I'm working at home today while the drywall contractors are here fixing my bathroom and my Tiny Cat is loving every minute of it. You'd think that all the sanding and vacuuming and noise would freak her out, but when she's not sitting next to me on the couch trying to lay in the middle of the laptop keyboard, she's over there poking around to see what sort of trouble she can get into.

Tiny Cat is weird. We kept her in the bathroom when she was very small (to get her used to the house, learn how to use the litter box, etc.) and now she has this connection with the bathroom that I can't explain. She loves to be in there while you're taking a dump. Loves it. She'll cry and paw at the door if you don't let her in. Once she's in, she'll walk around the base of the toilet and flop on her back expecting to be petted.

Of course, now the humans in the house expect her to be there, so if you're going to the bathroom and she doesn't show up, you leave the door open and yell "POOPINGCAT!" (long, like a yodel: "Poooooooopingcaaaaaaaaat!") and she'll come running. Seriously - you won't have to wait more than a couple seconds. In fact, if you're in a different room than her and yell "Poopingcat," she'll head to the closest bathroom to you because, well, that's where the Poopingcat goes.

What a silly cat.

I went on Sunday to see the latest incarnation of Robert Ludlum's master assassin, Jason Bourne, as played by Matt Damon, in The Bourne Supremacy.

The Bourne Supremacy is the second in the trilogy of Bourne books. We've seen two interpretations of the first book, The Bourne Identity, on screen; this is the first time anyone's ventured past that.

I would say the first movie, also starring Matt Damon, only took the general premise of the book into account and then took liberties with the rest of the plot. The beginning started out like the book, but it slowly diverged from the book as it went along. I liked the movie, but I definitely liked the book better as it had some great psychological stuff in there that probably doesn't translate well to film.

After watching the second movie, I'm really wondering now if the people who wrote the movie even read the book. I mean, did they even bother skimming the thing? Just read a few pages, guys. Here's the description from the back of the book:

In a Kowloon Cabaret, scrawled in a pool of blood, is a name the world wanted to forget: Jason Bourne.

The Chinese vice-premier has been brutally slain by a legendary assassin. World leaders ask the same fearful questions: Why has Jason Bourne come back? Who is paying him? Who is the next to die? But U.S. officials know the shocking truth: There is no Jason Bourne. The name was created as cover for David Webb on his search for the notorious killer Carlos. Someone else has taken the Bourne identity--and unless he is stopped, the world will pay a devastating price. So Jason Bourne must live again. Once again, Webb must utilize his lethal skills--because once again, like a nightmare relived, the woman he loves is suddenly torn from his life. To find her, trap his own impostor, and uncover an explosive secret plan, Webb must lauch a desperate oddyssey into the espionage killing fields. But this time, survival will not be enough. This time Bourne must reign supreme.

Okay, now go see the movie. When no one ever even mentions China, you'll start to wonder what's up. Not to mention the constant pursuit of the ever-elusive "Carlos" character in the book, who was also in the first book, and who didn't make it into either of the movies.

I'm not saying this is a bad movie. I liked it. I had a lot of fun with it. I'm saying it had zero to do with the book, aside from the fact the main characters are both named Jason Bourne. Watching the movie didn't make me feel cheated, it made me feel like they should have named it something else... and then considered it "a new adventure for Jason Bourne." Something like a "lost chapter" in the character's history.

Of course, in the books Jason Bourne marries the Marie character (played in the movie by Franka Potente) and they stay together through the entire trilogy. In the movie, in the first five minutes, they kill Marie. What?! That definitely doesn't happen in the books.

Again - I liked the movie, it just didn't even remotely follow the book. Not even close.

Should you see it? That depends. If you are a die-hard fan of the books, you will probably be disappointed. Despite the great action and special effects, it will probably stick in your craw that the stuff on the screen has nothing in common with the Bourne universe you know and love. Of course, I loved the books, and I had a great time with the movie. Divorce yourself from the idea that the movie is "based on the novel" and pretend for an instant that it's just a new adventure with a character you already know and love. Go into it like that, and you'll have a good time with the movie.

It makes me curious now to see if they're going to do the third book. No way they could even remain close with that - they've already diverged too far and have created their own mythos surrounding Bourne.

Might be cool, though.

Jenn and I took a nice long (three-day) weekend in Seattle this past weekend, and I think it generally rocked.

Friday Jenn only worked a half day and we left by 2:00p for Seattle. Traffic sucked. It took an hour and a half to get to the Oregon/Washington border, and I only live like 40 minutes from the border. Terrible, terrible traffic.

We got to Tacoma, to my aunt and uncle's house, at close to 6:00p. Dropped off our stuff and headed over to a different aunt and uncle's house for a barbecue.

It turned out the barbecue was for all of the July birthdays in the family. My uncle George and I have the same birthday (July 23), and I have two cousins with July birthdays.

We ate barbecue food, took a boat ride (they live on a lake), and just took it easy. After all was said and done, we returned to the first aunt and uncle's place in Tacoma to stay overnight.

Got up the next morning, went to breakfast at the clubhouse (they live on a golf course), and Jenn proceeded to get sick. I think the heat was starting to get to her (it was like 100 degrees the whole time we were up there) and her stomach was rumbly, too, not to mention a headache.

We returned to the house where my aunt rubbed some Tiger Balm on Jenn's head. Apparently she has some sort of coworker who swears by Tiger Balm... I don't know if I buy that, but Jenn's headache did go away.

We left there and headed for the W Hotel in downtown Seattle. We found it, but it was too early for check-in, so we parked at Pike Place market and walked around there.

There is no shortage of stuff to see at the Pike Place market. From fish vendors to fresh flowers to donuts and handmade wares, if it exists, it's probably at the market. We saw all sorts of crazy crap. The first Starbucks is there - that was neat.

After that we walked around downtown and looked at the Pioneer Square area. Again, lots of interesting stuff to see.

We got back to the hotel, shin splints and all, by around 3:00p. We checked in, but they didn't have the room quite ready, so we waited for an hour sipping iced tea and enjoying the air conditioning.

When we got to the room, I have to admit, I was impressed.

Everything's modern. The bathroom fixtures, the furniture, everything. It reminded me a lot of Pottery Barn, actually, mixed with Dania or Ikea. Normally I'm not into that, but it was cool.

The best part was the bed. I don't like hard mattresses - we have one of those air mattress beds - but this thing was plush. I really dug it. I may just have to buy one.

The art was cool, too. Something about the sort of "fantasy" style of the art on the key cards and postcard and such... very neat. I'm having their concierge look up the name of the artist. I stole some of the art and threw it up here so you could see what I'm talking about. It's photography, but done in a stylish and whimsical setting. Cool.

We had dinner at the "Earth and Ocean" - the restaurant in the hotel. It was really fancy and very good food, though I have to admit places like that where they wait on you hand and foot then charge you an arm and a leg are intimidating to me. Regardless, very tasty. I'd eat there again.

By the time that was over, it was late, we were full, and we were tired from walking all over, so we took our desserts up to the room with us. We couldn't stand it, though, so we ate the desserts when we got there - raspberry parfaits (or, as it said on the menu, "She Wore a Raspberry Parfait") - rather than saving them for later.

The next morning we got up and headed back to the Pike Place market to have some breakfast. We ate in a little French bakery (tasty!) and watched the early morning crowds. After that, we headed back to the hotel and checked ourselves out.

The drive home wasn't nearly as bad as the drive up. We made it in about three hours, give or take, and had enough time to unpack and get stuff ready for Monday. We even went to see The Bourne Supremacy (which was good, but nothing like the book).

I had Monday off, but Jenn worked. Not that I didn't work, mind you. Laundry, yard work, shopping, general clean up... I kept busy. I did find time to go get myself a couple of birthday presents (the Transformers PS2 game and La Femme Nikita season 2... which, as of this writing, says it's "unavailable" at Amazon - that's weird, because I found it just fine at the store).

All in all, not a bad way to spend one's 28th birthday.

And now I'm back at work. I always realize when coming back from vacation how I'm not a big fan of the whole "work" thing, but I guess you gotta pay the bills.

Oh, and a minor note: I actually have a contractor coming in on Thursday to deal with my drywall issue. Woohoo!

Today is my birthday, so happy birthday to me! I've reached 28 which, as far as ages go, is neither here nor there. Not a bad place to be, mind you.

Woke up this morning (got yourself a gun?) around 6:00 because, while I have the day off, Jenn works. I got my presents from her (I like presents): The Best of James Taylor and a Harry Potter Lego set. Very cool.

Jenn's working a half day, and when she gets home we're going to head up to Seattle to visit family and do the tourist thing. I'm in the process of ripping the James Taylor album so we can listen to it on the iPod on the way up.

Aside from that, no real insight. Another year older and wiser, as they say. A lot's happened, though (most of which I'm remembering from scanning through my site... it's a good thing I keep this thing or I'd never remember anything). Let's see...

• Saw Mamma Mia, Conjure One, Delerium, and Cirque du Soleil's Alegría
• Took a lot of Microsoft training
• Started working on the product demo project at work (an incarnation of which I'm still working on)
• Tried and failed on the Atkins diet
• Fought with PS2 disc read errors
• Changed my host and started blogging with pMachine... lost a little data in that process
• Changed hosts - again - and lost a little data in that process
• Ripped all of my CDs into 256kbps AAC format
• Started - and finished - buying a house
• Got my MCSD.NET certification
• Got my MCDBA certification

Not bad for a year. I look forward to what's in store for me this year. Stick around, folks. I think it's gonna be a good one.

Baseball, it could be argued, is the "national sport" of the United States. When people talk about the US, and what might be construed as its "culture," the phrases "baseball" and "Mom's apple pie" come out.

I don't know about y'all, but my mom didn't really make apple pie all that much. In fact, I think I could probably count on one hand all the times Mom cooked an apple pie. (Maybe an apple crisp every once in a while, but not pie.)

So.

Jenn and I went to a baseball game at PGE Park last weekend. We watched the Portland Beavers play the Las Vegas 51s. The original reason for the trip was that Jenn's niece, Aurora, and her tee-ball team, were all going to go out on the field.

We got to the stadium like 20 minutes before the game started. We sat down in these tiny, tiny seats where I had to straddle the seat in front of me, knees knocking the shoulders of the hairy biker guy in front of me (who wasn't too happy about that). I can't say I was happy to have my feet floating in a puddle of spilt beer from three rows back, either, but what are you going to do?

Just before the national anthem, a cloud of identical-looking children in numbered t-shirts ran out on the field. They distributed themselves at each of the four bases and the national anthem was sung. After that, the kids all ran back off the field.

That was it. That was the whole reason we showed up. They stood on the field for the national anthem.

I was prepared to watch some miniature baseball. At the Winter Hawks games, when the kids come out on the ice, they actually play hockey. That's cute. Not here, though. No playing, just standing around. I couldn't even tell which of the tee-ballers was Jenn's niece.

Thus commenced the game.

Now, I am not a baseball fan. I'm in love with the concept of baseball, the romantic notions it conjures up, but I hate the game itself. It's slow. It's boring. Nothing happens. Who struck who out? Does it matter? Why should I care?

We stayed for an hour and a half and got halfway through the game before I couldn't take it anymore and we left. I think I can safely pass on heading in there again and I won't feel like I missed anything.

I hear that there's a lot of strategy to baseball. Who pitches, and what kind of pitch... who bats... when the people run from base to base... The thing is, I don't have time for that. Nor do I care. It's like watching a slow character-development-based movie where they haven't taken the time to show you why you should care about the characters.

When I think "baseball," I think: hot dogs, hanging out with friends, relaxing, having a good time. When I actually see baseball, I think: boring. There's not enough going on out in the field. Admittedly, it's got some of the simplest rules of any sport out there, but it's boring as hell. On par with curling or shuffleboard. That said, I'm not a football fan, either - the rules, in my opinion, are far too complex for what it is.

I think that's why I'm a hockey fan. There's a lot going on, and the rules are simple. That's the best of all worlds. Maybe I should have been born Canadian. Baseball has to be the dumbest national sport EVER.

It never bodes well when you go up to the next floor and an aroma somewhere between popcorn and Trix comes wafting from the break room and descends upon your very soul. It is times like these when you know that making a hasty retreat is a moral imperative, regardless of your reason for venturing beyond your own veal pen.

Friday, and paid time-off, rapidly approaches. I'm taking Friday and Monday off to attempt some rest and relaxation of sorts, although I will be spending some of that time with extended family in Seattle so who knows what brands of hell might break loose while that's going on. It's always a good time visiting them, though, so I do look forward to it. I'm hoping my cousin Adam will bust out some of his increasingly-famous lewd dance maneuvers. That always livens the party up some, much to the chagrin of his mother.

I finally got a drywall contractor to come in and give me a bid on my bathroom job, which I promptly accepted since he was the only one I could actually get to show up, albeit 45 minutes late. Now I just need the job started.

I also took my car because the "check engine" light came on a couple days ago and got that back with no significant issues. They had to do some sort of reprogramming with the onboard computer... something to do with the idle timing. Whatever. It fell under warranty and, as always, the service was excellent, so I'm not sweating it.

Thus, I am regaining composure, slowly yet surely closing on issues, and looking forward to a long weekend. (I had to take some vacation soon anyway because I was rapidly approaching the "use-it-or-lose-it" point. Regardless of the reason, vacation is vacation, which is to say, "not being at work," so it must be a Good Thing. Right?)

I have finally been deemed popular enough to receive stupid blog comment spam. I've gotten probably five or six in the last week. I turned up the amount of time required between comment posts, so at least I don't get totally hammered, but other than that, I'm hosed unless someone's got a pMachine Free plugin that uses captcha images... or I enable registration for commenting, which wouldn't be too bad, seeing as how no legitimate readers ever comment on stuff around here anyway. Heh.

Saw this posted over at Slashdot and figured it was interesting enough to comment on: The musical preferences of IT-related personnel.

I am a Microsoft-certified professional developer and database administrator. According to the survey, then, I should be listening to mainstream pop music, heavy metal, and indie rock. Hmmm. While I do listen to some mainstream pop, I'm not a big heavy metal fan. I dig the indie rock, but if I had to choose, I'd say I'm more a techno/electronica listener than anything else, which, according to the survey, makes me a Linux user.

I guess that just goes to show that I don't quite fit the stereotype.

I also find it odd that they didn't list "Mac user" as one of the categories. Maybe they don't consider Macintosh users as IT-related people. Interesting.

We beer-battered some shrimp last night (I'm not really a beer drinker, so it's good to find something to do with the leftover beer from our housewarming party), and it was pretty tasty.

I got to thinking it might be a faster/better idea if we just had a huge vat of oil for the frying, then battered all the shrimp and just dumped them in at the same time. Jenn said that would make them all stick together and come out in a big ball. Then it hit me: shrimp cones.

Get all the beer-battered shrimp to come out in a huge shrimp ball. Then make cones out of hush-puppy and throw the ball on top. Voila! Shrimp cones. Top with cocktail sauce and serve.

The next-door neighbor's sprinkler system either needs some serious adjusting or he has a broken pipe because every time his sprinkler runs he floods out like a quarter of my back yard. I'm talking standing water an inch or two deep style, here.

Of course, the guy's never home so he doesn't notice.

I went over there this weekend to mention it to him but, as usual, he wasn't home. I left a note and decided to hope for the best.

Later that day he must have come home because he left a note for us on our door. He confirmed that he's not home too much, but he said he'd get it fixed in a couple of days.

So, now I wait. I'm glad it was reasonably amicable and I'm hoping to keep it that way. I'll give him a week and see if it hasn't been fixed by then. In the meantime, maybe I should get some swamp grass to plant along the fence line.

Checked out I, Robot on Sunday afternoon, and it made for a pleasant time.

I, Robot is the new sci-fi action movie starring Will Smith, destined to be one of those summertime blockbusters that everyone ends up buying when the DVD comes out. Maybe.

See, it's loosely based on the Isaac Asimov book of the same name. I thought I had read this a long time ago, but I apparently either don't remember it or it wasn't the same story. Either way, here's the deal:

Will Smith is a technophobe living in a world where robots do everything. Everyone has a personal robot assistant, and these robots are the most helpful thing ever. On the eve of the largest robot release ever, the doctor who invented most of this technology gets thrown from a window and dies. But who did it?

Over the course of the movie, Smith (and Bridget Moynahan, who plays another robot-creating doctor) investigate the case and uncover a sinister plot to take over the world.

Now, you probably watched the previews. You probably saw the same thing I did - Will Smith kicking ass on a bunch of robots. You probably saw a lot of gunplay and fighting and car chases and all the things that make a light, fun action film.

Both you and I watched previews for a movie that really doesn't exist.

See, I, Robot plays a lot more to the philosophic side of things. Can robots evolve? Can they feel emotions? Are they sentient beings, capable of free will? All of these things get looked at over the course of the murder investigation. Interesting? Sure. Reflective? Maybe. Is this the movie I came to see? No.

If I had wanted to see a Will Smith remake of Blade Runner, that'd be one thing. I saw the previews, though, and I expected some serious action. I wanted smart one-liners and things getting blown up. I wanted car chases and acrobatics. I wanted a special effects extravaganza with a nuclear climax. What I got was a sci-fi murder mystery with a side of philosophy.

That's not to say this is a bad movie - far from it. I enjoyed the film. I don't feel like I lost out on my $6. That said, it's not the movie I went in to see. I expected one thing and got something else. I feel a slight bit disappointed, like the victim of a bait-and-switch scheme. Again, not that I got a lesser product, I just got a different product. It wasn't what I expected.

If it's not an action movie, don't pimp it like it's an action movie. Throw some more of the murder investigation in the previews. Give me something that makes me realize there's more than just action here. I realize the action fills the seats, but you'll get more positive word of mouth if you accurately represent the product. (Don't even get me started on those movies with previews that show scenes that aren't in the film.)

I, Robot is good. Go see it. It's worth a matinee price in the theater, or at the very least a rental. I might have to think about it for the full price... I'd consider it, but it might end up a coin toss. Definitely worth checking out, just don't go in looking for an all-out action film.

Well, I've got Windows up, I've got Office installed (and updating), I've got my antivirus software in place, and everything seems to be generally functioning. A few more apps, a little more customization, and I'm back in business.

If anything, this has taught me something: I'm going to store my user data on a different partition (or physical disk - even better!) than the OS. If it goes tits up on me again, at least I won't lose my data.

I ran into this ridiculous chicken-and-egg scenario while trying to repair my Windows installation.

See, the problem I was having was that the DVD-ROM drives (plural - two different drives) would not read any media. I decided, after jumping through a bunch of hoops, that it was time to run the Windows repair. (I could do system restore until I'm blue in the face; I don't know when the problem started, so I don't know how far back I should go, or even if I still have a good restore point. Bah.)

Now, here's the real killer on the Windows repair: If the problem you're having is with some sort of registry entry or driver thing, it doesn't fix it. That is, it doesn't undo registry entries for you or repair files it didn't put there in the first place. Normally I'd say that's fine, but the problem seems to be that some driver(s) that some other program put in there are not communicating nicely with the Windows drivers. That means the registry needs to have entries related to the bad driver(s) removed.

It doesn't do that.

Instead, it goes about making you think you can repair the install, and when it finally reboots it comes back and says "The file asms on Windows XP Professional CD-ROM is needed."

That translates to: "I can't talk to your CD-ROM."

The Microsoft article on this says that in order to fix it (basically) you either have to edit the registry or you need to install Windows on a different partition, boot from that, and get your data off the disk.

I have issue with this. I can't edit the registry because it won't let me get to a spot in the installation where it allows for that. It boots up, goes straight to setup - do not stop at GO, do not collect $200 - and pops up the error. Safe mode doesn't work - it thinks it's in setup. Command prompt doesn't work - it thinks it's in setup. Recovery console doesn't work - you can't edit the registry from there. I don't have any other partitions to install Windows to, so that's out.

Basically, I'm screwed.

So I reformatted using the built-in IBM restore function that puts all of the hardware back to factory settings.

Except that they forgot to put in the Intel INF stuff and it gets confused when it loads up and sees all the devices I have (God forbid it just detect and install them all) so it pretty much hosed stuff right from the get-go.

I tried installing a clean version of Windows except I think the version I got from the IBM factory was a volume license version - the sticker on the side of the machine (with the license and serial number and all that) has a Windows XP Pro key... but my Windows XP Pro disc tells me it's not valid (which is bullshit, otherwise why did I pay for it?).

So I've unplugged all of the unnecessary devices (didn't remove internal stuff) and I'm back to trying the IBM restore route. I'm in the process of downloading all of the drivers they forgot so I can burn them to a disc on my work laptop and get them over to my home machine.

Assuming the DVD drives finally decide to work, that is.

This is exactly what I wanted to be doing this weekend. Reinstalling Windows. Because I don't get enough of this sort of tedium elsewhere in my life.

I don't get on the computer at home too often. If I have to work from home (or do some quick development), I usually fire up my work laptop and do what needs to be done. I primarily use my home computer as a word processor, data storage, and sometimes gaming machine.

Fired up the ol' home PC today so I could watch some videos on this CD-ROM I got bundled with a toy I bought. (The videos show different things the toy can do.)

My DVD drives don't work. Neither of them. You put the CD in and it registers that it's a CD in the drive but it thinks the disc is blank.

Shit.

I have since uninstalled any software I have that might do freaky stuff to the drive - anything Roxio, iTunes, etc. - and that didn't fix it. My next step is to run a repair on Windows.

Of course, to run a repair on Windows you need a Windows CD, which my computer didn't come with. Luckily I have an MSDN subscription through work so I can get the ISO for a Windows disc... but I can't burn the damn thing because my drives aren't working.

Now I'm on the work laptop, getting the ISO so I can burn it, and then I'll see if it's a Windows driver issue or a hardware issue (I'll try to boot off the disc and see how it goes).

You know what would be cool? If I wasn't the only one in my household - let alone my family - who knew how to fix this stuff. It would be nice to be able to rely on someone else to help me out rather than always being the place where the buck stops.

I'm a high-stress individual. I stress out about everything. Little stuff, big stuff, stuff I have no control over, stuff I have control over, my stuff, your stuff, his stuff, her stuff... I stress about everything.

I don't know if this is a function of my ultra-type-A personality, my distinct need for a vacation, or what, but it is certainly the case.

As usual, things are just not letting up for me.

I just bought this house I'm living in - my first house - and I'm still coming to terms with the additional financial burden it places on me as well as the general issues of home ownership. (Note to you "condo" people out there - this has nothing to do with the yard work and everything to do with the things that anyone deals with when not renting: taxes, mortgages, indoor maintenance, home improvement, etc.) It's taking some time to adjust.

With that goes this bathroom situation. For the life of me, I can't get a drywall contractor to call me back or be available. The ones who call back are booked for the next two months; the ones who aren't booked are unreliable. Having no closure on this thing is killing me. I can do minor handiwork around the place, but when it comes to something larger like retexturing a wall, I'm not quite ready for it. So the bathroom sits in this near-unusable state of limbo, waiting for completion. I need it finished.

At work, I'm getting a crash course in being a manager. Over the course of the last week I've gotten two contractors in that generally report to me (technically they report to the project manager, but I'm the one assigning tasks and following up on them). I've never really had to deal with that aspect of development, and making sure they have enough to do, answer their questions, keep track of the project, and develop on the project (all the while interviewing other contractors for additional positions) is not something I was prepared for. I guess we all evolve to that point eventually, I just wasn't prepared, you know?

Not only that, but I'm coming on a time where I have a career decision to make. I've pretty much topped out where I can go in the IT organization so I have to decide: Do I stay where I'm at and enjoy the various perks that go with being in IT (among those being a nice big cube - like double the size of other cubes, a good boss who's also a great friend, and a reasonable amount of autonomy on projects) or do I do a somewhat-lateral shift over into the product development group where there will be more of a chance to grow (both professionally and financially)? I'm thinking I'll be making the move, but pondering on that is a stressful thing, like getting a whole new job.

This morning on the way to work my "check engine" light came on. This happened a back in May, too (though in the server move I lost that blog entry). The first time, it was the oxygen sensor. Who knows what it is this time? They can't get my car in until Tuesday, which, it being Friday now, is three days of waiting and "driving moderately" until I can get there. The dealer, of course, is on the other side of town (which means possibly two hours away, maybe more, in the morning), so I get to look forward to that come Tuesday. Not to mention the last time it was in, a whole bunch of other service (new brakes, etc.) had to be done, too, so it was an unexpected bill of several hundred dollars - right after moving into the new house. I can only anticipate what it's going to be this time.

I won't even get into the other moderate financial speedbumps (usually in the form of unexpected bills - things like having to purchase a washer and dryer when we moved in because we didn't think about the fact we didn't own those appliances) we've run into as of late. When it rains, it certainly pours.

So here I am, getting ready to phone screen another job applicant (which stresses me out because not only do I hate the phone, I hate talking to people I don't know over the phone). That's where it sits.

I suppose I had better get on with stressing about how to avoid cardiac arrest by this time next year.

...I do realize I am not currently practicing what I preach. I need to redesign my site, and when I do, it will be a fluid layout.

I'm working on a project at work where we use a combination of ASP.NET user controls, CSS, images, and JavaScript to offer a "theme" sort of effect. Change the set of user controls, etc., and magically the site takes on a new look.

As a demonstration, I implemented two different "themes" for the site - one being a "fluid" layout (sizes and positions of objects on the screen being relative to the browser window width) and the other a "fixed" layout (everything absolutely positioned and sized).

I am a big proponent of the "fluid" layout, particularly in corporate sites. I feel that there are too many sites out there that absolutely size everything, and while it may look like a nice print-based brochure, I feel that having half of my screen left in white space because the site designer fixed everything at 800 pixels wide and I'm running my monitor at 1600x1200 is a little less than optimal. Not to mention the accessibility issues surrounding absolute font sizes.

I got asked a question this morning and I couldn't handle it any more. "On the 'fluid' themes, will we ever be able to avoid [text] wrapping? For example, on [the fluid theme we implemented, if you] change to largest fonts, make your browser about the size of an 8x6 screen and it wraps out the wazzoo. It will be hard to say 'that is how it is'..."

My (slightly edited) response:

In a fluid theme you will never avoid text wrapping. NEVER. I realize this is a difficult thing to accept and it's why many places don't implement it. That said, text wrapping is a natural occurrence that should happen.

Look at some examples in your everyday life that you don't think twice about… and might consider it crazy if text wrapping didn't occur:

• Outlook
• Amazon.com
• Word

Using a fluid layout is a paradigm shift. People need to stop thinking in terms of "do all these things line up pixel by pixel" or "how much exact control can I exert over my web site to make every single experience 100% identical" and move into the idea that people with different monitor resolutions, font size settings (which may override ours, whether we like it or not – check out the "Accessibility" button on the "General" tab on the Internet Explorer "Internet Options" menu… Tools -> Internet Options), and other needs will have to be accommodated. What happens when a blind person comes in with a screen reader? Are they going to care that some error message might wrap to the next line? What about browser compatibility? We already know different browsers render things differently... do you really want to fight and tweak with every single browser out there to make sure text doesn't wrap?

The solution is not to fight against it but to design for it. Embrace it, assume it will happen, and accommodate for that.

I realize in the fluid theme we've made some strides towards that, but as you're also noticing, we're finding some shortcomings with it that we failed to design for. I don't have all the answers here. Maybe we need to step back and take some actual time to redesign it. Maybe we need to step back and look at the whole way the site works in relation to themes and invest time in making that more robust. We probably need a graphic designer who knows how to work with the web, and we need them to create a more robust "fluid" layout.

I can't stress enough that the focus should not be on how to avoid text wrapping but how to design to it. Maybe error messages should all show up in validation summaries at the top of the page rather than in text next to the field with the error (and then just display a little error icon next to the problem field). Maybe they show up on the next line (or on the line above the field) rather than next to the field where wrapping is disturbing.

Side note: Consider this: when you say "I don't want the page to be less than X pixels wide" you're once again working in pixels. If any measurement you mention has the word "pixels," "points," or "picas," or any unit other than a relative percentage based on the browser size, you're back working in "print mode." Print mode is fine when you're talking about how you want a given page to print out when the user clicks the "print" button. It's much less okay if you're trying to work in a fluid mode. Instead, try something like: "I want a three column layout with a header and footer. I want the header to have the site logo and some navigation. The logo appears above the navigation tabs. The font size in the main navigation tabs should be 'x-small' and the sub navigation tabs should be size 'xx-small.' Column 1 should be 15% of the browser window width, Column 2 should be 65%, and Column 3 should be the remaining 20%. The text in each column should be size 'small.' The footer text should be 'xx-small.'" Right there, I just defined a complete site layout using relative positioning ("above" or "below," in relation to headers and footers) and relative sizing (percentages or relative font sizes). Never once did I provide a hard measurement for any of the items that would appear on the screen.

I realize that's not a simple task. It is giving up a lot of control over the page layout. The user is the person who reaps the benefits of our forethought, though, and isn't the user the ultimate, end customer we need to please?

We can go around and around with this all day for the rest of our lives. It's one of the never-ending battles - Google for "fluid layout" and you'll find everything from discussion groups to usability studies - between web designers. The long and the short of it is, you can't have your cake and eat it, too. There are benefits and drawbacks to both fluid and fixed layouts, and based on the layout type you choose, you need to design to it and embrace it for what it is.

Here's an interesting tidbit for you. We are currently trying to do some work via the search web service in SharePoint Portal Server 2003. (You may have seen my test app that I wrote for checking out searches and results via that web service.)

Seems there's an internal debate at Microsoft over which team should be handling our support call - the SQL Server team or the SharePoint team. See, we're having trouble getting metadata returned correctly when executing full text searches. At first we thought it was an iFilter problem or maybe something weird with our setup...

Turns out SQL Server handles full text queries differently based on the platform it's installed on - Windows 2000 server vs. Windows 2003 server. I didn't get any details on exactly what the differences are (I'm only peripheral on the case; another developer here is actually talking directly to the support folks), but that's the situation.

One would think that it shouldn't matter what platform the product is installed on, it should consistently handle queries the same. Maybe different optimization or something, but the actual syntax possibly being different? It boggles the mind.

I'm working on some ideas to enhance Solvent and I've realized that one of the things I want to do will require some low-level shell programming.

I hate low level shit.

Looking at MSDN, it seems that the only real way to do it is to use C++ (because of the ridiculous amount of weird pointer stuff that's happening).

I tried pInvoking my way to freedom and leisure. There's only one problem with that: When there are marshaling issues, I'm not a COM person... I don't know how to fix them. I live in a higher-level programming world: garbage collection and high-level data structures and no fussing with memory allocation issues. It's been like seven years since I've dealt with anything C or C++ related.

Try as I might, though, I can't get myself quite DllImported into the Windows Shell.

As such, this weekend I went out and bought Visual C++ .NET - Step By Step. I'm only on like the second chapter (no time!) but I've skimmed through the rest.

Lots has changed since I last worked with this stuff. ATL? Funky reserved words (__gc, __value, etc.)? Maybe that's standard stuff that has always been around, but then, I learned C++ in Solaris on SPARC workstations, which means I read a little about MFC but never had opportunity to use any of it.

(By now, all of you VC++ people out there are shaking your heads. Gimme a break; I'm [re]learning!)

It'll be good to come up to speed on it; if anything, an interesting exercise in crash-course style learning. Who knows... I might even read the whole thing instead of just enough to get my project done. Heh.

Just looked at my stats. The number two search phrase that leads people to my site is:

you don t have to be rich to be my girl

What in the...?!

I'm working on this project, you know, at work, and it turns out it's a little larger than we first anticipated so we're getting some contractors on it.

I'm interviewing these contractors, and I'm finding that lots of people look great on paper but don't live up to the hype when you talk to them.

We're looking for ASP.NET developers, specifically. I've talked to five developers with excellent looking resumes so far, and only two are remotely close to anything I'd consider an ASP.NET developer. It's bad to the point where you wonder if the people who put down "proficiency in ASP.NET" have actually been online before in their lives.

One of the first questions I ask a candidate is what the events are (and in what order) for an ASP.NET web form (System.Web.UI.Page) when it executes. For those who actually aren't ASP.NET developers, this is like asking a college English professor to give you the alphabet. If you don't know it, or can't at least get the main ones, it sort of debunks you as being anything you claim to be.

It turns out that this is a tough question for the people we've so far interviewed.

For those going to interviews, let me help you out: When you don't know the answer to a question, say so. You might take the opportunity to think out loud and talk with the interviewer to see if you're on the right track, but make sure they understand you're not trying to put up a smoke screen. Do not change the subject and start talking about jobs you've had in the past that are entirely unrelated to the job you're interviewing for. Do not hem and haw about and then give up with the statement "I know I could do a good job for you." Just be straight and do your best. Unless you're interviewing for a sales job, chances are the interviewer(s) will know if you're lying.

Furthermore, if you've used a technology (or application or tool or whatever) only once or twice, don't list it on your resume. Just because you've ridden in a car doesn't mean you know how to drive one. Save us both some time. Oh, and if you tell me you know how to program and that you rely on copying and pasting example code then tweaking it... just get up and walk out. You're not going to get the job.

Finally, don't oversell yourself. I understand that people in interviews get nervous and some people react to nervousness by talking... curb your yammering skullcave and let the interviewers ask you questions. If you have a question, ask it. If you're asked a question, answer it. Don't go off on some diatribe about the 47 other jobs you've had and every project you've ever worked on. Answer the question, provide reasonable detail, and move on.

Save me time. I value my time. You're wasting it. Just... just don't.

Every year (at least for the past couple of years now), Jenn and I work with Greg and the crew at Western Display Fireworks to help put on a show for the Fourth of July. (One more show, and both Jenn and I will be licensed pyrotechnicians. Next year!)

This year, the show was in Clatskanie, OR, about two hours out from our house, way out in the sticks.

We're talking small town here.

We got to Clatskanie a little before noon on the Fourth to help set up. The show wasn't scheduled until 10:00p or so, but it takes a while to get things set up, so better to get there early and get it done than scramble at the last minute.

Unfortunately, we got there right when the Independence Day parade was starting. That means they had the main street through town pretty much blocked off so we couldn't get down it to where we needed to set up. We decided to hang and watch the parade (nothing else to do anyway, right?).

The parade consisted of three log trucks, a dump truck with the local girls' softball team in the back, four or five tractors, some kids on four wheelers, a couple of hot rod cars, and five tow trucks from the neighboring town.

Like I said, we're talking small town here.

The parade lasted about 15 minutes and then we went down to where the fireworks were going to be shot from. This ended up being a field around 75 yards give or take from the local waste water treatment plant.

I think you see the bad moon a-rising, just like I did on this.

The result of being right near an open vat of shit is that any time the wind kicks up, it stinks. Like shit. Bad. Really bad.

We got our lawn chairs out, set up "camp" in the pseudo-shade of a tree, and got to work.

The fireworks we shot were 250 or so four-inch shells and 50 or so five-inch shells. That meant we had about 300 mortar tubes we needed to bury. We were fortunate that the city had brought in a backhoe so we didn't have to dig the trench ourselves. We did, however, have to set the tubes in the trench and backfill around them. Here's a picture of the tubes alongside the trench.



As we got working on that, Jenn grabbed my attention and pulled me aside.

Jenn: Trav... look in the dirt.
Trav: What? [fully expecting to see lumps of crap]
J: Are you looking in the dirt?
T: I don't see anything. Rocks.
J: Look at the rocks. Close.
T: Is that...?
J: Yes. There are plastic tampon applicator tubes all over in there.

Now, hold on a sec. I had leather gloves, not a fucking hazmat suit. I gotta dig around in that? Yeaaaah.

We ended up getting the mortars all set up and aimed, though. There were like 10 of us there, so it went quicker than you'd think, but it was still a three-plus hour job. Here are the mortars - buried, loaded, and ready to go.



Once we got that set up, we headed into town to get some food. The idea was to eat vendor food at the fair going on in the park.

We got to the fair and it was about one short city block long. Vendors lined the "aisle" selling a bunch of stuff I didn't need. There were seven food vendors. Four of them sold only elephant ears. The rest sold cotton candy, Thai food, and curly fries, respectively.

We turned around and went to one of the restaurants in town, Hump's. I'd say it was because of a camel theme (because there were camel-related things in there) except for the giant plastic bull near the front counter. Not sure what to make of that.

We finished eating and went back to the fireworks area to find that everyone had moved their chairs away from the place we were sitting. Jenn and I were alone.

I asked why everyone moved. I got the response that it was "misting."

The day was clear. Few, if any, clouds in the sky. "Misting?"

Hmmm... that could only mean... NO...

"You mean the vat of shit up there was causing mist to fall over here? And you didn't move my stuff?"

"Heh. Yup."

Assholes.

10:00 rolled around before we knew it. We got dressed up in our fire gear (no flammable clothes, baby) and got ready to roll. Jenn was set to light five four-inch shells (all tied together) right at the beginning, then I was set to light five five-inch shells (all tied together), then Greg and another guy would do the rest of the lighting while we watched for fires.

Jenn got the fusee (which is basically a road flare) and lit her fuse, then handed the fusee to me.

Let me explain "quick match" to you. Basically, quick match is a gunpowder coated string encased in a paper tube. Exposed (outside the tube) it burns kinda slow. Slow enough to watch it burn, at least. Once the flame reaches the paper tube, though, it burns at 60 feet per second. That's damn fast - until you see it, it's hard to explain how fast. Just imagine it's instantaneous, because for all intents and purposes at the sub-foot length, it is.

She was supposed to get back once she lit it, but sort of watched the exposed end of the quick match burn until it burned back to the paper, at which point all five four-inch shells lit off and the concussion hit her.

This is a scary, scary thing, folks. It's like a stick of dynamite going off in a hole in the ground right in front of you. It's loud and firey and generally something that, if you're not prepared for it, is freaky like nothing else.

Jenn scrambled backward to get away from the fireworks while I lit off mine. I handed the fusee to Greg, but, just like Jenn, I wasn't quite prepared for the blast. Five five-inch shells is noticeably larger than five four-inch shells. It's not something I can even really quantify, just suffice to say it's like everything you imagine a war zone being.

I backed off, tripped over Jenn (who banged up her knee), and we both kept backing up until we were at a safe distance while Greg and Brad finished the show. Jenn and I did our job watching for fires (and watching the show) for the rest of the time.

After the show, we went around and made sure there were no live rounds left hanging out for little kids to come up and grab, picked up the garbage, and pulled the mortars out of the ground. We left after that and, after the long drive home, finally crawled in bed around 2:00a.

An exhausting day, to be sure, but there's something about it that, once you've done it, you can't not do it again. It's all of the scariness and loud bang and fire of war with the safety of proper setup and equipment (and the knowledge that no one is actually shooting back at you). You smell the gunpowder smoke, you feel the impact, and you're hooked.

We'll definitely be back next year. Hopefully it won't be at the sewage treatment plant.

In creating various web apps, I use Peter Blum's Professional Validation and More controls for page validation and error display. If you don't, you really should. They're much more flexible and robust than the Microsoft validation controls are.

One problem I ran into was in using the ValidationSummary control. I'm generating a huge form using all sorts of validation, and I want the ValidationSummary to display the list of errors on the form as they happen. The issue is, the ValidationSummary only displays when the user tries to submit the form - even if it's a client-side validation, you only see it when the user clicks the submit button.

I wanted my ValidationSummary to display real-time, rather than waiting for the user to click the submit button. Here's a little method you can use on your controls to make the page execute validation on a control event. Just pass in your control and the name of the event ("onclick," "onchange," etc.) and this will handle the rest.

/// <summary>
/// Adds a call to the VAM page validation to a specified control's event.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="control">The control that should call validation.</param>
/// <param name="eventName">The event that should fire validation (onClick, onChange, etc.)</param>
protected void AddPageValidationEvent(WebControl control, string eventName){
     string scriptKey = control.ClientID + "_" + eventName + "_VAMValidate";
     if(!Page.IsStartupScriptRegistered(scriptKey)){
          string scriptBase =
               "<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">\n" +
               "<!-- \n" +
               "VAM_AttachEvent(VAM_GetById("{0}"), "{1}", "{2}");\n" +
               "-->\n" +
               "</script>";
          string eventAction = "VAM_ValidateGroup('', true);";
          string completeScript = String.Format(scriptBase, control.ClientID, eventName, eventAction);
          Page.RegisterStartupScript(scriptKey, completeScript);
     }
}

Not sure I agree with the list of best movies... but here's a little bit of fun I saw over at Tanya's and thought I'd participate.

IMDB's Top 100 Best Movies of All Time generate this HTML for your own page at ObeytheFist.com
Rank Movie Didn't See It/ Started It/ Finished It/ Hated It! 1 Godfather, The (1972) Finished It 2 Shawshank Redemption, The (1994) Finished It 3 Godfather: Part II, The (1974) Finished It 4 Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003) Finished It 5 Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (2002) Finished It 6 Casablanca (1942) 7 Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001) Finished It 8 Schindler's List (1993) Finished It 9 Shichinin no samurai (1954) 10 Star Wars (1977) Finished It 11 Citizen Kane (1941) 12 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) Finished It 13 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) 14 Rear Window (1954) Finished It 15 Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) Finished It 16 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Finished It 17 Memento (2000) Finished It 18 Usual Suspects, The (1995) Finished It 19 Pulp Fiction (1994) Finished It 20 North by Northwest (1959) 21 12 Angry Men (1957) 22 Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le (2001) Finished It 23 Psycho (1960) Finished It 24 Lawrence of Arabia (1962) 25 Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966) Finished It 26 Silence of the Lambs, The (1991) Finished It 27 It's a Wonderful Life (1946) Finished It 28 Goodfellas (1990) Finished It 29 American Beauty (1999) Finished It 30 Vertigo (1958) Finished It 31 Sunset Blvd. (1950) 32 Matrix, The (1999) Finished It 33 Apocalypse Now (1979) Finished It 34 Pianist, The (2002) 35 To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) Finished It 36 C'era una volta il West (1968) 37 Some Like It Hot (1959) 38 Third Man, The (1949) 39 Taxi Driver (1976) Finished It 40 Paths of Glory (1957) 41 Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001) 42 Fight Club (1999) Finished It 43 Boot, Das (1981) Finished It 44 Double Indemnity (1944) 45 L.A. Confidential (1997) Finished It 46 Chinatown (1974) 47 Singin' in the Rain (1952) Finished It 48 Maltese Falcon, The (1941) 49 M (1931) 50 Requiem for a Dream (2000) Finished It 51 Bridge on the River Kwai, The (1957) 52 All About Eve (1950) 53 Se7en (1995) Finished It 54 Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) Finished It 55 Saving Private Ryan (1998) Finished It 56 Cidade de Deus (2002) 57 Raging Bull (1980) 58 Rashômon (1950) 59 Wizard of Oz, The (1939) Finished It 60 Sting, The (1973) Finished It 61 Alien (1979) Finished It 62 American History X (1998) 63 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) 64 Léon (1994) Finished It 65 Vita è bella, La (1997) 66 Touch of Evil (1958) 67 Manchurian Candidate, The (1962) 68 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Started It 69 Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948) 70 Great Escape, The (1963) Finished It 71 Wo hu cang long (2000) Hated It! 72 Reservoir Dogs (1992) Finished It 73 Clockwork Orange, A (1971) Finished It 74 Amadeus (1984) Finished It 75 Modern Times (1936) 76 Ran (1985) 77 Annie Hall (1977) 78 Jaws (1975) Finished It 79 On the Waterfront (1954) 80 Braveheart (1995) Finished It 81 High Noon (1952) 82 Apartment, The (1960) 83 Fargo (1996) Hated It! 84 Sixth Sense, The (1999) Finished It 85 Aliens (1986) Finished It 86 Shining, The (1980) Finished It 87 Strangers on a Train (1951) 88 Blade Runner (1982) Finished It 89 Metropolis (1927) Started It 90 Duck Soup (1933) 91 Finding Nemo (2003) Finished It 92 Donnie Darko (2001) 93 General, The (1927) 94 City Lights (1931) 95 Princess Bride, The (1987) Finished It 96 Toy Story 2 (1999) Finished It 97 Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) Finished It 98 Great Dictator, The (1940) 99 Sjunde inseglet, Det (1957) 100 Lola rennt (1998) Finished It
Which movies have you seen?

IMDB's Top 100 Crappy Movies of All Time generate this HTML for your own page at ObeytheFist.com
Rank Movie Didn't See It/ Started It/ Finished It/ Liked It! 1 Manos' the Hands of Fate (1966) 2 From Justin to Kelly (2003) Finished It 3 Future War (1997) 4 Space Mutiny (1988) 5 Troll 2 (1990) 6 Eegah (1962) 7 Hobgoblins (1987) 8 Backyard Dogs (2000) 9 Santa with Muscles (1996) 10 Gigli (2003) 11 Going Overboard (1989) 12 Werewolf (1996) 13 Uomo puma, L' (1980) 14 Giant Spider Invasion, The (1975) 15 Glitter (2001) 16 Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie (1997) 17 Police Academy: Mission to Moscow (1994) 18 Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964) 19 Kazaam (1996) 20 Leonard Part 6 (1987) Finished It 21 Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 (2000) Finished It 22 Hercules in New York (1970) 23 Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (1996) 24 Baby Geniuses (1999) 25 It's Pat (1994) 26 2001: A Space Travesty (2000) 27 Jaws: The Revenge (1987) 28 Cool as Ice (1991) 29 Bolero (1984) 30 Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The (1994) 31 Mitchell (1975) 32 House of the Dead (2003) 33 Police Academy 6: City Under Siege (1989) 34 Teen Wolf Too (1987) Finished It 35 Smokey and the Bandit III (1983) 36 Vercingétorix (2001) 37 Captain America (1991) 38 Steel (1997) 39 Police Academy 5: Assignment: Miami Beach (1988) 40 Cat in the Hat, The (2003) 41 Mannequin: On the Move (1991) 42 Rollerball (2002) 43 Ringmaster (1998) 44 Tarzan, the Ape Man (1981) 45 Master of Disguise, The (2002) Finished It 46 Problem Child 2 (1991) 47 Spice World (1997) Finished It 48 Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995) 49 Mr. Nanny (1993) 50 Cop & 1/2 (1993) 51 Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997) Finished It 52 Honey (2003) 53 Street Fighter (1994) 54 Jaws 3-D (1983) 55 Double Dragon (1994) 56 Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992) 57 Crossroads (2002) 58 Barb Wire (1996) 59 Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn, An (1997) 60 Bats (1999/I) 61 FeardotCom (2002) 62 Universal Soldier: The Return (1999) 63 RoboCop 3 (1993) 64 Mangler, The (1995) 65 Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) Finished It 66 Iron Eagle II (1988) 67 Best Defense (1984) 68 Mac and Me (1988) 69 Ticker (2001) 70 Grease 2 (1982) 71 Mr. Magoo (1997) 72 Glen or Glenda (1953) 73 Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997) Finished It 74 Mr. Wrong (1996) 75 Pokémon the First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back (1999) 76 Highlander II: The Quickening (1991) 77 Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol (1987) 78 Avengers, The (1998) Finished It 79 Jury Duty (1995) 80 Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) 81 Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd (2003) 82 Derailed (2002) 83 Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) 84 Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985) 85 Freddy Got Fingered (2001) 86 Caddyshack II (1988) 87 Weekend at Bernie's II (1993) 88 Omega Code, The (1999) 89 Super Mario Bros. (1993) 90 Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002) Started It 91 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978) 92 Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989) 93 Endless Love (1981) 94 McHale's Navy (1997) 95 Nothing But Trouble (1991) 96 On Deadly Ground (1994) Finished It 97 Kangaroo Jack (2003) 98 Batman & Robin (1997) Finished It 99 Pet Sematary II (1992) 100 Leprechaun (1993)
Which Unfortunate movies have you seen?

I have my car insurance through Progressive, which, all lame TV commercials aside, has meant excellent service and the best prices around. Not to mention their web site is exceptionally comprehensive and simple to use - I can't ask for much more.

My homeowner's insurance company, State Farm, called me up today and wanted to see if they could save me some money on my auto insurance. So I went through the gamut of questions, told them all of my driving history and such, at least according to what Progressive looks at, and gave them my coverage numbers so they could give me an apples-to-apples comparison.

With all of the discounts and such for multi-policy and safe driver and all that, State Farm was still $600/year more expensive than Progressive.

Once again, I sing the praises of Progressive auto insurance. If your policy is coming up, I couldn't recommend more that you check them out. It will be well worth your time.

I was all set for this contractor to show up and give me a bid on fixing the bathroom mess that's started. I had it scheduled for 6:00p tonight, ready to get the bad news and just get the stupid thing fixed.

It's quarter after seven and the guy isn't here.

I understand that rush hour traffic sucks. I understand that I may live on the opposite end of town from you. I do have an expectation, though, that if you're going to commit to show up somewhere, you should show or at least have the common courtesy to call me up and say, "Sorry, buddy, you live in BFE - there's no way I'm driving out there during rush hour for a free estimate."

I called the business back and got the answering machine. (Anyone else think it's weird that the contracting people don't actually identify their business name on the answering machine? I think it's probably one of those home-based businesses where the number is both the home and work number, but that's starting to ring dicey to me.) I left a message asking where he was... but I dunno. I think I'm going to call someone else tomorrow morning. Bah.

And here I was, all ready to get this whole thing fixed. Guess it's going to continue to be un-fixed, which is 100% less fixed than I'm comfortable with.

Why do I let stuff like this bug me? I mean, it really bothers me that the bathroom is in this ragged state of limbo, unfinished but unable to be completed. My blood pressure gets up about it and I can't relax. I know it shouldn't bug me - I should just call someone else and move on with life - but when people commit to me, I set plans based on that commitment and I expect them to follow through with it. That, coupled with my extreme need for closure, makes it really difficult in situations like this. I want the job done. Having it open is like having this huge problem just hanging out there, dangling in the wind. Loose ends. That stuff doesn't sit well with me.

I need to lower my expectations. I know it. I need to just accept the fact that people in general are unreliable and that long term projects like fixing the bathroom paint job do not have to cause my entire system to be in an inconsistent state. It's just hard, you know? Baby steps. Baby steps.

Some people might say that when you start to feel a little lightheaded and hyped from your caffeine intake that you've probably had quite enough. I think that's more of an indicator that you're almost in the zone. More is better.

We get free carbonated beverages here at work. There are fountains on every floor, and they alternate Pepsi/Coke/Pepsi so you can get whatever you want, pretty much. I'm a Pepsi product drinker, but I sit on a Coke floor. Not great, but I can't really complain.

I went down one floor just now to refill my Mountain Dew IV and they're out of carbonated water down there, so it's all syrup. Ugh.

Went up two floors to the next Pepsi dispenser and they're out of syrup, so it's all carbonated water. Someone needs to get these floors together so I can get a damn drink.

Argh! I ended up with Dr. Pepper and called it good. Why does the world hate me?

I mentioned in an earlier post how I'm painting my downstairs half-bathroom. Already it's gone poorly, and I remember exactly why I hate home improvement projects in general and painting specifically - it always turns into a ridiculous menagerie of events-gone-horribly-wrong.

The previous owners of the house put this stupid decal border thing along the top of the wall. It's ugly and totally not us, so while painting, we figured we'd need to remove the decal.

The decal doesn't come off.

We tried all sorts of chemical removers, we tried rubbing it, scrubbing it, picking and poking at it... it's on there, man. The best I could do was put on rubber gloves and run my hands over it; that picked up the high spots and made it less prominent.

We figured we'd just primer over the top of it and call it good. (You people who paint probably know what's coming, here. I'm no Bob Vila, so I sure as hell didn't.)

Primer doesn't cover the motherfucker. It just gets darker, like a stain.

A stain... hmmm...

They make stain-blocking primer, don't they?

I picked up some Kilz 2 stain-blocking primer.

Five or six coats into it (I only did a test spot; I at least wised up about that) I realized the Kilz was not doing the trick.

It was time to talk to the professionals.

I trekked over to the local Home Depot, where they have never done me wrong, and consulted the paint guy. It went down a little like this:

Trav: What's your best stain-blocking primer?
Paint Guy Bob: What are you trying to do?
T: We're painting the bathroom. The last owners left this... uh... decal... and... it's been painted over... and I just want to block it out.
PGB: I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings...
T: [Seeing what's coming] ...no...
PGB: ...but you're going to have to sand it off and retexture the wall.
T: Retexture?
PGB: Retexture.
T: Seriously, you have to be shitting me. There is no way I'm retexturing my bathroom.
PGB: You can paint over it to your heart's content, but you'll never get rid of it unless you sand it off and retexture.
T: Shit... [sigh] Where's the texturing spray?
PGB: Right around the corner, over there.

Un-fucking-believable. I sort of want to hunt down the prior owners of the house and ask them what the hell they were thinking. Next time I get a house, I'm going to require that shit gets removed before I move in.

Went home, texture in hand, and went out in the backyard with some cardboard to adjust the texture spray to at least be something close to what we've got in the bathroom. I'm thinking since we're doing the whole top of the wall, you might see that the texture changes from the bottom of the bathroom to the top, but at least it'll be a uniform change, right?

So I'm out in the backyard, shaking the bottle of texture, and I go in for the first spray. It comes out a little smaller than I had hoped, so I adjust the nozzle to make the texture bigger and the fucker breaks off. Typical.

Went back to Home Depot, where this is apparently typical because the guy didn't even look at the receipt, and got a new bottle of texture. Took it home, got it adjusted, then got out the sanding gear.

Now, I don't have really any "grubby clothes" to do work in, and I figured I was only going to be doing a little sanding, so I stripped down to my underwear, put on my eye goggles and dust mask, and set to work.

Turns out I don't have the right kind of goddamn sandpaper. The only stuff I have is fine finishing paper, and that doesn't fucking work.

That left me standing in the middle of a half-painted half-bath, in my underwear, in eye goggles and dust mask, holding this finishing sander and ready to kill. I could feel my blood pressure rising. At that point, Jenn was all, "Look, go take a shower and make yourself a stiff drink before you have a heart attack. Seriously. I'll vacuum this up and we'll have some pizza."

So I did. But, of course, that means I still have some work to do this weekend.

I hate home improvement. There's a reason we have professional painters who get paid to do this shit.