Dawn: "We're going to go get some new plants."
Rachel: "What are we going to do with the plants, Mommy?"
Dylan, before Dawn can answer: "We're going to put them on the porch and let them die!"
Dawn, laughing: "OK, Jim!"
Point, Dawn.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Monday, December 04, 2006
Winter Biking
I haven't been able to do as much riding as I would like. Not all because it's winter, in spite of the title's implication.
Work's been very busy, so I haven't gotten to go every time I work at home. Saturday was football parking at Rachel's school; 5 hours of trying to get people to park closer together and where I want them. Yes, that jungle gym is taller than I am, and I am taller than your car. Greater than is transitive. Would you please park there?
Some of the days it actually has been raining, so a week ago Sunday I actually used my indoor trainer. I need to start using that more often. Of course, at the moment, I have to get my bike back. It's having the back wheel rebuilt. I hope Hank and Frank will be finished with it tomorrow. In the meantime, I was reading through my copy of Bicycling Magazine's Complete Book of Road Cycling Skills. Not sure why it's in the training section, exactly, but I suppose that makes some sense. Anyway, it has a much needed section on indoor training regimens which I plan to try. As soon as I get my bike back.
I've done over 800 miles in less than 6 months (since 6/10), and it's been great. Rick and I are plotting our next organized rides: The Tour of the Unknown Valley and The Chico Mildflower (Metric) Century. I told Dawn and Rachel about the Childflower, and we're going to see if Rachel can be ready to do that one (15 miles) with Dawn. In 2008. Meantime, I'd really like to do the Wildflower, but I don't think I'll be able to train appropriately, because I most likely will do absolutely no riding the two weekends before, when I'll be going to Dan's bachelor party and wedding, respectively.
Work's been very busy, so I haven't gotten to go every time I work at home. Saturday was football parking at Rachel's school; 5 hours of trying to get people to park closer together and where I want them. Yes, that jungle gym is taller than I am, and I am taller than your car. Greater than is transitive. Would you please park there?
Some of the days it actually has been raining, so a week ago Sunday I actually used my indoor trainer. I need to start using that more often. Of course, at the moment, I have to get my bike back. It's having the back wheel rebuilt. I hope Hank and Frank will be finished with it tomorrow. In the meantime, I was reading through my copy of Bicycling Magazine's Complete Book of Road Cycling Skills. Not sure why it's in the training section, exactly, but I suppose that makes some sense. Anyway, it has a much needed section on indoor training regimens which I plan to try. As soon as I get my bike back.
I've done over 800 miles in less than 6 months (since 6/10), and it's been great. Rick and I are plotting our next organized rides: The Tour of the Unknown Valley and The Chico Mildflower (Metric) Century. I told Dawn and Rachel about the Childflower, and we're going to see if Rachel can be ready to do that one (15 miles) with Dawn. In 2008. Meantime, I'd really like to do the Wildflower, but I don't think I'll be able to train appropriately, because I most likely will do absolutely no riding the two weekends before, when I'll be going to Dan's bachelor party and wedding, respectively.
Some Simple Automation
I've been at my new job for just over two months now. There's been much to learn, and lots to do, and still more coming, as we signed another customer and somehow I have to figure out how to continue doing work for the previous while starting up the new. Normally, this hasn't been a big problem for me in my career, but usually there are more other people to do pieces of it than there are now. I know that will change over time, and, no, it's not as if I'm flying solo.
One of the things that has brought me great pleasure, especially at this very moment, has been the benefits of some simple automation scripts. We have a very sophisticated caching system, but at present the cache seeding has to be done using scripts. When I came on the scene, my co-worker Manish had already created a simple batch file for kicking off a scripting run. It worked, basically, and was a good starting point.
I have had to do a lot more seeding than he has, though, so I have worked on this script from time to time over the last month or so. The problem is that our tomcats occasionally lose their connection to the database in the middle of a query in the middle of the seed list. This is bad when it's 11pm and Dylan's just gone off to bed. The first major modification was to have it check the log file for a certain type of exception and delete the log and start over if it found it. Unfortunately, that loses me any information about how long things are taking.
The next major modification was a way of saving the log file after each failure and appending the next one when it either failed or finished. It also records the time into the file at the beginning and end and after each failure, so I can see the total elapsed time as well as how often we're losing our DB connection. This was cool, except I had a couple of typos that meant that by the time the process finished I wound up with no log at all! It took more than a week to get around to figuring that one out.
A couple of days ago, I realized that there are now three different ways (well, eventually two - one for my local environment and one for production environments, but I'm converting production from one way to another, so there are three right now) of accessing the engine that runs the queries for me. So I changed the script to look for the engine.
Also a few days ago, the engine was enhanced to allow me to supply the target server on the command-line. This seemed really cool, until I discovered that it works for some operations and not others. I need to file a defect on the later, and when it is fixed, it will be very cool. In the meantime, I changed the script to allow me to supply the server directive on the command-line if I'm not including it in the seed list.
And today, as I have to do some major re-aggregating and re-caching because of some minor tactical oversights, I learned how to make a Windows batch file spawn another window, and have created an ancillary script. This script, given a wild-card (and an optional server directive, of course) will spawn the run_seed batch file on all the files matching the wildcard. For tonight, there are 14. That means as soon as I kick that off, I'm going to bed. Because I essentially know that it WILL finish, barring any major system problems at our colo facility.
Of course, there's some check-up I have to do on what's finishing now, and some other prep. But maybe I don't have to stay up all flippin' night.
One of the things that has brought me great pleasure, especially at this very moment, has been the benefits of some simple automation scripts. We have a very sophisticated caching system, but at present the cache seeding has to be done using scripts. When I came on the scene, my co-worker Manish had already created a simple batch file for kicking off a scripting run. It worked, basically, and was a good starting point.
I have had to do a lot more seeding than he has, though, so I have worked on this script from time to time over the last month or so. The problem is that our tomcats occasionally lose their connection to the database in the middle of a query in the middle of the seed list. This is bad when it's 11pm and Dylan's just gone off to bed. The first major modification was to have it check the log file for a certain type of exception and delete the log and start over if it found it. Unfortunately, that loses me any information about how long things are taking.
The next major modification was a way of saving the log file after each failure and appending the next one when it either failed or finished. It also records the time into the file at the beginning and end and after each failure, so I can see the total elapsed time as well as how often we're losing our DB connection. This was cool, except I had a couple of typos that meant that by the time the process finished I wound up with no log at all! It took more than a week to get around to figuring that one out.
A couple of days ago, I realized that there are now three different ways (well, eventually two - one for my local environment and one for production environments, but I'm converting production from one way to another, so there are three right now) of accessing the engine that runs the queries for me. So I changed the script to look for the engine.
Also a few days ago, the engine was enhanced to allow me to supply the target server on the command-line. This seemed really cool, until I discovered that it works for some operations and not others. I need to file a defect on the later, and when it is fixed, it will be very cool. In the meantime, I changed the script to allow me to supply the server directive on the command-line if I'm not including it in the seed list.
And today, as I have to do some major re-aggregating and re-caching because of some minor tactical oversights, I learned how to make a Windows batch file spawn another window, and have created an ancillary script. This script, given a wild-card (and an optional server directive, of course) will spawn the run_seed batch file on all the files matching the wildcard. For tonight, there are 14. That means as soon as I kick that off, I'm going to bed. Because I essentially know that it WILL finish, barring any major system problems at our colo facility.
Of course, there's some check-up I have to do on what's finishing now, and some other prep. But maybe I don't have to stay up all flippin' night.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Thoughtful
This morning Rachel came up to our room at the almost reasonable hour of 6:10. That's progress as we've just been trying to get her to stay in bed until 6. Dawn actually despairs of ever having a time when we have to wake Rachel up, though I maintain that in 7 or 8 years we'll be fighting with her to be up in time for school.
Since Dawn went off to the bathroom as soon as Rachel came in, Rachel actually came and cuddled with me for once and, when Dawn came back, told her to cuddle with us. For about 30 seconds. Then she asks me, "are you going to have a long day at work today, Daddy?". Probably (we have a major customer deployment, our first, next Wednesday and have to make sure we're ready). "Mommy, how about if we let Daddy sleep since he is going to have a long day?"
Since Dawn went off to the bathroom as soon as Rachel came in, Rachel actually came and cuddled with me for once and, when Dawn came back, told her to cuddle with us. For about 30 seconds. Then she asks me, "are you going to have a long day at work today, Daddy?". Probably (we have a major customer deployment, our first, next Wednesday and have to make sure we're ready). "Mommy, how about if we let Daddy sleep since he is going to have a long day?"
Friday, October 20, 2006
Catch of The Day
One of our cats, Nigel, the kitten (he's about 7 months old and almost as big as his mother) is out playing. He and Cynthia (his mother) like to catch mice. No more than Tom does, I suppose, but they've all been doing a lot of it lately. Fortunately, they don't often bring them in the house. Cynthia, so far, reserves that for brown leaves.
Anyway, I called Nigel (who has a tendency to roam too far) and when I went to look for him again found him in the neighbor's yard with something small. The way he was after it, I figured it was a mouse. As I got closer, I thought perhaps it was a very small mouse. That wouldn't be a surprise. Cats are no more merciful to smaller prey than larger.
Imagine my amusement to discover that it was not a mouse, not even a very small one. No, it was a mouse's severed head. No idea where the body is, but I do find myself thinking of the movie Highlander... lying on the floor, next to his own severed head.
Anyway, I called Nigel (who has a tendency to roam too far) and when I went to look for him again found him in the neighbor's yard with something small. The way he was after it, I figured it was a mouse. As I got closer, I thought perhaps it was a very small mouse. That wouldn't be a surprise. Cats are no more merciful to smaller prey than larger.
Imagine my amusement to discover that it was not a mouse, not even a very small one. No, it was a mouse's severed head. No idea where the body is, but I do find myself thinking of the movie Highlander... lying on the floor, next to his own severed head.
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Really Riding
Since I started riding a lot again on June 10, I've
- ridden over 620 miles
- tightened the strap on my helmet twice (7/22 and today)
- ridden the Healdsburg Harvest Century (metric century around Healdsburg, CA)
- ridden over 620 miles
- tightened the strap on my helmet twice (7/22 and today)
- ridden the Healdsburg Harvest Century (metric century around Healdsburg, CA)
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Long Time, Many Changes
Somehow I can hardly believe it's only been 4 months since the last time I posted. It feels like a lot longer than that. I don't have a lot of time to write right now, so here's the summary of things that have happened since my last post:
1- in late May, we went to Grand Junction and Denver for a week to spend time with some of Dawn's family; we only stopped in Denver on the way back to see a Rockies game, as long as we were in the 'neighborhood'; we also saw several Junior College World Series (baseball) games, which was a lot of fun
2- in mid-June, we got two new cats, Cynthia Gray (Rachel picked the name Cynthia out of the blue; I added Gray, because she is gray and my grandmother's maiden name was, you guessed it, Cynthia Gray), and her son, Nigel (from the Latin for black, except that he's started turning brown, so perhaps we should give him a last name that means Brown... Nigel Braun?)
3- on July 15th, a friend and I rode 62 miles in the Healdsburg Harvest (metric) Century
4- on August 24th, I worked my last day for my employer of nearly 6 years; this was very weird for me as I'd pretty much concluded I'd be turning out the lights, but I came across a position that was far too good an opportunity to pass up
5- on August 25th, Rachel spent her last day in pre-school
6- Dawn and I spent that weekend in Las Vegas, our first trip there (although Dawn was there once as a kid, which she doesn't remember well); we saw LOVE, the new Cirque Du Soleil show to Beatles music. It was very good, but somehow still a little disappointing that it didn't all live up to their potential (not to mention that they made Blackbird into a narrated comedy sketch and played only the last two notes!!)
7- then on August 28th and 30th, respectively, I started my new job and Rachel started Kindergarten!
Whew. A whirlwind...
1- in late May, we went to Grand Junction and Denver for a week to spend time with some of Dawn's family; we only stopped in Denver on the way back to see a Rockies game, as long as we were in the 'neighborhood'; we also saw several Junior College World Series (baseball) games, which was a lot of fun
2- in mid-June, we got two new cats, Cynthia Gray (Rachel picked the name Cynthia out of the blue; I added Gray, because she is gray and my grandmother's maiden name was, you guessed it, Cynthia Gray), and her son, Nigel (from the Latin for black, except that he's started turning brown, so perhaps we should give him a last name that means Brown... Nigel Braun?)
3- on July 15th, a friend and I rode 62 miles in the Healdsburg Harvest (metric) Century
4- on August 24th, I worked my last day for my employer of nearly 6 years; this was very weird for me as I'd pretty much concluded I'd be turning out the lights, but I came across a position that was far too good an opportunity to pass up
5- on August 25th, Rachel spent her last day in pre-school
6- Dawn and I spent that weekend in Las Vegas, our first trip there (although Dawn was there once as a kid, which she doesn't remember well); we saw LOVE, the new Cirque Du Soleil show to Beatles music. It was very good, but somehow still a little disappointing that it didn't all live up to their potential (not to mention that they made Blackbird into a narrated comedy sketch and played only the last two notes!!)
7- then on August 28th and 30th, respectively, I started my new job and Rachel started Kindergarten!
Whew. A whirlwind...
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Ride, Rachel, Ride
I'm very excited! Rachel got on her bike! I think it was even her idea, though maybe one of us suggested it since we were out by the garage, which was open. Anyway, Sunday Rachel rode up to the corner & back three times, and last night she rode all the way around the block and then up to the corner and back again. It was great! She had a good time and practiced pedaling and braking. Tonight we're planning on riding to the school yard a couple of blocks away.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Best Hawaii Vacation Memory
Rachel & I were at the beach. She likes to run away from the incoming waves, running up the beach. One time, as I was sitting in the water behind her and she was running away from one wave, another came from the left and was forcing her feet to the right as she ran. Every step or so she gave her "I'm nervous because this isn't what I wanted, but I'm not sure anything's really wrong" squeak: "Daddy?! Daddy?! Daddy!? Daddy!?"
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
It's All About the Weather
I was sitting at my desk yesterday morning when I got a call from Max from our solar contractor. He said they want to start on our project today... I looked out the window at the torrential rains as I said "as long as you think the weather's going to be OK..." So, here I am, working from home as they've been spending the day putting the panels up.
Unlike some of the companies I talked to, Marin Solar did not want to rip open the ceiling of our room to find the joists. I'm very glad about that, because it would have made the whole thing a lot harder.
At this point, they've just left and I have 18 panels on the ground waiting to go up to the roof, two sections of metal racking where they will sit, and an inverter in a box in The Bunker (our black hole of a guest room). When I told them to put it in there, I didn't promise they'd be able to get it back out again :-)
Tomorrow they should be hooking it all up. We're hoping to be able to drop the conduit from the roof down the old water heater flue and have everything inside the crawlspace, including the inverter. This will be good because it will minimize the number of new holes and paraphernalia in the outside of the house. There's also a certain elegance to it, which I like.
I'm trying to find out how the software works for monitoring the inverter; I'd really like to have it set up to capture the production data when the system is ready to turn on. In fact, I think I'm going to go raid the box now!
Unlike some of the companies I talked to, Marin Solar did not want to rip open the ceiling of our room to find the joists. I'm very glad about that, because it would have made the whole thing a lot harder.
At this point, they've just left and I have 18 panels on the ground waiting to go up to the roof, two sections of metal racking where they will sit, and an inverter in a box in The Bunker (our black hole of a guest room). When I told them to put it in there, I didn't promise they'd be able to get it back out again :-)
Tomorrow they should be hooking it all up. We're hoping to be able to drop the conduit from the roof down the old water heater flue and have everything inside the crawlspace, including the inverter. This will be good because it will minimize the number of new holes and paraphernalia in the outside of the house. There's also a certain elegance to it, which I like.
I'm trying to find out how the software works for monitoring the inverter; I'd really like to have it set up to capture the production data when the system is ready to turn on. In fact, I think I'm going to go raid the box now!
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