December 2006 full listing

In my bedroom, even! Hard wood! Over the break, I’ve been slowly working on the “spare” bedroom. I got everything moved out of there, and tore out the carpet and the padding. And beneath it, there’s actual hardwood flooring, not the vinyl tile that I found in the other bedroom. That’s cause for celebration, since it means that I can refinish the floor in there, and not have to recarpet it. Since the room is going to be a library and guest bedroom, I like the idea of a wood floor with an area rug.

I’ll take a couple pictures once I’ve had a chance to finish tearing out the furring strips around the edges of the room and have mopped the floor to get the dust out of there. Once that’s done, it’s time to figure out the color-scheme for the room and exactly how much of the wall-space is going to be devoted to bookshelves. Then paint, floor refinishing, shelves, and move in the books and furniture. I’m hoping to have all that done by May, but that’s probably an optimistic schedule.

Most of the rest of the time during the holidays has been spent socializing. There have been multiple dinners, drinks, etc., with friends and family, and my “dance card” has been a lot more full than I initially thought. It’s nice to visit with everyone, especially the folks I only see around the holidays, but it’s also been cutting into my couch-time, which I’d planned to have a lot of, too. Oh well, that’s something for 2007, I guess. I’ve also fallen behind on finding links for you. Sorry about that.

Not a whole lot for you today, but I figured I’ve got a few moments on a pleasant Christmas morning, so I’ll spread some cheer in the form of a song I’ve only heard done by Country Dick, Kim Wilson, and Candye Kane. It’s a touching little song. Brings a tear to my eye.

Let’s Put the X Back in Xmas

Pinkard & Bowden

This is the time for forgivin’ and the time for starting anew It’s high time for trying some things, dear that we’ve always wanted to do

So, put on your red laced nightie And pull your green stockings on I’ll tie you up with silver tinsel while we sing some Christmas songs

The video camera is loaded pointed and ready to go So lets put the X back in Christmas, darlin’ Under the mistletoe

Please wear your jingle bell earrings and your red plastic high heels We’ve got the holiday spirit Let’s see just how good we can feel

Me in my Santa outfit in the soft glow of Christmas tree lights I’m ready to unwrap my present and it might just take me all night

The video camera is loaded pointed and ready to go So lets put the X back in Christmas, darlin’ Under the mistletoe Everybody sing! Let’s put the X back in Christmas, darlin’ Under the mistletoe

Snowy!

We finally got some snow. Of course it fell during the day yesterday, meaning that the trip home from work, and then the trip to Uptown to get my hairs cut were both more interesting than I’d have liked, but it’s nice to have some white covering up the dirt and dead grass. And if the forecasters are vaguely right, it might even stick around for Christmas. That’s a nice touch. There’s supposed to be a bit more today, which will further snarl traffic, but will also hopefully put down enough snow that it’ll stick.

Yesterday was also the work pot-luck lunch. Went pretty well, and I did my jambalaya for the second year in a row. People enjoyed it, and it was maybe even better received than last year’s version. Plus I made so much that I still have two quarts of it left, which are now tucked into the freezer for when I’m too lazy to do some “real cooking.”

And finally the picture on the right (or above, depending on how wide you have your browser window set). It was taken with my new cell phone, which has a camera. It turned out okay, I think, and is just the reason I wanted to get a phone that had a camera, since I don’t feel like carrying the DSLR around all the time, but things sometimes just happen that I want to capture. The phone is a Motorola KRZR, and I’m relatively happy with it. The complaints? Well, the camera includes no EXIF data with the pictures taken (unless there’s a preference I haven’t found), the shiny front cover gets fingerprinted incredibly easily, and there’s a bit of a shortage of stupid games for it. I might fix the EXIF problem with some scripts, I guess, and the stupid-game shortage will work itself out, I expect, so I think I’ll be pretty happy with it in the long run.

Another busy week up here at the lodge. On the work front, there’s an unprecendented public beta which has meant extra stress around the office. Not a ton, since I try pretty hard not to write shitty code, but as Dave has said more than once, We make shitty software. With bugs. And that’s really all I want to say about that for now.

On the home front, I’ve been trying to just keep it together. It’s not that life is particularly challenging, more that I’ve been more than usually incompetant about keeping up with the daily grind (see the previous paragraph for a hint about why that might be). There’s invoices to be sent out for the biz before year end (yes Andy, I’ll get you your invoice soon), plus clients I’m going to try and let down gently. On the web-hosting front, Dreamhost has a 100% Non-profit Discount on webhosting, which means that about half of the websites I host really should move over there. I just can’t figure out hot to break that news to them.

Plus there’s something like a metric assload of other complications. Some good. Some bad. Some that I haven’t figured out yet. On the good front, the squishycow might actually get that date with Snow Globe Chip. On the bad front, it might take until May.

But then given the way the weather has been here lately, I’ve been thinking maybe it’s May already. Jebus H. Christmas on a spit, but fifty degrees at this time of year? I’m starting to think Al Freakin’ Gore might have a point after all. Or at least I would if I wasn’t sure he was smoking something that grows a whole lot better on a warmer planet. Or of which there’s a giant stalk of it up his butt. Or perhaps it’s ash. He’s too stiff for that pole to be hemp.

But hey, if I was going to libel ex-politicians, I’d be here all day, and I need to wrap this up and get my sorry butt to bed. I’m nearly out of Fish Head music for the evening, and it’s Ram Jam after the Rads in the playlist, and frankly, I don’t think I can go there tonight without having a complete musical (and mental) meltdown, so I need to wrap this up before that happens.

Hey, have a good weekend. I plan to. Even if I do have to buy Old Milwaukee to get the returnable bottles I promised to Chip’s escort.

To the end of the year, with all that means. In my case, the added goodness this year is trying to wrap up the business stuff. I’ve mostly shut down the business, and I’m hoping that this is the last year I’ll have to worry about unemployment and workman’s comp insurance, withholding, or 90% of the headaches that come with having employees. Once that’s out of the way, I’m going to think about sending notices to my hosting customers, suggesting they find someone else to host their websites. Probably after the first of the year, though.

It’s also getting close to Christmas. Once again, I’m pretty much done with shopping, except for finding something for mom. I just don’t know what to get, since the usual idea of slippers or something comfy like that didn’t seem to pan out last year. Mom got the slippers, and they disappeared before my next visit. Sigh. I don’t know whether someone else there grabbed ’em, or mom just stashed ’em away, but in either case, that plan didn’t work so well.

The weekend? Busy it was. Friday was a friend’s 50th birthday party. Saturday was Randy’s Ordination and his going-away party. He leaves this morning for the left coast. Sunday, I got through five of the six things on my list for stuff around the house, leaving only the “invoices and business bills” undone. I’ll tackle those some evening this week, and at that point will have mostly wrapped up the year for business.

Next on the list is Christmas cards. It’s tough to get excited about sending them out without snow on the ground, but there’s a little dusting this morning. Maybe that’ll be the jump-start I need. Actually, it probably would, if I didn’t have to stay late at work this evening for a meeting. Speaking of which, I guess I’d better get moving. I’ve got plenty to do today at work, including preparing for that meeting, so it’s time to get started on it. Have a great week.