Ultranormal

  • The Book Has Arrived!!

    The Book Has Arrived!!

    Not in stores or anything, but I got my author copy of Adapting to Web Standards from the very nice FedEx guy today. Christopher Schmitt had to convince me over IM to actually take the plastic wrap off and take a peek inside.\
    There’s something really weird about seeing something I wrote in a real book… one that has my name on the cover, on the back of it… etc. But, here it is, sitting next to me on the desk – yep, still has my name on it.\
    I took a look through it, and it’s gorgeous. New Riders went full-color with it, and it’s just plain lovely. My chapter’s been edited to the point it actually makes sense, and the other chapters are stellar (I wouldn’t say anything if they weren’t, but they are really good). What I like about the book is it’s not flowery. There’s real actionable stuff in it, and advice for how to solve not only the technical challenges of a project, but the human ones. There’s a ton of good stuff in there, and I’m not saying that because I wrote a part of it (the good stuff is in the other chapters anyway).\
    I had a lot of help. Kevin Luman, Michael Richman and David Artz all sat through interviews (I’m sorry, guys), and Christopher Schmitt and Victor Gavenda (our editor) were always ready with an encouraging word or constructive feedback. And of course, Jen already puts up with a lot, with travel and long hours. She was very nice about letting me disappear for several weeks after getting home from work to go write.\
    I can’t wait to have people read it and see what you all think. A lot of smart people worked on it, and I think it’s easily the best writing I’ve ever done (and then edited even more to make it readable!). I’m honored that Christopher asked me to help out, and I’m pretty damned proud of the result.

  • Shake It Up

    Yesterday was apparently Lawver day at Cheeburger, Cheeburger, the new burger place by Wegman’s. Kevin, the kids, and I went there for dinner last night. Their onion rings were so OMG!delicious, Kevin was really happy with his burger, and I was really happy with my salad. The highlight of the place, though, is the drinks. They have over 50 shake flavors, and you can mix and match more than one to create something unique. I didn’t order a shake with my meal thinking that I would get one to go before we left. (I remember rushing my order during my first visit to Cold Stone Creamery last year and how I was horribly disappointed with my choice- plain chocolate and nuts. What was I thinking??- and spent the rest of the visit trying to snag tastes from other people.) This time I knew to take my time. I spent all of dinner going over the awesome shake combinations: raspberry chocolate marshmallow, strawberry pineapple upside down cake, mango coconut cream pie, peppermint smores, caramel banana cheesecake. There are just too many awesome ones to name. They need a little taster menu of three tiny shakes. 🙂 They also had tons of other old-fashioned drinks, like floats, ice cream sodas, egg creams, and sodas. It was too much! I was paralyzed with indecision. I ordered water and didn’t get a shake to go after all. HA!\
    Earlier in the day, Kevin’s mom and sister went there for lunch. Heather waxes poetic about their burgers but completely neglects to mention the shakes! Silly girl.

  • Oh no!

    Max’s ‘intro to martial arts’ class was canceled because he was the only one signed up. Drat.

  • Woot-ish.

    The past couple of days, Brian has been sleeping in until 5:30, give or take a few minutes. It’s so awesome, I love it. This is happening just in time for us to go to Mississippi where he can once again wake up at 4:30. (Cries.)

  • Yay TV

    Dexter really messes with my brain sometimes. The show is so fascinating and yet the character is so self-involved, in a completely unattractive way, he could have been a regular on 30-something. I still find myself rooting for him. It’s crazy. Manipulative tv bastards make some good stuff, though, huh?\
    Who else is watching this show?

  • Say what?

    One of the kindergarten teachers at Max’s school doesn’t use correct grammar. What’s up with that?\
    While on the phone with the office at the school, the woman who answered kept saying, “Try later,” because she didn’t understand what I was asking. What’s up with that?\
    Grrrrrrr.

  • You know what?

    I have got to stop feeling guilty about going out to lunch.

  • These are a few of my favorite things

    • Amazon’s Unbox. No more cheating! Yay.
    • The bathroom in the lower level.
    • My new \$4 purse.
    • Target.
    • My super fuzzy winter blanket.
    • My brown and white polka dotted ballet flats.
    • Stealing Kevin’s hoodies.\
      What are some of your favorite things?

  • Snow Morning, yay!

    As a parent, I really dislike snow days, unless it is due to a huge snowstorm when even Kevin can’t get to work. But snow mornings? Snow mornings I love!! Snow mornings are when schools open two hours late. It means that even though Brian woke me up really early, I could crash on the couch after I got him some cereal and found a cartoon for him to watch. He mostly left me alone but would come poke me every half hour or hour to get him something more to eat or drink. Also, Max got to sleep in an extra two hours. Lately he has been naturally waking up after 8. School days, though, I have to get him up at 6:30 and then the three of us scurry around the house frantically. But snow mornings are super relaxed and leisurely. Yay for snow mornings!

  • Snow!

    The kids and I spent almost two hours outside playing in the snow after Max came home from school. Building a snowman is surprisingly difficult. Then we came inside for hot chocolate and feety pajamas. YAY!*\
    *This is totally the sanitized version. The real version is that Max clomped around the house yelling for me after getting home. He woke both Brian and me up from a lovely nap. I scurried to get Max into his snow clothes. Brian flopped around crying because he was upset at being disturbed. Then he cried about wanting to go outside to play with Max. While I gathered Brian’s snow clothes and dressed him, he continued to cry. Lovely. I couldn’t get Brian’s snow gloves on properly, so we settled for a knit pair. Then I dressed myself. Off we went! I couldn’t find the camera, so no pictures. There were lots of other kids outside already. Max and the older kids snowboarded a little. Brian apparently sweet talked an older girl into sledding with him. They went up and down over a million times and Brian didn’t have to do any of the hard work! It was really cute to see. I plopped down and was instructed by Daisy, the cute neighbor girl, to build the head of a snowman. But! But I kept crushing the head. After awhile, Daisy’s mom came out and we chatted. OMG adult time! Best part of my day. Brian soldiered on with only his knit gloves for quite awhile, but eventually his little frozen fingers became too painful. I shoved the snow gloves on and we both pretended they fit ok. The kids played for awhile more. When I finally told them to go inside, they pouted. I sent them in first so that I could shovel our sidewalk. When I got inside, the kids were complaining about being stuck in their snow clothes. Brian started to scream and wanted all of his clothes off. Neither kid wanted their new pajamas on. When I dared to pause taking care of them to get my own snow clothes off, they demanded hot chocolate. After taking a drink, Brian immediately dissed it and wanted “real chocolate milk” instead. While stirring and whipping the hot chocolate, both kids started begging for dinner. Forty-five minutes later everybody is finally quiet and content.