Archive for October 25th, 2005


on October 25, 2005 in Uncategorized No Comments »

Sometimes I feel like I haven’t done something right but I don’t know what it is. Liz was grumpy tonight and it was very frustrating for me. Tonight I decided to do the video portfolio for one of the former Dance Theatre members. She’s applying to grad school at UW-Milwaukee and wanted a portfolio DVD. So that’s finally done. I think it turned out excellent all things considered. The video quality isn’t the greatest, but this is basically 2nd generation video. I didn’t import the stuff off the DV tape and re-do the audio again … I just ripped it off the DVD I made of the concert, so it had already been compressed once.

I made Mac & Cheese for dinner tonight since we apparently are out of chicken nuggets. Liz was making up some lasagna for Friday night so the kitchen was pretty busy … meaning easy = good. Unfortunately I think I put too much cheese in (yes, there is such a thing). I felt like I didn’t help enough with the lasagna making, but I was also doing dishes at the time … something hampered by a minor injury from last night (in the future, I’ll be a little more careful where the end of my fingers are when peeling potatoes).

Work was uneventful today. I’m not sure I got a lot accomplished, but I definitely got a few items off my to-do list. I’ll get to deal with some more tomorrow since I’m stuck in the office being “on-call”. I’m going to try and finish what needs to be done on my end for converting our inventory database. Hopefully I’ll also get to spend some time on porting our internal documentation to Twiki. Also on the to-do list is to write a little app for “resetting” the local iMovie storage on computer lab workstations.

Friday should be interesting. I’m off from work, but I certainly won’t be “sitting on my butt”. We’re doing our first major home-improvement project. We’re replacing 3 windows and adding insulation to the attic. Hopefully the expense is at least somewhat worthwhile. Given projected heating cost increases, it shouldn’t be difficult to recoup some of the cost. Also, as Liz mentioned in a post a little while back, the current plan is to sell and buy a new home this spring. Some “requirements” off the top of the head…

  • at least 3 bedrooms (one for us, and two for wee ones)
  • preferably also has a room that could be used as an office (for computers and teacher stuff)
  • 2 car carage
  • reasonable commuting distance to River Falls
  • nearly essential to be able to get high-speed, low-latency Internet access (this was discussed and it is possible for the house and surroundings to over-ride this requirement, but such places likely won’t be within our budget)
  • central air
  • reasonable basement (= not a crawlspace … preferably something where items can be stored without being guaranteed to be covered with spider webs after a week)
  • more than 1 block away from major highway (we currently live 1/2 a block off Hwy 12 … I dislike traffic noice)
  • reasonably up-to-date wiring (= most electrical circuits have a functional earth connection)
  • a good-sized kitchen… not sure exactly what dimensions, but definitely larger than current facilities

    Well, that’s about it for now. Last night was too short … unfortunately I suspect tonight won’t be much better.