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.

Reports

Yeah, still around. But busy. And never got that 'round-tuit' issued for the Saturday and Sunday post.

Saturday started out OK. After sleeping in (required for Saturdays, unless you have children at home), we drove up to Auburn (just up the hill a bit) to our favorite Christmas tree farm. We've gone there for about 10 years, and have always found some nice trees at a reasonable price. This trip was no exception. Although he has a lot of 'live' trees, he also imports some from farther up the mountains that are freshly cut. And again, Pam surprised me by finding a pre-cut one almost as soon as we got there. It was very nicely shaped, very fresh, and very reasonable. It's about 7 feet tall, and we only paid $35. And it was only about 30 feet away from the 'pay-for' area.

So we paid for it, and I carried it another 30 feet away to the parking lot and tossed it in the back of the truck. And before we left, we got some homemade "Rocky Road Fudge" that the kids were selling. I always like to support the kids in their fund-raising efforts, since it can be a bit difficult. I figure if the kids are spending the time to go door-to-door for their school, they need some encouragement. Yeah, the products can be a bit overpriced, but it is fun to help them out. Which is why the one-pound box of See's "Nuts and Chews" arrived on Saturday, courtesy of one of the local elementary schools.

After the quick tree purchase, we drove over to a nearby shopping center so that Pam could check out the "Toys and Nature" shop. There is always good, quality toys there, and some good sales this time of year. It must have been successful, since Pam spent an hour in there, and came out with two bags full (they gift wrap, also). Then to another department store for some more shopping. I went to the grocery store next door for some bottled water, and succumbed to kids from a different elementary school selling See's Candy in nice holiday tins for $4. Yeah, you can pick up some Hershey's inside the store for about half the price, but, again, it was a good cause. I can be a soft touch sometimes. (Which means that John Dominik will probably be hitting me up long-distance from Minneapolis for his kid's next fundraiser.)

Then we went home to drop off the tree. Pam did a bit of wrapping, I did a bit of surfing, and then Pam went off for another shopping excursion.

Christine and Jared dropped off the grandkids so that they could do a bit of kid-free shopping. So we all had fun reading books, playing with toys, and watching kid shows. All of that was fun.

In the evening, the atrial fibrillation cropped up again. This time was more of a 'normal' episode; one that I was used to. It was just irregular, not fast (like it was last Monday night), so I was able to stay at home and deal with it. I'm on a new medication (amidarone), which is supposed to regulate a-fib episodes, but it takes a couple of weeks for that to get fully effective. This one lasted until about 9am the next day, which is why the Saturday post is missing.

After sleeping in again (Joelle stayed overnight, so we watched some kid shows in bed in the morning), my heart finally got back to normal, but I was a bit tired. We did get to church, but only one of the meetings, so we all relaxed back at home. I just hung out on the couch in the family room, helping to entertain Joelle. Pam helped; they spent some time in the kitchen making cookies, while I rested. Or Joelle and I watched some kids' shows.

The rest of Joelle's family showed up at the usual time for dinner (stew, rolls, jello). We had a nice talk with Stacy back at college (Rexburg, Idaho). She returns on Saturday for Christmas break, so we are all looking forward to that.

After dinner, we piled into the van and made a short trip over to the local Christmas decoration streets. There is a group of about 80-100 houses in one area who always go all-out with decorations. A lot of it is Disney-themed, with plywood cutouts of all of the Disney characters, along with lots of lights. It is an annual destination for lots of people. Some drive slowly by the houses (headlights off), while others bundle up the kids into wagons and strollers. Some of the homeowners sit in front of their houses with portable wood stoves, others have children selling hot chocolate, and others collect food for charity organizations.

There are usually a few standouts in the decorated houses. One house converts their garage into Santa's workshop, complete with train, toys, tree, with a glass-framed front in place of the garage door. Others use their front room for indoor decorations that are visible from the street. One house duplicated a "Cole's Department store window ("Miracle on 34th Street) in their living room, and built a subway entrance stairway out on the lawn. They they put snow flocking on the lawn (this is California, so we have to use the fake stuff). It was quite well done. We'll probably do a walking trip next Sunday when Stacy is here, as long as the weather holds.

So we had a fun weekend, got a bit of shopping done (not enough), and dealt with the 'a-fib'. Today was taken up with a security presentation to another department, some catch up from last week, and a visit with my regular doctor as a follow up for last week's hospital visit. All is well (at the moment), blood pressure is good (110/65), deposited some blood for the lab test (the medicine I am on now requires monitoring for thyroid and liver problems; most of those are long-term). And I am doing some research into pulmonary artery abulation as a technique for stopping future a-fib attacks. Preliminary research shows a good success rate in that technique.

I got a few things off of the work to-do list. Nothing exciting, security audit of a custom application, getting ready to implement the login banner by pushing settings and files down to the workstations, some research, and a few other things.

After work, Pam and I met Christine (without the grandkids, who stayed home with their Dad) for dinner at the usual place (Mel's), and then the girls went off Christmas shopping. They must be having a good time, for here it is 10pm and they are still shopping. And I didn't have to go (although my participation is inevitable).

But I did get a load of laundry started, and I got the Christmas tree in a pail of water (after a short trim of the trunk). It's still quite fresh, as it has been sitting outside in a protected area. So I am not worried about it drying out too fast.

Then some goofing around on the computer, a bit of surfing, and that's about it for today.

Busy-ness abounds. Busy at work, busy with Christmas shopping, busy with goofing on the computer.

The network at home (just two computer, but isn't that a network?) seems a bit discombobulated. The two computers don't want to talk to each other. I can see them with a ping, but the Windows network doesn't want to share. It's probably just a setting on the desktop computer, but it's not a high enough priority to go into the office to figure out why. Next week is vacation week, so I'll probably have it fixed by Christmas.

I've also been working on a "week linker" page for this stuff (you can get a preview here). That's so both of you two new readers will be able to go back to a specific week. And there is a broken link on one of the pages from June or July. Then 'next week' link points to the current page, which makes it harder for you to wander through all the weeks sequentially. So I went through all of the pages, and fixed some bad links. All of the 'last week' and 'next week' links should be working right.

I've also been working on a new design for the security pages at work. The new pages have frames, but I may also try out templates. Frames sounds better, since I can change the link frame content without having to rebuild all of the other pages. And it takes a while to make the design look right; you don't want that 'ransom note' look.

The truck is all better. It needed a new fuel filler pipe; that cost $250. With labor, the total was around $425. But I had a $100 off coupon, so that made it a bit less painful. There are a couple of other minor things that the truck needs. It has a very slow radiator leak, the front brake pads will need replacing, and a new set of tires. But since I don't drive it very much, most of that can wait until next year. Pam and I commute to work together during the week, so the truck only gets used on the weekend. Stacy will be using it while she is home for the holidays, so it was important to fix the fuel tank. And I'll keep an eye on the radiator level during that time.

Fridays are good. Although I'll be helping out with the big maintenance upgrade tomorrow, I don't have to return to the office until the Monday after Christmas. So I spent today finish up a couple of minor projects.

Pam and I spent a quiet evening at home. She relaxed reading a book, and I relaxed goofing on the computer. Other than that, nothing to report, other than the interesting news stories today about the RIAA losing some of their big tools in their fight against file downloaders.

And, although it's not there now, beware of companies offering to 'fix' Microsoft bugs (other than Microsoft). It looks like that bug fix had a few bugs of it's own, and perhaps a bit of spyware.

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