AMERICAN WOOD COUNCIL SPAN TABLES

Darkness Odigaunt wonders if the cookies were still hidden in here for class. "Jaina, I thought about what you said, about baby books... What do you like to read?"

Lisbeth Dollinger ladles steaming soup into a bowl. She carries it to the table and sets it beside Jaina, with a spoon and napkin to follow. She listens closely to the conversation. "I am sorry, sister. A moment? Jaina, darling, did you hear Elise's question?" She returns to the fridge to get the milk.

Elise Capalini smiles as Sister Lis bustles around, and hopes she means to join them. She watches Jaina eat and is comforted that the girl has been safe here over night. She checks her PDA again, but still no word from Deb. Troubling.

Jaina Lefevre actually waits to swallow before speaking, eyes flickering to Sister D's and then down to the table. "Uh...'vanced mek-nyzed warfare 'n crypto-graffy an' diplo-massy." (Advanced Mechanized Warfare, Cryptography and Diplomacy). She looks over at Elise and then down at the table. "He was tall an' had darker skin and black hair and I dunno his name but th' lady wif him was called Huntress."

Lisbeth Dollinger thinks for two terrible seconds about her cousin. And hiring him to do some equally terrible thing to the UAC monsters. She closes her eyes, her back to the others, and prays fervent forgiveness while crossing herself. God save her from such thoughts. After pouring the milk, she returns the bottle to the fridge, and brings the glass to Jaina. "There you are."

Elise Capalini nods at Jaina; that matched the description of the private she'd seen on the street earlier in the evening, the one Portia had said had taken the children. Problem was, the MPD had no authority where the kids had been held. She takes a bite of her sandwich, ears flicking at the mention of what Jaina likes to read. "Sister Lis, I think you need to sit with us," she says and nods toward the empty chair.

Darkness Odigaunt leaned back in her chair, "Well.... I don't think Mrs. Bails will be teaching those either..." She reached for her purse, down beside the chair, and draws out a small book, "I had a friend once who liked really old computer manuals, but then she disappeared...Sorry, I don't have anything more advanced than that."

Lisbeth Dollinger smiles and sits down beside Elise. "Computer manuals!" She lifts her brows in surprise. "Heavens, darling. Do you not read anything else? Stories? Poetry?" That she is reading above her level does not seem to surprise her at all.

Jaina Lefevre takes the milk and downs about a third of the glass before putting it down and wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "Thanks Sister Lis." She takes the last few bites of the sandwich. "S'okay SIster D. Mommy said she'd bring me books from th'Beast when she gets back. I got tooters there, and I can learn so-shill stuffs here." She wrinkles her nose at the question.' Mama wants me to read 'bout prince frogs and princesses and stuff. THat's dumb. Who needs a prince t'be happy? And I ain't kissin' no frogs. Tha's gross."

Elise Capalini noms her sandwich some more, then smiles at Jaina. "You don't need a prince to be happy, but the stories can be awfully fun to read anyhow. Plenty of adventures there." She nods, and sips her orange juice.

Darkness Odigaunt raised an eyebrow, "Well, not all stories are... about princesses and frogs... I bet there's a copy of Sherlock Homes lying around here. Ever hear of him?"

Lisbeth Dollinger nods, agreeing with Elise. Her thoughts turn to her cousin again, and this time she smiles. He would twitch and wince and curl his lip if he could hear Jaina now. "Or Tolkien," she chimes in. "Or Stevenson. Dickens. Mr. Twain."

Jaina Lefevre wrinkles her nose. "Don't need t'read 'bout 'ventures. I got lots. B'sides, Luci said she'd take me on a 'venture sometime. Gotta read stuffs that's gonna help me help Mommy when I'm bigger 'cause she ain't got no one that knowed about tack-nukes. I wanna put one on that boogerface's head!"

Elise Capalini laughs a little. "I have plenty of adventures myself, but I still like to read about others, outside of Midian. It's a big world out there. Midian is only a small corner of it." That idea is comforting to her, and the idea of getting to see more of the world next week thanks to Laz...that still seems like a dream. "I wouldn't turn any book away."

Darkness Odigaunt smiles, "Well, then Hawthorne, Poe, Eliot... Just reading books that teach you work isn't good. You have to know how to use it too... Like, math in a book is okay, but if you don't know places to use it in real life... I think I lost what I was trying to say..."

Jaina Lefevre looks over at Elise. "Yeah, but you is old already. You knowed what you gotta do. I gotta learn what I gotta do so's I can do it. When

The thing that always annoyed me about this setup is that so much space is used up, I can hardly put a book and some papers on the desk to work with. So I was wondering what took up the most space, and it is most definitely the laptop. If it wasn't there I have a lot more space that I can use. Also the model is quite old, more than 3 years old. It isn't that well supported by the new OS versions anymore, and the battery life is nonexistent. Another thing that annoyed me where all those cables that I always had to plug in and out. I used to have an USB hub, but the old laptop/OS had problems with that - it wouldn't wake up after hibernation if the USB hub was connected....

So I was looking for some better way of setting up my desktop, and after A LOT of thinking, fiddling around, more thinking, going to hardware shops (e.g. media market and medimax hardware discounters) and thinking about what to buy, more thinking and annoying my friends, I finally came up with something (don't laugh, it actually took me half a year of thinking this through - but for now I am pretty happy with the result).