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Monday, January 31, 2005
Sunny, Suuny Days
Spent the better part of today driving around town with Dianne doing various errands and enjoying a balmy, sunny, +10 degrees day. We were actally able to take off our coats. Water is running in the street and the hope is it will stay warm like this long enough to melt all that pesky ice everywhere.
The weekend was spent reinstalling everything on Dianne's computer after replacing the hard drive which sputtered to a halt early Saturday. I'm not sure if this was the cause of all the trouble I'd been having but I was a bit suspicious of the drive earlier when it seemed to take forever to load stuff. Probably on its way to failing. So it may not have been a virus or a trojan after all. But even so, I still say to all the Mac afficianados who gloat over a bug free OS on that platform that having viri (sp?) on a PC is what makes us stronger and keeps us on our toes. We love a challenge. Separates the real geeks from the Apple cores, so to speak. Thursday, January 27, 2005
BUGS!!!
I've just about completed the chore of encoding our home videos and storing them on DVD. While watching this footage roll by I realize how cyclic our lives really are. Every Christmas and birthday seems to be a duplicate of the one a year before. The only difference is the kids are a year older, which may make for an interesting video if done right. However, that will have to wait. I need to collect enough juicy stuff for the wedding video that I am presently formulating.
Had to put that project on hold last night as Dianne's brand new computer just went insane. I suspect a virus or a trojan. We couldn't get anything to work on it all of a sudden. It kept crashing when trying to open any program and was unbearably slow. I reinstalled XP and it worked a little better but is still not 100%. I may have to resort to reformatting and starting again..which may not be that bad as there is not much on the machine as yet. A trip for an alignment on the Corolla ended up costing a whole lot more than expected yesterday as four new tires were required as well. But the ride with the new Michelins is a lot smoother and quieter, especially on the icy roads which seem to be prevailing here lately. Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Ice Berg, Right Ahead!
Tonight we have been treated to a steady drizzle of rain which is immediately freezing on impact on whatever it lands on. Which means all the cars have a pebbly armory which is very tough to scrape off and the roads have become extremely treacherous. And speaking of driving carefully, Nikki managed to pass her road test on the weekend and now has her license. On Monday she was allowed to drive herself across the city to soccer for the first time. Needless to say Dad was on a few pins and needles.
I am attempting to digitize our entire library of home videos and archive them to DVD before the old camera gives out and we have nothing to view them on. So far not too much luck. There's a problem with the editing software not talking to the capture device so I'm having trouble getting any footage on the hard drive. An upgrade in the software might do the trick. We shall see. Monday, January 17, 2005
Techno Goodies
It's nice and balmy here in ol' Edmonton. The thermometer popped it's head out from the minus numbers briefly today and we have a forecast for more tomorrow. But with that comes a risk of freezing rain. So you can't win!
I've been playing around with a new DVD burner that I just installed in the system the other day. If you think CD burning is daunting you should see the plethora of standards and types of media and configurations this thing has. Anyway the goal is to burn all of the home movie raw footage since 1992 to DVD and then use it to edit together some meaningful and hopefully entertaining videos of our lives for the past few years. Also upgraded the ram in the computer to 1 GIG and added a firewire card in order to download the home videos from the soon to be purchased digital video camera. Geeks Rule, man!! Monday, January 10, 2005
Candle Burning At Both Ends
Laziness has it's downfalls and as such I am a bad boy. I have let my bookkeeping of the household accounts slide since July. Having too much fun I guess. But now I have to pay the price and spend some long winter evenings poring over the stack of receipts and statements of several months of slothfulness. The only way to accomplish the task is to take it in little bitty bite sized chunks over the next week or so. Hopefully by then I will have the hundreds of entries input into the computer and all the bank statements reconciled in time to start on the annual income tax festival of fun. Work, work, work work..... Saturday, January 08, 2005
New Shuttle Mission In The Works
Excitement is building at NASA as the launch date for the next shuttle flight, the first one since the Columbia disaster almost two years ago, approaches. Discovery is scheduled to fly a 13 day mission and as reported in this article will involve testing procedures for checking and repairing damage to the wings and underbelly of the spacecraft. The new fuel tank, which was delivered last week, is designed not to shed the dangerous insulation that caused the Columbia disaster but I guess it unfortunately does not come with free roadside assistance if it breaks down. The new procedures will help if the astronauts have to get out and look under the hood themselves. Friday, January 07, 2005
Weather Woes
After seeing what's been happening weatherwise throughout the rest of the country and into the states, I guess we should consider ourselves lucky that we have survived the first week of January relatively unscathed here in Edmonton. We've had a little snow and some temps down around -20, but nothing like places as near as Regina where you guys have been digging out for days. And even in perpetualy balmy California they have been shocked with major dumps of snow.
And of course our hearts go out in a big way to southeast Asia with all this tsunami related devastation. Even after the monumental cleanup is done it will take years to get those countries back to their previous condition. The biggest loss, after all the human lives, is the damage to the tourist industry. Even with rebuilt resorts, people are going to be a bit leary spending their vacation dollars in that area of the world for a while. With all the hurricanes, tsunamis and other natural disasters, the world is becoming a rather precarious place. Saturday, January 01, 2005
Happy New Year 2005!
Just returned home this afternoon from spending New Years eve in Calgary along with a few of the Mildenberger clan and spouses. Below is a hamster-eye view of us all at the critical pre-champagne, post smooch phase of the celebration. The party continued on until the wee ones with some pretty fierce domino competition ensuing.
The trip down and back went pretty good considering it was around -22 and there was lots of freshly fallen snow. But the highway was remarkably dry so driving was no problem. Tonight it's a bit of a new years feast at home with our traditional trifle for dessert. Can't wait. And so we head into the deep dark January freeze zone and start to look forward to spring while we try and clean up from the Christmas festivities and pay off all the celebratory expenses. Next big event: the wedding.
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