The Time Sink

Hmmm... I betcha' I can do every "How do you know when you're out of shape" joke there is! Woooeee! That was way too much time off from the routine. ...but on the plus side, three major and two minor gardens are weeded, most of them 'done, done, done', one only at the 'done' stage, and one at the "I'm done" stage <g>. ...but I also managed to get a tune up run in on the blades in the late afternoon; I figured since most of my body was going to hurt today, I might as well do the entire thing.

...and I managed to spend some time on an upgrade to an MT install for a friend. The interesting thing is the server: Win2k. Yeah. Oh, yeah. ...and with a permissions set and control panel that are frankly unbelievable. It made for a very interesting (and a very late night) on Saturday and took care of most of Sunday evening. ...and I still have to hit the forums to see if anyone else has had to change the extensions from .cgi to .pl to get things to run.

The thing that messes me up with Daylight Savings Time is that blasted 'late night lunacy' thing I have going. Once I'm over that hump, around ten or so, I'm on a roll for the evening. Heh. Good news with bad around this time of year.

...but more good news: I got out blading again last night; I'll still do short runs the balance of the week, but at least I'm out! ...and more good news on that MT install to the Win2k server: I talked with one of the server techs today and we had a great exchange about the capabilities of their servers. Basically, we'll be able to get the site up and running (as proofed last night), but we have a way to go to be able to use the MySQL database portion of things. No, it's just that they've never had to have at least one needed module installed on what is primarily a business and e-commerce server. ...but I popped over to an Active Perl site and sent him some links, so we'll see if they can allow it. It's not a show stopper since the Berkeley database portion will work just fine...

GahhhH!@! Ever had one of those work days where things start off slow enough you're actually lulled into thinking you may be able to get something done about the backlog? Yeah? ...and where you start clearing piles and piles of stuff and you're really moving and you are starting to drool at the thought of getting to those Post-it Notes (color coded by crisis level, some of which are surely best relegated to "Sheesh, I hope nothing bad happened there...") and turning them into either tasks to clutter up the screen instead of the desk or pretties decorating the edges of the wastebasket for the visual enjoyment of the cleaning people?

Yeah, it was like that for a while today... Reality impacted the fan just after noon and all I can hope for is the apparently very lively and rabbit-like, pretty-colored sticky note population to behave themselves and not breed another generation or two and hop over on top of the side of the desk that did get organized, cleaned and prioritized.

Interesting show tonight... As Shelley mentioned, we went to the "Laptop Program" presentation at the school Daniel will be attending next year. I will say that it was one heck of a dog and pony show: the slide presentation from the school was used seamlessly by program officials, the network geek, the 'vendor of choice', and the bank rep! Yeah, you could get your loan started there <g>. But! I came ready to have some fun with the 'chosen vendor' concept and to see what I could work out somewhere else. ...but it didn't happen quite that way.

Oh, sure, I had my fun: My Mac buddy was there with his "thinner than can be believed" titanium special and we had all sorts of fun joking around at the hype and such during some of the presentation. ...but when all was said and done, I had to admit they have put together quite a package. IBM Thinkpads in three configurations, same day onsite service from either the school district or the vendor depending on the nature of the problem, wireless integration, and master delivery days at the schools to handle the final configuration. Not bad. ...and with the minimal package coming in at under $1200US (with XP-Pro and Office XP). Yeah, my buddy's dead since they won't even try to support Macs. ...and I'm sold, just from how they've set up the service side.

I think I'd better try for an early post today, seein's how it's looking to be a busy weekend. Today, his eminence, the Brad, tallys another year under his belt. That means that rather than kickin' it for relaxing weekend, we have his family dinner this evening, his "grandparents party" tomorrow, and his kids' party on Sunday. ...and no, I don't handle these things well at all. I suspect I'll be very happy to get back to the office on Monday...

Although... I'm sure I've mentioned before how satisfying the kid partys are for me? Yeah, since both guys like to have theirs at a local "Laser Tag" place, I get to in with them and just have all sorts of fun 'shooting' them. Yeah. Pity it's only twice a year, -eh? ...but it's all in fun. Right? Right? No issues here with pre-teens. Nope, not a one...

...and the weather isn't playing like it was supposed to! We were scheduled for rain starting today and running through the weekend. I figured that would lead to some quality inside time on the computer when we weren't partying. Nope. The absolute latest says "Sunday through Wednesday". ...and the kids are off for Easter Vacation?

Okay! So far, we've managed the family dinner and the grandparents' party. ...and everyone has survived. Now for the kids' gig on Sunday.

...and the rain finally showed up here, but it's been a light deal so far. ...and it hit late enough I even managed to get out and blade before it started. Cool. ...although, I really shouldn't have tried for one of the normal routes so quickly. ...it was just that the wind from the south was so tempting: I knew if I made it to the far end of the course, the run back would be a breeze. Heh. Sorry...

...and on the subject of the three days of festivities Shelley cooks up for these occasions? Oh, yeah; we are all party animals here:

Ah... One of the two days of the year when it's cool to go chasing after my kids with a laser! Yeah. We're off to the laser tag place this afternoon. A few games, some time on the air hockey table with Shelley, and some pizza. That should about do me in!

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

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