January 2007

There were 56 posts published in January 2007 (this is page 3 of 6).

Sleeping Success Sadly Short-lived

I should have known it was too good to last.

My wonderful nights of sleep seemed to have evaporated after four or five days. Whatever magic was in the pills seems to have battled its adversary and lost. I’m back to snoring and waking up not nearly as refreshed as before. Bummer.

I’m putting a call back in with my ENT today. Eventually I’ll probably get my sinuses fixed with FESS surgery but for now I wonder if a different antibiotic might put me back where I used to be. The doc also mentioned a tonsillectomy might improve my nighttime breathing.

In short, I’m back to square one after being thrilled beyond belief at how well I was sleeping. I’ve just got to figure out how to get back to where I was.

Snow!

We had a nice surprise this morning with the snow. I was beginning to wonder when it would snow again since we hadn’t seen it lately.

It was the good kind of snow, too. The kind that melts on its own and lasts just long enough to torpedo the morning commute. There was no problem with the roads, actually, and had I absolutely had to I would have been fine driving the 18 miles into work. Being that I are a sales engineer, I can work from anywhere. So I did just that, spending the day in the home office. But not before I joined the family for some backyard sled rides and snowball fights!

It was funny hearing Travis sing “Jingle Bells” as he tromped around the yard, and Hallie had a blast tagging her mommy with snowballs.

MT.Net Updated

Y’all may have noticed some squirrelly behavior on MT.Net today. I chose to upgrade the Drupal database that hosts this site. As to be expected it was not a smooth upgrade. I spent time here and there chasing down missing tables and hacking SQL everywhere.

I think things are stable now (at least as stable as anything on MT.Net can be, ha). Holla if you find something out of place.

Puzzlin’ Evidence

I used to have this CD but it walked off some time ago. I miss it.

Puzzlin’ Evidence
Talking Heads

You got the CBS…!
And the ABC…!
You got Time and Newsweek!
Well, they´re the same to me!

Now don´t you wanna get right with me?
(Puzzling Evidence)
I hope you get ev´rything you need
(Puzzling Evidence)
Continue reading →

New I-540 Link Drastically Cuts Commute

Two days does not a trend make, but I’m really encouraged by the difference I’m seeing in my commute since the new stretch of I-540 opened from Capital Boulevard to U.S. 264. Today I cruised down Capital Boulevard, getting to work in fourteen minutes, half the time it normally takes! I was amazed to make such good time. My evening commute is just as dramatically better.

The big difference is the drastic drop in truck traffic. Trucks heading east to Knightdale (or as the truckers called it, “Nightmaredale”) and U.S. 64 used to pile onto Capital for a slow crawl down to 401 or the Beltline, where they would inevitably be in the far right lane and need to merge left to get on the inner Beltline. The Beltline end of Capital was always a mess as a result.

Now trucks heading east roll right past Capital, making it driveable again. In fact, traffic moves better for commuter traffic than weekend traffic does, since the traffic lights aren’t apparently synched on the weekends.

Monday was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, so I expected smooth traffic then. Tuesday must have been Stupid Driving Day, where in spite of the I-540 opening there were multiple accidents all down Capital. Today is the first real test of the new traffic and so far it looks good. I thought I’d be the last one to crow about a new slab of concrete but this one was obviously long overdue.

[Update:] Welcome News and Observer readers!

Wintery Stuff On The Way?

This just in from the National Weather Service. Could freezy stuff be on the way?

A CHANCE OF SOME SLEET OR FREEZING RAIN THURSDAY MORNING

TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED TO DROP TO BETWEEN 28 AND 32 DEGREES TONIGHT
AND CONTINUE TO AROUND DAYBREAK THURSDAY. A TROUGH OF LOW PRESSURE
WILL DEVELOP NEAR THE GEORGIA-SOUTH CAROLINA COAST EARLY THURSDAY
CAUSING MOIST AIR TO FLOW NORTHWARD INTO CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA.
THIS WILL CAUSE AREAS OF PRECIPITATION TO DEVELOP FROM SOUTH TO
NORTH…STARTING NEAR THE SOUTH CAROLINA BORDER BY DAYBREAK AND UP
TO THE VIRGINIA BORDER BY 11 AM. Continue reading →

Kelly Gets Quoted In The N&O

The N&O did a story today on parenting-focused blogging. It ran in this morning’s Life, Etc. section with a nice quote from Kelly. No mention of the Hallie And Travis page, though. Kelly decided she didn’t want it in the article. That doesn’t stop me, though!

North Raleigh blogger and mom Kelly Swanson Turner says friends and family with young children often look for help on her blog, where she writes about her son and daughter.

“Friends will hit parenting roadblocks and say, ‘I wonder if there’s anything on the blog about it and look it up,’ ” she says.

Its kinda nice being married to a celebrity. I could get used to this!
Continue reading →

Whole Lotta Things

Whole Lotta Things
Southern Culture On The Skids

Well I hate a good daydream ’cause once its gone
the taste in my mouth seems to linger on
Rub my eyes, looking down at my shoe
said man there’s a lotta things I’d like to do
Whole lotta things that I’d like to do
Lot in this world that I’d like to do

Well I never had sex in a hurricane
Or ran around naked in the pouring rain
never been to New Guinea
or built an igloo
but that don’t mean that I wouldn’t like to
Continue reading →

Google Earth Now For Linux

I was happy to see this morning that Google has released a version of Google Earth for Linux.

I’m fortunate not to need to boot to Windows often but using Google Earth has always been one reason. Now I can have that Earthy goodness using Linux too. Mondo cool, man.

I’m glad to see that one of the biggest Linux-using companies on the planet is releasing Linux versions of their amazing apps.