neurotwitch

i’m so behind

Been very busy with a lot of interesting projects (most recent launch: www.takingthekids.com, by syndicated travel columnist Eileen Ogintz—good start but a LOT more to do). A couple of others I will write about when I can.

Been very busy with other things, too. We’re in Natick this weekend, bringing step jacks for my brother-in-law to use as he paints the house (Stanley is helping him get it together to get started). I’m just along for the ride and the visit.

I still need to plant all my irises. The garden is insane—nothing was doing much until recently. Several days of rain and 95-degree days will do that, I guess. So I have a lot to do there.

We saw three movies lately, and went to one wonderful art show opening. Candace Held is showing many of her glass works at the artists’ coop gallery in Westerly, Rhode Island and we got to go there for opening day and enjoyed it immensely. We have some pictures that came out pretty well, and I will post them when I write more about the opening.

The movies were War of the Worlds, Batman Begins, and Dark Water. WotW was ok, matinee material only, five on a scale of one to ten with ten being the best. Batman Begins was really good, maybe an eight. Dark Water was a good movie for a hot afternoon because it was so dreary and cold looking, kind of a bitter movie. Stanley and I have differing opinions on what it was all about—but I won’t say anything about it because I don’t want to spoil it for anyone. It has so many holes and loose ends it’s like the first scarf I ever crocheted. The peripheral characters were much more interesting than the leads. I’d rate it a six.

The other big thing I’ve been dealing with is the ExpressionEngine upgrade. There are many things that are very good about it, but the two most-important modules (Publish and Edit) have been sorted as they should be, but as a result are no longer user friendly enough for our clients to use without messing up (well, they could, but why should they have to relearn something in order to do the same stuff?) So I have to build a standalone entry tab for each of them, and I haven’t had the chance to do one yet (once I figure one out, it’ll be easy enough to be able to upgrade all the installations).

Have also been trying to build on online store with Zen-Cart—everything is great except the client hasn’t yet given us all of the parameters we need for each of the items (basic stuff as, say, what color customers can order ...) which is very frustrating because it’s a lot easier to do each catalog entry in one shot than having to go in later and update the database with the additional options. It’s turning out to be a beautiful site, so I’m anxious for it to get done.

And have also been working on an online questionnaire, found the perfect bit of script for it and the author added in a couple of things I asked him about—will post more about this in a day or two. He deserves the mention because it’s a good script.

Today, weatherwise (Saturday, so I guess I mean yesterday), was one of those perfect summer days—low humidity, lower 80s, clear sky, good breeze. Right now I’m enjoying the breeze blowing in through the window; it’s in the low 60s here outside of Boston. I think we get one more day of it before hell descends yet again. Last week I finally let Stanley put the a/c in the bedroom—I hate a/c but I hate trying to sleep in an oven even more.

Also, we ordered a cooling bed for the dog—got it on sale even—and it finally came. It was kind of a pain to “charge” it (by putting water in it and smushing the water throughout the foam rubber stuff)—I made such a watery mess that Stanley just took over—but it really does give Ginger much cooler place to lie down. She seems a lot less miserable and doesn’t hog the fan as much. The cat doesn’t like it, though.

Enough blather. I have so much to write about, but it’ll have to wait zzzzzzzzzz

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