I am apparently a terrible volleyball player.  For about two months now I have been playing after work on Thursdays.  During this time, my team has only won once.  And I don’t mean one best-of-three match.  I mean one single game.  And we play with different teams each day.  It does not take a statistician to tell you that I am the common factor.  Think about this: my team would be better off if I didn’t play!  That means my skill at volleyball, were it somehow quantified, would be negative.

I don’t care, though.  I still have fun.

Have you ever been alone in a crowded room?

I’ve been reading TheDailyWTF.com lately... a co-worker referred me there a few weeks ago.  If you’re not a programmer, you won’t find the site very funny.  But if you are, you’ll probably find it very funny and/or disturbing.  The guy who runs the site (“Alex”) makes a post every afternoon (about two-ish), making fun of some terrible code that has been sent in.  Some are better than others obviously.  Last Friday’s post was one that people who know nothing about programming can appreciate:  screen shots of really dumb error messages.  Check it out, you’ll enjoy it.

If you’re a fan of The Office, you will recognize how incredibly funny this article is (read to at least the fourth paragraph...).

And if you’re not a fan, you should be.  Season 2 starts September 20.  9:30pm on Tuesdays on NBC.  Check it out.  It’s stupid awesome.

Today our puppy had to be put to sleep.  I have put up the last set of pictures on my photos page for your enjoyment.  Please excuse the blurriness of many of them.  I need to figure out how I managed to turn up the exposure time, and then turn it back down.

August, born (about) June 20, 2005, died today, at an age of twelve weeks.  She got very sick over the weekend and could barely breathe this morning.  We took her to the vet and they x-rayed her and found that her lungs were clouded and her heart was too big and was actually blocking air from getting to her lungs.  They think it is most likely a birth defect that would have continued to give her problems.  They kept her all day and gave her oxygen.  When they give a little dog oxygen, rather than using a mask, they put it in a mostly-closed (not air-tight) aquarium and stick the tube of oxygen into the top.  By evening she was not better and was in pain trying to breathe a few minutes after taking her away from the oxygen.  We did not even get a chance to take her back home and play with her.  The vet told us that there was very little they could do for her.  So I had to make the decision to let them put her to sleep.  It was such a difficult decision to make, even though I knew it was the humane and responsible thing to do.  But we had grown so attached to her.  I keep seeing in my mind the image of her in that aquarium full of oxygen this morning, looking at us with big puppy eyes, probably a little bit high, and knowing that she trusts us completely.  And then this evening I had to make the decision to end her life and I feel like I betrayed her when she was helpless to do anything about it.

My heart goes out to anyone who’s ever lost a child, because I can’t imagine how much more strongly you must feel everything I feel now for just a puppy.  I’ve lost grandparents before, but losing someone who looks up to you as a parent (even if it is just a puppy) has an entirely different kind of emotional pain associated with it.  You may be reading this and thinking I’m overreacting; I probably would have thought that if I read something like this in someone else’s blog a few months ago.  This is really hard emotionally and I never would have expected it to be so difficult.

Stephanie and I are doing much better now than we were when I made my last post.  After twenty-four hours most of the hurt has gone away.  Thanks to everyone who’s sent me an e-mail or instant message, it means a lot to us.  I’m always amazed that anyone actually reads my blog.  I know of at least five or six people with blogs and I only have (make) time to read one of them with any frequency.  Of course that particular post was kind of advertised by my away messages and my mom’s e-mail, but still.

On a related subject, for anyone keeping track, these are my two most favorite pictures of August.

I’m working on a completely new site design, and this is probably last blog post I’ll make until it is ready, since I am moving from text-file storage to database storage for my blog posts, and I have to go through kind of a ‘process’ to import the old posts.

The site design is nothing like what I intended to make when I started out.  It now looks very “inspirational”.  That will make more sense when you see it...  Hopefully sometime next week..

Kip finally finished working on his website tonight!!!  That means that I get to post all of my thoughts right alongside his!!  I’m sure after a few days of this he will realize what a BIG mistake that was.  Then again, you guys out there can always just sort so that you only have to see his posts and you can skip all of my nonsensical babbling.  Otherwise, we’re in for an entertaining ride!!!  Anyway, it is late and I need to get to bed, I just wanted to experience what it was like to put my thoughts out on the interweb for all the world to see.  I’m sure you can’t wait until my next post!!

Good night world...I’m looking forward to you getting to know me!!!

Hope you like the new design.  It is nothing like what I set out to make.  I wanted something mostly white.. kinda like Google’s homepage.  Instead I got something that looks a lot like a church bulletin.  Hope the inspirational feel leaves you.. inspired.  The image is from sunset horseback riding in Hawai’i.

A few more updates coming.. like the return of the music page, and a text-only option (which should be really simple to implement with stylesheets).  And I don’t really like the Homer icon, I’m trying to think of something else that is more appropriate.. and not that Pyre image I use all over the place..

I’ve been married and living with Kip in Charlotte for almost six months now.  Since I don’t have a job outside the home as of yet, I have to find other ways to pass the time during the day.  One of the more popular ways I have learned to spend my days is by playing computer solitaire.  When I first started playing, I set the game to only deal one card, to not keep score, and to not keep time.  Since then, I gradually improved to playing with the game keeping score and time while still only dealing one card at a time.  Then, I eventually graduated to playing true solitaire, dealing three cards, keeping score, and time.  Yesterday afternoon I surprised myself.  I finished an entire game in only 98 seconds.  I couldn’t believe it.  My score at the end of that game was 7822.  I can’t even fathom the idea of ever beating that score.  But I will keep trying.  I’m sure someone out there has done a great deal better than that, but for me, that was totally exciting and impressive.  I’ll keep you posted if I do beat that.

P.S. I just played solitaire some more and I actually scored a 7957 in a time of 96 seconds!!!