Tacky turkey

Well, it’s finally happened: I am now the recipient of a tacky gift that I am obligated to display. I’ve been such a lucky gift recipient all these years! The only way-out-of-my-taste wedding gift was from a distant relative who I knew would never cross my threshold, so I felt no compunction with a donation to Goodwill.

This just arrived from my in-laws, who are coming for Thanksgiving (for not the first, nor the last, time):

Well, it at least was good for a great laugh!

(I wouldn’t dare post this if this blog weren’t anonymous

Where, oh where did my cursor go?

In the spirit of increased productivity, I’ve upgraded from one old CRT to two LCD screens, and new this week, now three. While I’m really enjoying the increased workspace, the cursor is a lot harder to find!

I vaguely remembered that there used to be some keyboard sequence that would animate a bull’s eye around the cursor. In googling for it, I found:

Guide for Aging Computer Users

Ten Tips for the Awkward Age of Computing

Courtesy of Brian Basset and Microsoft Corporation

Ouch, this hits too close to home! The tips are Vista ready, but not quite what I was looking for.

Jiggling the mouse to move the cursor around doesn’t work if it’s in my peripheral vision, I can’t detect the motion. (Shouldn’t I be able to? Something to ask at my next eye exam.)

Any suggestions out there?

Do not disturb

I wish this device existed: a telephone ringer silencer, with a timer, that controlled every phone in the house.  While I dearly love my extremely short commute, there’s one business disturbance I can’t easily get away from in my own house.  It’s really special when Europe jerks me from slumber. (I’ve long since learned to let it ring.) Taking the phone off the hook is one option, but then caller-ID won’t tell me what I missed.