Various Bits

I don't know if I can really blow my own horn about being one of the longer-time bloggers (since 1994) if I post so incredibly infrequently...

So, in no real order...

1. I got stung by a bee today for the first time in about 15 years. I remember the last one clearly. I was walking out the back door of "Walden," the place a bunch of us shared right after college just outside of Hanover, when a wasp took something I did personally and stung me next to my left eye. Tonight I was mowing the lawn. At one point I'd run over something viney with thorns and had been dragging it about. I was "speed mowing" and not taking the time to be really careful about it. As I turned a corner, I felt a sharp pain in my leg. I thought it was the thorn vine but looked down to see a bee of some type. I swatted it away and immediately saw another one. I thought that I must have disturbed a nest and was about to experience something truly horrific. So, I took off. I bolted around the garage and ran smack into Ann who was going in the back kitchen door. "MOVE! GET IN!" I shouted as we fell into the kitchen and I slammed the door shut. Laughing, I told her the story. Jack came in wondering what all the fuss was and Ann said, "You just missed it. I've never seen Daddy run that fast!" I peeked back out at the lawn mower and saw nothing. So, it probably was just one or two bees and not a nest.
2. OmniGroup is tomorrow releasing a public beta of OmniPlan and I am salivating. A new tool for managing projects? I'm there. MS Project is a fine tool but it suffers from the same problem that all business Windows applications suffers from: Features at the expense of elegance and usability. I find Project to have all the tools I need to effectively manage a project and none of the ease or joy I demand. This is why even though I have Visio on my work laptop, I use OmniGraffle on my PowerBook. I use my Mac for as much as I can get away with, which is often quite a lot. This will be interesting to try out.
3. We've been watching the new Showtime drama, Brotherhood, and loving it. Ann says that they have truly done their homework. From dropping place names, to the politics, to the accents, they have truly captured Rhode Island. I just think it's a well written, richly textured drama.
4. We just finished watching series 2 of Doctor Who, the first series with David Tennant as the Doctor. I won't spoil anything except to say that whoever made the connection between the end of the final episode and a certain book by Philip Pullman really nailed it.
5. Work has been going very well. This is the most fast-paced, high-energy jobs I've probably ever held and I'm thoroughly enjoying the challenge. The people for whom I work are the right mixture of funny, supportive, demanding, and deeply competent. And I got my friend Carla a job on the team as well which is good for Carla, good for them and extra good for me as I get more Carla in my daily life (over 200% of the daily recommended dose).
6. There is still no 6. Probably never will be.
7. Been spending our weekends mostly at the beach. This is the biggest reason we moved back up here: easy access to the beach. There's nothing like sitting on a warm picnic bench after waiting over 30 minutes in line to buy crab cakes after being at the beach all morning. You're hot, you're sweaty, you're sandy, and not a little sunburned. And it feels wonderful.
8. There's lots more to report but I'll save that for future blog entries as a way of making sure I actually make future blog entries...

And now, back to air conditioning...

Posted by andyjw at July 25, 2006 10:31 PM