Lies, lies and Damn Statistics.

As previously mentioned Mrs VL is once again indulging in some post graduate education. The field of epidemiology involves a significant quantity of statistics, with which Mrs VL was confident I could assist.

To begin with this was all well and good, a quick trip to the loft to fetch one of my old uni text books did the job. Now, a couple of months down the road, Mrs VL has become statistically wiser and wiser whilst I have sat still. Now all the talk of means, null assumptions, standard deviations and so on leave me completely baffled and attempts to get any amount of assistance out of me have a reasonable chance of failure.

The Office. Part 2 - Cutting Out

After some careful calculations and thought we purchased the required boards and planks for the office project, loaded them up in the Landrover and headed over to my partner in crime for a day of projecteering in his basement, followed by some fine food and a little competitive music identification...

When we were done with building and testing a "single phase to three phase rotary convertor",



I was very grateful for assistance with cutting the pieces for the shelving and more importantly the complicated curves of the desk top. This we did in the sober light of the next day, not all that early mind, it took our heads a little while to cope with power tools!

Partner in Crime, did a great job. After printing out the curves in full scale,



he cut out with a jigsaw, tidied up with a belt sander



and rounded of the edges with a router.



I probably could of done it myself, but as he's got twice as much equipment and twice as much experience, my result would have been half as good... Many thanks, partner in crime...

Little Man

A belated and very quick cat update.

Starsprung Skiddaw, who is now our only breeding female (living with her Foster Mum), had her first litter one week before our Winter Holiday.

Things did not go as planned, the first came out backwards, upside down and sadly dead. The second, and only other, came out full of life. however, only children can be problematic in the cat world and this was no exception. This little fellow went from 100gms to 170gms in the first four days, then stopped gaining weight, lost the will to feed at the same time as the mother lost interest, possible because of a dose of maistitis caused by the difficult birth. Day 10 was as far as he got.

We are rather fond of the name Skiddaw little man, and since we did not get as far as officially registering this kitten we will be calling the next male kitten that Skiddaw has by this name.

I havn't published any pictures by choice, but I can say that the little we saw of his quality looked very promising for future litters.

The Office.

I have a well founded theory that one project frequently leads to another.

If one considers Mrs VL's recently begun Masters Degree from the Royal Veterinary College to be a project then there is yet another data point to confirm my theory.

Those of you who have loved ones or relatives in any medical profession will know that these professions come with a huge amount of literature (which also tends to be expensive). Also, unlike us engineers, who shove our books in the loft after uni and never look at them again, this literature is often required for reference. A distance learning Masters in "Veterinary epidemiology and Public health" involves another literal shed load.

This storage issue, combined with the fact that to successfully study one requires a comfortable, pleasant and spacious office facility, has brought forward our plans to build a new office.

Originally we had designs to turn the smallest of our bedrooms into a compact but functional office. As this room seems to have been taken over by the cats and would not provide enough space for both of us at the same time (one studying and one on the computer), we have chosen to improve our existing office/guest room.

A quick session with a tape measure, a couple of "thinking caps" and an Ikea catalog, helped us to find out that as ever, the ideal solution wouldn't come in a box and DIY was the best value for money and design effective solution.

This all started before the fateful ski holiday and construction is now well under way, you'll have to wait for more details of that though, first a sneak preview of the seamless combined application of both basic and highly advanced design methods.