Here I am back in
the Catalogue Room. Bliss to type on a proper keyboard, agony to put up with
the slow booting time. I think I had better buy a new basic laptop while I still
have some money left. I keep saying
that. By the time I act, there’ll be no money.
It has been another cool, grey, wet day.
This is getting tedious. But thank you for the news, Lisa (comment yesterday),
that I’d be no better off in Rome. The London crowd is expected tomorrow. That
means I may not be here at all, blog-wise. There are moments when I am almost
glad to be crippled: it will be grand to see them, and I can’t scurry around in
preparation much as I want to.
Knitting progressed very well. I finished
picking up stitches around the neck edge of the Spalding sweater, and embarked
on the collar. It attaches itself to the edge as I progress. The pattern, over
22 stitches, is k1, slip 1 wyif. At the inside edge, therefore every other row,
you take in one from the picked-up stitches, and get rid of it with a k2tog at
the beginning of the next row. I don’t think I’ve ever knit this particular
stitch before. It makes a nice, dense rib. (I was expecting st st.) I’m getting
a good line at both edges – that’s good, because both will be very visible on
the finished article. I floundered at the beginning, and picked it back a
couple of times, but I now think it’s tidy enough throughout. It remains only
to see whether I have enough of the toning colour in which I’m knitting. There’s
no turning back now. I’ll have to order more if I run out.
I think Helen is back in Edinburgh, or soon
will be. I’ll see her tomorrow, along with all these other people. Otherwise no
news. I’ll face up to photography when I reappear, whether tomorrow or later.
Wordle: We haven’t heard from Alexander or
Rachel yet, so it’s hardly worth reporting. And at the moment, I can’t persuade
the iPad to show me the DC scores. I got three, and was rather proud of it. Mark and Ketki and Thomas had four. Theo – I think
it was he – had a brilliant two, Roger another four. Or maybe it was the other
way around, I’ll update you later if I can sort the iPad out.
Weather here has been very wet and occasionally very windy. I have a note that it normally does this at this time of year, so it's not new for Maryland. Annoying, though, when I want to travel without being blown sideways.
ReplyDeleteThe collar stitch sounds as though it will lie flat. I may try it out.
A new laptop might be easier than getting the old one speeded up with a new drive, but you might want to check to be sure the new one has all the features you want - they keep removing things in the name of "thinness" - I would rather have a thick machine that has what I want!
I agree with Tamar that you need to make sure a new computer has what you need. I made the mistake of upgrading Word, and "in the name of improvement", some functions that were very easy became quite complicated. Annoying.
ReplyDeleteNew York is cold and very rainy, although Easter Sunday was chilly but sunny. There is a band of rainy cold weather all along the east coast.
It will improve by Friday, we hope.
Enjoy your family.
I grew up along the Great Lakes so being blown sideways was a common occurrence. Almost want to buy the Spaulding pattern to see what you are talking about, Jean. But I have enough patterns strewn all over the Internet so I probably don’t need any more. Have a fabulous time with your family!
ReplyDeleteTamar has wise words! I wish I had a dvd/cd drive in my laptop. I have an external one but it it doesn't read all disks. Most annoying. Wordle in 3!
ReplyDeleteI see you have Bea Wilson's book. We have enjoyed the Chicken Milanese and the Citrus chicken traybake a number of times. She does go in for elaborate flavourings while talking about keeping it simple.
ReplyDeleteas an IT professional for many decades, i understand about upgrading software and hard ware issues. yes things are left out but others are added but it is hard to learn a new version
ReplyDeleteregarding upgrade of your laptop - i strongly recommend a chromebook. the newer versions are not just a big chrome browser but have the new Chrome OS (like Windows and iOS - an operating system that runs the machine) its been developing over the last ten years and is very very easy to use. There are many apps in the Google Play store -- I can run BBC Sounds, SONOS, YoutTubeTV, Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, RING and NEST to name a few.
A Chromebook starts up in about 10 secs (really) and you use a Google account to login... One Password and Last Pass also work on these.
If you have more than one chromebook (guilty!) then the same login works on all and all of your apps and chrome browser history, bookmarks etc are available just by logging in to any of them.
AND here is the best news - the pricepoint ranges from VERY reasonable to high end. You can get a very good one (more memory and good sized screen) for 3-500 USD. There are very high end models for much much more. but in the 300 range there are perfectly good models.
I have several sizes (typing on a 12 in model and have a 15 inch for work and then a chromebox with two very big monitors at my WFH desk).
As the majority of what we do is online, you will find this easy to use.
Oh and WORD, EXCEL? Yes you can used those documents on a chromebook - there is a chrome extension that opens them.
Would be glad to advise what would work for you.
Few more things -all the streaming services are available as they all run in browsers now... britbox (have to get my eastenders fix) and all the others - netflix, hulu, max, apple tv.. etc
ReplyDelete