General

stuff nightmares are made of…
What if you wandered into your backyard and found this? Denis and I were out in the yard on Sunday, checking out our jungle-gym playset to see whether we could fix it up for Lizzy to play on next summer. And what did we find? A hornet condo. I swear, they probably have a swimming pool, hot tub and space heater in this thing. Supposedly, they abandon their nests every year, but I don’t think they’ll ever abandon this one – I’m not even sure they could’ve built this just this summer – it’s huge. I’m not apiphobic like Tina, but I have never had such an urge to run in my life! Fortunately, we have an exterminator coming to take care of it. In the meantime, I don’t even want to go outside… Of course, hornet nests are apparently collectors’ items – we found one website discussing how to preserve these things. Why?!?

Hmmm. Can I get a new cubicle? I just read on the Dilbert website about the Ultimate Cubicle. I want one!!!

Time Flies…
…but USAirways doesn’t. At least, not to Rochester or Buffalo from Boston last Friday. After spending 7 hours waiting in the airport, I eventually got on a plane to Ithaca, where my grandparents live. Unfortunately, my luggage didn’t. Argh. 24 hours after I would’ve gotten home on my original flight (still about 4 hours before any Rochester flight they could’ve scheduled me on), I finally made it home and my bags were delivered. What an “adventure”. As a result, somehow I’m starting the new work week with tons of laundry, my suitcase still (mostly) packed, and a general feeling that I’ve been cheated out of my long weekend.

I’m finding it extremely hard to believe that it’s September already. Where did the summer go?

Well, I’ve managed to find some internet access – not on my laptop, but at least I can check e-mail and blog! I bought the neatest book yesterday – “How to Speak Dog”. Pretty soon I’ll be able to put on my resume that I’m multilingual – I speak English and Doggish. :) Actually, it’s a really good book – I couldn’t put it down last night. Which explains why I’ve been yawning through every presentation so far today. Or, maybe they’re just that boring… Actually, the conference hasn’t been that bad, but it’s not really what I expected. I’m just looking forward to going home and spending the long weekend working on those christening gowns!

I’ve Had It!
Ok, I had to dial in to work just to get my email and blog. I’m finding it extremely difficult to believe that I’m at a “Web Services” conference with no internet access. OpenSource had a (free) wireless network setup all throughout the conference area. The focus of that conference was not the web, but they understood the need for easy internet access. This web conference doesn’t even have walk-up machines to go read news or anything with. Is it just me, or is that bizarre?

Late Monday
<rant>Why do people have such a prejudice against macs? I’m taking a Java tutorial and when I have issues, the instructor assumes right off the bat that it’s because I’m using a mac, not because I’ve typed in a line of code wrong. I’m not one of those mac users who tries to convert pc users – I firmly believe that whichever platform you want to use is the one you should use. But (and not to offend the 46% percent (all 3?) of you who read this on a pc) I think windows is buggy and akward, and I can’t understand why sane people think that it’s easier to use than a mac.</rant>

Monday
Day 3 and no internet access in sight. I’m starting to go through withdrawal – I guess this means that I’m getting too dependent on technology. It’s frustrating to have to watch the weather channel to find out about the forecasted high instead of hopping onto weatherunderground.com and getting the info in less than 10 seconds. It probably doesn’t help that we have a wireless network in the house – I’m connected everywhere in the house, on my property, and even at the neighbors’ houses. Oh, well. Maybe I’ll dial in to work later just to get my email fix. :)

Sunday
We walked the freedom trail today, although we didn’t go into many of the buildings – more out of lack of time than anything else. We met some friends for lunch and walked along the Charles for a while. Unfortunately, my allergies (or cold?) are getting the better of me, so I’ve been dragging today.

Saturday
Highlight of the day: we went to see the “make way for ducklings” bronze statues… They were pretty cool! It was neat to watch all the kids playing around them, too. Trinity church had some of the most beautiful stained glass windows I’ve ever seen, but my camera was not interested in taking pictures of them. Oh, well. Probably a tripod would have helped. We wandered around Newbury Street, went to Quincy Market, ate dinner at the “Barking Crab”, and took a horse drawn carriage ride around the financial district. Pretty nice day, in all…

<insert sigh of relief here>
It’s Friday!!! And I’m leaving for Boston extremely early (i.e. the flight leaves at 6:50 A.M.) tomorrow morning. Yes, I know, most sane people aren’t even close to awake at that hour on a Saturday, but I’ve never been to Boston, so I’m eager to get an early start. Of course, I’m not too sure how much internet access I’m going to have while I’m there, so I don’t know how much I’ll get to blog, but it’s a web services conference – you would think there might be web access around somewhere…

Plus, I got the laundry done, made progress on the gowns (no inside-out seams anymore) and made extensive progress on my master’s project last night. I’m in a very happy mood, la la la. Now if I can just get to bed early so that when the alarm goes off at 4:30 I don’t turn it off, we’ll be all set.

Under Pressure
(…and the song now gets stuck in your head – sorry…)

Between working long hours, trying to make progress on my master’s project, and creating two christening gowns, I’m not finding much time for sleep – or anything else… I’m headed to Boston for a week in, oh, about 44 hours, and I realized I have no clean clothes, nor any idea what I’ve got to pack. This is a problem…

I was so distracted last night while I was working on the gowns, I sewed one piece on inside-out. I discovered this after I had trimmed the seam allowances… I somehow managed to salvage both pieces even though I had to rip out a seam – no small feat when you’re working with fabric as flimsy as organdy! Unfortunately, taking one stitch out at a time involved 25 minutes of holding my breath and praying frantically that nothing would rip. Argh. On the positive side, I now know that the seams my sewing machine sews are very strong.

The master’s project is going nowhere at the moment. I knew I was getting into a gray area when I decided to write it for os X, but this is getting ridiculous. Every time I try to do something it’s like pulling teeth to get it to work. I finally gave up at midnight last night when I had searched the entire internet trying to find someone who had gotten ImageMagick working for os X… It sounds like people have, so I haven’t lost all hope, but they didn’t bother posting the magic incantations required. Maybe I should call Miss Cleo – I might have more luck. :)

…And speaking of songs getting stuck in your head, why is it that people say things like “guess what song I’ve had stuck in my head for days?” and then start singing it for you? Thanks. Now it’s stuck in my head, too…

Blogger is fast this morning! :)

Lucky
I must be really lucky. I have seen, over the past few days, an average of two ladybugs a day – in my house! I have never seen so many ladybugs in my life! The weird thing is that they’re almost all in my kitchen. We have a sliding glass door, but when it’s open there’s a screen which is in fairly good condition – no big holes or anything… So how do they get in? It’s the most bizarre thing. I’m slightly worried that I’ll come home one day and find my kitchen crawling with little ladybugs. I think they’re trying to move in…

I guess I’m not supposed to blog right now – IE just crashed. Boom. Of course, it probably doesn’t help that while I was typing out my blog I kept updating and reloading the javascript code I’m trying to fix at work. I think I reloaded the buggy code one too many times. I just don’t understand where those pesky bugs come from. I mean, I don’t write the bugs into my code!

So, is it Friday yet?