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I’ve kept track of Abigail’s library books since she almost the beginning. This has been a boon for knowing what books to return to. I offer the list up to the universe for your family!

Looking for a book recommendation? A good place to start is searching for books with a rating of 7 or higher.

Abigail’s Book List

Initially I kept track of one book per line. Eventually, I started making additional entries for books we got multiple times since her preferences have changed over time. A highly rated board book might eventually get a low rating because she had outgrown it. It’s an imperfect list but a very good start!

There are so many ways to control sound on Windows 10 that I sometimes forget them. Here is a list for my own reference:

Clicking on the speaker icon in the far lower right system tray
And then click on the carrot that pops up. This changes the default audio output. Great for choosing between your bluetooth earbuds vs bluetooth earbud AG mode vs computer speakers

Right-clicking on the speaker icon in the far lower right system tray
There’s a bunch of options and submenus here!

Start | Control Panel | Sound
In this area, each device (ie Bluetooth earbud, speaker) will have different Enhancements here. My MPOW earbuds have Bass Boost, Loudness Equalization (a compressor, hurray!), Headphone Virtualization (a nice stereo expander).
You can also enable or disable devices here

Start | Control Panel | Device Manager | Audio inputs and outputs
You can update or disable drivers here

Start | Control Panel | Device Manager | Bluetooth
More with the updating and disabling drivers

Start | Control Panel | Realtek HD Audio Manager

Here’s a good article about audio settings and equalization

You can google “Dynamic Range Compression Win 10”

Since Fox News only covered it for 4 minutes in total, I will mention it here, in case you missed it. Dominion Voting Systems settled their defamation case against Fox News. Fox admitted that all of their headliners were intentionally lying to it’s viewers about Dominion allegedly rigging the presidential election against Trump and for Biden. Fox will pay Dominion $787 million dollars in the settlement.

Watch the statement from Fox as read by Fox News reporter Howard Kurtz on Your World with Neal Cavuto April 18th, 2023 from 1:20pm to 1:23pm. “We are pleased to have reached a settlement of our dispute with Dominion Voting Systems. We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false. This settlement reflects FOX’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards.”

Twenty minutes after the announcement above where Fox News admitted wrongdoing, they posted an article on their website, see below, with a title that denied any wrongdoing. Though paradoxically, Fox admitted wrongdoing in that same segment.

We love our hot tub! It’s a Saluspa Laguna that we got from Costco for about $450 last year. It seems small at 177 gallons but it is just perfect.

Megan uses it several times a week, and maintenance is easier than we assumed.

A huge bonus is that it doubles as a tiny pool for Abigail and friends to play in. The bottom is soft and flat, unlike most hot tubs, letting her stand or sit in it as she likes. We lower the heat so she and her friends can splash in it on a hot (or not so hot!) day. We were concerned that the flat bottom wouldn’t be comfortable to go hot tubbing in but it really is just fine!

The only bother is that it does use quite a bit of electricity, especially in the winter.
I did some tests and here’s what I found:
We run the hot tub at 104 degrees

In the winter, with temperatures about 45-50 degrees, the hot tub uses about 10kwh/day. Using the aftermarket heat blanket reduces that by about 3kwh per day. When the temperature dips below about 40 degrees, the heater can’t keep the temperature at 104 without the blanket.

In the summer with temperatures about 58-68, the hot tub uses about 5kwh/day.

It is only worthwhile to turn the hot tub off for 3 or more days. Otherwise, there is no energy savings.

Our electricity costs about $0.35/kwh. So in the winter it costs about $105/month to run (10kwh * 30 days * $0.35). With the cover, it’s about $73/month.

I got a CleverSpa Universal Small Round 180cm Thermal Hot Tub Cover for about $90

I think on May 1st, it’ll be warm enough for us to put the cover away until the fall. :-)

Abigail played in her first play last week! Hurray for second grade!

The MASEP production of The Wizard of Oz, directed by Lew Williams played two shows on April 11th on the Madera stage!

You can jump to some highlights with Abigail! She comes on stage as the Munchkin Roq right here in the black sleeves and flower shoes. She flies in as Winged Monkey #2 here, and here’s her curtain call!

(The camera work gets better after about 5 minutes, after I figured out what the heck I was doing!)

We’ve got tickets to Burning Man! Planning on joining up with Kidsville. You?

I haven’t done this in many years. It’s a thrill!

Happy Easter!

I’m considering getting a Lenovo Yoga 9i laptop with an OLED screen but I strongly suspect the screen will look like shit in a year because OLEDs burn in. Thoughts?

The MFD (Multifunction Display) / computer screen in our 2008 Prius started misbehaving. It would show a black screen or a weird sort-of out-of-focus screen, or wacky light effects. Entertaining as it was, we had to fix it.
Our mechanic fixed it for $800 last year and it failed again. Since our mechanic had retired in the interim, we were on our own. I ended up buying one on eBay for $415 and installing it myself.

Tips:

Make sure you buy the exact model number as a replacement. Mine is a 86110-47220. The model number is written on it. There are some upgrade-compatible units (look around on PriusChat) (for instance, the model 86110-47230 might have worked for me, but it’s easiest to just stick with what you know will work. I followed instructions from this video to remove it. It took me 30 minutes the first time, and I broke a plastic piece, 10 minutes the second time, 5 minutes the third time! I tried to use this MFD repair guy in Indiana for $300 but my MFD was already a refurbished unit and he couldn’t fix it. (yes, you can drive around with a missing MFD). The folks in Indiana were awesome and if you have an original MFD that has broken, I’d definitely recommend you try their service!