Author Archives: Panther

Gardener

Now is the time to think about the garden again. According to the plan, the municipality should finish the sidewalk in our street this year, but they have postponed it to next year. Originally we wanted to wait with finishing the garden until the sidewalk was in place, but we do not want to wait another year. That is why we called our gardener so that we could talk about what and how much work should be done this year.

After a long talk about grass concrete, driveway, pathway, beds, and so on, we agreed on what we wanted to be done. The most annoying part is that we cannot finish it until the municipality has finished the sidewalk, but it will be almost finished. So next year, it is only the last 5 meters of driveway and grass concrete that need to be done together with flagstones and a wooden fence around our garbage bins. We are looking forward to finishing the garden. You can live with something temporarily for some time, but 3½ years is a long time to finish a garden. 

Garden

LEDs

First, a little background information... 5 halogen light bulbs are usually what lights up one of our bathrooms, but 1½ weeks ago, one of the halogens broke. That started a discussion of whether or not to replace them with something more energy-efficient. For starters, we borrowed a suitcase filled with different kinds of energy-saving bulbs. We highly recommend doing this, since every manufacturer has many types of light bulbs, and the light from them is very different (even from bulbs from the same manufacturer). We liked one of the energy-saving bulbs, but the problem with that kind of bulbs is, that the time it takes for them to turn on is too long. It is very annoying, when you turn on the light, enter the room, and bumps into something before the bulbs turn on. So we started looking at the alternative - LEDs.

We began with buying two cheap LEDs. They were crap - the light was miserable, and we learned that warm white light was yellow! So they ended up along with the garbage. Instead, we bought 1 LED at another store, and it cost three times as much - but then it was also dimmable. That one was comparable to the halogens. Now that we finally had found a LED that we could use, we were tempted to try other types of LEDs (not dimmable). We ended up with two - one watertight and one with a wider beam angle. The watertight LED had a bluish light and a wider beam angle than the halogens, which made them perfect for the position above the mirror. The LED with the wide beam angle had a more yellowish light. We decided to combine the two LED types. Partly because we wanted the combined light in the bathroom to be somewhere in the middle of the two, partly because the watertight LEDs turn on a bit delayed compared to halogens (but not nearly as much as energy-saving bulbs), whereas the LEDs with wide beam angle turn on instantly and turn off a bit delayed. This way we can cut down on the electricity from 220 W to 22 W in our bathroom.

The dimmable LED we bought was not wasted. We use it in the outdoor lighting, which is controlled by a dimmer. A good piece of advice - do not buy the cheap LEDs, you will only be very disappointed. 

LED lighting

Garden sofa

Again we have spent money on something. I have for some time now wanted a more comfortable way of enjoying our garden but have not been sure of what I wanted. The perfect scenario would be something that would enable me to work with a laptop so that when I work from home, I would also be able to enjoy some fresh air when the weather permits it. In addition, I am not comfortable sitting straight, and when I am watching a movie, I prefer to do it lying halfway down or something like that.

To my big surprise, I noticed a garden sofa for a reasonable price in a shop nearby, so we went there Tuesday to take a closer look at it. We sat comfortably in it, and it was big enough for me to be sitting with my legs up and a laptop, so we decided to order it. Before we went to the store we had (of course) looked around on the Internet. There are a lot of different types of garden sofas - but unfortunately, they are also very expensive. One other advantage of the sofa we chose, is that it is modular, which means that it can be expanded later on (if the store still sells it). The sofa was delivered Friday, and we ‘assembled’ it. The only thing missing now is warm weather for us to test it properly. 

Garden couch

Robot family expanded

Now my colleagues at work once again have something to talk about. They already think that we are a bit crazy because we own both a vacuum cleaning robot and a lawnmower robot. The newest addition to the family is a floor washing robot. A lot of people glance furtively at us when we say that we have James to vacuum, Antonio to mow the lawn, and now Carlos to wash the floor, but we think it is great.

It gives a kind of freedom when we make James vacuum while we dust or wipe the foot panels in the entire house. And no one is grumpy when we get home from work and the lawn needs to be mown. We just put Antonio to work. Of course, it would be faster to do it ourselves but it is very difficult to be at two places at the same time. So we are just happy that we have helping hands nearby. 

iRobot floor washer

1 exam passed

The first of several Microsoft exams are passed. I already have an MCSE+Security certification from Microsoft, but it is based on Windows 2003, so it is about time to get it upgraded to Windows 2008. Thursday, I passed the first exam relatively easily. In total, I have to pass four exams, so that leaves three more to go.

I hope that I will be able to pass one more exam before summer vacation, even though I am very busy at work.

Graduate

New layout

Finally - a new layout on my homepage. For a lot of years, I have been using a black background with purple, orange, and green colors, but that is changing - almost. I still think that the main entrance page is perfect for my homepage and fits well with the name, so I have chosen to keep the dark color on that page. I would love to hear your opinion about the new layout and the colors, so write me.

Now that I'm at it, I want to wrap up things that I started writing about on the homepage. First of all, James has returned to working condition. We received the brushing module Monday, swapped it with the old one, and immediately put James to work. Again I want to compliment Witt for their great service, which was the company responsible for the warranty/reclamation.

The other thing that I wanted to mention was our adoption. The next day we received the information about the orangutan center, forest school, and so on by email, and they had also attached the latest newsletter about 'our' baby. Approximately one month later, we got a newsletter about Nody (the orangutan baby). I still think it's a great way to make the donation more personal. 

Homepage logo

James goes on strike

There is panic in our home because James is on a strike. Well, that is, our vacuum cleaning robot is on strike. 1½ years ago we bought a robot to get help vacuuming the house during the week. We ended up being more satisfied with the robot than we anticipated, and it did not take long before we called it James (yeah, I know, very cliché). A couple of days ago, it started sounding different than usual when vacuuming. We discovered that the brushing module was broken. What to do now?

You hear a lot of stories about bad service when things are more than six months old, but we wrote a service report to the company anyway. The next day (Friday), we received an e-mail stating that we could either send them the robot, or they could send us a new brushing module, which we then should replace ourselves. Now we are waiting in anticipation of a new brushing module - hopefully getting here sometime today. 

iRobot Roomba

Snow, snow, and even more snow

It gives food for thought that the United Nations Climate Change Conference was held last year and global warming was discussed in detail, after which the weather gives us the coldest January in 23 years. Right now, there is approximately 20 cm of snow covering everything, and more is coming during the week. We have checked the loft to see whether or not snow had come in, and we have also made sure that there is no snow tucked around the house or woodwork. My boyfriend spends a lot of time clearing the driveway because we had company coming.

There is no sidewalk on our street (yet), so that is not part of the work this year. Even though there are some disadvantages, I like the wintertime. The scenery covered in snow is very beautiful, and the days seem more bright and longer, which causes the spirit to rise. We went for a walk, and it was so refreshing. Everything was covered in snow, and the forest had also taken on the white dress. 

House covered in snow
A lot of snow in the neighborhood

The girl who played with fire

Finally - the day came when the second movie of the Millenium trilogy was released on Blu-ray. For those of you who do not know what I am talking about, a Swedish writer, Stieg Larsson, has written three books, that are called the Millenium trilogy. They are very popular - at least if we are talking about Sweden and Denmark - and have been made into three movies. The first movie, The Girl with the dragon tattoo, was released in August last year, and in our opinion, the movie was very good.

I have also read the books, and I thought that the first book was the worst. It was very slow in getting started, unlike the next two books, which were full speed ahead all the time. So yesterday, we put ourselves on the sofa, legs up, and expected to be entertained by movie no. two: The girl who played with fire. I was disappointed. The girl with the dragon tattoo was a lot more thrilling, and the story was more ‘complete’ and had an ending. The girl who played with fire was more diffuse and was very slow with getting on with the story. So, now I look forward to watching movie no. three to see if it can pick up all the loose ends that movie no. two introduced. I have to wait a couple of months, though, since the release date is in mid-march. 

The Girl who played with Fire poster

Parents - in a way!

A fixed amount of money every month - and voila! - you are a parent (to an orangutan baby)! I subscribe to National Geographic, and I read an article about orangutan babies. A Danish woman manages a center on Borneo where they raise orangutan babies and puts them back into nature when they are about seven years old and able to make it on their own. It could be babies that people have kept as pets, babies that have been mistreated, or babies without parents that are found in the wild.

The center cares for the babies and nurses them, and they also teach them how to manage on their own in the wild. I was impressed and thought that that kind of project was something I would like to support. I looked at the homepage and found that I was able to ‘adopt’ a baby for a fixed amount of money every month, and I would regularly be updated with information as to how it was going. I paid and am now waiting for the first update with excitement. 

Red Orangutangen