The Time Sink

Okay, as promised: Spewing 4th Art, the "site for the artist" I've been working on. If you're interested in Content Management Systems, that one is rendered using Moveable Type. A point of interest to the geeks: the engine itself is perhaps one of the few successful installs to a Windows server. We had to give up some functionality (and tweak some file settings), but neither one really caused the end user any problems. ...and yeah, it's modified a bit from the default <g>!

In other news (and rehashing my Google-baiting from a few weeks back), that piece about the effects of inner dialogs on depression, with links to the original set of articles (and some new ones published since that weekend), is now located at its permanent homes in the Archives and Stories sections of the blog. Link away...

In retrospect, those turned out to be good decisions: the day was a very full one at work, and I'd have been hanging out late regardless of what time I went in. ...and while this evening's recital/concert at school was mercifully short, it looks as though we may be up during the night with a sick kid. So...

Well, he stayed home from school today, but we slept through the night (Okay, morning for me <g>). Now he's on the couch with pink cheeks and a slight fever. This is a bit of a problem as there is a Big Deal School Event in the morning. ...and there's no way he's going with a fever!

...but part of that is because Mother Nature flipped the Summer switch to the "On" position over the weekend. Yeah, the seventies last week and mid-nighties this week. Whoo. ...and hoo. That's pretty much going to shut down some of Shelley's sub work; those schools where things are spread out too much won't allow her to stay cool during the day. ...but hey, that's not slowing down her plans for a yard sale this weekend!

...and it looks like it's time to adjust the watering system to the summer routine! ...and maybe reset all the drip irrigation out front; it looks like between the gardener and the kids, things are not what they should be. Well, heck, it's a three-day weekend, right?

In other news, the yard sale is still on for Saturday morning, but that appears to be the only thing cast in stone for the weekend. That's a Good Thing. As always, there's no shortage of things to do around here; but lately, even the time to make a "To Do" list has been lacking.

"Tech Support, may I help you?" I ran across a strange one Friday evening: Shelley's Outlook Express wasn't sending mail. ...at least that's what I thought when I saw she had a message in her 'out' box. WT? Did she drop off the home network again? ...or is the dialup dead?

I took a look at my system; sure enough, I was getting mail and sending it. So I went back and hit her 'send' once again. Nothing. Stuck... Okay, how about her network. Oh, heck, the easy test: call up a page. Hmmm... No problem at all. Well, maybe a little slow; but hey, Amphetadesk may be updating on my machine or some such.

How about we 'look' at the network? Major WT??? There's a solid block of traffic on the dialup. Solid. Nothing but one continuous batch at full bandwidth. Okay... Tux (the Linux boxen) is clear. Mainspring (the Win2k box) is clear. Nothing else is on. ...and the wireless segment is showing no activity at all. So it's Shelley's box! ...but nothing is running there! Well, other than OE...

So Outlook Express gets another look... Ah, here we go: "Downloading message 5 of 25"! ...and with one long, slow moving progress bar. WT? Another megabyte picture from my sister (Hi, Ann!!!)? So I waited. ...and waited. ...and this had to have been going on since she logged in! ...and we're working on a hour here. ...and since the entire 'receive' cycle had started on her POP3 account before she hit 'send', that poor outbound email is just stuck until things are done.

So I waited to see just what it was. ...and waited. ...and waited (War and Peace cover to cover waited). ...and finally it was done and the message popped up: Shelley is the registrar for the soccer club at the boys' school. Someone didn't have a copy of their child's birth certificate when they signed up last week. They'd scanned it at high res and emailed the full sized jpeg to Shelley. 5.03 megs worth...

Well, yesterday's dinner became yesterday's brunch... Yeah, that was unexpected. ...but I learned a thing or two along the way.

I added some eggs and cheese to the sausage and Brad and I chowed down on that about two hours after we started.

...after that, Brad kept the timer for me and I loaded the firebox every hour until the yard sale was over.

...but when I went to move the thermometers from the racks of the cooking chamber into the meat itself, the meat looked pretty well cooked! Hmmm... Yep. Done. Even the roasts. ...and at the six hour mark. I mean, the meat was falling of the rib bones as I moved it to the platter. Hmmm...

Well, considering I was using a rub and didn't have to open the cooking chamber up every hour as I do when I'm using a mop, maybe that timed out about right.

As to the learning curve, I tried a mix of rubs on the ribs and that didn't work out well at all: the salt content from the beef rub was way too high for the thinner pork (spare ribs this time instead of baby-backs). ...and I didn't remember last year's lesson about lowering the amount of rub on the roasts. Everything was salvageable for Daniel and Shelley (Brad likes it spicy), but I'll need to try a milder rub on the ribs the next time. As it is, we have tri-tip for the balance of the weekend (I think the ribs are already gone).

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"Any sufficiently advanced technology is
indistinguishable from magic."
Arthur C. Clarke, "Technology and the Future"

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