April 18: Some numbers

Five idiots

``The government has a legitimate and substantial interest in preserving and promoting fetal life,'' Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority.

One would think the government would have an even more legitimate and substantial interest in promoting maternal life. But, you know, women aren't really people.

Nine inches

Water level in the basement after this weekend's rain.

Four weeks

How long Tobi will be with us this September.

Eleven miles

How far I biked Saturday.

April 5: Fighting the good fight

I'm in a not putting up with misogyny mood lately. And yes, criticizing mothers wihout evidence is misogyny.

April 4: Like I said

Changing Daylight Savings Time is not an energy policy. Maybe now we can revert on schedule, and I won't have to get out of bed in the dark so much.

Also: web retailers, unless your site is so bad that it makes mortal enemies of your potential customers, there is no reason to "turn off" your site while you udate it. All you do is annoy your customers and lose sales.

I've never really liked Alanis Morrisette. Yeah, I have a problem with people who don't understand irony, and that one breakup song? Breaks my first rule: don't give him the satisfaction. Anyhow. Finally, an Alanis song I can like. Still too much crying. Would have liked more realistic moves. But hey, she's grown up.

March 18

Bloggers and other web amateurs note: if you are giving props to something, say, a book, and your link text is "this," your readers will have no idea what you are talking about when the server you link to goes down. Just FYI.

Internet merchants note: if your customers need to use Google to find your product pages because they can't get to them from your home page, they are much less likely to buy anything.

Also note: if you can't write a retail site without JavaScript, be prepared to lose sales.

I'm just saying.

March 16: McGlinchey's

Finally uploaded the photos from McGlinchey's in February. Jo-Ann and Anita should get a kick out of it. Photos not really great, but I do like the sign. This was part of the Philly Photobloggers, and they have a group Flickr site, but I'd have to get my own Flickr account, and, and, and.

March 2: This is what I woke up to

I worked from home today; either I've gotten the bug that gave Jake a four-day fever, or the sudden warm spell has crippled my sinuses. Thus, I had the pleasure of checking the sump pump every hour. I moved it about an hour ago, and pulled some debris out. Fifteen minutes ago I could hear it going gang busters. A little too well, really. Take a peek downstairs to find the hose is loose and spraying dirty water all over the washer, dryer and second fridge. Sorry I didn't get a video.

And now you see why we don't let anyone in the basement.

January & February 2007 May & June 2007

What I'm reading

• Beginning XSLT 2.0 More of an all-encompassing XSLT reference. Now, if we can only find it -- Jorj cleaned it up.
• Agatha Christie. Gena, I told you I'd read them again. I do find I can't read through the more mannerly X people in the country house novels so much any more. I desire a bit more action.
• Anansi Boys, Neal Gaiman. What can I say? The man can tell a story.
• Ajax in Action From the very beginning, it emphasizes refactoring code (ok) and using libraries. However, it never seems to get into DOM and parsing XML from AJAX. The code samples have no comments indicating that this file depends on this other library. The style is pure object-oriented, annoying for those of us who skipped the DHTML bandwagon. But between the book, Jorj, and working with the DOM using Perl for XML, I think I've got it.
• Information Dashboard Design Reviewed (by the writers of the Head First books) as a more practical Tufte, but the prose left something to be desired. Still, it did make me want to crunch some numbers.
• Baking: From my Home to Yours, Dorie Greenspan. I picked it up on a whim, and fell in love while reading it on the train. So far I've made the lemon-poppyseed muffins (yum! found an error in the recipe) and the lemon curd (good taste, didn't gel properly).

What I'm listening to

• The Cars, The Cars Replacing the vinyl collection.
• Bruce Springsteen, Darkness on the Edge of Town I'll horrify Gena, Anita, Jack, Jorj, Lynn — just about everyone — and say I like Springsteen. Always have. Correction: Anita not horrified, and surprised I'm a fellow Springsteen fan.
• Lily Allan, Alright, Still For a WXPN artist to watch, not as good as I'd hoped. Heard the single "Knock 'Em Down" (about pick up artists in bars) and thought it was great, but her voice isn't that strong and her lyrics a bit too rythmless free verse. She does have some good commentary, such as "Alfie" and "Nan Your a Window Shopper" and "Dreams," but she also seems to go clubbing, and sings about it, and I just fast-forward that one.
• Pzizz at night. This was my Christmas present from Jorj.

What I'm excited about

• Sleep!
Finally getting a grip on Ajax
• Baking
• Reading (see above)
• Yoga: Jorj got me new DVDs for Christmas
• Someone's second birthday
• iPhone