Two Thousand Six – February

02/01 The doorbell rings.  Odd, because typically I unlock the door in the morning and the Window Guys just let themselves in.  The guy standing on my doorstep knows the English word “Painter”.  I let him in.  He stands there and looks at me.  I walk around the house and point out the windows.  He knows the English words “window”, “sand” and “paint”.  He says the word “paint” and looks at me expectantly.  I show him the closet upstairs where there are paint cans.  I mutter and go back to my knitting.  I won’t be leaving the house again today.  Motion Based was down yesterday and it’s still down today.  132 minutes, 6.69 miles, 3.0 mph, HR=102. 

02/02 149 minutes, 7.59 miles, 3.0 mph, HR=105.  I’ve got nasty shin splints with my right leg being much worse then my left.  All the window work that can be done this round has been.  Tonight I’ll get out the vacuum and dust rag and start cleaning up.  For as tidy as it seemed they were, there’s a layer of grit on everything.  I switched to new running shoes this trip after I discovered I had about 186 miles on each pair of the old ones.  No wonder I’m going to lose another toenail!  A pair of running shoes only last a little over 100 miles for me.  I wear them out from the inside, they really don’t look too bad on the outside and I get quite emotionally attached.  Really weird since the new shoes often are exactly like the old shoes, only new.

02/03 Happy 1st Birthday, Avery!!!  My right leg was still sore this morning.  I gave thought to taking a day off, but hate to waste light and sunshine.  I decided to cut it a bit short and take it a bit easier, not that the pain would allow otherwise, dammit.  When I put lotion on my legs this morning, I noticed there is a horizontal ridge of swelling on my right shin.  Weird.  I though it was feeling better at about 3.5 miles, but I think that was just the softer beach sand as it was as bad as ever once I left the beach and hit the concrete sidewalk.  I stopped at the Drug Store and bought an ice bag and as I write, I’ve got my leg propped up on an over turned laundry basket.  I’ll keep the ice on it for 20 or 30 minutes and see what happens.  There’s no bruising.  Odd.  130 minutes, 6.39 miles, 2.9 mph, HR=97.  I have not had, nor will I have, opportunity to lay out in the sun and work on my tan this trip.  That is so very wrong and insult to the injury that I’ve also had to set an alarm every stinking morning.  I went to the Condo Association’s board meeting today and I’m not even going to start on that fiasco (in my humble opinion, of course).  I was going to go to town and see about window coverings, but there’s a truck parked behind my car.  Good thing I don’t need the car much as that’s been the case most every day.  Monday through Thursday, it was my own fault, sort of, since my Window Contractors’ trucks were using all the guest spots.  The guest spots are empty and I think I know where to find the driver of the truck so I could ask them to move it, but I think I’ll do a bit more cleaning while there’s still day light.  I need a third hand.  I guess my Mom, Ashley and Nicole will have to earn their keep by helping me put on the window film.  I suspect they won’t mind as there’s no perception of privacy without it.  I bet we do it the very first night.  I’m not even going to attempt another one as I hate to waste the film.  The patterned stuff was thicker and thus easier to hang but I like the white/frosted stuff much better.

02/04 I iced my leg again last night and decided I would give it a rest today if it was still sore.  Mother Nature gave me a little help in keeping that resolution as we had a nasty thunderstorm and quite a bit of rain.  I looked at four condos in the building across the street.  The one I was originally most interested in already sold.  Of the next three I looked at, I was only barely interested in one of them.  The Realtor brought me home and before I could even get back to my knitting he called and asked if I was interested in seeing one more.  He’s got a client who can’t decide if they do or don’t want to sell.  I’ll entertain the notion (depending on price) if they decide they do want to sell.

02/05 159 minutes, 8.52 miles, 3.2 mph, HR=114.  Surfer Video.  Since it rained all day yesterday, I got all my housekeeping done and have very little left to do before I leave today.  I’ve never seen so many dead Jellyfish on the beach as I did today.

02/06 The girls are home!  Coco bit Blondie’s ear again.

02/07 My refrigerator is all scrubbed clean and no groceries.  By the time I got around to completing my order last night there was no more room on the delivery trucks and I’ll have to wait until Wednesday.  This evening I couldn’t face either the thought of fast food or a quick trip to the grocery store so I ended up eating frozen mixed vegetables sprinkled with parmesan cheese.  Yes, I cooked the vegetables.  I took Blondie’s bandages off tonight.  I think Coco tore open the previous wound.  Finally!  My Caribou Coffee Card Travel Bug is traveling.  Don’t know what I’m talking about?  Click Here.

02/08 My Dell Precision M70 is doing so much screen splitting and flickering I’ll be lucky to finish this entry.  I can’t help but wonder if it’s related to the row of dead pixels.  Now that I’m absolutely surrounded by, and committed to, Dell hardware I would hate to see this machine go belly up on me.  About all I could make out of Dell’s Technical Support email was a phone number.  I called.  I just can’t say enough about their Technicians.  Long story short https://www.gseav.com/services/video-walls/ is installing a new LCD and Video Card tomorrow.  In the meantime, so long as I plug in a monitor, it works well enough to use.  The resolution is a bit wonky, but I’ll manage.  I was worried about arriving home late, but the dogs were fine.  Only one problem; no groceries.  I was just getting ready to go online and see if I might have messed up the alternate delivery day when I saw the Simon Delivers truck pull in to the neighbor’s driveway.  Dinner!  I feel better, Coco’s not the only one.  It’s been a long time since I’ve been sore from lifting weights and oh, it hurts so good.

02/09 This morning the bottom 2/3 of my M70’s desktop wallpaper is black.  It flickers when I go to the Journal2006 page, but not here on the main page.  LifeForm, Outlook and IE6 all seem fine.  Very strange.  The Technician is due here with the parts between 1:30 and 2:30, thereby forcing me to reschedule today’s 2:00 Eye Doctor appointment to Monday morning.  The Precision M70 is fixed.  This writing comes from the Latitude D410.  I give up a lot of screen real estate for portability and it’s going to take some getting used to.  I’m trying to set them up so I can easily take either machine.  The M70 is definitely easier to work with, yet the D410 is easier to handle.  I’m thinking the D410 is going to end up being a toy

02/10 I picked up Avery, we came home to play for a while and had lunch.  After lunch we went to my office to check on the server/workstation migration – what a mess, glad I missed it.  Then we visited with my Dad for a while, just before we left Mom and Gladys arrived home so they got to visit with Avery for a bit as well.  We came home, played a bit and had dinner.  I didn’t take a single picture!

02/11 95 minutes, 5.25 miles, 3.2 mph, HR=112 and “Gothika” on the treadmill this morning.  Yet again I find myself wondering how that ended up on my Netflix queue.  A “For Sale” sign appeared in the neighbor’s yard today.  I’ve been expecting that.  I got two major projects done at my office this afternoon, but after that I had a hard time staying focused, so I gave it up and came home.

02/12 105 minutes, 5.50 miles, 3.14 mph, HR=103 and “Sick” on the treadmill this morning.  Bizarre movie, I haven’t a clue how I ended up with it.  I’m starting to think my Netflix queue is haunted.  I don’t understand why I was so resistant to using Outlook for all my email.

02/13 Rent-A-Geek got my Cingular 2125 WM5 Smartphone to sync to the exchange server.  Sorta.  I now have my email on my phone.  If there’s one thing I don’t want, it’s my mail on my phone.  I want my Contacts and my Calendar.  That’s all.  Why is it so difficult?  Precision M70 this evening:  BSOD and this message:  “Hardware malfunction.  Call hardware vendor for support.  NMI:  Parity check/memory parity error.  System has halted” I forced a power down, waited a minute, powered up, all seems well.  Great.  I’m thinking I just received motivation to get the Latitude D410 up and running.  Backup is under control, the Precision M70 could die tomorrow and it wouldn’t be so very painful, except on my psyche, having just converted my shop to Dell hardware.

02/14 Happy Valentine’s Day!  I got my Cingular 2125 Smartphone to sync with the exchange server via my Desktop machine today!  I’m not clear on what I did differently.  Hopefully, tomorrow I can sync the iPAQ 2795 via my Precision M70.  I had a hard time deciding on a dessert for Avery’s birthday party this Friday, so I ordered the ingredients for both.  Turns out one significant ingredient was unavailable for today’s grocery shipment.  Funny how fate makes decisions for us.  That’s when I realized a significant ingredient in the other dessert was also missing, though on my bill.  Off to the grocery store.

02/15 When I did this morning’s manual backup of my application software server I noticed all sorts of DLL errors.  Rent-A-Geek is here, she’s going to reboot that server.  One of two things is going to happen; a) The errors will go away.  b) The server will “blow up”.  The suspense is killing me.  I’m happy to report that server seems to have rebooted just fine.  Though Rent-A-Geek has been on the phone with Microsoft for most of an hour now trying to resolve our FAX issue.  I don’t leave until she does.  So much for getting home in time to make that dessert tonight.  I didn’t leave my office until 7:50, a whole four hours later than I had hoped.  At least the time wasn’t wasted as I kept at the fiddling with my settings to get the iPAQ 2790 and Cingular 2125 to sync.  Mission accomplished!  It came down to four measly characters; “.com” at the end of the domain name. 

02/17 Avery and I are housebound by the cold weather.  The Furnace Maintenance/Repair Man woke her up from her nap, but we forgave him since it turns out one of our furnaces was broken and he fixed it.  We had a little party in celebration of Avery’s first birthday. 

02/18 It’s so nice to be able to work at home!  107 minutes, 5.75 miles, 3.2 mph, HR=127 and “Monster” on the treadmill this afternoon.

02/19 110 minutes, 5.50 miles, 3.0 mph, HR=122 and “Psycho” the 1960 black and white on the treadmill this after noon.  A hugely productive day:  Laundry, taxes, knitting, exercise.

02/20 I had a hard time getting my car started this morning.  My theory:  When I moved it in the bitter cold Friday night, I didn’t let it run long enough and the electronic fuel delivery system got messed up.  Seems fine now.

02/21 My Insurance Man stopped by the office today and had much to say about my driving.  Seems he passed me on the road this morning and I was so focused on my driving he was unable to draw my attention to his wave, my hands precisely at “10” and “2” and I was going 69 in a 70 mph zone.  Yay me!  A month ago, he wouldn’t have been able to catch me, much less pass.  He assured me I won’t lose insurance coverage over a few speeding tickets.  I’m really not worried about that, it’s just the principle of the thing.  And besides, it won’t last.  Tonight I made roasted red pepper soup and I must admit I’m ashamed of myself.  Years ago, my Mother gave me an Immersion Blender for my Birthday or Christmas.  I’ve never used it.  A few weeks back I made such a mess of my kitchen while pureeing Ginger Carrot Soup that I figured I had nothing to lose by trying the Immersion Blender.  WOW!!!  Thanks Mom!!!  Now, perhaps I ought to drag out that Ice Cream Machine . . .

02/22 It was light when I got to work this morning!

02/23 I visited with my Dad at lunch time today.  I am now 100% converted to Windows Mobile 5.  The only device I can’t get to sync is the Treo 700w, but I haven’t tried real hard because for some reason I just don’t like the device and will be selling it on eBay just as soon as I can stop at a Verizon store or call Customer Service and have my account disassociated from it.  The next PayPal?

02/24 Just as I finished telling Jim how tired I was of all the dump trucks . . . I hit a BIG rock.  Most likely dropped by one of those #_)(%(*$&%(*&@$@$)*(#$&%(*@(#&*$ dump trucks.  My car is now pouring it’s oil all over the garage floor.  A flatbed is on it’s way to haul it to the Dealer and I’ve arranged to pick up a rental car at the airport later tonight.  Avery and I had a good day today.  She discovered the walker, scrambled eggs and toast.

02/25 99 minutes, 4.5 miles, 3.0 mph, HR=107 and “Along Came Polly” on the treadmill this morning.

02/26 150 minutes, 7.5 miles, 3.0 mph, HR=125 and “Cold Mountain” on the treadmill this morning.  Migraine.

02/27 That wasn’t oil on the garage floor, it was transmission fluid.  The transmission pan on my car is broken.  The onboard computer is telling them a few other strange things that must be checked out as well.  I’ll be lucky to get it back this week.  I realize I have stood up the BugMan twice, but I think he’s punished me enough already and I would like to leave for work.  Turns out I’m not on the BugMan’s schedule for today.  Great.

02/28 Avery and I went to an indoor park this morning.  She really wasn’t quite old enough to enjoy it enough that I felt it was worth exposing her to all those drooling and snot nosed kids.  Germs.  Ugh!  After a thorough hand washing we did find a park bench in the sun next to a “river” where we had a picnic lunch.