The Time Sink

Travel Day...

Update, 2230+/---Back home, safe and sound.

I'll take the current weather! We came back to a cool spell (defined as in the mid-nineties) instead of the 113 and such that we'd fled in advance of... It'll break the century mark by the weekend, but having a few days to adjust helps. Oops! It appears that we may be catching a longer break; stand by for details as events warrant<g> ...it just that morning lows here that are the same as mid-day highs on the coast makes for some serious transition.

Speaking of which, Herself is posting once again. ...and it appears the break has recharged her batteries! That's a good thing, as it appears she will need a full charge to make it through the next week or so. ...and if you don't follow my alternate site, my take on the her story about the pastor is here.

...and for those who follow the goings on with the cat: she came home from the vet and promptly threw up (the cat, not Shelley). That puts things into the realm of 'environmental' and led me to suggest changing out the cat litter as well as the food. Shelley will have more in the morning, I'm sure...

How was work? Oh, okay... Nah, really; Janeen held down the fort in her usual stellar fashion. All I had to deal with when I came back was the short list, none of them show-stoppers. ...and the one or two people who just decided to ''wait until Dan gets back.'' Man, if it's that bad, she emails me!

...and she usually won't do that without asking, "It's important enough that it has to happen today?" ...or something equally sweet. ...and even the holdouts didn't have major projects. I will say that I'm not going to announce my plans for the second round in a general fashion: this time I was just hammered before I left as people tried to shoehorn things into my last week. Sheesh. ...and very little of that couldn't have waited until this week. ...or even next. ...and when I do leave, there's a fair amount of preparation on my part to leave Janeen with nothing to handle from my side of the office.

It's been too long since I was able to provide some geek linkage... Yesterday two items showed up that may be of interest:

The first one is a virus alert... Yeah, yeah. ...but you know I wouldn't put anything up unless it was virulent or just plain sneaky. This one is sneaky: it purports to be a security patch from Microsoft, forged address and all. ...and with all the patches coming down the pike these days, someone might just not look closely enough at the address shown for the fix. ...and find themselves the proud owner of their very own zombie. A decent overview here; Symantec's info here.

The overview I cited mentions they weren't sure what the program was designed for; but with the mention of Sub7, it seems to me this is another setup for the type of DDoS attack Gibson was hit with back in late June. Heads up out there...

The other goodie (found over on Dangerous Meta) may be a way out if you think you're locked into ASP: Apache::ASP. Okay, I don't know squat about this stuff, other than Shawn used to make a living at it; but if you can port all the gee-whizzes and gosh-oh-gollies over to Perl and Apache...

After the lack of sleep Wednesday night, I am more than ready for the weekend... I just don't recover as quickly as I did a few years back <g>.

...and I have three separate project lists with a fair amount of entries on each that I can draw from. I can work inside the house, outside the house, or on computers. Gee, what a dilemma...

I guess I just may go with whatever the weather feels like. I'm hoping it feels like barbecue and naps between feeding the firebox. That would be real nice...

Thanks, Jan; I appreciate the courtesy! I'll take the original picture and work from there. ...the visual I get from that beats your alternative <g>.

I may have to consider going to boilerplate for some of my Saturday posts... 'Cause I know I've done this one before: got up late; fired up the beast; currently waiting for the sausage patties to come off (my usual gap for posting); then the tri-tip goes on...

Today's barbecue will be a test of sorts: we're entertaining our Dinner-8 group from church early next month and tri-tip is on the menu. ...and I'm not sure of the time parameters for what is essentially double the usual load of meat in the cooking chamber. So, we've invited my sister (yeah, the one Shelley's been chronicling lately) and her family over to help get rid of what would be a month's worth of meat for our household (La Casa de Pollo<g>)...

So dinner is when the thermometers say it's done, and the day moves along at the slower pace I like to use when I can find it.

Downtime continues... For everyone here... Saturday's cookery not only fed both families last night but it looks like it will cover tonight: we had enough meat left over to send a full roast home with my sister and her family. ...and tonight, Shelley will do her famous "thin slice and cook in barbecue sauce" sandwiches. Man, those are good.

...and today I've only managed one nap and a changeout of the UPS on Shelley's machine. ...and that's enough. Time to get back in the pool before I start on anything important enough to hold my attention <g>.