Mostly the usual today at the office. Some minor mail problems fixed, some VPN users activated, and some reading of the Innerwebs.

Nice to see that Jerry Pournelle (www.jerrypournelle.com ) is back to full speed after his bout with cancer. The inoperable tumor in his head was successfully zapped, and he seems to be on track to getting back to his old breakneck speed. I’ve read his stuff for at least 25 years, starting with his Byte columns. (Sometimes those columns were the only thing that I understood in that magazine.) His daily blog (although he dislikes that word, but he is definitely a long-time blogger) is a daily Innerwebs stop for me. His mail section is one of the best.

Tonight, some phone calls for www.protectmarriage.com are on tap. Along with DVR’ing Sarah Connors.

Today’s task list was to hose off the patio under the bird feeder (the birds are a bit messy). And then I cleaned the carpet in the family room.

Then I watched “Firewall” with Harrison Ford (in real time, rather than DVR’ing later). Not a bad movie, even with all of the commercial interruptions from FX.

Sloppy Joe’s on tap for dinner tonight. I lead such an exciting life.

Lots of interest in Google’s “Chrome”. But not me. I’m happy with IE running Maxthon, which has given me tabs and groups for a couple of years. It’s a free IE add-on, available here www.maxthon.com , and works with any version of IE. Haven’t tried IE8, I do too much browsing to worry about a beta release.

Which is why I am waiting before using Chrome. It’s in very early beta, has security and crashing issues, and doesn’t offer me a whole lot more than what I use now. While I suspect that the Googlers will fix things, it’s a bit too early in the process for me. I sent out a warning to our business users internally to avoid it, and posted a short entry about it on my SecurityDawg site.

And it’s nice to see John Dominik back on-line, posting from the mosquito- and Republican-infested land of Minnesota. I think both of those irritate him, among other things.

Or is that “Muddle Week”? As I muddle through some final testing of a web application. Mostly fine-tuning the visual ‘look’ of all the screens, making sure things are consistant from screen to screen.

Using CSS styles makes it easier, though, even with my beginner-to-intermediate CSS skills. A “Google” usually helps out with any questions.

The app looks good, though, if I do say so myself. It might even be worth something. Or at least useful.

Slow going today. Not quite awake yet after the three-day weekend. No crisis at the office yet. (What’s the plural of crisis?) Mail is flowing, spam count is down a bit overall. Although there is the one or two ‘celebrity’ spam emails that gets through.

Gotta get a plan for today. Perhaps waking up would be the first step. I’ll have to think about that.

Ah, “Labor Day”. Where we in the US celebrate working by not working.

My plans for today? Well, I’ve already accomplished one of them — sleeping in. Second one, a bit of time surfing the web.

Pam and I will wander up to the cemetery to put fresh flowers on our son Jason’s grave site. I might work on cleaning up the garage a bit. Might be a good idea to vacuum out the car. Pam and I took a weekend trip to Utah last weekend to return grandson Liam (6) to his family. We had him out here for about 10 days to spend some time with Poppa (that’s me) and Grandma, along with his cousins. That’s something we do for the older grandchildren; Joelle (8) had come out earlier.

We had a good time with him. Miniature golfing, movies, more miniature golfing, bumper boats, shopping for toys (and some clothes for school), visits with cousins, movies. A lot of fun.

The drive back and forth to Utah last weekend was uneventful. We took the new(er) car (the 2007 Camry XE). The weather was pleasant (in the 90’s), and traffic was mostly light. Roads are good for the most part. Some construction east of Wells (NV). And I-80 from Donner Lake to Donner Pass is still really bad. The concrete is so worn it’s like driving on big gravel; there are actually about one-inch grooves in the surface. They are replacing part of it, but there are some really worn sections. All of that damage caused by tire-chains during the winter.

The car worked well, though. Gas mileage across Nevada was 30mpg, and that was at speeds of about 80mph (the speed limit across Nevada and western Utah is 75mph on most sections). The trip takes about 10 hours, so is manageable in one day.

Last Monday it was back to work. And then a doctor appt in the afternoon. It was time for the annual physical. Including the dreaded finger (which didn’t find anything unusual). The doctor did order a colonoscopy, so I am looking forward to that (one of the ‘benefits’ of getting old). It was also time for a tetanus shot update (every 10 years).

Remember getting those in grade school? If you were smart, you had the nurse put the bandage on other arm. Because you just knew that your ‘friends’ would be punching you in the arm where you got the shot.

I got it in the right arm, and did get some reactions from it. The arm was sore for about 5 days (and still is a bit). I got a bit of a fever on Wednesday, so went home early from work, and stayed home Thursday.

The doc also looked at the right knee, which has been sore and a bit swollen for a bit. No damage found inside, but ordered xrays anywho. The xray tech didn’t see anything obvious in the pictures. Still get a bit of soreness and twinges if I turn it the wrong way. The doctor suggested a bit more exercise (biking is good), along with some foot lifting while sitting to help strengthen and lubricate the joint. Have been taking Glucosomine supplements for a month, but those take a while to make a difference. Losing some weight is probably also a good idea.

Overall, not in too bad health. Cholesterol is a bit borderline, so some diet adjustments are probably also a good idea. Another full blood test is scheduled for this week to see the current numbers.

So, a quiet day today is planned. Perhaps putting up the other bamboo outdoor shade (assuming I don’t put another drill bit in my thumb like I did Saturday). The bit only punched a bit past the thumbnail, so no major damage. Other than a few shocked neighbors if they were listening at the time.

And I may work a bit on the “Carbon Offset Certificate” site (www.carbonoffsetcerts.com ) . Sort of a goofy place, but you can get some really cheap carbon offset certificates to help offset global warming.

Took the day off yesterday. It was a day with grandson Liam — sort of a “Camp Poppa” day. Liam is here all by himself for some one-on-one with Grandma and Poppa. We do this once a year with the two oldest grandchildren (Liam is 6, Joelle is 8). It gives them some good time to be the center of attention, rather than one of the crowd (there are 5 children in their family).

There’s a story behind the use of “Poppa”, rather than “Grandpa”. When my oldest daughter Christine got married (11 years ago), I mentioned that I didn’t really want to be a “Grandpa” before my 50th birthday. Christine agreed — well, sort of.

The first grandchild (Joelle) was born in 2000. I was 49 (really). Hence, I am not called “Grandpa”, I am called “Poppa”. Pam is still “Grandma”.

So Liam and I went to the local Scandia “Fun Center”, where we played two rounds of miniature golf, a bunch of arcade games, Liam went on the Bumper Boats (I watched from the sidelines, and got squirted for my efforts). Then some more arcade games, another round of miniature golf (Liam got a hole-in-one), and one more Bumper Boats. We had a great time — big grins on Liam’s face the whole time.

Then we stopped at McDonald’s for lunch, and I dropped him off at his cousin’s house for a couple of days.

I went home and applied ice packs to my sore knee.