Our living room reno is done. We removed an old and ugly fireplace that was red flagged this summer. We rarely used it so we didn't replace it. A number of questionable items found when we had contractors do their magic.

They colour matched the paint and even found flooring that was almost a perfect match. They brought in a licensed electrician to fix the wiring. They are a bit expensive, but the work they do is well worth it. We also had them do the bathroom reno several years ago.

I put up our Christmas tree and slowly will decorate it.

Whimpering here. I am going through a large envelope of negatives with a few prints. From what I see they go back to the early 60s. Almost no information about when, where or who. For some of them I can make an educated guess based on clothing styles and cars.

A few rants (and a lot of whimpering)

- NEVER CUT NEGATIVES INTO INDIVIDUAL IMAGES

- don't dump multiple rolls of negatives into one sleeve.

- when there is writing they used pen and that fades over the decades.

- it is a lot of work and costs a bit, but transfer the negatives into archival quality holders. First spot is reserved for a piece of card stock. Put date if known, location and who. USE PENCIL as that doesn't fade over decades.

I have photos archived that go back to the late 1800s and negatives that go back to the 1920s. I try to write notes so that anyone in the future has a chance to know who, what, where and when. All of my photo work is archived and information is there.

I am going dual monitors for work. The docking station that was provided had only one HDMI port, but two DP ports. The problem is all of my monitors have HDMI inputs only. I remembered that last year I bought a DP to HDMI adapter and wondered if that would work.

I plugged it all in and it didn't detect the second monitor. I figured the laptop might need a reboot to detect the change. After the reboot it saw the second monitor.

The second is one I borrowed from my wife so I didn't buy a monitor I couldn't use. I also need to buy a monitor riser so I can stack it up and have the two monitors near the same height. The monitor will be returned to my wife and reconnect it to her laptop.

Later today I will look at a new monitor that is 24 to 27 inches. I am looking forward to make some of my work tasks easier.

I reorganized my Christmas tie collection. Decades ago my wife bought me a joke Christmas themed tie believing I wouldn't wear it. The joke was on her as I wore it. Over the decades we keep adding to the collection. At the start of every December I wear a different tie to work until new years.

Multiple tie racks hold 31 unique ties and I have 10 duplicates. I told her that Amazon has them and she whimpered. Then I told her they have socks too that we can add to the collection and she retreated downstairs and both cats quickly followed.