new station
There's not a huge amount to tell about the last twenty-four hours, except that the biggest news is my official new work-from-home station. I spent maybe an hour and ten minutes right after work yesterday, putting the new desk together.
It's just about right where I expected it to be width-wise. It's a bit shallower than I expected in terms of depth. This actually works well for me, though, as it leaves this side of the room feeling more spacious than I expected, and the desk surface is barely enough for the work laptop. I'm also loving the ability to sit right at the windows, facing the outdoors, for my work days. That's already making me quite happy, even if I do have to strategically draw the blinds to each window in succession as the sun travels across the sky throughout the day, so I don't get blinded or too warm.
My only complaint, which I did get a warning of my customer reviews on Amazon, is the keyboard tray—which was easier to install than one might expect, although there was just one step in the instructions I did have to go to the video on YouTube for, for which there was a handy QR code on the manual page. (I had joked with Eric during my weekly "Skype Checkin" meeting yesterday that I hoped the instructions would be in English; they were, but they hardly needed to be, as it was about 95% in very easy to understand diagrams. It's just the keyboard tray's side-sliders that were a bit complicated.) There really is not room on it for both the keyboard and effective use of the mouse. I thought there would be, but because the letters I actually type on, on the keyboard, are to the left of it, I need to scoot the whole keyboard to the right so I can comfortably type on it, and that takes up all the tray real estate to the right. I just set the mouse up on the main desktop space, which is taking some getting used to but is something I think I can live with.
I'll be even happier once I am working on my dual monitor setup again, which I am really hoping I can make happen sometime next week. I do need to keep reminding myself, though, that I am not working on Monday. We leave for Idaho tomorrow morning.
Speaking of which, I think I have found four separate Washington State Parks to take small detours to on this weekend trip, now that we have a Discover Pass—two for the trip over and two for the trip back. I'm thinking Lake Easton State Park, in the Cascades just east of Snoqualmie Pass, and Potholes State Park, on the Potholes Reservoir just south of Moses Lake, for the trip eastward; and then Mount Spokane State Park, which I don't believe I ever went to in the nine years I lived in Spokane between 1985 and 1994, and then maybe the location on the Columbia River of Iron Horse State Park (although I'll have to do more research on that one, as it's actually a trail that stretches across much of the state), for the way back. I just want to find places to use our Discover Pass where we don't go near very often, outside of Western Washington.
This will fairly significantly lengthen our travel time both ways but still I figure, why not?
As for the rest of last night, once Shobhit got home from work I had a bagel sandwich for lunch, he also had a bagel but made himself some packaged Indian meals for dinner, and we spent the rest of the evening watching Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which is very good. I also rather forgot how very dark that one was. (I do remember how dark The Deathly Hallows was.) I've really been enjoying re-watching that film series. The two movies they made Deathly Hallows into will have to wait until sometime next week, however; probably Thursday, actually, given Shobhit's work schedule. Maybe Wednesday.
[posted 12:17 pm]