Wow! I haven't blogged in a while. Been busy lately with trips out of town and the Christmas season. Had a pie stuffed in my face at the office Christmas party, but I also walked away with what I believe to be some of the nicer gifts, too. If you'd like a picture of me and the dripping cream, email me and let me know.
I get my cable modem tomorrow (CHEER!) and may put up a webcam out the back window in my house. (or a fish cam...) We'll see what happens. I just can't wait for those 3MB/sec downloads from Happy Puppy. Speaking of games, I've been having a hell of a time making Ultima VIII run on my Windows 98 box. If you have any hints to stop it from crashing, let me know....[yeah right..notice I didn't tell you anything about my machine]

Updated the contest on this page under Help Yourself. Win $100,000. Good luck. Let me know if you win.

Saw a funny label this morning. I've been going through my cold medicines and throwing away stuff with PPA in it [phenylpropanolamine hydrochloride] because of the recent FDA warning regarding brain hemorrhages.
Well, I was reading the label on a medication containing acetaminophen and it states [paraphrased]: "If you consume 3 more more alcoholic beverages per day, please consult a doctor before taking this medication. Acetaminophen can cause liver damage." As I read it, I laughed out loud. You would think that someone concerned with possible liver damage wouldn't be taking three pops a day and that the pain medicine they need the next morning would likely not be as dangerous as the poison from the night before.
Interested in finding out what drives this, I found this article concerning the effect it can have on your liver. Shoot, after reading that article, I don't think I'll be using Tylenol any time soon. But the label still strikes me funny as hell.

And for the new top level domains, ICANN: The Winners Are ... [a Wired news article]:

.stupid, .stupider, .dumbasarock, .dumberthanthat, .political, .morepolitical, and...... .BIZ [to confuse everyone looking for COMPANY.COM].

Why couldn't ICANN have given us something useful? Instead, they've dumped stupid new domain names on us like .pro and .name!?!?! Who's going to set up a web site as rich.gautier.name or rich.gautier.mcse.pro? Why couldn't ICANN have adopted useful toplevel domains like .SEX or .SEARCH? .SEX would be great for fracturing the net into the side I don't want to see and the side I do...[no comment on which is which]. .SEARCH would be great for all the different search engines to set up on...like RUG.SEARCH if that's what I'm looking for, or SITE.SEARCH or HOUSE.SEARCH...
Forgive me...I can't think straight, I am so utterly baffled by why they would take .coop amd .aero!! Those domain names are going to be hot sellers ---- NOT!

Bought a grandfather clock [the Lenox IV seen on this page] the other day [picked it up yesterday]. It's a beautiful clock with three counterweights (a second hand), quietly friendly chimes and three curved display shelves. It's surrounded by glass windows and has a little light in the top of the case. We got a good deal on it, and it's something we've been eye-ing for a while. When we talked the salesman into a further 25% discount, we had to go for it. I set the clock up yesterday, and it sounds wonderful.
The Internet is both a godsend and a curse. With the new house, I've tried ordering stuff online. One thing we ordered was a rug from Rugs USA. The image onscreen looked white and black, and the color of the actual rug when I received it was a yellowish off-white. It wasn't REALLY their fault. Even the picture on the label included with the rug was misleading, and they probably scanned the label for the web picture. Even so, before ordering stuff online where the color matters, give them a ring first, eh?
On the other hand, if you are going to buy something expensive in the store, like sheets from Veratex, you should check prices online! I found the same sheet set online for $40 less than it sells in stores. We have a California King size bed, so we are used to jumping on a chance to buy nice sheet sets. I'm glad I checked before jumping on this purchase.

Wow! Been a while (a LONG while) since I've written anything in here. Lots of things pass you by when you get really busy.

We're moved in, of course, and unpacked. We've begun decorating (black and white zebra stripes on the main level, Pokemon in the kids room, etc..) and have bought blinds and drapes and all sorts of other stuff (like new plates, silverware and other household items). Moving is certainly one way to start spending money. The costs you can mount in just a month are amazing. It's a good thing we kept a reserve of cash to do all this stuff.

The alarm people were in the neighborhood selling monitoring service this past week. Considering that the telephone lines come right out of the ground and up the side of the house, I decided not to go with them. I'll put in some of my own sensors and a siren along with some window stickers to scare anyone away. A professional thief certainly isn't going to be scared by a 'monitored by' sign, and a casual thief isn't stupid enough to hang around a really loud horn. What we really need for a monitoring service is a neighborhood watch.

Halloween was fun. My son went as 'Licensed Character' and got enough candy to last him the rest of the year [at the rate I let him eat it]. My feet hurt from THAT night. The wife and I went out to a local club party, and I had my picture taken in a coffin. Of course, THAT happens to be on the roll of film they can't find, eugh!

Last week, got a flat tire, and a free rubbing from someone else's car [in a parking lot]. It hasn't been a good week for the car. I had to drive 30 minutes to my wife's job and change her tire for her...

Probably even more stuff happened, but I can't remember it all right now. Talk later.

As you can imagine, a lot of things have gone on in the time I have been away from my blog. We've moved into the new place. I'd like to thank Home Depot, now my very favorite store. I've changed two chandeliers (1 of them havgning two stories up!), showerheads, and painted the floor of my garage with an epoxy paint. Through all the work we are doing, from cabinetry to garage floors, Home Depot employees are knowledgeable and very helpful. I never thought I'd be able to properly acid-treat my garage cement, prime it and paint it, but they patiently explained everything to me and helped me to understand the whole process. They have everything I've needed, like this four part ladder that became a scaffold for changing that big chandelier in my front foyer. I've cleaned up the old house with their help, too, understanding spackle and drywall repair, painting, cleaning supplies, etc... This store is just GREAT.
The movers did a pretty good job. Only two things got damaged (my computer desk and a rip in my sofa vinyl). I think I can repair them both, but we'll see what their insurance covers (if anything.) They took a lot of care, but nothing can ever be perfect. I understand, stuff happens to everyone. My phone line is in, but my cable isn't going to be installed until the end of October.
Owning a house is great. I've got a nice sized side yard, that I'm thinking of turning into a gnarly graveyard this year for halloween. Couldn't do that in a condo (which I've owned before), and couldn't do that in the past rental. Before last year, we didn't celebrate the holidays due to a religious choice. But, we've come past that now..
Of course, now that I'm finally done moving stuff, I'm sick. My son must have given me this wonderful virus. I figured with all the ammonia I've sniffed in the past two days that the bugs invading my body would have died, but no luck.
My computer desk right now is a cardboard box flattened out on top of another box, but I'll survive. We have some custom cabinet people coming to give us a quote to build a whole 'office' center thing,
I bought some new shoes, leather casuals, and promptly got paint on the leather...ugh. I ruined a pair of black jeans by getting down on my hands and knees with all these cleaners.
One cleaning agent I worked with is called "Simple Green". We used it undiluted, and it works great for getting up grease and other stains on your counters and kitchen appliances. It's also biodegradeable and supposedly not harmful to the environment.
One thing I'd like to know is just how many coats of paint DOES it take to cover up a three-year olds wall scribblings? My son did it years ago, but I still wanted to call him on the carpet today when I had to figure out how to clean it off and paint it.

MOVED IN! More news to come! Whew! Busy man, busy!

Went back to work today and worked hard to catch up on the 4-day weekend I had created. Lots of stuff to do, and I got mostly caught up. Still one unresolved issue, where I've been unable to contact this one customer. He's in Hawaii, so it's kind of touch and go on organizing the contact with him. I'm pretty sure I'll catch him on Thursday afternoon, though. The tag game is almost finished.
Had a couple of stuck services and one problem caused by some corporate changes (that YET AGAIN we weren't notified of in advance, despite promises to the contrary). I had known about this particular change from something else that occured (and broke) last week, so I was able to fix this problem quickly. Networking is very inter-dependent that way.
Learned a bunch about safety today, thanks to a minor accident in the office, and prepared safety training for my victims (I mean, employees), also looking to corporate for help. They promised me some support, and I hope they deliver well.
Came home, and the wife is overworked, the kid over-zealous, and the house a disaster (due to the move). I can't wait for this all to be finished. I'll be able to tie up a lot of loose ends tomorrow (like mail forwarding and getting some finished painting done). Oh, thanks go out to several people today. Like, The Post Office for allowing me to pick up my keys 15 minutes after they closed. And Xerox, who contacted US about a dangerous aspect of their product, a color printer that COULD possibly catch on fire. They called us and came out and repaired it. Firestone could learn something from them, I think.

Moved in (well, signed and paid for) our new house on Friday. Since then, I've been busy as a beaver, cleaning the yard, painting the garage floor, installing a cieling fan and light set in the master bedroom. My wife wants me to buy this beautiful chandelier for the foyer, and a nice new front door kit. We've done shelf paper in the kitchen that looks just fantastic. After we move in, I'll have to put up pictures on my web page. The builder finished alot of the things we had problems with, but nailing them down to do other things is difficult. I'll keep on them though.
Also had my first cub scout den meeting on Sunday. That went pretty well too! Cub Scouts is just bound to be a heap of fun, and I think we're going to get a big kick out of it. I need to better organize the den records and have a better system for collecting money (dues, patch money, etc) and tracking expenses. The scouts had fun and made a medicine bag. In it, they put slips of paper with kind words. And we did an ethics exercise as well. I've got to make sure that we work on the achievements for each of the boys too. Supposed to meet with the other den leader tonight to go over next weeks plan.
Bought a US flag too. I want to mount that on the house, but I'm still not sure where, on the garage or the main door frame. I'll look around the neighborhood for suggestions and see where other people put theirs.