Sunday started out busy, then wound down, but I was too tired to post anything. I had thought about going to bed at 9pm, but didn't have enough energy.

My new job as a clerk at church requires me to attend a full morning of various meetings starting at 8am. I get a two hour break before the regular block of meetings. So we didn't get home until a bit after 5pm. Pam fixed a nice dinner of pork chops, red potatoes, and fresh green beans; it was all very tasty. After helping with the dishes, I became a geeky couch potato: TV on, laptop on, surfing the TV channels and the 'net.

Back to work this morning. I spent most of the day working on a few security audits of a large group of servers. I took a short break in the morning to head over for another blood test; we're still trying to dial in the correct dose of Cumadin.

After work, we stopped by the local WinCo (food store) for some supplies. Then home for our famous "Giant Burritos". A simple recipe: take chicken breast (skinless), and cut into small chunks and cook in a frying pan with a bit of taco seasoning. In another pan, prepare some Rice-A-Roni Spanish Rice according to directions. While all of that is cooking, get out the cheese (grate if you have to), chop up some lettuce and tomatos. Towards the end of cooking the Spanish Rice, add in a can of diced tomatos. When everything is done, grab two warm tortillas (the largest ones are best) out of the microwave (15 seconds between damp towels). Place them on a big plate, overlapping a bit. Put a spoonful of chicken, add another spoonful of the Spanish Rice, add cheese and lettuce (with extra tomatos, if desired), and some salsa. Fold it all together in a burrito shape, and enjoy.

The best thing about this recipe is that everyone can fix their own the way that they like it. And it is quite tasty and filling. Go ahead and give it a try the next time you are in the mood for a burrito. It was popular with our kids as they were growing up. And it's not an expensive dinner to make.

Today we were able to sleep in a bit, since I had a doctor's appointment in the morning. This appointment was with my regular doctor, so we just had a short discussion of things. My resting heart rate is about 60-65, and my blood pressure is 118/68, so both of those numbers are OK. The Cumadin lab says that my clotting level is in the proper range, so I'll keep on the 5mg dose until my next blood test on Friday. Later this week we'll meet with the new cardiologist to discuss the next step.

Then back to work, where I spent some time on a redesign of the company's internal Security web site. I'm still working on the format and 'look' of the pages, but it's progressing nicely. Later, we worked on an email problem that seems to be related to the firewall settings between the different networks we have here. It's related to a long-standing issue, which the owners of the other system have been reluctant to fix.

So, although it was a short work day, the time passed quickly. On the way home, we listened to our "Governator" give his State of the State speech. I was in agreement with most of his statements. Our glorious Legislature has been dysfunctional for a long time, and I hope that Arnold can get them to work properly. It will be a real challenge, but he seems up to it. It will be interesting to see how it all turns out.

Dinner was marinated chicken breasts, quite nice. But the oven got a bit dirty, so it is in self-cleaning mode right now. That always makes the room a bit smoky, even with the fans going. Although there is a fan over the stove, I think there should be a quiet fan in the ceiling of the kitchen. Especially when I cook.

My friend John Dominik has been working as a consultant for a company, but his status is a bit uncertain right now. He's really good at his field (computer tech guy), but it brought to mind another article I read somewhere. It said that one should ensure that they get into a field that can't be outsourced out of the country. So a "Computer Help Desk" person might not be a good field (unless you live in India), but computer hardware maintenance might be. A plumber might be better, though. There is always a demand for those guys.

A quiet day at work today. I spent most of the day on the web site redesign. The plan is for it to get a bit more organized, so that related information is in separate sub-folders. That will make it easier to keep track of things. I also had to remove some Java code from the copies of the original pages, some headers and footers "includes), and rearrange some links. I moved the files into their new folders with Windows Explorer. I should have used Dreamweaver MX (which is what I use to create those pages (and these), since it will automatically update links. I did remember to do that about halfway through, so that helped a bit. And Dreamweaver has some good tools to find missing links in pages, so that will help a bit.

There were also a few mail problems to take care of. The anti-spam server was catching a couple of false positives, so I had to figure out a way to let that type of message through without compromising the other rules that are catching a lot of the spam. The blocking rate is running around 30-35%, which is quite a few messages.

Another quiet evening at home tonight. Pam is working on some gingerbread cake for dessert. It's a low-fat recipe, only 70 calories per serving. And it is quite tasty. If you stop by, you can have some...

At work, it was more of the same. I worked on the web page redesign, and solved a few mail problems. And I spent a bit of my spare time researching atrial fibrillation in preparation for my visit with the new cardiologist tomorrow. There are some interesting developments, and I am still concerned with the current medications. One of the sites I visited was www.a-fib.org, which contained some good information from a guy that also has a-fib. He's kept up on the research, which seems to point to the ventricular ablation process as having a high-percentage success rate. I got some good information that will be useful in tomorrow's discussions.

There's some reorganization of my department going on. The big boss is going away (voluntarily), so along with that replacement (hopefully) will be a bit of reorganization of things in the rest of the department. There are a few key admin-type people out on long-term medical leave, so it will be interesting to see what turns up. I'm not worried about my job, though. Someone has to issue security recommendations and policies that the other departments can ignore.

A quiet evening at home, after a really nice day outside (60 degrees, sunny; sorry about that). We watched the new CSI (not the earlier rerun), and then E.R. is on tap for later, if we can stay awake. I'm thinking we ought to get a DVR for the satellite system; it will cost only $99 with installation.

Interesting story on Wired about "stuntbots", computer-generated actors that are pretty realistic.You might have seen them in LOR:Return of the King. Article here (opens new window, as usual).

And, based on today's Wall Street Journal Technology column by Walter Mossburg, I got the free version of NetCaptor, a replacement for Internet Explorer. It's got some nifty features, including multiple tabbed windows. So you only need one instance of NetCaptor, and you can have multiple browser pages open at the same time. His column has all the details. It might be worth your time to download; it's a pretty quick download, and a quick install. The free version has a small one-line banner window, but it hasn't gotten in my way.