Uncommon Service

Recently we visited my folks in New Hampshire and were taken out to lunch; we had a great meal at The Common Man in Merrimack, New Hampshire. The food was good, the atmosphere was relaxed (just right for us: a mixture of elderly, middle-aged to young and vigorous party of 6) and let me tell you about the service (particularly when it came time for the dessert)!

 

When they asked if we wanted dessert, I asked what kinds, etc. When they said “strawberry shortcake”, I said “with real strawberries?” They said yes, but that they were in a sweet syrupy soup, so I asked if they could drain the swamp and just give me the strawberries. The waitress actually did just that! And it was delicious. That's what I call service! Thanks, Lauren, you deserve a raise.

Missed Opportunity

In a recent game with my friend John I missed a golden opportunity to put the White King in check with my Black Rook (exposing his Queen to a devastating loss). I won't go into details about what happened afterwards, but I felt the need to confess that I missed this rather obvious way to shorten the game.

Adding a Picture to a Post

I have just added this picture to the post (by clicking on the Add Image icon above the text window on the Posting tab [New Post]). The picture below shows how to accomplish adding the picture above to this post.

I just wanted to share with the world (actually just with the few persons who will be reading this blog) what a wonderful time we had at Clary Lake Bed and Breakfast this weekend. I have stayed in quite a few B and Bs over the years and this is definitely one of the best experiences I have ever had. Relaxing is not an overrated experience!

Woodworking in Maine

Helped Rick Gallion set up his new blog; now I need to figure out how to point to it from here (so I can watch his progress on the shop).

Shut Down Days and Governors

I know I haven't written for a while. I have been busy. Very busy. But it's not like I haven't been listening and watching what has been going on in the world. For example, I learned late last night that Governor Palin has decided to quit her job. And recently I heard on the radio that a Governor had a high-profile disappearing act (in Argentina). And that another Governor has some kind of issue. Great time to be a tabloid owner. Tough time to be an Alaskan, etc. Though maybe they are better off this way (as she suggested in her lawn conference). I couldn't help agreeing with CNN's questioner about the basketball analogy (nor could I help agreeing with just about everyone's analysis that this looks a lot like shooting yourself in the foot). But I digress...

Through the miracle of modern financial incompetence (and the truly pathetic process of the government trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again), I have an extra day off soon (making it four in a row, not an unwelcome nor unlucky number by any means). This has given me time to learn a few more things about CSS, HTML and JavaScript (and the various libraries that are available to make web development easier, or at least more interesting). I still have no clue why I get the 500 Internal Error and why I can't find a place to stop the processing in the debugger, but I have a whole new bag of tricks to tackle that problem when I get back to my desk. And I am hoping to figure out why the up and down widgets don't show up in the next few hours.

Even with all that (and my little web page that I built because FaceBook just can't handle what I was trying to do), plus shopping, cooking, sleeping, watching the New Adventures of Horatio Hornblower [Loyalty] and some Warner Brothers mountie film from the late 1930s (which suggests that probably all mounties know how to sing), plus taking time to walk and have a leisurely breakfast [boy, this sentence is getting really long], even with all that, I still have tomorrow to ride around after my pedicure, enjoying the beautiful scenery before I get an extra day off (at my expense, it is true) to do whatever I want! Within reason. So among the other benefits of this unexpected time windfall [I should probably trademark that phrase], I had time to write this blog entry. And for that I am truly grateful.

Where does the time go?

Another year has slipped by (almost). And it's hard to say why I haven't had time to look up much lately. Maybe getting married had something to do with it. The database design course was very draining. Following the presidential election was exhausting, but turned out well (in my view). Now waiting for the other shoe to drop (what with the wars and the former economy, with all the bailouts and other lootings going on it's hard to keep track). If I had a little more money, I would subscribe to a news magazine so I could keep my blood boiling. Sanity intervened and I "content" myself with just listening to the radio on the way to and from work.

On top of everything else, we just had one of those awful ice storms (sister Cindy is bearing the brunt of the damage to our family this year; still waiting to hear from friend Rodney on the coast). Our accountant had a stroke in August and has found us an alternative (in addition to learning how to speak again, etc.). Blanche has a new knee. Gale's photography is still trying to get off the ground. And I have done a little Mac programming for someone in Switzerland (wasn't that sweet: XCode and Subversion); might just wind up doing a little Objective-C after all.

I am about to make a significant shift in my focus at work. Time to get my hands dirty (and probably my mind, too) with the vendor code that is about to dominate the skyline for the next few years. All our advice to the contrary, we are now stuck with it.

Haven't been too good about keeping in touch with my friends, but the course is finished on Tuesday, so I will become almost human again. Decision: taking the follow-on course would be too much! Happy hannukah, merry christmas, happy winter solstice, and happy new year (just in case I get sidetracked again).