Labor Day Update

It was the best of weekends; it was the worst of weekends. A lot of money was spent, mostly on important stuff. A lot of work was done, and most of it not futile.

• We bought a lot of stuff in preparation for our trip. For example, we decided that a portable DVD player that could work in the car would be a good investment for keeping a certain little boy we know and love happy during the long stretches of driving. We also bought some new DVDs to roll out one at a time after he gets bored with the old ones.
• But, Vinny dropped my camera, lens-down, on the concrete floor, so I had to replace it. That's $100 down the drain.
• I sewed a carrying case for the DVD player and a laptop case for Melvin, the tiniest, babiest computer* (I managed to get all the pictures off the damaged camera, so a post will be forthcoming). I had a blast sewing those.
• We replaced the light fixture in Vinny's room with a colorful ceiling fan, which was a good thing. That boy is still obsessed with fans, and we'd bought that fan several months ago but just hadn't gotten around to installing it yet. Yesterday evening he was just wanting to sit in his room and watch the ceiling fan go round and round.
  
• But, in that process, I learned not to use the Amps (current) setting on your multimeter to determine whether wires are live. One of the multimeter probes melted and burned when I tried that. So, don't do it, unless you want to replace your multimeter's probes at a minimum, and possibly the entire multimeter and some of the surroundings. Thanks to the spray of molten probe, I need new lenses on my glasses. (This is the one time I'm happy to be nearsighted.) Use the voltage setting instead!
• I saw the movie The Gangs of New York last night. I did not realize how crazy and lawless things used to be in this country! I always chuckle at people romanticizing the past so much that they think they'd like to live back then. No, thank you! I'm sure that the Five Points area where the movie took place was much worse than just about anywhere else, but sheesh! Even the wealthy periodically had their homes mobbed, or people infiltrating disguised as maids or help staff who would rob them, etc. I'm happy for things the way they are right now, thank you very much.
  

* You have to be one of my sisters to understand how hilarious this statement is. Yes, ladies, I did name my new netbook Melvin!