Week in review - August 31st, 2008

Happy Labour Day Weekend.

For those "not across the pond", this is the American holiday, not the political party. We get to take the first Monday of September off so we can bbq (burn) food, sleep in late and for some, shop. Retail madness on any holiday has not appealed to me for a very long time so I shall not be partaking.

This week we had our CEO's new hire/anniversary lunch. Steve, Steve and Steve were in attendance so we used the opportunity to have Pam (thanks Pam) take a picture. The others think I should grow a beard. Claudia pointed out that they need to shave their heads. Middle ground...



Fame at last...

Have you ever seen "The Jerk" with Steve Martin? Well in this goofball of a movie, Martin plays somewhat of a nobody who finally moves away from home and lives in a room at the garage he works at. He's thrilled when he gets a phone and shows up in the phone book proclaiming that he's somebody at last. Little does he know a killer has randomly selected a victim from the phone book - and he's it. Hopefully google.com doesn't work this way (or hopefully killers don't use google.com this way).

Cat Stuff
Curiosity and the fingers - she was out the other day and going crazy on the rocking chair. In order to tempt her to be a willing subject, I waggled my fingers and she took the hint.


Let me in... She also is good at balancing on top of the chair to voice her concerns that I really am slacking in my duties as a doorman to the cats. I need to work out how to suppress the flash effect in glass - using a diffuser would be an option with an external unit.


More sleeping... Tinto gets more practice. He's presently lying almost on top of the air conditioning vent. If my father-in-law were here, he's suggest that Tinto take that heavy fur coat off....



Monday
Monday being a holiday,I'll be cooking. We have chicken which is currently taking a soak in ginger wasabi beer marinade and some nice New York Strip steaks. I managed to get some more decent charcoal (the real stuff) from Barbeques Galore yesterday so I'm happy. I used the crummy Kingsford briquettes the last time because I was out of the good stuff and although it did the job, I wasn't too happy with the flavour.

Technology
With our upcoming trip to Europe this December, one thing that became obvious is that the TomTom 910 needs an upgrade. It's got European maps (3 years old) and is bulky. I need something smaller with up to date maps and portable enough that when we're out in a city, we can walk around with it. Enter the now-discontinued Garmin nuvi 670 which retailed at the beginning of the year for around $800. Now $300, it's been replaced by the nuvi 700 series which frankly offer very little new. This one is small enough to slip in your pocket (try doing that with the TomTom).



Book Review
Still ploughing my way through the previously mentioned ones. Perhaps this week will be quiet and next week I'll have made some progress.

Week in review - August 24th, 2008

Happy Sunday.

Tomorrow is Monday of course and it'll be a good week for me - have a new team member starting tomorrow and I pass the (non-Olympic) baton of being the on-call DBA as well. A double reward, just for showing up :)

This week has been pleasant - life continues at its usual breakneck pace and although this week was quieter than last, it presented its own challenges. We're making great progress on some long term strategy items at work so I'm happy with the direction. Four weeks to San Francisco :)

Claudia
Claudia has had a busy week - she's back at Georgia State along with the Great Unwashed (undergraduates), some of whom she has the dubious pleasure of teaching (CIS 20102 - Introduction to Computer Based Information Systems). I'm surprised she doesn't come home with steam escaping her ears since one of the big topics here is Microsoft Access 2007 and as a former Oracle DBA (like myself, a fine profession), it's like having driven a BMW for the past few years and then being given a Vespa. Still, it probably gets better fuel economy figures :) Anyway, she seems to be doing well with it and it is one of the necessary evils for PhD students.


Frog
I was out on the deck with one of the cats the other day and saw this small frog under a mat so of course presented with that opportunity dug out the camera. I looked it up and apparently it's a Green Frog, native to these parts. And you thought all frogs were green (some of you may think that have a pig for a best friend but we ate her last weekend).

On the subject of photos, I am still switching to Flikr.com for my photos - so far they seem to offer some decent functionality although I like the end-user friendliness of Picassa where albums are much more analogous to their paper-based cousins. Until I get bored, I'll likely upload to both but pictures for this site will now be linked to my Flikr pages.

Cat face
Here's Tinto showing off his better side (his other side is virtually indistinguishable).


Book Review
Well, the Battle for Spain continues. As I mentioned last week, I am still reading the sequel in the Will Thomas series which I have now finished.

To Kingdom Come
(the above title is a link to the Amazon.com page). This sequel to "Some Danger Involved", a true British understatement, gets off to a decent enough start. This time the agency is embroiled in a terrorist attack against Scotland Yard and the investigation to find the perpetrators. I finally finished it and have to say it was most enjoyable and a good read, especially as a stress relief valve. Will Thomas has a quaint writing style in this series and does well keeping to it. I may investigate the next in this series...

The Limehouse Text by Will Thomas
Next in the series...

Movie Review
Muriel's Wedding
(the above title is a link to the Netflix.com page). Another rather offbeat Australian comedy from the mid-1990s tells the tale of Muriel, a rather bizarre figure and her even stranger family. She's bought into that whole idea that her wedding will be the most important day of her life (kinda sad that anyone says that), but when it finally comes, it's not quite what she bargains for. She finally realizes what is important though (it has zip to do with weddings) and the movie ends on a positive note (so no need for the razor blades).

And now for something completely different.
Here's one you won't see in the movies...

Week in review - August 17th, 2008

Claudia's back!
Hooray! She got back into Atlanta this afternoon after a week in sunny Toronto. Pictures will be posted once we get them uploaded. She picked a great week to be away since it's been busy for me at work and I've been burning the midnight oil on a couple of projects. Her flight was slightly delayed initially thanks to a computer system glitch with Customs & Immigration in Toronto (apparently you clear US customs there) so that was interesting. Along with Netflix and Google who both had issues this week, the US Government was also not exempt.

Cats
Since I've been busy, not a lot to add this weekend. Took plenty of pictures of the cats (of course) and fiddled with my camera in the quieter hours (there was one in there somewhere).



With some stuff from LL Bean arriving, both cats decided the box would be a good home temporarily. Neither of them would consent to an appearance together. My experiment with different camera settings resulted in my getting many pictures of dust on the floor which was perfectly in focus (in spite of having vacuumed). Must mop the floor and work out the focus kinks :)



I did manage to make some lunches for next week - I mention this only because my solution to a logistics problem of putting potatoes on a fish pie was at first, ingenious. Using a Ziploc bag, I piped the potato on top hower as you can see, it really resembles something else. Gives me something amusing to smile at next week at lunch.



Reviews of the week...
Don't make me laugh - I haven't had time to open a book or apply alternating electrical current to the tube this week. However if it all pans out (and it will), next week I'll finish off the detective novel and recommence the Spanish Civil War (I mean read the book, not incite a re-run of the unpleasantries).

Next week...
Next week, I should be back to normal, schedule-wise so will try to write something more interesting. I may even get out more and take pictures of non-cat things.

A last word...
Seems we should be rich - our cat has a cola line...