22 Pound Turkey

My wife and I are hosting Thanksgiving dinner again this year. I think I need a 22 pound turkey, which is close to what I have done the past. At one point the turkey was bigger than my kids. Now my children can eat a 22 pound turkey in a single sitting. When did that happen?

No Photos

I was trying to upload photos but the blog doesn't seem to want to take them. The two photos I have included will only show the smaller inline versions, not the full sized images. Hmmm...

We put a barracuda anti-spyware/anti-virus appliance in place at work. I can read my blog, but can't post from work anymore. I didn't post from work very often. At lunch occasionally, but that was pretty rare.

It's been a long and busy few weeks at work.

Neverwinter Vault Interview

I was interviewed by Neverwinter Vault, for Eye of the Serpent, a module I created for Neverwinter Nights. The interview is posted here. Take a peak and let me know what you think!

Star Wars Humor

My wife found this clip on you tube. I found it entertaining. Someone put some work into it. Star Wars Lego/Music Video

Neverwinter Nights 2, Tired and Work Stuff

I worked with the Neverwinter Nights 2 toolset over the weekend. I converted an old TSR module for Neverwinter 1, and it really helped me learn how to use the toolset/editor. I thought converting the same module would be minimize work not related to learning about the new toolset.

The two screen shots here represent my initial at creating the external of the shirne that players will see at the end of the module. I am pretty happy with how they look. I've built a few other areas. The toolset is powerful and complicated. I have a lot to learn, but I am enjoying myself so far.

On an unrelated note, I am tired. My eldest son is serving as an acolyte at Church each day this week. I am excited and proud, but we are getting up about 30-45 min earlier to get him where he needs to be on time. UGH! I am exhausted. I need some coffee.

I have I busy week at work too. This Friday Chapter Executives from around the world will visit ISA. I will speak briefly to them on Friday, hang around for meet & greet dinner, and then go back on Saturday for lunch to help with any IT questions they might have. One week from Friday, I will install new hardware, specifically a firewall and anti-spyware/anti-virus appliance. We've got outside help, which should help the installation go as smoothly as possible.

Cold

I have a cold, or perhaps a virus, and it is quite cold today. It was freezing when I woke up and has reached 43 degrees now (about 11am). Regarding my cold, it's not bad, I am just tired and feel groggy. It's a little hard to concentrate.

There are a few sick people at work, and I took my 4 year old to the doctor yesterday, so I could have picked something up from a variety of sources.

Hall of Fame Module

The last module I wrote for Neverwinter Nights, Eye of the Serpent, made the Hall of Fame on Neverwinter Vault. The module is posted here.

Someone is reading my blog!

Someone is actually reading my blog! I didn't know anyone was, but my cousin, Chris Gould, posted a comment yesterday. It really made my day to hear from him and be back in touch with him.

On another note, I am tired. I was up WAY to late. I was invited to be interviewed from a Neverwinter Nights module I wrote that made the hall of fame on Neverwinter Vault I wrote answers to the interview questions and have my wife and friend proofing and commenting on them. I'll post them soon.

SQL Server Issues

We did some network maintenance for work last weekend. We hit a problem after changing the serivce account SQL runs under to an account with least permissions. We fixed it this week, but I'm not sure why the fix worked. I'm trying to research it. More on the issue and resolution can be found here.

Happy

I'm having a pretty good day. I have to work late and possible some or all of the weekend, but I still feel good. I stopped at home over lunch and my wife had cleaned up a bit. I looked around and was greatful for my wife, and not just because she cleaned. I am blessed with a wonderful wife, three great kids and a fantastic house. I am very lucky.

Burgers fried in 94 year old grease

This is too disgusting to imagine. Burgers fried daily in 94 year old grease. Link to news article.

Another funny video

This video is pretty good two, watch the lizard in the lower left corner.

Funny Videos

This is too good to let it pass by. Weird Al's new video.

Also funny is this video about D&D. The humor is somewhat in appropriate in places.

Toys in the Toilet

Yesterday I decided to cook something nice. I spent the afternoon shopping and making home made pizza. It was going great, the crust was rising, it smelled terrific. I sat down with my wife and kids, and took two bites, when my three year old started crying in the bath room, "Daddy I'm all wet".

I went to see what was up and the toilet and all the nasty stuff you'd expect to see in a toilet was overflowing on the flow. I kicked off my good sandles and walked in, my socks and jeans quickly becoming wet with... stuff. I got my three year old out, pulled off the top of the tank and stopped the flow of water.

My wife brought me a plunger, and I plunged and plunged until a few duplo blocks came up. I fished them out (now up to my ankles and elbows in stuff) and tossed them in the nearby trash.

With some work the toilet would almost overflow and flush very slowly. Not good.

After a quick check of my plumbing book and a consult with my dad, a handyman around the house, I determined I needed to remove the toilet and check the trap for more toys. If they went past the toilet trap into the house pipes or house trap I'd be in big trouble.

I get the toilet apart and almost removed. I struggled to get the nuts holding the toilet to the floor of, but avoided using the hacksaw, which was almost necessary.

After two hours I was still laughing about the whole thing and had kept my sense of humor. I asked my 11 year old what I was still doing, hoping for an answer along the lines of "laughing" or "keeping my sense of humor". He said, "You are still removing the toilet." Oh well.. he did eventually get the lesson.

After 2.5-3 hours the toilet was in the front yard. My wife, eldest son and I shook, flipped over, poked and prodded the toilet until we produced 6-12 duplo blocks, 1 thomas the tank engine caboose, a small car, 75 cents in change and a ... a... well something you'd expect in a toilet.

The toilet is on our front deck. I purchased a wax seal today and will re-install it today.

My three year old seems to understand the problem and has promised never to flush toys down the toilet again.

I forgot the toilet was gone late last night and went in to relieve myself. I came back out and asked my wife if I should go in the hole in the floor or step out on the front lawn and aim at the pot.

I'm still laughing. Got to keep my sense of humor.

ASP.NET 2.0 (continued)

I picked up Visual Studio 2005 at work and have been converting 1.1 site to 2.0 web application projects. It took 5 work days of mis-steps, learning, research and interuptions, but yesterday I finally had it down and really started cranking through the converstion.

There will be clean up ahead but it's a good start. I learned a lot, and expect bugs and more learning ahead but thus far I am pleased.

iPOD

The iPOD my sister gave me is dead. Totally dead. I had someone at best buy look and they are pretty sure it's the hard drive. I've heard it's $50 to have apple replace the battery, I expect the hard drive would be more, so... that's the end of the iPOD. :-(

ASP.NET 2.0

We upgraded to the asp.net 2.0 framework at the office today. We havne't altered the site, just the frame work on the servers. All the sites are still configured to use ASP.NET 1.1.

We upgraded the development server. No problems. 5 min, piece of cake. We upgraded the intranet server, again no problems. Finally we updated the live web server. BAM! Problems. Anti-virus warned someone was tampering with the computer. Then it wouldn't shut down IIS to complete the installation. I couldn't cancel or roll back. Two restarts later the server booted up with A/V off and IIS off, then the install went fine. Services were down for 30 minutes. UGH! Pain in the you know what.

Jury Duty, Books and an Old Friend

I just wrapped up Jury Duty. I was called for a week, but only needed to be there 2.5 days. Of those days I sat in the jury assembly room 90% of the time and read some books. I made it into the court room twice, but was never called to sit in the jury panel. No one asked questions, and I didn't get on a jury. I would really like to do so, and although I understand simply by being present I was participating and helping, it would have been nice to see the whole process.

One of the books I read while on Jury Duty was 1776 by David McCullough. I would HIGHLY recommend it. I'm a Revolutionary War buff, and learned a great many new things. All of McCullough's subjects came to live vividly. It was an entertaining and informative read.

I got an e-mail today from an old friend. Someone I had not heard from since the mid 1980's. He saw my posts on some gaming sites and dropped me a line. It was a very pleasant surprise. Hopefully we'll write from time to time.

Neverwinter Nights 2 Beta Test

There is a closed Neverwinter Nights beta test coming up. One for the game and the other for the toolset. I have applied to participate in both. Could be fun!

Punny

“Did you hear about the vampire who used to torture his victims with music? His Bach was worse than his bite.”