5,000 dead bugs on the windshield later....I am back from the Blue. I am being labelled "anal" by Felicia, but I call it being a fan. Whatever the case I have some pictures coming soon - the old camera failed, but Felicia's worked. I'm excited about getting these back from the developer (and I hereby declare that I am going digital after this). I snagged my second painting from the show (if you haven't seen it, it's hard to explain) which was a spur of the moment thing. It's sitting next to its older brother now, and they look kool in the black light.

I also got to take in more of the city itself this time. We took a tour of the bay and part of the Chicago river on a tour boat. Lemme tell ya - the Sears tower is huge. It's even bigger when you're down on the river looking straight up at it. Trivia for you, courtesy Wendella boats - the Chicago river is the only one that flows in reverse, and was made to do that by the human race to control sewage. It takes about three months for the water in Lake Michigan entering the river to flow all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Also included in the weekend was a brief jaunt through The Museum of Science and Industry, which is fantastic. I'd been there when I was much younger and didn't get to see enough of it then either. I think I will be taking the kids back with me to see that one - Adam woulda loved Engine 999 (the first man made machine to break the 100mph barrier) and all of the planes in there. So would I. ;)

I've been remiss. Alysha has lost a tooth, number three. The tooth fairy left her a dollar bill folded up like a paper airplane. That got a reaction that the tooth fairy (who was eavesdropping incognito the next morning) didn't expect. A very happy one. Both of the wee ones are doing well in school. Alysha reads voraciously - practically every printed word we encounter is pronounced and practiced. If that sounds silly...you don't know what you're missing. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Melinda claims that I am up late because I'm talking to "chicks from all over" and she may have a point. My argument is that I am trying to make a new entry in this little blog to give the appearance that I work on the site. Just kidding, I do have a lot of time invested and I confess to being lazy for the last two or three weeks. I fix it real good soon now y'all hear?

It won't be this weekend. I'm thrilled to announce: I'm going to see the Blue Man Group perform at the Briar Street theatre in Chicago with my friend Felicia. It promises to be excellent, this time in the fifth row. Raincoat territory. You can bet that I will be on here gloating about it after I get home Monday night. Mahaa! (don't bother looking that up at Dictionary.com!) Hey Kevin: it's down to a matter of hours. }:->

I've spent a lot of time scanning the last few days but not learning Dreamweaver. I'll get there, OK? Patience. The scanning has involved a lot of older photos from both my father and mother's sides of the family. Some of these date back to ca. 1910, so I do mean old and fragile. I'm really excited about this phase of the site's development. Although I haven't really fixed the other pages yet, I've decided that for the time being I will leave them that way while I work on some really cool things for you all. All 7 of you who look at the pages herein that is. ;)

Aunt Anne has made it home safely and appears to have enjoyed her visit thoroughly. She had brought along two photo albums on her visit, and I learned a lot about my Dad's family from her. I suspect Dad knows (I can tell you about it here because he forgets to check out the site...jab) and just never talked about it. He is now. So is Mom, in fact. Scanning in these photos and everyone looking at them, reminiscing, has been so wonderful. Mom and Dad are remembering, I am seeing things for the first time that give me a new perspective on my life.

More soon, the night grows late and I must rise tomorrow at a decent hour. Love to you all, my friends and my family.

Back from my trip to Atlanta!! I have many pictures that will be forthcoming as soon as I can get them back. I still don't have a digital camera so it takes a bit of time to go through the development process, and I always order a CD along with it so I don't have to spend hours scanning, cropping, yada yada. You'd think that I would be smart enough to get a good night's sleep after working all day and then driving over 400 miles in the evening, but I'm not doing that yet....although I can feel it coming on like a ton of bricks. No children tonight, they are with TED (the uninitiated can wonder about that statement but many will know what I mean). Hey, my cats and my pooch were glad to see me. But I miss Guenhwyvar. ;)

Trillian .74's been released. So has Trillian Pro. What are you waiting for? Why haven't you gone pro? I donated because I liked it so much. To hell with four or five chat clients! Go get it now. I made converts out of a few people this week in Atlanta...Keely, Melinda and Robin come to mind, and I think Melinda got Loren to make the switch too. Brava! Even better, since Trillian is IRC-aware, we're all having fun with it.

Maybe now that I am back, I can finally fix the rest of this website. I have a strong suspicion that FrontPage is the reason that it's chewed up and not working correctly. This means that I am at a crossroads: shucking FrontPage after using it for a long time (which I plan to do at some point now), and fixing the current design with Dreamweaver, or just making it work tolerably while I work on the advanced version that will implement a database and content management system. I don't want to spend too many cycles fixing something that will be replaced, so if you think I need to get what is up here working first....please, please please let me know.

More later....after a good night's sleep. In my bed. It's good to be home.

Looks like I finally got somewhere with the website. Whatta pain! The upper/lowercase thing has been a nightmare to fix....this is one case where Microsoft really, really should have stuck with standards. FrontPage doesn't offer any easy way to correct the URLs or any code in your website that's not compliant with a Unix system. Their contempt for anything other than Windows is appalling and has made a lasting impression.

There is a new page that I invite you to visit. Melinda Mock, a friend and co-worker of mine in Atlanta, GA, was looking for a place to put her beloved picture of herself with Tori Amos. If you have a moment, slide on over and take a gander at the page. In case you're wondering - Melinda is the good looking one (no offense, Tori). More later...I'm really sick of computers right now. :)