Ultranormal

  • Bah humbug to plain curtains!

    When I grow up I want to be a buyer for department stores specializing in curtains so that I can eliminate the 14 different kinds of solid moss green curtains and get some variety in the selection. I went out looking for blue patterned curtains and didn’t find anything but solids, solids, and more solids. Bleh. How boring. I need to find curtains for the office so I can pick a paint color, see? Boo to the stores. I also need to pick a paint color for the new bathroom and the master bathroom. Maybe even my bedroom and the boys’ bathroom, but I am not sure if we’re getting those last two rooms painted.\
    I am also slightly offended that most of my curtain selections come from the kiddie section. Screw you, curtain-meany! Just because I don’t want moss green curtains doesn’t mean I am five!\
    La la la, my life is shallow.\
    What color are the walls in your favorite room of your place?

  • Art in Social Networking Video

    After our Art in Social Networks session at Mashup Camp, someone asked if Greg and I to recap the session. There is a lot more info on the wiki, and Myk O’Leary recorded the whole thing and posted it as well if you’re interested.

  • Yay for surprises!

    Here is the cute story of how Sharon told Aunt Margie about the baby.\
    Tim and Monica, Kev’s brother and sister-in-law, did something similar at Christmas when they were expecting their first child. It was fun.\
    When I was newly expecting Brian, I wanted to tell my parents in a cute way and in person since I had to tell them about Max via the phone. Max and I were going out to visit them so I put Max in a “Big Brother” t-shirt, thinking that my parents would get the reference as soon as they saw him. But no. Mom thought it was a used shirt from Goodwill!!

  • Boooooo.

    I am totally worn out from trying to get ready for the house fix-up. Boo to all of this crap. And I’m not even sure how much greatness a bathroom and a real-walled office will add to my life. I think I might lock all of the other bathrooms, forcing us to use the new one, just so I can feel like it was worth all of this work. I still don’t have any place to put my food storage. Double boo.

  • Random thoughts from a random mind

    • I had a jelly donut yesterday to celebrate Sharon being in the family way. YAY for jelly donuts!
    • A while ago, I joked about needing a camera and Kevin bought me one. Thanks, hon! It has too many buttons to figure out how to use it on my own. Hopefully Kevin will have time soon to help me out. Now all I need is an anniversary band. (Hey, it worked last time.)
    • I miss my folks.
    • Brian’s doing well at soccer camp, except when I am there. He runs over to sit on my lap. Poo. No pictures for posterity.
    • The high school reunion I ditched last week went off without a hitch and it was only in the 80s during the picnic. Totally awesome for those who attended. I love telling people that my high school reunion was last week since it makes me sound 28. In truth, I am 33. 33!!! Whoa. My high school didn’t have a 10 year reunion. I guess it took everyone an extra five years to work up the nerve to go outside in Arizona in the summer.
    • The other night, Brian got out of bed about 10 minutes after I tucked him in and asked Max if he could sleep with him. Max replied, “Did Mommy say it was ok?” When Brian toddled on down to the basement to ask me, I said it was fine. Brian went back up to Max’s room and climbed into bed with him. Later that night, I looked in on them and saw Brian sleeping in the middle of the bed and Max curled around him, trying not to fall off the side. It was totally adorable.
    • Last night Kevin and I were talking about something and I said, “Damn,” stretching it out to two syllables. Brian pops up, “Damn. Daamn. Daayamn.” He said it three or four times until he got the accent and syllables just right. Aww, our son’s first cuss word.

  • circaVie

    It looks like we’re on to something here… first, we launched ficlets. Now, Dave McVicar and crew have launched circaVie. It’s a cool site for building timelines of pretty much anything. There was a bit of overlap in the ficlets and circaVie crew. Jason Garber did most of the markup before he scampered off to join his startup. Jenna Marino, who designed the gorgeous ficlets logo, did UI design for circaVie. Ari Kushimoto, who did a lot of ficlets’ UI, was circaVie’s art director.\
    I love seeing things launch, especially stuff as beautiful as circaVie. It’s an amazing piece of design and engineering. The site is gorgeous (I would say “lickable”, but that’s gotten me in trouble before – not doing it, just saying it, so I’m not saying it). The Flash stuff feels perfectly integrated and the interaction is really smooth. Jayna Wallace was the visual designer and did an amazing job. Corey Lucier did the flash work. Kelly Gifford jumped in and took over the markup when Jason left. Plus, it’s all on Rails!\
    Update: AUGH! Dan reminded me in the comments that I left him out, and I certainly shouldn’t have. Dan Bradley is the operations guy for both ficlets and circaVie, and I’ve worked with him for at least the last five years (probably closer to seven), and he’s one of the best there is. He helped a ton getting ficlets out the door, and I’m sure he’s done the same for circaVie.\
    You really should go check it out. The team worked really hard on it, and it shows.\
    See also: Kelly’s blog post, Mashable and Somewhat Frank.

  • Oh boy! (or girl)

    As announced on Aunt Margie’s blog, Sharon, my little baby cousin (who is also a college graduate and married, but is still totally my little baby cousin) is pregnant!\
    Whoa.\
    SHARON IS PREGNANT.\
    //is stupefied//\
    Congrats, Sharon and Mr. Sharon!

  • Portable Social Networks at Mashup Camp

    I’m doing a presentation today at Mashup University that I’ve titled Tapping the Portable Social Network that’s a code tour of how to create a social network that uses existing social connections and public data to make the sign up process for web sites easier. Of course, this whole idea came from Jeremy Keith.\
    It’s a very simple Rails app (that you can download) that only deals with the login/signup process using both OpenID and AOL’s OpenAuth.\
    Here are the basics…\
    If you log in with OpenID, it:

    1. grabs the identity URL, and looks for some microformats
    2. looks for an hcard and pre-fllls the profile
    3. looks for XFN-encoded links and searches the site for existing users with that homepage and gives you the option to add them as contacts when you sign up.\
      If you log in with OpenAuth, it:
    4. pre-fills your profile with URLs and data we think we know based on your screen name.
    5. grabs your buddy list and looks for folks who logged in with those screennames on the site and gives you the option to add them as contacts.\
      It’s dead simple and poorly documented, but works well so far, and I think the flow makes sense and has possibilities. You’re welcome to take it, the concept, the code, and do whatever you want with it.\
      The next step is to see what other open reliable sources of social data are out there that would make sense to look for during the sign up process.\
      UPDATE: Read the README file! There are several things you need to change in both the configuration, and one line in profile.js. The README documents all of the required changes and where to find them.

  • While the cat’s away…

    I’ve been taking Max to summer camp since Kevin is out of town. It is such a huge headache! Brian has a complete meltdown each day when he can’t stay. He has some fun classes scheduled for next week, but this week is empty. He cries, “Play marbles at Babba’s house” over and over again. But the poor woman is sick, so that is a no-go. We’ll probably go to the pool tomorrow and hit the mall playground sometime but it is way too hot to be outside. The kid’s just gonna have to live with it. Max continues to have fun at summer camp. This morning, at 8 am, he woke me up from my morning nap, “Aren’t you going to take me to camp?” “Why yes, kid, I am. AT A REASONABLE HOUR.”\
    In other news, I’ve picked a contractor. Wheee! Due to HOA approval meetings only happening once a month, I think we are still several weeks away from starting the project. Boo.\
    In preparation for the remodel, I have been de-cluttering like crazy. I love it! I even did some of the kitchen (I currently have 3 empty drawers and 2 empty baskets) and can’t wait to do my bedroom. But the basement comes first, since that is where the construction will be taking place. I do wonder where my Christmas decorations are supposed to go once the storage closet becomes a bathroom. Where does everyone else in a townhouse without a garage stick this stuff? And let’s not even talk about food storage. Ugh.\
    Last weekend was my college choir reunion (for anyone who was taught by the old director) and this weekend is my high school reunion. I am totally ditching both. Who has a reunion, part of which includes an outdoor family picnic, in southern Arizona in JULY? Apparently Arizonans who never left the state, that is who. I took one look at the date and said, “No, thanks.” Yep, I am a complete wuss now when it comes to 110 temps. On the plus side, I traded up for the beautiful spring and fall seasons, the occasional snow storm, and actual water in rivers. I think I got the better end of the deal. (But a big hi! to the former Eagles and Wildcats out there!!)\
    That’s all from here. Not so much playing, but lots of things getting done. Except the laundry. I can’t seem to do something AND the laundry. It is an either/or situation for me. And on that note, I miss Kevin.

  • He’s outta here!

    Kevin is off to Geek Summer Camp (it’s a sleep-away camp!!), which is different than Geek Spring Break but has many of the same people. If you see him, say hi!\
    The kids and I are on our own for the week. Any suggestions for what we should do?