Monday, May 30, 2005

Are we having fun yet?

I'm having so much fun right now, I can't begin to describe it. We've got two kids down with chicken pox right now (nothing like feverish children waking up every 30 minutes or so all night to make you feel rested), and the company's primary DNS servers were not operating properly over the weekend, and when we finally got them working I found out it was something that I had done to screw it up.

At least tonight is shaping up to be an OK night - the DNS servers are still working, the poxy kids are feeling somewhat better (enhanced with Tylenol), and I should be able to get to bed at a decent time. Tomorrow is a new day, full of new opportunities... to screw things up royally again. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

P.S. My apologies to RyeShy for the DNS debacle.

Friday, May 27, 2005

Awake and not happy about it

Stupid servers at work started sending out alerts about an hour ago, about the same time that Kol started fussing (he's been running a fever and generally cranky today, probably the beginning of chicken pox). Turns out it was a simple problem (needed to restart the primary DNS server), but now I'm wide awake. This sucks. I'm going back to bed now - hopefully I'll be able to "shut down" pretty quickly...

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Unplanned hiatus is over

It's been a quiet month here on the blog, which is completely the opposite of what's been happening offline for me. Here's the highlights:
  • Chicken pox - Julianna is just about over them, which means that Mari and Kolbjorn are probably going to be dealing with them in a few weeks time.
  • Baby on the way - we're hoping the baby isn't early, 'cause the due date is pretty much right after we expect Mari and Kol to be finished dealing with chicken pox. We had an ultrasound yesterday, and we actually got a decent look at the baby's face - very, very cool. No idea about the gender, and that's just fine with us. We've also finally settled on our name choices - of course, we're not saying anything until the little one is finally here.
  • Renovations - the main bathroom is finally usable after six months, except for the sink (need to rip out some of our freshly installed and painted drywall because we forgot to put in a crossbrace for it). The concrete for half the driveway has been poured, and the rest of it should be finished PDQ (weather permitting), and the frames are in place for the sidewalk to the front door. The basement and deck have had no progress.
  • Work - craziness continues. Big project right now: our co-lo ISP has asked us to move our servers to a different IP subnet. It's not a quick and easy job, to say the least. Also continuing staff changes, budget fights, etc. Situation normal, I guess.
  • Babylon 5 - just about finished season 4. This has been very exciting - when B5 was originally broadcast, our local TV station dropped it midway through the third season. Had a friend who worked for another local station who taped it off the satellite feed and made a bunch of copies to distribute - managed to keep up with it until early fourth season, when his manager caught him using the company equipment for his little operation. Since then, I had never seen any further 4th or 5th season episodes. Fantastic show - the acting wasn't always stellar, but the writing and story are excellent. I'm almost going to be sorry when I finish watching the entire series - but hey, that just means I can start again from the beginning and pick up on all the hints of things to come that I missed the first time through.
  • Aquarium - we've added a whole lotta fish, including some "refugees" from my sister's tank (which she is decomissioning while they are in the midst of renovations). Current count is 13 pristella tetras, 6 black skirt tetras, 2 cardinal tetras, 6 panda cory cats, 5 otto cats, 1 upside-down cat, 1 pleco, and 3 angels. It's a very busy tank, but not too crowded. Very relaxing to just sit and watch.
  • The Saskatoon Curse - yes, it struck again. Transmission trouble with the van stranded Kristen and the two youngest in Saskatoon one day a few weeks ago. Warranty covered the repairs, but we had to borrow a vehicle from my folks for a few days while ours was in the shop.
I'm sure that there's more that I could ramble on about, but I'd really like to watch one more Babylon 5 episode before going to bed. A man's got his priorities, you know.

One last note - I've still got more Gmail invites than I know what to do with. If you want one, just let me know. Doesn't matter to me if you're a close relative or a complete stranger - ask, and ye shall receive.

Transformer training wheels

Now this is a pretty cool idea- instead of training wheels, these guys have figured out a way to make a tricycle that turns into a bicycle while in motion. Just wish it was past the prototype stage - Julianna's soon ready to drop the training wheels, and this looks like it would be a much more natural progression. Oh well - guess I'd better make sure her helmet fits right, and stock up on the band-aids.

Competitiveness vs. fatherhood

My mom just gave me the Star Wars Trivial Pursuit DVD Saga Edition game the other day, and Julianna was itching to play it against me. Now, this is a problem for me - I'm a very competitive person when it comes to games, I'm pretty good at normal trivia games, and I'm a complete Star Wars fanboy. I tried my best to restrain myself (she's only 7), but I beat her. Twice. I did my best to help her along, and I managed to make it close (both games she had at least 4 wedges), but I had to win. Actually, by the end of the second game, it was getting to be way past her bedtime, so I just wanted to end it quickly. I comfort myself with the thought that it will help her to be a good sport about winning and losing.

Before going to bed, Julianna told me that she plans to challenge Kristen to the game tomorrow. She's pretty confident of her chances. So am I. Sorry, dear, but your daughter is gonna kick your butt all the way to Tatooine.