Oh, the weather outside is frightful…

... but our Duraflame is quite delightful,
so since we've lots of food to eat,
let it sleet, let it sleet, let it sleet!

Who said winter was over in Dallas? Certainly not the One who makes those decisions, at any rate! I praise God for a warm house and a few good books to read, and pray for those seeking shelter from this weather.

Click on the thumbnail above for a view of our front porch!

Doggie Dental?

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has taken his or her dog to the veterinarian's office to have their teeth cleaned. I'm probably also not alone in scratching my head wondering if this isn't some sort of practical joke being played on dog owners. I kept looking for the hidden cameras and waiting for some slick Hollywood personality to jump out and announce that I'd been fooled into paying good money for someone to clean my dog's teeth.

Having said that, if you had smelled my dog's breath recently, you, like I, might have been willing to take that risk in hopes of any improvement. Now I sit here, hoping to hear from the vet's office that she is recovering from the anaesthesia, and wondering if I couldn't simply have laced her food with Arm & Hammer...

Blog more!

As a friend of mine said recently, "...get to work! Blog more!"

Some people go for the QUANTITY aspect of blogging, while others go for QUALITY. I myself fall into neither camp, and prefer sporadic, meaningless entries, but that's beside the point. I'm going to BLOG MORE!

So, can I tell you about how I spent my Saturday morning setting up a CUPS server on my Linux box so I can print to either of my printers from any of our computers, especially my work laptop, without having to transfer files over? Or, how about getting the latest issue of Linux Journal which, by the way, is focused this month on blogging and other online fora. I would link to the specific story that talks about setting up a blog and mentions MovableType, but you have to be a subscriber to get to that part of their website, so it wouldn't do much good. I do recommend perusing a copy if you find yourself in the presence of a news stand or bookstore, though.

I could also detail how I've been spending time on another web-related project, but it is top secret until we can announce it publicly, so I'd better not. Granted, I had hoped to have the site up and live long ago, but there's only so much progress you can make when you're working in spare time.

In other news, I'm finally taking my last undergraduate class at UNT that is required prior to starting the Masters program. I'm supposed to meet with an advisor this week and discuss the options. I have to admit that taking one class at a time really makes this a long haul, but with the encouragement of my wife, I am staying on target so far.

I suppose I should stop now, or I'll run out of things to talk about, and I need to be able to post again soon, lest I be chided again for not blogging more!

Things to look for next time:

• an update on how our dogs are healing after getting into a fracas over a bone
• pictures of my wife's office (finally), and
• a discussion of the complexity involved in determining the boiling point of a duck!

Getting my desk back!

Recently, I was working on the computer and I heard a loud POP and my monitor went dead. Being the technological genius that I am, I knew immediately that this was not normal behavior. (I know, I know, I amaze myself sometimes.) I got the image to come back eventually, but about half the desktop was permanently blurry, no matter what I did to resolve the issue. After a few weeks of getting headaches when reading, or moving windows to the edge of the desktop to the remaining "clear" area, Amy and I decided we had to replace the monitor.

Given the current state of technology in which we live, I suggested looking at flat panel monitors. Amy readily agreed. To leave out all the gory details, I ended up finding several on eBay that got good reviews but were at prices that made it a short stretch from a traditional CRT to Flat Panel.

The immediate result was the stress of trying to win something on eBay, but eventually this produced the fruit reflected in the pictures I'm about to show you. The first picture is a shot of our computer desk with the dying monitor. Notice the lack of anything that can really be called desk space.

The second, however, is the same desk with the new flat panel display. Notice the healthy 15" of room to sit and actually do something at this desk!

The lesson from all of this, obviously, is that I should not have waited so long to pour coffee on the monitor. Er, did I just say that?

Seriously, Amy and I have a love-hate relationship with technology in that when you buy something new, you frequently find yourself needing to buy other parts and components to be able to use the features of the original purchase. We would have preferred not to spend the money, but given that that was not a viable option, I must say we're both very pleased with how things worked out!