyway, I decided to go to Des Moines with her. By Wednesday, I had our airline tickets in my hand! Look out Des Moines, here we come!

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