mamaLove

Kody Worries

I’ve been so worried about my pup these past few days. She hasn’t been eating as much as she should and Sunday night she whined almost the entire night. She kept freaking out when we’d leave her in the kitchen by herself, even though we’ve been doing that for a year. So Sunday night, my husband slept in the spare room with her curled up next to him. He said he wasn’t doing that again, because he didn’t sleep well. So we just opened up the hallway and that room, and put up the baby gate in the doorway to our bedroom. She curled up on the futon in the spare room and went to sleep. We didn’t hear a peep out of her till this morning when she was ready to go out. And these past few nights we’ve been letting them roam the living room and hallway while we are there. She ate a little better last night, both the bowls were empty when I went to bed, so I know she ate some. I’m guessing she just didn’t like being closed off in the kitchen at night. Who knows. I just know I slept pretty good last night and she didn’t make a sound. So now I have to put a sheet on the futon after I get all the dog hair off of it. In case she decides that is her new bed.

We’re almost set for our trip to Texas. We still have to pack, but all the stuff I was supposed to take is gotten and ready to go. We leave in the morning and I’m really looking forward to seeing my parents. I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted in At Home | 4 Comments »

Backup

I’ve used this post at Virtual Venus to create a backup routine for my blogs. Hopefully if I set it up right, it will run a rebuild that will export my entries, export my templates using the ShowTemplates plugin, zip it all up into a zip file and email it to me, every night via a cron job. Let’s hope I did it right. Then I have an automated backup of my entries and templates which is the most important parts of my site. It would make it easy to restore if something were to happen to my MT installation.

I hope this weekend I will have a chance to work on figuring out the issue with my archive calendars. But I’m not sure. Here in the south, tomorrow is a big day…The Iron Bowl. The big football game between Alabama and Auburn. We will probably be going over to a friend’s to watch it.

I’ll let you know if my backup job works or not. :\

Posted in All Work and No Play | 1 Comment »

Winter

The Winter 2003 layout is up. I decided to go with a general Winter theme since we’ll be busy during the holidays and I’m trying to stay away from the computer as much as I can. I’m not sure when I’d have the time to change a christmas layout and the winter one can stay up well into January, even February. Like I’ll keep it that long, but it’s flexible.

I actually had to use a table layout with this one. I tried and tried and just couldn’t make it work in just css alone. But oh well. it validates and looks good in both IE and Firebird, so it’s all good. I’m still having the issue with my archives where the first row is off, but I think it will only happen when the current month is an odd month. Maybe next month it will be correct. I hope so. I have emailed the creator of the plugin I’m using to see if he can help figure it out.

We’ll be going to my folks in Texas for Thanksgiving. I’m looking forward to seeing them. Last I saw them was in May when I went for vacation. My poor sister has to work most of the weekend, but I’ll still get to spend some time with her. All this means that my time online next week will be sparce. My parents only have dialup, so most likely I won’t be on at all except to check my email, if even that. I’m sure everyone else will be busy with the holiday, so not too many will be online much anyway.

Posted in All Work and No Play | No Comments »

Argh

Now that I’ve gotten my Christmas template just about done, I’m not sure I want a Christmas layout on the site. I’m thinking maybe I just want a winter theme, so that I don’t have to worry about changing it in January. Of course I’ll probably change it anyway, but if I do the Christmas thing, I will feel like I have to change it, rather than just wanting to. You know? But the problem is I’m not in the mood to do a design. If someone could make one for me, that would be cool. I don’t use a sidebar, just a menu, so it wouldn’t be too hard. I’m just not in the creative mood right now.

I want to change my site, but I’m just not sure to what. I may just throw up something simple till I figure out exactly what I want to change it to.

Posted in All Work and No Play | 2 Comments »

Psycho

My pharmacist is going to think I’m psychotic. I keep getting all these strange prescriptions filled. I visited the doctor yesterday and he gave me a new medicine for Fibromyalgia. Of course, it is normally given as treatment for schizophrenia and manic depression. But it’s supposed to help me sleep better. He said take it around 6pm as it’s supposed to give me a good 8-10 hours of sleep. I hope it doesn’t knock me out too hard. I plan on taking it Friday night to see how it works. It would suck to be falling asleep so early every night. I’ve been fortunate that my doctor is very interested in FM and is current on all the new treatments and research that is being developed. It may take an hour to get to his office, but it’s worth it for a doctor that understands the condition and is willing to work with me on possible treatments.

Posted in At Home | 1 Comment »

Programming

Since Dana has asked, I will tell you all a little about my work. I am a Visual Basic Programmer for a state agency. Our office provides monetary compensation to victims of violent crime, sexual assault and domestic violence. Expenses we pay include medical bills, funeral bills in the case of a death, rape exams, lost wages, counseling, and relocation (usually for domestic violence cases). These aren’t the only things we pay, but are usually the majority. We have to keep track of all those claims somewhere. The agency uses a custom designed software program and that is where my job comes in.

I’m the only programmer in our office of about 30 people, so I’m the one that makes the programming changes tot the software when the needs of the agency change. I also do program enhancements, where I make changes that aren’t necessarily needed to get the job done, but will benefit the claim specialists and help them be more efficient in their work.

I code primarily in Visual Basic 6. We haven’t converted to .NET because of money issues. We use SQL Server as our backend database so I do a lot with stored procedures as well. Our reports are maintained in Crystal Reports, so I create reports as needed and add them to the software program if they will be used on a regular basis. If not, I whip them up in MS Access.

Because our agency is so small, as I mentioned above, our IT department is only me and my boss, who oversees my work and takes care of the administrative tasks. My main focus is the programming, but I do help him with other jobs as needed. And of course, when he is out of the office, I’m in charge of IT if there are any questions or problems. If I’m not sure about something, it either waits till he gets back into the office, or in the case of an emergency I call him at home. LOL! He is more knowledgable with system administration and I’m more knowledgable with programming.

Posted in All Work and No Play | 1 Comment »

Questions

I’ve seen several other blogs doing this and decided it was a good idea…so if you have any questions you’d like to ask or topics you’d like to see me talk about here, send me an email at themrs[at]wifetalks.com, use the contact form or ask in the comments. I’ll try to answer your questions here on the blog as best as I can.

I had a comment about my site design in the previous post, that I think generated some negative feedback to the person who made it. I appreciate country girl’s honest opinion of my site. I am in total agreeance with her (I do feel that the site is somewhat impersonal) and told her so, so please don’t run over to her site and bash her or anything. I’ll be changing the design soon anyway. It’s time for the holidays.

I’ve found some tutorials online that I think will help me learn more in Photoshop. I found some tutorials that explain how to create collages. One even explained masks. Yes, I do not know how to use masks. I know that is a sin as I learned from the tutorial, they are very useful and once I figure out how to use them, I will probably be using them a lot more. As I’m sure I mentioned before, I am no graphic designer, so my use of PS is very limited. I can’t wait to start figuring it out and see what I can do. I haven’t had time yet. I only found the tutorials yesterday, but I bookmarked them. I also found an action to create a lomo effect. Plus I took a tutorial from Paint Shop Pro on how to create the soft focus effect. Maybe this weekend I’ll have a chance to go the bookstore and browse the shelves for good Photoshop books.

Posted in All Work and No Play | 3 Comments »

Holidays

I’m slightly disappointed in myself. Why? I’ve already got my christmas template ready to go. Just waiting for December to get here. : Yep. I’m going to be changing the site again. I like this template cause it is more journal-like and it’s christmas-y. I did a holiday theme last year that my readers really liked. I hope everyone likes this one as well. After seeing my current template for a while, I’m beginning to think it is a little to professional for a blog. I really like the template but I’m not sure it’s right for a personal website. Or maybe I’m just weird. Who knows. Anyway, I’ll be changing my site again as soon as December arrives. Maybe it will help get me in the festive mood.

We’ve decided we’re going to spend Thanksgiving with my parents. I’m looking forward to it. I haven’t seen them since May so it will be nice. And my husband will get to see their new house. Since we are spending Christmas with his family he decided we should spend Thanksgiving with mine. What a nice husband I have.

Posted in At Home | 2 Comments »

Changes

I’ll be doing some changes to the way the archives are set up. I’m going to do something similar to what Mark has done. I won’t be going totally cruft-free, but I want to organize my archives. So I will be going back to having individual archives again.

If you haven’t noticed already, I’ve redesigned my booklist section as well as the desktop screenshots section. I guess I like for each section to have its own look. Eventually all my sections will be unique. I also have plans on rearranging some of the content on the main site. Layout will stay mostly the same…as least for a while. Just a few minor tweaks. Thank you to Jennifer at muted.com for letting me use her smilies on my site.

This weekend was semi-productive. I got my computer all done. I now have a faster laptop. It boots up faster and loads everything faster. I’m using Adobe CS now. I really like it so far. I can’t wait to start playing with it some more. I also read a whole book in just a few hours yesterday. It felt great. I finished the Sandra Brown book Saturday, then spent yesterday reading another book and starting The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks. And I’m already halfway through.

Posted in The Inner Me | 1 Comment »

Revolutions

We saw Matrix Revolutions last night. I thought it was pretty good, but I felt flat when it ended. That is the only way I can explain it. Just flat. The movie made sense, somewhat…it is a complex trilogy for sure, so I think it made as much sense as it could to me the first time around. My husband wants to have a marathon and watch all three so he can analyze them more in depth. I can say it was definitely an interesting movie.

It started at 8:45 so I only watched the first 15 minutes of CSI before we left. I did set the VCR to record it so I’ll be watching the rest tonight. I must say it was very gory. I was eating a KitKat when they started showing the head and I just had to put the candy bar down. It was really gross! But for some reason I want to say it was a rerun. That I’ve seen that episode before. Was it a rerun and I just don’t remember it that well? Or am I just thinking of some other episode?

I’ve been trying to become more active in the MT forums helping folk who are having issues with MT. I hope I can be of some help since I do have some knowledge and skills. I’m really looking forward to MT Pro and hope some of the features that are currently lacking in MT will be included in Pro.

Photoshop CS has arrived. Well actually I got the entire Creative Suite. I am looking forward to installing it and playing around with it some. I have partially completed 2 new linkware templates, so that will give me something to do with it. I’ve been wanting to play more with it and just make graphics and such with whatever tricks I learn. Who knows. If I ever have time to do something like that and I develop enough graphics, I may make a little gallery for them.

Why is it that anytime I try to go to the beginning of the line or the end of the line in Zempt it jumps me to the beginning or end of the whole paragraph. It is very frustrating. I have to get the mouse and move the cursor that way, because Home or End just doesn’t work like you’d think. Hmmm, maybe I’ll have to send the makers of Zempt a message about that.

I won’t be going camping this weekend. Camping will be taking place in a remote area with no water or facilities and there are certain times of the month, where that becomes more than I want to deal with, ya know. So I will be staying home, reformatting my computer (my husband got a laptop from work, so I’m taking his old one, which is better than mine) and playing with Photoshop. I also plan to read a lot this weekend.

Posted in The Inner Me | 3 Comments »

Camping

The plan is to go camping this weekend. The weather should be cool and dry. Let’s hope it stays that way. Which means I won’t be online all weekend. I’m thinking that will be okay. I will get a chance to read more, I hope. Maybe I’ll finish the book I’m currently reading (Hello, Darkness by Sandra Brown) and can return it to the person who lent it to me on Monday. I just hope I don’t get too cold. I tend to get really cold, so I hope I can manage. Oh gosh, I also need to remember to take my meds with me. If not, I won’t be able to sleep.

Ever feel like you’ve been pinched from the inside? Yep. It is very painful. I’ve been getting that a lot lately. In my shoulder blades. I wonder if maybe I need new meds. I don’t actually take any for pain. Usually the sleeping aid is enough. When I’m really hurting I take a hot bath, then get a massage (either from my husband or my little massage machine) then take my meds and go to sleep. Maybe I do need to try something for pain. Also lately, I’ve been getting frequent cramps in my feet and legs. I haven’t been cramping up in a while and lately any little movement I make tenses up the muscles. My husband laughs at me because when I feel the muscle tensing I immediately jump up to stretch it out. So we could be sitting there watching a movie and I’ll just leap from the couch. It actually is kind of funny, but I hate getting cramps. Wow, two posts today. I’d better get some work done.

Posted in At Home | 1 Comment »

Nemo

We found Nemo. LOL! It is a really good movie. I thought it was so cute. My husband kept saying the characters were retarded, but I know he liked it. Oh, I’ve decided to start recording Charmed every afternoon. TNT is showing the old episodes. I’ve missed some I know, but I will start watching it from now on. Yeah! I’ve got some pictures that I took a few weekends ago. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to put them up soon. They include a picture of my husband’s new truck.

If you’ve browsed my archives since I redid the site, I’ve removed a lot of entries. I tried to get it down to no more than 2 entries per day. I removed all the links to other places, and all the memes. I thought I was going to keep a blog just for memes, but doing them doesn’t really interest me that much. I like the way I have my blog set up now…more like a journal than a blog full of gibberish.

Posted in At Home | No Comments »

Comment Spam

I’ve implemented Jay Allen’s MT-Blacklist plugin. Just this morning, I noticed 4 spam comments had been posted. I’d already deleted 2 before I redid the site. I am fed up. I hope this plugin will stop these nasty comments from showing up on my blogs.

I’ve also decided to start collecting links for places around the web that I find interesting. Similar to Kristine’s Love Links. You can find them here: http://wifetalks.com/projects/elsewhere. There are only a few as I only started today, but I hope to collect quite a few as time goes on. I’ve also finally fixed up my section of lyrics. No ability to add comments. I may add that back or not.

On the homefront…
We watched the stupidest movie last night. Eight Crazy Nights. Wow. I really thought this movie was blah. It had a few funny moments, but for the most part it wasn’t really a good movie. Oh well. Tonight we’re planning on watching Finding Nemo. That one will be good, I know.

Posted in All Work and No Play | No Comments »