Personal: April 2004 Archives
April 10, 2004
Jenny and I went to a play last night, called The Shelter, written by a friend of ours. On the way there, as we were getting off the highway, there was a woman standing on the median with a sign (this is not an uncommon thing in Austin -- in Seattle, they sit on the sidewalks and play music. In Austin, they stand in the median and hold signs) that said "My Doggy is in the pound. Two days left to get him back. Please help."
Anyone who knows me knows that this is hitting below the belt. I didn't have any cash at the time, but I still feel awful about not helping her. Oh, I know, she might not even have a dog, whatever, but I keep thinking about how I'd feel if I were homeless and my dogs got taken away, and I feel terrible for this woman.
After the play we went to a local Mexican food joint and had chips and salsa and very expensive (but tasty) margaritas with some of Jen's schoolmates. (As an aside, it feels really weird to call them schoolmates. But I don't know what else to call them. Colleagues feels too old, coworkers isn't accurate... it's a problem.) We had a lot of fun.
I hope the woman gets her dog back.
April 5, 2004
House pictures, as promised.
This one shows off the two new (expanded) beds we just put in, along the front of the house and around the tree. The gravel bit in the foreground will become the third bed as soon as we get around to it.
This is the other part of the front side, showing off one of the two new garage doors. :)
And here's a comparison "before" shot. This is slightly unfair, since in this photo stuff is blooming, but in another few weeks our yard should catch up -- the roses in the back yard have already gone all exuberant.
April 4, 2004
Okay, so no picture. Unfortunately, the picture I took included the seven paper bags of yard waste we now have standing in front of the house, and doesn't show off the complete house anyway. Maybe tomorrow.
Another day working in the salt mines yard. :) We've pretty much finished ripping stuff out of the front yard, at least; today we put in the new bed around the tree, dumped some dirt in the beds, and planted some dwarf yaupon hollies and some Mexican heather. I'll snap a picture tomorrow and post it.
The garden isn't dead yet. I consider that a minor miracle. Maybe it's the bowl of beer I put out there last week.
Worked an 18-hour day on Thursday; I don't recommend that. Got on a plane at 6:30 am, flew to Phoenix, flew back that night, got home about midnight. But my boss gave me yesterday afternoon off as compensation, so it wasn't all bad.
I have a very strong urge to write some code tonight. The problem is, I don't know what code. I don't want to do work, and nothing else really seems appealing at the moment. I need to make a list of all the software-related things that bug me and figure out which ones I can solve, and which ones I can just download free tools for. :)
