Digital Choke Daynotes

"Daynotes" are popularized by a Internet Web site called the "Daynotes Gang" (http://www.daynotes.com or http://www.daynotes.org), a collection of the daily technical and personal observations from the famous and others. That group started on September 29, 1999, and has grown to an interesting collection of individuals. Readers are invited and encouraged to visit those sites for other interesting daily journals. You can send your comments to us by clicking on any mailbox icon.

A quiet morning. Nice day outside, partly cloudy, temps are supposed to get into the 70's. And the grass and weeds are about a foot tall. That's a task for another day, though.

With any luck, all the links on this page are pointing in the right direction, and the 'current' page is fixed for the new week. And there is only one apostrophe in these pages, at least so far.

Not much else to report today. Spent a little bit of time optimzing the pictures I took of the latest entry in the new house sweepstakes. This one looks like a keeper. Have to wait until tomorrow to know whether the relocating company is OK with the offer. A major task for this week is the packing of the boxes.

Stayed up too late last night, up too early this morning, so I was dragging a bit at work this morning. I started up some more port scans of the network, looking for ports that shouldn't be there. I did port scans of the same groups of IP addresses a couple of weeks ago, and wanted to check out if the other network administrators had closed those ports like they were told. I use the SuperScan program (from Foundstone), which is one of their free programs that will scan one Class C IP address range at a time.

I found some ports that shouldn't be enabled, but haven't done the full analysis yet. It takes most of the day (sort of in a background mode as I do other things) to do all the Class C's of our network. I did find some Kazaa users (that's against our policy), so fired off some quick messages to the network administator for each user. I got a fairly quick response back, but will be checking the same users again tomorrow to make sure that they keep honest.

Gotta enjoy this Daylight Savings stuff. We had a real nice day, temps in the mid-70's, light breeze, cool nights in upper 40's. Great spring weather. So we got home just before 6pm, and while my wife fixed dinner (broiled chicken breasts, fried red potato slices, corn), I fired up the lawnmower and started in on the jungle. The weather has really encouraged the grass, and it's been a couple of weeks since I had last mowed. It's a bit thick and tall; almost a foot high in some spots. But the riding lawnmower dug into it, and I was able to cut about 1/4 of the total area I need to get to. I'll get some more done tomorrow. (Sorry about those of you that are still in the frigid climates...who are still shoveling snow. Uh, last night we barbequed some nice steaks...) And the 'honeywagon' guys did their thing today, so that's out of the way.

Bad news on the home front. Somebody else got the one that we were aiming for this last weekend. The other buyer didn't have a house to sell, so they had a 'cleaner' offer than we did, even though our house is already sold, but not 'closed' yet. Oh well. The market is pretty hot out here, but this is the time of year that new listings pop up all the time.

So, we are still homeless. We have to be out of this place by May 2, or sooner. Also need to get a storage area for everything while we hang out in an apartment. Our other alternative is to get into an extended stay hotel for a couple of weeks if we get into a used house. And we still have the new house on the back burner. Tomorrow we are going to check out the prices for the upgrades for the new house. That will help us determine whether we are better off with the new house and the needed upgrades, or a used house that already has what is needed.

My wife is getting a bit stressed on all this. I'm more of a calmer type of person. We have started some packing, but will need to do a major push by this weekend, along with figuring out a place to stay, and someplace to put a lot of stuff in storage.

I think I'm getting a cold. You know one is coming when you start to feel a bit less energy. Then there is the throat going dry and a bit scratchy. And I am sneezing a lot more than normal. I don't think it is allergies, since I haven't had a problem with those before. (But, weird things happen to your body when you get old. For instance, why the heck do you start growing hair in your ears?)

A recap, for those that are interested. Yesterday, we went up to the new house subdivision to check out the prices of upgrades. We looked at the list of things, then decided on a bunch of items totalling about $22K. Kitchen cabinet upgrades, Corian counters, upgrade carpets, etc. We also did a few drive-bys of other houses in the area.

Then last night we looked at the numbers. There is a worry about interest rates. They are low right now, but it is unknown what they will be in four months when the house is done. You can't lock in the interest rates until just before closing escrow.

Then we took a look at the commute. It is a few minutes longer than what we do now, although part of it is carpool lanes. And then most of our personal stuff (like hairdressers and shopping) is in a different area than the new house. And, with my physical condition (it's not that bad, but it does require an occasional trip to the ER room), I need to be near the HMO's hospital. And our doctors (which we really like) are also in a different area.

So (do you see where this is heading?), we took a hard look at our options. And decided that we were looking in the wrong area for a house. The area of the new house is not going to be very convenient to our current lifestyle.

We talked to our Realtor, and he came up with another seven houses in the area we should have been looking in. (Note to Brian C: yeah, there is a preposition at the end of that sentence.) And we found two very good choices. One is brand new and ready to go, which helps with our moving schedule, but it will need window coverings, a back yard, and other things. It does have lots of upgrades to it, so everything is really nice. The other house is just a couple of years old, but also well-built. The yard (front and back) is nicely done, and the kitchen is very nice (important to the significant other around here). I'm leaning towards the second one; I like the location just a bit more, and the yard and window coverings are all done. The significant other is leaning towards the brand new house; partly because it would be available for move-in right away, and partly because of the enormous kitchen and family room, along with nice sized bedrooms. The new house will have some two-story houses behind it, while the 'old' house is above the surrounding streets just a bit, and doesn't have a house behind it (although there is a main street behind and below it, but traffic is probably not significant).

We decided we liked both houses, so we put offers on both of them. There will be some counter-offers flying around, so we shall see what happens. In the meantime, it's back to packing, working, and a couple of doctor's visits. Stay tuned.

I was right. I am getting a cold. Not too bad so far, just a bit of congestion and dry mouth from breathing through my mouth. I have my nasal spray at the ready, and am drinking lots of fluids.

Pretty boring at work today. Still documenting the port scans that I did this week. There are a few problems that need to be fixed. So tomorrow I'll be sending out some 'nastygrams' to the various administrators that are responsible for those computers. I also need to look at the OS patches reports, and determine what has changed.

I got a hint today that a project to replace the Intranet server will be moved up on the schedule. Various departments have their own Intranet sites running on different servers, and we really need to get those consolidated on one server running Win2K. We had already purchased the server, but were using it for a 30-day test of web monitoring software. The bosses wanted to get some numbers on the type of surfing going on. So we did a stealth monitoring with SurfControl's product just to gather the data We kept it pretty quiet, because it could be a bit sensitive in some departments. One member of my Security Team (all three of us) is doing all the work, and even I haven't seen the raw data. He has to make the data a bit generic, removing specific user names and site names. I have confidence in his abilities, though. He has great knowledge about computer security, with a good background in hacking skills. That's OK, because it's good to have knowledge of the enemy's tatics.

No word on the house offers. We were hoping for something tonight, but the selling agent (not our guy) is not the most customer-friendly guy. I did take another look at the property today. It's in a new development, so I also talked to the development's selling agent about the property and house. The original buyers were really excited about the property, and had just finished escrow and all the paperwork when the husband's company told him he was being transferred. They were very disappointed, but it may work out well for us.

Did a little bit of packing tonight, cleaning out the office of old disks and program CD's. I've also got two boxes of junk computer parts. Nothing worth saving. I think that it is probably best to be very brutal about what I keep. No sense in moving stuff that will just stay in boxes. (He says as he recalls the several boxes in the garage that are contain stuff I boxed on the last move 11 years ago.) Looks like there will be a "Lone Ranger Trip" on Saturday. Along with a lot of box packing. And a bit of lawn mowing. And dealing with this cold. And, like John Dominik, it sounds like the front brakes on the car need some work. Replacing the front pads on a car is not that much trouble, but with all the other stuff going on this weekend, it looks like I'll get Mr. Mineke to do it. They do have a special on 'lifetime' brakes, and we do plan on keeping that car for a while. Sometimes letting the other guy do things is worth the money...my time or my dime. You have to make choices.

Fridays are good. I think they should come around more often. They should at least take the place of Mondays now and again.

Some progress on the house thing. We got counter-offers from both of the houses. The new one, with the giant kitchen that my wife is drooling over, came back with a higher price. We expected that, but the lower price was worth a try. But it is such a nice house that we accepted their counter-offer. Now we just have to wait for the 72-hour period that the original buyer has in their offer. But they have to come back with a counter without any contingencies, and they haven't sold their house yet. So, we still think that we have a very good chance to close this deal. But we have to wait until Monday noon.

Some minor excitement at work today. One of the managers in my department handed me a whistle, and instructions to start a fire drill / evacuation test at 1pm. That's a good thing to practice every once in a while. So, promptly at 1pm, I blew the whistle (it was very loud...one ladie let out a mild scream of surprise) and announced the fire drill. We have a designated place to gather about a block away when this happens. When we all get there, I get to call out everyone's name to make sure we didn't leave anyone behind. It worked out quite well; everyone was accounted for by 1:08pm.

After work we stopped by Lowe's (big warehouse home improvement store) to take a look at new refrigerators. The appliances in the new house are white, and our refrigerator is black. Of course, that won't work, so a new refrigerator is in order. (My wife didn't like my idea of three cans of white spray paint.) We found a couple we like, but didn't make any purchases. But we did pick up 30 more boxes.

Then it was next door to the Winco food warehouse to pick up a few things for the big packing party tomorrow. There are plans to do some major packing, "Lone Ranger" trips ('to the dump, to the dump, to the dump - dump - dump'). I also need to return some stuff to the other new house that we put a deposit on several weeks ago, and to get our deposit check back. And all the other stuff I mentioned in yesterday's post.

Looks like it will be a full meeting. I'm thinking that I might be glad when Monday rolls around.

Rainy day today. It was a good storm, putting a couple inches of rain in the valley here, and a couple of feet of snow in the mountains. That's good, since all that snow is part of our summer water storage. But the Daynoters back east (John in Minnesota, and Brian B in Washington DC, among others) should watch out, since this storm will be in their neighborhood in a couple of days. And I think there is another one that will follow it in a couple of days.

But, if patterns hold (and I figure I can guess just as well as the TV weather dweebs), I think that this series will be the last big set of storms for the winter (late winter/early spring). After these roll through, we'll be in some serious spring weather. And you know what that means ... back to the lawnmowing, weed pulling, flower planting, barbequeing, swimming, boating, etc. Sounds good to me.

Because of the rain, I didn't get everything done that was on the list, but I didn't really expect to. The list was way too long for one day. I did get up early, and my wife fixed a nice breakfast of pancakes. Then out to do a few errands while she and my daughters started the box packing party. I also made it to the subdivision place to cancel that house purchase, and pick up the deposit check. Stopped by Home Depot to return a few things, and grab a new flourescent light fixture for the office. The original one had a bad ballast that kept overheating and turning off the light. Replacement ballasts were about $26, and a new fixture (without the tubes) was only $31. So I picked up a new fixture and came home and replaced it. That was much easier, and I did reuse the old tubes.

Then some more packing of boxes. I worked on my closet, packing up a couple of boxes of clothes, along with doing a bit of pruning of clothes that don't fit or are a bit ragged. The good ones will go to the local chartity store. The rest of the gang also did some pruning of other parts of the house, with the result that we have got a good load to take down to the charity store next week when the weather clears up a bit.

I watched a bit of the "Hunter" movie tonight. Other than his gray hair, old Hunter (Fred Drywer) still looked and and acted the same. And McCall is still a fine looking partner. I wish I had kept up as well since their series was on. That's me .. a little older, a little wider.

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