And get you feeling grand

And a few more miscellaneous thoughts about the book, the anniversary, and whatnot gets attached to that all. My mother was surprised by the books and did not know what was up, although she had noticed a few suspicious things besides my father and I apparently trying to sort out ``stuff''. She didn't pay close enough attention to notice it was all photographs and small souvenirs (scans of a few miscellaneous bits including some ancient birthday or Mother's Day craft projects were included and worked remarkably well against the slight gradient of a scanner left open just enough to not crush the papers). She did think it was odd that I had supposedly ordered something since I do so little online ordering; well, I'd had the outline of a cover story in claiming it would be something for bunny_hugger's imminent birthday and then to be coy about just what it was. I hadn't worked it out that far.

What she did notice was that several days running the printer was ``paused'', she said, responding but refusing to print until someone went into the room and unpaused it. Apparently when you scan things the printer goes into a scanning mode and it won't leave that without a good shove in the correct direction. I had no idea, since I print only a tiny bit more than I scan and I don't scan much. It seems like a weird mode for a printer to get into, though. I'd have thought going the night without scanning anything and then being told to print should signal the intentions of the scanner's owners adequately.

Also, my niece said, with a little bit of prompting, a successful ``Happy Anniversary'' to my mother, and with a little bit more of prompting ``Happy Anniversary'' to my father, and with no prompting at all ``Happy Anniversary'' to me. I appreciate the sentiment. She also pronounced me ``silly''; apparently I'm the only adult around her who'll crouch down and hop in time with her. But I like being silly and I'm also still wrapped up in glee from being able to crouch down and hop without leaving myself winded. So there's that.

Trivia: The first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary took four pages to adequately address the letter ``a''. Source: The Professor And The Madman: A Tale Of Murder, Insanity, And The Making Of The Oxford English Dictionary, Simon Winchester.

Currently Reading: The Secret History Of MI-6: 1909 - 1949, Keith Jeffery.