Year: 2004

Student: Why can’t I be on time?

Master: If you aren’t early, then you are late.

I coded! And coded well! I really am enjoying working with PHP and MySQL but would still recommend ColdFusion over PHP anyday. As I do more OO work with PHP that opinion may become more 50/50. For instance, Object Oriented programming is not the answer to everything but in some applications it simply makes sense to use OO.

Did I meantion that we had only 1 minor accident yesterday and it was when the puppy was trying to get to the door. She knows what to do. Her timing needs improvement.

This dog is so black that it is hard to see her in the wee hours (pun intended). I can’t tell if she is eatting something off the ground (like other animal’s feces) or sniffing to find a spot. She has this funny sit that you can’t tell if she is relaxing or squating to go. Makes housebreaking challenging.

This morning I took her out and she obviously wanted to play so I brought her back in. She went back to the door and I ignored her. Bad move! Our first accident today. I should have listened to her needs!

The dog requests out. I reluctantly pause from my work and place the leash upon her neck. Once outside the air is crisp but not cold. It has been raining only now the pitter patter of water hitting the ground comes from the trees giving one the feeling that they are standing in a light drizzle but not getting wet. I thank the dog for giving me this opportunity. I spend the next 15 minutes in meditative calm. No cars seem to be on the road. No airplanes fly overhead. Nature has become a still life. A real rain comes and I return to the clicky clack of my keyboard and the hum of the dryer.

A New Day!

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This Morning

Went down for some much needed sleep. Isn’t it funny how the more stressed you become the more sleep you need and it really should be the opposite.

My wife wants the lights on the tree, my clients want their work done, I want to work on the house and there just aren’t enough hours in the day!

My laptop has 3 partitions on it. One for Windows 98. One for Windows 95 with an honest to goodness working copy of Internet Explorer 4. And yes, one for Windows 3.1!

I guess I could do some surfing with some really old browsers and freak some people’s stats out.

Or… perhaps its time to lose some partitions. I don’t really think I’ll be testing in IE 4 anymore and I can’t even remember why I had 3.1 on as a test platform. What say we put Linux on this antique!

So, what are your plans for that umbilical cord? Donate it to research or gold plate it?

I’m settling in to do some programming. Jimmy Buffett playing for calm and focus. Let’s make headway!

Poor Noah. He went outside again today unprompted to “bury poop” as that used to be a chore worth money on the chore sheets. He came in and hours later said, “where’s my chore sheet?” Cathy removed them weeks ago because no one was paying any attention to them!

Noah is a wonderful child. He contributes to the family without prompting and is genuinely a good boy. He has the smarts and charisma to be a great leader but I fear he allows himself to be victomized by his peers. It is hard not to contribute that to actions on his brother’s part. When Tommy acts up, Noah retreats mentally. It’s as if his whole body shrinks some. He doesn’t have to physically hide because when Tommy is having a blowout everyone else goes unnoticed. So, I can imagine that if a peer acted a bit like Tommy and noticed Noah’s retreat then they could conceivably gain influence over him. Noah is also attracted to other children that act like Tommy. It is what he knows.

After Tommy’s rough start I expected the whole mall experience to be horrible. Fortunately we chose to see Santa at East Town Mall (now East Town Centre) and everything went smoothly. The Santa was Disney perfect! Could not have asked for a better Santa.

At one point I wanted to show Amy what to expect. Our conversation went like this:

D: “Who is that?”

A: Seeing the toy in the elf’s hand “Elmo!”

D: “Yes, but who is that?” Pointing.

A: “Santa!”

D: “Will you sit in Santa’s lap?”

A: Shakes head no.

D: “Are you going to tell him what you want for Christmas?”

A: “Yup!”

D: “What do you want?”

A: “Lots of presents.”

Santa: Leans over and whispers toward the baby’s ear. From our prespective we see his mouth move and his beard rub the baby’s head.

A: Laughing. “Santa eatting baby!”

I about died laughing!

I just spent 10 minutes switching bulbs around on a string of lights to turn around and check the fuses and while putting the fuse back it it bounced out and disappeared into the ether.

Where my light tester is is anybody’s guess. This would be fun if I wasn’t so overdeadlined.

So when I was fixing the dryer (fixed) I learned that there is an alarm inside. If the belt ever breaks the alarm sounds.

For the past few days an alarm has been sounding but the drum still turns. My guess? I suppose the belt is either slipping or sticking. I guess I’ll add a washer and dryer to the Christmas list.

But wait! Let’s check one thing. Oh look! The lint catcher has a carpet on it! Yes, that thing which is supposed to be cleaned before every load probably hasn’t been cleaned in a week. So our alarm was telling us to clean the lint catcher.

arcite wins with “after sending the kids off for overnight medical experiments (someone has to try the new drugs & we need the beer money)”

Yesterday was a hard day for Molly. We began the day cramming for dog school. We practiced several times before lunch. Molly had bath which she deplores. On the way to dog school we tried to got Petsmart. She encountered small yipping things and big sniffing things but we bailed out quickly. The crowds were unbelievable!

So, onto dog school. We get there early and Molly enjoys everyone’s presence. Then we throw the ball. Then there is a half an hour of exercises. Then an hour of testing. The dogs all did great. Molly’s performance could have been better but “if there was an award for most improved, Molly would get it!” She had a blast.

I’m going to miss dog school. Molly was so wiped out that she slept the whole afternoon. Then in the evening she joined Cathy and I in bed (yes, a dog has come between us) but slept the entire night in the same spot on her back with all 4 paws up in the air. She looked like the horse from Animal House.

A New Day!

Let’s start the day off with a PayPal donation link:

This Morning

I have this terrible fear of letting people down. So, I’ll often try to go above and beyond to impress even if it is at my own expense. I also don’t like to say no. If I know I can do something or help someone then I want to do it. Furthermore I sincerely believe there is nothing that I can’t take on and success. Combine these three things together and you have a perfect formula for disaster.

Today I can feel the ache all over.