Survived the big party - and it was a great success

 Richard and I built up quite a head of steam for our annual Minnstf Halloween Party/Minnstf Meeting, and after all that I'm delighted to report that it was wonderful. There was just one last-minute home catastrophe (water heater died on Friday). But fortunately, of all the essential home systems that can fail, the hot water heater is probably the one that has the least direct effect on guests (unless they were planning to shower while they were here). It turns out not to be that hard to heat water on the stove for washing dishes. I like to think that the bracing cold shower I took before the party just gave me extra energy. 

Richard traditionally does the cooking and most of the party prep in our household, but this year I did my part by spending two months renovating the attic and talking about it so incessantly that I suspect some people just showed up out of curiosity to see it. And my obsession with christening the newly available space with a music party actually bore fruit. It's been too long since we had music at a Minnstf event. Thanks to the folks who not only brought their instruments but schlepped them up two flights of stairs, and then had to put up with me moving furniture around and messing with the climate control while they were playing. The attic party didn't last terribly long, but I think it was enjoyed by all. We had enough chairs for the musicians, but could have used some additional seating for listeners. I have some ideas for next time. 

Our Membership Secretary informs me that 58 people signed in for the meeting! Since there are always people who don't sign in, especially late-comers, I think we probably had 60-70 attendees. Wow!  Three large crockpots of hot food and most of the munchies were consumed, which supports that estimate. The first floor was sometimes unpleasantly crowded, but with the attic and fire circle on the back patio for overflow, it was fine. Best of all, it was too crowded for gaming, which meant that people were forced to talk to each other, for hours. There were great conversations going on all over the party space, and the two new people who attended had no trouble finding people to talk with.

There were some great costumes too, which I have been unsuccessfully trying to post since yesterday. I'm using the email method to post pictures to Dreamwidth, which usually works eventually but sometimes takes A DAY OR TWO. So I'll just post this without them. 

So, party over, back to setting up new computer

 Yes, this will be boring for people who don't over-focus on their computer tools. I was perfectly happy with Windows 7, but since I am being forced to make the switch I now feel compelled to spend the next week learning everything I possibly can about this new thing and customizing it in every way possible. I gather that most people just take the default configuration and learn to live with it, but what can I say? I'm the type that actually reads User Manuals. Not that modern computers even come with a User Manual. Some poor fool still has to write one, but the result no longer gets printed on paper and shipped with the product. Am I the only person on the planet that heaves a sigh of frustration when I see the tiny bit of folded paper labeled "Setup Instructions" and immediately goes to the manufacturer's website to download the User Manual?  Yeah, probably.

In brief, my new computer is a Lenovo X1 Carbon Thinkpad. It's a lot like my current Lenovo but thinner, faster, with more RAM and a larger hard drive. Beth, it's very much like your Yoga Thinkpad but without the 360-degree hinge. It's sleek and fast and the fingerprint reader actually WORKS on this one, which is an improvement over the old one. But the biggest improvement is the touchpad, which is FANTASTIC.  I have been trying unsuccessfully to get comfortable with a touchpad for 20 years, and this is the first one I've actually been able to use without having the urge to pick up the laptop and sling it across the room. It's sensitive and precise and actually has 3 buttons you can see without having to find pretend buttons hidden somewhere under the touchpad. But it turns out that I don't need them after all because the gesture shortcuts work so well. One-finger tap for left-click, two-finger tap for right-click, and two-finger drag for scrolling. Those were perfect right out of the box. I configured three-finger tap to take me directly to the all-purpose search box (probably the best new feature in Windows 10). None of that will matter much once I get set up with a docking station, but it's making the transition phase a lot more pleasurable than I expected.

This computer has a touch screen, something I didn't particularly care about and probably won't use much. However, I have been using it a lot during computer setup to move icons around on the desktop and drag files from one folder to another. Drag and drop is easy with a mouse, but I still find it awkward with even an excellent touchpad. 

**************
In other news, I managed to start the day by dropping a raw egg on the floor after I had it in the pan and starting to cook, a marvel of klutziness that I don't think I have ever achieved before. Somehow I bumped the handle of the frying pan in such a way that it flipped the egg into the air and back down onto the front of the stove where it slid all the way down to the floor, leaving a mess behind it like a suicidal giant snail. To make matters worse, it was the last egg in the house. Not the most auspicious start to the day.