"Smoking cures weight problems...eventually." Stephen Wright

I picked up the desk base first thing this morning from the welder. Once I got it home I cleaned it with lacquer thinner, primed it, painted it with gloss black, and took it down to Fred.

While Pam was out doing the weekly grocery shopping I put my books on the newly installed shelves, and once she was home she helped me get the desk top onto its base.

Ta-da!

I still have lots of setup to do, including the rest of my books, pictures on the walls, some other items planned for that room, and...oh yeah...a chair. I'd like to get an old office chair with leather seat and back, so I'll be cruising Craig's List hoping to find one.

While I was unpacking my books I came across these. I'd forgotten I had them. Can you identify the languages? (click to enlarge.) The Swahili version is supposed to be done in the next month.


Now we're told cell phone usage causes cancer in rats.
First, I have never seen a rat using a cell phone.
Second, the rats in the control group died on average at a younger age than the rats who rec'd cell phone radiation. So did they just get cancer because they were old? If you want to live longer should you use your iPhone more?
Third, the male cell phone rats got cancer at a higher rate than the female cell phone rats. (I'm leaving that one alone.)
Finally, those cancer rats were exposed to cell phone radiation over their entire bodies 9 hours a day for two years. Even a teenager can't match that.
I think the cell phones had nothing to do with it. Rats exposed to scientists develop cancer at a much higher rate than those who are not, except for those who would rather die first.

Roger Federer isn't playing in the French Open, underway now in Paris. He withdrew due to a back injury that isn't completely healed yet. He hurt it while giving his twin daughters. I'm sorry not to see him playing tennis but I like hearing that a premier athlete helps with bath time. (They also have twin boys. Playing world class tennis is a piece of cake.)

This morning while driving in to get the desk base I got to thinking a about my grandmothers. We called our maternal grandmother Grandma Helen and our paternal grandmother Grandma Mac. Why it wasn't Grandma Naslund or Grandma Ella, I don't know. The former was 100% Swedish and the latter 100% Norwegian. Both were strong and godly women. I wish I knew and remembered them better. I was around them both while growing up, but I was pretty much living in a fog until I was about 32.