Ultranormal

  • Bethany Beach is for Lawvers

    Last weekend Kevin and I snuck off without the kids and went to the beach. Oh baby, do I love the beach. Just ask my sister-in-law, Monica. She probably still thinks I am crazy after she saw my reaction to the one and only family trip we took to the beach. Huh.\
    We weren’t there for very long, only 46 hours. We didn’t want to wear out the grandma who was watching Max and Brian. The time there was beautiful and relaxing and perfect. Except that Kevin has a broken foot so he can’t drive, can’t walk, and can’t get near the sand. We had this trip planned for weeks and already paid for the room, so we went anyway. He was a good sport about me leaving him in the dust in search of sand, waves, and boardwalk fun.\
    Max makes us watch lots of cooking and food shows. (Who knew that my mini-gourmet husband would produce a mini mini-foodie?) We have been watching lots of shows about summertime and seaside treats featuring caramel corn, cotton candy, fudge, salt water taffy, and frozen custard. By the time we got to Bethany Beach our mouths were watering for it all. I also indulged in shellfish for all my meals, which Kevin is allergic to.\
    The peanut butter fudge I bought made me miss my mom terribly (she likes peanut butter fudge). So I called her. While on a romantic vacation with my husband. So sue me.\
    I spent my time either on beach reading or on the boardwalk shopping and in search of treats. Kevin spent his time reading on the porch. Since it was a really comfy porch with an ocean view and access to cookies and lemonade, I didn’t feel guilty about leaving him alone. I think the only time we were together was for our meals and when we were in the room. Wow, overall it sounds like Kevin had a crappy time, huh?\
    The B&B itself was really nice. It was furnished with antiques. There was even a copy of Madame X by John SInger Sergeant in the hallway outside of our room. For family members, that is the famous painting I called “the black lady” that was in our living room while I was growing up. I felt really at home there. 🙂 I love the B&B experience. It was so homey and lovely and I liked talking to the other guests. Kevin and I were by far the youngest ones there. I am not sure if that was because B&Bs attract an older crowd or because this one was kind of expensive.\
    It was great and we are so going back again sometime. Can’t wait! Who wants to come with us?

  • Upgrading to Betaness

    I’ve upgraded almost all the blogs in the Lawver Blogging Network (didn’t know I had one of those, did you) to the new beta version of Movable Type. So far, it’s awesome. New interface, especially for plugins. The new icons are much nicer than the old ones, and the interface seems a lot snappier. I like that you can do almost anything to one of your blogs from the main screen, and well, it’s just better, OK?\
    The only problem so far is that MarsEdit is saying I have a bad password, when I know it isn’t. Not sure what that’s about, but I’m sure it will get fixed shortly. Ok, there’s another problem too: The FlickrPhotoset plugin no longer works, which is sad, because I love that plugin. Now, I’ll have to start using GetXML to get my list of photosets too (that’s how I get the recent photos).\
    I’d been flirting with WordPress for a project at work, and I just hit a brick wall. It’s not that WordPress is bad. It’s not. It’s very good, but you have to know too much PHP in order to tweak it. So, it’s back to MT, and talking folks into buying a license for it.\
    The power of MT comes not from its technology, but from the template system. I love the fact that I’m not locked into a programming language to use it. I can have my templates spit out PHP, Tcl, or anything else. With most of the other blogging gigs out there, you’re stuck with PHP whether you like it or not (and I’m ambivalent at the moment… I never have enough time to spend getting to know it).\
    If you see anything funky, please let me know.\
    Update – A Couple Tips:

    • If you created a new user for yourself and deleted Melody when you installed, you’ll need to go into the database and tweak your record in mt_author. Set the author_is_superuser field to 1 and update that row.
    • If you use something like MarsEdit to post to your blog, you’ll need to edit your user and add the xml-rpc password. You can do this by clicking your user name at the top right corner of the regular Movable Type admin screen.

  • The Boot Is Not Made For Walking

    Here’s an unfortunate India story for you.\
    Our first day of work in India, someone had forgotten to tell the driver that we needed to be picked up, so we took a cab. The cab let us off across the street from the office, which meant we had to run for our lives across the chaotic three lanes (approximate… they do not believe in lanes in Bangalore) of traffic. Wait, that’s six lanes because it was three lanes going each way. There was a grassy median in the middle of the street offering some sanctuary to the poor bastards (those bastards being us) who couldn’t run fast enough to make it across all six lanes during one red light (which maybe Carl Lewis could do, but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone else do it).\
    You had to wait for a red light before trying to make the dash, and the red lights are short. We waited for the left-hand turning people to go, the right turn folks, and then had about 15 seconds to cross the three lanes before the go-straight folks took off in a rush of dust, fumes, and most importantly, heavy machinery. I almost didn’t make it. In order to dodge the first intrepid motor rickshaw that was about to run me down, I jumped onto the sidewalk…\
    And right into a pothole. I rolled my ankle inward, so I could see the bottom of my shoe when I looked down. I stumbled, caught myself and then swore. It didn’t hurt all that much, but it was definitely weird. It had that wooden feeling of a freshly sprained ankle. It didn’t swell up, and the bruising was minimal, but it felt sprained all week.\
    I spent the next week putting two or three extra socks on it, and walking carefully. By the end of the week, it didn’t hurt too bad, but still felt weird, and I had a noticeable limp. Then I came home. The first week, it started hurting. The second, my limp got worse, as did the pain. I went to see the doctor who ordered x-rays. This morning, I went to the same practice that fixed my ACL five years ago, and they said that definitely something is weird. I have an inflamed tendon that’s pulling a bone out of place (and that really hurts. On top of that, I have (before now undiagnosed) plantar fasciitis which is just now coming out because it’s being aggravated by this other thing. And, all of that is aggravating me.\
    So, to sum up: I’m stuck in a boot that I can’t take off except when I’m driving, which I’m supposed to limit, for four weeks. If I’m not all better in four weeks, I spent four more weeks in the boot. After that, if it’s not better, I get to have surgery. Have a happy summer everyone!

  • Scientology

    There has been a lot of talk lately about Scientology. Most of that is probably to do with Tom Cruise talking nonstop about it. Then of course the media had to make it an even bigger story by talking nonstop about Tom Cruise talking nonstop about it. What I don’t get is what is the big deal? The teachings of Scientology are a little odd, but frankly aren’t all religions? I don’t want anyone to start bashing Scientology, but I seriously don’t get why people are freaked out by it. Tom Cruise most definitely shouldn’t have called out Brooke Shields by name, in my opinion, but if he is against something like mood altering drugs, I have no problem with him speaking out. (And I am on some.) Other religions don’t belive in blood transfusions and some don’t believe in partaking in modern medicine at all. I know they are secretive about things, but again, so are many other religions. Is this “freak out” just because this is a 20th C religion? A lot of people call it a cult. Why is that? Again, wouldn’t most religions be considered cults then? So, if any of you know why the media is making such a big deal about this, I would love to hear it.\
    P.S.- Watch Veronica Mars on Wednesdays at 9pm on UPN.

  • First Tracks

    While I’m waiting for someone to get out of the file I need, I’ll just bang this out while I’m thinking about it. Album first songs. I know it’s almost dead now, what with the single-ification of everything. But, there’s something special about the first song on an album. It creates your expectations for the rest of the album, sets the mood, lays out the tablecloth and silverware… you know.\
    I’ve been listening to a lot more rock lately… and there are some really good first songs out there. Like:

    • Untitled off of Turn On The Bright Lights by Interpol – I don’t think I’ve loved the open guitar solo of a song more since The Smiths How Soon Is Now. Listen, you’ll see.
    • E-Pro off of Guero by Beck – Yeah, this one rocks too. It doesn’t fool around with a gentle intro. It jumps right in and rocks on.
    • Fight Test from Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robot by The Flaming Lips – Concept albums almost feel like cheating, but it works so freakin’ well.
    • I Fought The Angels from Universal Audio by The Delgados – I never get tired of this album, and this song in particular. It’s so good. Simple, elegant and rockin’.
    • Grace Kelly Blues by Eels from Daisies of the Galaxy – You know an album will be fun when it starts with a brass band, and goes into a bouncy little number like this. Perfectly sets up the artful quirk of the rest of the album.\
      Ok, back to work…

  • Think It Through

    Before Jen started blogging here, every post was written by me (or, in one or two cases when Brian was born, by Heather). I was talking to someone yesterday about Jen posting here, and they were surprised. This is someone who reads this site through a feed reader… and then it clicked. Oops.\
    I didn’t think it through. Now we’ve got multiple authors here. I compensated for this on the main site by making our posts different colors (Jen’s are orange, mine are blue). In the feed, I wouldn’t do that, and honestly didn’t think about it. So, as of this post, you should get the right author of each post in the feed, so you can see who the author is. If that doesn’t work, let me know (sorry if it makes all the posts in the feed unread, but it had to happen sooner or later).

  • Too Busy To Think

    There are so many things I want to say about India, but I’m back at work and have been thrown into a huge project with a tight deadline, and all thinking will have to wait.\
    But, I have watched Veronica Mars and Jen was right about all of it. I’m sure she’ll post later and gloat. Oh, and I was wrong about who the murderer was – but so was Jen, so I don’t feel so bad.

  • Bite Me!

    Brian, the cutie that he is, is a biter. Ouch. I don’t know how to get him to stop. Whenever I try, he just giggles. I understand that he thinks we are playing a game and he is doing it for the fun and attention. Max laughs heartily in the background and that doesn’t help the situation. So, if any of you have suggestions on how to get him to stop, I would appreciate you sharing them with us.

  • Another Veronica Mars Spiel

    Another Veronica Mars spiel – watch it Wed at 9pm on UPN\
    I finally got Kevin to watch the first five episodes of “Veronica Mars” and he admitted he really liked it and “it wasn’t what [he] thought it would be.” While the show is set in high school, it is not a high school show. It is definitely an adult show. (I don’t mean an “Oz” or “Sex and the City” type adult show). I mean that the show is not a teen soap opera.\
    Tonight’s episode is #6 “Return of the Kane.” Prepare to be amazed by Harry Hamlin, Jason Dohring, and the ofttimes subtle writing. Again, for new viewers check out the recaps at Television Without Pity for the skipped episodes only (you don’t want to be spoiled.) Also UPN is rerunning the episode during the weekend, so check your local listings if you are a Wednesday night partier and can’t make it home in time to watch Veronica Mars.

  • All The India Pics

    Since I’ve been awake at 4 AM the past two days, I’ve gotten all my India photos up on Flickr. Here they are:

    • In And Around Bangalore
    • On the road to Mysore
    • The Banyan Tree
    • Bird Sanctuary
    • St. Anthony’s and Mysore
    • The Temple
    • The Bull and Monkeys\
      I have very conflicted thoughts about my week in India. I need some more time to get them all together and reconciled before I try to write about them. If I tried to go into it now, I don’t think it would make any sense (not that anything I write ever makes any sense). I met some fascinating and amazing people, saw poverty beyond my comprehension, and had experiences I never thought I’d have (crocodiles… come on!). Pulling it all together into something coherent is going to take some time. Either way, I’m really glad to be home.