Some (Or All) Assembly Required

Okay, so I'm back from IKEA with my new laptop stand.  Now all I need to do is put it together.

Easier said than done, isn't it? You see, since IKEA is an international company, all their assembly instructions are done in pictures, so there's no need to make different copies in different languages.  The end result is instructions that are universally unintelligible to everyone.  I take some comfort in that; just think, somewhere on the other side of the world someone in India, or Russia, or Outer Mongolia is looking at the same set of directions wondering what the hell to do next, just like I am.  It really is a small world (sigh).

Success at last! It's together.  And all the little adjustable bits work like they're supposed to.  And this time I didn't have any parts left over!  A miracle.  Now, if I can only do the same with the little table I bought-wish me luck!

Nine Again

So now they're saying on the news that maybe there's another planet on the outer edge of our solar system. Either that, or it's a brown dwarf star. Or maybe it's not there at all.  Now, it'll sure be interesting to hear more about this, but it'll be even more interesting to find out how it was there all this time and no one noticed! I know that science is the great quest for understanding how the universe works and that you need to question previously held beliefs when new data becomes available, but geez! Missing something that;s supposed to be 4 times bigger than Jupiter?  It's like not noticing a bowling ball in a bag of marshmallows.  At least if it's there, we'll be back to 9 planets again, since poor old Pluto got the shaft recently.