I’m babysitting Phoenix, Metro’s little sibling. It’s good relaxing, since I just can’t be at the computer all that much, at least not with an internet connection.

I’m getting some coding done on my mail programs. ‘tis fun, and maybe I’ll have usable code shortly. I can already log into the IMAP server.

<cryptic>Scheming with Fiona is fun</cryptic>

I love how topics come up at the same time in two places at once.</

Today, #ruby-lang and #nbtsc were both discussing keyboard layouts.

[13:38:52] <kig> there’s not much you can’t do in 500 lines of ruby :>

[13:39:11] <flowhase> kig: write a 501+ lines programm?

[13:40:26] <kig> flowhase: File.open(“501_line_program.rb”,“w”){|f| 501.times{|i| f.puts “puts #{i}”}} # took only one line

I’m spacy and tired. I saw Carrie off at 7:15 this morning; the bus was late, as expected — though that didn’t save us from sitting out in the cold from 6:15 onward.

There was a fellow getting off the bus, trying to get to Telluride, when Carrie got on. I chatted with him for a bit, and then as he was hunting for cardboard to make a To Telluride sign, I invited him to breakfast. It was pleasant conversation until 8:40 or so. I went to coffee, saw Ethan and Eric and went to work.

I worked on the Southwest Aero database all afternoon — Shad, if you’re reading this, you haven’t seen a hard-to-install database server until you’ve seen Microsoft SQL Server — which took far longer than I’d hoped. It’s working now, though my actual data file is corrupt, so I’m requesting a new copy.

The connection to the internet at home keeps dying because of a nasty bug in the radio firmware. I got 45 seconds of run time out of it last time before giving up. I’m still at work.

So truth is stranger than fiction.

The reason it smelled like skunk so strongly is that my dad got skunked on the way into the office to pick up a part. He went in and got it anyway, so the office stunk like that. He got skunked by helping Dan Mosle, the town park guy, catch the thing in a trash can since it had been hurt by a dog. Just as they were putting the lid on, the thing sprayed straight up in the air and it came down on my dad’s head.

I myself almost got a chance to experience the same thing twice today, once by a skunk I startled in broad daylight in the alley on my way to get lunch, and the other that was happily munching from my compost pile as I came home just a few minutes ago.

Something got in a fight with a skunk outside the back door to my office. I think it lost, because it’s nearly unbearable in here.

The culinary delights for this evening include a quesadilla made with Jack cheese, a roasted Boldog paprika, and a roasted Anaheim chile; a Colorado peach; and anise-spiced eggplant.

Our first choir practice was tonight. We’re singing fairly English christmas music, but we’ve got some of my favorites, like the Glaucestershire Wassail Song, and we’re singing Personent Hodie, though not an edition I care for particularly much. Alita, the conductor, needs to chill out a bit — she is rather high-strung this time around, and spends more time explaining things than we do doing them. She’s always done this somewhat, but the beginning of the year is always worst.

And now, off to more delightful conversations in #RDFIG and #NBTSC.

Today started with the parade, which I did go to. It was fun, more candy than ever thrown. It became breakfast and lunch. I ended up at the Chipeta, talking about phones again and ended up spending the day making Josh’s fancy IP phone go. A rather productive day!

So I ended up having a Funky day.

I got up at 9, and decided to have coffee before breakfast, just in case Ethan and Eric were out for their usual Sunday morning. They were — and this turned rapidly into a two hour chat about everything from politics to the molecular got structure of microwaved food. Then came the invitation to go hiking, so we skipped by the farmers market, where the peppers are finally in — I finally got my favorites, the hungarian paprikas. Then we went to Ouray, Ethan showed me his studio/lab, as well as the guts to Audiorack, his station-automation software that he’s mixed together. Pretty nice user interface for Real Basic!

Afterward, we hiked Bear Creek Trail, then hung out for a bit, then went to the Buen Tiempo and had a couple pints of 1554, then came back (a bit too tipsy for my taste) and hung out at Eric’s, then ate curried cous-cous with roasted peppers. I’m home now, twelve hours after I left. I love unplanned days like this.

In other news, my phone hasn’t rung recently. That means my day off really is.

Some statistics. I’ve worked on 213 PLD packages in some way, making up 553 revisions. 124 of those packages are ones I added to the distribution. There are 7700 packages in total, and about 6000 of those are actually released for public consumption. And people ask me what I do in my free time.

Carrie just called!

They’ve been working on Lizard Head Pass outside of Telluride, so really close. Very cool.

I’ll have to try and visit her when she’s back in Durango and off on the 9th, 10th and part of the 11th.

I went to Sandy’s for breakfast, and had an egg and biscuit with coffee. I love simple things, you know? The best part, however, was running into the crew from SYC that I played frisbee with, and I sat with them.

Picture a blonde-haired, dread-headed but clean-cut Jake Matilsky. That would be Andrew, right down to looking at the food left by another patron when they left, and commenting on how he aught to just take it and eat that instead.

Now it’s rainy, about fifty degrees, and at least ten degrees wind-chill. It feels positively Olympic here, and that’s welcome by me. The garden (what survived the frost, which was most of it) is doing well and could use the moisture.

Hopefully, I can make today a productive coding day. I think the temperature and ambiance can’t do anything but help.

Envies: Sarah for flying. Tessa for being off at a spiffy college, and anyone who doesn’t have a permanent job for being free to travel.

Likes: coffee, late night walks, and things that are designed Right.

Dislikes: not knowing if there’s a skunk about, cars that don’t signal turns, and network connections that don’t.

I’m tired, and sore from frisbee. I didn’t come home until late, so I didn’t eat right. Silly me.