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Saturday, December 15, 2001 [11:57 AM] Dinner and a Movie Last night Kim and I joined our good friends, and old neighbors, for some wonderful grub at the Double-L. The Double-L is a steak joint in Visalia that serves up absotively posolutely the best steaks I've ever eaten. Kim and I had their bacon-wrapped fillet with bearnaise sauce. Oh man, my mouth is watering once again just thinking about it! So if you want a great meal while in Visalia stop by the Double-L, it's on the corner of Center and Bridge. Since we had some time before the movie we decided to head over to Borders and check out some books. I can't believe how many books I found on .NET, C#, and VB.Net. Maybe Santa will bring me a nice gift certificate to Borders so I can pick up some new books! Yee-Haw! I convinced everyone that we should go see 13 Ghosts, not such a good choice. The movie was entertaining enough but the trailers convinced me we should have seen Oceans 11. DOH! Oh well, live and learn. Floors Well the floor guys were only able to work for three hours or so, I'm not sure why they were called away. The good thing is they MUST come back because they left all of their equipment here! I'm sure they'll be beautiful once they're finished. I just hope we're able to move back in next week. Can you imagine four people and four cats living in a bedroom? Yep that's right, we've turned our bedroom into the living room. It's comfy enough but I'd like to have the living room back all the same. If we can't move in next week our poor Christmas Tree is probably going to croak on us! I'd hate for that to happen. Blogger trouble?? I'm not sure what's going on today. For some reason I've had numerous clicks of the "Post" button not work? I've re-typed this about four times now and I'm hoping it'll take. I think we'll just have to put up with some issues while Evan and Company sort our server and new software issues. Keep up the good work Evan. I really LOVE Blogger! Friday, December 14, 2001 [11:18 AM] Wood Floors When we bought our new house, it's about 100 years old, we knew we'd have to have the floors done at some time. Kim and I both love wood floors and the new house has some lovely soft wood floors, yes I said soft wood. I'm not sure what kind of wood it is but it's sure going to look nice when they're finished. According to our neighbor the flooring is ash. Personally I've never heard of a floor being made of ash but I'm interested to see what they look like. They're being sanded and puttied today and seven layers of finish being applied on Monday. By late Wednesday or early Thursday of next week we should be able to move the furniture back in. Just in time for Christmas! Chimes My office overlooks Main Street in Downtown Visalia. Up the street a block and West a block there's an old church with a bell tower. Throughout the day at various times they're playing Christmas music! It's quite a treat. If you live in the area come downtown around noon and listen to the music. Site Art I've been trying to come up with a new logo for CrabApples.NET to no avail. I'd like a nicer basket of apples, maybe tipped over with the apples spilling out. The problem is I'm not a artist. So do you know anyone that would do something for the credit on the site, or maybe a couple of bucks? If so drop me a line. I'd like to be able to use the logo not only for this site's main page but on tee-shirts, coffee mugs, etc... Thursday, December 13, 2001 [3:44 PM] My lovely wife Kim is very understanding of my desire to play sports. I love all kinds of activities; football, softball, volleyball and basketball to name a few. After the ankle injury Kim has changed her tune a little. It's not a bad thing, just strange coming from her. She participates in and coaches different sports herself and can understand the love of a sport. I guess her concern is one you can chalk up to love. I know I hate it when she's in pain or sick; so in a way I can understand where she's coming from, but I hope she doesn't mind me continuing to play the game! [1:42 PM] Visio Viewer! We were supposed to post the Visio Viewer back in November but due to our legal issues we weren't posting anything! Drat! Now the Viewer is available in all it's glory for your Visio .VDX (our XML format) and .VSD viewing pleasure. This is a big deal for us. Folks have been asking for a viewer for years and we never had the time or resources to put on the project when we were little Visio Corporation. As soon as we became a part of Microsoft it became apparent that a viewer would be a tremendous benefit to large corporations that need to just look at drawings created by their peers. This viewer was developed to be lean and mean and it's using a new code base that'll be the foundation of future development! This is being called a "Technology Preview" but I can assure you it's pretty darned robust, I've been using it for months now without any problems. Enjoy [11:03 AM] Go see the doctor Today I had my follow-up with my doctor about my ankle. He said the film was negative, that's a good thing! So no fractures, no tears, and I can actually walk on it; not all that well but I can at least walk. It's just, in his words, a really bad sprain. I figured he tell me to keep doing what I've been doing but he took out his prescription pad instead. Huh? He asked "Do you have anything for pain?" I said "Yes, but I haven't used them." I thought he was going to prescribe some pain meds, but to my relief he didn't! He prescribed an "Air Cast". Sweet! It will help with the healing process by allowing forward movement and protecting against sideways movement all at the same time. I really need that sideways protection about now, I'm afraid of rolling it again. It hurts like the dickens! My brother the "Super Geek" I try to read my brothers site at least once a day. Yesterday's post left me sitting here with my mouth agape feeling like a complete idiot. Hey Jay, why not stick some more medical terms in there! I know, I know, you can't help it. Wednesday, December 12, 2001 [4:20 PM] Funny with a capital 'F' Check out this dude's renditions of some of your favorite songs. Too funny. I was laughing so hard I almost peed my pants! [3:51 PM] Christmas ideas Here's a good gift for me! What do you mean by "What does it mean?", don't you use a computer? Haven't you ever seen the dreaded Blue Screen of Death? Well if you haven't count yourself lucky. If a driver, or something down low, in the OS does something really bad this is often the result. I've only seen this when I'm hacking out some code and trying something I probably shouldn't be. It's a very RARE occurrence, contrary to popular belief. Oh well, it was just a thought... [9:35 AM] Mornin' Y'All Well my ankle is feeling MUCH better this morning. In the end I think it will be diagnosed as a high ankle sprain. No fractures, no torn ligaments. Than you God! I have a follow up appointment with my doctor tomorrow. We'll see what he says. I'm walking on it today, without pain. It's very sore and stiff but that'll work itself out in time. My foot looks like it belongs to the Stay-Puft Marshmallow man! Weird how it swelled up there? I couldn't stand another day on crunches. I'm so tired in the morning I don't want to get outta bed. Walking around with those things is worse than the sprain itself if you ask me. By the weekend I hope to be plowing the road full steam ahead, we'll see. Caetano Richard is probably one of the most enthusiastic people I've ever met. He's also VERY smart, and has a TON of good ideas. He's like a lot of technology types; smart but doesn't know a thing about business! That's a compliment BTW. His Ivory project is a wonderful idea. It will prove that many different technologies can be glued together to form a cohesive product. He's marrying SOAP, .NET, and Visio's Find Shape feature to allow for the creation of a Super Find Shape. I know he can pull it off if he can just find the time. Anyone out there feel like throwing him some cash? You can also support Richard's new dotnetPowered project by buying something! Tuesday, December 11, 2001 [3:53 PM] Code Review I've been stuck in code review city all day. Man do your eyes get tired after spending all day looking at sample code. I'm sure mine are bloodshot by now, they feel like they're full of sand. CNet News Report: Broadband home use jumps. I want my broadband! Can someone please install something high speed in little Exeter California? Pretty please with sugar on top. [10:06 AM] While I don't think Cass blogs enough what he does blog is straight forward and to the point. Maybe that's why I love reading his site so much? Often time I read what he's written and think to myself truer words were never spoken. Like these for example. The single biggest problem I have when starting a new project is scheduling time. I'm not a linear person. If I get bored I'll go work on something else for a while but that makes it tough on everyone else in the project, especially test. Maybe someday I'll get better at guesstimating my work. [9:55 AM] Good Mornin' Y'All! So I decided to come into the office this morning. The leg is still not ready for prime time though, have you ever tried to climb two flights of stairs with crunches(yes crunches)? Well if you have my hat's off to you! I'm a rookie on crutches. This is the first time I've had an injury that's required them. All my years as a kid and I never had a serious injury. I lived on my bicycle, played baseball, football, and any other sport that required running, jumping, or smashing into each other. What's the worst injury I've suffered to this point? Hmmmm.... torn tendons in my finger and a few stitches on my chin. That's it. Will that keep from from playing? Heck no! Kim and I stopped by some friends house last night and we had a discussion that went down the lines of "isn't it time you stopped playing sports?" My answer to that is flatly NO! I'm in bad enough shape as it is. I can't imagine what would happen if I stopped playing football, basketball, volleyball, and softball. I'd probably fall apart and feel much worse than I do now with the injury. I honestly think the one thing that allowed me to be competitive on the field this year was the fact that I jog three to four days a week. Without that my legs would have grown tired too quickly and that could've lead to a more serious injury. So I'll keep playing until I can't keep up. We had a gentleman on the field that was 60 years old, and he held his own! Back to the grindstone. It's time for me to get a little more serious about the Visio features I need to deliver for the next release. Christmas is coming and I'm going to be taking a week off so I have to get something done! In the meantime keep an eye on Caetano. He's working really hard, in his copious spare time mind you, to create a truly wonderful Visio Find Shape provider! I can't wait to use it! The first SOAP based provider is called ShapeRack, great name! Monday, December 10, 2001 [9:14 AM] Saturday Night Football Well ESPN didn't show up, neither did ABC's Monday Night Football crew, but the game was awesome. You could sure tell by the number of personal fouls committed it's a heated rivalry. Congratulations to the Woodlake Tigers on their victory! They took the game 12-7. It was a hard fought game with lots of carnage. We were our own worst enemy this year, too many stoopid penalties. Most of them personal fouls which carry a 15-yard penalty. Drat! We may hate each other on the field but when the game was over there was room for love. Old college buddies standing on the field, from opposite teams mind you, taking pictures together and giving out hugs. It was fun and we raised a bunch of money for our respective schools. Hey Woodlake we'll see you next year! Big Ouch! There were a few injuries during the game and one of them just so happened to be me. Mid way through the second quarter Woodlake trapped to my side, I'm a defensive end. What happens during this play is the offside guard pulls and is supposed to kick out the opposite defensive end. Well knowing Woodlake and having played against them so many time I knew what was coming. I managed to take on the block and throw the guard aside. That's a good thing, it's what I'm supposed to do! Once I got rid of the guard the running back was on me, and unfortunately I was a little off balance when we made contact. Needless to say my left leg didn't move when we started to fall after contact. On the way down I felt three meaty pops in my ankle! OUCH! I did however make the tackle, they may have gained a yard if that, but I was done for the night. I'm going to see about getting the film of the play from the guy on the field taping. I curious to see if someone stepped on my foot or if it just stuck for some goofy reason. I'll post it if I can get it. Sunday I spent much of yesterday afternoon at the Urgent Care Center in Visalia. The lady at the counter informed me that my last visit was a year ago to the day! YEP! Last year they treated me for a broken nose, the result of last years contest. Someone must have been running a special on ankle injuries. I had three others ahead of me in the x-ray line, all ankles. When the doctor examined me he squeezed about mid way up my calf on the outside, OUCH! He said that was not a good sign, swell. The good thing the x-ray didn't show any signs of fracture but the doc is going to have the radiologist take a look this morning and get back to me. So I'm either looking at stretched or torn ligaments. So I'm currently in a fiberglass cast and stumbling around on crutches, or as I like to call them crunches. Monday Morning When I got up this morning I decided to take my wife's advice and stay home. I'm going to vegetate, keep my ankle elevated, and ice it. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to hobble around a bit easier. It's already feeling better this morning, but that's relative. I still can't put my weight on it and my ankle is the size of a softball. Heck, it hurts all the way up to my knee. Oh well thems the breaks!